More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason

by Nancy Pearl

  Also set during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire is the richlysatisfying Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières. The novel is narrated in dozens of voices, including those of the men and women, the rich and the poor, the nobles and peasants, the Christians and Muslims, the Greeks and the Armenians who have lived peaceably together for generations in a small coastal town in Anatolia, far from the seats of influence and power. When war breaks out, they become simply pawns of history, subject to the decisions of their misguided, incompetent, and dangerously power-hungry rulers. Along with the story of the residents of this one small town, de Bernières tells of the rise of Kemal Ataturk, whose goal was to make Turkey a modern, secular country. These parallel tales play off one another brilliantly.

  In Unicorn’s Blood, Firedrake’s Eye, and Gloriana’s Torch, Patricia Finney vividly animates the complexities of late-sixteenth-century England, in which religious issues divided not only England but the known world; slavery continued to extend its tentacles ever further into the European continent; and Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, was beset by threats to her rule from both within and outside England. Finney is remarkably talented at creating three-dimensional fictional characters.

  Other good choices include Rose Tremain’s The Colour (newly - weds try to adjust to a new life in gold-mining-mad New Zealand in the mid-nineteenth century); Sigrid Undset’s three-volume Kristin Lavransdatter (set in fourteenth-century Norway and available in an accessible new translation by Tiina Nunnally); Diane Pearson’s Csardas (a family saga set during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire); Morgan Llywelyn’s 1916 (about the struggle for Irish independence); Cecelia Holland’s Great Maria (a strong woman in eleventh-century Italy) and Until the Sun Falls (a thirteenth-century Mongol general takes on the world)0; The ClerkenwellTales (another of Peter Ackroyd’s enticing novels, this one peopled with characters from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, set in a medieval England that Ackroyd evokes brilliantly); A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel (maybe the best novel I’ve ever read about the French Revolution); and Joanne Williamson’s Jacobin’s Daughter (the second best, which was written for young adults but makes fine reading for grown-ups as well).

  For American historical fiction, there are James Fenimore Cooper’s rousing tales of the early years of our country, including The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans; the romances of Gwen Bristow, especially Celia Garth, set in Charleston, South Carolina, during the Revolutionary War; and the satisfying novels of Kenneth Roberts—particularly Arundel, which is set in Maine and Quebec and features Benedict Arnold in a starring role, and Northwest Passage, which tells the story of a young artist, Langdon Towne, working under the command of the legendary Major Robert Rogers during the French and Indian Wars.

  For more historical fiction recommendations, see these sections in Book Lust: “Biographical Novels,” “Civil War Fiction,” “Historical Fiction Around the World,” and “World War I Fiction.”

  FANTASY FOR YOUNG AND OLD

  The children’s fantasy novels of E. Nesbit, who was born in the middle of the nineteenth century and died in 1924, influenced not only the many fantasy writers who came after her, but also the course of children’s literature as a whole. Her books were realistic (despite their fantasy elements) and filled with gentle humor. Two of her best (The Phoenix and the Carpet and Five Children and It) center on children who unexpectedly happen upon magic creatures or stumble into a magical situation.

  Edward Eager—author of Half Magic, Knight’s Castle, Seven-Day Magic, The Time Garden, Magic or Not?, Magic by the Lake, and The Well-Wishers—was greatly influenced by Nesbit. His books, like hers, are down-to-earth as well as fantastical: you can believe that events like these just might occur (maybe and if only . . . ). The book of his that I most often reread is Half Magic, but a close second is Seven-Day Magic, perfect for those who know the enchantment to be found in books and libraries.

  Alan Garner’s first fantasy novel was The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, but his two best novels—written for young adults but enjoyed by fantasy-loving adult readers as well—are The Owl Service, which won both Britain’s Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal in 1968, and Red Shift. The Owl Service is about three contemporary teens who are tragically drawn into re-enacting an ancient Welsh myth, while Red Shift is a somewhat more difficult and scary novel that challenges the reader to make the connections among three characters living in different time periods in the same location.

