General Fiction.

Puget Sound is home to more than its fair share of great writers -- Sherman Alexie, Tom Robbins, Ivan Doig, to name a few. But Washington's best current novelist, in my opinion, hails from the sunny side of our state. Spokane resident Jess Walter is one of the funniest writers alive! If you don't believe me, then read his latest book, Financial Lives of the Poets. Don't let the slightly misleading title fool you.

The book's main character, Matthew Prior, is an ex-newspaper journalist suffering through a midlife meltdown brought on by the bursting housing bubble. Matt's internet startup business that dispenses financial wisdom in the form of free verse poetry is in shambles (go figure!); his over-leveraged house is weeks from foreclosure; and his wife is on the verge of an affair with an old high school sweetheart who "friended" her on facebook. Who can blame him for taking a drag on a potent marijuana joint offered up to him by the teenage misfits he encounters on a midnight milk run to the local 7-Eleven. When he finds himself making repeated midnight "milk runs" to the 7-Eleven in search of stress relief, Matt and his 7-Eleven buddies hatch a plan that just might save him from "financial ebola." If it doesn't land him in jail first.

Financial Lives of the Poets is biting satire about the choices we make in a world filled with unchecked consumerism, online addiction, and potent BC Bud. Time Magazine calls it "the funniest way-we-live-now book of the year." Jess Walter's writing style has been compared to other well-known humorists like Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Carl Hiaasen. This is his most accessible and entertaining novel to date. 

A really strong friendship--one that will get you through death, divorce, and bad bathing suits--takes a while to develop.  Years, in fact.  But once you have it, it can weather many catastrophes.  In A Year on Ladybug Farm by Donnal Ball, Cici, Lindsay and Bridget, all in their 50s, have this kind of friendship.  They are at a point in life when they need to either put their energy into making their dreams happen, or admit that they won't.  Proving that it is easier to take that first step with a friend along, they find the perfect house--an old mansion in rural Virginia--and commit to living together for one year.

Their new home has a few things they don't need, like dry rot, a truant teenager, and thousands of hibernating ladybugs.  Accustomed to life in the suburbs, it takes the women a while to adapt to the country.  Bridget expects that growing a garden will involve some hard work.  What she doesn't expect is the disappearance of entire plants.  Cici, accustomed to the attitudes of men in the city, is pleasantly surprised when the men in her local hardware store politely ignore her instead of offering their opinions on what constitutes a project too big for a woman. And all three are amazed by their resident handyman, who charges $10 for any job, no matter how large or small.  They are determined to meet the challenges with a positive attitude, and start by hanging a sign at the driveway--Welcome to Ladybug Farm.

The women can't leave their old lives behind completely.  Bridget and Cici have grown children who think they have lost their minds.  Lindsay is offered the teaching job she has always wanted, just as she's deciding whether to throw in the towel on the farm.  As they search for a balance between their old and new lives, they find that making decisions isn't any easier the second time around.

As someone who moved from a small town to the big city, I confess to finding a lot to laugh about in this book.  It's a neighborly kind of laugh, though.  If you would like to share the ups and downs of three good friends who are young enough to go after their dreams, read A Year on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball.

Like many people, I enjoy cooking, and I love to eat. I always thought I had a passion for good food and cooking, but after reading this book, what I call passion seems lukewarm.

La Cucina is the story of Rosa Fiore, a woman who used cooking as a kind of therapy throughout her life. And no one in could blame her for needing some therapy. After Rosa's first love was murdered by his own father (who happened to be involved with the mafia), she locked herself in la cucina and prepared all types of pastas: rigatoni, ravioli, spiralli, cannelloni, linguini. She baked ciabbata and focaccia. She brewed sauces of tomatoes, anchovies, saffron, and pine nuts. She bottled fruits and jams, cured meats, and made ricotta by the barrel. Then, when she had cooked everything on their estate, she packed up a few clothes and her parrot, and left to become a librarian in Palermo.

It wasn't until twenty five years later that another man entered her life, a foreigner. L'Inglese, an English chef, arrived at her library and awakened desires and passions didn't even realize she possessed. As they spent the summer cooking and discovering each other, anyone could see that it was too wonderful to last...and besides, disaster always seemed to follow Rosa.

Fans of Like Water for Chocolate and Joanne Harris may enjoyLa Cucina by Lily Prior.

I bet you think that feminism and pacifism were invented in the 60s. Not so. I'm not exactly sure when they first appeared but I can give you an example of a very early appearance of both: Lysistrata, a Greek comedy written by Aristophanes and first performed in 411 B.C. That's right, B.C....as in 2,400 years ago. But don't be put off the antiquity or the "loftiness" of the play. Earthy, racy, provocative, and laugh-out-loud funny...Lysistrata is a complete hoot!

