When a Book Loves a Good Reader
March is National Reading Month. Of course, we readers love books and reading the other eleven months out of the year, but who doesn’t want to spend a whole month celebrating it? We thought we’d turn the tables this year; following is a list of books that love readers. The ten titles feature book-loving heroes, sly winks to lit lovers, and the inside scoop on some of our most beloved authors. Enjoy.
Black Moon Draw by Lizzy Ford (Kettlecorn Press)
When Naia wakes up after a bad breakup, she’s been transported into the world of the story she was reading. Now’s she’s stuck with a victory-obsessed knight who seems to think she’s a witch sent to help him, a pretty-near-useless squire, and a magic amulet she can’t control, with no clear way home.
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (Algonquin Books)
Even the stories have stories in Zevin’s thoroughly charming novel. Open the doors at bookseller AJ Fikry’s Island Books and find tragedy, comedy, romance, mystery, and more. Open this book and find an affectionate portrait of a curmudgeonly bookseller who faces loss through literature, with surprising results. Eccentric book banter tickles the reader, bringing a bookseller to life through humor and dialogue.
Sacred Wilderness by Susan Power (Michigan State University Press)
Don’t say that Susan Power uses magical realism. This would suggest that the fictional world she presents is an alternate reality, not a real part of everyday experience. However, magic exists in Sacred Wilderness.
Time Flight by Susan Syers Stark (Leaf Storm Press)
His mind perpetually drifting where his creativity and optimism take it, distracted Anthony one day follows a paper airplane into a portal that takes him into another universe.
The Book of Charlie: Spirit of the Pompey Hollow Book Club by Jerome Mark Antil (Little York Books)
Antil delivers heartfelt messages of caring and hope in a wholesome young-adult adventure. In this second book of the series, the kids of the book club are now teenagers, but their appetite for adventure hasn’t faded.
The Outsmarting of Criminals by Steven Rigolosi (Ransom Note Press)
Conventions of old-fashioned mystery novels bring humor and coziness to this story. Collecting the best qualities from female cozy sleuths, Steven Rigolosi pens the story of Miss Felicity Prim, an “outsmarter of criminals” who leaves the isle of Manhattan for the wilds of Connecticut.
Suzanne Davis Gets a Life by Paula Marantz Cohen (Paul Dry Books)
Both amusing and moving, this Austen-influenced romance comments on cancer, female expectations, and what makes a good life.
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill (South Dakota State Historical Society)
Wilder’s memoir is a fascinating piece of American history, but it’s the annotations that set Pioneer Girl apart as the most important work of its kind. Hill has ensured that not only will Laura Ingalls Wilder continue to inspire, but that her audience will grow and expand for generations to come.
A Thousand Forests in One Acorn edited by Valerie Miles (Open Letter)
This outrageously valuable project asked twenty-eight Spanish-language heavyweights of the last half of the twentieth century to choose a favorite piece of their own work, accompanied by some personal words of commentary and reflection.
A Moveable Famine by John Skoyles (The Permanent Press)
Poet John Skoyles’s autobiographical novel reveals his coming of age as a writer, from his days at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop to his fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and at the Yaddo mansion in Saratoga Springs. Brushes with literary icons, including Allen Ginsberg and Raymond Carver, seamy anecdotes from the early 1970s and ’80s, and everyday collegiality and rivalry merge to create an episodic tale of ambition.
Allyce Amidon is the associate editor at Foreword Reviews, where she blogs about comics and graphic novels. You can follow her on Twitter @allyce_amidon
Allyce Amidon
