Allison L. Recommends

Since I’m leaving BookPeople at the end of this week, I wanted to leave on a happy note, thinking about all the books I’m most looking forward to in the coming months. I hope everyone will be as excited about these as I am and rush to BookPeople to get them.

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (June 16, 2009)

Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s first novel to be translated into English, was a huge success throughout the country, but especially here at BookPeople. Most of our staff devoured Ruiz Zafon’s first Gothic-inspired Spanish triller and were terribly excited to get advanced readers of his newest novel, a prequel to Shadow of the Wind. To tell you exactly how The Angel’s Game fits into the Shadow of the Wind universe would be giving too much away, so let me just say this: you won’t be disappointed. The new book is darker, more atmospheric, more thrilling, and just as perfect for every bibliophile’s heart. Who wouldn’t love to go to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books?

The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens (August 4, 2009)

Rubens is a former writer for the Daily Show, and Colbert gave his book a glowing review. (If you don’t automatically want to read it, you and I will probably never be friends.) This is a must read for everyone who loved Douglas Adams in their youth, and is a great addition to the comedy-scifi genre. Yrnameer is the last planet in the galaxy that has not been corporately sponsored, and its inhabitants are in desperate need of someone who can fend off a gang of Really Bad Men who want their food. Cole is a space-rogue (think Zaphod Beeblebrox but with one head and no political power) who has been having a really, really bad day. Can he reform his criminal ways and become what Yrnameer needs? Packed with alien-monsters, freeze-dried orphans, really stupid robots, and space-zombies, this is a tremendously fun and surprisingly touching read.(Did someone say ‘perfect plane book?’)

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (August 11, 2009)

I loved this book. I wish it had been three times as long, or that there were six volumes to follow, that’s how much I want to read more of the universe Grossman created. The story picks up with high school senior Quentin Coldwater heading for his Harvard interview, only to find himself sitting at the entrance exam for a secret college of magic in upstate New York. The college is loosely based on Hogwarts (but more adult), and the magical trials that Quentin undertakes call on the magic from T.H. White, Tolkien, LeGuin, and other great authors of high fantasy. It all culminates with a trip to Fillory (based on Narnia), where we are reminded that we really, really don’t want to live inside the books we love. This is both an homage to and a send-up of the classics of the genre, and watching Grossman establish the “physics” of magic in his universe is fun all by itself. But The Magicians is also a heartbreaking novel about growing up, living up to your potential, and the way friendships form and fall apart. This is one that everyone who ever loved high fantasy should read. The ending left me wanting more (which could be a serious criticism), but I loved reading it so much, I can’t possibly be upset.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (September 29, 2009) –cover still to come–

Full disclosure: I am only 2/3 finished with this novel, but I love it. And I loved her previous novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife. If you haven’t read it, I beg (BEG) you to get a copy and dive in. It won’t take you a weekend because you won’t be able to put it down. (Besides, I think the movie is FINALLY coming out in August, and you have to read the book first.) I love Audrey Niffenegger for her ability to take a supernatural event (in the new book, ghosts) and make it normal, believable. She’s also a wonderful creator of characters–the people in her novels are round and complex, never easily summed up, and they always elicit an emotional response. Her Fearful Symmetry concerns nearly identical twins who move into their deceased aunt’s flat overlooking a London cemetery. But their aunt is not so far gone as they believe, and there is much more history than they know.

The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt (October 6, 2009)

It’s so difficult to know what to say about a 700 page novel about everything, but even though it’s only June, I feel comfortable telling you this will be my favorite book of the year. Random House is publicizing The Children’s Book as a story about Olive Wellwood, the ‘J.K. Rowling’ of her day, and Olive is a key player, but there are two dozen other key players, as well. Set at the turn of the century (that’s the turn of the 20th century) in England, it is less a single narrative and more a collection of (extremely detailed, beautiful, touching) interconnected character portraits spanning several families. Parents and children, artists and writers, socialists and capitalists, these characters represent every possible walk of life, and yet they are all looking for essentially the same thing: happiness. Perfection, even. Needless to say, the search for perfection, in art and in life, is nigh impossible. Seeing the trials and triumphs of these characters as the 19th century gives way to the 20^th is touching and heartbreaking, and I had to remind myself on several occasions that they were fictional. A.S. Byatt is a tremendously talented author (which is why she won the Booker in 1990), and what makes her especially fabulous is how much effort she puts into studying the subjects in her books. She became an expert on Victorian poetry for Possession (the 1990 Booker Winner), and for The Children’s Book she became an expert in turn-of-the century art and pottery. She has also captured perfectly the conflicting ideas of the day, not just about culture and economics, but about raising and entertaining children–a key theme, as referenced in the title. It’s impossible to come away from reading Byatt without feeling like you’ve just had a history lesson, but probably the most entertaining, enjoyable history lesson you’re ever likely to get. I don’t know what more I can say about this book except that I loved every second of it, was absorbed in every moment, every tangent, every character. Highly recommended for anglophiles, biblophiles, and anyone who has loved Edward Rutherfurd (who also has a new book–New York–out this fall).

The end of this year is going to be absolutely packed with amazing books from amazing authors, and there will be no shortage of things to read, but I hope these give you something to look forward to!

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