Longbourn by Jo Baker (2013)

As I've mentioned before, I do love a good Jane Austen spinoff, take-off, adaptation or reference.  And occasionally, they are awfully good.

Quite a buzzy title this year, Longbourn follows the household staff of the families in Pride & Prejudice.  When I first heard about this, I thought it was going to be quite focused on another perspective on the Bennets and the Bingleys, but it turned out to be quite different.

Baker uses the setting as the springboard for a completely different story, one that really examines the inner lives and work of the household staff, and what having such a position in those times really meant.  As someone who loves a good supporting character, I loved the way the original story of Pride & Prejudice touches the servants only as it relates to their lives.

This is a beautifully researched novel, vividly realistic and a fresh take on a classic story.  Definitely one of the best of the Austen-inspired novels out there.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (2013)

Reading this book was exactly like visiting an old friend.  Bridget is the same darn character we've seen through trials and tribulations and some awfully bad decisions, but she's awfully fun to hang out with.

It was also lovely to catch up with her hilarious friend Tom, note-perfect mess Daniel Cleaver, and her parents as well.  I did miss Shazzer like crazy, and thought there was a bit too much Jude. Very, very fun.

Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson (2012)

Listened to this memoir on audio and loved, loved, loved it.

Marcus Samuelsson was adopted from Ethiopia (along with his sister) by a family in Sweden. He grew up with a grandmother who loved cooking and cooking for people and became a chef. This book chronicles his whole life, but especially his journey to becoming one of the top chefs in the world, working in Sweden and Europe before coming to New York City, where he was the Executive Chef at Aquavit and then opened his own restaurant Red Rooster in Harlem. 

Along the way, he also explores his own Ethiopian heritage, and getting in touch with his birth family. Just a beautifully told story, narrated by Samuelsson himself in his own charming accent. Wonderfully insightful into his journey as a black cook and the challenges and greatest moments. And he speaks so interestingly about race, how it affects his work in kitchens, and his experience coming to America as a black, but not African American, cook. Through the entire story, Samuelsson is always humble and always kind. 

Just a wonderful story, wonderfully told.

Mr. Lynch's Holiday by Catherine O'Flynn (2013)

Despite the fact that she's only written a few books, Catherine O'Flynn is one of those authors that I will request and read her books without reading a single word of the description.  (See also her amazing What Was Lost.)

This short novel is about Dermot Lynch, a widower who travels to a town in Spain where his son Eamonn has purchased a condo and emigrated with his wife.  As the novel begins, Eamonn's wife has just left him and he is unemployed when his father drops in for a visit from England.

Terribly poignant and just a lovely, lovely story of the complex relationship between an adult child and his father (and vice versa).  As always with O'Flynn you get a little something extra, and this time, it's a fascinating look at expatriate communities, not just the one Eamonn lives in Spain, but also his father's in England and so on. Just lovely.

Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann (2013)

In my ever-enduring quest to point out the excellent novels hidden in plain sight on the racks of the many enticingly-covered trade paperbacks found on your local library shelves, I present Astor Place Vintage.

Amanda Rosenblum runs a vintage clothes shop in Manhattan and, during the course of accepting a consignment of clothing from an elderly woman, finds a journal written by Olive Westcott, a woman who moved to Manhattan in 1907.

It's a novel with much affection for New York and a very strong sense of place, both Old New York and new.  The chapters alternate between the two narrators very skillfully--often a tricky thing for writers to accomplish.  Rather than try to depict Olive's story completely through her journal, Lehmann includes a paragraph from Olive's diary, and then the chapter goes off into Olive's POV and narration. 

I was not enamored of Amanda's character, due to her enormously bad judgment in her personal affairs, but liked the novel very much anyway and found both stories equally compelling.  Well written and pretty well researched, it also includes some charming photos of old New York--very much a novel for anyone who loves New York City.

Mr. Darcy Forever by Victoria Connelly (2012)

I am the first to admit:  few things entice me more than There are few things I love more than a trashy fiction made slightly less trashy by the invoking of the great name of Austen.  That is, I love a good Jane Austen spin-off (and a bad one).

I was at Barnes & Noble, perusing their lovely Austen spinoff fiction shelf, and could not resist the cover of this one. 

