Below are some of Littsburgh’s reading recommendations for July 4th, inspired by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s 90,000-book reading challenge. If you’re in the market for more recommendations, check out some amazing excerpts from local and visiting authors right here on Littsburgh!
Katie recommends The Watery Part of the World by Michael Parker
In honor of our founding fathers, I chose this book about Aaron Burr’s daughter Theodosia Burr Alston, who disappeared in 1813 off the coast of the Carolinas. It’s part imagined history of Theodosia’s disappearance, part story about the last inhabitants of a small barrier island off the coast of North Caroline in 1970, and it’s a wild beautiful novel. After visiting the Outerbanks many times, this book captured my heart and imagination.
From the publisher:
“Michael Parker has created a wholly original world from two known facts: (1) Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of the controversial vice president Aaron Burr, disappeared in 1813 while en route by schooner from South Carolina to New York; and (2) in 1970, two elderly white women and one black man were the last townspeople to leave a small barrier island off the coast of North Carolina.
In this fiction based on historical fact, Parker weaves a tale of adventure and longing as he charts one hundred and fifty years in the life and death of an island and its inhabitants — the descendants of Theodosia Burr Alston and those of the freed man whose family would be forever tethered to hers…”
Rachel recommends The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The Bean Trees feels so very “American” to me — I’ve read it several times, every ten years or so, and the strong-willed characters and the beauty of the southwestern setting always stick with me…
From the publisher:
“The Bean Trees is bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel, now widely regarded as a modern classic.
Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.”
Nick recommends Elect Mr. Robinson For a Better World by Donald Antrim
Sometimes the American Dream goes a little sour. This is the perfect novella for those times.
From the publisher: “In his first novel, Elect Mr. Robinson For a Better World, Donald Antrim demonstrates all of the skill that critics have hailed in his subsequent work: the pitch-perfect ear, the cunning imagination, and the uncanny control of a narrative at once familiar and incandescently strange.
In the seaside community of Donald Antrim’s Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, the citizens are restless. The mayor has fired stinger missiles into the Botanical Garden reflecting pool, and his public execution was a messy affair. As these hawkish suburbanites fortify their houses with deadly moats and land mines, a former third-grade teacher named Pete Robinson steps forward with a tenuous bid to replace the mayor. But can anyone satisfy the terrible will of the people? By turns funny and phantasmagorical, fiercely intelligent and imaginative, Donald Antrim’s story of suburban civics turned macabre is a new American classic.”
Image courtesy of hk11419 via Creative Commons
“A relevant, harrowing mystery with page-turning suspense.” ―Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Just the Nicest Couple From Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
“Sidle Creek is one of the best story collections I’ve read in a long time.” –Ron Rash, New York Times Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
From the Publisher: "For more than fifty years, we have been waging, but not winning, the war on cancer. We’re Read more
"Myriad has been in so many time streams she’s lost count – hiding from her feelings about her brother’s death Read more
“Beautiful, vivid writing and a power-packed plot . . . I truly loved it.” –Lauren Tarshis, bestselling author of the Read more
Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Read more
About the Author: "Ken Gormley is president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. A lawyer, constitutional scholar, and author, Gormley's work Read more
"Living in Pittsburgh, and truth be told at loose ends since the blue jays, how could we expect to hold Read more
From the Publisher: The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans Read more
From the Publisher: The confluence in the title of this debut collection from Samantha DeFlitch describes the meeting of three Read more
"From her bench in the park near her house, the woman who Rebecca so beautifully and poignantly portrays quietly carries Read more
"Slam came to Pittsburgh in the early ’90s, and it still has a home here. But two long-time practitioners also Read more
Selected by Cheryl Strayed for the Kore Press Institute Memoir Award From the Publisher: "Certain and Impossible Events orbits the Read more
"Sewickley, the Shawnee word for sweet water, derived from the tribe’s belief that the borough’s shores were a little sweeter Read more
"After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with an English degree, Sharon Flake could have concentrated on fiction for adults, Read more
From the publisher: "Soon after her husband's tragic death, Robin Besher makes a startling discovery: He had recklessly blown through Read more
From the publisher: "'Other people locked themselves away and hid from their demons. Townes flung open his door and said, Read more
