New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 20

Day 20: Favorite Romance Book

Gianna:

I know what you’re thinking. "Gianna is going to choose a Nicholas Sparks novel. She’s an old softy, plus she loves the beautiful prose of a master." True. However, just for kicks, I am going to go with a writer I am sure Mr. Sparks has read for inspiration again and again: Edith Wharton.  Yes, and now you’re thinking what we’ve all been thinking for years, “Where is Nicholas Sparks’s Pulitzer?”

The Age of Innocence will rip you’re damn heart out (Liz, obviously this does not apply to you).  Ellen Olenska is a righteous babe, a fearless broad, and a sistah’s sistah (well, you know, for the most part).  She was a woman ahead of her time, a bit of a free spirit, and not completely down with the class system. Oh, and she had the balls to leave her cruel ("cruel" is old timey speak for douche) husband.  It is a story of a forbidden (not the lesbian kind unfortunately, now that’s a book I can get behind!) and doomed love affair that wasn’t meant to be. Sigh.

Runners up, by the way,  The French Lieutenants Woman, The English Patient, Rebecca, Remains of the Day and the really sweet novel from last year, Vaclav and Lena. Huh, I have inadvertently listed these in order of depressiveness, so if you’re like me, you will want to read them in this order. 

Liz:

Since it's me, when I think romance, I think regrets. And sadness. And possibly psycho-pharmaceuticals. One of the biggest regrets I've had in my professional career came when I saw a book sitting on a local author/self-published shelf in a bookstore and I didn't buy it. The cover copy even told me that if I bought one book before I was raptured, it should be that one. I didn't listen. Thus, I may never read I Fell in Love With My Rapist.

My back-up pick, though, is The Night Circus. When I think of romance, I think of Gianna love, but also escaping from reality for a period, and the last time I felt so transported into another world by a book was when I read Gianna's diary Erin Morgenstern's novel. Two fated lovers pitted in a duel created by their parents who use their magic to create a wonderland circus--who doesn't want to live in that world for awhile? Marco and Celia woo each other through an ice garden and a cloud maze and a circus so grand that people charmed by their magic follow them around the world. It's grand.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 2

Gianna:

[Gianna is so filled with love that she picked two books today.  Me?  I'm so full of gas that I decided to pass on the refried beans for dinner.]

Mary and O’Neil

Just as one would suspect of Justin Cronin, bestselling author of post-apocalyptic novel The Passage, he once wrote a love story. In fact, it’s a really wonderful love story with exactly zero vampires (although the body count is moderate).

Mary and O’Neil is a thoughtful book about finding love and solace when you least expect it. At times these interlinked stories can be heartbreaking, at other times sweet and funny. You come to realize pretty quickly that Mary and O’Neil are people you probably know, each nursing private hurt and tragedy. O’Neil has never really gotten over the sudden death of his parents and Mary has yet to completely heal from a pregnancy she chose to end years before. These two teachers meet while working at the same school when they are in their mid-thirties, never thinking that they had yet to find the love of their lives. Cronin flawlessly weaves these stories together, slowly revealing each of their past lives. 

Vaclav & Lena

 

I have written about this excellent book a couple of times; it made my Top 10 of 2011 where I believe I described it as a perfect love story. I am sticking by that statement. Non-asinine love stories are really hard to find, and this truly heartwarming story of two immigrant Russian children will be hard to top AND it's available in paperback Feb 7th. 

Both Mary and O’Neil and Vaclav & Lena are couples you won’t soon forget. They will make you believe in love again. Or make you believe that a romantic book doesn’t have to be silly.

Liz:


Many authors are plumbing the horrors of suburbia in their fiction.  Jonathan Franzen was featured on the cover of Time for his efforts on the subject.  One of the best books on the subject, and one of the best reads of the 20th Century, is Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road.  You know what's romantic?  Reading this book (or watching the intense and unsettling movie starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio) while pregnant.  No, I'm not and never have been pregnant, but I've heard it can mess with an expectant parent's head.  I'm all in favor.


Revolutionary Road is the story of a couple in love, a couple with dreams of returning to Europe, of writing, of living Bohemian lives in the manner of the Lost Generation.  And then Frank, the husband, discovers that he's not as apathetic about his office job as he thought.  He and April, his wife, buy their house in the suburbs on Revolutionary Road and betray their dreams and each other.  This novel is a masterpiece--if you like Mad Men I absolutely guarantee you'll like this book--and it's a chilling unraveling of a fairy tale relationship after April discovers she's pregnant.  