The play is set during the then-current war between Athens and Sparta, just after the disastrous loss of Sicily by the Athenians. The war was not going well for Athens and the growing sense of futility in it all provides the backdrop for this play. The main character, Lysistrata, comes up with a radical idea: if all women from both sides of the conflict agree to refrain from having sex with their husbands, then they will be forced by their sheer ardor to capitulate to the women's demand, which is an immediate end to all hostilities. Of course, Lysistrata has a little trouble convincing her compatriots of her plan...it seems they have desires of their own...but in the end they all take an oath (a scene that is hilarious), take over the Acropolis, and proceed to hold out on their warrior mates. As the men's frustration increases, so too does Lysistrata's determination, though she does have a tough time keeping her female co-conspirators in line. One of the most amusing scenes occurs near the end when Lysistrata has to intercept a number of women that are driven both to distraction and defection by their own impulses. But in the end...well, you'll have to read the play to find out.

There were a couple of things that really struck me about Lysistrata. First of all, the various translations of this play (and, presumably all of the ancient Greek plays) differ greatly in terms of language. I read two versions: one was a personal copy translated by Benjamin Bickley Rogers from 1955 and the other was a KCLS copy from 1991 translated by Nicholas Rudall. The gist of the material is the same in both versions but on a line-by-line basis they differed greatly. For laughs, some of my friends did a reading of a few pages from the play, using at least three different translations. Though there was great variation in the verbage used, the meaning and the humor came through all the same. Here's the moral: if you don't like one translation, try another.

Another interesting facet of Lysistrata is, well, it's steaminess. Believe-you-me, those Greeks weren't all contemplating the ideal plane and that comes through loud-and-clear in this play. There are numerous instances of double-entendres, course language, and sexual explicitness. Clearly, Aristophanes wasn't an elitist; he was obviously aiming his work at "the masses" and he succeeded gloriously, for I found myself able to relate to the general tenor of this play in a way that I could not with other "classic" works. In a word, Lysistrata is universal.

So if you're in the mood for some burlesque that really makes you think, don't be afraid to check out Lysistrata!

What do you do when life gives you the unexpected? Otto Ringling has been coasting along on his successful editing career, with the support of a loving wife and two well behaved teenagers. Tragedy strikes when his parents are killed by a drunk driver near their North Dakota farm. Otto and his sister haven't been particularly close throughout the years. He's grounded while she's more focused on cosmic energy and the power of meditation. It's not that he's opposed to alternative viewpoints; he's a liberal and open minded individual.

Differences aside, Otto and his sister decide to embark on a road trip from New York to North Dakota to settle their parents' estate. His flakey sister bails out and sends her friend, Volya Rinpoche, a Buddhist monk, in her place.

Initially, Otto finds himself being irritated and impatient with his new Zen passenger. Otto is conflicted between his comfortable existence and the potential reality of the universe. He's somewhat embarrassed by monk's outfits and habits, yet he finds himself being drawn into Rinpoche's simple teachings.

Throughout simple philosophical discourse, an unlikely friendship develops. This story is whimsical, quirky and made me smile. Breakfast with Buddha is reminiscent of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with parallels on morals, life purpose and the wonderlust of the road trip. I found Breakfast to be more accessible and easier to digest. Uplifting and charming, this book puts a positive spin on the human race.

It's not so easy to retire when you are one of Spain's finest swordsmen.  Much as he tries to avoid it, Diego Alatriste keeps getting pulled back into danger's unsympathetic maw.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte is one of my favorite authors, ever since I stumbled across The Fencing Master.  Although he has a number of excellent stand-alone titles, Pérez-Reverte is best known for his musketeer-like Captain Alatriste series.  One of Spain's (and Europe's) most popular authors, he writes in what I think of as a deliciously old world European style - hard to describe - patient and eloquent, but not at all slow.  I find his writing similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez (without the magical realism).

Diego Alatriste, an inveterate gentleman soldier and veteran of the Flemish Wars (17th century), is willing to fight for God, country and gold, but mainly for gold.  In Captain Alatriste, the first book in the series, he has been hired to assassinate two British visitors.  Always reluctant to shed needless blood, he spares their lives, opening a hornet's nest and infuriating the Holy Inquisition.  Not good.

Pérez-Reverte's works are excellent historical fiction picks for adults and (I think) older teens. If swashbuckling isn't to your fancy, Pérez-Reverte writes some other dynamite thrillers and even a narco-saga that is surprisingly entertaining given the rough subject matter.

There are a few events in US history that are so complex, tragic or emotional that they are still compelling to readers, even decades afterwords.

