Weekend picks for book lovers

What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for book lovers include Gail Godwin's likable memoir about her experiences in publishing.

Publishing: A Writer's Memoir by Gail Godwin; Bloomsbury; 224 pp.; non-fiction

Writing about writing should always be as practical as possible. It's fascinating to hear about how writers make money, what they take in the coffee they bring to their desks, how many pages they produce a week.

It's never nearly as fascinating to hear about inspiration. Parenthood is a similar subject, in a way – the experience is already so emotionally intense that only by describing it as sparely as possible can you avoid sounding hysterical.

Publishing, a new memoir by Gail Godwin, succeeds because it possesses this kind of wry matter-of-factness. Godwin, 77, has spent her life writing novels, and she takes us through it all, her first publications, the book tours she was sent on, the best-seller lists she hit.

Paste BN says *** out of four. "An agile, winning book … at its best moments of the same sensible good humor that makes Roger Angell, say, so pleasurable to read."

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins; Riverhead, 323 pp.; fiction

This twisty debut thriller from the U.K., 2015's answer to Gone Girl, features slick young suburban psychos in rotten marriages, and a buried body.

Paste BN says ***. "Hang on tight. You'll be surprised by what horrors lurk around the bend."

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 288 pp.; non-fiction

An account of how the USA got books into the hands of millions of GI's during World War II.

Paste BN says **** out of four. "Crisply written and compelling."

Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt; Scribner, 240 pp.; non-fiction

A memoir by the actor/comedian about being a serious film geek and what he's learned from his film obsession.

Paste BN says ***½. "Engaging … Oswalt's prose is sparkling."

Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar; Ballantine, 346 pp.; fiction

The sisters are the great English writer Virginia Woolf and the painter Vanessa Bell, and this historical novel focuses on the damage Virginia did to Vanessa's marriage in the early 1900s.

Paste BN says ***½. "Gossipy, entertaining … makes for some tasty, frothy Bloomsbury pie."

Contributing reviewers: Charles Finch, Jocelyn McClurg, Matt Damsker, Claudia Puig