As the summer season prepares to depart, the leaves are turning and a chill is starting to fill the air.
What better way to celebrate the coming of fall than curling up in a comfy sweater, enjoying some hot cider and reading a good book.
Our monthly book panel joins host Christopher Purdy with their recommendations for your next book club selection or nightstand queue.
Host:
- Christopher Purdy, Classical 101 Morning Host
Guests:
- Kassie Rose, WOSU book critic
- Kris Hickey, youth services manager, Whetstone Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library
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Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Christopher Purdy: Good morning, I'm Christopher Purdy, delighted to welcome you all to All Sides Weekend. This is the book show. This is a time of the month when we get together and talk about what people are reading, what gets recommendations, maybe sometimes get books you don't have to read because our critics have read them for you. But I am delighted to Welcome Kassie Rose, who is WOSU's book critic to the program. Her blog is thelongestchapter.com, which is important for anyone who likes to read. And Kris Hickey is here from the Whetstone branch of the Columbus Library. She is the Youth Services Manager, and Kris Hickey brings us every month quick picks from the library, those books that everybody wants to read. What's with the little boy at Whetstone Library? I just saw the report on the news. I just saw the report on the news.
Kris Hickey: Have you seen that? So there's a family, they come to story times and they came, I'm assuming it was Sunday morning that they came we were closed and the little boy was so sad and the parents took a video of him, continued like trying to get in the door and it's just, he's crying and he goes boneless in the parking lot and it went viral and of course our marketing team saw that and we gave him a present when he came back, you know, hopefully. To make up for the sadness. But it was absolutely delightful. It was adorable.
Purdy: So that's all you have to do if you if you are confronted by a locked door at the library just start crying and you'll get you'll Get free books
Hickey: Thank you
Purdy: Write that down, everybody. Kris Hickey, since I've already bothered you, what do you have for us for a quick pick?
Hickey: So I have two books that are inspired by the same post-secret post. So this is a website blog where people will post secrets about themselves and you can read about them. But there is a person who wrote, everyone who knew me before 9-11 thinks that I am dead. And that quote has inspired two books. So I'll start with Jodie Peacole, her new book. It's called "Hollow Bones." And Jodie P. Cole, if you're familiar with her, she is intense, controversial topic. She's kind of seen as the queen of social activist novels. So this one is about 9-Eleven and timely as we are honoring the 20th. 25Th year since the attacks. So Molly, when she was only two months old, she lost her mother. She died at the World Trade Center. And so Molly grew up with an intense dread of disasters. And so now as an adult, she runs the Rhode Island Department of Emergency Preparedness. So if you've read a lot of her books, this is her 30th book, by the way. The one of her most famous books is "My Sister's Keeper." So there's a connection with this book. So Jesse, who was a troubled teen in "My Sister's Keeper" is now a police detective and they are married. And the two of them have, they just carry lots of trauma from different things that have happened to them. And I don't wanna give away too much of the plot, but there are a lot of themes happening in this story. Like what are the things, the things that we plan to keep ourselves safe? There's mother daughter relationships, Native American and evangelical. Cultures. She did a lot of research on 9-11 and emergency preparedness before writing this book. She does that with most of her books. She's very well researched. She interviewed people who lost parents 25 years ago. They were killed in that awful day. But the cover, and I don't know if you can see it, but it is, I'll just hold it up in case anyone's seeing TV. It's gorgeous And it's You can see a blue sky and it's almost like fractured glass in a mosaic of different kinds of blue. And when I looked at this, I immediately thought of the wall of blue art installation that you can see at the 9-Eleven Museum and Memorial in New York City. You can look at pictures of that. I've looked around at interviews with her. She has not spoken of this, but that's the blue that day. But this book, just another knockout from Jody P. Cole. And that is a quick pick from the Columbus Library. That is a quick pick.
Purdy: And review for us quickly what a quick pick is.
Hickey: So Quick Picks are the hot books. You might be, you know, number 625, but you can walk into one of our locations and you will see that book on display. You can check it out and you are jumping the line.
Purdy: You are going to get slaughtered with a quick fix with this new book about Princess Diana that her brother has written. It's been all over the sort of scandalous news blogs, apparently he's quoting
Hickey: This is Earl of Spencer.
Purdy: Yes. The present King does not come off well, I'll leave it alone. He does not come off at all. It's literally front-page news in London and everywhere else. I think it's called Swan or something. It is by Charles Spencer, the brother. It just haven't been published. You have it on order, and it's already a line.
Hickey: I bet there is. It's interesting because "Spare," we made a display with this because we had so many copies of "Spare" because of course Harry's going back to England and they all out so people still are interested.