 This novel is rather strange, but compulsively readable.  It's about two sisters who parted ways three years ago, and the chapters unfold the story of their split, trading off between the perspectives of the two characters. Really draws out in full, slow detail the story of how the sisters parted ways.  To be honest, the male characters are rather cardboard-ish and the relationships simplistic.  HOWEVER, the story of the sisters traveling to Bath for the Jane Austen Festival is so very, very fun. It has a very strong sense of Bath, and is very fun to read and revisit the places of Bath.  It's also terrifically full of fun Jane Austen references.  Although I had some issues with the characters and storyline, I also could NOT stop reading this book.  And I'm famous for my book intolerance and impatience, so that's saying something.  And I immediately dashed out and requested (and read) Victoria Connelly's other two Austen books: A Weekend with Mr. Darcy and Dreaming of Mr. Darcy.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (2013)

I absolutely adored Eleanor & Park.  Adored.  So I was terribly excited to read her newest young adult novel, Fangirl.

This is a charming young adult novel--a bit slighter than Eleanor & Park--but a charming novel nonetheless about twin sisters Cath and Wren starting college and going their own separate ways.

The story is told mostly from the perspective of Cath, the shyer, more awkward sister, and portrays her struggle with social anxiety with vivid realism.  Cath is a huge Simon Snow fan and has been writing Simon Snow fanfiction for years.  She's built up a huge fan base, but is feeling unexpectedly challenged by her fiction-writing class.  She has to figure out how to balance her love of writing fanfiction with writing fiction, and how to be her own person at college.  As always, Rowell writes wonderfully vivid characters and touchingly realistic situations.

After a controversy erupted here in a local school district about her book Eleanor & Park (check out Linda Holmes's wonderful Monkey See blog for a great rundown on the whole situation), Rowell came to Minnesota for an author visit and I am very happy to report that she is every bit as delightful as her books.  If you ever get the chance to see her speak, I highly recommend it!

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (2013)

I really rather liked this large, semi-sprawling novel about six friends who meet at arts camp in the 1970s and whose lives remain connected through their lives as they take different paths through life.

I loved the look at the complications of long-term friendship and how you can love someone and have mixed feelings about them as well. I thought Wolitzer (a writer I'd never really warmed to before this) did a marvelous job with the wanderings about in time and changing viewpoint from character to character.  Darn solid characterization and relationships. And isn't that cover gorgeous?

While looking online for the cover artist info, I was reminded of the fascinating  piece that Meg Wolitzer wrote last year for the New York Times called The Second Shelf: On the Rules of Literary Fiction for Men and Women which discussed how literary fiction by women authors tends to get dismissed as "women's fiction" and literary fiction by men is held in higher regard.  Much discussion on this topic emerged, and Bookslut, one of the best literary blogs, talked to Wolitzer about it in their interview with her this year.  Fascinating reading!

By the way, cover artist info is surprisingly hard to find online!  I will add the cover artist info as soon as I can get a copy of the book into my actual hands.

The Stench of Honolulu by Jack Handey (2013)

 

Sometimes a book just stays with you--more than you expect. This is one of those books.

I checked this out after reading a fascinating piece in the New York Times magazine called Jack Handey Is the Envy of Every Comedy Writer in America and realizing, hey, Jack Handey (of Deep Thoughts fame really IS a real person and, incidentally, a comedy legend).

The Stench of Honolulu is a wildly weird, eccentric and surreal novel. Short and not at all sweet, with a perfect weird joke in nearly every paragraph. Absolutely original, hilarious and delightful. There's really not much else to say.

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty (2013)

Liane Moriarty is quickly becoming one of my Adored Authors. 

Kirkus Reviews says: "Moriarty may be an edgier, more provocative and bolder successor to Maeve Binchy" and it's true.  I've long felt that Liane Moriarty and Maeve Binchy were long-lost sister writers, setting their stories in Australia and Ireland respectively, but sharing the same amazing characterization and beautifully written relationships, artfully weaving the lives of their characters together and creating wonderfully realistic and insightful novels.

In The Husband's Secret, Cecelia, perfect mother and wife, finds a letter in her attic from her husband saying "to be opened in the case of his death."  Sooooo .... Does she open it? 

In addition, we meet a number of other fascinating characters: Tess, whose husband just confessed to falling in love with Tess's cousin and closest friend, and Rachel, a mother and now grandmother who's still struggling with the murder of her daughter many years ago.  All three of these women's lives are intertwined in complex and delicate ways, and their stories unfold in a most compelling fashion.  Just a fabulous story, beautifully told.