myshelf … what people are reading
Jean Clenney, Director of Selection at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
House at Riverton by Kate Morton
I picked this up randomly at the bookstore one afternoon sorting through paperbacks.
Something intrigued me to read about some mysterious, tragic event, the suicide of a young poet, at an England manor around the 1920s, told through the eyes of one the housemaids years later. Grace, at 98, recants and shares the family’s secret she has dutifully kept for decades. I was addicted to the end as Morton revealed the “true” story of events by the lake. It was easy to fall in love with a story full of passion, family loyalty, duty, love, and the “butterfly” effect that our decisions can have on other people’s lives. This is a touching but tense love story with a haunting ending. I believe this is a must read for lovers of enthralling, well-written, captivating, historical fiction novels.
Adam Wehby, customer service, Wachovia Bank
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
The struggle for good versus evil never gets old. Goodkind creates a world where the good guys are pristinely good, and the bad are evil enough to make your skin crawl. The story follows Richard a woods guide in a small country side town against an evil kingdom bent on controlling all life. It jumps right in to the action to catch your interest and show the honorable side of the hero early on. This fantasy novel has swords and magic enough to keep the imagination spinning.
TOPSHELF
The Hot Books For Fall
The DaVinci Code’s Dan Brown will have his new novel, The Lost Symbol, out in September. That’s the one booksellers are counting on for megasales. Irish novelist William Trevor finds Love and Summer, a story of suspicion, guilt, forbidden love and the possibility of starting over. A.S. Byatt chronicles changing family values in Edwardian England in The Children’s Book, coming in October. Discover an almost Biblcal apocalypse in Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood, due in September. Lost souls and hidden identities engage Dan Chaon in Await Your Reply, out next month. Paul Auster travels 30 years and half the world in Invisible, coming in October. Nicholson Baker finds love and poetry conquers all in The Anthologist, Simon & Schuster, coming in September. Barbara Kingsolver combines a social-climbing mother, extraordinary child and Mexico together in The Lacuna, out this November. Malcolm Gladwell learns a lot from canines in the non-fiction, What the Dog Saw, due in October. Joshua Ferris’s second novel is The Unnamed, whose protagonist is a man who can’t stop walking. The new Pat Conroy book, South of Broad, is a family saga set in Charleston. And Pete Dexter’s new book, Spooner, takes a character’s violent and disturbed childhood and follows it through to an equally disturbed adulthood. Little Bee (Simon & Schuster, $24) is the new novel by British newspaper columnist and author Chris Cleave. The novel, brimming with the amazing voice and character of the Nigerian teenage refugee Little Bee, is a morally taut and deeply felt tale of what happens when inhabitants the First World and the Third World intersect. An Englishwoman and a Nigerian girl meet on an African beach and begin a journey of discovery—about each other, about seeking asylum, about the baggage of our personal histories, about life—that crystallizes in a poignant and unforgettable tale. Cleave’s previous work, Incendiary, won the 2006 Somerset Maugham Award.
LISTEN
The Pine Hill Haints, To Win or to Lose
When I attended the 2008 Old 280 Boogie in Waverly, I fell in love with many things: the charming town. The festival itself. Standard Deluxe. And the Pine Hill Haints. To Win or To Lose (K Records) is only the latest in a long line of releases from the Huntsville-based band. They call themselves Alabama ghost music, and their peculiar combination of punk and roots music results in a sound most closely akin to Old Crow Medicine Show. Though the lyrics often plumb the depths of sorrow, many tracks will make you get up and dance. You’ll have that chance on July 25, when the Haints celebrate their record release at Bottletree. —CARLA JEAN WHITLEY
mytunes
Paul Janeway
Musician
I have really started to listen to Serge Gainsbourg. Even though he sings in French, it still communicates to me very well. There is a sexiness to it that is timeless. Histoire de Melody Nelson is the album to get of his. It really is amazing.
check this out:
What: Some New Trend is a collaborative young adult novel written in blog form. A new chapter is posted every Monday, and the authors expect the project to last until about October (six months from the April launch). During the remainder of each week, the site is updated with movie, music and book reviews, book giveaways and more.
Who: Authors Carrie Rollwagen and Kevin Wilder have each written for a number of publications and blogs. Rollwagen is a copywriter for Southern Living AT HOME and a contributor to Birmingham Weekly; Wilder contributes to REAX Music Magazine. The pair previously worked together at Jonathan Benton, Bookseller. The authors also accept creative contributions from others, and each chapter is illustrated by John Yam.
The story: Some New Trend tells the story of a group of Florida teenagers who hang out at the mall (because in Florida, that’s all teenagers do) and their teenage love lives. Rollwagen and Wilder alternate chapters and voices, telling the story from the viewpoint of different characters. Embracing technology: Some New Trend also delivers chapters to subscribers via email, and a weekly podcast serves as an ebook of sorts. In addition to its many delivery methods, Some New Trend interacts via Twitter.
Music makers …
Tom Brosseau’s high, plaintive voice is a direct pipeline to the listener’s soul, communicating emotion as he tells stories that will break your heart. His latest release, Posthumous Success (FatCat Records), builds on the simplicity of his past work to create a fuller, more experimental sound. The difference is particularly noticeable on “You Don’t Know My Friends,” as distortion adds sonic interest to Brosseau’s vocals.
You can purchase the oft-talked about Dark Night of the Soul, a collaboration between DJ Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and numerous guests, and the companion collection of photographs by David Lynch, but the disc you receive may be blank. Danger Mouse’s legal entanglement with EMI Music resulted in the inclusion of a blank CD-R (to use as you wish), but early, legal streams of the music suggest this is an album worth looking up.
Pete Yorn falls into a gentle rhythm on Back and Fourth (Columbia Records), his fourth album. But his lyrics are as yearning as ever and even more personal. He’s especially introspective on “Paradise Cove” when he sings, “Got what I wanted when you showed up. Got what I wanted, and it’s never enough.”
We may all just be taller children, as Elizabeth Abby Ziman of Elizabeth and the Catapult sings on the title track of Taller Children (Verve Forecast). But Ziman’s smartlyphrased pop music certainly reveals her maturity as a songwriter.
