Read it right now: Truevine, and other new nonfiction

This week is all about the brand new stuff that readers and critics are loving.

Truevine
by Beth Macy

In 1899, young albino African American brothers, George and Willie Muse, were taken from the tobacco fields near Roanoke where they worked and made to join the circus as freaks. Convinced their mother was dead they spent decades traveling the world as a popular sideshow attraction: Eko and Iko, the sheep-headed cannibals or Ambassadors from Mars. That, and their mother's fierce fight to get them back, make for an incredible story. Keen and well-researched, Truevine is a fascinating and compelling read.

It looks like Paramount and Leonardo DiCaprio might be trying to acquire the rights to put this story to film. Hmm, I wonder how it will translate to the screen without sensationalizing the Muse brothers' story.

At The Existentialist Cafe
Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
By Sarah Bakewell

Did your New Year's resolution have anything to do with reading more about philosophy? Really? Well, good! You'll love this book then. It's the lively life story of existentialism, starring Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, who was (sort of) inspired by apricot cocktails. Just give it a chance? It's getting rave reviews!

You Can't Touch My Hair
And other things I still have to explain
by Phoebe Robinson

Phoebe Robinson, super funny stand-up comedian, host of the Sooo Many White Guys podcast and co-host of 2 Dope Queens, has written this fantastic collection of essays on race, gender and culture in America.

Did I mention she's super funny?

Me, always.

Born a Crime
by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah, South African comedian and host of The Daily Show, is seriously insightful and funny. This is one of those laugh and cry, cry and laugh kinds of books. Born to a white Swiss father and black Xhosa mother in apartheid South Africa, he spent much of his childhood hidden away indoors as living proof of their crime. Born a Crime is deeply moving and the audiobook happens to be narrated by none other than Trevor Noah himself--well worth a listen.

...And top it off with a slice of Damn Fine Cherry Pie!

The final episode of Twin Peaks aired 26 years ago but it refuses to go away--and that's just fine by me.

(Ok, I don't know if anyone is raving about this but I'm always looking for any chance to throw in a Log Lady gif.) This unauthorized cookbook has all you need to prepare damn fine pie, damn fine coffee (and FYI, David Lynch has his own line of coffee and it is legit), and host your own (damn) Log Lady tea party. #goals

Brand new books we would binge-watch if they were streaming shows

How about this one: Readalikes for TV watchers?

Why not?

Maria Semple's laugh-out-loud Seattle stories, the 2012 epistolary Where'd You Go, Bernadette and her latest (also sort of an epistolary), Today Will Be Different, could easily translate into a series full of quirky, likable but totally unrelatable characters delivering droll zinger after droll zinger. I could see fans of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt diving into a weekend of uninterrupted viewing, with candy (and snark) for dinner. Until it gets optioned for two seasons on Netflix, check it out at the library! I did read it mostly in one sitting--so technically I binge-read it.

Jonathan Safran Foer's latest novel, naughty parts and all, would translate PERFECTLY to the small screen. For readers I highly recommend the audiobook version over the text--the text is great but the audiobook narrator totally nails Foer's jokes with serious comedic skill. I could not stop listening to this while completing a seemingly never-ending bookshelf building project on my porch even though, out of context, the aforementioned naughty bits would be pretty blush-inducing if overheard by my neighbors. This is a story of a family in crisis and everything that came before and will be after, paralleled by a disaster in the middle east after a massive earthquake hits Israel. Not convinced? Give it 100 pages. Fans of Arrested Development will want lock the doors and turn off their phones until this is over.

Hard Candy and a BIG Apple

In a fit of new-book-smell induced panic I decided to take on these two very different New York City novels at once: First, the pure candy that is Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, and then the gigantic, satisfying, 900+ page City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. Delicious, both.

When Meghan Abbott mentions Gillian Flynn on your jacket copy you have officially arrived at cool-girl-table-adjacent. Luckiest Girl Alive, a novel of tooth and nail deception and social climbing into New York society will appeal to fans of (naturally) Meghan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, and the rest of the table. This makes for good tawdry listening while tidying up and doing other unglamorous activities. I recommend getting the audiobook.

Readers will also enjoy Confessions by Kanae Minato, A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison, and Disclaimer by Renee Knight. Hopefully this little jawbreaker didn't spoil your appetite for City on Fire.

City on Fire is set in New York City in the 70s and part epistolary, with snippets of letters, interviews, and zines, so already  it's well on its way to my "all time favorite books list". Hallberg is a magician with words--there is a passage on page 53 in which he describes the "audible fizz" one hears when the potential for a moment is irretrievably lost. I had to go back and re-read it, twice. Multiple narratives in authentic voices from wealthy heiresses and young gay men, to cops and cultish punk squatters converge over the "muchness", as Hallberg puts it, of New York, in his debut novel revolving around an unsolved shooting and the terrifying blackout in July of 1977.

