Thursday, May 31, 2007

Charlotte Observer Summer Reading List

Posted on Fri, May. 25, 2007
While the summer away with a few good books
JERI KRENTZ

NOVELS

THE BOOK OF AIR AND SHADOWS
By Michael Gruber. William Morrow. 480 pages. $24.95.A wild, convoluted ride. This entertaining mystery features a Shakespeare scholar, a flawed intellectual property lawyer, a would-be filmmaker who works in a rare books shop, Russian mobsters, a cryptographer and assorted others.

DREAM WHEN YOU’RE FEELING BLUE
By Elizabeth Berg. Random House. 288 pages. $24.95.In Chicago during World War II, Edward R. Murrow is on the radio, a meat-stretcher dinner is on the table, and there’s a dance at the USO. At home, the Heaney sisters’ lives are changed by love and loss.

WHAT YOU HAVE LEFT
By Will Allison. Free Press. 224 pages. $23.Allison, who was born in Columbia, has a gift for storytelling. He sets his first novel in South Carolina; his characters teeter between mistakes and redemption. Video poker, car racing, alcohol, smoking and Alzheimer’s play a part in the plot. (June)

KEPT
By D.J. Taylor. HarperCollins. 480 pages. $24.95.I’m halfway through this intriguing novel and I can’t wait to get back to reading. Taylor, a British author, takes the themes of madness, greed and love to tell the story of an abducted heiress in the 1860s.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION
By Michael Chabon. HarperCollins. 432 pages. $26.95.Chabon won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001 with “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.” This book is set in Sitka, Alaska, a homeland for displaced World War II Jews.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
By Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead Books. 384 pages. $25.95. In his remarkable second novel after “The Kite Runner,” Hosseini takes readers to war-torn Afghanistan where two women, Mariam and Laila, struggle through the brutal reality of daily life.

PEONY IN LOVE
By Lisa See. Random House. 304 pages. $23.95.Set in 17th-century China where three women become obsessed with a famous opera, “The Peony Pavilion.” (And if you haven’t read See’s 2005 novel, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” put that on your list, too.) (July)

FALLING MAN
By Don DeLillo. Scribner. 256 pages. $26.The novel begins with the rubble. The roar in the air. The running security guards. Then DeLillo (“White Noise; “Underworld”) tracks the aftermath of Sept. 11 by focusing on the lives of a few people. Some critics have called this his best work.
LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTYBy Susan Vreeland. Viking. 448 pages. $25.95.France, 1880, when Pierre-Auguste Renoir imagined his famous painting overlooking the Seine. Characters include painters, writers, models and patrons. By the author of “The Girl in Hyacinth Blue.”

CATALOOCHEE
By Wayne Caldwell. Random House. 368 pages. $24.95.Many critics have given starred reviews to this epic debut novel set in Western North Carolina. The publisher calls it a “multilayered post-Civil War saga of three generations of families.” Lee Smith called it “mesmerizing.”

MYSTERIES/THRILLERS

BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE
By Lee Child. Delacorte Press. 377 pages. $26.Calvin Franz is found dead in the desert, thrown from a helicopter as “coyote food.” Ex-Army cop Jack Reacher is summoned. “There are dead men walking, as of right now,” he says. “You don’t throw my friends out of helicopters and live to tell the tale.”

THE NAMING OF THE DEAD
By Ian Rankin. Little, Brown. 432 pages. $24.99.When a serial killer strikes, the world’s most powerful leaders might be at risk. John Rebus has 72 hours to crack the case. The Observer’s mysteries reviewer, Salem Macknee, says this is “up to Rankin’s usual standard.”

NEW ENGLAND WHITE
By Stephen L. Carter. Knopf. 551 pages. $26.95.Carter (“The Emperor of Ocean Park”) returns to the university town of Elm Harbor, where Julia and Lemaster Carlyle discover “a ragged bundle” that turns out to be a body. The murder threatens to reveal “the racial complications of the town’s past, the secrets of a prominent family, and the most hidden bastions of African American political influence.” (July)

THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN
By James Lee Burke. Simon & Schuster. 352 pages. $26.A murder investigation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Burke is popular for his novels about Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux – and with good reason. (July)

SATURNALIA
By Lindsey Davis. St. Martin’s Minotaur. 320 pages. $23.95.Davis won raves for “See Delphi and Die.” This time, Marcus Didius Falco is hired to find one of Rome’s enemies after she escapes from house arrest during the wild parties of Saturnalia.

PAPERBACKS

THE SWEET LIFE
By Lynn York. Plume. 304 pages. $14.The “Piano Teacher” sequel returns to Swan’s Knob, N.C., eight years after Roy Swan has wooed – and won – Miss Wilma. The arrival of Miss Wilma’s teen granddaughter turns life upside down.