Purdy: It revived interest really because it did a little bit. They did a little bit.
Hickey: No kidding. Let's grab all the books we have and put them on display and they checked out.
Purdy: And they're checked out. All righty then.
Hickey: Isn't he the brother that gave the eulogy at the funeral and he really ripped apart the royal family
Purdy: Yeah, he's doing it again.
Hickey: Yes, and you wonder I guess you have to wonder why now I mean if there's if anything is written to say Why would he come up and do this?
Purdy: Well they're saying next year would be, it's hard to believe, but next year is 30 years that she died. So he's jumping the anniversary, but what people are saying is the guy needs money.
You know, so it's gonna it's going to be a scandalous read. I bring it up because I think it's going to a big quick pick. I think there's going be a lot of.
Hickey: Yes, if there's a long hold list, it could become one. I mean, I think people should
Purdy: I mean, I think people should read "Anna Karenina," but okay. I mean this is going to be this is gonna be the scandal of the year Kassie Rose, what do you have for us? What have you been reading?
Kassie Rose: I'm gonna start with a book called "Suspicion" and it's by a Japanese author who during his time was extraordinarily popular in Japan. I mean, I think he died in like maybe 1997 or something like this. And "Tokyo Express" is his most popular book. But this book, and I've read another one of his books and now this one, but this one "Suspicion" is really good and it is a crime novel. It is just. A hundred pages so you can read it in one sitting or over a period of time. And it starts with a tabloid, a journalist, he's in a hospital, he has visited a relative and in the waiting room of the pharmacy he sees an attorney and this attorney is defending a woman who has been accused of murdering her husband by having him in a passenger in their car and she drives it off the pier into the water. And all of the circumstantial evidence just points to, this woman probably did it. I mean, her connections with the mafia in the past, how she met this man when she was young. She was very newly married to him in a bar and he was grieving widow and they marry and she takes out the life insurance policy for millions of dollars. And now here six months later, he's drowned in the ocean. She vociferously says, I am innocent, and so loudly, and it's shocking, but clearly, it looks like she's guilty. So the journalist wants to talk with the attorney and walks home with him, and of course, the attorney doesn't give him any information, but what's going on here is the journalist has written so many articles about it in a tabloid and vilified her, and clearly she's guilt in all this. He begins to sense that this attorney might have a defense. That may get her off and what that could mean for him. And another twist comes when he finds out that there is a very good, a winning defense attorney from Tokyo that might be coming in to partner with him. So the intensity draws toward this because of her connections with the mafia. What if she does get off? Would she come after him? One of the key things that's brilliant about this novel also is that the woman who is accused is never really, she's not a character in the book. She doesn't show up in conversation. She's not engaging with anyone. She's always talked about. And that's really a creative way that this author has made this book pop. Another thing that, anyway, there's another situation that happens with a public defender that comes on board, and I'll just leave it at that. But it just ramps up in the intensity of the what if she gets out. This book has an introduction, and normally I tell people not to read the introduction of books because there are. Really?
Purdy: I didn't know that.
Rose: Well, yes, because they give so many key incidents away. There's spoilers in them.
Purdy: I always skipped them and I always feel guilty, so thank you for that.
Rose: No, do not feel guilty. What I recommend is read halfway through the book, maybe two-thirds away and then turn back and read the introduction because then it will give you certain clarity about some things maybe that you hadn't thought about, but it won't give you spoilers. This one I do recommend that you read. She comes right out and says, and she's a crime author, she says, there are no spoilers in this introduction. And she talks about how this case was, came from a real. A crime that happened in Japan. And then she writes about how authors, crime authors, will take something that really happened and the questions they ask themselves to turn it into their own story. And that I found to be absolutely fascinating to get that inside aspect of, all right, so this is based on real facts, but what did he do to really turn it in to something so brilliant and inspired to be a great work of fiction.
Purdy: Tell us the author and title again.
Rose: The title is called "Suspicion" and the author is Seisho Matsumoto.
Purdy: A recommendation from Cassie Rose, who is WOSU's book critic, and her blog, which is really important and a great read for anybody who loves books as thelongestchapter.com. And I have a recommendation, if I will. This is a nonfiction book called "The Housewives' Underground" by Caitlin Tiffany. This book is about three women who didn't know each other, who live in different parts of the country, who had really nothing to do with one another, but they share an session. With deconstructing the Warren Commission that was done after the assassination of JFK. They are convinced that it wasn't a lone gunman, and it becomes a life's work, particularly for one of them. And it also incorporates a lot of kind of nefarious people and underground people. And the women do meet, now it's 19, this is in the 60s and early 70s. Ciao. You know, there's no email or fax or whatever. So they're actually writing letters with stamps on envelopes that communicate with one another. When long distance calls were a big deal, or like an event.
