Our editorial staff picked a few books from our “to read” shelf—here’s what we found.
Awkward Family Photos (Three Rivers Press)
By Mike Bender ’97 and Doug Chernack
If you haven’t had a good belly laugh in a while, run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and pick up Awkward Family Photos. Based on a popular Web site of the same name, the book captures the essence of that posed, often painfully arranged, usually completely unnatural family photo that is sitting on the mantel at home. The humor is universal, whether you’ve ever had to sit for such a photo or not, and Bender and Chernack have intentionally kept it good-natured. Divided into camera-worthy topics, the book covers everything from vacations to Grandma and Grandpa, with fitting, laugh-out-loud captions and stories that lend an added dimension to the embarrassing portraits. But in the end, as the authors point out in their introduction, the book isn’t about how families may choose to depict themselves; it’s about “celebrating the family experience and shining a light on all of those deliciously awkward moments that come with the price of membership.”
Midnight Fires
(Perseverance Press)
By Nancy Means Wright, MA French ’65
For anyone who enjoys historical fiction rich in the flavor of the period, Midnight Fires offers an intriguing view of the 18th century. Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist and the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein, is the story’s central figure. Unwilling to accept her culturally assigned role as a subservient, lower- class female, Mary fulfills her appointment as governess to Ireland’s aristocratic Kingsborough family with independent resolve. During her voyage to Ireland, a sailor aboard the ship begs Mary to deliver a letter for him, and then he falls, or is stabbed and pushed, overboard. Thus begins a mystery that unfolds around Mary, compelling her to act. The story is richly told, with fascinating historical details, from descriptions of personal hygiene and fashion to the trauma experienced by a female asleep in her remote castle bedroom and considered to be fair game in the middle of the night.
Siren
(Egmont)
By Tricia Rayburn ’00
Siren is a great read for the beach. In fact, this young-adult suspense thriller unfolds on the beaches and craggy cliffs of Winter Harbor, Maine, where nothing is what it seems—from a bizarre pattern of violent storms that hit only the tiny village to a rash of smiling corpses washed up on shore. The story is told by 17-year-old Vanessa, a beautiful, brainy, mouselike girl who is scared of everything. Still reeling from the suspicious death of her charismatic older sister, she gradually discovers her own temerity, along with a slew of eerie secrets, as she searches for answers in a town that’s coming unhinged. Intelligently written and fast paced, this is Rayburn’s first foray into young-adult fiction (she also wrote the tween-focused Maggie Bean series) and it’s a seamless transition. Nudging into the crowded field of supernatural page turners, Rayburn is very effective at tapping themes on the minds of her teen audience—including romance, loss, self-discovery, parental relationships, peer acceptance—and wrapping it all up in an edgy, irresistible narrative.
Wise Ones of Mull:
A Gift of Vision
By Helen Prentice ’47
Steeped in the richness of Scottish folklore, yet set in a real place in real time, this book weaves an enchanting story of a young girl born with the gift of vision used by the Wise Women to understand and influence the natural world. Taking place on the Isle of Mull in the 16th century, the tale blends historical events and politics with a magical, mystical element that is seen through the eyes of Ishbel as she learns her ancient craft. Apprenticed to Anna, the Wise One called the Doidag, Ishbel witnesses the Doidag’s power as ships sink at sea and a gold-laden Spanish galleon is blown up; a changeling left in a crib by the Gentle Ones is exposed and the stolen baby returned; and a young playwright is inexorably drawn from London to Mull for a purpose unknown to him. As Ishbel learns her lessons—the magical and the practical—she herself becomes a Wise One and faces challenges and dangers she must use all her powers to avert.
Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs
(Algonquin Books)
By Heather Lende ’81
In choosing to frame each chapter of her latest memoir with an epigraph of Episcopalian wisdom, it’s clear Heather Vuillet Lende has experienced something life changing since we last met her in the more lighthearted If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name. To learn that the experience was one of being run over by a truck and nearly killed is startling; her straightforward account is not. Lende’s style is simple and sincere, as she writes comfortably of ordinary days and nights in her hometown of Haines, Alaska. She cans jam from berries she picks with her daughter, smokes salmon she buys from a friend, and attends Native Alaskan Tlingit ceremonies among her neighbors and friends. And even though these activities are far from ordinary for most readers, she has a way of welcoming you into her world that makes them seem so.
Sixty to Zero
(Yale University Press)
By Alex Taylor III ’67
Alex Taylor, a journalist with more than three decades of experience writing about the auto industry, chronicles the collapse of General Motors and the foibles of the big three American automakers over the past 50 years in Sixty to Zero. The personalities of the top executives—Roger Smith, Lee Iacocca, John Z. DeLorean, and others—blossom into vivid, attention-grabbing characters as Taylor’s account unfolds. Striking just the right tone with his personal, narrative voice, Taylor takes the reader from his childhood in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, during the “car-crazy fifties” to his career-long quest to discover the plans, potentials, and intrigues of the car companies. The story that emerges is as fascinating and complex as the characters and personalities of the men running the shows. But this book is much more than a recitation of auto business plans and failures aimed at car buffs and business-school case studies. By focusing on his personal experiences and his impressions of the major players in the American auto industry, Taylor has given his readers a delightful, historical narrative to ponder at this critical juncture of our economy.
—Susie Davis Patterson ’67
Life After Favre:
A Season of Change with the Green Bay Packers and Their Fans
(Skyhorse Publishing)
By Phil Hanrahan ’86
During the summer of 2008, when Green Bay Packers fans were left to agonize over their team’s indecision about the future of All-Pro quarterback Brett Favre, Phil Hanrahan decided to pack up, move to Green Bay, spend a year as a Packer “Cheesehead,” and chronicle the experience. He takes readers inside the training camp and into the Packers’ locker room, like any accomplished sportswriter would. But the author delves deeper into the Packers mystique: he visits a Packers’ shareholders meeting (convened in the bleachers of Lambeau Field!), travels in a front-row seat on the Green Bay tour bus, offers reflections on the origins of the team, and takes excursions to Packers eating and drinking establishments across the land. Along the way Hanrahan comes to internalize what it means to be a Packers fan and to enjoy the hospitality of the locals, even though Favre never returns to the team and Green Bay finishes the season a disappointing (but not surprising) 6-10 without him.