This book is huge, both in terms of size and the $2 million price paid to publish it. It is THE book of fall.

What's new in Selfie-help: 6 guides to better living

You know about Pinterest, right? It's the social bookmarking site with visual appeal that is so popular with people planning weddings, DIYers, and those on the never-ending quest for self improvement. Pinterest is basically just one giant crowdsourced self help book, and you know self help is already big business. Take The Life Changing Habit of Tidying Up for instance. That HUGELY popular little book with a simple premise (spoiler alert): get rid of stuff and organize what's left, is making the rounds at the library and on blogs and Facebook and probably Pinterest too.

So here's a DIY Pinterest hack from us to you: Selfie-help. You write your own self help book using Pinterest. All of your chapters are there already laid out as pinboards. You've got crafts, exercises, recipes, home improvement, life changing cleaning hacks, affirming and motivational phrases superimposed upon pleasingly filtered photos of sunsets over water...

Once you get tired of hunching over your laptop, pinning all the crafts, stretch your legs and head over to the library to begin practicing the art of better living through upcycling, organizing, cooking, and positive thinking with these picks fresh off the new books shelf. (But we think you're fine just the way you are.)

Right Size...Right Now!

Regina Leeds wants to help make your impending move not only less stressful, but STRESS-FREE as the cover text emphatically states, through an 8-week plan to organize and declutter. I can suggest right off the top without even opening this book that step one is "Check this book out at your local public library unless you want to pack and move another !@#$% book (why do you have so many books?)!" Along with helpful step-by-step guidance and many different checklists, Leeds also includes a weekly "self care tip" to keep your gears turning smoothly as you process your life and reduce your trappings, an emotionally and physically demanding process for many. So don't pack your yoga mat or smoothie blender just yet! Personally, my approach to moving has always been the "Hefty Method". If you guessed that this involves shoving my entire life into garbage bags, you would be correct. Whatever wouldn't fit in my college hatchback was already prepped for the curb!

Ahem.

Right Size...Right Now! is great for folks too long on the waiting list for The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, especially those confronted with a tower of stuff, stuff, and more stuff, to pack and move in 8 weeks or less.

The Little Spark: 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity

Don't buy it, make it. But do you feel like you lack the creativity to be part of the DIY revolution currently underway? Are you the only one on your block without a creative hobby? Do you spend hours Pinning crafts onto boards with names like "Maybe Someday!" or "If I ever find the time..." or "Maybe if I spent less time on Pinterest and more time with my glue gun I could make some of these projects"? Do you need an instructional, step-by-step, how-to, illustrated nudge to ignite your creative spark? Then this is definitely the book for you. It's like pre-crafting, with "30 ways to cultivate a creative life and fill your days with a passion for living" you're sure to come away from this book with at least one or two projects started. Feel the rush of inspiration as you "Break your own rules" (Spark # 10). Perhaps you always buy the same vegetables; try buying an eggplant if this is  unusual behavior for you, then look up a recipe on Pinterest for eggplant. The Little Spark begins with attacking your clutter too, so get ready to purge. Getting organized and clearing out your space will give your inspiration room to flourish so you can create...stuff? Well, you can sort all that out later.
.

Clean Slate: a Cookbook and Guide

Your body is cluttered too and that is holding you back. What is it cluttered with? The filthy toxic remnants of your terrible diet. (It's ok, me too.) Wipe your Taco Bell sullied palms on your pants before you pick up this book, then wipe your slate clean with help from the editors of Martha Stewart Living. It isn't enough to feel ok, or even well; one needs to feel their best, if such a thing is possible. How do you know what your best is? You don't. That, my friends, is the purifying Sisyphean struggle of self-actualization: better living through better living. On the surface, Clean Slate is capitalizing on the "detox" trend, but inside a Pinteresting package of attractive grapefruit arrangement and bourgeois "ancient" grains (what grain isn't ancient?) is a simple cookbook. The recipes are mercifully unfussy, the steps are few, and some of the more esoteric ingredients could easily be substituted by more abundant, and equally "clean", farmer's market finds. The emphasis is on fresh, natural, whole foods, and meals centered on vegetables and whole grains, lean meats, and variety. Special diet compatible attributes such as gluten-free, nut-free, meat-free are clearly indicated below the pictures, and there is a picture to accompany every recipe. These are simple, colorful, light dishes that seem easy to prepare, even for cooks like me. A few look to be influenced more by photogeneity than edibility but Instagram is ruining eating by turning every diner into an amateur food photographer so you can expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. You want the truth? Salad photos look less gross than burger photos, and your body probably agrees. #realtalk

