Picks of the Week

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