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Title Raves : Summer Reads
These were the books discussed at the May 2009 Title Raves program by panelists Ellen Heltzel, author of Between the Covers: The Book Babe's Guide to a Woman's Reading Pleasures; screenwriter and director Joss Milian; Lloyd Cohn, owner of Watch This!, and Sara Ryan, author of Empress of the World and The Rules for Hearts. Audience members were invited to share their favorite books and authors.
Panelists' favorites
- Bloom, Amy
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Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. (Ellen Heltzel)
- Cain, James M.
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Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter. (Lloyd Cohn)
- Knight, Keith
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Keith Knight's comics are simultaneously lighthearted, wild and clever. Reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes, he deftly blends political insight, whacked-out surrealism, neurotic humor and personal honesty. (Sara Ryan)
- Lalami, Laila
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Youssef el-Mekki, a young man of 19, is living with his mother in the slums of Casablanca when he discovers that the father he believed to be dead is, in fact, alive and eager to befriend and support him. (Ellen Heltzel)
- Li, Yiyun
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Brilliant and illuminating, this debut novel is set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell designed to move China beyond the dark shadow of the Cultural Revolution toward a more enlightened and open society. In this powerful and beautiful story, we follow a group of people in a small town during this dramatic and harrowing time, the era that was a forebear of the Tiananmen Square uprising. (Ellen Heltzel)
- Louys, Pierre
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Louys' masterpiece, which drews some of its inspiration from Bizet's Carmen, is one of the great novels of obsessive love. (Lloyd Cohn)
- Payne, Alexander
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Sideways is the story of two friends — Miles and Jack — going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting and prowling bars. (Joss Milian)
- Phillips, Jayne Anne
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Formerly free-spirited, unattached Kate enters into roles of enormous responsibility: as she takes the first steps into a new marriage complete with her own beloved infant and two lively young stepsons, she becomes caregiver to her ailing mother, the strong woman who has been her guiding star and counterpart across a divide of experience and time. Kate must, in a single year, confront profound loss alongside radiant beginnings. (Ellen Heltzel)
- Pulcini, Robert
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Harvey Pekar is a comic book writer inspired by the work of his friend Robert Crumb. Pekar writes his comics about the sad monotony of everyday life, based on his own life in Cleveland, Ohio, working as a file clerk at a veteran's hospital and spending his time reading books and listening to jazz. He meets up with Joyce Brabner and they enjoy a depressive relationship together. The filmmakers employ a combination of live-action film, video and animation, including narration and commentary from the real-life Harvey Pekar. (Joss Milian)
- Robinson, Alex
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Andy Wicks is a 40-something father of two who's tried everything to quit smoking — from going cold turkey, to the latest patches and nicotine chewing gums — so he figures he'll give this hypnosis thing a try. What's the worst that could happen? Unfortunately, Andy gets dealt a fate worse than death: high school! Transported back to 1985, Andy returns to his formative years as a gangly, awkward teenager. Is he doomed to relive the mistakes of his past, or has he been given a second chance to get things right? High-concept graphic novella. (Sara Ryan)
- Sebastian, Barry
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As a young woman, Roseanne McNulty was one of the most beautiful and beguiling girls in County Sligo, Ireland. Now, as her hundredth year draws near, she is a patient at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, and she decides to record the events of her life. (Ellen Heltzel)
- Shawl, Nisi
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Shawl, who reviews science fiction for The Seattle Times, explores a world that is both sinister and whimsical. Her characters are mostly women little girls, grandmothers and nannies who see the world differently than those around them. They know secrets, and they have visions. They are sexual, self-possessed and curious, and that makes them powerful. (Sara Ryan)
- Stockett, Kathryn
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In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women — black and white, mothers and daughters — view one another.(Ellen Heltzel)
- Strout, Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Strout evokes a teenager's alienation from her distant mother—and a parent's rage at the discovery of her daughter's sexual secrets. (Ellen Heltzel)
Audience favorites
- Masson, J. Moussaieff (Jeffrey Moussaieff)
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A former psychoanalyst explores our relationship with the animals we call foods and raises questions to make us conscious of the decisions behind every bite we take.
- Morton, Kate
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A family saga with a big of mystery. First published as Shifting Fog, this debut novel is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades. The sequel is Forgotten Garden.
- Schlosser, Eric
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Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit and careful reasoning.
- Setterfield, Dianne
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When her health begins to fail, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, bookish loner, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales. A spellbinding gothic tale for the 21st century.
Audience members recommended books written by Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman.