Homemakers

This "domestic handbook for the digital generation" offers "1,000+ creative ideas for the home". Holy cow. That's a lot of ideas. The book cover looks like the Ikea catalog, and Brit Morin is sort of a hybrid of Hello Kitty and Martha Stewart, but with a (rainbow) sprinkling of Emily Post meets Sheryl Sandberg. Homemakers takes the "Maker" movement and applies it to acts of domesticity, so the title is to be read both ways: Homemakers and Home (space) Makers. In the dining room chapter, Morin has 3D printed napkin rings on a page facing origami napkin folding techniques, followed up by table setting tips and towel "hacks", several pages devoted to gadgets and apps related to entertaining in the home, and finally, the crafts. She's got all the hair and nail trends you need, plus duct tape organizers, egg recipes, lots of contact paper ideas, and plenty of visual charts. This book is about celebrating creativity, balancing the digital and analog, and being happy at home. If you read this and thought "Gosh, that sure sounds like the print version of Pinterest" you and I think a lot alike. She has one suitcase packing hack in there that is straight off my "D-I-Why didn't I think of that?!" pinboard (see what I did there?): Pack your dirty shoes in a shower cap! Brill. Of course she packs her cute glitter shoes in a cute polka dotted shower cap and it looks really cute in her cute vintage suitcase.

cute.

Oh Joy!

I am physically incapable of saying "Oh Joy" without sarcasm. Come to think of it, I struggle to breathe without sarcasm. I think there's probably a chapter in one of these books that will address that problem. Oh Joy! is bubbling over with bright and precious whimsical decorating ideas and earnest glittery glee. The book boasts "60 ways to create and give joy", many of which also involve contact paper. I had no idea there were so many colors and varieties of contact paper. Apparently contact paper is the new washi tape which was the duct tape of 2013. Adhesives are kind of having a moment. (Note: you're gonna need to get some contact paper in cheerful colors.) She also has washi tape crafts in case you have some of that hanging around still. Sprinkled among the crafts and decorating ideas you'll find suggestions for ways to create joy in your own life. "Visit fun and inspiring places" like candy shops, "look upside down" at things like ice cream, and "group things in clusters", things like tiny umbrellas on a cake. This books proudly declares that glitter really is forever and that is just swell.

Oh, joy, a card full of glitter. You shouldn't have.

Sustainable Happiness: Live Simply, Live Well, Make a Difference

The staff of Yes! Magazine are really excited about exploring real happiness for you. Real happiness, happiness that one can sustain for long periods, even through those times when you favorite show ends (remember how you felt when The Wire concluded?), comes from making the world a better place for everybody. This collection of short essays doles out some practical and some philosophical advice for ways to improve your existence, moving yourself in the direction of "real" happiness. Meditate on topics such as greeting strangers, meeting your neighbors, buying less and unplugging more, and see just how easy it is to make small changes that can lead to big differences. This is another book that suggests buying less and we couldn't agree more! Check this book out at the library. We bought this one already so you don't have to.

How Do You Do, Newbie?: What's new in debuts!

Having just reached my goal of reading 100 books this year I can safely say that I've read a whole lot of books this year. When one (one being me) is maintaining an endlessly growing list of things, it makes sense to break that long list down into meaningful categories--categories such as "WOW!!!", "Really Great!", "Meh", "books by women", or "Debut Novels". I'm SO not sharing my Best of 2014 list yet, sorry. You're going to have to wait for the RPL Blog Best of the Best of 2014 post (TBA). Until then you can whet your appetite with the big best of lists over at Slate, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Millions Year in Reading, NPR, etc. (I will slip in how happy I am to see Dept. of Speculation on so many "best" lists). Feel free to ask for book recommendations in the comments! Go ahead and try to stump us. We will blind you with library science.

I will, however, share with you the highlights of my list of debuts. If you happen to be a compulsive fiction junkie like me you know that a first book by a young new author is super thrilling uncharted reading territory, and you feel a little like Lewis and Clark, but without having to pack a bag. Jacket reviews use phrases like "searing debut" or "shattering debut" or "darkly riveting debut novel", always somehow working "debut" into the first line of the description, evidently as a selling point, but perhaps also as a subtle disclaimer. So, hopefully without repeating past or future reviews on this blog, the following are the Really Good!, the Pretty OK!, and the Better Luck Next Time! of 2014 debuts in fiction (that I read).

