This Is How You Lose Her is, you guessed it, a set of short stories about a dude, Yunior, who lost his girl- and how he came to be the guy that would lose her, the one. It takes lots of girlfriends, as it turns out, some more important to him than others, some teaching more important lessons, and some older and more experienced in the ways love works, especially among Dominican-American men (as the main character also is). This book is an extension of author Junot Diaz’s first short story collection, Drown, which came out in 1997 and was lauded by critics, as this one was, too. Most of the stories are set in New Jersey and revolve just as much around Yunior’s relationship with his mom, brother, and, in a far-back memory story, his dad. The language is often hip and young, and the stories are quite readable, making good use of their mostly urban environments. This is more of a "guy read" as most of the stories are told from Yunior’s often frustrated perspective, but are well worth the ride.
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Davy Rothbart comes off as both likeable and unlikeable in this collection of essays. Telling of his kinda-hard-to-believe adventures traveling near and far, he proves to be reckless and human. Sometimes breaking hearts, other times having his heart broken, Rothbart shows how easy it is to find meaning in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary as long as you keep yourself open and willing.
Right before turning 30, artist Ellen Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Fearing she would lose her creative edge if she took medication, Forney struggled for years trying to maintain a balance. Graphic novels lend themselves beautifully to telling deeply moving and personal memoirs and Marbles is another perfect example of how engaging they can be.
Imagine a world where medical conditions like epilepsy, or autism, or fetal alcohol syndrome could be cured by an implant in a human brain. What if that technology was used not only medically, but voluntarily to increase intelligence or make better soldiers? That is just what happens in Amped. As you can imagine, regular people, or “reggies” might become intimidated and afraid of the “amps,” which is just what happens in this action-packed science fiction book that calls to question what it means to be human.
On her fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne disappears from the Missouri mansion she shares with her husband, Nick. From the outside looking in, Amy and Nick's marriage is perfect: Amy is clever and ambitious, while Nick could be considered for Husband-of-the-Year. But now that Amy is missing, who is responsible? Could Nick be guilty of murdering his perfect wife? Alternating between Nick and Amy's perspectives, Flynn reveals that what existed beneath the pretty exterior of the Dunne marriage was a toxic, unhealthy relationship, with both parties to blame.
This short and strange offering from fiction experimentalist, Padget Powell, is quite simple in premise: two older guys sitting on a porch are conversing about life. That's it. But in the fashion of absurdist, postmodern fiction (and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett), these guys are also a bit lost and don't know where they're going. The chapters are pretty short and contain nothing but dialogue between the two, but touch on some fairly heavy philosophical subjects (life/death/love) as well as some down-to-earth yet occassionally surreal subjects (what to do with people talking on cell phones in traffic). Sometimes they make up a word and go on a kind of riff; sometimes it's a phrase that sets them off in new dialogic directions. Worth a look if you like books without easy answers told in a playful, if sometimes mind-boggling fashion.
Since about 2009, journalists from all over the world have been flooding in to Detroit to try to document the (hopeful) renaissance of the once great city. Some focused on the "ruin porn", some focused on urban gardening, some focused on the transformation of the main industry (from automotive to technology or something else), some focused on the artists (saying Detroit is the next Berlin or the next Brooklyn). The reports have been overwhelming, but mostly positive, focusing on the bright future of Detroit. In Detroit City is the Place to Be, writer Mark Binelli took a magazine assignment profiling the city and turned it into a realistic look at the possibilities of where Detroit is heading and what it will look like. He manages to avoid jumping on either extreme - there's no utopian idealism and no complete pessimism of the death of this city.
Memoirist Charles Homar finds the girl of his dreams only to lose her near their wedding date to her obsession in finding the great sea monster, the Kraken. Charles takes it pretty hard and embarks on an adventure to win Gillian back. Only he gets tossed in jail, takes up with a friend of a friend in pursuit of the Sasquatch, recovers from a nasty bump on the head during a UFO encounter, only to be befriended by steroid-pumping Lothario and then find himself back at home attending the funeral of his cantankerous and distant father. It’s a whirlwind of events and Giraldi keeps it coming with rapid-fire dialogue and snarky witticisms. This is “man literature” for those who like their humor dark and action fast, and who can also enjoy classic man references in a modern setting. This is Giraldi's debut novel and is for fan's of Kurt Vonnegut, among others.
Ariel Kafka is one of two Jewish policemen in Finland and the only one in Helsinki's Violent Crimes Unit. Two men are killed and then more bodies are found. Is there a connection between the victims, is it a terrorist act or specific targets in the Jewish/Arab communities? The investigation starts to get a little too close to Kafka's own personal contacts-- is there a tie to his family somehow?
This is the fifth book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series (also known as Game of Thrones on HBO). Although Martin is drawing the series out as slowly as possible it's impossible to put down his epic tomes. It's full of amazing characters and infuriating plot twists (in a good way) in a vividly imagined world like no other. Even those who think they don't like fantasy will be able to become completely absorbed in this compelling series. The downside, though is that Martin typically takes many years to produce each volume and two more are anticipated to complete the series.