Welcome back to another Staff Reads blog post! This month (and the last) the press has been escaping the DC heat by splashing into a variety of different books. Some of us are reading historical fiction, realistic fiction, mystery, and even vintage cook-book inspired stories!
Amanda
I’m currently reading The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. It follows the complicated life and history of the Barnes family, living in a post crash Ireland. I’m normally not a huge fan of switched POVs but Murray does an amazing job at making the writing for each character so distinct. I’m only halfway through the book but I definitely recommend it.
On audio, I’m listening to New Moon, the second book in the Twilight Saga. I’m also watching the movies (for the millionth time) alongside the books. Both the books and the movies truly are so bad they’re good and I can’t get enough right now.
John
It’s been a couple of weeks, but I finished on audio Day by Michael Cunningham thanks to Brian’s “recommendation” in a prior edition of this feature. It was exquisitely written, and the pain of each subtle emotion and interaction is amplified when listening at normal speed. Just as some people enjoy painfully spicy food, this was a painfully well-written novel. I could feel the “raised Catholic” backdrop throughout, even if faith is rejected both explicitly and implicitly. Currently, I’m reading a book only Flannery O’Connor nerds could love—Dear Regina, her letters home to her mother from graduate school in Iowa, which largely consist of statements like “I don’t need the blanket yet, but please send those hangers ASAP.” Yet it’s oddly compelling to me, perhaps because she wrote almost every day, perhaps because of flashes of her wit (she refers to one of her housemates as “the plush rug kid”), perhaps because I know the broader story and how her small triumphs and tribulations are foreshadowing her future genius, success, and suffering. But yeah, it’s not as profound as her Prayer Journal written at the same time, which helped inspire the divisive Ethan Hawke movie about her life and stories, Wildcat—which I enjoyed. So I guess all of my recommendations are “love ’em or hate ’em” and a bit pretentious this month!
Trevor L
I’m reading Arturo Sangalli’s mathematical mystery Pythagoras’ Revenge. What if Pythagoras, of 3-4-5 triangle fame, had left behind a manuscript that rival scholars today were racing to decipher? And what might happen if things are complicated by the Order of the Beacon, a neo-Pythagorean sect based in the Chicago area? The novel is a fun read for those who love numbers, or for those who love Dan Brown’s stories, or both. But — fair play to Sangalli — his “secret cult” book predates Brown’s “Angels and Demons.” If “Pythagoras’ Revenge” ever became a movie, it might be played in every “Math for the Liberal Arts” course throughout the country. You’ll find me in the front row, eating popcorn.
Rachel
I’m reading Christopher Beha’s The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, and so far it is fantastic! It’s a bit hard to describe the concept of the novel—it’s kind of a baseball book, kind of the story of an elite New York family, kind of an exploration of two different worldviews (one older, more conservative, and artistic, and the other more progressive and data-driven). I heard about Christopher Beha when he was long-listed for the National Book Award in 2020 but became really interested when I listened to this interview in 2023. I picked up his first novel, What Happened to Sophie Wilder, after initially not being able to get my hands on this one and couldn’t get into it. It felt a little as though Beha was trying too hard to inject metaliterary commentary and allusions into it. This one just feels completely natural. It inhabits different characters seamlessly, and it has an impressive breadth (I’m a couple hundred pages in, and it’s still introducing new characters and perspectives, Middlemarch style). It also engages relatively recent world events like 9/11, the war in Iraq, and the 2008 financial crisis in thoughtful and nuanced ways. If you’re not interested in baseball or data science, there’s still plenty in this book to hold your interest. I’m only about a third of the way through it, but so far, five stars!
Carole
I am captivated by an exuberantly enthusiastic book, Miss Lillian and Friends: The Plains, Georgia, Family Philosophy and Recipe Book, as told to Beth Tartan and Rudy Hayes in 1977. Here is a charming compilation of both narrative history and firsthand description of the town of Plains, of the life of Lillian Carter (the mother of President Jimmy Carter), of Miss Lillian’s own personal philosophy — and of Southern recipes that had a role in feeding the Carter family and their friends. An abundance of photographs is included. This book is fun!
Trevor C
I’m reading A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. It won the Booker in 2014 and I bought it for $2 at the close of the CUA Barnes & Noble. The book examines the lead-up and aftermath of the assassination attempt on Bob Marley the day before he’s scheduled to play a peace concert. The book is told in alternating POV sections rotating between people connected to the shooting. In doing so the book delves into the history and culture of Jamaica in the mid-twentieth century, from the rival street gangs and their overlap with the political parties, to the CIA’s involvement with influencing the elections, to people trying to escape generational poverty. Highly recommended!
Brian
I’m reading Long Island by Colm Tóibín which is a sequel to his book Brooklyn from 2009. I don’t want to say too much about it in case people haven’t read Brooklyn (which one should really rectify post-haste) but it follows the characters from that book in the next phase of their lives. He’s an amazing writer and one of the my favorites and thus far this one is not a disappointment!
Kayla
I am currently on an Agatha Christie kick, and recently wrapped up her 1939 novel, And Then There Were None. This psychological thriller is absolutely brilliant and so very clever— possibly one of the best of Agatha Christie’s novels. Here is the goodreads summary to further describe the book, far better than I could:
“First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion (click here for the nursery rhyme) When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.”
