Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” Mason Cooley (1927-2002)
Although decades old, Cooley’s aphorism seems especially relevant during this time of sheltering in place. The occasion’s ripe to renew our interest in books or, if we’re already avid readers, to devote more hours in a day to the wonderful pastime of reading. Books help us to overcome isolation and boredom, expand our horizons beyond the confines of our homes, and stimulate our minds. We leave behind our wired worlds, not to mention the dreary news of the day. Nothing’s more satisfying than diving into a book that keeps us engrossed to the last page — when we’re sorry to say goodbye to the characters.
Each year on April 23, international celebrations occur to recognize the scope of books. Each year also on this date, Sunset Years recommends titles for your reading pleasure.
FICTION
On my fictional journeys I visited three continents — North America, South America and Europe — and became acquainted with characters richly varied in age, culture and temperament.
- In the Midst of Winter (2017) is a beautifully told story about three different people fortuitously coming together in Brooklyn. While developing their unlikely relationships, Isabel Allende explores the issues of human rights and the plight of immigrants and refugees.
- French Exit (2018) by Patrick deWitt. In this tragicomic novel, an eccentric mother and her neglected son go on a geographic, also emotional, journey from New York to Paris. Their various capers and encounters with oddballs are amusing, though sadness lingers alongside.
- In his trilogy — Plainsong (1999), Eventide (2004) and Benediction (2013) — Kent Haruf (1943-2014) creates a detailed portrait of a town in Colorado whose inhabitants reveal the repressive conventionality of small-town America. Setting also serves as a main character in these compassionate studies of ordinary life that, regrettably, have come to an end.
- A Separation (2017) by Katie Kitamura. A young English woman embarks on a quest for her estranged husband, who’s gone missing in Greece.
- The Editor (2019) by Steven Rowley. A struggling writer in New York City unexpectedly sells his novel to an editor at a major publishing house: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Through their work together on his manuscript and their resulting friendship, Jackie forces James to confront the truth of his broken relationship with his mother.
MYSTERY
- Fool Me Once (2016) fools the reader numerous times with its unpredictable twists and turns. American writer Harlan Coben never fails to put you on the edge of your reading chair.
- The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins bears the familiar weightiness — length of 500 pages, meticulous analyses of characters, direct addresses to the reader, damsels in distress, a taut plot — of 19th century writing. It’s refreshing to revisit the period. I will soon read another of his novels, “The Moonstone”, regarded as the first modern English detective novel.
- The Late Show (2018) by Michael Connelly introduces Renée Ballard, an ambitious detective working the undesirable night shift as punishment for charging her supervisor with sexual harassment. She recurs in other novels, working with Harry Bosch on cases set in Los Angeles. While any mystery by Connelly makes for riveting reading, I’m partial to those featuring Mickey Haller, a.k.a. Matthew McConaughey.
- Death at La Fenice (1992) by Donna Leon. It’s a sizable project to read all of Leon’s mysteries featuring Guido Brunetti, a commissario (detective superintendent) in the Italian State Police, stationed in Venice. I’ve read four of 29. My fondness for Brunetti and the allure of Venice will see me through them — in ? years.
- Gallows View (1987) is the first of 26 Inspector Banks books by Peter Robinson, of which I’ve read nine. Along with solving murders, Banks frequently talks about music: his preferred composers, usually but not always classical, their pieces, their effects on his mood. We attend Music Appreciation 101, as well as detective school, when following Banks crack crimes in Yorkshire, England.
NONFICTION
- Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War (2019) by S. C. Gwynne. Abraham Lincoln is revered as a President, but in the summer of 1864 few influential people believed he’d be reelected. One powerful editor derided him as a “joke incarnated”, his election “a very sorry joke.” The word ‘miscegenation’ entered the language during Lincoln’s campaign, as the media ridiculed him for his anti-slavery stance. Gwynne exposes these facts and more in his book about a year that shaped the U.S., then and now.
- Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis (2018) by Patti Callahan Henry. An epistolary friendship leads to an intense love story between an American poet/writer and a well known Oxford don.
Please add your recommendations in the comments below as I will take note of books to read in the next year. My favourites recommended by readers in last year’s post include Dinner with Edward: The Story of a Remarkable Friendship, The Alice Network, The People’s Train, The Hired Man and The City of Falling Angels. •
Linda says
Sorry I have nothing to recommend but it is obvious you have spent many hours on your passion. Thanks Pam. Take care and be safe.
Glen Wickens says
For those of you who want to explore the realm of ideas try these two recent books by Stanley Fish, both with titles long enough to indicate their subject matter: Winning Arguments: What Works and Doesn’t Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the Courtroom, and the Classroom; and The First:: How to Think about Hate Speech, Campus Speech, Religious Speech, Fake News, Post-Truth, and Donald Trump.
Pam McPhail says
May I say your books are “too intellectual” for my reading enjoyment these days.😉
Ken McLean says
I recall my exposure to Stanley Fish very well. I was in my final year as an undergrad at Waterloo Lutheran ( now Wilfrid Laurier and wrote my paper for 17 th century on Paradise Lost. I came upon a recent acquisition in the library, Fish’s “Surprised By Sin” and was blown away by it. I took off with his approach in the essay, and the prof, who had not seen the book, was very pleased.
Ian M Wallace says
Great selection, Pam! To add to the pile, here are a few books I have enjoyed during the pandemic. It’s a great time for reading!
From China. This one is for young adults but older people will like it too.
Jiang, Ji-Li. Red Scarf Girl: a memoir of the cultural revolution
From Russia. The author won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature. Non-fiction. Interviews with dozens of women who talk about their experiences in WWII.
Alexievich, Svetlana. The Unwomanly Face of War
From the USA. It’s a novel set in Russia in WWII.