Rose: And they cost money too.
Purdy: And they cost a lot of money and one woman worked for the World Health Organization at the UN. One was a wealthy, for want of a better term, we don't use this housewife term anymore, but that's what she was. She was a socialite in Beverly Hills and one was a woman who was living in Oklahoma. And they again they eventually did meet and get in touch and then they fell out because they had different viewpoints about what what they think actually happened but they're common bond. Was not buying for a minute the Warren Commission and deconstructing it. It's a non-fiction book. It's really interesting. And it's called "The Housewives Underground" by Caitlin Tiffany.
Rose: Doesn't it, it's one woman though they folk, I haven't read the book, but I've read about the book that there was one woman that becomes the focus.
Purdy: Yes, Ms. Meager, she is a New Yorker who worked for the UN, the World Health Organization. And her whole life, she goes to work and she comes home and she pounds out letters. And in fact, she, the actual Warren Commission reports, which is what, 10,000 pages, had no index. She indexed it.
I mean that's that she actually indexed it and cross-referenced it and had that published and back in the day these three women were quite well known they were considered some of them were considered cranks there were a lot of people who said they were they're just they're making squeaky wheels and making noise this this commission was appointed by Earl Warren I mean it's done you know and they weren't buying it and you know 60 years later a lot people aren't buying.
That's just, again, "The Housewives Underground" by Caitlin Tiffany. And we are going to take a quick break and come back with more discussion. All Sides Weekend Books. Don't go away.
Purdy: We are back, this is All Sides Weekend Books. I'm Christopher Purdy with Kassie Rose, WOSU's book critic, and Kris Hickey from the Whetstone branch of the Columbus Library with our quick picks. Quick pick us, come on.
Hickey: All right, so I have Emily St. John Mandel's novel exit party. And I said that there were two novels that I had that were inspired by the post secret post, everyone who knew me before 911 thinks that I am dead. So this was also the inspiration for her book, but it is a very different book than "Hollow Bones" by Jody P. Cole.
Rose: Oh, it's interesting. I've read a lot about this book and never once has someone mentioned this connection.
Hickey: She did in an interview and I thought that was fascinating because I was also learning about Jodie's book, but they're completely different stories. And 9-11 isn't really mentioned in this one, but I think you can kind of deduce there's, I don't know. It's the seed of her inspiration. Yes. So I love her books. I read anything that she puts out and I find them so stressful, but I love them and they're incredible. And this takes place in 2031 in a post-democratic United States. So the states are different provinces with warring militias fighting for control of these territories. So this is the world that Ari, who has been in prison for 20 years, steps into. So she lives in Los Angeles. And LA is in a little bit better shape than other places because they're now the Republic of California. But it's still not great. So she and her roommate are going to a party and this party is celebrating that the curfew has finally been lifted. And so we kind of get our glimpse of the landscape as they're walking to this party. And this party, a lot of strange things happen that set up the rest of the book. There's a painting that becomes important later and there might be a possible portal to a parallel universe because other... Versions of themselves somehow start showing up. It's very interesting. So "Station Eleven," if you read that book, it jumped around quite a bit. This does the same. And even though she jumps around, I still find her books easy to follow. Like I know where she's taking me. So this book, it's very complicated. And with hers, they're hard to describe. You just have to get in there and experience it. But this one has three parts. So part one Ari is trying to survive this future imagined Los Angeles. Part two jumps in the future where she is living in Paris, but she is hiding out from something that we don't know and we'll find out later. We also don't why she was in prison, but we will find that out later, part three we get a glimpse of this parallel universe, which is another version of the United States, except there aren't states, it's just one state and the country is called state. And it's a surveillance state. So it's very stressful, but how it all ties in. Don't read it before you, don't read the ending before you turn out the light. Well, you'll be very confused, I think. Yes, don't, don't read this one out of order because she will take it and then she, as her books.
Purdy: She can be very, she can be very dark. Is she dark? Yes. Oh, yes.
Hickey: Oh yes, it's very dark, it is very stressful, this is not going to make you feel great, but it's a fascinating read.
Purdy: That's a quick pic. By the way, I always ask you, this is probably a little unfair, just on top of your head. What are the biggest quick pics right now? The hugest? Pirate Queen.
Hickey: Pirate Queen is one of them, we can talk about that, but yeah, there's, um, gosh, what is poking out? Do you know that "Yesteryear" is still way up there? "Theo of Golden" is still, it was great. "Theo of Golden" is still one that is checking out quite a bit, but those are the two that pop to mind. And Cassie Rose, what are your quick picks right now? Well, I was...
