October Books From the Book Expo

Once again I attended the Book Expo in May at the Javits Center and brought home lots of fantastic books. These are the books that published in October- some YA, memoir and literary fiction among them. (Click on the publisher links for more information on each book.)

1) Fans of Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give have their next read in Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal's I'm Not Dying With You Tonight. Lena and Campbell are two high school students who don't know each other, and don't have much in common. One night, a horrible incident at the football game leads to a night of dangerous chaos in their town. They must work together to make it home safely, but can they do it? Published by Sourcebooks Fire.

2)  Saeed Jones' memoir, How We Fight For Our Lives, was one of the Editors' Buzz Books on day one of the Book Expo. This week it was chosen as the Nonfiction winner of the prestigious Kirkus Prize. Praise for Jones' recounting of life as a gay man in the south, living with his religious mother and grandmother, has been effusive from all who have read it. Published by Simon & Schuster.

3) Ruta Sepetys latest YA novel, The Fountains of Silence,  is a big book set in 1957 Madrid. It tells the story of four people- Daniel, Ana, Rafa and Puri- as they try to survive and thrive under the despotic rule of Francisco Franco. This one has garnered much praise as well from critics, and Philomel Books publishes it.

4) Curdella Forbes's debut novel, A Tall History of Sugar is also set in the 1950s, but in the country of Jamaica. Moishe has a disfigurement that makes it impossible to tell what race he is. Arrienne loves Moishe from childhood and vows to protect him from those who mean to hurt him. The novel follows their lives through the context of Jamaica's colonial legacy. Akashic Books publishes it.

5) Carol Anshaw's latest novel is Right After the Weather, examines the aftermath of a violent incident. When Cate comes upon her friend being assaulted in her own home, what happens next changes her, and other people's view of her, forever. Atria publishes this haunting novel.

6) Susan Isaacs is back with another sexy, funny mystery set in the suburbs of Long Island in Takes One To Know One. Corie Geller retired from the FBI at age 35, married a judge, and became an instant mom to his 14 year-old daughter. Life is serene until she begins to believe that someone in her weekly lunch group is acting suspiciously. Is Corie just bored or is she on to something? Read it to find out. Published by Atlantic Monthly Press.

7) Aarti Namdev Shahani's memoir, Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares, recounts Aarti's family move from India to Casablanca and finally to Queens, NY. Aarti becomes a scholarship student at an elite Manhattan school and her father becomes unintentionally involved with the Mexican Cali drug cartel. It's a relevant, fascinating immigrant story, published by Celadon Books.  

I Married You For Happiness by Lily Tuck

I Married You For Happiness by Lily Tuck
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press, ISBN 978-082119919
Hardcover, $24

Lily Tuck's I Married You For Happiness is a quiet, lovely look at the marriage of Nina and Phillip after Phillip dies unexpectedly. The writing is sparse, beautiful, sad and packs such a punch. The hardest parts to read are when Nina puts her hand in her husband's coat pocket after he dies and pulls out bills, a to-do list, tickets- all the stuff that accumulates with life, and when Nina realizes the little things that will change. Who will open her jewelry safe? Now she can throw away the rowing machine in the basement. No one will care if she brings the bottle of wine in the bedroom. Those little things just pierced my heart.

It is written in Nina's stream of consciousness, her memories coming out in dribs and drabs. The day their daughter was born and Phillip was stranded in Miami and missed the birth. Secrets about an expensive purse purchased, infidelity, an abortion, that he will now never know. She'll never know the entire truth about the girl killed in Phillip's car when he was in college.

Phillip was a mathematician and Nina an aspiring artist, two people who come from different mindsets, yet they made a life together in spite of their differences. They met in Paris and vacationed in France every year. You will get more from this novel if you read French, as both characters speak it occasionally. Phillip references mathematical theories that would more interesting to me if I understood them, but Nina doesn't either.

I think that anyone who has been married for many years will read this remembrance of a marriage and recognize themselves in Nina and Phillip. And one line that keeps coming back to me is "time is what prevents everything from happening at once."

Although this is a slim book, it will stay with me for a long while.

This is the second book I have read recently from Atlantic Monthly Press, the first being Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante, and I think that I will definitely have to look deeper at their catalog; they have great literary fiction that require the reader to think.

rating 4 of 5

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press ISBN 978-0802119773
Hardcover, $24

I wasn't sure that I would like Alice LaPlante's debut novel, Turn of Mind. The main character, Jennifer, is a middle-aged surgeon suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. When her neighbor and long-time best friend Amanda is brutally murdered, Jennifer is the main suspect.

I was concerned that the story would exploit the diagnosis of Alzheimer's as a convenient plot device for a standard murder mystery. It is very sad to see Alzheiemr's rob someone of herself, and I didn't know whether the author would be respectful of that or not. The situations that Jennifer runs into will be familiar to anyone who has a family member suffering from this debilitating disease.

The novel is told from the first-person point of view, like Lisa Genova's brilliant novel about a female researcher suffering from early onset Alzheimer's, Still Alice. That novel was one of my favorites in recent years, and while this book did not move me as much, the added angle of the murder mystery is expertly woven within the storyline of a character who may have committed a horrible crime, but doesn't remember.

Jennifer is not a warm woman; she spent most of her life building a career. She had two grown children: Mark, a son who has persistent money problems, and Fiona, a daughter who has spent the last twenty years looking for herself. Her husband James is dead.

Jennifer and Amanda had a complicated relationship. As the story unravels, we see that Amanda had a cruel streak, and Jennifer remembers things that Amanda did to purposefully hurt her. Is is possible that she really did kill Amanda and expertly sever her finger?

In order to keep things straight, Jennifer has been writing in a journal things that happen each day. When friends and family come to visit, they write in the book as well. When she gets confused, she can read the journal to see what she has forgotten. Jennifer's caretaker also urges her to write about the herself, to tell her own story.

A female detective has doubts that Jennifer is the murderer, but she is a good detective and will follow the case where the evidence leads. She is respectful of Jennifer and her illness, but dogged in her pursuit of justice. I liked her character.

Turn of Mind turns the murder mystery genre on its head. The story is told by a narrator made unreliable by Alzheimer's, a woman who can remember things from her past, but not whether she killed her best friend. If she didn't do it, who did? The conclusion to the mystery may be predictable, but not very satisfying.

This is a well-written novel, one that slowly weaves its story, and the fact that we only see the characters from Jennifer's point of view, adds to the mystery.

rating 4 of 5