Benioff, David. City of Thieves
From the UK. Gripping, with most of the action taking place in the Philippines in the very first years of the past century.
Boyd, Wm. The Blue Afternoon
From Iceland. A crime saga, in Reykjavik and elsewhere in Iceland.
Indridason, A. Jar City
My current book: Tara Westover. Educated. A girl living far off the grid charts her path. Very good so far!
Pam McPhail says
Ian, From your list I read, and liked, William Boyd’s “Restless”, and “Educated” made it onto my list of recommendations last year. “Jar City” is adapted as a TV series on Amazon Prime. I’ll check it out as well as the novel. Thanks for adding new authors to my TBR (to be read) list.
Ken McLean says
Hi Pam:
Thanks very much for giving your recommendations. After cogitating for some time, I’m finally ready to give my suggestions.
Fiction
1) The Forsyte Saga. This trilogy, consisting of “The Man of Property” (1906), “In Chancery” (1920) and “To Let” (1921) by the Nobel prize winning British writer John Galsworthy presents a far reaching portrait of family dynamics and capitalism at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. He has read “Dombey and Son”. Made into a successful tv series, starring Damien Lewis.
2)The Comedians( 1966) by Graham Greene. I have recently read 8 of his novels, all enjoyable and quite different from each other- and short. This one is set in Haiti in the Papa Doc Duval era, the comedians being 3 outsiders, quite different from each other.
3)The Black Prince(1973) by Iris Murdoch. I’ve read 25 of her 26 novels and am waiting for the 26th (The Message to the Planet) to become available as an ebook. “The Black Prince” presents rivalry between two writers and offers some interesting structural features. Murdoch is a very intelligent and reflective writer.
4) Milkman ( (2018) by Annie Burns. An imaginative and at times challenging presentation of the Troubles. Winner of the Booker and the National Book Circle Critics’ Award.
5)Machines Like Me (2019) by Ian McEwan. A very McEwanesque take on the humanoids, with a robot prone to philosophical reflection.
Marie suggested I add the following two:
1) Straying (2018) by Molly McCloskey. A philosophical take on infidelity , set in Ireland.
2) The Innocents (2019) and Sweetland (2014) by Michael Crummey. Lyrically written takes on outport life in Newfoundland. The first deals with a brother and sister left alone on an island and the second with an outport which the provincial government is clearing.
Mysteries
There are certainly a large number of mystery writers currently at work. Recently I read some Hammett, Chandler and Christie to revisit the roots of this genre. Wilkie Collins is of course earlier very rewarding writer. My 5 recent suggestions:
1) Destroyer Angel (2014) by Nevada Barr. This is my favourite of her 19 Anna Pigeon series. What makes them particularly interesting is that each is set in a different American National Park. Barr was a Park ranger for many years.
2)A Dark-adapted Eye (1986) and A Fatal Inversion (1987) by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) . I find the standalone novels Rendell wrote under this name very rewarding. They focus on the psychological not the forensic or investigative.
3)The Magpie Murders (2014) by Anthony Horowitz. A fascinating interrogation of the genre.
4)The Body in The Marsh (2017) and the other 3 DCI Gillard novels by Nick Louth. Excellent examples in the police investigation mode.
5)The Turn of the Key (2019) by Ruth Ware. Compelling recent take on “The Turn of the Screw” situation.
Marie suggests one more:” The Closer I Get” (2019) by Paul Burston. A twisty cat and mouse account of a male writer stalked by a female fan.
Pam McPhail says
You’re filling my bookcase, Ken, with your and Marie’s enticing choices. I will embark first on Galsworthy’s trilogy — for sustained reading. Do you recommend the TV series as well?
Ken McLean says
Yes, the series is good; Damien does play his role quite stiffly, presumably deliberately. I’m not entirely sure it’s the right choice, but overall worth watching.
Speaking of tv series, I assume you’ve seen the excellent DCI Banks series. I’ve not read any of the novels as yet. We’ve also seen and greatly enjoyed the Bosch series on Amazon; in my view the best American police show. We’ve heard a couple of the books while driving.
I believe you mentioned Donna Leon earlier. I read and enjoyed “Death in la Fenice.”
Pam McPhail says
We’ve not seen DCI Banks as the series is not offered on a streaming service. And I’m not ready to have a concrete image of him imposed in my mind by an actor. Just this past week we signed up for Prime and started watching “Bosch”. Not the best casting of the main character, but we’re overlooking his shortcomings to appreciate the plots, secondary characters, setting and so on. We’re one episode shy of finishing season 1 and will happily watch the next 5.
Brandon says
I like the Cooley quote.
Pam McPhail says
Yeah. An apt one for any occasion but especially fitting during the lockdown of COVID-19.
Tracy Ware says
My best discovery last year was Kate Atkinson, who writes both mysteries and general fiction. Her first mystery, “Case Histories,” may be her best. She uses the same character, Jackson Brodie, in other mysteries, and he provides a vividly ironic perspective. I liked “One Good Turn” best of the sequels. Currently I am enjoying “One Canada,” the memoirs of John Diefenbaker. He may have had help with the writing, but the perspective could only be his.
Pam McPhail says
You mention Kate Atkinson writes both fiction and mysteries. I remember being captivated by her first book, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum” (1995), and have read most others since. She always comes up with enticing titles.
I will read “One Canada” as Dief the Chief is a very colourful Canadian. Peter Newman trashes the man in “Renegade in Power” (1963), while the Diefenbaker Canada Centre in Saskatoon lauds him. I’m interested in his own words.
Ken McLean says
Marie and I are also fans of Jackson Brodie. There was an excellent tv dramatization of the books a while back too. I admit, though, that I was quite disappointed in the most recent Case History volume, “Big Sky”. It seemed to me the plot was seriously lacking focus.