Rose: Share with you a very fun book. It's very funny, I'll just say that. It is a collection of essays. It's by Richard Kelly Kemic and it's called "Decadence." And he just won me with the first essay. It takes place between 2015-2025. It' s a little bit of a somewhat memoir too. In this first essay, you know, he's probably young 30s and he's writing about his Victorian Christmas village. And that he has kept since he was a child. And you know, you're reading this essay and he realizes people think it's childish or whatever, he's living with his girlfriend, he's a writer, he isn't bringing in any income. So he's trying to figure out how he can buy something for himself when he's going to the shop. And he ends up buying a little juniper tree. But the woman in front of him buys the distillery and he really wants the distillerie, but he can't have it because he can afford it because it's three figures. And also because he can't have a distillery until he has a police station and he can have a police stations until he as a city hall because then the police can't be paid. So, and there's this, he writes, the humor comes sideways. So there's one moment where it's, his father thinks that it's ridiculous that he's throwing his money out the window at this hobby and, but he goes to a sale, an after Christmas sale. And it's mobbed with people and, you know, Chemek really wants this chocolatier. And his father's on the other side of the room standing right next to the chocolatiers and Chemek, you now, is shouting to him to get the chocolater and his father is half deaf, all deaf in one ear, half deaf in the other, so Chemek climbs up on the shelf and I can't tell you the words on the radio and what he shouts because it's illegal but he just basically gets the bleep. Chocolate here and he comes at you sideways in a way that I mean I was laughing out loud at that and I thought all right he's got me. So there's and he's very humble too because he becomes very self-aware in his essays like in one where he's on a road trip I mean he admits he just doesn't like himself anymore and they're touring in California he's with his friend Peter they're Canadian and they are in the Winchester house touring it in California. This is this mystery house by Sarah Winchester, the heiress of the rifle or the gun empire. And he immediately just doesn't like the tour director simply because he speaks in English and then he speaks, so does anyone need a second language? And then he says something in Spanish and he turns against him because Chemek says he's all his life, he's wanted to be able to speak a second language he's tried and he's trying and he can't do it so he's decided he's gonna be a jerk during the tour. And there's this one moment where the tour guide is talking about some things in the house and he talks about, here's this sink that came from Venice and there's a fireplace that came from Japan and he says, well, where in Japan did it come from? And the man says, well, it comes from this province or wherever in Japan. And he says well, what about the sink? And the guy just looks at him and he then says, all right, that's okay if you don't know. And his friend, Chemex friend Peter leans over and whispers to him and he says. Venice is a city, it's not a country. And in that moment, you know, you realize again how he's just, he's failing at being a jerk, essentially.
Purdy: Great sentence you just said, Shailene!
Rose: Well, and he knows that he's doing this. And his girlfriend sends him an email and she says in it, you know, remember to have fun. And then he rereads it and it really says remember to be fun. There's a heartwarming part to these essays. I'll also say, you now, there's one essay that's about taxidermy, full service taxiderma. And there's another about being up. He's obsessed with Olympic volleyball players in Canada and he finds, he gets himself a press pass and he's just tongue-tied talking to his hero and he just starts asking him for advice about how he can improve his own game. I mean, this would be like, you know, talking to Arch Manning or something like that in high school and saying, can you tell me how to, you now, improve my game and pretending to be, I don't know, on the press. It's a great, great collection of essays. It ties together a lot because of his relationship with his girlfriend and what happens with that.
Purdy: Are they still together?
Rose: Um, I believe they are because I did get online and I found a YouTube where he talked about his Victorian Christmas village and by the way, since he can't, he can afford the policeman, he has a Batman ornament attached to the church spire to have vigilante.
Purdy: People are a little bit off. They're a little left, yet they're a bit off, but those are my favorite. That's my people.
Rose: That's it. That's what I picked up the book. I was just reading so many serious books. And this one, I thought, this is it. It just came out this summer and it just brightened up my days. I just thought, I really like this guy. Not just because he's funny, it's also because he could say things like, I don't like myself right now, or I've been really stupid. He also said, I'm afraid of loneliness. So he's a good egg.
Purdy: That's a good egg from another good egg. Cassie Rose talking about a good eggs here on All Sides Weekend Books. I've almost said a classical 101. I'm a little, I'm tired on Fridays going across the hall. I'm Christopher Purdy. This is All Sids Weekend books on 89.7 NPR News. Okay, Chris Hickey, the pirate queen. Why do I know that author? She wrote "The Frozen River."
