The Westport Library Resource Guides: Sybil's List: October 2018

Sybil Steinberg's New Book Picks

Date: Friday, October 19, 2018 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Location: Suzuki Music School of Westport, 246 Post Rd East, Lower Level (below Webster Bank)

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)

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
Publication Date: 2018-10-16
Two families—one contemporary, one historical—have lived in the same house in Vineland, N.J. Both face a daunting future.
Little by Edward Carey
Publication Date: 2018-10-23
Set in France during the French Revolution, this story is narrated by a bright, ambitious orphan who eventually becomes a famous historical person.
Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken
Publication Date: 2019-02-05
Eccentric characters hide secrets, indulge in passions and betrayals and inhabit a novel laced with whimsy and mystery.
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
Publication Date: 2018-11-13
A despicable anti-hero, a man without a conscience, schemes his way to literary fame by betraying fellow writers.
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Publication Date: 2018-06-19
A beautiful and harrowing story of loving friendships during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Chicago, and survivors’ redemption in contemporary Paris.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Publication Date: 2018-09-18
An 11-year-old black slave in Barbados is chosen by his master’s brother to be his servant and assistant, with ensuing adventures all over the globe.
Gone So Long by Andre Dubus
Publication Date: 2018-10-02
Dubus writes with authenticity about blue-collar life. Teenaged sweethearts in a seedy amusement park community pay the price of passion.
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Publication Date: 2018-07-10
The social and moral climate in Russia envelops a young American man who goes to Moscow to take care of his grandmother.
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim
Publication Date: 2018-08-07
The Korean War and its aftermath are the backdrop of a love story that’s a triangle of endurance, courage and heartbreak.
The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim
Publication Date: 2018-11-06
A divided family—partly in the U.S. and partly in Korea—strive to reunite in another version of life after the Korean conflict.
Kudos by Rachel Cusk
Publication Date: 2018-06-05
The third volume of her autofiction trilogy finds the author’s alter ego in London as she reveals her own life by listening to others.
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk; Jennifer Croft (Translator)
Publication Date: 2018-08-14
This hybrid novel-cum-memoir is composed of short sections in which various people are in flight from difficult situations.
Still Life with Monkey by Katharine Weber
Publication Date: 2018-08-21
After a New Haven architect is rendered a paraplegic in an auto accident, he acquires a capuchin monkey as his aide.
His Favorites by Kate Walbert
Publication Date: 2018-08-14
A vulnerable teenager in a boarding school is seduced by a charismatic professor and pays a double price of pain and disillusionment.
The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling
Publication Date: 2018-09-04
The exhausting experience of single parenting provokes a young mother to flee with her toddler to a trailer in desolate California desert country.
The Distance Home by Paula Saunders
Publication Date: 2018-08-07
Siblings are pitted against each other by family dynamics in 1960 rural South Dakota.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Publication Date: 2018-02-06
A young black couple with brains and ambition find their lives derailed when the husband is falsely accused of rape and imprisoned.
Mrs. by Caitlin Macy
Publication Date: 2018-02-13
A group of families in the Upper West Side, whose children attend the same expensive pre-school, become embroiled in a scandal.
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
Publication Date: 2018-07-10
Bored and unhappy in her marriage, a middle-aged woman finds purpose in life when she becomes a surrogate grandmother to a 9- year-old girl.

Printable Version of Sybil's List Oct 2018

Fiction Continued (In Order of Presentation)

The Last Cruise by Kate Christensen
Publication Date: 2018-07-10
Three characters who have different reasons for sailing on a cruise to Hawaii are forced to confront what’s lacking in their lives.
There There by Tommy Orange
Publication Date: 2018-06-05
Native Americans who live in Oakland, CA rather than on a reservation face challenges when they want to rediscover tribal rituals.
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar
Publication Date: 2018-07-31
It takes love affairs with three women for the hero, an immigrant from India, to feel himself integrated into American society.
Cherry by Nico Walker
Publication Date: 2018-08-14
The author’s experience as a medic in Iraq, and his subsequent career as a bank robber to feed his heroin addiction, infuse this graphically realistic story.
From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
Publication Date: 2018-07-17
The lives of three men in a small Irish town come together in a moment of tragedy and compassionate understanding.
A View of the Empire at Sunset by Caryl Phillips
Publication Date: 2018-05-22
An imaginative recreation of the life of famous author Jean Rhys who is disillusioned when she briefly returns home to her native island of Dominica.

Short Stories (In Order of Presentation)

Your Duck Is My Duck by Deborah Eisenberg
Publication Date: 2018-09-25
The characters in these 5 masterful stories try to live morally centered lives in the shadow of an increasingly unethical society.
Last Stories by William Trevor
Publication Date: 2018-05-15
The master’s touch never waned.
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
Publication Date: 2018-01-16
A posthumous collection of bleak stories by an American icon.

Nonfiction (In Order of Presentation)

The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Publication Date: 2018-10-16
The disastrous L.A. Library fire in 1986 is one of Orlean’s subjects in a fascinating book about how a library works.
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs
Publication Date: 2018-09-04
Brennan-Jobs holds no grudges about the father who denied her paternity and either ignored or bullied her. It’s a must-read.
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
Publication Date: 2019-01-15
Shapiro recently discovered a secret about her birth that called into question her identity and her relationship with her father.
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
Publication Date: 2018-07-10
A feminist manifesto about the difficulties of having a career and caring for children in a male-dominated society.
A Carnival of Losses by Donald Hall; Wendy Strothman
Publication Date: 2018-07-10
The poet and essayist is rueful, funny and wise in this beguiling memoir about growing older.
Reporter by Seymour M. Hersh
Publication Date: 2018-06-05
His no-holds-barred memoir shows the veteran reporter’s relentless pursuit of the important stories of the 20th century.
The Impostor by Javier Cercas; Frank Wynne (Translator)
Publication Date: 2018-08-28
A psychological study of a man who posed as a Holocaust survivor and continued to bask in his lie even after he was exposed.
The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman
Publication Date: 2018-09-11
The case of an 11 year-old-girl who was abducted by a pedophile was part of the background for Lolita, a fact that Nabokov denied.
Proust's Duchess by Caroline Weber
Publication Date: 2018-05-22
An insightful view of 18th century Paris informs the biographies of three society women who were the models for the character of the Duchess of Guermantes.
Tyrant : Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
Publication Date: 2018-05-08
Shakespeare used the subjects of his historical plays to comment on the politics of his own times.

Explore more reading recommendations from the Westport Library!