Author: Jennifer Graham

Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner (Alfred A. Knopf, 239 pages)

The first time that I, a southerner raised on white bread, meat loaf and McDonald’s, went to an H Mart, the traffic shocked me as much as the food offerings. In Burlington, Massachusetts, the closest H Mart to Manchester, you can hardly find a parking place any time of day.

For the uninitiated, H Mart is a supermarket that specializes in Korean food and products. Its name derives from a Korean phrase, han ah reum, which means an armload of groceries. And the store is stocked with things you don’t often come across at the Hannaford, such as frozen sliced octopus.

But I didn’t understand until reading Michelle Zauner’s powerful memoir why H Mart is always packed and rapidly expanding across the U.S., and it has little to do with the groceries and Korea’s famed beauty products. H Mart sells food, of course, but it taps into something deeper for Americans of Korean descent. As much as meat, produce and authentic ramen, H Mart sells a sense of home. Zauner reflects on this in her opening, as she describes people-watching at the H Mart food court, which typically offers sushi and Chinese and Korean food, fast-food style.

“It’s a beautiful, holy place. A cafeteria full of people from all over the world who have been displaced in a foreign country, each with a different history,” she writes. “Where did they come from and how far did they travel? Why are they all here?” They’re there to buy products that Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry, but ultimately for more. “I’m not just on the hunt for cuttlefish and three bunches of scallions for a buck; I’m searching for memories,” she says.

Zauner doesn’t travel far to the H Mart where she shops, near Philadelphia, and she grew up in Eugene, Oregon. But she cries at the H Mart because it reminds her of her mother, a Korean woman who married an American man, but took her daughter to visit relatives in Seoul every other year. Food, Zauner writes, was how her mother conveyed love; “I could always feel her affection radiating from the lunches she packed and the meals she prepared for me just the way I liked them.”

She was often harsh, yelling at her daughter if she got injured while playing, and once reacted to Zauner’s getting fired at a waitressing job by saying, “Well, Michelle, anyone can carry a tray.” By her teens Zauner had developed the adolescent revulsion to her mother’s touch, and the relationship further soured as her mother’s behavior bordered on full-blown abuse.

But when her mother developed Stage IV pancreatic cancer when Zauner was 25, she was devastated. The memoir is her account of a painful reckoning that they both endured during the mother’s treatment and final months of life, a cold and gritty look at the realities of hospital (“The house was quiet aside from her breathing, a horrible sucking like the last sputtering of a coffee pot”) and also the small moments of grace.

The memoir continues after the mother’s passing, as Zauner comes to fully understand her mother in ways she couldn’t while she was alive. It is taut and elegant, with no descent into melodrama: just a matter-of-fact but beautifully written elegy that explores the challenges of loving difficult people. But it is a deeply hopeful book, despite being centered around death. And don’t let the title fool you — while H Mart may appeal most to Koreans and other Americans of Asian descent, Zauner’s story is universal, as is the connection that she forges with her mother, both in life and in death, through food. To cope with her mother’s death, she starts seeing a therapist, but it wasn’t helping, so she starts cooking her mother’s Korean recipes, ultimately making so much that she had to start giving it to friends.

“The smell of vegetables fermenting in a fragrant bouquet of fish sauce, garlic, ginger and gochugaru radiated through my small Greenpoint kitchen, and I would think of how my mother always used to tell me never to fall in love with someone who doesn’t like kimchi. They’ll always smell it on you, seeping through your pores.”

Zauner did fall in love with someone who liked kimchi, a Korean side dish, and who married her during her mother’s treatment, so it wasn’t just cooking that helped her heal. There are other memoirs that make that claim; Zauner’s isn’t that simplistic. But hers is a surprisingly engrossing account of a mother and daughter’s struggle to love each other, and a crash course in a culture with which you might not be familiar. Familiarity with H Mart is not a prerequisite, but you’ll likely want to visit after reading this book. B+

Book Notes

Last week’s review of The Anthropocene Reviewed noted that the book’s genesis was the podcast of novelist John Green and his younger brother, Hank Green. This was interesting because podcasts are now a common form of book promotion, and so it’s becoming increasingly common for authors to start their own, after getting familiar with the medium.

I subscribe to two podcasts because I previously read books by the hosts: Rich Roll, the ultra-athlete who wrote Finding Ultra (Crown, 288 pages), and Tim Ferris, who wrote Tools of Titans (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 736 pages) and the four-hour-everything series.

Podcasts are a weirdly intimate form of conversation, even more than radio, since they’re not on public airwaves. They feel like it’s just you, the host and a guest, sitting around the kitchen table. As such, they can give you a connection with authors beyond what you get on the printed page. Here’s a look at podcasts by well-known authors.

“Dear Sugars” is an advice podcast by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild (Vintage, 336 pages), and Steve Almond.

Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt obtained literary fame with their 2005 book Freakonomics (William Morrow, 256 pages); their podcast is “Freakonomics Radio.”

Elizabeth Gilbert, most famous for Eat, Pray, Love (Riverhead, 352 pages), also wrote a book called Big Magic (Riverhead, 288 pages), which she’s parlayed into a podcast called “Magic Lessons.”

Roxane Gay, author of Hunger (Harper, 320 pages), Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial, 336 pages) and other books, has a podcast with Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Thick, and Other Essays (The New Press, 224 pages). It’s called “Hear to Slay.”

Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote Outliers (Little, Brown & Co., 309 pages), Blink (Little, Brown & Co., 288 pages) and other bestselling nonfiction books, has a podcast called “Revisionist History.”

And don’t forget, there are plenty of podcasts about books, most notably NPR’s “The Book Show” with Joe Donahue and “The Great Books Podcast” from John J. Miller and National Review. Locally, Concord’s Gibson’s Bookstore produces “The Laydown” podcast, with new episodes released monthly.

Books

Author events

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• JOYCE MAYNARD Author presents Count the Ways. Toadstool Bookstore, 12 Depot Square, Peterborough. Sat., July 24, 11 a.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 924-3543.

• GIGI GEORGES Author presents Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America. Toadstool Bookstore, Somerset Plaza, 375 Amherst St., Route 101A, Nashua. Sat., July 24, 2 to 4 p.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 673-1734.

• JESS KIMBALL Author presents My Pseudo-College Experience. Virtual event, hosted by Toadstool Bookstores, located in Nashua, Peterborough and Keene. Tues., July 27, 6 to 7 p.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 673-1734.