Hickey: Yes, so which is a very it was a quick pick very still very popular book. So Ariel Lohan and she's pirate queen. So if you want to read a book about a strong woman who's real and you've probably never heard of her and you're interested in history and you want a good thriller, there's just there's so much so much to pick from in this book. So this is about a woman named Grace O'Malley and she And the 16th century was an Irish clan leader and a sea captain. And this is the same time where Queen Elizabeth is becoming more aggressive with Ireland. So Grace O'Malley, she's expected to marry to form a strong alliance for her father who is a chieftain. And she falls in love with the second son when she's out living in a foster. That doesn't work. So he marries her off to this very brutal warrior man. And so she does what she's supposed to do. She, you know, works to consolidate his power and she's also gathering her own followers at the same time. So her husband betrays her and expels her from his lands and that's when she takes to the sea. So you've got thriller, you've gotta historic. So it's just, it's a page turner. And what is really interesting is that it's told in different types of chapters. So in different. Pieces of her life, so when she's maiden, mother, and matriarch. And what people are doing, they're reading it as it's laid out, but then they will go back and they will read all the maiden chapters together. And then all the mother and all the matriach chapters. And it feels like a different book.
Rose: Oh, that's interesting.
Hickey: Isn't that interesting? She ties everything together and fascinating and she's a woman who just rebels against everything that's expected of her including she refuses to bow before Queen Elizabeth.
Purdy: How did that work out for her?
Hickey: Now you'll have to read and find out, but yeah, she's a strong, strong woman from history.
Purdy: You mentioned that that that's a got a high number for the quick pick There's a lot of people waiting for pirate queen by Ariel law and but what happens on Tuesday morning?
Hickey: Tuesday mornings, that is publishing day. And so you will often find the newest quick picks on that day. They're in every branch. Some branches have more copies than others. But the idea is you can step into a branch and you can hopefully find something you've been wanting to read. Sure.
Purdy: So if you want the pirate queen try for a Tuesday and get there early
Hickey: Yeah. Or now that it's out, you could try any day because as soon as someone returns a quick pick and you can't renew them so they're coming in and out very quickly, we put it right on the shelf. Thank you.
Rose: How does it work in terms of like if, so a book that is coming out on September 15th, for example, does the library have it on September?
Hickey: 15Th or most of the time that now we're dealing with a different situation because of Baker and Taylor so we are working a distributor so it is be patient some things get out Tuesday some some things it takes a little bit longer the ordering takes a bit longer but in theory yes it will come out that day okay if everything works great
Rose: Because then you see it on, if you're logging on and saying I really want this book, it comes out on the 15th, they could see it's in or you could see its on order and to just be patient.
Hickey: Yes, yes, if you see in processing that means it's close.
Purdy: Oh, yes. Okay. All right. There you go. It means it's closed. Cassie Rose, what do you have for us?
Rose: I have a revenge story. It's called "Crocodilopolis," and it's by the author John Manuel Arias. And it is about sibling rivalry, and there is betrayal, and there drama on the political and on the family side of the stages that are going on here. So essentially, the book opens where Seth Oriomundo. Is a young man living in Washington D.C. With his wife and his son, and he's living in exile. And because he has been exiled because of something that has happened in Costa Rica, something that happened with his brother, and wants to get revenge on his younger brother Osario, he marches into the ambassador's office at the Costa Rican embassy. And because he has secrets about the ambassador, he gets what he wants, which is a visa. Illegal visa, and so he can return to Costa Rica. The book is written non-linear, so it'll drop back then and backdives into the Oremundo family history about a grandfather who commits, I'll just say, an indiscretion before Seth and his brother are born. And that is a seed that sort of seals the fate of his grandsons. So then it takes us through there about what happened. But one of the things that also affects the drama is that Seth, although he is first born, is not the favorite of his parents. It is Osorio, his younger brother. There is a scene in the book when Seth is 18 years old and his mother verbally rejects him in such a shocking way that he just walks out of the family. And he later becomes the director, a powerful director, of the oil industry in Costa Rica. His brother. Becomes the minister of the environment for the country. Now that's really dynamite waiting for the lit match if you've got, because Osorio really has a moral compass. And the brothers really all along have gotten on okay. The favoritism thing has bothered Seth a lot, but they really don't know about the indiscretion. There's a lot going on in this book. It's very complex, very intricate. So then we get back to Seth, who is coming back to take revenge on his brother. And one of the, a theme of menace that keeps bubbling up is that the author talks about the American crocodile, how it goes after its prey, its teeth, its body, the weight of it. And it sets up the sinister feel in the book. We get to the point where, and it draws, so the narrative draws like it's a window drawing down of the nonlinear stories and it gets to the where Seth is in Costa Rica. Meeting with his brother in a bar in Osorio has no idea about the seething hatred that Seth has for him. It's quite marvelous and thrilling the way it all comes together. It is also poetically written. And the thing is, is that when I'm not going to say what happens happens, it does the last about one quarter of the book is about the cousins, the sons of these two brothers. Because essentially, this book is about destiny and about how. It in families it becomes circular and you can see he doesn't spell it out for you but when you close the book you know it's it's going to continue happening in this family it's really well done I wrote a review about the book it is on the longest chapter comm so you can find more detail about it I love the cover. Yes, it's very, it is a great- Oh, Catellapolis, oh!
