A Brand New Book List — The Happy Bookers Reading List for 2021
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allend
Historical Fiction 400 pgs. 9 hrs 46 min
Follows two refugees from the Spanish Civil War, whose mock marriage as they flee to Chile gradually deepens into real love, set against a backdrop of war and upheaval. “…..Her (Isabel Allende) new book, A Long Petal of the Sea –translated by Nick Caistor & Amanda Hopkinson — is another gift of epic storytelling. Excellent read.
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s All-Black High School Rowing Team by Arshay Cooper
Memoir 240 pgs 8hrs 43min
USA Today 5 Books Not To Be Missed
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“The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago’s West side who form the first all African American school rowing team in the nation, and in doing so not only transform a sport, but their lives.”
I thought the story was an interesting insight into the life of a group of Americans I know very little about. It was moving but not soppy, entertaining but still meaningful. This book was a fairly “easy read” and would be a good foil to some of the longer, more complex books we sometimes read.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Fiction 400 pgs 16 hrs 43min
An Oprah book club selection.
Story of book shop owner in Mexico who befriends the jefe of the new drug cartel and her life is upended. She flees north to the USA to escape.
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Fiction 352 pgs. 9 hrs 53 min
People Book of the Week. Book of the Month. Best of Fall Good Housekeeping
This is a poignant comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined. Thought provoking, heartbreaking but amusing, it is a perfect mix of tragic and hilarious, believable and absurd. The whimsical and humorous writing style about real subjects like suicide and depression made this story remarkable. This is a perfect book for 2020!
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Novel 334 pgs 14 hrs 29 min#1 NYT Book Seller, USA Today, Wall St Journal, Publishers Weekly Best Seller
“Thought provoking…quietly strong…Wingate weaves a complex tale about two families, two generations apart, linked by an injustice, based on a notorious true-life scandal.
Library Joural
An unforgettable read…This captivating novel will quite likely break your heart, but because it’s Lisa Wingate at the helm, you will not be left broken. She is a master storyteller and never fails to get to the heart of what makes us hold on to hope.
Susan Meissner, author of Secrets of a Charmed Life.
Blood Relations by Edward and Kathy Cohen
Thriller and Suspense 386 pgs.
BONUS: Kathy and I were in college together. She and her husband now live in Ecuador and the story of how this jointly written novel came about is fascinating. If this book is chosen, Kathy has agreed to met with us over Zoom to discuss the book-and she promised her husband too! They are a delightful fun couple (I heard them give a “Zoom Book Reading” last month), so, in addition to this being a great read, the meeting should be fun.
A young New Orleans lawyer discovers that his father is having an affair with a beautiful attorney in their firm. To save his parents’ marriage, he determines to seduce her away. When she is murdered, he must defend his father at trial. A masterfully written and complex legal thriller. The characters are richly drawn, the plot full of unexpected twists and turns and the language simply beautiful. Murder, sex, betrayal and, yes, love, are themes interwoven gracefully throughout this novel. The ending is a complete surprise…. a delightful read.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
Novel 384 pgs 14 hrs 5 min
NYTimes 10 best books of 2020.
James McBride is an amazing black author who is able to write with a great deal of humor without losing sight of the inequities of being black.
“A mystery story, crime novel, an urban farce, a sociological portrait of late-1960s Brooklyn…..at it’s heart is Deacon Cuffy Lambkins,a.k.a. Sport coat…..widower, churchgoer, odd-jobber, home brew-tippler, and now, after inexplicably shooting an ear clean off a local drug dealer, a wanted man!
There are rival drug crews, an Italian smuggler, buried treasure, church sisters, and Sportcoat’s long dead wife, still nagging from the grave.”
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Novel 336 pgs. 11 hrs 48 min
In post-Arthurian Britain, the wars that once raged between the Saxons and the Britons have finally ceased. Axl and Beatrice, an elderly British couple, set off to visit their son, whom they haven’t seen in years. And, because a strange mist has caused mass amnesia throughout the land, they can scarcely remember anything about him. As they are joined on their journey by a Saxon warrior, his orphan charge, and an illustrious knight, Axl and Beatrice slowly begin to remember the dark and troubled past they all share. By turns savage, suspenseful, and intensely moving, The Buried Giant is a luminous meditation on the act of forgetting and the power of memory. “An exceptional novel. . . . The Buried Giant does what important books do: It remains in the mind long after it has been read, refusing to leave.” —Neil Gaiman, The New York Times Book Review Ishiguro won 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature; he wrote The Remains of the Day (made into movie.)
The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
Southern Fiction 496 pgs. 13 hrs 11min Duet Narration
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Ira Levinson is in trouble. At ninety-one years old, in poor health and alone in the world, he finds himself stranded on an isolated embankment after a car crash. Suffering multiple injuries, he struggles to retain consciousness until a blurry image materializes and comes into focus beside him: his beloved wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by recounting the stories of their lifetime together – how they met, the precious paintings they collected together, the dark days of WWII and its effect on them and their families. Ira knows that Ruth can’t possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories, reliving the sorrows and everyday joys that defined their marriage.
A few miles away, at a local rodeo, a Wake Forest College senior’s life is about to change. Recovering from a recent break-up, Sophia Danko meets a young cowboy named Luke, who bears little resemblance to the privileged frat boys she has encountered at school. Through Luke, Sophia is introduced to a world in which the stakes of survival and success, ruin and reward — even life and death – loom large in everyday life. As she and Luke fall in love, Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans — a future that Luke has the power to rewrite . . . if the secret he’s keeping doesn’t destroy it first.
Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples who have little in common, and who are separated by years and experience. Yet their lives will converge with unexpected poignancy, reminding us all that even the most difficult decisions can yield extraordinary journeys: beyond despair, beyond death, to the farthest reaches of the human heart.
The Third Hill North of Town by Noah Bly
Novel. 388 pgs. 16 hrs 2 min
When fifty-four-year-old Julianna Dapper slips out of a mental hospital in Bangor, Maine, on a June day in 1962, it’s with one purpose in mind. Julianna knows she must go back to the tiny farming community in northern Missouri where she was born and raised. It’s the place where she and her best friend, Ben Taylor, roamed as children, and where her life’s course shifted irrevocably one night long ago.
Embarking on her journey, Julianna meets Elijah Hunter, a shy teenage African American boy, and Jon Tate, a young hitchhiker on the run from the law. The three become traveling companions, bound together by quirks of happenstance. And even as the emerging truth about Julianna’s past steers them inexorably toward tragedy, their surprising bond may be the means to transform fear and heartache into the strength that finally guides Julianna home.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Novel 343 pgs 11 hrs 34 min
The Vanishing Half is about a set of identical African-American twins who grew up in a southern black community in the 1950s and were inseparable as children. They run away at the age of 16 and choose to live very different lives in very different worlds when one decides to live as white.
I learned about this book from the Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival and enjoyed watching the interview with the author. Her first book, The Mothers, was published to great acclaim. The New York Times has chosen The Vanishing Half as one of the 10 best books in 2020.
The Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See
Fiction 400 pgs. 13 hrs 22 min