LAVA Discussion Book Candidates for 2024
These book candidates come from mostly from suggestions by LAVA members and from Bookmarks magazine, which summarizes book reviews in major periodicals. Other sources include lists of award-winning books, favorites of other book clubs, the Harvard Bookstore’s best-seller list, literary blogs, etc. Several were carried over from the previous voting list. There are 17 books on this list, but we will choose only 8 of them in this balloting, which unfortunately means that many worthwhile books will be excluded from next year’s reading schedule. As before, the most popular runners-up will be included in the next list of candidates. LAVA members are encouraged to research these book candidates in bookstores, libraries, on the web, etc.
Why do we need to choose only 8 books to cover 12 meetings? We don’t read a book for January because that month is occupied with choosing the next list of books. In the fall, we read the book chosen by Writers and Books for their "Rochester Reads" program. We do not have book discussions in July and September. That leaves us 8 books to choose from this list.
Bring this list and your thoughts to our annual potluck and business meeting on Friday, January 12, which will be devoted to sharing information and opinions on these books (and sharing good food).
After the January meeting and prior to the voting deadline of Sunday February 4, please "mark your ballots" and return them to Bill. First review the guidelines for choosing LAVA discussion books, which reflect some of the things we have learned about choosing books over the years. Then, using a system like the one used in the Olympics, rate each book individually on a scale of 1 to 10, using 10 to indicate books that you think would generate the best Lava discussions. This is also similar to the way classroom papers are usually graded: you grade each one individually based on its own merits, not on how it compares with others.
The system works best if you provide a rating for every book on the list. Members often rate each book during the January meeting and turn their votes in before they leave. I will also email a list of the candidate book titles to everyone after the meeting. If you haven't already voted by then, you can enter your rating for each book into that email and return it to me.
Candidates for Regular Meetings (fiction)
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter, 337 pages, 2021. In 1909, two orphaned brothers in Spokane, Washington become involved with the radical Industrial Workers of the World. One of them is pressured to switch his loyalties to the local power broker in exchange for his brother’s release from prison. Amazon says it has an “unforgettable cast of cops and tramps, suffragists and socialists, madams and murderers.” San Francisco Chronicle: “The Cold Millions feels timed perfectly to this moment of stark income inequality, where the crevasse between billionaires and workers widens and activism increases … I haven’t encountered a more satisfying and moving novel about the struggle for workers’ rights in America.” Wall Street Journal: “Filled with a gusto that honors the beauty of believing in societal change and simultaneously recognizes the cruel limits of the possible.” Washington Post: “A work of irresistible characters, harrowing adventures and rip-roaring fun … One of the most captivating novels of the year.” Listed by Bookmarks as one of the 20 best novels of 2021. Reviews. Held over from last year. 32 copies in the library system.
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 394 pages, 1980. Bookmarks: “In this tragicomic novel, Ignatius J. Reilly, a junk-food addict and medieval scholar, rebels against the modern age. In search of justice, he decides to act on his beliefs – whether it entails working in a New Orleans department store or a hotdog stand.” The Chicago Sun-Times described the protagonist as a "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures." The Washington Post: “A corker, an epic comedy, a rumbling, roaring avalanche of a book.” This novel won the Pulitzer Prize. Review in Kirkus Reviews. Suggested by Diane. Held over from last year. 16 copies in the library system.
The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylvainen, 368 pages, 2023. In this story of cultural collision, a Lutheran minister tries unsuccessfully to convert native reindeer herders to his religion in the far north of Scandinavia in the 1850s. His daughter falls in love with one of the herders and accompanies him on the herd’s arduous annual journey north to the sea across newly drawn national boundaries. Minneapolis Star Tribune: “The best type of historical fiction--electrifying, edifying, and set in an utterly enthralling time and place.” Christian Science Monitor: “An exquisite story that combines historical fiction, romance, and social commentary… With her lush prose and balanced perspectives, Pylvainen tells the story with a fairness that does not cast one culture as ‘advanced’ and the other as ‘primitive’. This novel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Reviews. There is also a short review in the New York Times. 15 copies in the library system.
Horse by Geraldine Brooks, 401 pages, 2022. This novel, which jumps around in time, is based on an actual racehorse. In 1850, an enslaved groom bonds with a record-setting racehorse named Lexington. In 1954, an art gallery owner examines a mysterious painting of a racehorse. In 2019, a scientist studying Lexington’s skeleton befriends a Nigerian-American art historian who is unearthing the story of the Black horsemen who were critical to Lexington’s racing success. The Wall Street Journal refers to “Ms. Brooks’s almost clairvoyant ability to conjure up the textures of the past and of each character’s inner life ... Above all, she makes us both impatient to see and fearful to learn what might befall Theo, the black graduate student who rediscovers the painting, and, centuries earlier, Jarret, the enslaved horseman whose story forms the heart of the novel.” Boston Globe: “Brooks is herself an ardent horsewoman, and her knowledge of and personal investment in the topic shine through Horse.” Suggested at the November meeting. Reviews. Many copies in the library system.
