That all changed in 2012. In 2011 I started writing young adult fiction, but I wasn’t reading much of it, and therefore I was ecstatic to start a YA book blog with Shaunta last June to start forcing myself to read as many books as possible. Now, at the start of 2013, I’m that voracious ten-year-old reader again, gobbling up everything in sight. I enjoyed a mix of YA, middle grade, and adult literary fiction in 2012, and had trouble narrowing it down to ten favorites.

Two notes about the list below.  Unlike my upcoming Top Ten Films list, which is strictly films released in 2012, my Top Ten Books List is of books I read in 2012, not necessarily books that were released that year. Also, I’ve elected not to include books I read in 2012 that I read before. For example, I re-read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wizard of Oz, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but it wouldn’t seem fair to include those on the list. How could I compare something like The Wizard of Oz with The Fault in Our Stars, anyway?

Now, without further ado, here are my ten favorite books of 2012…

1. Looking for Alaska

I discovered two new favorite authors in 2012, and the most influential to me was John Green. A fellow writing friend told me about his work back in January, and I decided to start with his debut novel. I had no idea it would end up being not only my favorite novel of the year, but one of my favorite books ever. This book is amazing. It made me laugh, cry, cheer. The big twist of the second half was totally unexpected, and made for a truly rich reading experience. It has everything you could possibly want in a novel, YA or otherwise. One of the best debut novels I’ve ever read.

2. Boy Meets Boy

I wish I could’ve found this book when it came out in 2003, when I was living in Los Angeles, in the closet, scared and alone. This would’ve been the greatest gift back then, but at least I finally found it in 2012. All I knew when I started reading it was that it was a love story between two teenage boys, but it’s so much more than that. You know what really stood out about this story? It’s not depressing, it’s not cynical, it’s not tragic. Boy Meets Boy was the first truly uplifting gay love story I’d ever read, and it changed the way I looked at what a young adult novel can be and do. Like Looking for Alaska, this book should be shared with every teenager on this planet.

3. The Fault in Our Stars

So the next author I fell in love with in 2012 was… oh… wait, it’s John Green again. Everyone’s favorite YA novel of 2012 was certainly one of mine as well, a book I devoured in just two days last July. One of the successes of this novel is that it could have been so maudlin, so sentimental, a downer of a book that tries too hard. But Green can even find the humor in cancer, and he gives his two main characters the kind of voices all we writers hope to find in our work. The journey the characters take is a memorable one, and the ending left me breathless. A masterpiece worth all the acclaim it’s been given.

4. Every Day

Seeing a pattern yet? Yes, I know I’m being predictable but now, but Green and Levithan wrote my four favorite books of the year. The top two books were these authors’ debut novels, and the next two books were the authors’ newest novels, so I’m happy to report none of their talent and skill has diminished! Shaunta had an issue with a chapter toward the end, and while I agree with her on this one overlooked issue, I still found  Every Day to be a glorious, imaginative book, with the most intriguing premise of anything I read all year. I just read Six Earlier Days, a short prequel companion to this, and loved it, too. Green and Levithan are the best, and I can’t wait to see where they’ll do next.

5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

So I’m cheating here a little bit because I did read this book once back in college, on a recommendation from a friend. I didn’t remember it very well though, so when I read it again last August I was surprised to find how much more of an impact it had on me on the second read. How did the book not mean anything to me back nearly a decade ago? What a treat this was, spending time with these characters, following their joys and their pains, and then getting to see the film, which is a beautiful companion to the book. I guess I needed to be more well-read, or more willing to get in touch with my emotional side, but this second read of The Perks of Being a Wallflower was one of the great joys of the year.

6. 11/22/63

My last read of 2012 was easily one of the best and most engrossing, Stephen King’s newest behemoth of a doorstopper. One of my favorite reads in 2010 was his 1000-plus page Under the Dome, and going into 11/22/63 a couple weeks ago, I sincerely hoped I was in for a good time. When a book is 849 pages, it has to be great to keep you going, and never did this one fail to keep me completely absorbed. Time travel novels can go so wrong in so many ways, but King keeps this imaginative book stayed away from too much of the fantasy aspect and instead centered on a moving, realistic relationship between two complex teachers, to great effect. I blocked out two weeks to read this one, but it only took me half that time. I loved this book. Stephen King is still, after all these years, my writing hero!

7. Where Things Come Back

The other great young adult discovery in 2012 was this unusually effective debut novel by John Corey Whaley, which won the Michael L. Printz award for 2011. This one reminded me of a modern day To Kill a Mockingbird, with its setting and tone and small town of memorable characters. Even better, Whaley takes your expectations and flips them upside down, giving you a final act of harrowing suspense that constantly keeps you on edge. A former English teacher, Whaley is now focusing solely on his fiction, and great for all of us: this young author is a huge talent worth getting excited about.

8. You Came Back

Christopher Coake’s beautifully written, compulsively readable literary novel You Came Back is another terrific debut novel I read in 2012. The central idea is a great one: what if you had a son who tragically died, who returned as a ghost and who is now haunting a family living in the house he died in? At the heart of You Came Back is the complex relationships between the protagonist Mark Fife and the two women in his life, as well as Mark’s attempt to come to terms with his son’s potential reappearance. But while the book is more literary than all out horror, there are plenty of creepy moments that got under my skin. With this book, and his dark, fantastic short story collection We’re In Trouble, Coake has proven himself to be an author to keep an eye on.

