Pat Taub
This year’s WOW summer book picks feature novelists who never fail to transport me, along with absorbing nonfiction selections on the climate crisis, racism, and mysticism.
FICTION
Oh William!
Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel is short enough to complete on a plane or train ride. It’s the compelling tale of Lucy Barton’s ex-husband, William. There are so many perfect descriptors in this slim book that I frequently looked away from the page to ponder a moving passage. The renowned British writer, Hillary Mantel, describes Strout as having “perfect attunement to the human condition.”
Elizabeth Strout grew up in Maine and now divides her time between her Manhattan apt and her Maine country home
LaRosa
A Louise Erdrich masterpiece that follows two Native American neighbors as they struggle to deal with the accidental killing of one of their young children. Their solution is unexpected. I was left with a deep appreciation for the many ways Native American spiritual beliefs inform their daily lives.
Louise Edrich, in her Minneapolis bookstore, “Birchbark Books,” which features Native American works
Anil’s Ghost
Michael Ondaatje, the celebrated author of “The English Patient,” has written a thriller centered around Anil Tissera, a young woman born in Sri Lanka and educated in England and America, who returns to her homeland as a forensic anthropologist to discover the source of the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island. The government corruption stymieing Anil’s work is eerily prescient following Sri Lanka’s recent protesters, who rebelling against a corrupt government, stormed the Presidential Palace, forcing the President to flee the country.
The Green Road
Acclaimed Irish writer, Anne Enright, tells the story of an Irish family, whose four adult children travel to the family home on the Irish coast to spend Christmas with their difficult widowed mother. Everyone struggles to put on a good face, but old wounds and unhappy memories intrude. Enright, in the Irish writing tradition, excels in capturing a sense of place.
American Dirt
A book worm friend gifted me with this amazing story by Jeanine Cummins. The plot revolves around Acapulco residents, Lydia and her 8-year-old son, Lucas, who are forced to run for their lives after their entire family is murdered by a drug cartel in revenge for the investigative reporting of the cartel by Lydia’s journalist husband. Lydia’s story offers the reader a realistic, horrifying account of what it’s like to migrate from Mexico to the US.
The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg
I like to have at least one fat book on my nightstand that I can read in increments. Eisenberg’s collection, at 1,000 pages, fills the bill. To date, I have read about a third of the stories, often set in Manhattan with characters, young and old, struggling to make sense of their relationships. Eisenberg’s complex stories never disappoint.
NON-FICTION
The Nutmeg’s Curse
Amitav Ghosh traces our climate crisis to the discovery of the nutmeg. Ghosh describes how 16th century Dutch traders exploited the Banda Islands for nutmeg, ordering mass killings of locals who protested, while destroying their homes and land. This extermination of native people and lands laid the groundwork for our current indifference to Mother Earth, where she’s regarded as nothing more than a resource to be milked for profit.
A companion piece to “The Nutmeg’s Curse,” is Raoul Peck’s riveting HBO documentary series, “Exterminate All the Brutes,” (The title is taken from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.”) Peck’s series highlights the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism, from America to Africa, and its lingering impact on contemporary society.
Wild Mercy
This beautiful book by Mirabai Starr answers the call for the Sacred Feminine to play a larger role in our society. Starr traces the history of female mystics, writing about early historical figures like Hildegard Von Bingen, Hindu goddess, and Sufi and contemporary mystics, while describing her own spiritual evolution. The perfect read for any woman wanting to learn more about women mystics and to expand her feminine spiritual practices.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
A friend, who faithfully steers me to important reads, insisted that I read “The 1619 Project.” It was originally published in August, 2019 in a Sunday supplement to The New York Times. The book has been expanded to include seven new essays. This absorbing 900-page tome, which I’m hoping to complete by Labor Day, lays out an historical perspective for understanding the persistence of Black-White racism in 2022.
HERE’S TO YOUR READING ADVENTURES!
