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Best new paperbacks:
The BookPage monthly feature for reading groups
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January paperback releases offer good choices for reading groups
REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE
The latest novel from the best-selling author of Chocolat is a cleverly plotted thriller set at an upper-class boarding school for boys in England. The school is called St. Oswald's, and its pupils are a typical lot—aristocratic lads with a few oddballs mixed in for good measure, among them, a young student named Snyde, whose father is the school porter. Snyde makes it into the school under false pretenses—by using a fake name (Julian Pinchbeck) and fabricating an identity for himself. He develops a crush on a wealthy student named Leon Mitchell, but their friendship has tragic repercussions, and as a result, Snyde's father is dismissed from his position. Fifteen years later, Snyde returns to the school as a teacher, seeking revenge on the institution. While Snyde himself tells a good bit of the story, he shares narrating duties with Roy Straitley, a classics professor who has been on the staff of St. Oswald's for three decades. Straitley's insights into the school's history and his reactions to newfangled modes of education (computers, for instance) stand in fascinating contrast to Snyde's account. In the end, it's Straitley who goes head to head with Snyde in an attempt to save St. Oswald's. Intelligent and elegant, gripping and suspenseful, Harris' book is a delightful literary mystery. A reading group guide is available online at www.harperperennial.com.
By Joanne Harris HarperPerennial, $14.95 448 pages ISBN 9780060559151
Kurlansky, the best-selling author of Cod and Salt, never fails to find fascinating stories in unexpected places. His newest book is an intriguing overview of the oyster industry in New York City, a lively historical narrative that examines how the trade has affected the growth and development of the Big Apple over the centuries. As Kurlansky recounts, the oyster has long been a beloved part of the city's culture. The shellfish served as a peace offering in the 1600s, when Native Americans in the area offered it to English explorers, and oyster beds have for decades provided a livelihood for locals. Throughout the city, the oyster is a favorite food, a delicacy to people of all races and classes, and appropriately enough, Kurlansky includes plenty of oyster-based recipes in the book. He also takes a look at the current status of the shellfish, writing with his trademark authority about the destruction of New York's famous oyster beds and what the future may hold for the industry, as pollution alters the delicate ecological equation the fish requires in order to flourish. Spinning a compelling narrative from an unassuming subject, he writes with style and command about science, history and culinary matters. A reading group guide is included in the book.
By Mark Kurlansky Random House, $14.95 336 pages ISBN 9780345476395
Nunez's new novel examines the upheaval of the 1960s and its effects on the lives of two very different women. The year is 1968, and Ann Drayton and Georgette George find themselves rooming together at Barnard College. Ann comes from a well-to-do family, while Georgette has working-class roots. A passionate idealist, Ann sheds her privileged lifestyle in order to become a political activist, while Georgette struggles to come to grips with her bleak family history, which includes drug use and alcoholism. Both women drop out of school and go their separate ways. Years later, Ann makes national news when she is arrested for killing the policeman who shot her boyfriend, an African-American intellectual. Ann owns up to the crime without remorse, igniting a controversy that sweeps the country. Ann's actions, the convictions that lead up to it, and the mood and spirit of the 1960s are the subjects of this complex, well-constructed novel. Georgette, whose life unfolds in a more traditional manner than that of her old friend—she's a magazine editor, mother and wife—serves as an intelligent and articulate narrator for this poignant story. Nunez writes beautifully about two women in search of themselves, and the diverging paths they take in life. A reading group guide is available online at www.picadorusa.com.
By Sigrid Nunez Picador, $14 408 pages ISBN 9780312425944
Has your club recently read an excellent book that sparked good group discussion? If so, BookPage would like to hear about it. Contact us at reading@bookpage.com with a description of the book and the reasons for your recommendation. We'll pass the top choices along to our readers.
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