9. The Borrower

I read this marvelous book earlier in 2012, and it hasn’t left my mind since. For a creative writing class I read a short story by Rebecca Makkai, the only gay-themed one in the Best American Short Stories 2011 collection, and decided to check out her debut novel (yep, another debut!). It’s a book about books, and about libraries, and about people who love books and libraries. So obviously this was up my alley. The Borrower is a lighter read than some of these others, and it’s super fun. The relationship between the librarian and the little boy who loves to read will make you grin throughout the three hundred pages. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

10. The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell

Chris Colfer continues to amaze me. Ever since his Single Ladies rendition on Glee back in 2009, I’ve been following this handsome guy with great interest. Who would’ve thought back then he would’ve released both a novel and a movie in 2012? The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell is the only middle grade book on my list, but it’s no slim read by any means; at 400-plus pages, there’s a whole lot of imagination at work here. I’ve always loved the Grimms Fairy Tales, and all those classic animated Disney movies based on them, so I found a lot to love in this superbly entertaining debut novel. Colfer writes with a lot of heart and wit and brings his fantastical world to life in a way only he could. This book is a blast. I love Chris Colfer, and I can’t wait to see what he does next!

Anyway — I wanted to look back and think about a few of my favorite books of the past year. And I always say favorite, because “best” suggests that I’ve sampled way more books than I have and am rating their literary value. Favorites are the ones that I want everyone else to read because I think they’re wonderful.

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Using those criteria as a guide, my favorite book this year was the short-story collection Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I reviewed it earlier this year, and I think this set of stories, mostly about the Indian immigrant experience in America (and the West), is a beautiful and moving exploration of family, duty, love, and culture. A rare 5-star for me.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

I also really enjoyed the Stephen King time-travel/alternate universe novel 11/22/63. I have been fairly skeptical of his larger books, preferring his short stories and novellas, but I thought this book was terrific — well-realized characters, an amazing sense of place, and great pacing for a long book that leads to a exciting climax. This is a great book for those usually put off by King. 4-stars.

You Came Back, by Christopher Coake

I think the one book that’s stayed in my mind this year that I haven’t reviewed already is the debut novel Christopher Coake, You Came Back. In it, Mark Fife is a man that is finally putting his life back together years after his marriage disintegrated in the wake of his young son’s accidental death. Mark’s current life is rocked when a woman appears and tells him that she and her son, who now live in his former house, have seen the ghost of his deceased son. Mark thinks the woman is crazy. Mark’s former wife, Chloe, wants to find out if it could be true.

You Came Back is and is not a ghost story. It is mostly a story of relationships — and they are presented in very realistic-feeling manner. It’s also a story of the sorts of things we tell ourselves in lonely dark hours. It’s a story of hope against reason and whether love and sorrow and forgiveness really can conquer all. I think one of my favorite things about this story is the multi-layered implication of the title. Initially, the title seems to clearly refer to their son coming back to Mark and Chloe, but it could just as well be about Chloe coming back to Mark, or in end, Mark coming back to himself after tragedy. Super book. 4 solid stars.

I could go on and on, but I think three that really stuck with me is a pretty good place to stop. How about you? What were some of your favorite reads this year?

For the Fiction Reader

You Came Back: A Novel by Christopher Coake (Grand Central Publishing), and Gone: A Novel by Cathi Hanauer (Atria).

Two of the best novels of the year, both dealing with loss.   A man’s life is irrevocably changed when his young son dies, and a wife and mother is lost when her husband drives the babysitter home and never returns.

Sacrifice Fly: A Mystery by Tim O’Mara (Minotaur Books)

This may be the best debut crime novel by anyone since Think of a Number by John Verdon.   A disabled NYPD cop turned public school teacher decides to solve a crime that involves one of his former students.

A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts by Sebastian Faulks (Henry Holt)

A story is told through the lives of five different human beings who live in different times, including the past and the future (2029).   Those who loved the innovative novel American Music by Jane Mendelsohn may be drawn to this one.

Blackberry Winter: A Novel by Sarah Jio (Plume)

A perfect cold case story for cold weather reading.   As a late-Spring snowstorm hits Seattle, a reporter tries to get to the bottom of an 80 year-old kidnapping.

Forgotten: A Novel by Catherine McKenzie (William Morrow)

A young female Canadian lawyer, presumed to have died while visiting a village in Africa destroyed by an earthquake, returns home to find that everyone’s moved on without her.   From the author of Spin and Arranged.

Tuesday Night Miracles: A Novel by Kris Radish (Bantam Dell)

Four women with legal and personal issues are required to attend weekly group counseling sessions with a rather unconventional counselor.   Serious issues covered with a “wry sense of humor” (The Sacramento Bee).

For the Music Lover

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret by Kent Hartman (Thomas Dunne Books)

The story of the musicians who anonymously played on most of the biggest-selling rock songs recorded between 1962 and 1975.   This book provides “Good Vibrations” for the music fanatic.

Bruce by Peter James Carlin (Touchstone)

The author of Paul McCartney: A Life shows us the very human side of The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story by Ingrid Croce and Jimmy Rock (Da Capo)

Fans of the late singer-songwriter will be enthralled by this overview of his all-too-short life.

Is This the Real Life?: The Untold Story of Freddie Mercury & Queen by Mark Blake (Da Capo), and Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury by Lesley-Ann Jones (Touchstone)

These well-written biographies of the late Queen front man will make readers revisit their Queen music collections, or purchase new ones.

