Picks of the Week

THE LEVELS, by Sean Cregan

(originally posted on February 21, 2010)

It's a new name, a new style, and a new publisher for the man once and still known as John Rickards, and I think the change on all writerly fronts is absolutely the right one to make at this point in his career. THE LEVELS is dystopic without being obvious about it, instead creating a tangible, darkened world each of the seemingly doomed characters inhabits, tries to escape from and ultimately accepts in one form or another. It's the written version of the burnt out, empty buildings captured on film by Godfrey Riggio with Philip Glass scoring underneath - a landscape that repels and attracts but is too busy moving and changing to care what you think or are uncomfortable with. Indiebound | Borders | B & N | Amazon | Powell’s

THE BELIEVERS, by Zoe Heller

(originally posted on February 21, 2010)

On the one hand, I wish I had read this book when it came out in hardcover. On the other hand, I'm glad I waited because THE BELIEVERS demands total attention and now was the time for me to give it. The characters are so caustic and yet inspire such empathy. The narrative moves briskly yet embeds a considerable amount of detail. The dialogue is spot-on and hyper-literate, and Heller is catlike in her observations of family dysfunction, leftist politics and religiosity of all stripes, seeing all and asserting power over her characters, paradoxically, by giving them the floor to screw up and triumph. It is marvelous. Amazon | B & N | Indiebound | Borders | Powell’s

The Spellmans Strike Again, by Lisa Lutz

(originally posted on February 21, 2010)

What do you mean this is the end of the Spellman Saga? Don't we get to find out what happens to Rae in college, or whether Isabel will stay the maturity course, or if Henry can stay sane amidst the craziness of a clan perfectly happy to spy on each other and others and withhold information from each other (and themselves!) all in the purpose of greater good? Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. But this fourth and final installment perfectly encapsulates the zany sweetness and the larger ramifications of family that loves each other too much, in their own way - even if that way of demonstrating involves regular surveillance. Amazon | Borders | Powell’s | Indiebound | B & N

212, by Alafair Burke

(originally posted on February 21, 2010)

If you live in New York, you'll recognize the cases 212 is based on, but the headline rip doesn't really matter: what's more important is that this is a story that is rooted in the now, where the investigation depends on web 2.0 being used for both good and ill, and where the book's heroine, Ellie Hatcher, acts in a smart, capable manner and, even when not in control of a situation, knows what she must do to re-assert it. When I say 212 is a mystery of superior professionalism, I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Burke's territory is her own, and I'm eager to see how she carves out an even larger corner that belongs to no one else. Powell’s | Borders | Amazon | B & N | Indiebound

HUSH, by Kate White

(originally posted on February 21, 2010)

White's novels, for me, are the perfect vacation read, even when I am up to my ears in deadlines. HUSH, however, is a departure from the first person Bailey Weggins mysteries (which owe their debts to fair-play mysteries), instead a third-person femjep spiraling out from one woman's impulsive sexual decision. What follows is a broken-glass sequence of murder, workplace tension, and the growing sense that someone is going to kill Lake Warren only after she's been subject to all kinds of psychological torture. I know I felt genuine palpitations while reading HUSH; something tells me many others will, too. Indiebound | Powell’s | B & N | Borders | Amazon

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Henrietta Skloot

(originally posted on January 23, 2010)

Skloot's book, a couple of decades in the making, is an astounding achievement. The science is as easily understandable as the moral and ethical questions are expansive and ambiguous, but it's the way Skloot seamlessly combines Lacks' personal story with far larger ones of American society and race relationions, and knits her own investigative quest with the many questions asked (and often unanswered) by the family. It's the biography of a cell line, yes, but it is so much more, and far richer, than a single logline can encapsulate.
Indiebound | B & N | Borders | Amazon | Powell’s

IF THE DEAD RISE NOT, by Philip Kerr

(originally posted on January 23, 2010)

How much longer can Bernie Gunther go on? I almost hope Kerr doesn't answer that question, because the way he's extended his urbane, sardonic Berlin-born sleuth's life has been masterful, again (as in A QUIET FLAME) contrasting a 1930s-era case - and the ramifications of one quick decision - with the pre-Castro Havana of the mid-1950s. Kerr has a complicated story to tell, but his juggling is expert and culminates in one of the best ending confessions I've read in ages.

Indiebound | Amazon | Powell’s | B & N | Borders

TRUE CONFECTIONS, by Katharine Weber

(originally posted on January 23, 2010)

Say, Dat's Tasty! But True Confections is a hell of a lot more than mere fictional candy history (though Weber's descriptions made my mouth water so much I suddenly craved all sorts of sweets I hardly ever eat.) Through Alice Tatnall Ziplinsky's infectious, caustic, barely reliable, shaggy dog-like affidavit doubling as the narrative, readers get a chocolate-eyed view into the immigrant's transformation into quintessential Americans, what it is to be blind to what's flatly around us, and why basic human behavior never changes even when the machinery updates faster than we can ever keep up.

Borders | Amazon | Powell’s | B & N | Indiebound

THE MANY DEATHS OF THE FIREFLY BROTHERS, by Thomas Mullen

(originally posted on January 23, 2010)

Oh I want to shout about this book from all available rooftops. I want to jam it down the throats of literary snobs too hung up on the usual Lit-boy suspects, afraid of people who can entertain like a mofo, spin out a story at Usain Bolt-like speed with characters who will break your heart as they steal your soul. Yes, Thomas Mullen's new novel - which I've taken to referring to as a literary gangster zombie novel, even if that hardly tells the whole tale - is that good, one of my favorite books of 2010 so far, and an edict that will be hard to sway me from as the rest of the year unfolds.

Borders | Powell’s | Indiebound | Amazon | B & N

THIS BOOK IS OVERDUE! by Marilyn Johnson

(originally posted on January 23, 2010)

I don't go to the library enough, but Johnson's paean to the institution - and the range of people, from old-school types dragged into the present to punk-haired, social media-savvy types loudly getting out the word, who are both bound up and pushing hard against tradition - is a swift boot in the rear reminder why I, and others, should do the exact opposite of ignoring them. From free speech to scatologocal tales, personal stories to larger themes, THIS BOOK IS OVERDUE! is, well, very much overdue.

Amazon | Borders | Indiebound | B & N | Powell’s