August 14, 2021
What seems appealing to read in the middle of these dog days of summer? How about some writing advice for that novel you’ve been contemplating (there are two books to choose from), thrillers about disappearances (a famed Parisian art theft and forgery, and a steamy Mexican crime story), a novel about how Shakespeare can save your life, or some arresting short stories that combine a comic and tragic view of America. Here are this week’s recommendations.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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What About the Baby?
By ALICE McDERMOTT
Published by FSG
What a delight to have one of our best fiction writers provide a master class on writing. McDermott (The Ninth Hour) shares instantly indispensable advice for even the most well-established writers. Alluding to the title of the book, she offers tips on how not to drop characters or plot lines, how to keep your readers engaged, and includes guidance from classic writers like Virginia Woolf and Shakespeare. This book is also perfect for aspiring writers picking up a pencil for the first time.
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Never Say You Can't Survive
By CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
Published by TORDOTCOM
Anders, a trans writer of sci-fi, fantasy, and young adult fiction, approaches the practice of writing from another perspective—how creativity can help in troubled times like these. Her book is a wonderful combination of advice, instruction, self-care, and memoir. As she stated in a Tor.com interview: “Part of what keeps me excited about writing every day is that I’m always trying on stuff through my characters—different ways of being in the world, different kinds of expressing yourself.”
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The Last Mona Lisa
By JONATHAN SANTLOFER
Published by SOURCEBOOKS
Based on the turn-of-the-century theft of the Louvre’s Mona Lisa, Santlofer bridges the original heist with a fictional present-day art professor, Perrone, who is related to an Italian forger connected with the actual crime. Perrone then goes down a rabbit hole and finds himself in a dangerous underworld of the art business. Santlofer, who established the Crime Fiction Academy at The Center for Fiction, continually creates page-turning mysteries and is also a visual artist in his own right. With imprimaturs from best-selling writers like Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, and Ruth Ware, you know you’ll be in good hands here.
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Velvet Was the Night
By SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA
Published by DEL REY BOOKS
When Mexican Gothic was first published, many readers were not familiar with Moreno-Garcia. Now this Mexican Canadian writer’s reputation has grown. Her newest novel is an atmospheric noir set in 1970s Mexico amid student upheaval. It follows three characters into increasingly dangerous territory: a dreamy secretary who longs for intrigue; the object of her admiration, a young woman who has disappeared; and the criminal hired to find her. Politics, romance, spies—it’s a great brew.
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All's Well
By MONA AWAD
Published by SIMON & SCHUSTER
Awad originally hails from Canada and has written several clever works of fiction that skewer and satirize the tropes of modern American society, particularly as they pertain to women. Her new novel should move the needle of her acclaim forward, with her portrait of a distressed college Shakespeare professor. She is attempting to manage her chronic pain after an accident, and at the same time mount a production of the bard’s All’s Well That Ends Well (an appropriate selection for this story). You’ll be dazzled by the writing and thoroughly entertained.
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American Estrangement
By SAÏD SAYRAFIEZADEH
Published by W.W. NORTON
The title of this collection is a perfect description of the type of stories Sayrafiezadeh tells. The son of an Iranian father and an American Jewish mother, the author’s life offers rich inspiration for these fictional tales. In the last story, “A Beginner’s Guide to Estrangement” you feel the narrator’s alienation as he arrives in Tehran, his Persian dictionary inaccessible in his stuffed suitcase, to visit a father he’s seen twice in his life. These wry, potent stories about loss and disaffection, and the difficulties of contemporary American society, will definitely move you.
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