Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for book lovers include a debut dystopian novel that's grabbing headlines and a surprisingly funny novel about a freed slave.
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon; Bloomsbury, 452 pp.; fiction
It doesn't take a clairvoyant to see that Samantha Shannon is not J.K. Rowling, and 19-year-old Paige Mahoney is no Harry Potter. Not that either is a bad thing.
Shannon's debut novel, The Bone Season, the new pick of the Today show book club, is grabbing lots of attention and comparisons to Rowling – its British author, an Oxford grad, is all of 21. It's the first of a planned seven-book series.
Paige, the Bone Season heroine who's only two years younger than her creator, is considered a criminal in a futuristic, dystopian London because she's a "voyant," one of many in the population who connect into the dreamscape in various ways. Paige is one of the rarest kinds, a "dreamwalker" who can enter another person's mind.
It may sound cool, but it isn't a good thing in the year 2059 — a fascist security force called Scion rules the world's largest cities and has outlawed voyants. Paige, who works for a secret cell in the London underworld, accidentally kills a couple of Scion law-enforcement types, is captured and sent to a penal colony that holds voyants in what used to be the English city of Oxford.
Paste BN says *** out of four. "An impressive new voice for fantasy literature."
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride; Riverhead, 417 pp.; fiction
Henry "Onion" Shackleford, a young slave who disguises himself as a girl for his own safety, gets swept up in history after he is freed by abolitionist John Brown.
Paste BN says *** ½. "Outrageously entertaining …never has mayhem been this much of a humdinger."
Night Film by Marisha Pessl; Random House, 587 pp.; fiction
When horror film director Stanislas Cordova's beautiful 24-year-old daughter is found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft, a journalist resumes his aborted investigation of the notorious Cordova.
Paste BN says *** . "A suspenseful, sprawling page-turner…Pessl fashions an indelible character, a deeply enigmatic master of terrifying cinema."
Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love and Karaoke by Rob Sheffield; IT Books; 288 pp.; non-fiction
In his third memoir, Sheffield explores the healing properties of the much-mocked, beloved karaoke culture.
Paste BN says *** ½. Sheffield "makes a convincing argument that every man is destined to become Rod Stewart. That's not just hilarious, it's genius."
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison; Penguin, 326 pp., paperback original; fiction
In this debut novel being compared to Gone Girl, murder suddenly enters the equation when a younger woman threatens a couple's 20-year relationship.
Paste BN says *** ½ out of four. "The Silent Wife is just screaming to be heard -- it's a tantalizing talker for book groups."
Contributing reviewers: Brian Truitt; Kevin Nance; Claudia Puig; Korina Lopez; Jocelyn McClurg