Best of 2011 Countdown: #6

If these books were in the Miss America Pageant, they'd have to wear swimsuits.

Gianna:

Vaclav & Lena
Haley Tanner
Random House

This is a book that also appears on Liz’s list and I wrote about it this summer (that blog piece is below) but I did want to add a couple of things that I left out of that original post. First, it’s hard to find a really good love story these days. [Other than the love Gianna feels for Liz....] And by really good love story, I mean well written, well developed, and original. Second, Tanner captures you on the very first pages and is writing well beyond her young age. Third…look at that cover, you won't even have to wrap it when you give it to your girlfriend, father, wife, brother, mother, lover, literate dog…it's gorgeous.   

Haley Tanner

I don’t want to over-sell this but, if you miss reading this novel… well, you will end up ruining your life.

Vaclav & Lena  is an amazing love story about two young Russian immigrants living in Brooklyn--Vaclav dreams of becoming a famous magician and Lena will be his lovely assistant--and then she is taken away, suddenly and without warning. The story is filled with an almost fairy tale quality, the writing is so pitch perfect (and by pitch perfect please just pick the book up and read the first few pages of the grade school Vaclav and Lena going through their magic routine…the Russian accents are wonderful). It really is a magical, amazing book.

Liz:

The Upright Piano Player

David Abbott

Nan A. Talese/Doubleday

To quote one of my coworkers, the one who first turned me on to The Upright Piano Player, "this is a novel of quiet desperation."  It's one of those little books that don't take up space on a shelf but dominate your mind for many days after finishing.  This isn't a loud book.  It is a beautiful one.

David Abbott

The author, David Abbott, actually owns the painting that appears on the cover, and one can imagine him staring at it for long hours and then composing this story for the man in the painting.  This is the story of Henry Cage, a man who seemingly has a successful life--a nice home, nice career, money.  His life, though, is peppered with the "what might have beens," and as he slides into retirement he learns that his ex-wife is critically ill.  And then Henry is randomly attacked at a New Year's/Millennium street party.  The attacker haunts him as do his past decisions as this novel wraps tighter and tighter.

The Upright Piano Player gets my vote for best-but-least-heralded novel of the year.  It's incredible, gorgeous, special, poignant.

Best of 2011 Countdown: #25

Gianna, who is going to make fun of me for my relationship with my cat:

Awkward Family Pet Photos
Mike Bender and Doug Chernack
Three Rivers Press

Touch my monkey...
seriously.

Each holiday season I like to have three or four copies of a really good but inexpensive humor book that I can give away as gifts to, you know, people that I forgot to get a gift for, or a grab bag, or for a crying child. Well there is nothing I don’t love about this book or the first edition, Awkward Family Photos. These pictures will make you cringe, scream, and very possibly barf in your mouth just a little bit (examples below).

Zorro's long lost brother.

I didn't know Gianna's
dad had a snake!

I suspect some of you will recognize a piece of yourself in these photos (you know who you are), and the next time you snap another photo of you and your dog, snake, bird, hedgehog, cat, bunny, or god help us all…your monkey, you will certainly think twice about the appropriateness of your pose (or if your cat is really a willing participant in the photo (looking at you Sullivan)).  [Zorro loves to have his picture taken.]

Zorro. (Not in the book.)

Liz:

Vaclav & Lena

Haley Tanner

The Dial Press

I love first novels; the good ones feel like a special discovery.  Vaclav & Lena caught me in just that way.  Vaclav and Lena and both Russian immigrant children, learning English and struggling through school.  After school, though, they are best friends, and Vaclav wants to be a great magician and Lena will be his lovely assistant.  Author Haley Tanner absolutely nails the voices of these characters--read the first few pages and you'll be hooked.  Anyway, Vaclav's mother, a terrific character, parents both children until a fateful day when Lena is sent away.  Spring forward to high school aged Vaclav and Lena, teenagers who've acclimated to American culture.  That special bond between them still exists, though.  

Haley Tanner

Book groups and fans of the superb The Night Circus.  Also, in Book Land booksellers are always keeping an eye out for books that will crossover between adult and young adult audiences.  Vaclav & Lena  lands squarely in that sweet spot.  Haley Tanner is a writer to watch.