Purdy: It is, it is. You have to work to say that, but yes. By Adios, that is a recommendation from Cassie Rose. We are going to take one more quick break and then come back with more. All Sides Weekend, the book show. Don't go away. We are back. This is All Sides Weekend Books. I'm Christopher Purdy with Chris Hickey, who is the Youth Services Manager at the Columbus Library, the Whetstone Branch. Chris brings us quick picks when she comes on the show, those books everybody wants to read, and Cassie Rose, who is WOSU's book critic. And I thought of you both as I read a book. Because I think it's I think I said on the show that I didn't get Elizabeth Strout and you both got indignant You both got quite indignant with me. So mea culpa because I wrote I don't know if it's her latest But it's called "Anything Is Possible" By Elizabeth Stroud, which I guess I liked it because it's but it was about a man my age And and what happens to him and it was very moving and very compelling and a little scary I was looking in the mirror kind of he's actually he's not my age he's younger than I am but you know he was a middle-aged man a school teacher in you know and you could say really nothing happens but it was very very compelling so hats off to Elizabeth Strout who I didn't much get I finally did.
Rose: She really brings out the characters and the warmth in them and their ordinary lives.
Purdy: Yeah, that's perfect. It was a very ordinary life. And you'd think, why am I interested in this man's life? Because there was nothing special about it. But it was a page turn. It was very, very compelling. And that I think is her gift, really.
Rose: Yeah, and it's hard to describe, too, to make, how do you describe ordinary as compelling? I mean, the details that you could give, it's kind of like trying to make something sound funny.
Purdy: Well she I think the mark of a great any kind of an artist system you you care about it
Speaker 4: Mmm.
Purdy: She made she made me care about these characters, which I did. Anyway, "Anything Is Possible." And I guess it is by Elizabeth Strout. That's just a quick recommendation from myself here. Is it time for more quick pics? It is.
Hickey: And I think this this is a memoir and I think This is someone you're going to very much care about when you hear more about his story so his name is Kihoi Kwan and He's an actor and you may know him from various things. You might know him as the excited actor who jumps up and down at Awards shows I know him From "The Goonies" because I'm a Gen Xer So this book is called "Never Say Die," and that is from that famous line, the Goonies never say die. If you don't know what that is, it's a story of neighborhood, of these scrappy neighborhood kids that go searching for pirate treasure to save their neighborhood that's being taken over by an evil rich developer who wants to expand a golf course. So he plays Data, which is a kid with lots of gadget. He's also the child actor who was in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." So after that, he disappeared. And in recent years, he came back and was starred in the film "Everywhere All at Once," which won many Oscars, including one for him. And he thought that maybe it's time to tell my story. And he wants people to read this book and look at themselves with more self-compassion. So you're gonna get a lot of behind the scenes from the films that you love, lots of goony stuff. He has... Wonderful stories about Harrison Ford. So if you love Harrison Ford like I do, you will just love him even more. So he taught him how to swim. Harrison Ford taught Ki how to swim. So that's a great story in there. So his story begins in the 70s as his family goes through multiple attempts to escape from communist North Vietnam. And then things happen and he finds himself in front of Steven Spielberg. So it just, he's a very endearing person. And I think you're gonna come to care about him. What's the title? It's called "Never Say Die."
Purdy: "Never Say Die."
Hickey: And the author is Kee Hoi Kwan. Okay. Was this a book that you
Rose: chose for yourself or was this is a quick pick? Okay, this is a quick
Purdy: It is a quick pick. Okay. After that, I think it's going to be flying off the shelf. Yeah, I hope so. I think the numbers are going to go up. That's a quick pic from Chris Hickey from the Columbus, the Wetstone branch of the Columbus Library. If you fancy the Wet Stone branch, which is a great, great neighborhood location, go in and say hello to Chris Hickie and ask her what's good to read and she'll tell you. And you won't be disappointed. Speaking of not disappointed, Cassie Rose is here, WOSU's Book Critic. What's next? Whatever next?
