Book Rec of the Day 11/20-29/09

MODERN FAIRY TALE

Walt Disney is not the only one who has a soft spot in his heart for the idea that the Romanov princess Anastasia survived the massacre of the Russian royal family at Yekaterinburg in 1918. It’s an enduring romantic fantasy that helps mitigate the utter horror of what really happened. The unmasking of Anna Anderson (1896-1984), the most famous of the Anastasia pretenders, is fascinating in its own right, tinged throughout with the romance of what hope can make us believe.

A ROMANOV FANTASY: LIFE AT THE COURT OF ANNA ANDERSON, by Frances Welch (W. W. Norton, 2007)

VAMPIRES AND VERSACE

Fancy a three-way satire? Vampire meets fashionista meets media mogul. Three worlds collide around young Kate McAlliston when she takes a job as a summer intern at Tasty magazine. Bloodsuckers are all around, and only a few of them are vampires.

BLOOD IS THE NEW BLACK, by Valerie Stivers (Three Rivers Press, 2007)

GAME TIME

From its beginnings in 1903, when Elizabeth Magie created the Landlord’s Game as an educational tool, through the Atlantic City Quakers’ version with local street names, to the modern game, which has sold 200 million copies in 60 countries, the evolution of Monopoly can tell us a lot about the evolution of the country as well. A fascinating history of a game that became a national pastime.

MONOPOLY: AMERICA’S GAME—AND HOW IT GOT THAT WAY, by Philip E. Orbanes (Da Capo Press, 2007)

IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

Rather like stories in Dubliners, these interlocking tales are atmospheric, intimate, beautifully wrought. All the stories are about women in a well-to-do London neighborhood called Arlington Park, feeling trapped, muted, struggling to get free like butterflies caught in a net. It’s a theme that may wear a bit thin at times, but the writing richly weaves over the bald spots. Publishers Weekly starred review.

ARLINGTON PARK, by Rachel Cusk (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

FOR CHOCOLATE LOVERS

Winemaker John Scharffenberger and physician Robert Steinberg first met in 1979; 15 years later they cofounded Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker. Now they have brought out a beautiful hymn to chocolate, accompanied by equally delicious photographs. The recipes, including some nondessert entries, are all within the grasp of most cooks. If you have only one chocolate cookbook, make it this one. Publishers Weekly starred review.

THE ESSENCE OF CHOCOLATE: RECIPES FOR BAKING AND COOKING WITH FINE CHOCOLATE, by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg (Hyperion, 2006)

COZY ROMANCE

Janet Evanovich, ever the bestselling writer, brightens our favorite November holiday with this delectable romantic confection about a teapot maker in colonial Williamsburg who falls for a rabbit-owning pediatrician. It’s light and easy, like the best Thanksgiving dessert.

THANKSGIVING, by Janet Evanovich (Harper Torch, 2006)

It’s Thanksgiving (“the time of year when things go wrong if they’re going to”) in the year 2000. Frank Bascombe (familiar from The Sportswriter and Independence Day) is enduring it with an angry son, a second wife who’s left him, prostate cancer, and various other plights in this, the “Permanent Period” of his life—“when who you feel yourself to be is pretty much how people will remember you once you’ve croaked.” The nuances and shadings of The Lay of the Land demonstrate Richard Ford’s extraordinary talent for depicting the American landscape at the century’s turn.

THE LAY OF THE LAND, by Richard Ford (Knopf, 2006)

AWARD WINNER

Today we celebrate James Agee’s 100th birthday. Agee died before he could finish this poignant autobiographical novel about the unexpected death of a father and that terrible event’s effects on his family. Particularly compelling is the portrait of the six-year-old son and his attempts to comprehend what happened. A Death in the Family won the Pulitzer Prize in 1958, three years after Agee’s death.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY, by James Agee (1957; Penguin, 2006)

This masterpiece from Chilean-born novelist Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) follows two idealist-philosopher-poets, Arturo (who stands for the author) and Ulises, from 1975 to the 1990s. The two start off in Mexico City and travel far and wide, poking fun at ideas and people everywhere they go, having love affairs, talking philosophy, engaging in quests, and making enemies. Points of view continually shift in a chorus of many voices. Try this oratorio of a novel.

THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES, by Roberto Bolaño; translated by Natasha Wimmer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

ART AND HEART

At once art book, pictorial history, and documentary, this stunning culmination of 17 years’ research captures the genesis, outbreak, and development of Los Angeles graffiti. Page after page is filled with eye-popping tags, murals, and collective efforts, and it’s accompanied by a CD. A gorgeous coffee table book and engrossing history.

GRAFFITI L.A.: STREET STYLES AND ART, by Steve Grody (Harry N. Abrams, 2007)