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 14

Well, we certainly ruffled some feathers with our overrated authors list.  I do enjoy a little literary sparring now and again.

Day 14: Favorite Books From (Relatively) Unknown Authors

Gianna:

I will finish with one or two writers that are relatively unknown who I am really high on, but I did want to mention a few others that I love who aren’t exactly household names (yet?).

Amy Bloom has a wonderful book of stories, A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, that I sometimes will go back to and re-read one or two stories from. Blind is a good starting place if you haven’t read her. If you prefer a novel, the book Away is excellent.  [Bloom is one of my favorite authors for her psychologically astute writing.  It should be; she's a trained psychoanalyst.]

Daniel Woodrell was recommended to me by our late and greatly missed friend David Thompson. I first read the novel Red Tomato, then Winter’s Bone – both are fantastic and original. Winter’s Bone is a good start (and yes it is the novel that the movie was based on). [Winter's Bone always sounds like a "That's what she said" joke.]

Gillian Flynn is such a fun and creepy read. I love recommending her. She only has two books; start with Sharp Objects.

Why isn’t Aimee Bender super-famous? [She gets lost among the dozens of Kardashians?] Start with her best, which is her latest, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, but An Invisible Sign of My Own is excellent too.

Adam Haslett is truly gifted – You Are Not a Stranger Here is one of the finest collections I have ever read. In fact it is probably the best book in the post. [Gianna has no idea which books I'm going to discuss, so assume this comment is directed to her side of the post.]

Rebecca Hunt, Paul Murray and Suzanne Rivecca are all up and comers who are really original. And you all know how I feel about Gail Caldwell, Dan Chaon, and of course Tea Obreht. I won’t bore you by writing about them yet again. But seriously read The Tiger’s Wife.

There are two young writers who most have not heard of that I am sort of in love with. The first I will mention briefly because I have written about her novel in an earlier blog I believe: 28 year-old Haley Tanner’s Vaclav and Lena. I just think she has written a really lovely, fully realized, commercial novel. A great summer read actually.

My favorite young sort of unknown writer working right now is Stefan Merrill Block. He has written two novels – both based on his family. What I love about Block is he that wrote a really wonderful first novel and then came back with a completely different but really excellent second book. His first book was beautiful and touching, his new book is heartbreaking and dark. The Story of Forgetting and The Storm at the Door … you’ll be happy you discovered him.

Liz:

I feel like there are numerous books I love which fly under the radar and yet not a day goes by without someone walking into a bookstore and complaining that s/he can't find any "good" books.  I feel like I'll never have enough hours in the day to read all of the good books out there.

No book was more beloved by the Random House sales force its season than Thomas Trofimuk's Waiting for Columbus.  Unfortunately, this terrific novel was lost amidst the most incredible fall season I've witnessed since I've worked in books, and with such huge names publishing that year, the unknown author's special book was overshadowed.  The good news is that it's not too late to pick up a copy of Waiting for Columbus, and it's not too late to recommend it to your book group either. 

The story is lovely and mysterious.  A man washes up on short from the Strait of Gibraltar and is taken to a Barcelona mental hospital after he insists that he is Christopher Columbus.  While in the institution the therapists are confounded by Columbus (who also won't wear clothes; I do love nudey head cases), but he begins to tell his story to one of the nurses.  Columbus meets with the Queen, and Columbus falls in love, and eventually Columbus reveals his actual story.  It's a great book.



German children's classic
Struwwelpeter



There's a book that came out several years ago, and I've never actually met anyone else who actually read it.  98 Reasons for Being by Clare Dudman is a brilliant novel of psychological depth...and I don't think it's even still in print.  It's a shame.  The novel focuses on a historical figure, the head of a Frankfurt asylum, and a young Jewish woman committed to his care for nymphomania (Gianna would relate to that....).  In the 1850's treatment for mental disorders involved peppy methods like the application of leeches, but after these conventional treatments fail, the doctor, lacking other options, talks to Hannah.  The reader hears Hannah's thoughts through an interior monologue, and the hospital staff and patients also play roles in the story and doctor/patient relationship.  The doctor, by the way, was an actual person, psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann, and he is best known for writing a children's book called Struwwelpeter (Shock-Headed Peter), and Hoffmann's own troubled past and book weave into Hannah's story.  I loved this book.

