Staff Picks Audience: Adults

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay [Book]

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Roxane Gay’s memoir Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body is startling. It is moving and important. It is hard to read and hard to put down.

In this memoir of her body Gay puts into words so much that would generally be left unsaid. Gay’s writing is clear and concise. It does not shy from the contradictions in life. It is both restrained and emotional. It is devastating. Gay tells us about her life. She was raped at the age of twelve. She is fat. She is scared. She is complex, intelligent, insightful, compassionate, and a brilliant writer. She lives a privileged life and recognizes her privilege. She is the subjected to great prejudice and discrimination. In Hunger she shares truths that must be incredibly difficult to share and she does so very well.

Gay’s book tells us much about her life, but it also tells us much about our culture, our country, our attitudes. We are not kind to fat bodies. We are not kind to women’s bodies. We are not kind to black bodies. We are not kind to ourselves. You probably already know this, but Gay’s book will still open your eyes. Her perspective is probably not one you have heard before.

On the back of the dust jacket Ann Patchett tells us why this book is important and I cannot improve on what she says. She writes:

“It turns out that when a wrenching past is confronted with wisdom and bravery, the outcome can be compassion and enlightenment—both for the reader who has lived through this kind of unimaginable pain and for the reader who knows nothing of it. Roxane Gay shows us how to be decent to ourselves and decent to one another. Hunger is an amazing achievement in more ways than I can count.”

Census by Jesse Ball [Book]

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How does one convey a sense of understanding about something that is significantly hard to describe – whether due to its ephemeral qualities, or because the subject is profoundly personal? Author Jesse Ball writes about this challenge in the introduction to his newest book Census, stating that he “realized I would make a book that was hollow,” when trying to figure out how to write about his deceased older brother. Ball makes an astounding attempt by writing around the difficulty being investigated, and so creates a contour by which details emerge and a sense of the indescribable can be gleaned.

A book perhaps essentially about empathy, on both a personal and cultural level – prescient of our current social atmosphere where some philosophy on understanding others might be a bit lacking. Written with simple yet poetic prose, which will likely garner the re-reading of passages when finding yourself bowled over by the dense sentiments embedded within a short paragraph. And an impressive amount of language pushing, which holds up against the steep standards placed by the comparisons to Borges and Calvino that Ball has received. Truly otherworldly writing in the best ways that those giants of literature have shown to be possible.

A road trip from towns A to Z with tattooing and physiotelepathy – this is my current favorite book of 2018!

Close to Home by Peter Robinson [Book]

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This is the first title by this prolific British author I’ve sampled, and I’m hooked. Well written with interesting main characters both male and female. Suspenseful, but not heart pounding. You can, as I did, dive in into the middle of the Inspector Banks series, as the back stories of the main characters are interwoven into the story as necessary. For lovers of British mysteries like the Inspector Morse stories.

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald [Book]

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If you have ever visited the Everglades, (or what’s left of it) you know it is a marsh, not a swamp. The swamp of the title refers to the name commonly, especially in previous centuries, assigned to it by non-specialists, but even more to the morass of politics that has alternatively consigned it to death, and pushed it back from the brink. This is a book for observers and students of political strategy and American history. Yes, there are ecological lessons here, but it is more a tale of why some people become environmental activists (some very surprising stories), and why some have a different vision for the future, and of their continuing battles for the future of the Everglades, and by extension, south Florida.

Passage by Connie Willis [Book]

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This is a difficult-to-classify tale of a medical researcher studying near death experiences. An interesting cast of characters of different races and backgrounds populate the novel and the story takes several turns, mostly unexpected. The politics and gossip and in a hospital setting are realistically portrayed. For mystery lovers who don’t mind a touch of medical-science-fiction. And for the philosophically inclined lover of escape fiction. A bit of a spooky read, and not everyone lives happily ever after. I found the main character a bit exasperating. But I had trouble putting it down until the end.

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin [Book]

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The Fifth Season is the first in The Broken Earth trilogy, a complex narrative work of fantasy that tells the tale of a world that may once have been like our own Earth, but has suffered from repeated environmental catastrophe’s, the “fifth seasons” of the book’s title. The world is frequently subjected to seismic stresses and acid rains and societal breakdowns. To survive,folks rely on the knowledge—and prejudice—passed down as “stone lore”.

The Fifth Season paints a detailed vision of a world with a rich but incomplete history full of deep prejudices and injustices, its own unique vocabulary, and a magical system that is almost scientific. It ends on a cliff-hanger, so you’ll want to read the whole series!

Endurance: a year in space, a lifetime of discovery by Scott Kelly [Audiobook]

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Scott Kelly reads the parallel stories of how a boy from blue collar New Jersey, son of alcoholic parents, became an astronaut and how he endured a year on the International Space Station. These stories are told in alternating chapters. Once you get used to his somewhat deadpan (I’m a tough fighter pilot, man of few words) delivery the parallel stories are engaging. Details of training in Russia and life aboard the ISS are fascinating. For those with an interest in the space program and science in general.

Report to the Men’s Club by Carol Emshwiller [Book]

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Though we’ve labeled this science fiction, for the most part these short stories are magic realism, little worlds where everything is normal, except perhaps, grandma can fly. Some funny, some a bit macabre (think Joyce Carol Oates with a sense of humor.) One is a paean to a feminist anthropologist, many about the lives of women. They will stick with you after the volume is closed.

Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together by Van Jones [Book]

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The “messy truth” to CNN commentator and progressive activist Van Jones is that the country was primed for a revolution regardless of the candidates in the 2016 presidential election. He elucidates the history of the increasing divide between the four segments of American political life he identifies, and makes suggestions for both liberals and conservatives for understanding, corrective action, and finding commonalities across what seems a huge chasm. In spite of the detailing of serious problems like the epidemic of addiction, Beyond the messy truth isn’t a depressing read because of solutions offered. Fresh ideas, persuasively expressed. Strongly recommended regardless of your politics, though progressives may find the most to digest here.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides [Book]

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Middlesex is an multi-generation immigrant family drama limned by an omniscient narrator with a serious predicament. At turns funny and poignant, it is about identity and finding where you belong, including inside your own skin. Winner of the Pulitzer for fiction in 2003; I highly recommend this lushly written page turner.

Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood [Book]

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An English country house mystery, but set in the Australian countryside in the 1920s. Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher, a woman of independent means and modern attitudes, detects the solution to a number of mysteries involving her hosts and fellow guests including a servant’s murder. Fans of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter should give this series a try.

God, a guide for the perplexed by Keith Ward [Book]

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No perplexity required. A survey of beliefs about God, primarily in the West, beginning with ancient Greece. From the common folk to philosophers both famous and obscure. Sprinkled with wry humor and anecdotes. Recommended for history buffs, particularly those interested in the evolution of Christian beliefs.