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Weekly Words about BooksMAY 26, 2013
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Indie Booksellers Pick Book Club Favorites for the Summer
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The Summer '13 Indie Next List for Reading Groups has just been released, and it provides a wealth of great reading choices for the summer (and beyond). The twice-yearly list includes booksellers' 10 favorite new books in paperback, as well as more than three dozen other recommended titles grouped into categories like Exciting New Voices, With An Air of Mystery, and Discussion Guaranteed! You can find all the lists at this link, but I'm going to share the Top Ten titles over the next two issues, Here's 1-5:
1. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe (paperback due in July)
"As a book group coordinator and leader, I can testify that there are m any reasons for starting a book group, but this was the first time I heard of starting a book club because someone was dying. As unusual as this may sound, however, this is the story of what can happen when two (or more) people get together around books and find their relationship expanding even as the physical world seems to be shrinking. Warm, heartbreaking, uplifting, and ultimately true, The End of Your Life Book Club has the power to speak to any book group." - Linda Bond, Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane, WA
2. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
"The voices that bear witness to the events in Cash's moving novel are  haunting in their telling of a tale of innocent mistakes and evil incarnate in a small North Carolina mountain community. A charismatic preacher has a parish in his thrall. Mysterious goings on, both inside and outside of the shrouded little church, lead to tragedy for young Jess and his mute older brother, Stump. This is a heartbreaking, brilliant novel, both deeply Southern and utterly universal." - Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, CO
3. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
"World War I is over and Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia as a lightho use keeper on remote Janus Rock. His young bride, Isabel, joins him, and they love their isolated life on Janus. Sadness descends, however, as they try unsuccessfully to start a family. A small boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a beautiful, healthy baby girl whom they make their own, living happily until they go back to the mainland and begin to realize the consequences of their actions. With incredibly visual prose evocative of the time and place, compelling characters, themes of forgiveness and redemption, and a riveting plot that won't let you put the book down, this is a great debut novel." - Judy Crosby, Island Books, Middletown, RI
4. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
"This love story, set in Alaska, is really a love story about Alaska. Ivey descri bes the achingly beautiful landscape without making it seem an easy place to live. Based on an old fairy tale, this is the story of a childless couple who make a snow child one evening only to find a real little girl the next day. As the girl grows through the years, we know that this enchanting story will have the twists that we have come to expect with tales that teach us lessons about life. Friendships, marriage, parenthood, and survival - all set in an unforgiving but entrancing landscape." - Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX
5. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
"Set in rural Washington State in the early 20th century, The Orchardi st tells the story of Talmadge, who has lived alone since his sister disappeared from their home and orchard when he was a young man. His life is changed when two young pregnant teens, escaping from a horrific situation, arrive at the orchard and he decides to let them into his life. Lyrically written, this is a moving book about a man's life, the land on which he lives, and the consequences of caring about others." - Nancy Felton, Broadside Bookshop, Northampton, MA
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Author Adichie Is a Name to Remember
| | Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is not a household name, but she may be on her way. Her debut novel Purple Hibiscus (2003) received rave reviews and favorable comparisons to legendary Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. Next came Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the 2007 Orange Prize (now called the Women's Prize for Fiction) and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. Adichie followed that up with a short story collection titled The Thing Around Your Neck.
Now, she has written a compelling and meaty new novel called Americanah - a story of love and race centered  around a young Nigerian woman and man who face difficult choices and challenges - in leaving their home country, adjusting to separate lives in America and England, respectively, and, upon returning home, coming to grips with their relationship and their changing country.
The book debuted last week on regional bestseller lists on both the East and West coasts, while also finding a place on the national Indie Bestseller List. Here's a brief description of the plot:
The protagonists, Ifemelu and Obinze, fall in love as teenagers but leave Nigeria separately to pursue better lives. Self-assured Ifemelu heads to America, where she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and ends relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she had never thought of back home: race. Meanwhile, Obinze - the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor - had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.
Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion - for their homeland and for each other - they face the toughest decisions of their lives.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - remember her name.
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WHERE TO FIND A BOOKSTORE
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Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship, this link will take you to a list of Northern California indie bookstores by region.
If you live or work elsewhere, you can click here to find the nearest indie bookstore by simply entering your postal code.
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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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My name is Hut Landon. I'm a former bookstore owner who now runs the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
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