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 Weekly Words about New Books in
Independent Bookstores
October 23, 2016
Trio of Diverse Novels Arrive on Indie Bookstore Paperback Shelves
T he Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee. It's been a while since we've heard from Lee; her critically acclaimed The Piano Teacher was published back in 2009. But independent booksellers and reviewers would tell you that it was worth the wait for her new novel. In The Expatriates , Lee explores the emotions, identities, and  relationships of three very different American women living in the same small expat community in Hong Kong. Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss. As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all. 
 
In writing about the book when it was first released in hardcover, The New York Times Book Review said, "A female, funny Henry James in Asia, Janice Y. K. Lee is vividly good on the subject of Americans abroad. . . . ["The Expatriates" is] vibrant social satire: Inside these dark materials lies the sharpness of a comic novelist, and Lee's eye for the nuance and clash of culture, class, race and sex is subtle and shrewd. " 


The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin. This dishy novel was an immediate bestseller when it was released back in February, a reminder that dirt and disgrace can still make for fun reading - especially if written well. In this case, Benjamin took her talent for historical fiction and used a scandalous real-life event to tell the story of the friendship between Truman Capote and New York socialite Babe Pauley during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Pauley was a  leading figure in Manhattan's high society who, along with her socialite friends, or Swans, was completely taken with Capote when he and his larger-than-life personality exploded onto the scene. Through Babe, Truman gained an unlikely entree into the enviable lives of Manhattan's elite, along with unparalleled access to the scandal and gossip of Babe's powerful circle. Unfortunately, Capote's insecurities and need to top his previous work eventually got the better of him, leading to a tell-all magazine piece that exposed all the dirty laundry and destroyed his friendship with Pauley. Juicy stuff indeed.


The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian. As I noted back in January when first writing about this book, the prolific Bohjalian can't be easily pigeonholed. His novels have dealt with the likes of midwifery (Midwifes, which was also an Oprah pick back in the day); transgender issues (Trans-Sister Radio, written back in 2001); an acci
dental family shooting (The Kindness of Strangers); and the Armenian genocide (The Sandcastle Girls). His latest tackles issues of marital fidelity and  sex trafficking wrapped  into a page-turning story with plenty of twists. It begins with a bachelor party thrown by investment banker Richard Chapman for his brother that goes horribly wrong, ending with two dead Russian bodyguards in Richard's Westchester home. The Russians had delivered the evening's, um, entertainment - two young women abducted as teenagers from Armenia who turn out to be resourceful and ruthless when opportunity strikes. With that set-up in place, the book follows the consequences of the bacchanalian evening on both the Chapman family and the on-the-run sex slaves trying to dodge both police, who may arrest them, and gangsters, who will certainly kill them. 
New Titles from
Crime Thriller Pros
Escape Clause by John Sandford. I confess that Sandford is one of my guilty pleasures - he has built not one but two series into reliable commercial hits. His long-running Prey series - now with 27 titles - features Minnesota cop Lucas Davenport, usually tracking down heinous killers. Several years back, Sandford took one of Davenport's colleagues, the unorthodox but effective Virgil Flowers, and made him the star of his own crime caper. Nine books later, the Flowers franchise is flourishing, and both series are bestselling mainstays.

I find Flowers a bit more interesting because he's not a typical cop. Working as kind of an independent contractor (although still reporting to his boss Davenport), he gets involved in more unusual cases, including his newest involving the kidnapping of two tigers from a city zoo. As usual, Flowers' approach to crime solving is unconventional, but he eventually gets his man (you'll have to read yourself to see how the tigers fare) in another satisfying installment from the prolific Sandford.


The Whistler by John Grisham. I have a friend who was complaining to me about a recent Grisham legal thriller, which, he grumbled, was formulaic and of questionable statutory merit. When I asked him how far he had
gott en into the book, he quickly replied, "Oh, I st a yed up late last night finishing it. Had to see how it ended."

And therein lies the rub. It's probably safe to say that a Grisham novel will never win the Pulitzer, but does an author with mass commercial appeal that keeps readers  furiously turning pages deserve some credit for that talent? Formula or no formula, hundreds of thousands of readers will be gobbling up The Whistler, which features
a female investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct whose job it is to respond to complaints dealing with judges' misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk, and Grisham is off and running - good news if you're a fan. 
WHERE TO FIND 
AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE

Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship, you can click here to find the nearest indie bookstore by simply entering your postal code.  

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WHO'S HUT?
Hi, I'm Hut Landon. I used to own a local independent bookstore and was head of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco for many years. Now semi-retired, I work part-time as an independent bookseller.

My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what indie booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.

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