❉❉
❉
H A P P Y H O L I D AY S
Local book sellers’
Top picks ❉
Staff members from Books Inc., Kepler’s list this year’s favorites
W
ith the holiday season upon us, we asked local booksellers Kepler’s and Books Inc. to recommend their staffs’ top five picks for 2011. Here are some of their favorites, which range from biographies to historical fiction. “Steve Jobs,” Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster: Although written with Jobs’ cooperation, this biography offers a candid and often painfully truthful look at his life and career. Isaacson interviewed a variety of people associated with Jobs, both personally and professionally, many of whom openly painted both the good and the bad aspects of the late Apple leader. Aside from the book’s in-depth look at Jobs the man, it is also a history of the most exciting time in the age of computers, as well as a textbook study of the rise and fall and rise of Apple and the brutal conflicts that ruined friendships and careers. And it is a gadget lover’s dream, with fabulous, inside accounts of how the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad came into being. Having spent most of my life as a Silicon Valley-ite, I was fascinated by the insights into this brilliant, charming, loathsome, maddening, obsessive, complicated, and very private man. (Pam Grange, Kepler’s) “Boomerang,” Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton & Company Inc.: With his trademark readability, Lewis makes this book
about the European debt crisis easy to enjoy. He takes us through the history of the crisis, but adds to this some interesting and thought-provoking ideas about how the national traits of each troubled country may have played into the ensuing mess. You may find yourself repeating parts of this incredible story to anyone who will listen, or urging them to read it themselves. I can’t remember when I found a book about finance to be so engaging, and though ignorance maybe bliss, I think this time around it pays to be more informed. This book will help get you there, painlessly. (Linda Reid, Books Inc.) “The Cat’s Table,” Michael Ondaatje, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.: Three young boys set off on a three-week voyage bound for England. They pursue their own interests and intrigues with only slight supervision from a distant aunt and a glamorous cousin. Their home base is established at the first ship’s dinner — they sit at the “cat’s table” set for single passengers, far from the captain’s glittery table. They take to the journey with
❉ the thrill of a chase, often underfoot and always observant. I savored the boys’ roaming and chaotic behavior, picturing their wildness and unmasked joy of youth. Ondaatje’s beautiful and elegant storytelling skills weave magic and discovery into the book’s stories; back and forth through time, from incidents during the trip to their adult reminiscences of it, and its lifealtering impact. (Marilyn Smith, Kepler’s) “We the Animals,” Justin Torres, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company: “We the Animals” is my favorite book of 2011. This short autobiographical novel about three young brothers, their Puerto Rican father and white mother, is a roller-coaster ride of powerful images, flashing before our eyes: the boys’ childhood in upstate New York, their abusive father, drinking, sex, poverty, violence, brotherhood and ultimately love. This book is made of moments of light and darkness, with a rhythm of a song, written in a language so precise, and so raw, you’ll want to read it aloud to experience the sound of its wild joy, with your “heart ticking like a bomb.” (Aggie Zivaljevic, Kepler’s) “11/23/63: A Novel,” Stephen King, Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.: The master-storyteller has done it again. And this time it’s something completely different: a time-travel tale of the highest caliber. A portal to 1958 is discovered in the pantry of a diner in a small town in Maine, and schoolteacher Jake Epping is given the task (by the dying owner of the diner), to
go back to 1958, live through the next few years, and kill Lee Harvey Oswald before Oswald shoots JFK. What Jake discovers, though, is that the past is obdurate and does not want to change. Many obstacles (and a tall, beautiful librarian) are thrown in Jake’s path as he attempts his task. Along the way we learn many details of Oswald’s life (surprisingly interesting) and are exposed to rich details of life in mid-20th-century America. The surprise ending is the finishing masterful touch to this gem of a novel. (Lori Haggbloom, Books, Inc.) “The Outlaw Album,” Daniel Woodrell, Little Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group: Daniel Woodrell has aptly called his writing “country noir,” and his newest book, “The Outlaw Album,” does not disappoint. It’s a collection of stories that I found incredibly engaging. Woodrell writes with candor and authenticity. His descriptions are lush. The dialogue is mesmerizing. The tension is metered so well, the first page is just as See BOOKS, page 16
DECEMBER 2, 2011 ■ MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE ■
15