DISHWASHER: ONE MAN'S QUEST TO WASH DISHES IN ALL FIFTY STATES
By Pete Jordan. HarperPerennial. 384 pages. $13.95.Pete Jordan, a poverty-stricken college dropout and self-described slacker, wanted to travel – so he spent 12 years washing dishes in kitchens across the country. Part travelogue, part goofy comedy.

THE O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES 2007
Edited by Laura Furman. Anchor Books. 432 pages. $14.95.Three of the 20 stories have war in the background. Two are stories of exile. One is set in the 19th century American West. Another takes place at a battered women’s shelter.

TIARE IN BLOOM
By CĂ©lestine Vaite. Little, Brown/ Back Bay. 288 pages. $12.99.Materena is spending more time on her hugely popular radio talk show. Is husband Pito worried? A sassy look at marriage, love and family. (June)

ONE NIGHT @ THE CALL CENTER
By Chetan Bhagat. Ballantine. 320 pages. $13.95.On sale for the first time in the United States, this novel follows the adventures of twenty-something Indians working in a call center on Thanksgiving night. A Bollywood film is on the way.

NONFICTION

DOWN THE NILE: ALONG IN A FISHERMAN'S SKIFF
By Rosemary Mahoney. Little, Brown. 288 pages. $23.99.If you have no intention of rowing down the world’s longest river, climb in the boat with Mahoney. She confronts crocodiles, scorching heat and beliefs about non-Muslim women. (July)

ON ROYALTY: A VERY POLITE INQUIRY INTO SOME STRANGELY RELATED FAMILIES
By Jeremy Paxman. PublicAffairs. 384 pages. $26.95. “This book,” Paxman writes, “is an attempt to understand how it is that the kings and queens of Britain have come to exercise the hold they have upon our imaginations.” He combines a witty style with behind-the-scenes details.

TALES FROM THE TORRID ZONE: TRAVELS IN THE DEEP TROPICS
By Alexander Frater. Knopf. 400 pages. $25.95.Vive Les Tropiques! where the rain is warm, the wind smells good and the sunset “spills across the sky.” Frater, born on a South Seas island, writes passionately about the “seeding, breeding, buzzing, barking, fluttering, squawking, germinating, growing” – and fascinating – tropics.

PRESIDENTIAL COURAGE: BRAVE LEADERS AND HOW THEY CHANGED AMERICA 1789-1989
By Michael Beschloss. Simon & Schuster. 448 pages. $28.The critical struggles faced by nine U.S. leaders, from Washington to Reagan. Beschloss defines presidential courage as the “bravery to take the kind of risk that might end a President’s career – and the wisdom to do so ...”

DOG DAYS: DISPATCHES FROM BEDLAM FARM
By Jon Katz. Villard. 288 pages. $23.95.Katz runs a farm in upstate New York crawling with yellow Labs, border collies, donkeys, a cat, two steers, a cow, a rooster, three hens and a flock of sheep. “No writer could ask for more material than a farm provides every single day,” he says. (June)

CRASHING THROUGH: A TRUE STORY OF RISK, ADVENTURE, AND THE MAN WHO DARED TO SEE
By Robert Kurson. Random House. 320 pages. $25.95.Kurson (“Shadow Divers”) tells of a man who has been blind since age 3 and discovers a risky operation could restore his sight. Frazer Dobson at Park Road Books in Charlotte calls this “completely spellbinding.”

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A YEAR OF FOOD LIFE
By Barbara Kingsolver. HarperCollins. 384 pages. $26.95.A family’s journey from living outside Tucson to a farm in southern Appalachia. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, “this is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew.”

KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL: AN AMERICAN WOMAN GOES BEHIND THE VEIL
By Deborah Rodriguez. Random House. 288 pages. $24.95.Crystal Dempsey, the Observer’s Style editor, likes this “feisty tale” for its “refreshing yet respectful insight into a culture that women who live in a democratic society can’t even comprehend.” It shows how “one woman, a hairstylist from Michigan, can make a difference in the world.”

CONTESTED WATERS: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF SWIMMING POOLS IN AMERICA
By Jeff Wiltse. University of North Carolina Press. 288 pages. $29.95.A look at the development of municipal swimming pools in the northern United States. Throughout their history, says Wiltse, public pools “served as stages for social conflict.”

F5: DEVASTATION, SURVIVAL, AND THE MOST VIOLENT TORNADO OUTBREAK OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
By Mark Levine. Miramax. 336 pages. $25.95.On April 3, 1974, nearly 150 tornadoes touched down in 13 states from Michigan to Mississippi, killing hundreds and damaging thousands of homes. For this gripping – and timely – narrative, Levine focuses on people in one Alabama county. (June)

SUITED FOR POOLSIDE

LITTLE PINK SLIPS
By Sally Koslow. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 370 pages. $24.95.A sidelined magazine editor. A brash, overbearing new hire. Mr. Right in “a city of Mr. Not-Quites.” “Clearly falls into the chicks-who-snitch category,” says one critic, “populated by disgruntled, shoe-obsessed office underlings and nannies.”

