5 reads for World Book Day
Lose yourself in fiction, and let it snow.
Quiet winter evenings are the perfect time to curl up with a good book. Pick up that tome you've been meaning to read and start burrowing into a great story. If cold winds blow, and the power goes, never fear. You can read by candlelight, or by the light of your Kindle.
If you're all caught up on your reading, hang tight. New titles will flutter down like snowflakes, in all four seasons.
Throughout 2016, expect to find tributes to William Shakespeare, as authors commemorate the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death. Upcoming works include re-imagined versions of Shakespeare's plays by such luminaries as Margaret Atwood (an as-yet untitled version of "The Tempest," due in October) and Anne Tyler (see below).
In truth, a year is not enough time to get to all the reading we'd like to do. What follows is the tip of the iceberg, a mere sampling of the abundance you'll find at libraries and book stores in 2016:
"Vinegar Girl" by Anne Tyler (to be published June 7 by Hogarth Shakespeare/Crown Publishing, $25) — Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author Anne Tyler sets her careful eye upon "The Taming Of The Shrew," re-imagining Shakespeare's comedy in contemporary Baltimore, conjuring a situation in which a modern woman might sacrifice her life's dreams for a man.
Tyler's folksy style and amiable, bumbling characters make her easy to underestimate as a writer. Yes, she's "accessible," but Tyler can sucker-punch you with the emotional complexity of her tales.
As the publisher describes it: Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and her uppity, pretty younger sister, Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work. Her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner.
Dr. Battista has his own problems. After years in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, Dr. Battista’s work may not ever be realized.
When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying, as usual, on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. Will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around?
"My Name Is Lucy Barton" by Elizabeth Strout ( Penguin Random House, $26) — The fifth novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout returns to territory she explored in "Amy & Isabelle." This time, however, the mother-daughter relationship is examined by an adult daughter, the title character, while hospitalized after what should have been a routine operation.
Lucy Barton is visited by her estranged mother. As the publisher explains: Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters.
Like Tyler, Strout has a deceptively simple style. Her characters feel as real as your co-worker in the next cubicle — maybe more so! As keen an observer of human nature as Charles Dickens, Strout writes with empathy for even her least agreeable characters. Her writing generates compassion, and her stories stick with you. Perhaps you read "Olive Kitteridge," or saw the HBO version, starring Frances McDormand? There you go.
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"The High Mountains Of Portugal" by Yann Martel (Penguin Random House, $27) — Martel is best known for 'The Life Of Pi," which swirled with magic realism as it explored the meaning and relevance of faith. His ambitious new novel, "The High Mountains Of Portugal," also resembles a fable, traveling through time in a story about love and loss.
The publisher sums up the three-pronged story in this way:
In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tomás discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artifact that — if he can find it — would redefine history. Traveling in one of Europe’s earliest automobiles, he sets out in search of this strange treasure.
Thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist devoted to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie finds himself at the center of a mystery of his own and drawn into the consequences of Tomás’ quest.
Fifty years on, a Canadian senator takes refuge in his ancestral village in northern Portugal, grieving the loss of his beloved wife. But he arrives with an unusual companion: a chimpanzee. And there the century-old quest will come to an unexpected conclusion.
"The Wonder" by Emma Donoghue (expected in fall 2016 by Little, Brown & Co) — If you had the stomach to read Emma Donoghue's "Room," about a 5-year-old boy born to a kidnapped woman held captive in a bunker, you were rewarded with a gripping story in spare prose. Far from being sensationalistic, "Room" was full of love and hope, a tale of resilience and strength.
It was an unusual setting for any book, but perhaps especially so for Donoghue, who prefers the 1850s to any contemporary milieu.
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And that's where she returns for "The Wonder," a psychological thriller set in 1850s Ireland, in which 11-year-old Anna stops eating, but shows no ill effects. Lib, an English nurse, thinks Anna is faking it, and determines to prove so.
No specific publication date has been announced for "The Wonder," which leaves time for many more titles before you get to this page-turner.