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 5

Apologies for the hiatus--my life got a bit crazy this week.  It's time to get back on track, though.  Without a public outlet Gianna might send me nudey pictures or something.  I don't want to have to jab an icepick in my eye.

Day 5: Favorite First Novel

The first novel holds a special place in the book world.  It stands as a declaration of talents and potential to come, and many a master writer began with an audacious debut. 

Gianna:

Two words. The Notebook. I think it stacks right up there with other first works: Gone With the Wind, Dr. Zhivago, and The Bell Jar.

Before I unveil my second choice I wanted to mention a few first novels that I have loved that have come out just this year. What these 3 books have in common are there relatively young authors. Little shits.

Bright’s Passage by Josh Ritter is such a wonderful book – its not perfect – but it’s a loaded first novel, he clearly has a gift for language and storytelling. I highly recommend this book and I just learned that Ritter is coming to BookPeople in Austin for a signing on October 5th.

Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner. If you read a more romantic or charming book this year let me know. This is an old fashion love story from beginning to end. Liz said this book made her believe in love again…well Russian love. [I'm not sure what "Russian love" is.  I do think Cossacks are hot, though.]

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht. This author is the youngest recipient of the Orange Prize, which she won for this insanely good novel. This book will be on year-end best lists to be sure. Obreht writes well beyond her years; she is an amazing talent.

My favorite debut novel is a book that just blew me away in 2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I was absolutely engrossed in every page of this book and when I had to put it down I was miserable. If you love books you know that is a good feeling. This won the National Book Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (just like The Notebook!).

Liz:

A couple of honorable mentions before naming a favorite--

Special Topics in Calamity Physics was one of those audacious debut novels which received front page New York Times Book Review coverage, and additional press because the author, Marisha Pessl, is attractive.  Yes, beautiful people can write engrossing fiction too.  I read this book and loved it before I ever saw a picture of the author, for the record.  It's a coming of age novel about a new girl with a mysterious past trying to fit in at a new school and finding a special teacher who helps her.  More importantly, though, Blue (the main character) is a whip-smart, precocious, pop culture encyclopedia who loves a parenthetical aside, and the book--written in her voice--snaps with witty banter and trivial minutiae.  Some people hate her voice; I love it.

Moondogs by Alexander Yates--one of the best debuts this year.  Set in the Philippines, an American plans to travel to the islands to reunite with his businessman father and do some scuba diving.  Before he arrives in the Philippines, though, his father is kidnapped by cab drivers (and part time cockfighters) who want to kidnap an American in order to sell him to Islamic fundamentalists.  They are inept kidnappers and having no luck in the cockfighting ring since their rooster, Kelog (named after the corn flakes box rooster), is blind.  The Manila police charge their squad of super-cops to find the businessman, and among their ranks are a shape-shifter and a man who can shoot anything from any distance.  If he focuses on a dog on a neighboring island which he can't even see, he can hit it with a bullet.  Moondogs is a fun, well-written, gangster novel about immorality in the Philippines and a declaration of great books to come from author Alexander Yates.

My favorite first novel should not come as much of a surprise.  I once suggested that the author should marry me, after all.  The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead is a brilliant novel.  Period.  The story explores the historical conflict between faith and science through rival methods in the field of elevator inspection.  How Whitehead came up with this story, I have no idea, but one shouldn't ignore an author who can make elevator inspectors so fascinating.  Around the same time that this book was published, film maker Darren Aronofsky released his incredible movie Pi, and in my mind these two works stand as companion pieces to one another.  Spending time with either will challenge you, intrigue you, make you smarter, and allow you to believe in, if not higher powers, the incredible talents of two geniuses.

Great Books Coming Soon

[Liz writing:]  So my life has been a little crazy with the Gianna leaving Random House and then the travel season leading me to tornado zones...and flood zones...and fire zones (my territory butts up to the gates of hell), and yet still 238 people visited our little blog last month.  It begs the question, "How bored are the various web-surfers of the world???"  Anyway, we're getting back into the swing of things and I'm sure that we'll have more Gianna antics soon since it's too hot in Texas to wear proper clothing right now.  Since we haven't posted anything lately, though, we thought we'd catch you up some of the new releases just out or coming soon.

