Picking up where Raymond Chandler left off
The Thread's Must-Read
"The Incendiaries"by R.O. Kwon
Buy this book
“The Incendiaries” is a slim, dark novel, which you can devour on a single plane ride. (I did.) It doesn’t come out until Tuesday, but get in line for the library holds.
The novel offers a kaleidoscopic look at first love, fundamentalism, religion, grief and regret, all tied to a chance meeting in a small college town. Boy meets girl — or, rather, girl manipulates boy into noticing her.
It’s that wicked, all-consuming kind of first love, where every kiss feels perfect and every fight feels catastrophic. Phoebe and Will become inextricably wrapped up in every facet of each other’s lives, except for the secrets they keep from each other.
Enter John Leal. Charismatic and mysterious, he tells stories of the time he spent in a North Korean prison camp. He gathers a circle of chosen students around him, forming a radical religious group off campus.
As Phoebe, and then Will, enter this circle, tensions rise. Their relationship — and their senses of self — are tested by the group’s growing intensity.
R.O. Kwon writes in a spare, propulsive way, leaving more questions than answers in this strange and mesmerizing piece of fiction.
-Tracy Mumford
 |
An aging Philip Marlowe returns "Only to Sleep" by Lawrence Osborne
Buy this book
Lawrence Osborne's new Marlowe novel brings us a version of the gumshoe in his 70s, lonely and slow, looking into another mysterious death. It's a book that seems simple, but hides cavernous depths.
More
What it's like to be held hostage by Somali pirates for 2 1/2 years "The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast" by Michael Scott Moore
Buy this book
Journalist Michael Scott Moore went to East Africa to write about piracy. Then he got kidnapped and imprisoned for 977 days. "The Desert and the Sea" chronicles his incredible ordeal.
More
Beowulf in the suburbs? Here's an epic retelling "The Mere Wife" by Maria Dahvana Headley
Buy this book
For too long the Old English poem has long been perceived as a "masculine text," says Maria Dahvana Headley. Her new adaptation is told from the perspective of Grendel's mother.
More
Twist alert: Here's the "perfect mystery for summer" "Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany D. Jackson
Buy this book
Bookseller Aubrey Restifo recommends a young adult page-turner about a teenage girl who goes missing — and her best friend who won't stop looking.
More
Where muscle and bone meet machinery "Hullmetal Girls" by Emily Skrutskie
Buy this book
In Emily Skrutskie's new book, two girls make the choice to give up part of their humanity and become bionic super-soldiers in service to the great fleet of spaceships they live among.
More
Spicer book offers insight on conservative politics, doubles down on misstatements "The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President" by Sean Spicer
Buy this book
The former Trump press officer intelligently dissects the reward structure of viral Twitter and gives a valuable sketch of conservative politics, but he seems to have written "The Briefing" to an end.
More
Talking Volumes 2018 season The 2018 season will feature interviews with Dessa, Leif Enger, Rebecca Traister, Sally Field and Alexander McCall Smith. Get tickets now.
More
"Hits and Misses" doesn't miss a beat "Hits and Misses" by Simon Rich
Buy this book
Simon Rich's new collection welcomes readers to his sweet but twisted world, with laugh-out-loud stories about everything from a competitively ascetic monk to a baby writer born in tweed and glasses.
More
Parker Posey writes her own myth "You're on an Airplane" by Parker Posey
Buy this book
This "self-mythologizing memoir," which Parker Posey pronounces "me-moir," is written as if it's a monologue to an airplane seatmate, full of collages, cocktail recipes and stories from her life and career.
More
