Everyone here knows how much I love to talk about books. I had a great time yesterday when I had the opportunity to talk to a book club of faculty and staff at a graduate school. This is a well-traveled group, who likes "good stories that allow you to learn something about a specific culture." I even had the chance to see their book choices for the last five years. They asked me to discuss titles for next year for them, recent and forthcoming titles. I want to thank Talia Sherer at Macmillan, Bobby Brinson at HarperCollins, and Dominique Jenkins at Penguin for suggesting recent and forthcoming books. And, all of these reps included titles not published by their companies in their suggestions.
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Darrow – Drawn from Darrow’s upbringing, the story of Rachel, daughter of an African American father & a Danish mother, who survives a family tragedy, but has to learn to navigate the complexities of racism.
How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway – The story of a Japanese war bride, her American daughter, and their challenging relationship.
One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – Nine people waiting for visas for travel to India are trapped in a passport office in the U.S. when an earthquake hits. As they await rescue, each group member tells a story about their lives.Still Alice by Lisa Genova – A compelling novel of a celebrated Harvard professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, and struggles to tell her own story.
Saying CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman – Set in the Deep South during the ‘60s as the racial tensions are unfolding, the story of a young girl with a tragic past, taken to Savannah to start a life surrounded by strong women.
Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay – A ballerina’s decision to auction her jewelry leads to a mystery that interweaves past and present, Moscow under Stalin, and contemporary New England, the backstage tumult of the dance world, and the transformative power of art.The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim – In early twentieth century Korea, Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, is sent to serve as a companion to the princess, only to see the monarchy crumble after the king’s assassination.
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok – Emigrating with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, Kimberly Chang begins a secret double life as an exceptional schoolgirl during the day, and sweatshop worker at night.
Pearl of China by Anchee Min – In a small Chinese town in the last days of the nineteenth century, young Willow and young Pearl S. Buck, the headstrong daughter of zealous Christian missionaries, bump heads and embark on a friendship that will sustain them through one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history.Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez – Four slave women, their masters’ mistresses, meet when the masters vacation at the same summer resort in Ohio, where they see free slaves for the first time, and hear rumors of abolition. In their final summer in Ohio, they all have a decision to make. Will they run?
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson – A set-in-his-ways retired British officer tentatively courts a charming widow of Pakistani descent, leading to tension between the generations and cultures.
Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji – Set in Tehran in 1973, two boys while way their summer hours on the roof, during a summer when the city is explosive. One night, one look from Pasha turns their world upside down, and the fallout changes everyone’s lives.The Lotus Eaters by Tatjani Soli – An American combat photographer during the Vietnam War captures the wrenching chaos of battle, and finds herself torn between the love of two men, one an American war correspondent, and the other his Vietnamese underling.
Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu – Injured by a gas explosion that renders him incapable of speaking Chinese, a Shanghai businessman struggles to communicate using faltering English learned during childhood, and finds his marriage strained.
Forthcoming Books
January
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna – A determined young surgeon of Freetown, Sierra Leone, forges a relationship with a dying patient who’s seen it all. What better setting than a hospital to capture the tragedy of a country rent by civil war?Little Princes by Conor Grennan – The nonfiction account of Grennan’s volunteer work at a children’s orphanage in Nepal where children had been rescued from a child trafficker, and his attempt to find missing children and their parents.
A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez – The bestselling author of Kabul Beauty School turns to fiction to tell the story of a group of women who come together in a Kabul coffee shop run by an American.
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen – A bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany, this debut was voted the best Danish novel of the last 25 years. The bold seafaring epic spans 100 years in the lives of the men and women from a small town on an island off the Danish coast, starting with the war between Germany and Denmark in 1848, and continuing through World War II.
The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas – A historical novel set in 1877 in an Ottoman outpost recently overrun by the tsar’s troops. A girl who stows away with her father, who sells carpets, enters the rich, overflowing world of the imperial capital, observing a grand empire heading toward its end.
March
The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb – A young woman travels to Vietnam trying to find out anything about her father’s disappearance there years ago, in a novel that takes a journey into the past for answers, giving us a fictional account of real political upheaval.
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda – In a remote Indian village, a woman gives birth to a baby girl, but in a culture that favors sons, she must give her daughter away to save her life, a decision that will haunt her forever. In America, a doctor adopts a little girl from a Mumbai orphanage. The story interweaves the stories of the two mothers, and the child that binds their destinies.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Nonfiction. As the Taliban took over Kabul, and women could no longer work or attend school, the economy shuddered to a halt. To support her family, Kamila Sidiqi began making clothes at home – and soon built up a business that now sustains 100 neighborhood women.
And, one for arm-chair travelling – Book Lust to Go by Nancy Pearl – Recommended reading for more than 120 destinations around the world, fiction and nonfiction.
Now, if you read my blog regularly, you also know I seldom read literary fiction. Since they have read a few mysteries, I added a short list of mysteries I had read. (And, I told them this is my preferred reading.)
Worldwide Mysteries
Australia – Blood Moon by Garry Disher – The police department in Waterloo, on the Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne, have to deal with Schoolies Week, when students who finished their twelfth year exams party in the coastal communities, along with cases of a missing woman, and a beaten chaplain. Disher has won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Australian Crime Novel.
Canada – Still Life by Louise Penny – The award-winning traditional mystery that introduced Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Súreté du Quebec, and the charming town of Three Pines, a town that harbors secrets.
England – Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet – The award-winning traditional mystery, featuring Det. Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just, and his assistant Sergeant Fear, is set in an isolated manor, in a snowstorm, with a murder.
South Africa – Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie – After ten years, a private investigator returns home to Johannesburg, South Africa, finding a dangerous city, “the crime capital of the world,” where carjackings are common, and it’s only safe to live behind barriers.
United States – The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson – The first mystery by the award-winning author who excels in character development, beginning with Sheriff Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, Wyoming. This case involves the murders of young men who received suspended sentences for raping a Cheyenne girl with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Definitely my favorite work day for December!
