Weekend books for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN’s picks for book lovers include a new non-fiction look at the fall of the Shah of Iran, and Jacqueline Woodson's coming-of-age novel, Another Brooklyn.
The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran by Andrew Scott Cooper; Henry Holt, 499 pp.; non-fiction
It almost seems as if Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, aka the Shah of Iran, wasn’t ruling a great nation so much as auditioning for a blockbuster miniseries. He had it all: a beautiful queen, mistresses galore, absolute power, corrupt kin, and a hedonistic daughter turned Islamic fanatic.
The archvillain in this drama, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, made Lex Luthor look like a milquetoast.
In reality, the Shah, who fled Iran in 1979 and died the following year, was a serious ruler whose successes and failures have had a profound effect on the world right up to the present. He was instrumental in turning oil into a geopolitical weapon and bringing the bugaboo of nuclear power to Iran. Had he staved off Khomeini, the Middle East might be far less tumultuous today.
In The Fall of Heaven, Andrew Scott Cooper brings the Shah, along with his colorful retinue and turbulent times, back to life. It is revisionist history in parts — and mostly sympathetic to the king and his queen Farah.
Paste BN says ***½ out of four stars. “Thoroughly researched and richly detailed.”
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson; Amistad, 175 pp.; fiction
The author of Brown Girl Dreaming returns with an adult novel narrated by August, who is 8 years old in 1973 when she arrives in New York with her father and younger brother, a black family in white-flight Brooklyn.
Paste BN says *** stars. “For all the tough lessons she delivers, Woodson also writes with a consistent warmth and compassion.”
The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood; Norton, 358 pp., fiction
A woman who discovers her husband is cheating belongs to a quirky book club whose theme for the year is the books that had the most impact on their lives.
Paste BN says *** stars. “Deserves a spot on your summer reading list…Hood’s novel is rich with pleasures.”
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead; Doubleday, 320 pp., fiction
In this novel about slavery — Oprah Winfrey’s latest book club selection — the railroad of the title becomes an actual means of physical transportation, which the heroine, Cora, uses to flee her brutal existence on a Georgia plantation.
Paste BN says ***½ stars. A “vivid, heart-clutching narative …one of the finest novels written about our country’s still unabsolved original sin.”
Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon by Larry Tye; Random House, 608 pp.; non-fiction
Biography looks at RFK’s evolution from a cold-war minion of Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s to the beacon of liberalism he became.
Paste BN says *** stars. “Captures RFK’s rise and fall with straightforward prose bolstered by impressive research.”
Contributing reviewers: David Holahan, Mark Athiakis, Patty Rhule, Charles Finch, Matt Damsker