For Those with Special Diets

You Won’t Believe It’s Salt-Free!: 125 Healthy, Low-Sodium and No-Sodium Recipes Using Flavorful Spice Blends by Robyn Webb (Da Capo Lifelong Books), and Gluten-Free On a Shoestring Quick & Easy by Nicole Hunn (Da Capo Lifelong Books)

It’s not easy to cut down on either sodium or gluten in our diets, but these two authors illustrate how you can do so and still enjoy eating.

For the Sports Fan

Best of Rivals: Joe Montana, Steve Young, and the Inside Story Behind the NFL’s Greatest Quarterback Controversy by Adam Lazarus (Da Capo)

If you think the San Francisco 49ers have a quarterback controversy now, Lazarus reminds us of what happened on the team between 1987 and 1994.

The Longest Shot: Jack Fleck, Ben Hogan, and Pro Golf’s Greatest Upset at the 1955 U.S. Open by Neil Sagebiel (Thomas Dunne Books)

The amazing story of when an unknown golfer by the name of Jack Fleck beat his idol, the great Ben Hogan, at the U.S. Open major tournament.   Truth is stranger than fiction, and in ’55 the Open was played at the Olympic Club in San Francisco (just like this year’s U.S. Open).

For the Animal Lover

Following Atticus by Tom Ryan (William Morrow)

An overweight man’s health is saved, and his life is rescued by a small mountain-climbing miniature schnauzer named Atticus M. Finch.   A fine, touching memoir.

Joseph Arellano

Review copies were provided by the publishers and/or publicists.   A Possible Life will be released on Tuesday, December 11, 2012.

I am what they call in our village ”one who has not died”–a widow, eighty years old.  

Set in nineteenth century China, this novel explores the bonds and roles of women in the Hunan culture. At seven years old, Lilly is matched with her laotong, or “old same.” It is a deep, sacred bond meant to last a lifetime. Throughout the years, they pass a beautiful silk fan back and forth with messages for each other written in a unique language created by women to keep it from being read by the men. We follow them from innocent girlhoods through the misery of footbinding to arranged marriages to childbirth to their possible fracturing of their abiding bond as laotongs.

What I learned: How deep and substantial research can enrich an exquisite story.

“You Came Back” a novel by Christopher Coake

Mark Fife was being watched.  

I fell in love with Coake’s writing after reading his story collection, “We’re in Trouble.” He was able to transfer his skills to the larger form of the novel with great success. The story, about being haunted by memories, failures, who you used to be and by an actual ghost will haunt the reader as well. Seven years after the accidental death of his son, Brendan and divorce from his college sweetheart, Chloe, Mark Fife, newly engaged to Allison, is visited by a woman who now lives in their old hose. The house where Brendan died. The house where his life fell apart. The house where this woman now claims his son’s ghost is stuck. Chloe returns to Mark’s life and they are faced with the memories that both brought them together and tore them apart.

What I learned: Coake does an awesome job of balancing the emotional inner turmoil with physical sensory details of being in that character’s body.

“every day” a YA novel by David Levithan

I wake up. Immediately I have to figure out who I am.

Every day A. wakes up in a different body. A different gender. Different family. A different life. It’s always been this way. A. has learned to accept it and to make as few waves as possible in the person’s life. Then he wakes up in Justin’s body and meet Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. For the first time A. imagines a normal life. for the first time A. aches to wake up day after day in one body, in one life, one life with Rhiannon. This story was mesmerizing. First there’s the premise which fascinates me. So many lessons in literally walking ion another person’s shoes. But ultimately this is a love story and what will we do for the one we truly love. Simply beautiful.

What I learned: To care as much about the characters as the premise.

 “The Trial of Fallen Angels” a novel by James Kimmel, Jr.

I do not remember anymore.

Brek Cutler is a young attorney who has been enamored with the idea of justice all her life. The book opens with her covered in blood, standing on a deserted train platform with no recollection of how she got there. Why? She is dead. She is stuck in this place with distant relatives and people from her past, trying to help her adjust to her new surroundings. She learns that she has been selected to be a part of an elite group of lawyers whose job it is to prosecute and defend souls at the Final Judgment. Each soul she meets and each trial she witnesses brings her closer to remembering what exactly happened to her. This thought-provoking novel explores the practice of compassion, forgiveness, redemption all wrapped up in a page-turning mystery.

What I learned: After reading his author’s note I realized how important it is to follow the  subjects, characters, ideas that pursue you throughout your life. Only you can tell the stories you are meant to tell.

Fiction Uncovered Website

Time for my first foray into this year’s Man Booker longlist. Alison Moore’s name came to my attention when I read her short story ‘When the Door Closed, It Was Dark’ a couple of years ago. Her debut novel, The Lighthouse, shares that earlier tale’s unsettling atmosphere and intense focus on detail.

A man named Futh travels from England to Germany on a walking holiday to take his mind off the end of his relationship with Angela. Instead, he dwells on the past: his uneasy relationship with his womanising father; his friend Kenny’s mother, who didn’t act quite as you’d expect of a friend’s mother; those rocky times with Angela. Lighthouses are a recurring metaphor: the lighthouse-shaped perfume case belonging to his mother that Futh now carries, though it’s empty; the lighthouse Futh saw on a childhood holiday to Cornwall, and wondered ‘how there could be this constant warning of danger…and yet still there was all this wreckage’ (p. 56).

There was plenty of ‘warning’ when Futh was growing up, but it doesn’t seem to have made him much wiser about relationships. Similarly, Moore’s secondary protagonist, bed-and-breakfast owner Ester, is apparently stuck in a destructive cycle of having liaisons with her guests, and hiding the fact from her husband Bernard, who’s lost all interest in her. The narrative loops back and forth to different periods in the characters’ lives, gradually revealing more – all in precise, evocative prose. The Lighthouse is a fine first novel that deserves the extra attention it’s going to get from its Booker longlisting.