Rose: Well... I want to talk about a book that is coming out October 6th, because I'm pretty excited about it. It's by Barbara Kingsolver. So everybody loved "The Demon Copperhead." And of course, she's well known for "The Poisonwood Bible." Her new novel is called "Partita," and it is based on a woman who used to be a concert pianist, but is not anymore. She lives on a farm modestly with her husband. And she gets a phone call from her past in the beginning of the book. And this opens up a going back to the past to her time when she was at the conservatory in Indiana, the School of Music, brilliant pianist, and had a great love affair with another student. So, and this is the person who has called her. So we get the story of the love affair. And at this point, I've read all the forecasts about the book, but this is what I understand it to be about. And the other part is that her mother has died, so she is going through all of her mother's possessions. So it comes out also, her story from childhood about the trauma of losing her brother when she was 11 years old, because he took his life by throwing himself in front of a train. And also about the mother that was violent with them. And something gets revealed, you know, I have read about this, that in this, that she gets answers about this history that she lived. We also learn about the injury that stopped her performing career. She now works as a piano teacher in this small rural town. The thing is, is that Barbara Kingsolver is such a talented author. I can imagine that she is weaving these two storylines together so brilliantly and drawing us in with this unrequited love, I suppose, that happened during youth, but also probably on two areas because that would also be true of the music. And that also tells me why the title of "Partita." I mean, I know the box. Partitas for the piano. But it is all the pieces that the artist brings together to make a whole. So I think this is going to be a beautiful book. It does have a Kirkus Starr review and they are one of the harshest forecasters to please. So I would watch for it or even get online now to and see if it's been ordered by...
Hickey: It has, and it is on the Quick Pick list. It is? Mm-hmm.
Rose: So you have to know the quick pick list before the book comes out.
Hickey: Yes. They're ordering. They kind of determine what they think is going to be that.
Purdy: Because she has such a track record of success people have loved her books very much sure sure that there are some
Hickey: There are some people that just, yes, like King Solver, they're going to be on the list. People could get online now and just get in line. I would get it. You can definitely get yourself on the whole list for that. All right. What else is Quick Pick? So this one, I want to share one that is not a Quick Pick, but it is the book that I was the most excited about for this fall. So I'm a huge fan of Alice Hoffman. And Alice Hoffmann is also having a moment because "Practical Magic 2" came out. The film and it is based on book four, the book of magic in her practical magic series. This is a brand new series, not related to practical magic at all. It's another witch series and this one is called "The Witch of Cambridge" and it takes place in the fifties at Radcliffe college. And she is so interesting. She went back to school Hoffman did and she was studying at Harvard and this book came about. While she was writing a term paper turned into this book. So it is about two women, they are bloodline witches and they're very, very different. One knows that she's a bloodline witch, the other one doesn't. One runs towards love, the other ones runs away and their names are Ava and Lauren and they are initiated into what's called the Lilith House. And so these students, they study at Radcliffe during the week and on the weekends, they learn witchcraft. So Ava falls for Jamie Mather, and he is a descendant of Cotton Mather who we know from the Salem witch trials. So yes, the Mathers have their own secret. There's a line in their family that they want to keep things very quiet. So Aava, who doesn't really know who she is, she finds these letters written from someone who calls themselves the First Witch of Cambridge. And so this takes her on a path of trying to figure out who she really is. She's adopted and she was raised by a family that was very Puritan in nature. She was sheltered, but she would see things in the windows that she couldn't explain. And so, this helps her figure it out. Lauren, on the other hand, comes from a prominent magical family. Her brother also has powers and he's studying at Harvard. Because at this time, women couldn't study at Harvard Bye.
Purdy: Right. Yeah.
Hickey: So Lauren is drawn to the crooked path, which means it's the dark side, dark magic. So this book is very dark and very gothic. So it's really good for like, for a spooky season. I enjoyed it. I definitely, it definitely lived up to the hype and this will be a first in a series.
Purdy: And that's from Alice Hoffman. Alice Hoffmen. Who's very prolific.
Hickey: Yes. Oh, yes. She writes many things and she goes to Harvard.
Purdy: And she goes to Harvard, you know, later on in her life, not as a 19-year-old. That's terrific. That's a recommendation from Chris Hickey, who is the Youth Services Manager of the Whatstone branch of the Columbus Library. Greetings to all at Whatstone. Greetings to everybody at the library. I was down at the main library last Monday for the authors series. That's great series. Yes. And it's all over every branch. It's not just downtown.
Hickey: Yes, if you get on our website, you can see where all these different authors will be. And I would check often because people are added at different times when we have access to them.
