Ready for some super summer reading recs? We asked Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times arts critic and author of the debut novel “Storybook Ending,” to share some of the books currently crowding her nightstand (virtual and physical). Come celebrate the release of “Storybook Ending” with Moira on Wednesday, May 28 at the Central Library! Registration is required; register here.
Nightstand reads? Try multiple-piles-on-the-floor-that-I-trip-on-in-the-middle-of-the-night reads. Yes, I have a book problem: I would always rather read than write, and living close to both a Seattle Public Library branch and a new/used bookstore means that I always have something to tempt me away from the blank screen. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve recently finished, or can’t wait to start.
“Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir” by Tessa Hulls. I’m so lucky to be able to sometimes read great books (or watch great movies) as part of my job. As prep for an interview with Tessa, just after she won the Pulitzer Prize for memoir/autobiography, I immersed myself in her gorgeous and deeply personal book, written in such a way that you feel that the author is speaking directly to the reader, from her heart. Hulls delicately mines three generations of trauma in her family, against the backdrop of twentieth-century Chinese history; the result is a deeply moving work of art, and a labor of love.
“Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect” by Benjamin Stevenson. Absolute catnip for this mystery lover: a posh train; a closed-door murder; a motley assortment of crime writers poised to solve the case; a narrator who’s genuinely funny and slyly self-aware, dazzling us by simultaneously telling and deconstructing the story. Now I need to go back and read Stevenson’s first, the alluringly titled “Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone.”
“The Paris Express” by Emma Donoghue. Is there a train theme emerging here? Maybe! I’m a huge fan of Donoghue (particularly “The Wonder” and “Frog Music”), and this one sounded irresistible: set entirely on a steam train travelling from Normandy to Paris on an October day in 1895, with an array of passengers rich and poor – one of whom, we learn early, is an anarchist armed with a bomb. The train itself is a character here, which is a pretty audacious twist that most authors wouldn’t dare, but Donoghue absolutely makes it work. I’m midway through and have no idea how this story will end – which is exactly where a reader wants to be.
“Audition” by Katie Kitamura. This one, like “The Paris Express,” was a Peak Pick that I picked up at SPL; it’s a slim novel that I’m hoping I can get to before it’s due back. (Who needs sleep?) I loved Kitamura’s “A Separation,” and “Audition” sounds like it might have a similarly alluring, shimmery strangeness: It’s the simple-sounding story of two people meeting for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant; one is an accomplished actress, the other is – well, we don’t quite know, but I can’t wait to find out.
“Long Island,” by Colm Toibin. My mother lent me this one, and I’ve been hanging on to it (sorry, Mom!) because I haven’t yet found the perfect time to read it. A sequel to Toibin’s beautiful “Brooklyn,” in which we first met Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey, this book takes place in 1970s Long Island, where Eilis receives an unexpected visit that rocks the foundations of her world. Toibin writes like a dream, and I’m just waiting for a calm weekend to lose myself in this book.
“Marble Hall Murders,” by Anthony Horowitz. As I write this, Horowitz’s latest isn’t on shelves yet (its publication date is May 13), but I’m counting the days. This is the third of a three-book series featuring editor/detective Susan Ryeland, and each of them alluringly entangles a present-day mystery with a fictional Golden Age crime. (The previous two, “Magpie Murders” and “Moonflower Murders” are terrific, and have also been wonderfully adapted for television.) Susan, a middle-aged Londoner, is my dream heroine: smart, bookish, absolutely unflappable, and possessed of a delightfully sporty little red roadster. May this book speed its way into my hands.
Moira Macdonald is the longtime arts critic for The Seattle Times, writing primarily about movies, television, books and dance. “Storybook Ending” is her first novel. It has sold in 19 international territories and will be out in the U.S on May 27.
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