2009

Previous Book Picks here

An optimistic, uplifting debut novel set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, MS, where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this book is the talk of book clubs everywhere.

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Beautifully written and heart wrenching. The story of five generations of women, living in the present and learning for the past, beginning with a British Suffragette and moving through modern British history. Great blend of fiction and history. Also for Anglophiles, Almost Home by Pam Jenoff. A diplomatic thriller set in England, recalling the 1990’s geopolitical landscape and academic life at Cambridge.

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This one’s for Julie and her Satellite Sisters from Smith. Their story, 30 years later! Introducing feminist chick lit in the form of first-time novelist Sullivan’s diverting parody of life at Smith College. The book follows four Smith girls from the instant bonding at college to their post-collegial life. Sullivan’s debut crackles with intelligent observations about the inner sanctum of the all-women’s elite (yet scholarship-laden) college life.

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A non-fiction account of an enduring friendship of midwestern women. Meet the Ames Girls: eleven childhood friends who formed a special bond growing up in Ames, Iowa. As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet managed to maintain an enduring friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce, a child’s illness and the mysterious death of one member of their group. Capturing their remarkable story, The Girls from Ames is a testament to the deep bonds of women as they experience life’s joys and challenges -- and the power of friendship to triumph over heartbreak and unexpected tragedy.

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We are big fans, of Lisa See’s phenomenal bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love. Her latest is about sisters, so count us in! The Shanghai Girls are two sisters who leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles. A novel about two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to find a new life in America while bound to the old, Shanghai Girls is a fresh, fascinating adventure from beloved and best selling author Lisa See.

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Ghosts rock! At its core, The Little Stranger is an old-fashioned ghost story, complete with spooky house, eccentric inhabitants, an air of general madness and malcontent, and a narrator who may not be as mild-mannered as he seems. What elevates this novel from the crowded genre is Waters’ ability to evoke the subtleties of the past as she skillfully weaves tension and dread into each paragraph.

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This year’s Netherland (Did we call that last year? Yes we did) This brief novel seems modest at first but the quality of the writing will blow you away. A diligent young woman with few opportunities in nineteen-fifties Ireland is packed off by her family to Brooklyn, where she works in a department store, goes to church and night school, and acquires a boyfriend, before a family crisis presents her with a stark choice between her new life and her old one. Purging the immigrant novel of all swagger and sentimentality, Tóibín leaves us with a renewed understanding that to emigrate is to become a foreigner in two places at once.

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Yes, It won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. And, yes, Oprah loved it. But that doesn't’t mean we can’t put this gem on our list! Because we loved it, too. A collection of 13 interlinked stories set on a town on the Maine coast. Perfect for a rainy Maine vacation!

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Lian’s writing teacher is the author of this terrific novel. Think of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, except with witches! Bringin’ back witches! No one escapes suspicion when a famine afflicts a medieval German village. When elderly Gude Muller begins to experience blackouts and confusing visions, her daughter-in-law Irmeltrude seizes the opportunity to rid herself of the burden of her husband's mother. In an ironic twist, the villagers turn not only on Gude but on Irmeltrude as well. In searingly simple prose, Mailman probes the human psyche, peeling back the layers of the basest human instincts to expose the dangerous frailties of the human soul. Also by this author, A Woman of Ill Repute.

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