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Read up on the best books of the year |
Kerri Miller's Must-Read |
| "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton I know. "The Age of Innocence," first serialized in a magazine in 1920, is an unexpected choice in a week when I've interviewed activist and icon Gloria Steinem at the Fitz. Why read a novel where most of the female characters would faint over a feminista manifesto? Especially in the same week that the first female major party candidate for president will go head to head with her opponent on national television? I can't explain why I've read this novel three times and loved it, but I'm here to argue (briefly) that Gloria and Hillary and younger feminists like Roxane Gay and Jessica Valenti might find more to like in "Innocence" than they'd — and you'd — expect. 1. The Countess Olenska is a bada--! Well-traveled, more European than American, and ready to cut her ties to her loutish Polish count, Ellen Mingott Olenska throws New York society into a tizzy. She ignores social convention that declares her a pitiable creature without a husband at her side and a divorce in her past. She lives on the wrong side of the tracks. And she falls in love with and then abstains from an affair with Newland Archer when she realizes that, despite his protestations, he is a creature of the Byzantine societal code of the wealthiest 1%. She asks, "Does no one want to know the truth here?" Then she swans off to Paris to live the life she was always meant for. 2. Even though May Welland, the wealthy and sheltered soon-to-be bride at the center of the novel is content to be "helicoptered" into a pale shadow by her protective parents, she has flashes of surprisingly modern insight about love and sex. When her fiancé, Newland Archer, is pleading with her to forego a year-long engagement and move the wedding date up, she wonders aloud if his urgency is because he still harbors feelings for the married woman he had an affair with before he met her. May tells him he should defy social mores and marry his mistress and she reminds him, "You mustn't think that a girl knows as little as her parents imagine." What May doesn't know is that there is a different married woman for whom Newland is pining. 3. Newland Archer is a feminist-in-progress, with some work still to do. Seduced initially by the ideal of his betrothed, he soon finds the contrast between May's youthful naïveté and Ellen's self-aware sophistication unendurable. He realizes, "There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free..." Okay, so he's still a patronizing jerk, but he's getting there! Oh, and one more thing. For years, Edith Wharton was dismissed as little more than a protege of her good friend, the writer Henry James. More sexist dribble. Read them both. You'll find she's better. -K.M. |
| This Week on The Thread |
| Here are the 2016 National Book Award finalists Minnesota author Kate DiCamillo, Colson Whitehead and Jacqueline Woodson are just three of the authors on the shortlists for the National Book Awards. The 20 books still in contention for the prizes were unveiled Thursday. More |
| The year in celebrity memoirs Readers can dive into books from famous names this fall, from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Bruce Springsteen. More |
| A fairy tale kiss? Not so much. Five things you might not know about classic fairy tales Little Red Riding Hood wasn't always so lucky, and "The Frog King" had a very different ending. More |
| Balancing humor and tragedy "Today Will Be Different" by Maria Semple Buy this book Maria Semple's new novel centers on erratic, overworked mother Eleanor, who makes a promise before the book begins: Today will be different. And it is, but not the way she expected or hoped for. More |
| Talking Volumes 2016 season guide The 16th season of Talking Volumes includes interviews with Ann Patchett and Colson Whitehead. More |
| Why it took "Forrest Gump" author nearly 20 years to write a new novel "El Paso" by Winston Groom Buy this book After "Forrest Gump" became a best-seller, Winston Groom says he ran out of good ideas for novels — until now. His new book, "El Paso," is set during the Mexican Revolution. More |
| For literary world, unmasking Elena Ferrante's not a scoop. It's a disgrace. An investigative journalist claims to have uncovered the true identity of a famously private novelist. Writers and readers alike have rejected the claims as an egregious, unnecessary intrusion. More |
| The American teenagers turned cartel assassins "Wolf Boys" by Dan Slater Buy this book Dan Slater's new book charts the descent of American teenagers into the brutal violence of the drug war. More |
| 5 under 35: National Book Foundation honors young fiction authors Every year, the National Book Foundation highlights young writers making a splash in the world of fiction. More |
| Life lessons from comic Phoebe Robinson "You Can't Touch My Hair" by Phoebe Robinson Buy this book In her new book, the stand-up comic and podcast host writes about what it's like to be black and female in America. "Black hair seems to raise a lot of nonblack people's blood pressure," she writes. More |
| No, Ruth Bader Ginsburg does not intend to retire anytime soon "My Own Words" by Ruth Bader Ginsburg Buy this book "I will retire when it's time," the 83-year-old Supreme Court justice said in an interview with NPR. She also shares wedding advice from her mother-in-law and reads a letter from her late husband. More |
| From fire hydrants to rescue work, dogs perceive the world through smell "Being a Dog" by Alexandra Horowitz Buy this book Dogs can sniff out people, drugs, bombs, cancer, time of day, oncoming storms and much more. In her new book "Being A Dog," Alexandra Horowitz explores the mysteries and mechanics of canine noses. More |
| Ojibwe storyteller writes down tales to help us survive "the dark hole" "Fire in the Village" by Anne Dunn Buy this book After a lifetime of telling stories on northern Minnesota reservations, Anne Dunn decided to write them down. The Leech Lake storyteller picked 75 of her best for the new collection "Fire in the Village". More |
| Ask a bookseller: Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, N.C. "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles Buy this book Bookseller Samantha Flynn can't stop raving about "A Gentleman in Moscow." The novel follows a Russian aristocrat who is sentenced to house arrest, for life, in an elegant hotel. More |
| Magic in the air: 3 young adult fantasy reads for fall School may be back in session, but your bookshelf doesn't have to reflect that — we've got three YA fantasy novels for fall starring three girls grappling with the impact of magic on their lives. More |
| Winston Churchill's great escape "Hero of The Empire" by Candice Millard Buy this book Candice Millard's new book dives into the early life and adventures of Winston Churchill, before he became a household name and world leader. More |
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