sybil’s list october 2015 - westport...
TRANSCRIPT
Sybil’s List October 2015 Sybil’s List is compiled by Westporter Sybil Steinberg, contributing editor for Publishers Weekly. Previous lists can be found at westportlibrary.org
TOP CHOICES: FICTION
PURITY by Jonathan FranzenFranzen’s wide-ranging novel is his best so far, chronicling the lives of three characters involved ina South American cult and murder.
TWO YEARS EIGHT MONTHS AND TWENTY-EIGHT NIGHTS by Salman RushdieIts title translates to 1001 nights. This is a wildly imaginative, satirical, and entrancing cultural fable.
A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya YanagiharaA very long (721 pages) novel about the friendship of four men, former college roommates,and their careers in New York.
FATES AND FURIES by Lauren GroffA brilliantly conceived account of a passionate love and complex marriage told from theperspectives of each spouse.
THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD by Elena FerranteThe 4th novel of Ferrante’s Neapolitan series is even more enchanting than its predecessors.
GOLDEN AGE by Jane SmileyThe final volume in the trilogy about the Langdon family of Iowa, that traces the lives of variousfamily members year by year.
SWEET CARESS by William BoydThe British author constructs a portrait of a woman whose adventure-fueled life is entwinedwith important historical events.
GOLD FAME CITRUS by Claire Vaye WatkinsThis debut novel is set in a near future when drought has transformed southern California into a desert.
THE BEAUTIFUL BUREAUCRAT by Helen PhillipsThe suspense packed into this short novel begins immediately when a woman desperate for a jobis hired by a man with no face.
MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON by Elizabeth StroutA quiet, understated and affecting story about a woman who reconciles with her mother after along family breach. (January release)
A DOUBTER’S ALMANAC by Ethan CaninThe mysteries of higher mathematics and the deeper mysteries of the human heart are the themesof this masterful novel. (February release)
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FINALE by Thomas MallonA sequel to his fine historical novel, Watergate, this one takes place during Reagan’s presidency.
THE HEART GOES LAST by Margaret AtwoodIn a dystopian future, a young couple signs up on a project that involves working in a prison.
ACADEMY STREET by Mary CostelloIn a quietly moving story, Costello follows the life of an ordinary woman, an immigrant from Irelandcoming to New York.
HARRIET WOLF’S SEVENTH BOOK OF WONDERS by Julianna Baggott Three generations of a blighted family, eccentric women who search for loving relationships inunexpected ways.
THE BLUE GUITAR by John BanvilleThe elegant prose in this comic-tragic novel by Booker Prize-winner Banville compensate forthe unappealing hero.
DEATH AND MR. PICKWICK by Stephen JarvisA staggering 816 pages, this debut novel recounts the back story of Charles Dickens’sThe Pickwick Papers.
THE SUNKEN CATHEDRAL by Kate WalbertA portrait of two 80-something widows in New York turns into an ominous portent of comingenvironmental catastrophe.
THE NIGHT STAGES by Jane UrquhartThe Canadian writer’s new novel is set in a remote area of Ireland and in the airport in Gander,Newfoundland.
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF LILIANE by Lily TuckThis unconventional fictional memoir is a mixture of essay, poetry, historical fact and straightnarration about the author’s life.
THE LOVE SHE LEFT BEHIND by Amanda CoeAn unforgettably dysfunctional British family animate this comedy of manners.
TEMPLES OF DELIGHT by Barbara TrapidoBritish author Trapido is wise about the pitfalls of love and the quirky elements of human attraction.
THE MARE by Mary GaitskillAn ambitious story of a Dominican girl from Brooklyn who falls in love with horses when she is aFresh Air kid. (November release)
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MORE FICTION
THE TRAVELS OF DANIEL ASCHER by Deborah Levy-BertheratTranslated from French, this slim novel is a love story, a flash-back to World War II and a mystery.
GIRL WAITS WITH GUN by Amy StewartBased on a real event that took place in 1914, this lighthearted story features a woman who becomes a courageous avenger.
THE TSAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO by Anthony MarraA brilliant, stunning, collection of interlinked stories set in Russia and Chechnya over a span of eightdecades .
IN THE COUNTRY by Mia AlvarNine remarkable stories about men and women in the Philippines and in the diaspora—the Middle East,the U.S. and elsewhere.
FORTUNE SMILES by Adam JohnsonSix highly imaginative, sharply defined and harrowing stories by the author of The Orphan Master’s Son.
A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN by Lucia BerlinThe author transmuted her difficult life—she was the single mother of four sons, and a committedalcoholic—into intriguing fiction
BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi CoatesThe condition of being black in contemporary America is powerfully expressed in this meditation onpervasive racism.
THE SHORT, TRAGIC LIFE OF ROBERT PEACE by Jeff HobbsA heart-wrenching account of brilliant young man who transcends the drug-ridden Newark slums and wins a scholarship to Yale.
THE WITCHES by Stacy SchiffThe cast of characters in this 512-page, exhaustingly researched account of the witch mania in Salem, Massachusetts numbers 88.
STALIN’S DAUGHTER by Rosemary SullivanAfter Stalin’s daughter defected from the Soviet Union to the U.S. she continued to lead a tragic life.
IRREPRESSIBLE by Emily BinghamSubtitled The Jazz Age life of Henrietta Bingham, this intriguing biography introduces a woman who broke sexual barriers.
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SHORT STORIES
NON-FICTION
FICTION CONTINUED
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NOTES