the river's end bookstore

I approached this book warily, fearing it might ooze treacly sentiment. No fear! The writers of these essays have captured the heart of the mother-daughter bond in all its complexity. The relationships these authors describe run the gamut: loving, distant, respectful, oppositional, tender, regretful – and sometimes in combination. A perfect gift for your mother, sister, aunt, close friend . . . or yourself.

What do baseball and religion have in common? More than you’d think. N.Y.U. president Sexton has written a provocative and engaging series of essays that connect the two through explorations of faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, and more. Illuminated by his encyclopedic baseball knowledge, his insights into various faith traditions, and his ability to make long-ago games and players live again, the book will delight both fans and skeptics.

This wonderful middle-grade novel abounds in contrasts -- rich and poor, light and dark, realistic and fantastic – and is utterly gripping from page one. Set in Victorian London, it centers on three children. One is extravagantly privileged but has a morbid back story; two are impoverished orphans in the thrall of a puppeteer who exploits their youth and talents to ply his trade. Dickensian in tone but with supernatural elements, this beautifully written, heart-stoppingly suspenseful book is richly rewarding on many levels.

-- Banna

This marvelous mash-up of literary adventure, medieval mystery, and whimsy grabbed me with the title and didn’t let go. Clay Jannon, an out-of-work web designer, stumbles into a job at the eponymous bookstore. Very few books are actually sold; the books that are stocked and borrowed by regular customers are quite bizarre. Clay is drawn into the mystery, draws his extraordinary circle of friends in, and draws the reader in, too.

Chabon’s prose in Telegraph Avenue sparkles, crackles, swoops, and hums as he tells the entwined story of two families – one black, one white and Jewish – in Oakland, CA. At the book’s heart are Brokeland Records (the husbands’ vintage-vinyl store) and the wives’ midwifery practice. The story weaves through the adults’ personal and professional lives; the white couple’s teenage son and the black husband’s newly arrived son from an old relationship add harmony and dissonance. A faded star of 70’s blaxploitation films, an old crime, the threat of an NFL-star’s megastore, and complex local politics provide counterpoint. You don’t just read this book, you inhabit it. And it inhabits you.

The appearance of the 15th anniversary edition finally pushed me to take this book off the “to be read” pile, and I’m so glad. Fadiman’s book is a magnificent accomplishment: a multilayered, thoroughly researched story of a child, her family, their Hmong culture and its history; a severe medical condition and its physical and social ramifications; the clash of religious and medical traditions and beliefs – and all of it so absorbingly written that it will grip you at least as much as any thriller. Like all brilliant books, it challenges your belief system and enables you to experience another world.

It’s been fascinating for me to see Jon Chopan evolve from a fellow bookseller at the river’s end to an author in his own right. Pulled from the River is a fine and most unusual book: autobiographical essays, sketches, and letters wend a circuitous path throughout Chopan’s early youth in Rochester and later years in Columbus, Ohio. This impressionistic pastiche touches, retouches, and interweaves themes of male friendship, coming-of-age, coming to terms with ageing and death, and the intense father-and-son bond.

You’ve had a rough day. Or you have a bad cold. Or you’re just in a foul mood. What you need is to spend some time with your new best friend – who just happens to be the wittiest, most observant, most generous, and most outspoken person you’ve ever met. Now’s the time to read ”Bossypants”! Actually, any time is time to read “Bossypants.” Tina (you’ll feel like you’re on a first-name basis, too) is the best antidote to, well, just about anything.

Henry Skrimshander, a phenomenal young shortstop who’s just out of high school when the book opens, is at the center of this coming-of-age novel times five. The others – Mike Schwartz, his self-appointed mentor; Owen Dunne (“I’ll be your gay mulatto roommate”); Guert Affenlight, a college president experiencing a mid-life awakening, and Pella, his formerly estranged daughter – find their lives entangled in consistently unexpected but seemingly inevitable ways, at the center of which are an errant pitch and an improbable championship season. A wonderful, engrossing book, even for the non-baseball fan.

Allegory, fable, Holocaust saga, realistic fiction – somehow Ausubel combines these elements in an amazing novel that is much more than the sum of its genres. In 1939, when the horror of the impending Holocaust becomes undeniable, the residents of a remote Jewish village in Romania do just that: deny it. They declare the world newly made; the past and everything outside their community no longer exist. The novel’s narrator is 11 when the book begins, a young mother of two at its close. We see her improbable new world through the lens her extraordinary experiences and penetrating vision. This novel uses small details and quotidian moments to explore the essence of identity, family, community, and the nature and fluidity of reality.

When newlyweds are killed in a freak accident between the church and the reception, their families, an uneasy mix at best, must find a way to come together in their grief. The book follows them over four summers as they grapple with the sadness they share and the class and cultural divide they’ve ignored or denied for years. The coastal Maine setting is as vividly drawn as each of the characters, which is saying a lot. Each member of both families will stay with you long after you’ve finished the book.

Observing the past and present through the eyes of someone sliding into the depths of Alzheimer’s might not sound appealing. Here, it’s more than appealing: it’s impossible to put down. Dr. Jennifer White, a surgeon, is a “person of interest” in the death of her best friend. She has no memory of the incident. Or perhaps she does. A gripping mystery, an absorbing study of a family in crisis, and a wrenching look at a mind struggling to overcome its increasing limitations.

-  Banna

This is science journalism at its best, addressing history, medicine, family dynamics, and racism in a gripping, well-written book that one needn’t be a scientist to read. Without her knowledge or permission, Henrietta Lacks, a young black woman afflicted with a virulent form of cancer, provided tissue samples for research in 1951. The cells reproduced astronomically and contributed to all kinds of studies. The repercussions for science and for her family are astounding.           

- Banna

This book is a treasure for both the confirmed Jane-ite and the Austen neoophyte. Deresiewicz views each of Austen's novels through the prism of his own life - or is it the other way around? Austen's view of integrity, love, and family and social life inform his perceptions of his own growth and the choices he made as he elbowed and bumbled his way into adulthood. He sheds much light on why Austen's depth and clarity speak to all of us, at any time in our lives.

- Banna

Wow, can this guy write! These essays cover all manner of subjects and range from political to eccentric to hilarious to deeply moving. In one piece, Weingarten shares what happens when world-famous violinist Joshua Bell performs incognito in a subway station. A very short essay with Roger Maris at its center is a perfect jewel. Two essays about his father will elicit both chuckles and tears.

- Banna