MISS JULIA STRIKES BACK
By Ann B. Ross. Viking. 339 pages. $24.95.Starting in 1999 with “Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind,” this funny series continues to entertain fans. Here, Julia (a “woman of a certain age”) heads to Florida with Little Lloyd and Etta Mae Wiggins to track some burglars.

WHITETHORN WOODS
By Maeve Binchy. Knopf. 352 pages. $25.95.Progress threatens a town’s way of life. But good things happen to good people; bad people can redeem themselves. Reading a Binchy novel, says one critic, is like “hanging out with your college roommate and watching Meg Ryan comedies in your pj’s.”

THE LAND OF MANGO SUNSETS
By Dorothea Benton Frank. William Morrow. 352 pages. $24.95.Frank’s latest is set on Sullivan’s Island, S.C., and in New York City. Miriam Swanson, a divorcee, is surrounded by philandering husbands, ineligible male friends and social snobbery. But even after mistakes and loss, it’s never too late to search for happiness.

STARTING OUT SIDEWAYS
By Mary E. Mitchell. Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin’s. 288 pages. $23.95.Begins eight days and three hours after Roseanna Plow’s husband tells her he loves another woman. Now Plow’s mother (“Donna Reed on drugs”) is on the way to save her from Chips Ahoy! and wine. In the end, life and love hold many surprises.

YOUNG READERSA SWIFT PURE CRY
By Siobhan Dowd. David Fickling Books. Young Adult. $16.99.Set in Ireland, this novel revolves around 15-year-old Shell, who lives with her alcoholic father after her Mam dies. When her childhood friend, Declan, leaves for America, Shell is left behind – pregnant and caught in a scandal. Poignant, troubling and powerful.

EDENVILLE OWLS
By Robert Parker. Penguin. Young Adult. $17.99.When Bobby sees a stranger arguing with the new English teacher at Center Junior High, he calls on his group of friends (the Owls) to help unravel the mystery. Elizabeth Leland, who reviews children’s books for the Observer, says Parker’s first novel for younger readers is entertaining.

JACK PLANK TELLS TALES
By Natalie Babbitt. Scholastic/di Capua. Ages 8 to 12. $15.95.Babbitt (“Tuck Everlasting”) is back after 25 years. Jack, an unemployed pirate, settles in a boardinghouse on the coast of the Caribbean Sea to find a new job and discover what he does best.

MARLEY: A DOG LIKE NO OTHER
By John Grogan. HarperCollins. Ages 8-12. $16.99.In Grogan’s chapter book version of the best-selling “Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog,” his rambunctious Labrador retriever hasn’t lost any of his endearing bad habits. There’s also a picture book for ages 4-8: “Bad Dog, Marley!”

THE ALCHEMYST: THE SECRETS OF THE IMMORTAL NICHOLAS FLAMEL
By Michael Scott. Ages 8-12. Delacorte. $16.99.Before the third chapter, we’ve met mysterious men with “dead-looking, muddy, gray skin and eyes like polished black stones.” This page-turner involves the secret of eternal life – and twins who have the power to save the world.

SPORTS

JOHNNY U: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN UNITAS
By Tom Callahan. Crown. 304 pages. $25.Billed as more than a biography of a famous quarterback, this chronicles an era in sports – a time “when men played football for something less than a living and something more than money.” TALES FROM Q SCHOOL: INSIDE GOLF’S FIFTH MAJOR
By John Feinstein. Little, Brown. 352 pages. $26.99.Is golf your game? Join sports journalist John Feinstein (“A Good Walk Spoiled”) on the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. “As heartbreaking as it can be,” he writes, Q School produces “the most unlikely and uplifting stories one is likely to encounter anywhere in golf.”

HATE MAIL FROM CHEERLEADERS
By Rick Reilly. Sports Illustrated. 318 pages. $25.95.Reilly’s columns – 100 of them – from Sports Illustrated. In a style that’s tough-guy poignant, he writes about goose-bump victories and “not-so-shining” moments.

THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN: BASEBALL STARS OF THE 1930S AND 1940S TALK ABOUT THE GAME THEY LOVED
By Fay Vincent. Simon & Schuster. 256 pages. $14.Ten oral narratives from players who ran the bases. Includes memorable game moments and appearances by Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays. (Now out in paperback.)

FAST WOMEN: THE LEGENDARY LADIES OF RACING
By Todd McCarthy. Miramax. 320 pages. $23.95.The 1950s, McCarthy writes, “represented a golden time for racing,” when women “raced in numbers and with an excellence unheard of.” Readers meet Evelyn Mull, Mary Davis and Ruth Levy.

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