  Noel Streatfeild is probably best known for her “Shoes” books for children, including Ballet Shoes, Skating Shoes, and Tennis Shoes. But she deserves to be known as well for her wonderful fantasy The Fearless Treasure, in which a group of children are given the ability to go back in time to find their family’s place in England’s history. This is a wonderful way to learn British history and to contemplate how the past impinges upon and even defines the present.

  Edward Ormondroyd’s David and the Phoenix was originally published in 1957, which is when I first read it. It’s the story of a young boy who meets a fabulous five-hundred-year-old bird (in their very funny first meeting, the phoenix is studying Spanish verbs); together they must foil a scientist who wants to capture the bird and study him. This is not so much high fantasy (like the J. K. Rowling books) as it is a charming adventure story that will entice readers from age eight on up.

  In Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, eleven-year-old Gregor and his younger sister, Boots, fall through a grate in their apartment building’s basement laundry room and find themselves in an Underland beneath New York City. All Gregor wants is to take his sister and go home, but when he learns that an ancient prophecy involving an ongoing war between humans and the giant rats who are menacing them seems to refer to him, he is forced to decide whom to trust—the enormous cockroaches, humans, bats, spiders, or rats. Page-turning adventure, a brave young hero, and a heartwarming ending—what more could fantasy fans ask for? A sequel, of course. So you won’t want to miss Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane. Go Gregor!

  One of the most haunting fantasies I’ve ever read is John Keir Cross’s The Other Side of Green Hills. Five children spend a winter holiday at a remote house in the English countryside, where they learn to their shock that Green Hills has an Other Side, and that a mysterious couple—the Owl and the Pussycat—lives there. Long out of print (it was first published in 1947) and difficult to find, this is a must for fans of fantasy.

  Other good fantasies include Patrick Carman’s The Dark Hills Divide, which is the first book in the Land of Elyon series; Earthfasts by William Mayne; Mr.Pudgins by Ruth Carlsen (every child dreams of having a babysitter like Mr. Pudgins); Diana Wynne Jones’s Fire and Hemlock, Archer’s Goon, and Howl’s Moving Castle, among her many others; P. B. Kerr’s The Akhenaten Adventure,the first in the Children of the Lamp series; Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s Peter and the Starcatchers, a prequel to J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan; and Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord and Inkheart.

  Three wonderful fantasies/romances just right for teenage girls (and like-minded adults) are The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope, which takes place both in the present and during the Revolutionary War period, and two delightful fantasies by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer that will appeal to anyone who loves Regency romances and Jane Austen. The Wrede/Stevermer titles are two of the longest known to humankind: Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country, followed up by The Grand Tour: Being a Revelation of Matters of High Confidentiality and Greatest Importance, Including Extracts from the Intimate Diary of a Noblewoman and the Sworn Testimony of a Lady of Quality.

  FATHERS, MOTHERS, SISTERS, BROTHERS: THE FAMILY OF THE CLERGY

  Ifind reading about the clergy particularly interesting, perhaps because these books give me insight into a world I’ll never know otherwise. I suppose that’s why, as a teenager, I was so entranced with Kathryn H
ulme’s The Nun’s Story and Monica Baldwin’s memoir I Leap over the Wall: A Return to the World After Twenty-eight Years in a Convent.

  Novels about men and women of the clergy range from the humorous to the serious, from mysteries to mainstream fiction. Here are some I’ve particularly enjoyed.

  Morte D’Urban, the National Book Award-winning first novel by J. F. Powers, is the frequently comic and persistently ironic story of a midwestern Roman Catholic priest who ministers to an unlikely flock while hovering uneasily between the quotidian and true faith.