Elsewhere
Alison Moore’s website
The publisher, Salt Publishing
Some other reviews of The Lighthouse: Adam Roberts; Words of Mercury; Culture and Anarchy; Emily Cleaver for Litro.

Christopher Coake, You Came Back (2012)

I’d call Christopher Coake’s debut novel a ghost story, but really it’s more about believing in ghosts – which, in You Came Back, is partly a symbol of hanging on to the past. Coake’s protagonist is Mark Fife, who’s rebuilding his life several years after his young son Brendan died, and he separated from Brendan’s mother Chloe. Now, Mark is in a new relationship, with Allison; he’s contemplating proposing to her when the owner of his old house turns up, claiming that the house is haunted by Brendan’s ghost. What does it mean for Mark – and his relationship with Chloe – if that turns out to be true?

You Came Back works well enough as a portrait of parents’ dealing with life after bereavement. But what I particularly like about Coake’s novel is the elegant way that it can be read both literally and metaphorically. Take it literally, and you have an examination of how Chloe, Mark, and their relationships with others are affected by the possibility that Brendan somehow survives. Read the novel metaphorically, and it’s a story of grieving parents who won’t let go, even if that means dragging everyone else they love down with them. On top of this, You Came Back does not shirk its responsibilities as a work of suspense; Coake leaves open to the end the question of whether there really is a ghost. After all, the whole novel is concerned with what people might do when faced with something they’re almost certain is not true – but can’t help thinking that it could be.

Elsewhere
Christopher Coake’s website
Some other reviews of You Came Back: Little Words; Chasing Bawa; Dana Stevens for Slate; Christopher Bundy.

When Mark Fife’s young son Brendan dies accidentally, the family is torn apart. He and his wife Chloe move out of the house where the accident happened and eventually divorce. Mark thinks he has moved on with his life when he becomes engaged to Allison–that is until a panicked woman seeks him out to tell him that Brendan’s ghost is now wandering the house in which he died and calling for his father.

Mark is not a believer in the afterlife, and it takes most of the book for him to even agree to go back to the house to see if the “ghost story” is a sham. The portrayal of agonized parents who desperately want to  believe that they can communicate with their son rings heartbreakingly true. Mark is racked with guilt for his son’s death and the subsequent divorce and torn between his love for both his fiance and his ex-wife.   Award winning author Christopher Coate creates characters that are so believable that, as Mark turns to alcohol to blunt his turmoiled emotions, I was tempted to have a drink with him!

He had been imagining Chloe not in an apartment, but in the living room, back in the old house. Sitting on the couch, opposite their tall pine tree strung with pale yellow lights, the space under its lowest boughs packed tight with gifts.

It was Christmastime, and Chloe wouldn’t be there. Mark wouldn’t be there. Connie Pelham and her little boy would.

But what if Brendan was there, too? Watching them, somehow, from the shadows, as they laughed, as they handed each other gifts, one by one?

Mark drained the wineglass in a gulp.

Brendan wasn’t there, couldn’t be there. Because ghosts weren’t fucking real.

–cary

Billed as a modern ghost story, You Came Back by Christpher Coake is the tale of Mark Fife who, finally rebuilding his life after the death of his young son, Brendan, and the collapse of his marriage to Chloe, is suddenly confronted by the possibility that the spirit of his son might never have left their former home.

Seven years after Brendan’s death, Mark has finally pulled himself into manageable shape with a successfull job and a beautiful girlfriend, Allison. His relationship with his father, Sam, and his best friend, Lew, are back to normal and finally he can feel his life slotting back into place. Until one day, the current tenant of his former family home contacts him to say her son has seen Brendan’s ghost. This revelation shatters Mark’s carefully reconstructed life, dragging him back into his tortured relationship with his ex-wife and the weight of guilt both still carry. Torn by his desire and fear of finding out whether Brendan has really come back, Mark must find the strength to keep his sanity and his precious new life from fracturing.

Coake does a pretty good job exploring the psychological effect of such a revelation on Mark’s fragile mind from his still tenuous relationships with the people in his life. You Came Back is well-written and easy to read. Mark is an ordinary man with an ordinary job and social circle. He may not be the life and soul of the party but he has people around him who love him. And he confronts his dilemma in a way that probably most people in his position would: with a lot of soul searching. But Mark does come across as slightly weak and pathetic (I wanted to give him a good slap on many occasions) and I felt sorry for his girlfriend, Allison, especially when she realises that there are still unresolved issues from Mark’s former life.

The main problem with this novel is that it seems rather confused, like its protagonist, about whether it wanted to be a psychological thriller or not. To me, it felt as though I was promised a ghost story. And yes, we aren’t sure until the end. But the end fell rather flat and I felt robbed. I may have been expecting more of a horror story than a psychological study, but that is probably more due to my own personal expectations.

Coake was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in 2007 and has written a book of short stories, We’re In Trouble, which I wouldn’t mind perusing.

I’d like to thank Penguin Books for kindly sending me a copy of You Came Back to review.

I have been doing other work though so here’s a few links:
Book review of ‘Breasts: A Natural And Unnatural History’ by Florence Williams in Scotland on Sunday – interesting popular science book.
Book review of ‘You Came Back’ by Christopher Coake in The Scotsman – lovely new novel.
Non-Olympic telly preview – I made sure to get a dig in at Fifty Shades of Grey.
A piece about the reaction to Aaron Sorkin’s new show The Newsroom (it has got worse since I wrote that: the latest “are you KIDDING me?” moment is that the supposedly brilliant TV news producer woman somehow is unable to understand basic economic concepts).