• CATHLEEN ELLE Author presents Shattered Together. Virtual event, hosted by Toadstool Bookstores, located in Nashua, Peterborough and Keene. Thurs., July 29, 6 p.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 673-1734.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

• SLAM FREE OR DIE Series of open mic nights for poets and spoken-word artists. Stark Tavern, 500 N. Commercial St., Manchester. Weekly. Thursday, doors open and sign-ups beginning at 7 p.m., open mic at 8 p.m. The series also features several poetry slams every month. Events are open to all ages. Cover charge of $3 to $5 at the door, which can be paid with cash or by Venmo. Visit facebook.com/slamfreeordie, e-mail slamfreeordie@gmail.com or call 858-3286.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: Crying in H Mart.

The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green (Dutton, 274 pages)

If you only know John Green as the author of young adult novels such as The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down, you don’t know John Green. Of the successful pop novelists working today, Green has one of the more interesting careers, to include a YouTube channel and podcasts created with his brother, Hank.

Sometimes when a famous person tries to hoist a sibling to fame the effort seems sort of awk, as the kids say. (Two words: Randi Zuckerberg.) But Hank Green, John’s younger brother, has a mind equivalent to that of his more famous brother, maybe even superior. John Green says he looks up to him, even though he’s two years younger. He’s written two novels of his own (2018’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and 2020’s A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor.). And it was Hank who came up with the title of John Green’s latest book, The Anthropocene Reviewed.

The brothers were talking about “the sudden everywhereness” of reviews on a 1-to-5-star scale, and John offered that he’d long wanted to review Canada geese. Hank’s response became the title of the book, but before that, a podcast. Which is why, after five novels, John Green has moved into the contemplative essay space — and he has done it expertly.

To be honest, Green had me at the line in which he mentioned “writing” a podcast, which seemed a wondrous thing. Who “writes” podcasts? The ones to which I subscribe don’t seem to follow a script. But in fact, “The Anthropocene Reviewed” podcast is deeply researched, and its episodes (which indeed include one on Canada geese) translate nicely to the page.

The conceit of both the podcast and book is that Green rhapsodizes about any one or two topics — from Diet Dr Pepper to viral meningitis to the wintry mix — and gives it a rating. This is a brilliant concept that could have been done superficially and unsatisfyingly on TikTok or Twitter; in fact, probably someone is doing that. But Green thinks more deeply than that, and his ruminations on the QWERTY keyboard (4 stars), Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest (2 stars) and Super Mario Kart (4 stars) are charming forays through personal and product history.

There is a theme to all the ruminating, which is that humans are destroying the planet. The anthropocene, of course, is the unofficial name for the present geologic epoch, the proposed successor to the holocene. The term is largely used by people who study and/or worry about humans’ impact on the planet, and Green does both. In his chapter on Kentucky bluegrass, he imagines aliens coming to Earth and questioning us about the “ornamental plant god” that we worship in the front and back of our homes. “Why do you worship this species? Why do you value it over all the other plants?”

Green wonders that as well. Nearly one-third of drinkable, residential water in the U.S. goes to our lawns, which are a relatively new addition to the anthropocene. (Until about the 1500s, we spoke of only pastures and fields.) He also bemoans our use of fertilizer and pesticides (10 times more per acre than American farmers use on corn and wheat fields) and the grass clippings rotting in landfills. Maintaining a lawn is, essentially, “an encounter with nature, but the kind where you don’t get your hands dirty.” Kentucky bluegrass gets 2 stars.

Better, but not by much, is air conditioning, which has allowed “the most privileged among us” to put a barrier between us and the weather. “I am insulated from the weather by my house and in its conditioned air. I eat strawberries in January. When it is raining, I can go inside. When it is dark, I can turn on lights. It is easy for me to feel like climate is mostly an outside phenomenon, whereas I am mostly an inside phenomenon.” Three stars.

If there is a slight air of moralizing in the essays, it is well taken with Green’s acknowledgment of complicity with the sins. He has a lawn that he mows; he uses air conditioning. “Like an expensive painting or a fragile orchid, I thrive only in extremely specific conditions.”

So whether you wind up liking him or not may hinge on what you think of his assessment of Monopoly (the game, not our Big Tech overlords), Teddy bears, the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” or the band The Mountain Goats.

But to be clear: Despite an occasional foray into the whimsical and comic, this is a book of largely serious reflections by a man who once planned to become an Episcopal priest and is writing (at times) during a global pandemic.

The book is heavy on wonder and gratitude, while cognizant that life can be wonderful and terrible at the same time. Five stars for the content, 10 for the delightful relationship of the Green brothers. A

Book Notes

In warmer climes, the unofficial start of summer is Memorial Day; in these parts, it’s the Fourth of July, which means it’s time to bring out the beach reads.

The term has been around for a couple of decades, beginning as publisher lingo for blockbuster books that would come out in the summer. Since then, it’s evolved to mean anything light and frothy and fun, preferably in paperback so it doesn’t matter if it gets sandy or wet.

Some authors have built careers on the beach read, most notably Elin Hilderbrand, who actually writes her beach reads on the beach. (She writes in longhand in a notebook on Nantucket.)

Hilderbrand’s 2021 offering is Golden Girl (Little, Brown and Co., 384 pages), which recently made headlines because of a controversial quote from one of the characters. After backlash on social media, Hilderbrand apologized for the reference to Anne Frank, which some saw as anti-Semitic, and the publisher will delete the quote in digital form and subsequent print editions.

Another no-brainer is from Emily Henry, the author who last year shrewdly published a novel called Beach Read (Penguin, 384 pages). It’s about two writers with writer’s block who wind up living next to each other at the beach for three months. She followed this up with this year’s People We Meet on Vacation (Berkeley, 384 pages). It’s about best friends who always vacationed together until they had a falling-out two years ago. This year, they’re trying to fix the rift by going on vacation again.

A few others making waves:

Summer on the Bluffs by The View co-host Sunny Hostin (William Morrow, 400 pages) is set in Martha’s Vineyard.

Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst (Berkley, 384 pages) is about three generations of women traveling through Tuscany and Rome.

Seven Days in Juneby Tia Williams (Grand Central Publishing, 336 pages) is about two writers who briefly loved each other in high school, then fell out of touch but kept writing about each other in their published books. Jodi Picoult is reported to have loved it.

The Guncle by Steven Rowley (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 336 pages) is about a gay sitcom actor who has to unexpectedly parent his young niece and nephew. Reviews say it’s both heartwarming and funny.

Books

Author events

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Language

• FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSES

Offered remotely by the Franco-American Centre. Six-week session with classes held Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. $225. Visit facnh.com/education or call 623-1093.

Featured photo: The Anthropocene Reviewed

Hour of the Witch, by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday, 400 pages)

I do love me some Chris Bohjalian, but I had forgotten how riled up I get by his stories, which always focus on some aspect of social injustice. Such is the case with his newest release, Hour of the Witch.

This piece of historical fiction centers around a young woman, Mary Deerfield. who lives with her abusive and alcoholic husband in 17th-century Massachusetts. Mary is much younger than her husband. She is worldly, having come from England with her parents, is well-spoken and well-read, and she speaks her mind. Boy, does she speak her mind.

