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Geek Love by
Katherine Dunn Like many of the best American novels of the past
fifty years, Geek Love tells the story of a family.
But this image of family is misshapen and bizarre, a reflection cast back at us from the distorting surface of a circus mirror.
In a reversal of the conventional wish to produce perfect children, Crystal Lil and Al Binewski set out to give birth to a
family of freaks, taking everything from prescription and illicit drugs to insecticides and radioisotopes to engineer their
children’s deformities. They want to ensure their children’s success in the carnival and, as Lil says, "What
greater gift could you offer your children than an inherent ability to earn a living just by being themselves?"
American
Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
In American Salvage, Bonnie Jo Campbell picks through the ravages of
a small-town America gutted by shifting
demographics, new technology, and methamphetamine. Eschewing nostalgia or bitterness, she leads with her curiosity, using
canny observation and sensuous prose to coax the reader into dark, strange, primordial territory. These short stories approach
their subjects from an array of perspectives, but what they share is freshness, surprise, and a compulsion to plumb some absolute
extremes of American existence.
gutted by shifting demographics, new technology,
and methamphetamine. Eschewing nostalgia or bitterness, she leads with her curiosity, using canny observation and sensuous
prose to coax the reader into dark, strange, primordial territory. These short stories approach their subjects from an array
of perspectives, but what they share is freshness, surprise, and a compulsion to plumb some absolute extremes of American
existence.
Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas
When Abigail
Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must
live the rest of his life in an institution. He has no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before. This tragedy
is the ground on which Abigail had to build a new life. How she built that life is a story of great courage and great change,
of moving to a small country town, of a new family composed of three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt
and discovering gratitude. It is also about her relationship with Rich, a man who lives in the eternal present, and the eerie
poetry of his often uncanny perceptions. This wise, plainspoken, beautiful book enacts the truth Abigail discovered in the
five years since the accident: You might not find meaning in disaster, but you might, with effort, make something useful of
it.
Game Change
by John Heilmann and Mark Halperin
Journalists, pundits, and bloggers have all chewed over the 2008 presidential
campaign so thoroughly, so relentlessly, that there would seem to be little meat left on the bone. But two veteran political
reporters – New York magazine’s John Heilemann and Time’s Mark Halperin — have found plenty
of fresh dish, and they’ve served it up in Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of
a Lifetime. But don’t be fooled: This is no dry history. In fact, in places it reads less like
a campaign memoir than like a Jackie Collins novel, packed with seamy details about extramarital sex and screaming arguments.
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