Plus a few radio appearances: Good Morning Scotland on the 28th to discuss the Olympics Opening Ceremony, Call Kaye this morning (30th) and on the 15th, the Shereen Nanjiani Sunday morning show – I’ve done tons of radio but never been on this show before. It’s quite intense, because you’re on for the whole hour and the discussions basically cover all the main news stories of the week and the Sunday papers. I really had to swot up, particularly since the other guests (veteran foreign editor David Pratt and former investment banker turned consultant Ian Blackford) are so knowledgeable – bit nervous but I think I did alright, really enjoyed it anyway.

In other news, here’s the info for the writing workshop I’m due to teach next month – please pass on if you know anyone who might be interested.
Writing Historical Fiction – Thursday 23rd August 10am-4pm – Strathclyde University Centre for Lifelong Learning – £30 – 0141 548 2116
Interested in writing a short story or novel set in the past? Whether Ancient Rome, the Victorian era or WWII, each historical period brings its own challenges for writers: how do you convey the way people lived and talked then? How do you choose the right details to really give a flavour of the time? How do you create believable characters and storylines? What resources are available, how much research is necessary – and how much is too much? This class is jointly led by a writer [that's me!] and an historian [my good pal Dr Ben Shepherd, Reader in History at Caledonian University, author of War In The Wild East and other books], with advice, discussion and exercises used to help you find ideas, get the most out of research sources and write great historical fiction (though many elements will apply to any kind of writing). It is suitable for both beginners and more experienced writers. Strathclyde University Summer Programme online.
There will also be a longer version of the class, with weekly writing critiques and exercises, running at Glasgow University on Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm from 3rd October for eight weeks (details: 0141 330 1835) and again at Strathclyde University from January 2013 (details: 0141 548 5778).
In both terms I’ll also be running literature classes, including Now Read The Book II – the sequel to last year’s book-to-film adaptations class.

1.  Happy and Hungover

Book reviewers are often faced with an embarrassment of riches.   They may receive hundreds of books in a short period of time, either directly from publishers or indirectly via book review publications.   This may translate into becoming less excited over the less publicized new releases.   I’m reminded of when I managed a college radio station’s music library…  The record companies sent us records every day, usually multiple copies of each release.   The longer this went on, the more we felt the temptation for the DJs to spend their time listening to the big, mega-releases like the latest from the Rolling Stones or Steve Winwood.   It was hard to pull away to listen to a new album recorded by a promising, virtually unknown and self-proclaimed bar band from San Jose.   (They went on to become wildly successful as The Doobie Brothers.)

It can be like that for the book reviewer.   At first, he or she will jump at reading and reviewing anything that’s sent.   Then the reviewer will find that he becomes pickier as time goes by.   It may be especially hard to read a debut novel by an unknown author when so many releases by major authors – from the major publishers – are whispering, “Read me!” in his ear.   This is but one of the issues that will arise.

Another issue occurs after reading an almost perfect book.   I had this experience recently after finishing the novel You Came Back by Christopher Coake.   I went to my stack of “to be read” books and, no matter how hard I tried to read each of them, they simply felt flat by comparison.   Moreover, I felt as if I could see the stitches in the tales when comparing them in my mind to Coake’s virtually seamless story telling.   I finally came to realize that Coake’s book – labeled a ghost story – is about what sudden loss does to human beings.   I then searched for a book with a somewhat similar theme and found it in the novel Gone by Cathi Hanauer, a story about a writer-mother-housewife whose husband leaves with the young, sexy babysitter and doesn’t return.   Gone and You Came Back are nearly mirror images of each other.   In music, it was like when the Beatles released Let It Be and the Rolling Stones released Let It Bleed.

After reading these two somewhat similar tales, I felt free to experiment with something completely different, which turned out to be an historical novel; fiction based upon a little bit of fact.   But sometimes shaking the grip a great book has on you – a type of literary hangover – takes days to be loosened.   For the book reviewer, this may mean not following through on a commitment that was made earlier; or delaying meeting the commitment.   But that’s the way life is.   As John Lennon was to so wisely state, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

2.  Comparing A to B

Above, I’ve compared two novels to each other, and this leads me to wondering whether a publishing house or publicist should do the same.   It seems like a potentially risky business.   If the book jacket promises that, “Anyone who loved Milo’s Story will adore spending time with Fluffy’s Tail!” there’s the risk of making the reader who truly loved the former, but doesn’t like the latter – such as a dog lover who can’t abide cats – extremely angry.   I think these types of comparisons have more of a downside than an upside.

A better strategy, in my view, and one that draws me in, is to post a blurb by a respected author who writes in the same genre as the new, relatively unknown author.   I may be quite unsure that I want to spend time reading a book by Bill Unknown, but if there’s a front jacket blurb by David Major (you know, the one whose book was made into a movie starring Anne Hathaway) stating, “Bill’s a truly great find!   Trust me, you must read this!” I’m likely to take the chance.   That’s because David Major has little to gain and a lot to lose by letting his name be used in a less than forthright way.   Let’s just hope that I haven’t received the galley of Unknown’s forthcoming book right after I’ve finished reading You Came Back.

Joseph Arellano

“…he’d spent the year before Brendan’s death sullen and sulky as a little boy…  he’d spent his nights drinking and staring at the Internet instead of trying to explain to Chloe how he felt.”