First, the Really Good! news:

The Transcriptionist
Amy Rowland

OK, I know I'm already repeating myself here since I briefly declared this book a totally awesome debut somewhere else on this blog. Goodreads proclaims it a "powerful debut", and it IS powerful! Rowland brings up a lot in a compact space: ethics in journalism and the decline of newspapers, language and technology, existential stuff, alienation, and a gruesome death under bizarre circumstances. The protagonist, Lena, is a loyal lone transcriptionist, a woman in a nearly extinct occupation within a struggling industry. She is shocked to find out that a blind woman she talked to on the bus just a few days earlier has met a terrible end after climbing into a lion's cage at the zoo. As Lena begins a search for the truth she uncovers much more, threatening the reputation of the paper and her own future. I am anxiously awaiting Amy Rowland's next book.

Cutting Teeth
Julia Fierro

I liked this so much more than the other folks on Goodreads. What can I say? I like a good mean girl and this book is full of 'em. A cast of privileged young parents and their children embark on a weekend playdate at the shore that starts messy and gets messier. If you like Meg Wolitzer, Tom Perotta, Megan Abbott, and Susan Coll you'll be on the lookout for what's next from Julia Fierro.

In brief but also firmly in the Really Good! sub-category are Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob, Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson, and Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (more on these coming soon). For now I will just say "total swoon". Also The Bees (Laline Paull), The Girl in the Road (Monica Byrne), Wolf in White Van (John Darnielle), were already mentioned at their respective links, and are all outstanding debuts worth your while.

Now for the Pretty OK!:

Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky
David Connerly Nahm

Told in non-linear, stream of consciousness prose, this exhausting petite debut clocks in at around 225 pages and I gotta say it took me a while to finish it. The author really gets Central Kentucky (he's from there), and crafts a compelling, though somewhat obfuscating, narrative using small town Kentucky as an effective backdrop for a story about a troubled woman operating a non-profit while dealing with resurfacing memories of her brother's disappearance when they were children. The giant Sense of Place sledgehammer employed so often in Appalachian and Appalachian-adjacent literature can get a little tiresome (see Silas House) and Nahm does his best not to abuse it. It really is quite haunting, and you might find yourself re-reading some of the particularly stunning passages to mull them over and let them really sink in. So, no, it's not a page-turner. I think that in another book or two he will have worked out his need to prose the reader to fatigue and create some pretty powerful fiction. I'll be keeping an eye out for his next book.

I am Having So Much Fun Here Without You
Courtney Maum

I liked this book. I did! But I did not LOVE it like I thought I would--like I wanted to. It was funny and entertaining and light and cute and France meets England by way of New York. In Paris there is a whiny English artist, Richard Haddon, married to a French woman and he's having an affair with an American woman who ends up leaving him for a cutlery designer (forgot his nationality). Richard's grief over losing his lover drives his wife away...and you know what? I really hated that Hugh Grant Christmas movie, Love Actually (2003) and typing this plot synopsis is starting to remind me of that. "Whiny philanderer loses everything due to own selfishness, wants to be forgiven, is sad." Maybe that's why I couldn't love it love it? All the same, it had me laughing out loud and I'll happily consider Maum's next book.

And finally, the Better Luck Next Time!, in which I disagree with the critics:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
David Shafer

WTF. W. T. F. (Get it?) This book's heart is in the right place but it needed an editor. You were too darn long, book! Too much time is spent being ambiguous about phony, ambivalent, hipstery non-people in this "ooh look at me I'm so cool I can drop in all these winks to David Foster Wallace and Thomas Pynchon and William Gibson and Chuck Palahniuk but not be all geeky fanboy about it " way. Trimmed down to its good parts it would be a solid paranoid techno-thriller-comedy and the reviewers would probably have hated it. As it is the reviewers LOVED it and it is on all kinds of the aforementioned "best of 2014" lists--but not mine. Better luck next time, Shafer!

An Untamed State
Roxanne Gay

A beautiful, young, upper-class woman is kidnapped and held hostage in Haiti. The story jumps back and forth between a childish, cringe-worthy description of her fairy tale romance and privileged life (perfect, perfect, perfect), and the brutal, almost prurient description of her torture and degradation at the hands of her captors over 13 days. The narrator's voice is completely baffling. Based on the reviews I was expecting something literary but the whole narrative is very melodramatic Lifetime TV movie of the week. Remember those? I couldn't even handle it but I still kinda want to read Gay's book of essays also out this year: Bad Feminist.

Hey! Wait! One more to look for!
Miranda July's debut novel, The First Bad Man, will be out sometime in January and I can't wait. I mean, I really can't wait. Yes, she has books out, but this is her first novel and I'm so excited I just can't even. January is so far away! So, if you love her films or her stories you'll surely be in for a treat now that the inimitable and odd Miranda July has finally made her way into novels. Me and You and Everyone We Know is one of my all-time favorite movies so I have high hopes for the literary version of that experience.