The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (February 12)
By Washington Post guide critic Ron Charles
The 12 months is off to a terrific begin for guide lovers. Here are just a few titles you would possibly get pleasure from studying subsequent.
HarperCollins
When the COVID pandemic despatched the world into lockdown, Peggy Orenstein was already mourning the lack of her mom, and he or she desperately wanted some reduction from anxiousness and grief. She discovered it by making a sweater from scratch.
Now she describes that journey in a memoir that is equally hilarious and transferring, referred to as “Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater” (HarperCollins).
It’s a yarn you may love, whether or not you care something about sheep, or knitting.
READ AN EXCERPT: “Unraveling” by Peggy Orenstein
“Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater” by Peggy Orenstein (HarperCollins), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio codecs, accessible by way of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
MCD
At the beginning of Aleksandar Hemon’s new novel, “The World and All That It Holds” (MCD), a younger apothecary in Sarajevo witnesses the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which sparks World War I.
Over the next years, he is drafted into the army, falls in love with a fellow soldier, and finds himself pushed from one calamity after one other throughout Europe and Asia.
This is a charming novel in regards to the tragedy of battle, the salvation of storytelling, and the resilience of real love.
READ AN EXCERPT: “The World and All That It Holds” by Aleksandar Hemon
“The World and All That It Holds” by Aleksandar Hemon (MCD), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio codecs, accessible by way of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Little, Brown
In 2012 when Jeremy Lin pulled the New York Knicks out of a stoop to win seven video games in a row, the Taiwanese American participant turned a world sensation – and the topic of some disturbing racist taunts.
Now, Matthew Salesses has written an insightful novel impressed by Lin’s expertise.
“The Sense of Wonder” (Little, Brown) jumps between tragedy and comedy, between popular culture and anti-Asian prejudice, and within the course of creates its personal exceptional successful streak.
READ AN EXCERPT: “The Sense of Wonder” by Matthew Salesses
“The Sense of Wonder” by Matthew Salesses (Little, Brown), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio codecs, accessible by way of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Random House
Since publishing “The Satanic Verses” greater than three many years in the past, Salman Rushdie has been dwelling beneath a dying menace imposed by the late Ayatollah Khomeini.
Last summer time on the Chautauqua Institute in New York, a person stabbed Rushdie 10 instances. Fortunately, the novelist survived – and he is not going to be silenced.
This month Rushdie is publishing “Victory City” (Random House). It’s a grand historic fantasy a couple of poet who grows an unlimited empire from a bag of seeds.
This is the newest masterpiece from a author who’s spent the final 50 years spinning tales which have breathed magic into historical past.
READ AN EXCERPT: “Victory City: A Novel” by Salman Rushdie
“Victory City” by Salman Rushdie (Random House), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio codecs, accessible by way of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
From 2002: Salman Rushdie on life after fatwa (“Sunday Morning”)
For these and different ideas, contact your librarian or native bookseller.
That’s it for the Book Report. I’m Ron Charles. Until subsequent time, learn on!
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For extra studying suggestions, take a look at these earlier Book Report options from Ron Charles:
Produced by Robin Sanders and Roman Feeser.