The Civil War is a good example--new books on Abraham Lincoln and the war seem to come out every month and still make the Best Sellers list.  The sinking of the Titanic is another event that still fascinates readers. One event about which I've read voraciously is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.

One hundred forty six workers died in a fire that was under control in less than an hour. Situated on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of a new "skyscraper" in New York City, the Triangle Factory made ladies' shirtwaists which were all the rage at the time. Like the Titanic tragedy, there are many "if onlys" in the Triangle story that would have meant many lives being spared: proper fire escapes, doors that were not locked by factory bosses, fire hoses that actually worked, enforcement of the non-smoking rule.

In Margaret Peterson Haddix's book Uprising, she brings to life not only the facts of the story, but three young girls who lived them. Yetta from Russia and Bella from Italy both came to the US looking for a better life and hoping to save enough money to bring their families from their homelands.

Caught up in the workers' strike that predated the fire, Yetta and Bella befriend Jane, a lonely society girl who becomes involved in their crusade. Their friendship is a big part of the story, as is the plight of many other girls newly arrived in the States and held at the mercy of greedy factory owners.

Haddix, who is the author of the popular Shadow Children  series for kids and teens, has a talent for mixing history and fiction and the ability to write about tragedies like the Triangle fire without making them maudlin. Even though we know how these sad stories end, in the hands of a skilled author, they are worth the read.

The Hansa family's wagon moved across the Dakota prairie like a small boat on the sea. Per Hansa looked across an ocean of rolling grass and his spirit filled with possibilities; here he could build something great for himself, for his family, and for generations to come. His wife Beret looked over the endless plain and choked back tears of sadness; they couldn't possibly be stopping here. She knew something bad would happen if they did. Days later Per and his sons sank their plowshare into the black Dakota soil.

O.E. Rölvaag's novel Giants in the Earth is a sobering look at life on the American frontier. He takes us out to the Hansas' fields during the 18 hour work days of summer and into their sod hut in the depths of the Dakota winter. The isolation of living out on the wide plains, days away from the nearest town, years away from their homeland, weighed heavily on Beret. Empathizing with the Hansas' unrelenting struggle for survival is a frightening departure from more romanticized depictions of pioneer life.

Rölvaag wrote Giants in the Earth so that the people of Norway would know what their relatives undertook settling in the American Midwest. He also left Americans a moving testimony to the hard work, innovation and endurance required for nineteenth century life on the plains of the Dakota Territory.

When I was in fourth grade I saw the book Hawaii by James A. Michener; it was the biggest book I had ever seen. I started to read it (I was a precocious child), but I couldn't get past the italics, you know the whole section that was the geological history of the islands. It was many years later before I picked up that book again. Then I discovered The Source! It is my favorite Michener book and it is even bigger than Hawaii. (The book not the state).

The Source is the story of an archeological dig in Israel. It starts in May 1964, describing who will be working at Tell Makor and why they are there. The archeologists are from all over the world and arrive with various specialties that will help decide and define who lived at Tell Makor and what those lives were like. It starts with a bullet casing from a British rifle circa 1950. The last artifacts discovered are five sharpened flints from 9811 B.C.E.

What makes this book so special to me is Michener tells the story of each person that uses the artifacts discovered. He makes the science of archeology up close and personal, it is about the people and their stories. I got the feeling that people really haven't changed over the centuries, we all want the same things and it seems we enjoy fighting to get them, okay maybe not enjoy, but it is much harder not to fight and hate than it is to be peaceful, kind and honest.

If you like a good big story with lots of Holy Land history you will certainly enjoy The Source.

Book lovers believe that reading a book can change a life.  So what happens if the life that is changed is one that touches many others?  That is the question at the heart of Alan Bennett's charming novella, The Uncommon Reader.  The reader in question is Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.  Following her dogs around the palace grounds one day, she comes across the local library bookmobile.  Her natural curiosity prompts her to go inside, and, once there, she feels it's only polite to check out a book.  As she decides what book to select, she meets the only other patron of the traveling library, a young man named Norman who works in the kitchens.  From that point on, books and Norman have a growing influence on the Queen.

Many of us will find Her Majesty's behavior familiar.  She pleads a cold so that she can finish her book.  She begins to question others about their reading habits.  Her walks with the corgis become shorter.  After a lifetime of duty, she begins to read for the simple enjoyment of it.  The reaction of her family, staff, and subjects is less than enthusiastic. 

This portrayal of Queen Elizabeth is light and fun, and the peek into her life, whether accurate or not, is fascinating to consider.  At 120 pages, the novella is easy to slip into a pocket. The audio version is narrated by the author, who portrays the characters with great skill and humor.  In either version, you'll enjoy the impact of books on The Uncommon Reader.