‘Pin Picks: Baker’s Dozen, or Lucky Number 13

WELL, this week is a little different. The nice people of the Hairpin Book Club: NYC Edition asked me if I would select their April read for them. The responsibility! The stress! The inner turmoil. I’m also blown away that you successfully met and read a book three months in a row! That shows organization and discipline. I’ll do my best for you.

Since I cannot examine entrails for clues without…fresh entrails…I requested information on previous book club choices and their relative success. Not that it mattered, ultimately, because book club selections are a little different than ferreting out the unique taste of a snowflake-like individual. I was just curious! You want something that will appeal to a bunch of different readers, but that can also spark conversation and learning and sharing and growing, or, alternatively, vicious dissent and wine-throwing. Hey, that rhymed! Let’s go with it.

Oh, Nicole, what shall we read
While we nibble on bridge mix, and drink our mead?
First, let us tell you about the books we’ve tried,
Trust us: they are not tied.

“NW,” Zadie Smith — “People were kinda “meh” on this. I guess a lot of people voted for it because Zadie Smith is really well-known and thus people were voting for the star option, but nobody ended up super-enthusiastic about it.”

Burnnnnnnnn. Damning with faint praise, indeed!

“The Round House,” Louise Erdrich — “People really loved this, and only a few people had previously read Louise Erdrich, so people were happy to have done her.”

I’m so glad to hear that! Louise Erdrich is a treasure. I bought this one for my mother without even bothering to read it first.

“Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” Katherine Boo — “People had a LOT of feeling about this, about Boo’s role/responsibility, about imposing a narrative on real human beings (and using them as “characters”), about what she chose to show and to not show, about “about calling something with novelistic techniques “nonfiction” etc. etc. etc.”

Oh, jealous, that sounds DRAMATIC and entertaining. Did some people like it? Please share in the comments.

Now, onto your Nicole-anointed ‘Pin Picks: BRING ME AN OLD BOOK AND A YOUNG BOOK, sayeth I. You can choose one, or do one first and then the other (the young book is being born on April 1st) as you wish.

OLD BOOK: “Cold Comfort Farm,” Stella Gibbons (IndieboundAmazon)

This is the funniest goddamn book. It is a perfect, perfect, perfect send-up of schlocky rural novels, and melancholy, and the cows are named “Graceless,” “Aimless,” “Feckless,” and “Pointless,” and it is drastically under-read in the United States for reasons I will never understand. It’s a riot! Imagine if someone had shown up to Wuthering Heights and said, “Jesus, you people, get it together. Here is something to get the mold off the walls and some CBT for Catherine.” It’s a little like that. Enjoy! Relish! Giggle hysterically.

NEW BOOK: “Life After Life,” Kate Atkinson (GoodreadsAmazon)

Not to be confused with the “go towards the light” research of Raymond Moody, “Life After Life” is the newest novel by the genius Kate Atkinson. She is a genius! Isn’t it nice for us that she writes books instead of stealing plutonium, or something? This is a more canonical sort of book club recommendation, as it is hot off the presses and getting great reviews and spans decades in the life of the same woman, etc., etc., but we can forgive it all those advantages, because it is also great. The framing device/schtick is a little odd, I’m interested to hear what you think about it! But it is a superb novel, and she is a master, and I think it will spark all sorts of nice conversations about women and marriage and death and youth and so on.

Okay, get to it! Now, everyone can share their thoughts on any of the books mentioned, and if you have alternate ideas, share them! I am not an ogre.