HOW TO FIND THE GOOD ONES
by
Nick DiMartino and Nancy Pearl
In November, 2004, I had a conversation about the best books of the year with nationally-recognized Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust, popular NPR commentator and former librarian at Seattle Public Library.
There’s nothing a book-addict wants more than tips on where to find the next satisfying book. Out of the thousands of books hitting bookstores every year, how does any reader find the good ones?
The two of us put our heads together. How exactly did we find the books that satisfied us?
NICK: One thing’s for sure. People who find the right books end up loving to read. What do you look for, Nancy, when you browse through a book in a bookstore? What are the tips and clues that lead you toward good books?
NANCY: I'm first attracted by the cover of the book. Then I read the blurb on the dust jacket, and then I read the first sentence. If that's all inviting, I'm a goner and have to give the book a try. I am always looking for new books by favorite authors – Neal Stephenson, Anne Tyler, John Irving, Antonya Nelson, Richard Morgan, John McPhee, Lee Child, Mark Kurlansky – but I’m also looking for first novels or books on subjects that I enjoy, like history, India, and political science. I also read a lot of reviews, but I read them not to see what the reviewer thought of the book but instead how he or she describes the book – whether or not the characters seem interesting, how well-written the book sounds. And I always get suggestions from my friends. How about you?
NICK: First, the cover, yes. But I avoid reading the jacket copy. I don’t want any clues to the story. I want to be surprised. I open to the first page, read a paragraph or two. I look for an “I” in the writing, because lately all I want to read is first-person narrative, seeing the world through the limited viewpoint of one person, guessing at other people's motivations and often guessing at your own. I’m not in the mood for authors who tell me exactly what happened and what people are thinking and feeling. To me, it's more realistic to guess, to interpret incorrectly until you discover the truth. Someone said, "Misunderstanding is the root of all evil," and I believe that. I want to see through someone else’s eyes what life is all about, what matters, what’s worth doing, the author’s vision of life.
NANCY: Isn’t that interesting? Here we are, two addicted readers, reading by and large totally different kinds of books – what does that say about the world of literature?
NICK: What were your favorite reading experiences last year?
NANCY: My favorites of 2004 were Philip Roth's chilling The Plot Against America and Adam Langer's wonderful first novel Crossing California. I could only bear to read a little of The Plot Against America at a time, because a palpable sense of dread emanates from every page. I think readers will really have to ask themselves if that sort of thing could happen here. I answer that question differently depending on my current level of pessimism.
NICK: I haven’t heard of the second book you mentioned.
NANCY: In Crossing California Adam Langer uses an affectionately satirical tone to describe the lives of a group of a group of teenagers, their families, and their friends, so that the effect is of having someone plopping himself down next to you, at a party perhaps, telling you stories about his life. The amazingly three-dimensional characters remain in your mind long after you close the book, especially his fascinating teenager, Michelle Wasserstrom.
NICK: This year, to my amazement, my favorite books were not novels, but memoirs. I was spellbound by Quang Van Nguyen’s Fourth Uncle in the Mountain, about a brave, funny little orphan in Vietnam learning the ancient healing arts, and Dominika Dery’s The Twelve Little Cakes, about growing up too short for ballet in Communist Czechoslovakia. Honest attempts to tell the truth, simple and clear language, hilarious and endearing characters – I’ve read them both twice, and could read them again.
NANCY: I usually love memoirs, but this year my favorites were novels. I loved Susanna Clarke's fantasy about two warring magicians, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and Neal Stephenson's triumphant conclusion to the Baroque Trilogy, The System of the World – I think he’s just brilliant. Liam Callanan’s The Cloud Atlas is beautifully written and taught me something about World War Two. The Hamilton Case by Michelle De Kretser takes place in a part of the world I’m totally in love with, southern Asia – in this case, Sri Lanka.
NICK: I haven’t read any of those! For me it was Ha Jin’s War Trash, a profound novel set in an American POW camp in Korea that practically left scars on my brain, it was so intense. Heavyweight Jose Saramago proved he could be hilarious in The Double. Russell Banks tried to show me the real meaning of revolution in his gorgeous, sobering shocker set in Liberia, The Darling. Jonathan Tropper’s The Book of Joe has a gay-straight friendship with all the heart of a Capra movie, and Marjane Satrapi completed her two-volume cartoon-strip memoir with the brilliant Persepolis 2. For sheer old-fashioned storytelling, Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind was hard to beat. The best new Latin American novel in years is Edmundo Paz Soldan’s The Matter of Desire – talk about a jaw-dropping surprise ending. And then, of course, there’s Edward P. Jones’ The Known World.
NANCY: What a book! The Known World really deserved every award it got – it's well written, illuminates a little known aspect of the past, and makes you think.
NICK: I discovered Wendell Berry this year. His new Hannah Coulter was not only gorgeously written, but it helped me understand the other half of America in my post-election depression.
NANCY: What I love about Wendell Berry's books is that reading them is like listening to a master storyteller - you're lulled into that Port William, Kentucky world he's created in so many of his books. I'd also recommend his Jayber Crow.
NICK: For sheer gripping objectivity and the highest journalistic standards, I was hypnotized by Jon Lee Anderson’s The Fall of Baghdad. Talk about shining a light on the Iraq situation. Suddenly I could read between the lines, and the headlines made sense.
NANCY: I always read Jon Lee Anderson's work in The New Yorker - his writing is so incisive and provocative. The Fall of Baghdad is no exception. I am in awe of anyone who has the guts to report from war zones! But the non-fiction I most enjoyed was Steve Coll’s insightful and thought-provoking Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden.
NICK: Brave books like Asne Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul and Sayed Kashua’s Dancing Arabs helped open my mind and heart to the predicament of Afghani women and Arab-Israelis.
NANCY: Don’t overlook Alice Munro's Runaway. She’s probably our best living short story writer. And Malcolm Gladwell’s follow-up to The Tipping Point is his equally interesting Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking . Don’t forget Stella Rimington's At Risk. And my favorite nature writer, Craig Childs, has a new book, The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival.
NICK: I’ve got some new favorites, too. On January 31 in Nick’s Book Club we’ll be discussing John Falk’s harrowing and hilarious adventure in Sarajevo, Hello to All That: A Memoir of War, Zoloft and Peace, and on February 28 the topic will be 25-year-old Rattawat Lapcharoensap’s superb collection of insightful, touching stories set in Thailand, Sightseeing. Unless, of course, I find even better books. And I’m always looking. And so are you, Nancy. Two different readers, two different lists. I think the message is to follow your loves, and you’ll find the good ones. Make your own list.
NANCY: Just talking about so many good books makes me want to go home and read right now.
NICK: Exactly what I’m going to do! A good book, a comfortable armchair and a cat in my lap, now that’s happiness.