Good Books!

I sort of dropped the ball after writing My Reading List (and my Anthropologie Blanket and a Few Other Things), so here, as promised, are some more of the books I’ve enjoyed recently — minus the commentary about my bedroom.

THE ART OF FIELDING by Chad Harbach

I adored this book. Yes, I’m a baseball fan but, more importantly, I’m a John Irving fan and this gorgeous debut novel has a warm, epic The World According to Garp feel about it that immediately enveloped me and never let go. The story centers around Henry, a talented young shortstop who is taken under the wing of the captain of a small college baseball team. The richly-drawn characters become family not only to each other but to the reader, who can’t help caring deeply about what happens to each of them. This is a stunning tribute to a game whose sole goal is for its players to end up safe at home.

CHOSEN by Chandra Hoffman

I had the same ominous feeling reading this powerful debut novel as I did reading House of Sand and Fog – the characters were on the path toward a head-on collision, yet they couldn’t veer from that path and I couldn’t stop turning the pages. This is a cautionary tale about adoption from the different points of view of everyone involved — the caseworkers, the birth parents and the adoptive families. The story is often horrifying but ultimately hopeful, and offers so many thought-provoking topics for reading group discussions. Author Chandra Hoffman actually served as an aide worker in Romania’s infamous Orphanage Number One, and went on to become the director of a domestic adoption program in Portland, Oregon. Her details are so dead-on, the book becomes very real and impossible to put down.

EXPOSURE by Therese Fowler

As the mother of a teenage daughter, this book effected me so deeply, I’ve already passed it on to half a dozen of my friends. High school seniors Amelia and Anthony are deeply in love and “sext” each other nude photos meant for their eyes only. When Amelia’s overprotective father discovers them, he calls the police and sets off a legal battle that is more shocking than the pictures they took out of love. Although the book is fiction, author Therese Fowler did experience the fall-out from this same type of situation when her own 19-year-old was arrested for sexting – a charge that has since been dropped but which will follow him for the rest of his life. This novel is a wake-up call which should be shared with all teenagers who think sexting is harmless, innocent fun.

SOME GIRLS by Jillian Lauren

Jillian Lauren’s fast-paced memoir of her eighteen months in a Borneo harem is so astonishing – and so astonishingly well-written – it’s the kind of book you read with your mouth open, unable to fathom how this could possibly be a true story and unable to stop reading. A child of the suburbs, Jillian seems as surprised by her situation as the reader, and her insightful writing and irreverent attitude add a literary tone to a story soaked with scandal, royalty, jewels and mean girls. Jillian has skillfully woven a Scheherazade-like tale that you’d happily sit through for 1001 nights but are likely to finish in just one. Because I was so blown away by this book, I can’t wait to start Jillian’s new novel, Pretty.

DON’T KILL THE BIRTHDAY GIRL: TALES FROM AN ALLERGIC LIFE by Sandra Beasley

I was caught up in this fascinating personal story right from the brilliant title and cover. Often referred to as “Allergy Girl” during her childhood, Sandra Beasley is one of the twelve million Americans diagnosed with food allergies. To her, dairy was like a loaded gun, and she could never leave home without an EpiPen, inhaler and Benadryl. In this easy-to-read, anecdote-filled memoir, she provides a ton of information for those who, like her, look at trying new foods as a game of Russian roulette. This is an eye-opening and important book in an age when almost six percent of young children are in the same position.

NEVER TELL OUR BUSINESS TO STRANGERS by Jennifer Mascia

It’s no surprise to learn your dad is part of the family but imagine finding out he’s part of The Family as well. That’s what happened to Jennifer Mascia at age 22, after a loving childhood full of mystery and secrets. This truth-is-stranger-than-fiction memoir is written with a reporter’s eye for detail (Jennifer spent three years at the New York Times), making for riveting reading.

 

MINDING BEN by Victoria Brown

Victoria Brown left Trinidad at the age of 16 to become a nanny in New York. In her debut novel, she takes us inside that bizarre world where the haves pay the have-nots to raise their children. Part The Nanny Diaries and part The Help, this fascinating story covers so much ground – from the camaraderie between the immigrants who need each other to survive yet compete for the same jobs, to the complicated relationships between employers and employees, to the guilt of the mothers who hire other women to care for their kids. Sure, we’ve traveled through this territory before but Victoria gives it a new lilt with a cast of strong, vivid women led by the aptly-named Grace.