Purdy: I was very very honored to interview an author called Casey Michelle who I didn't know. He is a very very intense, very smart young man and his book that we talked about was his third book called "The United States of Oligarchy," which is going to upset you. And I'll tell you a story, I was reading this, don't tell anybody I said this because I'm not supposed to do this, but when I was on the air for Classical 101 early In the morning, I would be reading this book. And a couple of times, did I miss the cue? Yes, because I was sitting reading this book and yelling all kinds of words you can't say on the radio because it was so what he was writing about our current political situation and our current banking situation and our financial situations will make you crazy. But it is very, very well written. It's like, I told him it's like a thriller. It is like a fiction thriller, although it's not fiction at all.
Hickey: We seem to see a lot of these like historic or nonfiction that are written in a thriller.
Purdy: Right, right, and he's got that down. It's called "The United States of Oligarchy" by Casey Michelle. I will leave it there and I will pay attention when I'm on the radio in the morning as I do now, paying attention to Cassie Rose and her recommendations.
Rose: This book I want to talk about is a classic book. It was written in or published in 1902 or 1903 It's called "The Pit" by Frank Norris and when it was released it was a Bestseller the pit it refers to the wheat pit in the Board of Trade in Chicago and The story has focuses on a young woman named Laura Dearborn who becomes Laura Jadwin and she's in the auditorium theater with waiting for a couple to come who have asked them to join the box at the auditorum theater to watch the opera Faust. And also it is then where we get introduced to the three male characters who will become her suitors. And that takes up about kind of like, I would say maybe the first third of the book. She's not in love with all three of them. Anyway, it's not for me to give away to say that she does end up with this man named Curtis Jadwin. He's older than she is, very wealthy, with real estate in Chicago. But he does start to get into the speculating with the wheat pit. And that's the other part of the drama. And essentially what I think the author is trying to bring forth, what the speculation, how it ruins lives essentially how it's like it's you know, the options that are going on. I don't understand it enough, or probably have time to explain it here, but he, Jadwin, her husband gets involved in it and he becomes, I would just essentially say drunk with it because he's doing so well and he is buying thousands and thousands and thousands of bushels of wheat and driving the price up and to the point where he corners the market and the power that he has and the money that he's making and it goes to his head and of course it ruins his. Marriage. I loved reading the book because I loved going back in that history of time and you know realizing or just feeling that okay there was a point in time where people were in a horse and carriage and they had no idea that you know decades or a century ahead that we would have you know self-driven cars and cell phones and all of the stuff that we've got. That was their world and I like being in those worlds and also seeing the very human emotions though that are just the same. Because when she marries Jadwin, there's a moment where she says they're supposed to get in the carriage and go off to this summer house. And she says, let me go back in my house for a moment. I've forgotten something. And she walks through the house and she's saying goodbye, essentially, to the rooms and to the house. That moment of feeling my life is changing and it will never be the same from the youth that I had, the feelings that I have in these rooms. And she... Gets down on her knees and beside her bed and starts to cry and say a prayer, and her new husband appears at the door and he says to her, I understand, that's all he says to her. And she realizes in that moment that she does love him and that he does get her. And it's so well done that I was surprised. I was thinking, this is a man that is writing this book and he got it. He got this very not the moment of the love, that it was the moment of what for her it felt like, which I suppose could be of anyone, that you're saying goodbye, you'll never get it back.
Purdy: Frank Norris, there was another title of his that's one of the... "The Octopus." Say it again? "The Octupus?" No. There was one more, and it was made into a movie. In the early days of the film, but anyway, well... Well, because this is a trilogy. Oh, okay.
Rose: So I think it's called "The Octopus" that was one, and then he meant to do, and it's all about, yeah, it was "The Octopus" was 1901, then this came out in 1903. He intended to do a third one that would have been based in Europe where all the consumers are having trouble getting their bread. So, whereas "The Octapus" is about the farmers, this is about The Board of Trade.
Purdy: This is about the business of it, right?
Rose: Right, and the effect on human lives.
Purdy: More things change. Here you go. Kris Hickey, a real fat deer if you have one more in 20 seconds.
Hickey: I have a book that I'm reading currently right now. It is called "Salt Houses." This is not a quick book, this is an older book and it is about a Palestinian family over years as they become displaced with world, with different events. It starts with the Seven Day War, takes them to Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invades.
Purdy: And with that we have to say thank you very much for joining us today for All Sides Weekend Books. Thank you Kassie Rose, thank you Kris Hickey, thank you Chris Johnson for making us radio here. I'm Christopher Purdy, this is 89.7 NPR News.