A lot of people ask me for book recommendations. My taste is very idiosyncratic, but here you go.
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. This book is getting a LOT of well-deserved attention. It's so popular that I probably don't even have to tell you about it at all, but I definitely recommend this page-turner historical novel about the parallel worlds of privileged white women and their black maids in Mississippi during the civil rights movement.
Consenting Adult, by Laura Z. Hobson. This is a fascinating window into social and personal change. The novel is set at the time when homosexuality was just starting to be a topic of public discussion in the U.S. and psychiatrists were debating whether it should be un-classified as a mental illness. The story is told from the point of view of a mother, socially progressive and introspective, whose teenage son comes out to her. Hobson openly admits in her memoirs that she relies almost completely on her own life for the topics of her fiction, and this novel painstakingly and honestly documents the way that people struggle to come to terms with things that change them forever. It's a little hard to get into at first because it seems so dated, but it's really a rewarding book.
Triangle, by Katharine Weber. I found this on a "staff picks" shelf at the public library and remembered reading reviews of it a few years ago. The topic is very memorable - the plot revolves around the reconstructed memories of a survivor of the Triangle fire. There is a long-held secret, a historian who is trying to work out the truth, and sympathetic and textured portraits of a granddaughter and her husband who are the only remaining family. Definitely worth reading, with two caveats. First, you may guess the secret much too soon, as I did. Second, the historian character, who is meant to be annoying, is not as well written as the others - maybe the author had a personal vendetta against someone like her!
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte. I had never read this before. A fine moralistic Victorian read, including mysterious pasts, rakish drunken villains, repentance and reconciliation. Interesting genre-mixing of first person epistolary and journal writing. As predicted, I was inspired by my first book of the summer, the Sheila Kohler novel about Charlotte, to read more of the Brontes' novels.
Untold Millions, by Laura Z. Hobson. This rather old-fashioned, very readable novel is set in the 1920s world of advertising and copywriters. It was published in 1982 but I wonder if the author had written much or all of it earlier in her life, since it reads like something written in the 40s, at least to me. If you are one of the people who loves the Mad Men TV series, you will recognize some of the same themes/motifs although the time period is earlier. The novel focuses on the love affair between a young woman and a married man whose wife is living overseas. Hobson was a very progressive novelist/essayist/commentator who is not very well known anymore but well worth exploring. Now I want to read more about her. I have read several other of her novels: Gentleman's Agreement is her best known, probably, but Tenth Month is also a really good read.
This Body of Death, by Elizabeth George. I used to be completely addicted to mystery novels, and I had to give them up since they consumed months of my time. I kept only this one author. I love her characters. They develop so slowly over the course of the novels - you know them, and they are somewhat predictable because you know them, but you never know quite how she will take them to their next place. The plots are intricate and include good social commentary. Satisfyingly big long fat novels.
One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell. This is the Sex and the City author. Fun gossipy story, interesting characters - particularly the women. Not very flattering to either gender, some satisfying plot twists, art theft subplot, one subtly shocking "accident" - this was a terrific choice of audio book for a long car trip!
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, by Elyn R. Saks. An amazing, moving, and educational memoir of a woman who has schizophrenia and has been able to build a successful life with the help of medication and therapy. She has a career as a law professor and has published extensively on the law and mental illness, and she is married. I could not put this book down - I read it in two days.
Becoming Jane Eyre, by Sheila Kohler - my first book of summer reading, very good. It's fiction but clearly based on a lot of research on the Brontes. Don't read it unless you are willing to be tempted to go check a bunch of Bronte novels out of the library! Just in case you don't know, Charlotte's real masterpiece, Villette, is even better than Jane Eyre - which is saying a lot.
