It is, to be clear, 100 percent fan fiction.
The Thread's Must-Read
"The Great Believers"by Rebecca Makkai
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“A page turner.”
“Powerful, unforgettable.”
“Devastating.”
“Deeply moving.”
That’s just a fraction of the praise pouring in for Rebecca Makkai’s “The Great Believers,” a sprawling novel worth toting around with you for the rest of the summer.
“The Great Believers” opens in Chicago in the 1980s, as a group of friends is just beginning to grapple with the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. As they gather at a wake for one friend, they live with the knowledge that the line of funerals has only just begun.
One of the friends is Yale Tishman, who works at a university art gallery and has just received a strange offer from a donor who claims to have sketches dating back to the 1920s from prominent artists — Modigliani and more.
In alternating chapters, Makkai jumps into the near-present, tracing the aftershocks, three decades later. The plots that kick off in the '80s have long-reaching consequences, as a mother searches for her long-lost daughter, entangled with a cult.
At 400-plus pages, it’s not a beach read — unless you’ve got far more time at the beach than I do — but it will be one of the most engrossing, powerful books of the year.
-Tracy Mumford
How American history can be used as a weapon "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen
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James Loewen's 1995 book explained how history textbooks got the story of America wrong. Now, in a new edition, Loewen champions critical thinking in the age of fake news.
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Spooky and off-kilter, "Come Again" shows Nate Powell's virtuosity "Come Again" by Nate Powell
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Nate Powell is known for his work on John Lewis' autobiography "March" — but his new graphic novel goes in a different direction, digging into family secrets and supernatural horrors in an Ozarks commune.
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Reading horror can arm us against a horrifying world Why read horror stories when the real world is scary enough on its own? Because horror does more than scare us — it teaches us how to live with being scared, and how to fight back against evil.
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In new book, Barack and Joe solve a murder mystery "Hope Never Dies: An Obama-Biden Mystery" by Andrew Shaffer
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The new noir novel "Hope Never Dies" rekindles a presidential buddy-cop bromance in order to unravel a suspicious death in Delaware. It is, to be clear, 100 percent fan fiction.
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A look at the history of Canada's residential schools "Indian Horse" by Richard Wagamese
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Bookseller Mara Panich-Crouch recommends a novel about the experiences of an Ojibwe boy caught in Canada's residential school system.
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"American Hate" profiles survivors, but also brings hope "American Hate" by Arjun Singh Sethi
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Amid the ugly realities of contemporary America, Arjun Singh Sethi's collection of stories affirms our courage and inspiration, opening a road map to reconciliation through the stories of victims.
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Bonding over bog bodies? "Meet Me at the Museum" by Anne Youngson
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Anne Youngson's debut novel is the charmer of the summer. Told in epistolary form, it follows a dissatisfied farmer's wife and a lonely museum curator who find that it's never too late for a fresh start.
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An unapologetic heroine who's no gentle flower "Orchid and the Wasp" by Caoilinn Hughes
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Caoilinn Hughes's new novel introduces a young Irish woman named Gael Foess, who is both exploitative and highly effective. The author says her protagonist is unlikable on purpose.
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A novel packed with personality — maybe too much "This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us" by Edgar Cantero
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Edgar Cantero's madcap new novel stars a brother-and-sister pair of private eyes with wildly differing personalities — who just happen to share the same body. (There's an explanation. Sort of.)
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"Marvellous Equations" pulses with rhythmic power "The Marvellous Equations of the Dread" by Marcia Douglas
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Marcia Douglas' new book imagines a resurrected Bob Marley, living in a clock tower and conversing with spirits — but Douglas also honors and elevates the voices of the women in Marley's orbit.
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