Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN’s picks for book lovers include the entertaining new novel by Maria Semple and a couple of edifying kids' picture books timed to the election.
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple; Little, Brown, 259 pp.; fiction
Maria Semple (Where’d You Go, Bernadette) is funny — a quality rarer than it should be among literary writers.
Today Will Be Different looks at a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, a dispirited, disorganized misanthrope who has gone from animation director of a popular TV show to full-time wife and mother. Her husband, Joe, is a renowned hand surgeon in the employ of the Seattle Seahawks; their 8-year-old son, Timby, is a student at Galer Street School.
Eleanor has an old book deal in her pocket, and an all-but-abandoned graphic memoir furnishes her answer to the question “What are you doing now?” Meanwhile, her actual day-to-day involves no work and a whole lot of existential dread. But today, she decides, will be different.
Her goals are modest, but unsurprisingly, things do not go as planned. Timby fakes a stomachache to get out of school; when Eleanor takes him by Joe’s office, she discovers her husband has told his employees he’s on vacation with his family — the first she has heard of such a trip. An accidental lunch with an old acquaintance breaks the thin skin that protects her deepest, most secretive wound.
Paste BN says *** out of four stars. “An unruly romp…wholly enjoyable, even downright hard to put down.”
Grover Cleveland, Again! A Treasury of American Presidents; written by Ken Burns, illustrated by Gerald Kelley; Knopf, 96 pp., for ages 10 and up; non-fiction
America’s most famous documentarian has turned his eye to American presidents, finding fresh and kid-friendly ways to present them to young readers. Each president gets his own two-page spread.
Paste BN says ***½ stars. “Burns brings welcome attention to presidents who aren’t named Lincoln or Washington.”
Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles ; written by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Hadley Hooper, Candlewick Press, 40 pp., ages 5-8; non-fiction
Around America to Win the Vote follows the long road journey of Nell Richardson and Alice Burke, who traveled America in 1916 to raise awareness for women’s suffrage.
Paste BN says *** stars. “Both whimsical and reverential… Their little yellow car and kitten companion will immediately endear them to readers.”
Daisy in Chains by Sharon Bolton; Minotaur, 352 pp.; fiction
A charismatic British doctor in prison for murdering overweight women — who insists on his innocence — enlists the help of Maggie Rose, an icily skeptical true-crime author.
Paste BN says ***½ stars. “Intelligent, eerie, compulsively readable.”
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen; Simon & Schuster, 528 pp.; non-fiction
The iconic rocker, now 67, writes a memoir and reveals his battle with depression and difficult relationship with his father.
Paste BN says **** stars. “Reading his intimate look back on a remarkable yet troubled life, it’s safe to say that Bruce’s aesthetic wouldn’t be complete without this long-form Song of Springsteen. It’s the lyric he was born to write.”
Contributing reviewers: Steph Cha, Eliot Schrefer, Charles Finch, Matt Damsker