Books that captivate with their exquisite prose and unforgettable storytelling. Perfect for readers who appreciate the art of language.
Beautiful Ruins
Jess Walter, 2012
352 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
August 2012
Life in this stunning new novel, set primarily in Hollywood and Italy, is made up of moments of startling clarity—moments capable of changing lives.
The difficulty is in recognizing those moments, holding on to them, and making them matter. Which is what Jess Walters is so very good at showing—how hard his characters find it to pin down the fleeting randomness of life.
Once Upon a River
Bonnie Jo Campbell, 1211
348 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
June, 2012
Margo Crane, the wonderful young heroine of Once Upon a River, is a throwback to the 19th century: she's Huck Finn in girls clothing (boy's clothing, too) ... and Annie Oakley in jeans and a hoodie. She's resourceful—a crack shooter who kills, guts, skins, and cleans, her own food.
She's on the river...and on the run.
State of Wonder
Ann Patchett, 2011
368 pp.
June, 2012
Once again, as in Bel Canto, Ann Patchett plucks individuals out of their natural element, drops them into an alien environment, then turns up the heat—in this case, quite literally, the suffocating heat of the Amazon River basin.
In doing so, Patchett turns in another exquisitely nuanced novel, combining horror, beauty, and romance.
The Orphan Master's Son
Adam Johnson, 2012
464 pp.
Book Review by Molly Lundquist
May, 2012
Life inside North Korea—despite satellite technology, defector memoirs, and occasional state visits—remains shrouded in mystery. This is the world Adam Johnson's brilliant novel seeks to penetrate: North Korea in its surreal brutality.
Pak Jun Do begins life in an orphanage where children are left not just parentless but nameless, remaining outcasts for the rest of their lives. Jun Do is convinced he is different, that he has special status as the son of the Orphan Master, though we are left to think differently.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, 2009
320 pp.
March, 2012
Take two current crazes—our fetish for Everything-Jane and killer zombies—mash them together, and you get one of the absolute funniest send-ups ever.
Grahame-Smith channels a wonderful Jane Austen, who has written a good a quarter of his book. He uses her text, verbatim in places, then interjects his own text on zombies and the martial arts—the very practice in which Elizabeth Bennet, everyone's favorite literary heroine, excels.