6
FROM THE SHELF
NOVEMBER 17�24, 2021
CHECKING OUT THE
WORLD OF BOOKS
Bite into 6 new paperbacks,
fresh as crisp fall apples
By Moira Macdonald
The Seattle Times
A
new paperback, crisp as a
fall apple — what could be
nicer? Here are six fresh ones,
ranging from suspense fi ction
to sweeping biography. Happy
reading!
FIND YOU FIRST
by Linwood Barclay
Barclay, a bestselling author of
well-crafted novels of suspense
(“Elevator Pitch”), kept me up late
reading this one not long ago. In
it, the heirs of a dying tech multi-
millionaire are mysteriously being
targeted, one by one. “Barclay
makes even secondary charac-
ters feel real,” wrote Publishers
Weekly in a starred review, calling
the book a “suspenseful, expertly
paced thriller.”
CONDITIONAL CITIZENS:
ON BELONGING IN
AMERICA
by Laila Lalami
Lalami, the Moroccan-born au-
thor of several novels (including,
most recently, the wonderful “The
Other Americans”), here writes
a series of essays about Ameri-
can citizenship, using her own
story — she became a citizen in
2000 — as a starting point. The
book, wrote a Washington Post
reviewer, “off ers a searing look
at the struggle for all Americans
to achieve liberty and equality.
Lalami eloquently tacks between
her experiences as an immigrant
to this country and the history of
U.S. attempts to exclude diff erent
categories of people from the full
benefi ts of citizenship.”
ELEANOR
by David Michaelis
The gold standard for Elea-
nor Roosevelt biographies is, of
course, Blanche Wiesen Cook’s
massive three-volume work, but
for those looking for something
about the groundbreaking former
fi rst lady that’s just a little slimmer,
Michaelis’ book is a fi ne option.
“Nothing about ‘Eleanor’ is staid
or plodding,” wrote a Washington
Post reviewer. “Michaelis, the
author of wonderful biographies
writer’s admirers,” said a reviewer
on NPR, noting Washington’s
previous award-winning short
story collection “Lot.” “’Memo-
rial’ isn’t just every bit as brilliant
as its predecessor. It’s somehow
even better. ... Washington is an
enormously gifted author, and his
writing — spare, unadorned, but
beautiful — reads like the work of
a writer who’s been working for
decades, not one who has yet to
turn 30. Just like ‘Lot,’ ‘Memorial’
is a quietly stunning book, a mas-
terpiece that asks us to refl ect on
what we owe to the people who
enter our lives.”
of Charles Schulz and N.C. Wyeth,
writes beautiful nonfi ction prose
much in the vein of the late Ed-
mund Morris (the great biogra-
pher of Theodore Roosevelt).”
150 GLIMPSES OF
THE BEATLES
by Craig Brown
Winner of the 2020 Baillie
Giff ord Prize for Non-Fiction,
this work follows the format
Brown so successfully debuted
in his “Ninety-Nine Glimpses of
Princess Margaret”: a portrait
made up of many tiny anecdotes.
“’150 Glimpses’ is best when
Brown poignantly chronicles the
toll that being a Beatle took on
these four still-young men in the
1960s — the photos of them
that went from smiling to unsmil-
ing — ‘crushed by the weight
of the world’s adulation,’” wrote
Bill Maher in a New York Times
review. “And there’s a book within
the book about how it turned
out for ex-Beatles Stu and Pete,
Beatle-for-a-week Jimmie Nicol,
the long-suff ering, Hera-like
Cynthia Lennon, and other sup-
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porting cast members and day
players caught in the orbit of the
sun gods.”
MEMORIAL
by Bryan Washington
Named one of the top books
of 2020 by multiple outlets,
including the New York Times and
Washington Post, this is a novel
about family: gay couple Benson
and Mike, with a story in which
Mike’s mother moves into their
home just as Mike packs up to
leave on an extended visit to his
dying, estranged father in Japan.
“Here’s some good news for the
THE WICKED WIDOW: A
WICKED CITY NOVEL
by Beatriz Williams
This might be just the thing to
curl up with on a chilly autumn
night: the latest from bestselling
author Williams, and a sequel to
“The Wicked Redhead.” In it, two
parallel New York City stories
unfold, set in the same town
house: one in the 1990s, one in
the 1920s. “Williams’ fast-paced
story line features engaging dia-
logue and thematic connections”
between the characters sepa-
rated by time, wrote a Publishers
Weekly reviewer, noting, “Series
fans will eat this up.”
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