The Devil All the Time is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read...and I loved it.  Donald Ray Pollock burst onto the literary scene a few years ago with his short story collection Knockemstiff, and his new novel traverses the same down-on-its-luck landscape.  Fans of Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply, Flannery O'Connor, and Cormac McCarthy should love this story of religious zealots and serial killers and one boy maneuvering between a moral life and the life to which he seems destined when his mother dies despite his father's ritual sacrifices.  If you're intrigued by a the image of a man and his son kneeling at a prayer log in the woods night and day, surrounded by crosses and the ground covered in the blood sacrifices they've offered God, praying for a miracle to save the boy's mother, this book is for you.  It's not for the feint of heart, but I loved every page.  The Devil All the Time goes on sale July 12th.

Summer is blockbuster season in the book world as well as Hollywood.  This year the Robopocalypse is coming.  Think about it--EVERYTHING in our modern world is controlled by computers, and in Daniel Wilson's thriller, the end of the world is upon us when a scientist crosses the threshold from smart technology to thinking technology and a computer named ARCHOS begins to take over the world.  A computer virus goes out to all of those phones and cars and computers and toasters out there and no one is safe.  Imagine you're driving down the highway in your Prius and suddenly the computer in your car steers you into a wall.  And that computer in the air traffic control tower?  It decides that smacking planes into each other would be a great way to dispose of a few hundred humans.  And you receive a call on your cell phone telling you to rush home because your child is sick...except that the call is computer-generated and luring you toward an untimely end.  A group of intrepid humans begin to fight back.... If you liked The Matrix and the movie version of Minority Report, you'll welcome the Robopocalypse; in fact, Steven Spielberg optioned the rights to the robo-thriller before Daniel Wilson had even finished writing his novel.

[And now a word from Gianna....]

I left Random House a few months ago to work for UT Press so I won't be writing about Random House books anymore trust me! Except …. this one time.

Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner: I don’t want to over sell this but, if you miss reading this novel… well you will end up ruining your summer. Seriously. No, wait…I will ruin your summer (threats are better).

This is an amazing love story about two young Russian immigrants living in Brooklyn--Vaclav dreams of becoming a famous magician and Lena will be his lovely assistant--and then she is taken away, suddenly and without warning. The story is filled with an almost fairy tale quality, the writing is so pitch perfect (and by pitch perfect please just pick the book up and read the first few pages of the grade school Vaclav and Lena going through their magic routine…the Russian accents are wonderful). It really is a perfect book.

Okay so one more Random House book and that’s it, seriously –

The Storm at the Door by Stefan Merrill Block

I am not going to make a huge deal about this book. I am not going to make a fool of myself like I did with Story of Forgetting. I mean I really think people thought I lost my mind I talked about that book so much (by the way I totally lost my mind because of that book)[She's right; she's crazy. And she never shut up about that book]. Okay. Story of Forgetting was very good. It was excellent. This book is better. It’s more mature and the writing is better. It’s heartbreaking, in fact. Like Stefan’s first book this novel is based in part on his family (his grandparents' marriage) which makes it all the more interesting. Think Revolutionary Road. Yes, it is that good. He will be at BookPeople on July 12th. Give him some love – he is amazing.

So that’s it for me and Random House. I won’t be writing about RH titles anymore! Was that more or less believable than Congressman Weiner’s “certitude” comment? [Less.  And Gianna has sent me some incriminating pics in her time....]

Bright’s Passage by Josh Ritter

I love this fucking book. (And let that be a quote on any jacket – it's called class). I read this book in a fury of passion. I would not put it down; everything else could wait. The story of Henry Bright (and what can only be described as his journey) is so vivid, beautiful, funny, and passionate…ahhh I sound crazy already. Anyway it will stay with you long after the novel ends. It is as haunting as it is luminous (and Liz…. I never say that about a book do I? In fact when someone calls a book luminous I run, but don’t run because I never use that word!) [We make fun of people who use the word 'luminous' to describe books.  Does it glow in the dark?  Doubtful.  This is a very good book though.] This small book has so much going for it: set during the First World War, a battle between good and evil, it's only $22, and of course it's a love story. It’s a first novel to be sure, but my God what a wonderful novel. [I think I am Gianna's God.] Oh and be on the look out – Ritter is on tour (hint hint).

These 3 books will appear on my year end list…I just know it….damn lists.