Great ghost stories – ones that seem both plausible and questionable – don’t come along every day.   One of the most recent great ones was Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.   Symmetry had us so enthralled that we posted three separate reviews of the haunting novel on this site.   Now Christopher Coake has presented a story with all the depth of Symmetry, interestingly set in the neighborhoods of Columbus that adjoin the Ohio State University campus.

Our protagonist, Mark Fife, entered a period of isolating and drinking too much, which spurred his wife Chloe – the true love of his life – to leave him at home one night, supervising their young son Brendan.   Mark orders his son to go upstairs while he drinks and watches an Ohio State basketball game on the TV downstairs.   At some point Mark hears a strange sound and gets up to find that Brendan has fallen down the staircase, and has died from a broken neck.   Thus begins the ruination of Mark’s existence.   Chloe, who blames him for their only child’s death, divorces him and sells the house where the family once happily lived.   Mark goes on to spend years living in a townhouse, drinking far too much and thinking about ending it all.

As the story opens, seven full years have gone by and Mark’s now happy with his life.   He’s met Allie, the upbeat woman he’s engaged to, and he’s got a great friend from college, Lewis, who helps him to remain firmly footed in reality.   And then…  The woman who purchased Mark and Chloe’s former home has a story to tell.   Chloe eventually sends Mark a letter explaining that this woman’s son has seen and heard Brendan’s ghost in the house.   Is this for real or is it simply a ruse for Chloe – who hated Mark when she filed for divorce but now professes to once again be in love with him – to break up Mark’s forthcoming marriage to Allie?

Mark has spent his adult life being powerless when it comes to Chloe, and now she’s asking him to go to their old house to see Brendan’s ghost.   Mark doesn’t believe in ghosts (“I’ve never believed anything like this.   Never.   This is hard.“), he never has, but then remembers that his serious and grounded friend Lewis once saw a ghost – and Lewis now tells him that seeing the ghost was one of the most authentic experiences in his life.

Will Mark run back to Chloe and in the process perhaps re-destroy his own life?   Or will he spurn her and maybe lose out on the chance to again communicate with his long-lost son?   What is real and important in life?   Mark Fife is about to find out…

“…he went over the same looping sentences.   If-thens, what-ifs.   He came to no answers.   Either Brendan was in the house or he wasn’t.   Either way, Mark himself was trapped.   Either way, he would hurt Allison or Chloe.”

Coake writes in an all-too-smooth style; one in which flawed humans are portrayed so realistically that the tale moves along as if it’s being projected onto a film screen.   And, like Niffenegger, there’s a calmness about the telling that draws you in – but with the understanding that you’ll receive hints when the story is about to dramatically explode.

You’ll have to devote the time to reading 400 plus pages to appreciate Coake’s offerings.   It’s a worthwhile price to pay for discovering a highly talented, powerfully skilled writer.

Highly recommended.

Joseph Arellano

A review copy was provided by the publisher.   You Came Back was released on June 12, 2012.  

“When I finished the last page of Christopher Coake’s amazing new novel, I set the book down with a real sense of wonder…  (This story) is less concerned with the supernatural than with the all-too-real specters that haunt us all – the ghosts of our former selves, the ghosts of the lives we might have lived had just a few things turned out differently…  What an incredible writer.”   Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She’s Not There and I’m Looking Through You.

Here is a link to one of the reviews of Her Fearful Symmetry: 

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/what-comes-after/

I have been DYING to announce this!  My story “Murder for Beginners” was accepted for John Skipp’s Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane.  Isn’t that fantastic?  You know what is even cooler?  This TOC.  Check it!

Jim Shepard
Edgar Allen Poe
Joan Aiken
Richard Connell
Ray Bradbury
Robert Bloch
Ed Kurtz
Laura Lee Bahr
William Gay
Thomas Harris
Jack Ketchum
Joe R. Lansdale
Mercedes M. Yardley
Steve Rasnic Tem
Lawerence Block
David J. Schow
Neil Gaiman
Leah Mann
Kevin L. Donihe
Leslianne Wilder
Bentley Little
Adam-Troy Castro
John Gorumba
Violet Lavoit
Christopher Coake
John Boden
Scott Bradley and Peter Giglio
Cody Goodfellow
Weston Ochse
Amelia Beamer
Elizabeth Massie
Nick Mamatas
Simon McCaffery
Mehitobel Wilson
Brian Hodge
Robert Devereaux
Kathe Koja

I die a thousand joyful deaths.  Hooray!

Just finished Christopher Coake‘s You Came Back - a book I didn’t want to read. There are almost no subjects I avoid reading about. If an author presents the material in a unique and compelling way, I can be curious about almost any subject. That is, unless it’s the loss of a child. As a father, this is the one subject you really never want to imagine, not through your own eyes, those of someone who’s lost a child, or those of a fictional character. Coake’s book is fiction but still I was wary.

I might not have picked up the book if I hadn’t already read Coake’s debut story collection - We’re in Trouble: Stories - and liked it so much. I’d also heard him read and met him when he interviewed for a position in the program where I was a graduate student. I liked him and his stories. And Coake knows a thing or two about grief, so I trusted him to treat the subject carefully.

I wasn’t disappointed. Using a very close third person, he planted me firmly in his protagonist’s shoes and, from the first pages, I was in for the duration. The story is driven by our compassion for the protagonist and his desire, like ours, to know, to understand what we don’t, including himself and his handling of his son’s tragic loss.