  If humor is what you’re after, you’ll find that many of the funniest novels have as their protagonists lapsed (or lapsing) practitioners of the faith (Plain Heathen Mischief by Martin Clark, about a lapsed Baptist minister, is particularly entertaining). Conclave by Roberto Pazzi is a subversively funny look at the College of Cardinals in the process of selecting a new pope.And Herbert Tarr’s The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen is a delightful (and sometimes poignant) look at a newly minted young rabbi trying to adjust to life in the army.

  A man who leaves the seminary when he falls in love with a visiting speaker is one of the main characters in Gail Godwin’s The Good Husband. Francis Lake has long been married to the much-older Magda Danvers, a literary theorist who has always boasted that she stole her husband from God and who is now dying of ovarian cancer.

  The unorthodox young priest Father Paul Le Blanc finds his life and faith in upheaval after he sees a dead girl come back to life, in John L’Heureux’s The Miracle.

  A graphic designer who has given up on men and a monk who has lost his faith in God meet and fall—most tentatively—in love in Tim Farrington’s The Monk Downstairs.

  The Starbridge series by Susan Howatch is a group of novels about the Church of England, in which she explores different aspects of religious life (for those within and without the Church) in the middle of the twentieth century. Minor characters in one novel take the starring role in others, which enriches the experience of reading them. In order, they are Glittering Images, Glamorous Powers, Ultimate Prizes, Scandalous Risks, Mystical Paths, Absolute Truths, and The Wonder Worker.

  Although The Name of the Rose by, Umberto Eco is nominally a mystery, it is much more than that: an entrée into the world of medieval Italy and its theological controversies, worldview, politics, and scientific and artistic endeavors.This novel is simply not to be missed.

  Probably the best pure mysteries featuring a member of the clergy are those by Ellis Peters, set in twelfth-century England.The twenty superb novels about Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine monk (which should be read in order, beginning with A Morbid Taste for Bones), take place during the two decades of bloody battles between King Stephen and his cousin, the Empress Maud, who were fighting for supremacy over Britain. I’ve always found that reading Peters is also a pleasurable way to learn English history.

  FICTION FOR FOODIES

  When food plays a major role in a novel—because the main characters are chefs, bakers, or just heavy eaters—there’s always a danger that you’ll encounter a particularly tasty paragraph or luscious-sounding recipe, drop the book, and head directly for the kitchen to cook, bake, or simply eat. Woe to any diet you might be on! Luckily, these novels are all engrossing enough to keep you involved at least to the end of each chapter, when it’s natural to take a food break.

  Sunya, a pastry chef, the owner of a bakery/cafe, and the main character in Bharti Kirchner’s Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries, travels to Japan to try to recapture her love for her chosen profession. Kirchner is a cookbook writer turned novelist (try The Bold Vegetarian: 150 Inspired International Recipes if you’re interested in expanding your culinary repertoire).

  It Can’t Always Be Caviar by Johannes Mario Simmel tells the story of Thomas Lieven, a German-born banker, gourmet cook, romantic, and involuntary spy for Germany, France, England, and the United States (none of whom know of his connections with any of the others). It’s great fun to read, and complicated menus and recipes accompany each chapter.

  Thomas Fox Averill’s Secrets of the Tsil Café is a coming-of-age novel about young Wes Hingler, who must find his own way in the wider world as well as in the world of food—somewhere between his father’s Mexican restaurant and his mother’s Italian catering company.

  A chef is the main character in Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt, in which Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas’s personal chef looks back on his childhood in Vietnam under the French and his years cooking for the crème of bohemian Paris.

  Catherine de Medici is the main character in both The Stars Dispose and The Stars Compel by Michaela Roessner, historical novels with a tinge of fantasy and lots of luscious-sounding recipes offered up by Catherine’s cooks.

  FLORIDA FICTION

  Before Walt Disney World, Busch Gardens, spring training, and the draining of the Everglades, Florida meant miles of swamps, untamed wilderness, and unspoiled beaches. Whenever I think of that prelapsarian time, four writers inevitably come to mind: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Zora Neale Hurston, John D. MacDonald, and Carl Hiaasen.

