Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN’s picks for book lovers include a dazzling new debut novel by Julia Pierpont, and a thrilling real-life spy story.
Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont; Random House, 336 pp.; fiction
It’s an old story, a family in crisis — maybe the oldest, if you start with Adam and Eve. The fallout of infidelity, its effect on spouses and children, the rending of bonds between all concerned? Been there, done that, in novels since the form took shape a few centuries ago. And in an era when half of all marriages fail, isn’t adultery old hat?
Not when the story is told as it is in Julia Pierpont’s debut novel, Among the Ten Thousand Things. The book, which made news for having been sold at auction for six figures while the author was still in the MFA program at New York University, pulls off the difficult feat of making something old seem new again.
Part of the newness comes from Pierpont’s canny use of technology and pop-cultural tropes as narrative mechanisms. The extramarital affair between a successful New York City artist named Jack and a young woman is revealed when the latter sends a package of his printed (and sexually explicit) emails and chat logs to his wife, Deb.
The package is intercepted, innocently, by their 11-year-old daughter, Kay, who promptly shares it with her 15-year-old brother, Simon, who just as promptly hands it off to their mother.
Paste BN says ***1/2 out of four. “Told freshly and with consummate skill… (an) astonishingly precocious debut.”
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman; Doubleday, 336 pp.; non-fiction
The inside story of Adolf Tolkachev, a radar engineer who became the first active Soviet citizen working as a spy for the United States inside his country in the late 1970s.
Paste BN says *** ½. “Gripping and nerve-wracking… reads like the most taut and suspenseful parts of (John le Carre’s) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Smiley’s People.”
What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss; Random House, 48 pp., ages 4 and up
A brother and sister go to the pet store with permission from Mom and Dad to “pick just one” pet to bring home by noon, in this newly discovered title from the beloved “doctor.”
Paste BN says ***. “Look for tiny beginning readers who are just sharpening their critics’ pencils to flash a big thumbs-up for this cute entry into the Seuss canon…it’s hard not to smile at this retro charmer.”
The Governor’s Wife by Michael Harvey; Knopf, 238 pp.; fiction
An anonymous emailer asks investigator Michael Kelly to look for a dirty former Illinois governor who has disappeared with a lot of money rather than go to jail.
Paste BN says ***1/2. “Masterful, adroit and quick-moving.”
All Dogs Go to Kevin: Everything Three Dogs Taught Me (That I Didn't Learn in Veterinary School) by Jessica Vogelsang; Grand Central; 336 pp.; non-fiction
A memoir about her professional and personal life, by a San Diego veterinarian.
Paste BN says ***1/2. “With humor, grace and a wonderfully deft way with words, (Vogelsang) escorts us through the trials of vet school and the ups, downs and surprises of a small-animal practice in San Diego.”
Contributing reviewers: Kevin Nance, Ray Locker, Jocelyn McClurg, Charles Finch, Sharon Peters