After five years of marriage Mary is barren but not devoid of sexual desire. The guilt from that makes even her question her worthiness — a bad situation that is soon made worse.

After hitting her on several occasions, Mary’s husband impales her hand with a fork (the three-pronged tool of the devil), after which Mary moves back in with her wealthy parents and decides to divorce her husband. Not unheard of at the time, but certainly not considered the norm.

It wasn’t exactly the best time in history to stand up to male oppression, especially when women around you were being tried as witches. But Mary would rather take her chances with the courts because she knows her husband is wrong.

Because we are privy to Mary’s reasoning we understand why she makes the decisions she does. Her community, a male-dominated society, does not. Instead of people understanding that she is abused, it is far easier to think that her husband has his hands full with such a strong-willed young woman. Surely Mary deserves any kind of “fatherly correction” that is administered to her by her husband.

And besides, while her husband does tend to drink a bit, he’s such a nice guy.

Mary tries to ease a deathly ill young boy’s agony by administering herbs; people use that to call her a witch. Mary finds those three-pronged forks planted in her garden and after confronting her servant and husband makes the decision to replant them, in the hopes that maybe they can make her fertile, because why not give it a try? She is clearly a witch. Mary is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t.

And when Mary tells her side of the story of her abusive situation, she is doubted and called a liar and sinner — traits of a witch or certainly a woman who deserves to be punished. Many of her neighbors end up siding with the husband, praising him for putting up with a woman who doesn’t know her place.

Eventually the divorce proceedings turn into a full witch trial with the very real threat that Mary might hang from the gallows for the crime of not wanting to be married to an abusive monster.

Hour of the Witch is a hefty book — at 400 pages you’ll want to set aside time to read it — but the plot moves so quickly and the details are so realistic that you will find yourself sailing through the story. Bohjalian is known for doing a tremendous amount of research for each of his books, and the effort shows in this one. It’s convincingly written and it reads like a current story about abused women — how they are doubted, mistreated and made to feel like they are at fault for the actions of others. On one level, reading Hour of the Witch can be depressing — it felt to me like very little has changed since 1662 — but on another level it’s a skillfully written story worth the read. Put it on your list. A

Books

Author events

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

Featured photo: Hour of the Witch

Overloaded, by Ginny Smith (Bloomsbury, 325 pages)

Science writer Ginny Smith’s Overloaded, while not the most sparkling prose you’ll read this year, does a yeoman’s job at explaining, in understandable language, the workings of the brain and what controls it. Mindfulness has its place, but in fact, our thoughts, emotions and memories are the sum of what Smith calls “a turbulent sea of neurotransmitters.” And sea is not just a figure of speech. “It seems to me that the answer lies not in the wiring of our brains, but in the chemicals that bathe them,” Smith writes.

Smith starts by assuming that we have forgotten everything we learned in high school and teaching a sort of CliffsNotes class in Neurology 101: the differences between sensory and motor neurons, the duties of the synapse, how electrical signals flow. Along the way, like a good professor, she introduces some interesting people, such as Luigi Galvani, the Italian scientist who figured out how to make the legs of dead frogs twitch (inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), and two European scientists who shared the Nobel Prize in 2006 even though each disagreed with the other’s work. (Nice to know that even Nobel Prize winners can bicker like crows.)

From there Smith delves into eight typical areas of interest regarding the brain: memories, motivation, mood swings and fear, sleep, hunger and satiation, decision-making, love and attraction, and pain.

In the chapter on memory she darts from treatments for PTSD to imprinting in ducklings to the long-term effects on the neglected children in Romanian orphanages. It’s a skillfully woven collection of stories, but unfortunately, offers no significant or surprising information on how to maintain our own memory.

The chapter on motivation delves into research on primates and mice and does a good job of explaining how dopamine works and why its effects decline over time. Again, however, the chapter held more promise than it delivered. Any real-life application might have to do with drug or alcohol withdrawal, not how to get motivated to exercise or clean the house.

By “Mood Swings and Scary Things,” I’m on to the pattern. Smith dangles an interesting topic in front of me — sharks! — and then swims away. After a quick dip in the mechanics of the fear response, she’s suddenly musing about the moods of a childhood tortoiseshell cat. And on it goes.

By the time we come to sleep, which Smith considers the brain’s greatest mystery, I’ve given up on getting any practical application for my life, and I’m only here for the anecdotes. Admittedly, they are good, such as the story of a strange illness that spread throughout Vienna in 1916 and came to be known simply as “sleepy sickness.” (People would feel generally unwell at the start, and then, as the illness progressed, spend more and more time asleep. Eventually they fell into a coma and died, basically sleeping themselves to death.)

The illness killed about one million people over 10 years and eventually disappeared, and there still is no consensus on the cause, although it must have had something to do with hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that controls sleepiness and wakefulness.

Here, too, we finally get to Alzheimer’s disease, and theories about sleep deprivation might be connected, since during sleep, a sort of rinse cycle of the brain sweeps out waste that is believed to be involved in the development of dementia.

By now we know that in “Food for Thought” we’re not going to get any dieting tips. In fact, unhelpfully, Smith even writes, “There is currently only one really effective treatment for obesity: bariatric (or weight loss) surgery.” Also, she confides that when she is quite reasonably attracted to the pastry tray at a breakfast buffet, she deals with temptation by: filling her plate with fruit and yogurt. At this point, she reveals herself to be some freak of nature, sort of like the aliens in suits in Men in Black, so she has diminished cred in the ensuing discussion on eating disorders.

Finally, you’ve probably heard of St. Elmo’s fire, but how about St. Anthony’s fire? That’s another strange disease, this time in medieval France, in which poor people were afflicted with severe pain in the extremities. (Eat the rich — they never got it.) It turns out that the people were getting sick from a fungus that grew in the rye used in bread and beer. Even stranger, this discovery eventually led to a substance that is much more familiar today — oxytocin.

Overloaded suffers from an overload of English spelling (Smith teaches at the University of Cambridge), an overload of the author’s personal anecdotes and, most egregiously, an overload of exclamation marks. It won’t be the best book you read this year; in fact, let’s hope it’s the worst. But it’s a serviceable summer read for the intellectually curious. C

BOOK NOTES

With Father’s Day upon us, can we reflect on the problem that there is no equivalent of “chick lit” for men?

That said, we have scoured the internet and solved your gift-giving problem. Pair one of these with a box of Wicked Whoopies and you’re done.

For dads who love golf:Best Seat in the House, 18 Golden Lessons from a Father to His Son, by Jack Nicklaus II and Don Yaeger (Thomas Nelson, 224 pages). The son of PGA champ Jack Nicklaus reflects on his dad and the sport.

