Sunday, May 6, 2012

5 Debut Books to Read: On My Reading List

Five suggestions from my to-read shelf, run to your local (independent) bookstore today:
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Verghese's debut novel is a book club book that I'm supposed to have finished by the middle of May, so I really need to get moving. I know nothing about it beyond the first 30 or so pages I've read, but already I'm intrigued.

1861 by Adam Goodheart
Another book club book (with a to-read date only a day before Cutting for Stone), I'm really excited to read this one. In part because it's been a while since I read a really great history book, but also in part because I remember the creative non-fiction class I took with Professor Goodheart as an undergrad. (I remember thinking at the time how much I preferred fiction and poetry, thinking that I would never try to write a significant amount of non-fiction; file that under Look Where Life Leads You!).

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
Of course, Mazzucchelli has been one of the most respected members of the graphic novel community for years after his collaboration on projects like Batman: Year One and City of Glass. But this is his first book that is his alone (as much as any work can be "the author's alone"), and to hook me in, he's set a portion of it in my old stomping grounds, the Finger Lakes of Upstate New York.

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Goff
Another Upstate book, Goff builds a fictionalized version of Cooperstown, NY, which she renames Templeton. I'm far enough into this one to be badly hooked, as the brilliant and acerbic scion of the town founder tries to discover her biological father's identity while she wrestles with questions of who she is and what she really wants to do with her life. Oh, and an unidentified monster has died and floated to the surface of Glimmerglass Lake.

The Snow Child by Eowy Ivey
I remember reading the NYTimes review of The Snow Child, promising a frontier story stuffed with magical realism, so when I saw it on the table at my local library's spring book store, how could I resist?

1 comment:

  1. I'm so intrigued by a person's book list. And I love that you focus on regional titles. I try to do the same, especially when I'm about to travel somewhere.

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