The Westport Library Resource Guides: Sybil's List: October 2017

Sybil Steinberg's New Book Picks

Date: Friday, October 13, 2017 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM

Location: The Large Reading Room

Westporter Sybil Steinberg, contributing editor and former book review section editor for Publishers Weekly, returns with more ideas for your fall reading with her ever-popular talk on the best new reads.

Fiction (In Order of Presentation)

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Publication Date: 2017-10-03
A heroine who’s a diver for the Navy in WW II, a missing father, an illicit romance, and a powerful Manhattan underworld fuel the plot of this gripping novel.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Publication Date: 2017-09-12
A “perfect” family in Shaker Heights, Ohio during the 90s encounters sibling dysfunction, an artist on the run who is shielding her child, and racial tensions involving a custody battle.
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
In this Faulkneresque, brilliantly written story about a poverty-stricken family in Mississippi, a drug-addicted mother goes on the road with two children, one of whom is contacted by a ghost.
Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is explored in a literary thriller, a moving love story, and a political statement that expresses empathy for both sides and a daring wish for peace.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Publication Date: 2017-02-07
A fine historical novel in which three generations of a Korean family are forced to live as second-class citizens in Japan, where they experience persecution, poverty and eventually, success and a measure of happiness.
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
Publication Date: 2017-09-19
Compassionate nuns in New York City shelter and protect a young, pregnant widow whose husband commits suicide. This beautiful novel exudes the warmth of love and the cruelty of Church dogma.
Smile by Roddy Doyle
Publication Date: 2017-10-17
The salty Irish vernacular in this suspenseful novel about a middle-aged man forced to acknowledge his past is often raw and disturbing, and the ending is a shock.
A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington
Publication Date: 2017-07-11
A Vietnam vet whose wounds have ended his career as an artist struggles to make a new life among a loving family in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.
A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee
Publication Date: 2018-01-02
In this Booker Prize finalist, the scalding picture of today’s India, the gap between wealthy city dwellers and abjectly poor village people is rendered in striking scenes.
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
Publication Date: 2017-08-29
Not for the faint of heart, this brilliant depiction of an abusive father and his brave, spirited 14-year-old daughter explores the depths of filial love.
Grace by Paul Lynch
Publication Date: 2017-07-11
The adventures of a young girl forced to travel through impoverished Ireland during the Great Famine presents a haunting picture of a terrible historical epoch.
Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Publication Date: 2017-08-22
The secret at the heart of a marriage of a young couple in Nigeria is gradually revealed after the husband takes a second wife.
Mrs. Osmond by John Banville
Publication Date: 2017-11-07
This amazingly perfect “sequel” to Henry James’s classic novel, “The Portrait of a Lady,” begins where the heroine, American heiress Isabel Archer Osborne longs to escape from her cruel, dissolute husband.
Moving Kings by Joshua Cohen
Publication Date: 2017-07-11
David King, boss of his eponymous New York moving company, finds his life is disrupted when an Israeli cousin comes to the U. S.
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
The fall of the mysterious, wealthy Golden family, immigrants from Mumbai, is a complex story told with Rushdie’s customary wit and verbosity.
The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk
Publication Date: 2017-08-22
Turkish Nobel-winner Pamuk spins a fable of tradition versus modernity, fathers and sons, and the red-haired woman who connects them both.

Fiction Continued (In Order of Presentation)

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Publication Date: 2017-08-22
Irish author Boyne out-Dickens Dickens in a page-turning tale of eccentric characters, outrageous coincidences, grisly murders and heartwarming discoveries.
A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma
Publication Date: 2017-07-11
Characters in India and in New York try to reconcile religion and tradition with the temptations and stresses of contemporary life in these eight short stories.
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively
Publication Date: 2017-05-09
Witty, tender, and often rueful, Lively’s 15 short stories range across centuries and settings, all of them evoking portraits of people in tangled emotional lives.
The Misfortune of Marion Palm
Publication Date: 2017-08-08
Emily Culliton
A wife and mother systematically embezzles money from her daughters’ private school in this funny, provocative novel.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Publication Date: 2017-07-18
A writer who accepts invitations to literary festivals around the world in order to escape his former lover’s wedding is in for a big surprise, as is the reader.
Only Child by Rhiannon Navin
Publication Date: 2018-02-06
Clearly based on the schoolhouse massacre in Newtown, Ct, this is a well crafted, highly suspenseful novel told from the point of view of a child whose brother is among the victims.

Non-Fiction (In Order of Presentation)

An Odyssey by Daniel Mendelsohn
Publication Date: 2017-09-12
When the author’s octogenarian father decides to attend his seminar on The Odyssey, many funny and poignant events ensue.
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt
Publication Date: 2017-09-12
Stephen Greenblatt
The 2,500 year old story of our supposed progenitors has shaped religious and cultural dogma in different times and faiths.
Sargent's Women by Donna M. Lucey
Publication Date: 2017-08-22
The lives of four women whose portraits were painted by John Singer Sargent present a fascinating glimpse of the Gilded Age.
The Best of Us by Joyce Maynard
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
A heartfelt memoir about finding love and heartbreak in mid-life,
and about gaining the resiliency to accept fate.
Hourglass by Dani Shapiro
Publication Date: 2017-04-11
In lyrical meditations Shapiro speculates on how a marriage changes as spouses grow older and experience life’s challenges.
Old Age by Michael Kinsley
Publication Date: 2016-04-26
Living fully at any age is the message in this witty, perceptive memoir by a journalist diagnosed with early Parkinson’s disease.
Dying by Cory Taylor
Publication Date: 2017-08-01
This beautiful, passionate ode to living was written by a woman diagnosed with multiple melanomas is a provocative, uplifting book.
At the Strangers' Gate by Adam Gopnik
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
A sophisticated yet heartwarming memoir about the New York art world and cultural milieu during the 1980s.
Playing House in Provence by Mary-Lou Weisman
Publication Date: 2017-08-29
Sheer pleasure awaits Francophiles (and others) in this witty, insightful memoir subtitled: “How Two Americans Became a Little Bit French.”