For dads who love cars:A Man and His Car, Iconic Cars and Stories from the Men Who Love Them, by Matt Hranek (Artisan, 240 pages)

For dads who watch Fox News: Tales from the Dad Side, by Fox personality Steve Doocy (William Morrow, 224 pages). This one’s been out a while, but genuinely funny, and the stories about son Peter (now a White House correspondent) are a hoot.

For dads who hate Fox News: Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, by Brian Stelter (Atria, 368 pages). The author is not without bias: he’s an anchor on CNN. Paperback version is out this month, too.

For dads of a certain age: Sinatra and Me, In the Wee Small Hours, by Tony Oppedisano (Scribner, 320 pages). The singer’s longtime confidante spills the tea.

For dads of a certain age more into rock than Sinatra: The Collected Work of Jim Morrison, edited by Frank Lisciandro (Harper Design, 584 pages). He was only 27 when he died, but the Doors’ front man left 28 handwritten journals, which are among the private and public writing assembled here.

For dads who like humor: Daditude, by Chris Erskine (Prospect Parks Books, 180 pages). A popular syndicated columnist writes on the “joys and absurdities of modern fatherhood.

And finally, not that we’re typecasting, for dads who like to grill: How to Grill Everything, by Mark Bittman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 576 pages). A famous food writer shares his secrets on grilling everything from steak to desserts.

Book fairs

Author events

• STACEY ABRAMS Author presents Our Time is Now. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 22, 7 p.m. Registration and tickets required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Call for submissions

• NH LITERARY AWARDS The New Hampshire Writers’ Project seeks submissions for its Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, which recognize published works written about New Hampshire and works written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Books must have been published between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2020 and may be nominated in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade/young adult books. All entries will be read and evaluated by a panel of judges assembled by the NHWP. Submission deadline is Mon., June 21, 5 p.m. Visit nhwritersproject.org/new-hampshire-literary-awards.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: Overloaded

Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead (Alfred A. Knopf, 589 pages)

Sometimes, even if you are looking forward to it, a hefty book can seem overwhelming. It’s going to be such an effort to get through this, you think to yourself. But that’s not the case with this well-written, inventive book. Instead of feeling like work, reading this story propels your imagination forward making it one of those books that’s so darn difficult to put down. This one is a joy from beginning to end.

The book begins with twin infants, Marian and James, who are rescued from a sinking cruise ship in the early 1900s. Their mother is presumed drowned. Their father is the eventually disgraced captain of the ship who chose to protect the babies’ lives by accompanying them on a lifeboat, thereby abandoning the ship and crew. He goes to jail for dereliction of duty and the children are sent to be raised by a distant and detached uncle. James shines with his artistic and compassionate traits, while Marian, who is fearless, becomes infatuated with adventure and “flying machines” which she sees as a method of obtaining freedom. She decides she wants to be a pilot who will circle the globe someday, achieving the “great circle” that will connect everything, including the seemingly isolated events in her life.

After struggling to assert herself and to be heard in a male-dominated world, Marian does become a legendary pilot, fulfilling her life’s dream. She is seen as a leader, a role model and an inspirational teacher to other women.

Though her plane crashes and Marian loses her life, her lessons and joy at following adventure live on to impact future generations of women looking for the courage and bravery to persist in their own dreams. Marian is the Thelma and Louise of her generation, living life and dying on her own terms.

Meanwhile in the 21st century Hadley Baxter is an actress playing the role of Marian Graves in a biographical movie. Hadley is also an orphan and like Marian was also sent to live with her emotionally detached uncle. She has lost her way in life, a little too much drug use, a little too much freedom as a child, and a little too much abuse by the male-dominated Hollywood community. As a child, she read a book about Marian and was grabbed by her life, her fearless adventures and her courage.

Of course she agreed to play the role when asked. In recreating Marian’s life story on screen Baxter borrows from her lessons and learns to fight back against many of the patriarchal and societal restrictions on women in the film industry.

In the end, Hadley uses Marian’s courage and conviction to overcome frustration and emotional blocks in her own life. So yes, in its truest sense, this is a story about girl power done right. Marian’s message to Hadley, heard loud and clear over the years, is one of empowerment. You are brave for even trying. Forget what they say and go for it.

“Her very favorites, though, are the accounts of the far north and the far south, where ships’ rigging sags heavy with frost and blue icebergs drift freely, arched and spired like frozen cathedrals…. Bravery at the poles seems appealingly simple. If you go there, or try to, you are brave.”

One of the things that make this book so delightful to read is the amount of research that went into each chapter. The exquisite detail makes this historical fiction seem as real as any event you’ve heard about. You want to know more about the characters, the connections, and what’s going to happen next. It’s got adventure, lovers, bootleggers, hunters, bush pilots and artists. Shipstead takes us to Prohibition Montana, Alaska, Seattle, wartime London, wartime Alaska, a German POW camp, the South Pacific and finally an around-the-world flight. Even though the book takes us on so many separate journeys, they all work together and are eventually connected, like points on a circle.

It’s not easy for an author to jump between one storyline and another, and it’s even more difficult to connect those storylines when they happen almost a century apart, but Shipstead manages to do this with literary style. Even when they make poor decisions, you cheer for the main characters to continue. The enthusiasm and personal empowerment in each timeline is addictive. You end up caring about the women and their lives and you begin to connect the dots — it turns out it’s all related. Even though we may feel separated, we are all in this together. Women’s struggles over the ages have more in common than we might think.

Great Circle is a lovely, fascinating and inspiring, fast-paced read, perfect for the beach or just as a book that will keep you entertained and intrigued until its last page. Very highly recommended. A

BOOK NOTES

If there’s a graduate in your life, they are hoping you will send them a gift. You can be lazy and just send money, or be classy and send them money in a book. But you can do better than Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life.

For starters, consider How to Change, the Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman (Portfolio, 272 pages). She’s a behavioral scientist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business who promises evidence-based strategies for success.

More challenging but equally on point: Becoming a Data Head by Alex J. Gutman and Jordan Goldmeier (Wiley, 272 pages). This new book promises to teach us how to “think, speak and understand data science, statistics and machine learning.”

In Making College Pay (Currency, 176 pages), economist Beth Akers argues that a college education is still worth the money, if done smartly. She offers some controversial advice, saying that your major matters more than your school, and that it might be smart to finance your education even if you can afford to pay as you go.

For high school graduates, consider 175+ Things to Do Before You Graduate College(Adams Media, 240 pages) by Charlotte Lake. A little silly in places (one “bucket list” suggestion is to spend a day pretending you go to a different school), some of the suggestions are a nice antidote to collegiate stress.

It’s a little edgy for high school grads, but college graduates might enjoyYear Book (Crown, 272 pages), a collection of biographical essays about comedian Seth Rogen’s early life and career.