I grew up reading ghost stories (from Poe and Lovecraft to the wonderful (true) ghost stories of the Carolinas, particularly those set in the Outer Banks, to the ghost stories (the best of their work) of Stephen King and Peter Straub). I listened to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater on my transistor in bed at night (at 10:00 and long after I was supposed to be asleep) and, when I first tried to write, drafted my own (highly derivative) ghost stories. These stories stirred my imagination, left me both wondering at the possibilities and shrinking from them at the same time–always a skeptic. And Coake takes cues from this wonderful genre,but without exploiting it. His book is haunted, no question.

Coake works from real life and haunts his book with the emotional, spiritual and intellectual challenges there: loss, doubt, guilt, survival, faith/belief, and reconciliation. He employs a ghost story to get at these emotional issues in a compelling way.

I don’t want to say more. I read the book in two days and was glad for it. The book lingers in my (unsettled) heart and mind, and the more I think about it, the more I applaud what Coake has done so honestly–an unblinking look at the horrors of grief and survival.

Hi guys, and welcome to another Sunday. I’ve not been uber-busy buying any books this week. BUT I have received a couple review reads, as well as an AWESOME gifted E-Book, and some book-related items, too. So here you go. In My Mailbox are …

BOUGHT:

Thanks to being loaned a copy by Kayleigh of K-Books, I’d already gotten to read this. But I already owned Hunger Games and Catching Fire and loved the trilogy enough that it just wouldn’t be complete with a copy of my own, and so Mr B very kindly grabbed me this so I’d stop whining on about it.

Yes, yes, these are one of my non-book-but-book-related items. And what awesomeness items they are. Because  the man took me to see it on Friday when it came out. I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t gone with very high hopes. After all, every other book-to-screen adaptation I’d seen turned out to be pretty poo.

HOWEVER, I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised. Hunger Games is quite possibly The. Best. Film adaptation of a book. I’ve ever seen! Seriously! Love the book? Then you gotta go see the film.

WON:

I won these from the lovely J.C. Martin from a giveaway on her blog promoting her soon to be released crime thriller Oracle. Three bookmarks (one signed), three postcards (one signed) and a cutesie fridge magnet. Aren’t they lovely and shiny?

(And yes, if you’re wondering, that is Riddick peering over the top )

GIFTED:

Other than going to see The Hunger Games, being gifted a copy of:

by the AMAZING Tee of A Diary of a Book Addict was The. Highlight. Of my week! I’ve so been waiting on this book. So desperate to read on. Since being introduced to Jennifer L. Armentrout’s writing by Kayleigh of Kay-Books (yes, she gets about a bit), I’ve been chomping at the bit for her new stuff to come out. So a HUGE thank you to Tee for the gift. I hope to post my duel-review for Half Blood and Pure some time this week.

And last but not least from publishers/for review:

 All received via NetGalley. Hopefully, I’ll get to these over the next couple of weeks.

How about you guys? What’s in your mailbox this week?

De top 20:

• Jeroen Brouwers - Datumloze dagen (2007)
• Siri Hustvedt- What I Loved (2002)
• A.F.Th. van der Heijden – Het Hof van Barmhartigheid (1996)
• Christopher Coake - We’re In Trouble (2005)
• Walter Mosley – The Man In My Basement (2004)
• Ian Rankin – The Naming Of The Dead (2006)
• John Burnside – The Dumb House (1997)
• Hubert Selby Jr. – Waiting Period (2002)
• Jerry Stahl – I, Fatty (2004)
• Pete Dexter – Brotherly Love (1991)
• Willy Vlautin - The Motel Life (2007)
• Haruki Murakami – Norwegian Wood (1987)
• Mark Andersen & Mark Jenkins – Dance Of Days: Two decades Of Punk In The Nation’s Capital (2003)
• Tim O’Brien - In The Lake Of The Woods (1994)
• David Mitchell – Cloud Atlas (2004)
• James Frey -  A Million Little Pieces (2003)
• George Pelecanos – The Sweet Forever (1998)
• Richard Cook – Blue Note Records: The Biography (2003)
• A.F.Th. van der Heijden – Onder het plaveisel het moeras (1996)
• José Saramago – Het verzuim van de dood (2005)

Kortom: 12 Amerikanen, 4 Britten, 2 Nederlanders (waarvan 1 een halve Belg is en de andere 2 maal de Top 20 haalde), 1 Japanner en 1 Portugees.

NP: John Zorn – The Crucible

John Boyne - The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

Christopher Coake – We’re In Trouble (2005). Eenvoudige verhalen over mensen in extreme situaties die moeten bewijzen hoe sterk hun loyaliteit of liefde is en kan blijven. Een verhaal over een jongeman die enkele beloftes moet nakomen nadat zijn beste vrienden zijn omgekomen bij een ongeluk. Een schrijfster die een tragedie in een klein dorp probeert te vatten. Een vader en zoon die een lange rit maken. Een koppel dat probeert te overleven in een geïsoleerde sneeuwhut. Niets bijzonders, en daarom is het dubbel zo straf dat Coake ervoor weet te zorgen dat een paar dozijn pagina’s volstaan om empathie op te wekken.  Het is een aangrijpend, soms pijnlijk en emotioneel boek, maar zonder oppervlakkig of melig te zijn,  een verzameling die uitblinkt in eenvoud en puurheid en een absolute aanrader voor liefhebbers van kortverhalen die nu en dan doen denken aan het werk van Richard Ford en Raymond Carver. (****1/2)