  Rawlings is probably best known for The Yearling, about young Jody and Flag, the fawn that he loves, which was awarded the 1939 Pulitzer Prize (the only time the award went to a book that is essentially for children). But I like Cross Creek even better, in which Rawlings lovingly describes the fourteen years that she and her husband spent living on a farm in a citrus grove outside of Gainesville in the 1930s.

  Hurston’s not inconsiderable and well-deserved fame rests on her now-canonized novel Their Eyes Were Watching God,which tells (in a dialect that takes some getting used to) the story of spirited and strong Janie Crawford.

  MacDonald wrote a series of hugely entertaining books (just a bit dated these days) that feature the archetypal tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold Travis McGee. McGee lives on his boat, the Busted Flush, in Fort Lauderdale when he isn’t off helping men and women (mostly women) in distress. (You can go to Fort Lauderdale today and see the slip where the boat in the book was docked, if you’re so inclined.) Though each novel in the series stands pretty much on its own, you may as well begin with the first, The Deep Blue Goodbye.

  Hiaasen’s novelistic romps through and rants about Florida (particularly South Florida) always leave me wanting more books from him—try Stormy Weather and Tourist Season. For other books by Hiaasen,see page 78 in Book Lust.

  For some of the best contemporary fiction set in the Sunshine State,try these books.

  Racism rears its ugly head in Beverly Coyle’s In Troubled Waters, in which ninety-one-year-old Tom Glover hires two boys—one black and one white—to accompany his son-in-law (who’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s) while fishing, and unwittingly sets in motion a series of devastating events.

  In a novel filled to the brim with calamities (rape, accidents, marital woes, and amnesia—and that’s just for starters), you’d think that Mary Hood’s Familiar Heat would be depressing at best, but in fact, this beautifully written novel offers an equal measure of tenderness and testament to the enduring power of love, making it a book you won’t want to miss. And best of all, it’s all done without any cloying sentimentality whatsoever.

  The plot of Carter Clay by Elizabeth Evans revolves around three people—Carter Clay, the teenaged Jersey Alitz, and Katherine, her mother—who are the victims of a car accident caused by Clay. It’s an absorbing novel that offers neither a happy ending nor an easy answer to difficult questions of guilt and the possibility of forgiveness.

  Larry Baker’s The Flamingo Rising updates the Romeo and Juliet story, moving the action from Verona, Italy, to 1960s Jacksonville, and offering as hero and heroine the teenage children of an uptight funeral director and the ever-dreaming developer of the area’s first drive-in theater.

  FOUNDING FATHERS

  Reading about the men who were instrumental in setting up the governing mechanisms that turned the former British colonies into a cohesive Union (cohesive, at least, for m
ost of our 200-plus years of existence) is a great way to get a sense of both how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go. Many of the issues the founders struggled with are still of concern today—among them voting rights, racial equality, and the need for a strong Bill of Rights.

  Here are some particularly interesting and insightful biographies of these men, who have achieved iconic status but, as the books show, were as human as the rest of us.

  Two excellent books about our first president are James Thomas Flexner’s Washington: The Indispensable Man,the classic one-volume account of the first president of the United States, adapted from Flexner’s five-volume history of Washington; and Joseph J. Ellis’s His Excellency: George Washington.

  Great biographies of Benjamin Franklin include H. W. Brands’s sweeping The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, which demonstrates not only the range of interests and talents of the elder statesman of the founding generation, but also Brands’s talent as a historian and writer; Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An American Life;and historian Gordon S. Wood’s the Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. But I would begin any reading about Franklin’s life and times with The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, in which, in wonderfully readable prose (he wrote it as though it were a letter to his son William), Franklin reveals himself to be a man of wide interests and a sly sense of humor.