Then, of course, there’s the perennial favorite The Naked Roommate (and 107 other issues you might run into in college) by Harlan Cohen (Sourcebooks, 560 pages). Now in its seventh edition, the book and its derivatives (e.g., The Naked Roommate, For Parents Only) could probably pay Cohen’s bills for the rest of his life, but he also published a new one this year: Win or Learn: The Naked Truth About Turning Your Every Rejection into Your Ultimate Success (Simple Truths, 152 pages). — Jennifer Graham

Book fairs

Author events

• CAROL DANA Penobscot Language Keeper and poet presents. Part of the Center for the Arts Lake Sunapee Region Literary Arts Series. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 15, 5 p.m. Visit centerfortheartsnh.org/literary-arts-series.

• LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, QUIARA ALEGRIA HUDES AND JEREMY MCCARTER Authors present the launch of their new book, In the Heights: Finding Home. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 15, 8 p.m. Registration and tickets required. Tickets cost $40 to $44. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• STACEY ABRAMS Author presents Our Time is Now. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 22, 7 p.m. Registration and tickets required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Call for submissions

• NH LITERARY AWARDS The New Hampshire Writers’ Project seeks submissions for its Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, which recognize published works written about New Hampshire and works written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Books must have been published between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2020 and may be nominated in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade/young adult books. All entries will be read and evaluated by a panel of judges assembled by the NHWP. Submission deadline is Mon., June 21, 5 p.m. Visit nhwritersproject.org/new-hampshire-literary-awards.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: Great Circle

Love Like That, by Emma Duffy-Comparone (Henry Holt and Co., 211 pages)

Novels can be bruising in their own way, but a good short story hits you like a closed-fist punch to the face. Steel yourself, then, before picking up Love Like That, Emma Duffy-Comparone’s utterly abusive collection, which you will not want to give anyone for Father’s Day.

The men in these nine stories are spectacularly broken or absent, either by virtue of divorce, separation or dying on the living room floor for their young daughter to find them. They make questionable choices, such as leaving their wife and kid for a student 25 years younger or using an old chainsaw to try to take out a stump. The men’s assorted miseries spill over to the women they love, protagonists described by the publisher as “misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters and unhappy wives.”

As the chainsaw-bearing man is prone to say, “Good times, huh?” Surprisingly, however, the answer is yes. With one significant and painful exception, for the most part, we get the sense that everything will eventually turn out OK for these memorable characters; that despite the everyman struggles and despair, there is something still valuable to be recovered in the ruins. Which is the best gift that art can give.

Duffy-Comparone teaches creative writing at Merrimack College in Boston and all these stories are set in New England, two on the Granite State coast. (She has said, drolly, that there is something about New England “that can make a person a bit sensitive, a bit brittle. You can feel — or at least I can — sort of jerked around by the seasons.”)

The first story, and one of the strongest, is “The Zen Thing,” which slyly begins, “Every year, the family unpacks itself for a weekend on a beach and pretends to have a good time.”

From there, Duffy-Comparone introduces the family and friends of Anita, gathered on a Rhode Island beach: her 13-year-old sister with Down syndrome; Anita’s much older live-in boyfriend whose daughter still thinks he’s away on a business trip; her grandmother and the new husband she met at a casino; and other assorted relatives, who are nothing like anyone you know, but exactly like everyone you know, in that sleight-of-hand trick performed by exceptional writers.

Not much happens in this story, beyond the usual fraught conversations between family members and a small accident involving a colostomy bag, but to borrow from Walt Whitman, it contains multitudes, much like a David Sedaris family story, and is an ultimately moving snapshot of the complexities of family life.

Similarly, “The Package Deal” is an extraordinary glimpse into the difficulties faced by a single, childless person who becomes involved with a person with a child.

“You tell yourself, ‘Kid, schmid.’ You tell your friends, who ask why you’re doing what you’re doing, ‘It’s not a big deal.’ You tell your mother, who grips your biceps and whispers with soupy eyes that entering a child’s life is a very, very big deal, ‘I know, Mom, Jesus!’

This story is vaguely autobiographical; Duffy-Comparone has written about dating a divorced man with an 8-year-old son, who, on the first time he saw his dad kiss her, left the room and started sobbing. She brings all that pain — for the man, woman and child — into this story, which lays bare how a child experiences an innocent party as a malign interloper, as well as the shock of encountering children, up close and in person, for the first time:

“… The hooflike footfalls, the vinegary socks, the alley smell of aim-anywhere urine, the plump slugs of toothpaste stuck to the side of the sink, the wet towels seeping into beds or stripping the varnish from dining room chairs, the shirts used as napkins, the shirts used as Kleenex, the whining, the moping, the deafening absence of please or thank you, not to mention the sensory violation that is mealtime.”

As for the punches, the first comes in “The Offering,” a disturbing story that does not reveal the reason for the title until its smart but terrible conclusion. It’s about a fourth-grader whose wretched home life is only occasionally lightened by a strange student teacher. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

Before you can recover from that, Duffy-Comparone cuts us off at the knees with “Exuma,” which is set in Portsmouth and begins benignly enough: “Gina wasn’t big on kids, but on an individual basis, like dogs, they could be all right.”

Gina has a checkered work history, so she takes a job as the nanny of a toddler who “shrieked all day like a bad oboe.” She loses that job, too, and goes on to take another as a projectionist at a century-old theater, where one night she has a panic attack related to a shocking thing that happened before. I will say only that I read this three days ago, and I’m not sure that I have fully recovered from this, or the tragic event in the titular “Love Like That.”

But that speaks to the power of Duffy-Comparone’s skills as a storyteller, that she can punch us and we keep coming back for the next story, bruises and all. A

BOOK NOTES

One of the most interesting pre-publication publicity blitzes in recent times is playing out on Twitter, where a 1980s pop star has shown up with a mouth like a machete.

Richard Marx, best known for hits like “Endless Summer Nights” and “Should Have Known Better,” has been slashing and burning his way through the MAGA crowd like a frontman for the Democratic Party. Sen. Rand Paul accused him of inspiring someone to send a suspicious package to Paul’s house, and he is insulting countless people on Twitter, including some who profess to be fans.

Why? Maybe he’s a really angry guy. But it’s more likely that he’s seeking attention for an upcoming book promoted in a pinned tweet with a pre-order link. The memoir is calledStories to Tell(Simon & Schuster, 320 pages) and isn’t coming out until July 6, but pre-publication sales make a difference in how a book performs overall. It’ll be interesting to see how this strategy plays out. As of this writing, Marx has amassed more than 309,000 followers on Twitter, but the abject nastiness of some of his tweets may backfire.

That said, Marx’s book may be more interesting than the new children’s book by Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex (illustrated by Christian Sullivan). It’s calledThe Bench (Random House Books for Young Readers, 48 pages) and is promoted as a story “that captures the special relationship between father and son, as seen through a mother’s eyes.”

