2010 Summer Newsletter - Family Stories

All Summer Newsletter titles are discounted 20% to members through Labor Day.
Novels featuring families

Tinkers (Paperback)

By Paul Harding
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781934137123
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bellevue Literary Press, 1/2009
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TINKERS (Bellevue Literary Press, $14.95), by Paul Harding, tells the story of George Washington Crosby, an old man on his deathbed, observing the present, remembering the past, and reconstructing in his imagination the life of his father who left his family when Crosby was a boy.  Howard Crosby had been a tinker, traveling over the Maine countryside, selling odds and ends and fixing household items.  An enthusiastic naturalist, he fashioned art out of flowers and grass and reveled in the changes of the natural world.  He was also epileptic, which made him an oddball in his small community.  Winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Tinkers is lyrical, image-rich, and strikingly original. Mark LaFramboise

The Cradle (Paperback)

By Patrick Somerville
$13.99
ISBN-13: 9780316036115
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Back Bay Books, 4/2010
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When Matt’s wife, expecting their first child, asks him to find the cradle she used as a baby, he’s not sure how to respond. Taken by her mother when she abandoned her family, it could be anywhere. But Matt gamely sets out. His search takes him around the Midwest, and Patrick Somerville’s novel develops in the classical quest-tale tradition, with Matt encountering odd characters who help him after he fulfills the tasks they set. Finding THE CRADLE (Back Bay Books, $13.99), however, is only the first step. Matt, given away by his biological mother and growing up in a series of foster homes, isn’t looking for a symbol of family, but for the real thing. This warm, affecting novel explores the many ways connections can be strained, repressed, twisted, misunderstood---yet still not be entirely broken. Laurie Greer

 

The Family Man (Paperback)

By Elinor Lipman
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780547336084
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Mariner Books, 5/2010
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Elinor Lipman's FAMILY MAN (Mariner, $14.95) gives Henry Archer a second chance at happiness. Still scarred by his divorce from Denise and separation from his adopted daughter Thalia two decades ago, Henry finds them both back in his life—for better and worse. By opening himself up to the possibility of joy and family, he gets both—experiencing a torrent of anxiety, protectiveness, and unexpected romance. Lipman creates characters who are imperfect but lovable, devises scenes of wit and honesty, and delivers a story that makes you care and smile. Bill Leggett

This Is Where I Leave You (Paperback)

By Jonathan Tropper
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780452296367
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Plume, 6/2010
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Not since the Litvinoffs of Zoe Heller’s The Believers has a family so charmed me with its unforgiving humanity as have the Foxmans in Jonathan Tropper’s THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU (Plume, $15). When straight-man Judd is suddenly called back to his childhood home to sit shiva, following both the dissolution of his marriage and his father’s death, an almost farcical tale of grief and forgiveness ensues. Tropper writes with vivid honestly about jealousy of an older sibling, alienation from a younger one, and embarrassment by a parent. This Is Where I Leave You has something for anyone who’s ever struggled for solace. Equal parts biting wit and deep compassion, Tropper’s style achieves poignancy without being cheesy, and promises a heartening ending. Sarah Owens

 

 

A Short History of Women (Paperback)

By Kate Walbert
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9781416594994
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner, 6/2010
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In England, a suffragette starves herself for the vote, orphaning her two young children. Almost a century later in America, her granddaughter is jailed after trespassing at a military base to photograph flag-draped coffins returning from Afghanistan.  Kate Walbert's A SHORT HISTORY OF WOMEN (Scribner, $15) tells of five generations of women struggling to reconcile their own unsatisfying lives with their revolutionary heritage. Walbert reaches forward and backward in time to shape this vibrant, richly expressed narrative. We hear each woman's voice, and the tiny details of their lives turn the political into moving personal narratives. Lacey Dunham