Beebe Library suggests trying some new authors in the New Year

It is January — a new year, the first week and the first month of the New Year. In that spirit, this is a great time to try something new or read a new author. There is an abundance of good debuts from excellent writers available this year at the Beebe Library.

Due out this month is Erica Bauermeister’s The School of Essential Ingredients. This is a tasty novel that tells the story of a different character in each section. According to Booklist, “the effect is a series of pearl-like vignettes stretched out along a narrative string.” Both the unifying character (and clever plot device) is each character’s participation in a cooking class run by Lillian, a restaurateur who encourages her cooks to use their senses as well as the recipes.

Rode Fishburne‘s Going to See the Elephant is a sweet and funny debut that offers comic-book-like entertainment and puts a clever spin on the superhero story. Slater Brown arrives in San Francisco intent on becoming a writer and stumbles upon unlikely mentors and coincidences. He also acquires mysterious powers and becomes a star reporter who rescues the fate of the newspaper.

Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun is a gritty and empathetic coming-of-age tale. It confronts the differences between lust and love, the poison of racism, the suffering of the unloved, and the fierce survival instincts and adaptability of young people like the narrator, Joon, the neglected child of Korean immigrants. Joon tells her story of why and how she runs away from her severely depressed mother and their 1980s Bronx home.

Already in Beebe Library’s adult Fiction collection are some novels that made their debut in 2008. Anne Cushman’s Enlightenment for Idiots follows Amanda, a 29-year-old yoga teacher in California on a tumultuous journey to India and back, as she researches a guidebook on finding inner peace.

Preeta Samarasan’s Evening is the Whole Day is a wise and beautiful novel in which the author links the sorrows of one distraught family to Malaysia’s bloody conflicts.

Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle is a classic redemption story with a hero so cynical and damaged that it seems unlikely that he will ever reach for or even believe in salvation. Booklist calls this “a completely engrossing, wholly unforgettable, and utterly transcendent yarn.”

Wendy Lee’s Happy Family considers Chinese immigrant Hua Wu’s experiences in New York City. This is a rich exploration of what it means to be part to something, whether it is a family or a culture.

Hillary Jordan’s Mudbound is a sophisticated and complex first novel about the rural Mississippi Delta right after WWII, when Laura marries at a relatively late age and explores her wifely role.

Theresa Rebeck’s Three Girls and Their Brother is a gratifying takedown of show-biz politics and a fast-paced, wickedly funny satire on celebrity culture.

If you are looking for a new look on a classic author’s style, seek out In the Shadow of the Master: Classic Tales by Edgar Allan Poe and Essays by Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Tess Gerritsen, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, … Lisa Scottoline, and Thirteen Others which hits the shelves on January 6. Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe’s birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work. Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe’s poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe’s insight into humanity’s dark side in “The Genius of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’” Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late-night reading sessions. And in “The Thief,” Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas . . . or maybe he just thought of them first.

Categories: Library News
Tags: book, books, fiction, New Fiction, novel, novels, reading