Joan Is OK by Weike Wang, 224 pages, 2022. Joan is a workaholic doctor who flies to Shanghai for her father’s funeral and returns before the weekend is over so she won’t miss any shifts. Her mother then travels to her in the US just before the pandemic hits, despite the lack of a driver’s license and a good command of English. New York Times: “Joan … is solitary, literal-minded and extremely awkward—all of which contribute to the hilarity of this novel.” NPR: ““This is the first book I loved this year … It’s smart, heartfelt and insightful, and—I almost hate to say it—I literally laughed and cried.” New York Times Book Review: “Wang masterfully balances the many terrors of provocative questions about motherhood, daughterhood, belonging and the many definitions of ‘home.’” The author, who has a PhD in public health from Harvard, won the PEN/Hemingway Award for her first novel. Reviews. (Andi said she read this one and loved it.) 16 copies in the library system.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, 386 pages, 2022. Amazon’s description: “Set in 1960s California, this blockbuster debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman's place is in the home, only to find herself as the reluctant host of America's most beloved TV cooking show.” Times (UK): “Garmus’s earlier career as a copywriter specializing in technology serves her well. Here, scientific theory becomes sparkling, sprightly entertainment. A delight of her rip-roaring, funny book is how it bonds familiar plot and character elements with the unexpectedly unconventional.” Washington Post: “At the center of the novel is Elizabeth Zott, a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention.” Kirkus Reviews: “A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find.” Reviews. Suggested by Patricia, a guest at the November meeting. Many copies in the library system.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout, 288 pages, 2022. As the covid lockdowns begin, Lucy Barton is taken by her ex-husband William, who is still, more-or-less, her friend, from Manhattan and to a little house in a little town in Maine, where they stay for several months and try to deal with their complex past lives. This is the fourth novel in which Strout features Lucy Barton. LAVA read her Oh William! in 2023. Irish Times: “If, like me, you find you’re 'over Covid', to the extent that you’ve no interest in reading a fictional retelling, Lucy by the Sea will change your mind ... The strangeness of the pandemic is made fresh through the kind of considered detail and clarity of insight that is so often missing in the moment.” Boston Globe: “I didn’t just love Lucy by the Sea; I needed it.” The author won the Pulitzer Prize for a previous novel. Suggested by Tess. Reviews. Many copies in the library system.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murphy, 338 pages, 2021. This is a fictionalized account of a real person in the early 20th century who became Pierpont Morgan's personal librarian for his collection of rare books. A light-skinned African American, she hid her identity so she could attend his social events without being noticed. Referring to the two authors, NPR says: “Benedict, who is white, and Murray, who is African American, do a good job of depicting the tightrope Belle walked, and her internal conflict from both sides — wanting to adhere to her mother's wishes and move through the world as white even as she longed to show her father she was proud of her race.” Suggested by Ken and Sheila. Held over from last year. Reviews. Many copies in the library system.
Search by Michelle Huneven, 357 pages (not counting recipes), 2022. In this novel, a Unitarian Universalist food writer and author of two published memoirs in California is looking for ideas for her next book. She sees her chance when she is asked to be on the church’s search committee, whose job is to recommend a new minister. The committee becomes deeply troubled by a generational divide. Huneven, the author, a food writer herself and a member of the UU church in Pasadena, accurately depicts how UU church administration works. Los Angeles Times: “a surprisingly amusing account of ecclesiastical politics in the age of 'wokeness' … At book’s end, Huneven, a James Beard Award-winning food writer, serves up some of the recipes the group has enjoyed.” New York Times: “This novel has plot, character, structure and a delicious, deeply human pettiness that I think most honest readers will relate to.” Suggested by Bill. Reviews. Held over from last year. 11 copies in the library system.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann, 329 pages, 2023. In 1742, a British ship named The Wager wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia in southern Argentina. One group of survivors made their way to Brazil, where they were treated as heroes for overcoming extreme hardship. Months later, another group landed in Chile, where they told a very different story about the first group. Los Angeles Times: “A testament to the depths of human depravity and the heights of human endurance, and you can’t ask for better than that from a story...The Wager will keep you in its grip to its head-scratching, improbable end.” The Guardian: “He fixes his spyglass on the ravages of empire, of racism, of bureaucratic indifference and raw greed…one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” Washington Post: “Glorious, steely…a tightly written, relentless, blow-by-blow account that is hard to put down.” LAVA read Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon in 2019. Suggested by Ted and Connie. Reviews. Many copies in the library system.
Candidates for Regular Meetings (non-fiction)
1000 years of Joys and Sorrow: A Memoir by Ai Weiwei, 369 pages, 2022. Ai is a Chinese artist and critic of the Chinese government who lives in exile in Europe. New York Review of Books: “As I read 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, I felt as if I’d finally come upon the chronicle of modern China for which I’d been waiting since I first began studying this elusive country six decades ago. What makes this memoir so absorbing is that it traces China’s tumultuous recent history through the eyes of its most renowned twentieth-century poet, Ai Qing, and his son, Ai Weiwei, now equally renowned in the global art world.” San Francisco Chronicle: “…a clear-eyed account of two artists working against convention, buffeted by the whims of absurdist politics.” Time: “It’s a fascinating sociopolitical history, and a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the world’s most significant living artists became who he is.” Reviews. 12 copies in the library system.
