What are you reading the week of April 7, 2013?

[SheilaT]

22. Oh, boy. So many books, so little time.

In science fiction, I've been recommending "The Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis for years now. Also, most anything by Robert Charles Wilson and Robert Sawyer. They're Canadians, and so don't seem to write as much by formula as a lot of Americans. Wilson's early books had gone out of print, but I see they're back. Hooray! His novel "A Bridge of Years" is one I love to recommend. Man buys an abandoned home and discovers that in the basement there's a walled-up tunnel that leads to NYC 1962. Why that tunnel exists, and who is responsible for it make up the bulk of the novel. I like everything of his. For me Sawyer is a little bit hit or miss, but I will still go ahead and pick up anything of his. Oh, and I've actually met both men at different science fiction events. They're both very nice in person.

In non s-f, another Canadian author I'm partial to is Andrew Pyper. "Lost Girls" which I think is his first novel is absolutely amazing. The language is lyrical, and I kept on reading parts out loud to people, which is something I almost never do. I need to get around to re-reading it soon. I've also read "The Wildfire Season" by him and liked it. He's got other books out there but I haven't ready any of them yet.

I will also recommend Stewart O'Nan as an author. I first discovered him with "The Circus Fire" which is about the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey fire on July 6, 1944. Chances are you've heard of this fire because of the mystery of the one unidentified girl, known forever as Little Miss 1565. I happen to be oddly obsessed by books about fires, and this was a very, very good one. But O'Nan is better known as a novelist. So far everything I've read of his has been more than worth it. He writes novels about ordinary people living out ordinary lives. "Last Night at the Lobster" is about the final day and night of a Red Lobster Restaurant. "Emily Alone" is about an 80 year old widow who lives in a Pittsburgh suburb, and whose life is defined by the limitations of age. "The Good Wife" (one of my all time favorite novels ever) is about a woman whose husband is a burgler, unbeknownst to her. A woman is killed during a burglary, and he is sentenced to 25 years to life. She's pregnant with there first child, and the novel is about her building a life for her and her son while maintaining as best she can the connection to her husband in jail. There are no big dramatic moments (there never are in O'Nan's novels) just the day by day, month by month, and year by year unrolling of a lifetime.

Another favorite author of mine is Thomas Mallon. "Henry and Clara" is a book I've actually gotten total strangers to buy when I'm in bookstores. It's about the young couple who went to the theater that night with President and Mrs. Lincoln. Bet you never heard of them, right? They actually grew up as step-brother and step-sister from about the time they were ten and twelve, when his widowed mother married her widowed father. The father was a U.S. Senator, so they were always around political power. What eventually happened to them, how their entire life stories played out is incredible. I read the last twenty pages or so with my mouth dropped open, because it was so astonishing. Everything I've read by Mallon is good.

When you need more suggestions just let me know.