Every Sunday. the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review publishes a list of new books recommended by a Northern California independent bookstore, This is a recent list from the staff at Orinda Books in Orinda (orindabooks.com)
FICTION
Capital by John Lanchester
The people of London's Pepys Road, from an investment banker to a Zimbabwean traffic warden and a Pakistani shopkeeper, give Lanchester a superb opportunity for penetrating and poignant short takes on contemporary urban life.
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
Fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks, later to become a darling of the silver screen, is chaperoned by Cora Carlisle on a first trip to New York. Moriarty gives us the Roaring 20s in full color in a wonderful historical novel.
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Tom, a lighthouse keeper and his wife, Isabel find a tiny baby girl and a dead man washed ashore. When, after two years, they return to the mainland, they confront painful moral choices that concern the child they have cherished.
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
A coming-of-age novel as only Eugenides can do it: three Brown graduates, Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell, find and lose love and each other as they emerge from the groves of academe. Now in paperback.
NONFICTION
Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden
Two Smith College graduates, bored with society luncheons, leave New York to find "adventure" in Northern Colorado in 1916. Their letters and diaries have been shaped by a granddaughter into a unique and charming narrative. In paperback.
Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time by Carissa Phelps
This harrowing narrative of how one young woman was able to survive a devastating childhood, vagrancy, and prostitution, to become an attorney dedicated to helping other homeless and at-risk young people is both eye-opening and inspiring.
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies
by Ben Macintyre
The story of the trickery developed by the Allies to deceive the Germans about where the D-Day landings would be reads like the very best spy thriller-and it's all true. Macintyre is a master of this material.
French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman
If summer has passed too soon, journey with Goodman to his small French garden and watch his tomatoes grow. And beyond the garden, enjoy the friendships that began as soon as he put his own hands into "French dirt".
e likely to be front and center in Biography and History sections. The first is The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by noted historian and author David Nasaw. Then we have Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (pictured), written by Jon Meacham, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion.
ans of the series will undoubtedly make their feelings about a new Wimpy Kid installment known, so expect pleading, wheedling, deal-making, and possible histrionics. Might be easier just to buy the book.