Under The Lamplight

Resolve to read more, begin here. by Caroline Leavitt


(Fiction) Ellington Boulevard: A Novel in A Flat
By Adam Langer
Spiegel & Grau  $24.95
Crossing California author Adam Langer really ought to be a national treasure. His sentences surprise you like star bursts and he has the ability to inhabit not just his characters, but even their dogs. This jubilant new book, about the battle over a tiny Manhattan apartment, is really about the beating heart of marriages, the way desire (for people and for things) flickers and flames, and it's also a Valentine to a majestic city. Smart, funny and downright irresistible.   
 

 

(Memoir)
Her Last Death
By Susanna Sonnenberg
Scribner $24
This extraordinary memoir opens like a trap door. A late night phone call tells Sonnenberg that her mother is in a coma and might not live. But instead of racing to her side, Sonnenberg stays home and unravels the story of her charismatic and dangerous mother. Growing up with a woman who tosses around sex, lies and drugs like party nuts, Sonnenberg fought to keep herself safe. Denied her own childhood, she grows up yearning for nurturing and for a sense of self which can't be wrested away. Gorgeously written, Sonnenberg's transcendent book isn't just a gripping read—it's profound art.

 

 

 


(Non-fiction and fiction, historically important)
CHOICE: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood and Abortion
Edited by Karen E. Bender and Nina De Gramont
Macadam Cage $24
With Roe vs. Wade continually being in the news and under siege, this powerful collection of essays from a stellar roster of 24 talents puts a human face on an achingly difficult debate. Ann Hood writes about adopting a child from China after the debilitating death of her daughter, Jacquelyn Mitchard bonds with the surrogate mother who will carry her baby, and Pam Houston muses over unwanted pregnancy, parenting and choice. Whatever your beliefs, experiences or expectations, this haunting collection gives heart wrenching voice to all sides of some very thorny issues.

 

 

 

 

(Non-fiction)
Who’s Afraid of Marie Curie?: The Challenges Facing Women in Science and Technology
by Linley Erin Hall
Seal Press $15.95
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all know the so-called scoop: In 2005, former Harvard president Larry Summers suggested that women are just not as smart as men in science and math. Bah Humbug. What is true is that these stereotypes often keep women back from the frontlines of science and math, and this pigeonholing often begins at school. Hall interviewed more than 100 women to look at how and why change is happening—and where it's not. The writing's occasionally clunky, but it doesn't take a scientist to do the math—gender bias and missed opportunities subtract a valuable resource: women.

 

 

 

 

(Pop culture and lots of fun)
Do Me, Tales of Sex and Love from Tin House
TinHouse Books $18.95
Looking for the perfect bedtime story? Dim the lights and open up these spiced up tales of sex from the award-winning literary journal Tin House. Elissa Schappell, Steve Almond, Miranda July and more tell tales about love being blind (really blind, that is), fumbling first moves, one night stands to sex in pools. These are just brilliantly written stories about straight, gay, married, single or cheating romps and yearnings. Erotic and smart, these tales are just what you need to heat up those frigid January nights.

 

 



 

 

Caroline Leavitt is the author of 8 novels, most recently Girls in Trouble. Her New Year's resolution is to eat much more chocolate. She can be reached at http://www.carolineleavitt.com

 

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