And your reading list is about to explode
Kerri Miller's Must-Read
"Valley of the Moon"by Melanie Gideon
Buy this book
I’ve never been much of a time traveler — the idea of being whisked back to the days of yore just reminds me of nasty outhouses, bad air and women who were thought of as chattel. Or is that cattle?
But I found myself willing, even eager, to linger in Melanie Gideon’s Greengage. Nestled in a remote valley near Sonoma, Calif., the utopian community of Greengage has been marooned in a time warp. Every time its residents try to break out of that warp and catch up with the rest of the world, a dangerous fog bank pushes them back.
It all sounds rather silly when I paraphrase it like that, but Gideon’s descriptions of Greengage are arresting and idyllic and her main character, Lux Lysander, is utterly believable as she feels constantly torn between her modern life in San Francisco and the tranquillity of Greengage.
Gideon is a wide-ranging and prolific writer. She’s published young adult novels and a memoir. I tried reading her last novel, “Wife 22,” and — true to a bookish resolution to move on from books I didn’t like — gave up when it didn't hold my interest.
But Gideon has won me back with “Valley of the Moon.”
-K.M.
 |
Indie Bookstore Day: Where to go, what to read Despite many stories of bookstores' demise over the last decade, they're going strong. Prepare to have your to-be-read list expand exponentially.
More
Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" is compelling — and chilling The adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian 1985 novel is a horror show revealed in slow motion — and the true horror of its brutal, patriarchal future theocracy is how possible it seems today.
More
Off the train and into the water "Into the Water" by Paula Hawkins
Buy this book
Author Paula Hawkins was down on her luck when her 2015 book "The Girl on the Train" became a smash hit. Now she's grappling with success and preparing to launch her followup, "Into the Water."
More
Bookstore on wheels turns heads in Baghdad A 25-year-old resident of Baghdad has opened a mobile bookstore to share his passion for reading and revive a love for books in Iraq.
More
The Thread Live: 2017 authors announced The Thread's 2017 season of author interviews has been announced: Don't miss Jacqueline Woodson, Eddie Glaude, Jr. or Sheryl Sandberg.
Get tickets
Poetry Friday: The final week To celebrate National Poetry Month, we are showcasing weekly poems from Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions and Coffee House Press.
More
These dark lives left a bright legacy "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore
Buy this book
Kate Moore's new book digs into the short, painful lives of the Radium Girls, who worked painting luminous dials on watches and clocks — and were poisoned by the glowing radium paint they used.
More
"If you ever want to understand the immigrant experience," read this book "A Cup of Water Under My Bed" by Daisy Hernandez
Buy this book
Angela Maria Spring picked up Daisy Hernandez's memoir thinking she would just read the first few chapters. By the time she finished, she was crying on the phone to her mother.
More
Robert Pirsig, author of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," dies at 88 Pirsig's death came after a "period of failing health," his publisher William Morrow & Company said in a statement.
More
"Just show up": Sheryl Sandberg on how to help someone who's grieving "Option B" by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
Buy this book
The Facebook executive lost her husband in 2015. She says, "Rather than offer to do something, it's often better to do anything. Just do something specific."
More
A book that's unafraid to be gentle "Anything is Possible" by Elizabeth Strout
Buy this book
Elizabeth Strout's new novel-in-stories is a welcome salve for troubled times. A companion volume to last year's "My Name is Lucy Barton," "Anything is Possible" looks at the people Lucy grew up with.
More
A graphic novel memoir of captivity "Hostage" by Guy Delisle
Buy this book
Cartoonist Guy Delisle departs from the first-person travelogue format which has won him acclaim to chronicle the true story of a man kidnapped and detained for months in the Caucasus region in 1997.
More
A blueprint for a new, weird (but better) world "Walkaway" by Cory Doctorow
Buy this book
Cory Doctorow's latest novel is set in a ripped-from-the-headlines near future dystopia, where the creative and the capable are walking into the wilderness to build a new world.
More
Brave New Workshop's Dudley Riggs remembers when improv was considered "shameful" "Flying Funny" by Dudley Riggs
Buy this book
In his new memoir, the improv theater pioneer recounts his early days as a trapeze artist in the circus, to fighting naysayers who said improv theater was a slap in the face to great playwrights.
More