An excerpt: This is your bench, Where you’ll witness great joy. From here you will rest, See the growth of our boy.

Devoted Meghan and Harry fans may well love it, but the duchess isn’t likely to fill the shoes of the beloved Eric Carle, who died last month at his home in western Massachusetts.

Carle’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Henry Holt and Co., 28 pages), published in 1996, remains the No. 1 best seller on Amazon among “children’s bears books,” which is a surprisingly competitive category, what with Corduroy, Blueberries for Sal and, of course, the Berenstain Bears

Book fairs

• NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND BOOK FAIR Featuring 45 rare, used, and collectible book and ephemera dealers from around New England and beyond. Everett Arena, 15 Loudon Road, Concord. Sat., June 6, and Sun., June 6. Visit nornebookfair.com.

Author events

• ANNETTE GORDON-REED Author presents On Juneteenth. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Thurs., June 3, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• CAROL DANA Penobscot Language Keeper and poet presents. Part of the Center for the Arts Lake Sunapee Region Literary Arts Series. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 15, 5 p.m. Visit centerfortheartsnh.org/literary-arts-series.

• LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, QUIARA ALEGRIA HUDES AND JEREMY MCCARTER Authors present the launch of their new book, In the Heights: Finding Home. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 15, 8 p.m. Registration and tickets required. Tickets cost $40 to $44. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Call for submissions

• NH LITERARY AWARDS The New Hampshire Writers’ Project seeks submissions for its Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, which recognize published works written about New Hampshire and works written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Books must have been published between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2020 and may be nominated in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade/young adult books. All entries will be read and evaluated by a panel of judges assembled by the NHWP. Submission deadline is Mon., June 21, 5 p.m. Visit nhwritersproject.org/new-hampshire-literary-awards.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: Love Like That

The Audacity of Sara Grayson, by Joani Elliott (Post Hill Press, 400 pages)

Imagine if Stephenie Myers had died right after Bella Swan got pregnant.

The Twilight books reached a new peak of tension as Swan, the angsty human who married a vampire, began to swell with a mysterious new life. What would have become of the series if Myers, the author, were no longer around to complete the story? Would fans be satisfied with a finale written by someone else? Or would the final book become a great public unhappiness, like the final season of Game of Thrones?

Utah author Joani Elliott tackles such a quandary, minus the vampires, in her debut novel, The Audacity of Sara Grayson. In it, an enormously successful author — think Myers or J.K. Rowling — dies of pancreatic cancer, just 12 weeks after her family finds out she is sick. Cassandra Bond is almost as famous as the actress who plays Ellery Dawson, the star of a five-book thriller series, of which only four books have been written. She leaves her sizable estate to her two daughters — and the task of writing the fifth book to the youngest, Sara.

Sara is a writer, too, though one with no commercial success. She teaches English at the University of Maryland and supplements her income by writing copy for greeting cards. (“They loved her work and thought she had a real knack for cancer cards, and could she please send more?”)

Sara did write a novel, once, but had given it to her mother’s gruff editor to review, and his savage assessment drained her of ambition. So, too, had her recent divorce from a man who had abruptly left after six years of marriage to go on an Eat, Pray, Love-type journey. She had a good enough relationship with her mom, but as she comes to learn in the months after Cassandra’s death, did not truly know her. She is shocked and dismayed to learn she is the designated author of the final book in the series — even more so because she hasn’t read the four previous books. (“I saw the movie,” she says defensively to her sister, Anna Katherine.)

Sara intends to say no, until she goes into a meeting with lawyers and publishing executives and an editor insults her into changing her mind. She emerges from the meeting with the assignment to write a best-selling book that will explain the series’ biggest mystery, what had become of Ellery Dawson’s father, who was presumed dead and may or may not have been a traitor.

As it turns out, that is a story line that is disturbingly close to Sara’s own life. Her father had died when she was 7, and while she has warm memories of him and a good childhood, her mother’s will left a disturbing hint to doubt the narrative of Sara’s memory: an unusual bequest to a mysterious woman and her daughter in Europe.

This establishes a parallel path that runs along the main track of the story, which is Sara’s struggle to write the book. It adds a nice complexity to a story that could otherwise be too simple, as does Sara’s evolving relationship with her mother’s editor and, eventually, his son.

While The Audacity of Sara Grayson fits nicely within the oft derided genre of “chick lit” — it will appeal primarily to women and also could qualify as a beach read — it also surprisingly morphs into an inspirational book for writers, particularly in the last section, which is primarily set in Maine.

While relationships are at the heart of the story, it is also a novel about the difficulty of writing a novel, and the main characters are all involved in publishing. Elliott begins each chapter with a real-life quote from an author about writing — familiar ones from the likes of Toni Morrison and Stephen King, as well as some from lesser-known writers — and while this felt bothersome at first, the interruption of fiction with reality, I grew to enjoy them. I also liked how the story pulls back the curtains on the writing process and exposes the secrets of inspiration. Especially memorable was when Sara visits Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park to see the sunrise. (It’s the first point of sunlight in the U.S. — Google it and go.)

It was a turning point for Sara, when she realized she had never watched a sunrise. “And to think this happened every day. Everywhere. While people mixed creamer into coffee and ate their cornflakes and checked their email.”

The Audacity of Sara Grayson is not a complicated novel; in fact, the language sometimes seems a bit too simple, too easy, like a knife sliding through butter that’s been sitting out for hours. But it has a gangbuster premise and truly memorable characters and deserves to break through in the noisy throng of summer fiction. A

Featured photo: The Audacity of Sara Grayson

Freedom, by Sebastian Junger (Simon & Schuster, 147 pages)

In 2012 Cheryl Strayed hit publishing paydirt with a memoir of her three-month solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. That book, Wild, was an account of how Strayed fought her way through both a literal wilderness and a wilderness of grief after her mother died from a cruelly rapid onset of lung cancer.

In his new book Freedom, Sebastian Junger also takes to the wild, with dramatically different style and intent. Best known for the commercially successful The Perfect Storm (published in 1997 if you want to feel old), Junger set off to walk a long distance along railroad lines, which happens to be illegal. This gives the account a thin tension. Will Junger and his comrades — a photographer, two Afghan War veterans and a dog — be arrested? Run over by a train? Eaten by bears? That is the extent of the mystery in this meandering account that reads at times like the collision of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books and the “N” volume of the World Book Encyclopedia — “N” for the emphasis on Native Americans.

Strayed covered 1,100 miles; Junger and his companions, 400, going from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. He admits in an afterword that the journey was “done in stages and not always with the same people,” which somewhat diminishes the accomplishment. But the slim book is still a surprisingly engrossing reflection of what “freedom” really means in a primitive sense, not the patriotic one, and why there is so much appeal in these stories of people who temporarily cast off the shackles of civilization for the perils and hardships of the wild.