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong, 355 pages. Amazon: “The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses.” New York Times: “Nature’s true wonders aren’t limited to a remote wilderness or other sublime landscape … There is as much grandeur in the soil of a backyard garden as there is in the canyons of Zion.” Wall Street Journal: “It’s Mr. Yong’s task to expand our thinking, to rouse our sense of wonder, to help us feel humbled and exalted at the capabilities of our fellow inhabitants on Earth.” The Times (London): “Subtly — Yong is never heavy-handed — it prompts a radical rethink about the limits of what we know — what the world is, even … It is quite a book ... and, I felt, putting it down, quite a world.” The author earlier won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. This book was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Reviews. 18 copies in the library system.
Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace, 337 pages, 2021. White fur traders killed a Seneca hunter in Pennsylvania in 1772 just before a major conference between colonists and Native Americans. The colonial government was prepared to execute the fur traders if they were found guilty, but Native Americans insisted on a style of justice based on community, forgiveness, and reparations. This book won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in history. Chicago Tribune: “Drawing repeated distinctions between rigid, albeit unfairly applied, British law (perpetrator-focused, reprisal-oriented, punishment driven) and the justice of the Haudenosaunee (victim-focused, restitution-oriented, harmony-driven)... Eustace manages to maintain the narrative tension.... formally documenting a more humane, healing vision of what justice could be – and once was – in this country." Reviews. 14 copies in the library system.
Let our Children Soar! by Bolgen Vargas, 141 pages, 2023. A former superintendent of the Rochester City School District tells the story of the transition from a non-privileged childhood in a small town in the Dominican Republic to college and professional life in the U.S. Aimed primarily at educators, each chapter ends with a short discission section called “Reflect and Imagine Activity” that focuses on educating children for whom English is not the first language. Democrat and Chronicle: “Vargas uses his own personal story as an example of the potential for English language-learning students in urban schools like Rochester, if only they’re provided with the right resources.” If we choose this book, the author has agreed to attend our discussion of it. 7 copies in the library system.
Longer Books (suitable for August and October)
We read no more than two books in this category per year, and we reserve these for our August and October discussions, which gives us two months to read them. This does not imply that our August and October books must come from this section: if all the top choices are shorter books, that is what we read all year.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, 546 pages, 2022. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2023, this novel was inspired by Dickens’ David Copperfield. Amazon: “[T]he story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.” Times Literary Supplement: “The social injustices of Victorian England have been transplanted, with spellbinding success, to modern-day Appalachia…populated by America’s rural white underclass and now ravaged by the opioid crisis…This novel is surely a highpoint of Kingsolver’s long career and a strong early candidate for next year's Booker Prize.” Washington Post: “May be the best novel of 2022. … Kingsolver's best demonstration yet of a novel’s ability to simultaneously entertain and move and plead for reform.” Not everyone liked it, however. The Boston Globe said, “Her characters wallow in dark hollows with little light, condemned to forever repeat the horrific mistakes of previous generations…Demon Copperhead becomes a form of poverty porn, a slum tour where pity is the price of the ride.” The Telegraph: “Beset by earnestness, Demon Copperhead breaks the most important rule of working in the Dickensian mode: you must show the reader a good time ... Demon Copperhead is only sad and glum.” Reviews. Many copies in the library system.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, 430 pages, 2020. Hugh “Shuggie” Bain is a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. His mother is his guiding light even as she sinks into alcoholism. His father is a philanderer. New York Times: “The wonder is how crazily, improbably alive it all is … The book would be just about unbearable were it not for the author’s astonishing capacity for love … He shows us lots of monstrous behavior, but not a single monster—only damage.” Wall Street Journal: “It’s the obstinate Bain pride that prevents this novel from becoming a wallow in victimhood and gives it its ruined dignity.” New York Review of Books: “Stuart’s capacity for allowing wild contradictions to convincingly coexist is also on display in the individual vignettes that comprise the novel, blending the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the excruciating.” This novel won the Booker Prize. Suggested at the November meeting. Reviews. 22 copies in the library system.
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane, 425 pages, 2020. Publisher: "Traveling through the dizzying expanse of geologic time―from prehistoric art in Norwegian sea caves, to the blue depths of the Greenland ice cap, to a deep-sunk 'hiding place' where nuclear waste will be stored for 100,000 years to come―Underland takes us on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the surface of both place and mind." The Irish Times: "[T]his is … an account of adventure, terror, discovery and hope. In fact, this is a plea for the world seen in mythic proportions." New York Review of Books: "Macfarlane is gifted with qualities often mutually exclusive: the physical hardiness of travel, the sensitivity to evoke it, and a talent for scientific elucidation… At times his writing ascends to a kind of forensic poetry." Guardian: "There is throughout a transcendent beauty to Macfarlane’s prose, and occasional moments of epiphany and even ecstasy…One of the most ambitious works of narrative non-fiction of our age." A New York Times "100 Notable Books of the Year." The Guardian named it one of "100 Best Books of the 21st Century." Suggested by Ken. Held over from last year. Reviews. 18 copies in the library system.