Now You

caywood library--

I don't know if you are like me and sometimes cast about for way too long looking for a good book. If you are experiencing this, look no further! We have some recommendations for you, especially if you don't need anything uplifting. Send us yours!


My Abandonment
Peter Rock
About a father and daughter living in Portland's Forest Park, until someone finds out, and then what happens. Beautifully written, poetic, heart-aching, and a different angle from which to consider homelessness. Loosely based on real events. Rock teaches at Reed College.

Castle
J. Robert Lennon
Mysterious, very precise, and pretty unfriendly guy returns to his hometown in Upstate NY. Why? It says a lot that I didn't even like the protagonist for the first 100 pages or so but kept reading. Read it so we can talk about it! Thanks, Amy for the recommendation. Lennon teaches at Cornell.

Last Breath: The Limits of Adventure
Peter Stark
Ever wonder what it would be like to die by drowning, heat stroke, mountain sickness, hypothermia and the like? Now you can (kind of) know! Stark intercuts these fictive tales with details about the physiological processes that accompany each event. Also, remind me not to go mountain climbing with 5 of my best friends.

Carnival Wolves
Peter Rock
A novel in short stories, with some overlapping characters and themes. Starts out right here in Ithaca, NY at Cornell's Johnson Museum. Who could resist? Warning: I found the first story especially upsetting. Come to think of it, so is the second. They all have that quality to them.

Do Not Deny Me
Jean Thompson
Thompson is said to be the American answer to Alice Munro. I read that on the flyleaf; I'd never heard of Thompson, but I love Alice, so the marketing worked. As you might have gathered from a previous post, I was really taken with the first story, about an aging academic treading through a familiar and riskless rut while surrounded by post-modern know-it-alls. Totally nailed the ridiculousness, irritations, and minor joys of academia. The other stories varied in their ability to make me believe, but not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

The Light of Falling Stars
J. Robert Lennon
Just started. Stay tuned.

Bonus:
Marcello and the Real World
Francisco X. Stork
Okay, this one is for "young adults" (that includes us, right?). I was captivated by the cover art, which I found absolutely beautiful and now I very young adultish-ly want a poster of it. It's about a boy with an unspecified condition on the Autism spectrum, and the summer he spends working at his hyper-successful father's law firm. I thought Stork got Marcello's voice just right. Very touching in many ways. I also like that the author works at an affordable housing nonprofit in real life.