The book is divided into three sections, titled “Run,” “Fight” and “Think.” In the first, Junger jumps right into the journey, taking no time for the formalities of explaining why he was doing this, and quickly launching into encyclopedic mode with a discourse on the freedom Native Americans had before Europeans arrived to chase and slaughter them. By the close of the section, we are weeping for the Apaches, even though Junger makes clear that brutality was not unique to the invading Europeans.

As Junger writes about the European settlers, “If you were willing to risk being captured … then you could make your way up the finger valleys of the Juniata and find a secluded spot to build a cabin and get in a quick crop of corn. … The risks were appalling and the hardships unspeakable, but no government official would ever again tell you what to do.”

In taking the journey, Junger attempts to experience not only the travails of Native Americans and the early settlers but the lifestyle of our ancestors, millennia-past. “The poor have always walked and the desperate have always slept outside. We were neither, but we were still doing something that felt ancient and hard.”

He writes vividly of the stresses of the body when moving constantly: “Sometimes you enter a great blank space where a whole hour can seem to go by faster than some of the minutes within it, and the loyal dog of your body trots along as if the entire point of its existence is to expire following your orders.”

For food, the men made fires and grilled meat and vegetables they bought when they ventured into towns, and occasionally wolfed pancakes and eggs at diners where people looked at them with a mixture of suspicion and envy. They carried a single machete, which they stuck in a tree while they slept, counting on Junger’s dog to serve as an alarm if something evil came their way.

In the second section, “Fight,” Junger returns with dismaying insistence to tales of Native American cruelty to settlers. Then he segues into stories about how the railroads were built, with equally horrific random tales of carnage. (The book could have been subtitled “1,000 horrific ways to die in early America.”) The takeaway: Trains and settling a wilderness are dangerous, as was the trip that Junger and his companions were, somewhat inexplicably, taking,

“The towns, the cops, the freight companies — no one wanted us on the lines, which was understandable. In fact, over the course of four hundred miles, we failed to come up with a single moral or legal justification for what we were doing other than the dilute principle that we weren’t causing actual harm so we should be able to keep doing it,” he writes.

In the final section, “Think,” and throughout a frayed thread that runs through the book, Junger wrestles with the perception of freedom and real freedom’s uglier realities. “People love to believe that they’re free,” he says, although flag-waving Americans “depend on a sprawling supply chain that can only function with federal oversight, and most of them pay roughly one-third of their income in taxes for the right to participate in this system.”

In the end, it’s unclear what Junger accomplished other than pulverizing his feet to something the consistency of pink oatmeal. The trip had been an escape of a 51-year-old in the middle of a divorce and was “a temporary injunction against whatever was coming” next. It’s definitely not the triumphant finish of Wild.

Except for one thing: Like Strayed, Junger got a film out of his exceedingly long hike. Called The Last Patrol, the HBO documentary came out in 2014. The book is as uneven as the territory the men crossed, but intriguing enough to make us want to see the footage. B-

BOOK NOTES
When Andy Warhol said that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, he left something out: that in the future, everyone will write a novel, whether anyone wants to read it or not.
I was reminded of this recently when listening to Four-Hour-Work-Week guru Tim Ferris interview author Steven Pressfield (A Man at Arms, W.W. Norton, 336 pages) on a podcast. Ferris, who has made a ton of money writing nonfiction, mused that he was thinking of writing a novel. Of course he is. Who isn’t?
That is clear from new fiction offerings from former President Bill Clinton and Georgia politician Stacey Abrams, not to mention a forthcoming novel from Empty Nest star Dinah Manoff.
Abrams, to her credit, is dedicated to the craft. She wrote her first novel in law school and has published eight romance novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery. She’s also written two nonfiction books. Her newest is While Justice Sleeps (Doubleday, 384 pages), billed as a thriller set within the U.S. Supreme Court.
Clinton teams up with superstar author James Patterson again for The President’s Daughter (Little, Brown and Co./Knopf), which, at 608 pages, brings to mind Clinton’s 35-minute speech in 1988 and how the crowd went wild when he finally said “In conclusion.” Somewhat predictably, it’s a thriller about the kidnapping of a president’s kid. The previous Patterson-Clinton book was The President is Missing (Little, Brown and Co., 527 pages). Apparently the president goes missing.
Less promising is Manoff’s July release of The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold, billed as a coming-of-age story set in Hollywood (Star Alley Press, 338 pages). Right now it’s only offered on Kindle and it appears to be the first book published by this company, which may be a cover for self-publishing. If it flops, it doesn’t take away from Manoff’s other talents (she did, after all, win a Tony) but only suggests that maybe, just maybe, everyone doesn’t have a novel in them.
Andy Warhol, by the way, thought he did. Though famous for his pop art, Warhol wrote something that he called a novel — literally. A, a Novel (Grove Press, 451 pages) was not especially well-received in 1968 and, being largely a transcript of recordings, can barely be called a novel, but a first edition is going for $6,500 on Amazon. If you’ve got one somewhere, get thee to a book dealer, fast.

Books

Author events

• MEREDITH TATE AND CAMERON LUND Tate presents Shipped. Lund presents Heartbreakers and Fakers. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Thurs., May 20, 7 p.m. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• GLENN A. KNOBLOCK Author presents Hidden History of Lake Winnipesaukee. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Wed., May 26, 7 p.m. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• KEVIN KWAN Author presents Sex and Vanity. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Thurs., May 27, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• JAMIE DUCHARME AND JEFFREY KLUGER Ducharme presents Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul. Kluger presents Holdout. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Wed., June 2, 7 p.m. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• ANNETTE GORDON-REED Author presents On Juneteenth. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Thurs., June 3, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, QUIARA ALEGRIA HUDES AND JEREMY MCCARTER Authors present the launch of their new book, In the Heights: Finding Home. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 15, 8 p.m. Registration and tickets required. Tickets cost $40 to $44. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

Call for submissions

• COVID POETRY ANTHOLOGY New Hampshire residents are invited to submit original poems for review and possible publication in COVID Spring Vol. II,an anthology of poetry about the pandemic experience in New Hampshire, to be edited by New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary and published by Hobblebush Books this summer. Youth age 18 and under may also submit original poems to be considered for the anthology’s new youth section. Submit a poem or poems (up to three) by Sun., May 23, through the online submission form at hobblebush.com/anthology-submissions. Poets will be notified of the editor’s decision by June 15.

• NH LITERARY AWARDS The New Hampshire Writers’ Project seeks submissions for its Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, which recognize published works written about New Hampshire and works written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Books must have been published between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2020 and may be nominated in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade/young adult books. All entries will be read and evaluated by a panel of judges assembled by the NHWP. Submission deadline is Mon., June 21, 5 p.m. Visit nhwritersproject.org/new-hampshire-literary-awards.