James Dickerson – Goin’ Back To Memphis (1996). De ondertitel is ‘A century of blues, rock ‘n’ roll and glorious soul’. Het komt die belofte ook na, door decennium per decennium de belangrijkste iconen te overlopen, met heel wat aandacht voor boeiende figuren als W.C. Handy, Furry Lewis (die nog op het Fat Possum-label opdook), Memphis Minnie (wat een geweldig verhaal!), ‘Fiddling’ Abe Fortas (die nog een politiek kanon zou worden) en Sonny Boy Williamson. Maar eigenlijk is het ook wel meer dan dat, omdat Dickerson op hetzelfde moment een sociale/politieke geschiedenis van Memphis wil schrijven. Dat levert soms boeiende invalshoeken op, met soms vreemde wendingen: zo zou de overstap van Elvis van Sun naaar RCA in 1956 een politieke motivatie hebben. Het is jammer dat Dickerson dergelijke dingen insinueert zonder er dieper op in te gaan, wat zijn credibiliteit in twijfel trekt. Het meest gaat zijn aandacht natuurlijk uit naar twee sleutelperiodes in de Amerikaanse populaire muziek: de geboorte (of institutionalisering) van de rock-’n-roll via de Sun studio en, een decennium later, de bloeiende soul-scene van het befaamde Stax-label. Ondanks enkele alleenstaande hoogtepunten (Big Star) en verwoede pogingen om het muzikale leven in Memphis nieuw leven in te blazen was het vet van de soep aan het begin van de jaren zeventig. Dickerson doet zijn uiterste best om te bewijzen dat het anders had kunnen lopen in de 80s en 90s (de periode die hij uit eerste hand kende), maar met minder succes. Ook interessant: zijn focus op het verhaal van Chips Moman, die zowel het beste als het slechtste mocht meemaken dat in Memphis te rapen viel. Goin’ Back To Memphis is onontbeerlijke kost voor degenen die geobsedeerd zijn door het verleden van de stad en de populaire muziek die het voortbracht, maar het is niet zo essentieel als Robert Gordons It Came From Memphis, of Peter Guralnicks Sweet Soul Music, dat de standaard bepaalde. (***)

Peter Robinson – A Necessary End (1989). Ik las al In A Dry Season (1999), een prima Britse misdaadroman die nauw aansluit bij de stijl en aanpak van collega Rankin. Toch is de Banks-reeks niet enkel beïnvloed door zijn concurrent, want het is een formule die hij ook al hanteert sinds 1987. Ik verwachtte redelijk wat van A Necessary End, en dat had ik beter niet gedaan. Robinson kan wel schrijven, bouwt z’n verhaal vakkundig op en weet een paar geloofwaardige karakters op papier te zetten, maar nu en dan gaat hij ronduit klungelig te werk, iets dat zich vooral uit in twee details: elke keer als zijn hoofdpersonage in zijn auto stapt kan hij het niet nalaten te vermelden welke bluesmuzikant hij beluistert en, veel irritanter, hij grijpt ELKE gelegenheid aan om het rookgedrag van zijn held in de verf te zetten. Het gebeurt wel vaker, vooral in oudere romans, dat er wat afgepaft wordt, maar het zou me niet verwonderen als hier drie-vier pakjes erdoor gejaagd worden. Je gaat bijna denken dat de rook elk moment uit de pagina’s kan opstijgen. Geen slecht boek, maar hier en daar dus verrassend amateuristisch. (**)

En nu, nu heb ik m’n achterstand ingehaald. Wat uitgelezen boeken betreft dan toch.

NP: The Fall – A Part Of America Therein

Lang geleden dat ik nog eens zo onder de indruk was van een debuut. We’re In Trouble is een verhalenbundel uit 2005 van de intussen 37-jarige Coake. Het bevat zeven ‘kleine’ verhalen die groot zijn in hun meeslependheid, hardheid en pijnlijkheid. Geen geinige of postmoderne stuff over Californische charlatans of hipsters uit NYC; het is dood, liefde, verlies en verdriet in het hinterland van Indiana, Illinois en Wisconsin dat de klok slaat, maar ik las ze zelden zo menselijk en aangrijpend. Als er nog iets volgt van deze kwaliteit, dan is Coake ook op z’n plaats tussen volk als John Cheever, Raymond Carver en Richard Ford. Later (ooit…) vast meer, maar dit is dus een tip.

NP: The Dream Syndicate – Live At Raji’s

They’re younger these days, explains editor Ian Jack, because of all the university writing courses chucking out writers in their twenties.

Fair enough, but a few more selection criteria might be in order.

Too many here (seven out of 21) haven’t actually written a novel yet.

Strong contenders are inexplicably omitted (no Vendela Vida, or Joshua Ferris, whose novel Then We Came To The End is wowing just about everybody right now).

It-couple Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss are there with slight stories that are as quirky and cloying as their novels.

Judy Budnitz offers the opening of a (sci-fi? alternate reality?) novel set in a pest control department that you’re unlikely to rush out to buy.

Top picks are Christopher Coake’s That First Time, about a man who finds out that an ex-girlfriend has died, Anthony Doerr’s Procreate, Generate, about a couple undergoing IVF, and Dara Horn’s novel extract Passover In New Orleans, about a Jewish Union soldier in the American Civil War who must go behind enemy lines to assassinate his second cousin.

Uzodinma Iweala’s Dance Cadaverous is a thrilling depiction of a father struggling with his son’s homosexuality, while Gabe Hudson’s Hard Core, about a half- Vietnamese US marine in Iraq and his screwed-up childhood, is hilariously dark.

The collection is a lucky dip, but there’s a global, outward-looking feel to many of the stories.

With writers born or brought up in Russia, Peru, Thailand, China and India, their concerns often seem a world away from the suburban tragedy of Carver or Updike. An intriguing, encouraging selection.