2019 Top Picks...The Nice List!

A little sweet, a titch sappy, a pinch of charm and a whole lot of lovely!!

RECURSION – BLAKE CROUCH – 9.5/10

Mind. Blown. This tightrope of a novel accomplishes one of the things that I love the most in my reading but is also rare. It plucks you up from the humdrum banality of your day to day life and drops you smack into a big ol world of what the f*ck is happening and where the f&ck am I? I fluctuated between wanting to devour this book like a whorish glutton on the clock and savor it like a well-bred lady. I found a happy medium.

What if you could get a do over? Live a portion of your life for a second time? Sounds like a dream, right? Well that it is, at least until it’s not.

Our main character, a cop, stumbles into someone suffering from False Memory Syndrome. A condition where your memory of an entire alternate life is absolute. Along the way he meets the scientist behind the technology that causes this. And there is love…hence its position on the nice list despite its unquestionable fit into naughty!

DAISY JONES & THE SIX – TAYLOR JENKINS – 9/10

Well written fiction is full of broken and beautiful people that we fall in love with. Likely because we see parts of ourselves, or those we hold dear, in them. I fell hard for this book.

Everyone one of us has had a dream or two (or nine) we relinquished in the course of living our lives. This novel brought all the elaborate memories of one of mine back to me; I wanted to be Stevie Nicks. Beautiful, talented, flower child embracing the holy trinity. Not the father, son and the holy spirit. But the other, far less godly one; sex, drugs and rock and roll! And there is plenty of all three is this book.

Daisy has grown tired of being somebodies muse and decides it’s time to be the somebody instead. She joins The Six and begins writing songs and collaborating closely with the lead singer. The messy intimacy that develops is the heart and soul of this emotionally powerful story. Every band member also has their own narrative, which somehow manages to avoid being nothing but sparring band member clichés.

The construct of the book is a bit different; delivered as answers to interview questions, which aren’t known, it flows like an article. I liked the change of pace and it was well suited to the subject matter.

NO HAPPY ENDINGS – NORA MCINERNEY – 9/10

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger in the broken places.” This quote came from Hemingway rather than this author, but it’s these spaces that she explores in this remarkable memoir. She lays bare her open heart and invites us to find our own story in the eloquent narrative.

Despite what the title might imply, the author unspools a story of happiness that has, out of necessity, been built on the remains of what has been lost. And with that, gives hope. Her portrayal of real pain somehow doesn’t leave you squirming in discomfort, instead you are reminded that you can be both sad and lucky.

There was much I found to be profound and beautiful in this book, below are a few headlines of some of what stuck.

· How to have a complete breakdown…

· Falling off the bottom of your friends “to care about” list…

· Don’t should yourself. Somewhere between our youngest and oldest years we mire ourselves in should and could and would…

· Telling someone to smile is tantamount to saying please adjust your face to my liking…

· Yes, And. Changing but to and…

STATE OF THE UNION – NICK HORNBY – 8.5/10

Spoiler Alert! Nobody dies in this book. But if words were weapons…

The union referred to in this title is that of marriage. Holy matrimony, wedlock, nuptials, for better or worse, life sentence… to quote a few of the common phrases.

The book takes place over the course of several pub rendezvous between a couple just prior to them heading into their therapy sessions. You don’t see the therapy or much of the marriage itself for that matter, but the dialogue is sharp, nimble and terrifically witty. This book is a gem, charming in its tangents as much as its ruminations.

Fun bits to share:

· Took huge balls just to show up, basically anything I do here is an act of pure heroism. And giant balls.

· You hesitate when you’re ordering in a restaurant, not to the question of whether or not you love somebody.

· Prison sex, you know the kind you have when you get out, that’s what I’m aiming for!