Featured photo: Freedom

The Five Wounds, by Kirstin Valdez Quade (W.W. Norton, 416 pages)

You may think that you have no interest in a story about a troubled family set in New Mexico, a story that, just two pages in, reproaches you for not remembering more of the two years of Spanish you had in high school.

You would be wrong. Not about the fact that you should know more Spanish — this is true — but about not relating to The Five Wounds, Kirstin Valdez Quade’s deeply affective portrait of a family that is likely vastly different from yours, but similar in profound ways. But first you have to get past the crucifixion.

The central character is Amadeo Padilla, an unemployed man who lives with his mother and drinks too much. Padillo is 33, “same as Our Lord, but Amadeo is not a man with ambition.” But when he is chosen to portray Jesus in a re-enactment of the Passion, Padilla suddenly finds hope. It is, he thinks, a role he was born to play, and he throws himself into preparation for the Good Friday ceremony with an energy that he has never before assigned to any task, including parenting.

This is painfully clear when, on Holy Week, he comes home to find his 15-year-old daughter, heavily pregnant, waiting for him. Angel lives with her mother, and he hadn’t seen her in more than a year. To Amadeo, the arrival is supremely ill-timed; he is busy being Jesus, and has neither time nor desire to do the onerous chores of parenting, such as helping his daughter get to school on time. World-weary Angel, who had a fight with her mom, has nowhere else to go, however, and had hoped to get some mothering from her grandmother, if not her father, for whom she has no expectations of competency.

But the grandmother, Yolanda, isn’t there — for her own heart-rending reasons later disclosed. So, for a few days, Angel is thrust into being a parent to herself and to her dad, who has decided that, after the upcoming crucifixion, he will make his fortune with a do-it-yourself windshield repair business with a kit he ordered for $1,199. “Amadeo images windshield repair is a trade Jesus might get behind. It is, essentially, carpentry for the 21st century,” Quade writes.

The novel seamlessly switches perspectives, from Amadeo to Angel to Yolanda, who arrives home (memorably described as “an adobe-style house soiled pink with iron bars on the windows”) on Easter day, planning to break the news of a life-altering diagnosis. Instead, she is plunged into assorted family dramas in which she has to assert matriarchal control: her warring adult children, her soon-to-deliver granddaughter, who has not even had so much as a baby shower, just a load of used baby clothes that haven’t even been washed, “as though [the] home were a Goodwill dumpster.”

“Having children is terrifying, the way they become adults and go out in the world with cars and functioning reproductive systems and credit cards, the way, before they’ve developed any sense or fear, they are equipped to make adult-sized mistakes with adult-sized consequences,” Quade writes.

The novel continues to build on small but volcanic things: Yolanda’s increasingly worsening health, Amadeo’s budding business and relationship with his daughter’s godmother and teacher; and, of course, the birth of the baby, which is the beating heart of the story, in fact, in some ways, of all of life.

The child, “unplanned and unwanted, dreaded and bemoaned,” turns out to be the saving of them all. “No child has ever been as needed, as necessary and beloved,” Amadeo thinks as he desperately tries to navigate a crisis late in the waning pages of the book.

The Five Wounds is a novel that builds slowly, set in a region of the United States that does not get a lot of literary attention. Nor, it could be argued, do the novel’s themes. The book takes seriously an unusual expression of religious faith — the live Passion plays that are popular in Mexico and in other places heavily influenced by Hispanic culture.

It begins and ends on Holy Week, one year apart, and as Amadeo reflects on his successor in the role of Jesus, he observes that the suffering of a man 2,000 years ago, “suffering that was newly astonishing, but also just like the suffering of the men crucified beside him, just like the suffering of every person before and after.” So, too, this strangely absorbing story. A

BOOK NOTES
In January a widely publicized open letter dubbed “No book deals for traitors” demanded that no current or former member of Donald Trump’s team find a home in mainstream publishing. The effectiveness of that effort was recently revealed in news that Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pence and William Barr all have book deals. (Pence got a two-book deal from Simon & Schuster, also Conway’s future publisher.)

Right now, however, the political book that is getting all the attention is Elizabeth Warren’s Persist (Metropolitan Books, 320 pages), despite lackluster reviews. NPR drubs it as “a series of stories, then plans,” and, equally damning, “campaign-trail Warren, in book form,” nothing Warren will want to use as a jacket blurb.

Then again, it seems unfair to demand that politicians also be compelling writers.

Meanwhile, for an examination of why one of our most compelling authors was successful, check out The Artful Dickens, by John Mullan (Bloomsbury, 448 pages). Mullan promises to reveal “the tricks and ploys” of the beloved author. One is that to fully embrace Dickens’ genius, you need to read his writing out loud. A literary critic and English professor in London, Mullan organizes his thoughts into 13 essays. Dickens fans will be especially interested to learn the specifics of how the author arrived at the memorable names of his characters, such as Scrooge and Pecksniffian.

After that, check out last year’s The Mystery of Charles Dickens, by A.N. Wilson (Harper, 368 pages), published in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of his death at age 58. Part literary analysis, part biography, the book is also the author’s personal reflection of what Dickens meant to him. Wilson maintains that of all the great novelists, Dickens was the most mysterious, then does his best to open the veil.

Books

Author events

• SUZANNE KOVEN Author presents Letter to a Young Female Physician, in conversation with author Andrew Solomon. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., May 18, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEREDITH TATE AND CAMERON LUND Tate presents Shipped. Lund presents Heartbreakers and Fakers. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Thurs., May 20, 7 p.m. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• KEVIN KWAN Author presents Sex and Vanity. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Thurs., May 27, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• ANNETTE GORDON-REED Author presents On Juneteenth. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Thurs., June 3, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Call for submissions

• NH LITERARY AWARDS The New Hampshire Writers’ Project seeks submissions for its Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, which recognize published works written about New Hampshire and works written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Books must have been published between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2020 and may be nominated in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade/young adult books. All entries will be read and evaluated by a panel of judges assembled by the NHWP. Submission deadline is Mon., June 21, 5 p.m. Visit nhwritersproject.org/new-hampshire-literary-awards.

• COVID POETRY ANTHOLOGY New Hampshire residents are invited to submit original poems for review and possible publication in COVID Spring Vol. II,an anthology of poetry about the pandemic experience in New Hampshire, to be edited by New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary and published by Hobblebush Books this summer. Youth age 18 and under may also submit original poems to be considered for the anthology’s new youth section. Submit a poem or poems (up to three) by Sun., May 23, through the online submission form at hobblebush.com/anthology-submissions. Poets will be notified of the editor’s decision by June 15.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: The Five Wounds