The AJC features staff recommends some of their favorite recent reads.
“Shotgun Lovesongs” by Nickolas Baker (Thomas Dunne Books)
Four lifelong friends — a struggling farmer, a rodeo cowboy, a speculative developer and a successful musician — spar and bond in a small Midwestern town as, one-by-one, they lose the rose-colored glasses of their youth.
The novel's popular selling point is that the fictional rock star shares many similarities with real-life Grammy-winner Bon Iver, who grew up in the same small Wisconsin town as the author. But it's the complexities of the relationships, the unexpected plot turns and the masterful prose, which is never more poetic than when Baker rhapsodizes about the natural beauty of his home state, that keep the reader engrossed. — Suzanne Van Atten, Personal Journeys editor
“Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace” by D.T. Max (Penguin Books)
A literary biography of the prodigious, doomed writer David Foster Wallace.
Readers of the 1,100-page "Infinite Jest" knew Wallace as a monstrously talented novelist but didn't see the monsters that bedeviled the talent. When Wallace killed himself in 2008 (at age 46), we discovered he'd been living with depression since he was a teenager. With excellent reporting, Max explores Wallace's remarkable life, but he doesn't let the drug abuse and celebrity hookups distract his attention from Wallace's literary achievement. The result is that rare creature, a biography that understands both the writer and his work. — Bo Emerson, reporter
“The Removers” by Andrew Meredith (Scribner)
An uncommon memoir about a “remover,” working alongside his father for a Philadelphia livery company in 1998. Their job? Hauling away people who have died in their homes.
The story of why Meredith chose such a profession, what happened beforehand to his family, and how he came to forgive his father for his part in it, should add up to a bummer of a book. Instead, its spirit is embodied in Meredith's hopeful, slightly tongue-in-cheek perspective. His self-assured take on this gruesome and macabre subject transforms it into a moving, funny and ultimately redemptive story of a college kid whose life fell apart and whose up-close appointments with death brought him back to life. -- Gina Webb, book critic
“Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo (Random House)
A nonfiction account of life in the slums behind the Mumbai airport in India.
If you have young people in your house this summer complaining they are "bored," place this on their required reading list. Introduce them to youths who must live among garbage and sell whatever they can salvage to help their families survive. This skillfully told, thoroughly researched and beautifully written work should stop your heart, then fill it with gratitude. — Jennifer Brett, Peach Buzz
“Mirror Earth: The Search for Our Planet’s Twin” by Michael D. Lemonick (Bloomsbury USA)
An inside look at the search for planets outside our solar system, a field of study that has been booming in recent years thanks to advancing technology such as the Kepler and Hubble space telescopes.
It's a perfect primer on the work that's been done in a very short time (the first extra-solar planet was confirmed in 1992). Lemonick gives us the human drama behind the discoveries as he follows the work of the scientists — they call themselves "exoplaneteers" — engaged in the mostly elusive search for a planet with the properties of Earth. — Shane Harrison, audience specialist
“Tenth of December” by George Saunders (Random House)
Short stories set in the not-so-distant future – a man participates in a series of experiments after committing a crime, a family tries to keep up with the Joneses with disastrous results.
Weeks after reading it, you'll still be thinking about it. Saunders' spot-on satirical tone will make you laugh, but more than anything it'll leave you feeling a little unsettled about where we could be headed in the next few years. It deals with sci-fi themes without being too dense or technical. -- Yvonne Zusel, audience specialist
“The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times” by Robert J. Morgan (Thomas Nelson Publishers)
Using the story of the Israelites, Morgan offers 10 strategies for moving from fear and disappointment to faith.
If you've ever found yourself facing difficulties, trapped as the Israelites were between Pharoah's rushing armies and the seemingly unnavigable Red Sea, this book will lift you out of the muck and mire and set you on solid ground. It and the story of the Israelites found in the 14th chapter of Exodus reminds me that God will not lead me where he cannot and will not sustain me; to acknowledge the enemy but keep my eyes on Him. He's in control. — Gracie Bonds Staples, reporter
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