Emily Katzman’s Staff Picks

May 2013: Simple, profound, disturbing. Wash tells the intertwined stories of Washington, a man held in slavery as a breeding sire in early-nineteenth-century Tennessee; Richardson, a debt-laden war veteran and Wash’s owner; and Pallas, a midwife and healer enslaved on a nearby plantation. There is a prevailing element of African spirituality in the narratives of Wash and Pallas; Wash, for example, has internalized the spiritual lessons his mother shared with him as a child. He draws on that strength in order to transcend the sexual degradation, brutality, and dehumanization that Richardson in particular, and society in general, impose on him. I enjoyed reading Wash and want to share it with others because it tells an important story that will complicate readers’ understanding of American slavery.

February 2013: New in paperback!

Murakami’s play on Orwell’s ‘1984,’ this book is a dystopian fantasy, a mystery, and at its heart, a love story. This tale takes place in Tokyo in 1984, and then the parallel reality of 1Q84. It follows the dubious lives of Aomame and Tengo and their quests to find one another. This book is like a dream: mysterious, ethereal, but completely enthralling.

January 2013: I’ve been loving short stories this winter, and Alice Munro has only encouraged this fondness. Dear Life is Munro’s showcase of fourteen new stories that are diverse, in terms of characters and subjects, but when assembled as a whole, remind readers of the universality of love and loss, and the inevitably of unforeseen twists in life. To longtime fans of Munro: the last four pieces are semi-autobiographical.

December 2012: This steampunk faery tale/murder mystery/coming-of-age story takes place in a dark, fantastical Victorian England, where faeries make up the underclass and changelings (aka “peculiars”)—the offspring of humans and faeries—are the most scorned of all. Changelings have been mysteriously disappearing from their homes, and Bartholomew, a thirteen-year-old changeling, finds himself on an unlikely adventure to save the changelings, and the world. A great crossover novel, adults will enjoy this story just as much as young teens. I’m especially excited about The Peculiar because it is the debut novel of Colorado-born, 18-year-old Stefan Bachman, who is already being compared to Charles Dickens, Neil Gaiman, and Brian Selznick.

October 2012: This collection of short stories—half new and half Alexie classics—is swift-moving, irony-laden, and above all, compelling. With honesty and keen perception, Alexie addresses issues of race and ethnicity, reservation life, love, poverty, gender, and sexuality. This is the kind of writing that consistently made me pause, either to re-read a perfectly crafted sentence or to consider the weight of Alexie’s words. “The Search Engine” was my favorite story.