Under The Lamplight

Get wrapped up in these tales of love, devotion, rock and roll and religious extremism

By Caroline Leavitt
Published: Dec 11, 2007

The Worst Thing I’ve Done
By Ursula Hegi
Touchstone $25
Annie, Jake and Mason have been glued-to-the-hip chums since childhood, but their relationship’s fault lines are about to earthquake. Although Annie and Mason marry, Jake is still a part of the triangle, even more so when Annie’s father and pregnant mom die in a crash, and all three decide to raise the child. But as Mason begins to yearn for Jake, and Jake hungers for Annie, events culminate in one shocker of a night which changes all their lives. Hegi’s fearless foray into the world of friendship, love, passion and the dangerous nature of choice is gorgeously written and impossible to forget.

Trespass
By Valerie Martin
Nan A. Talese $25
Orange Prize winner Martin (Property) crafts a blistering novel about politics and passion. Here, middle aged Chloe, at work illustrating Wuthering Heights, finds herself involved in her son Toby’s life when he brings home Salome, a Croatian immigrant as brooding and mysterious as Heathcliff himself. Soon Salome is pregnant and Toby marries her, making Chloe wonder if Salome cares more about the family’s wealth and stability than her son’s heart. But when Salome disappears to track the mother she thought had been killed by Serbs, the novel veers into a hypnotic story of love, betrayal and survival.

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me
By Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor
Harmony Books $25.95
Oh, to be dollybird Pattie Boyd! Married to two of the most famous rockers in history, Beatle George Harrison and Eric Clapton, Boyd was the inspiration for the gorgeous songs Something and Layla. But life was far from idyllic. Harrison quickly turned brooding and philandering and Clapton’s battle with drugs and his tomcatting destroyed their marriage. Filled with thumbnail sketches of swinging London and its more famous denizens, Boyd’s book occasionally just skims the surface of why she’d stay with each man. No one would ever accuse Boyd of being a great writer, but still, the book is enormous fun.

First Big Crush: The Down and Dirty on Making Great Wine Down Under
by Eric Arnold
Scribner $23
Wine Spectator editor Arnold uncorks a beaut of a book about the year he spent working at a New Zealand vineyard, Allan Scott Wines. Arnold guides readers through the wine making process (it’s based on dirt, sun and rain) and along the way chronicles the experience of those who live for good wine and will work inhuman hours to make it. What’s best about this book is that Arnold shows you the human side of the business (love, sex and wine always go together) and he peoples his book with a robust cast of quirky characters. If his prose sometimes is a bit too heavy on the quips, it nevertheless lifts your spirits – even as it teaches you about them.

gods harvard God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America
By Hanna Rosin
Harcourt $25
Welcome to Patrick Henry College, a small Christian college outside of Washington, D.C., whose mission is to convert a godless America – at any cost. The whip-smart student body (the school is considered a Christian Ivy League) is positioned to enter politics, entertainment, and science in order to detour America’s path back to a religious path. Author Rosin followed students for two years, from the classroom to the boardrooms and Hollywood. Lest you think these students are pod people who can easily be dismissed, think again, because whom do you think worked for Karl Rove? This book -- and the students – are fascinating, scary and not to be ignored.

Caroline Leavitt is the prize-winning author of 8 novels, most recently Girls in Trouble. She can be reached at http://www.carolineleavitt.com . Fall is her favorite season on the planet.

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