March's Best Books
Tending the mind and the body take center stage this month.
Lies Will Take You Somewhere
By Sheila Schwartz
Etruscan Press, $15.95
Welcome to the secret life of the Rosen Family. As overworked rabbi Saul discovers his wife Jane’s infidelity, Jane’s Florida visit to mourn her mother’s death turns nightmarish, and their daughters—particularly the fragile teenager— navigate their own choppy waters. “Anyone can lie if they’re cornered,” announces one character, and lie the Rosens do, to one another and to themselves. What’s so wonderful is the voice here—funny, smart and crackling with life—which is also tragic, because prize-winning Schwartz (married to author Dan Chaon) recently died of cancer. A wonderful novel with surprises that spark like small, perfect shocks.
Girl on the Couch: Life, Love and Confessions of a Normal Neurotic
by Lorna Martin
Villard, $14.00
At first, journalist Martin says bah-humbug to therapy, and instead soothes her woes with a drink, a pill or a good friend’s shoulder. But when her disastrous relationships begin to pile up a body count, she tentatively begins to see “Dr. J.” Calling therapy “the strangest journey of my life,” Martin takes us deep inside her sessions and her self-doubts to reveal a funny, quirky, and sometimes addled woman on the very brink of self-realization.
Between the Covers: The Book Babes’ Guide to a Woman’s Reading Pleasures
By Margo Hammond & Ellen Heltzel
Da Capo Press, $16.95
Okay, I sort of object to this being targeted just at women, but that quibble aside, you can’t ask for a smarter and more inclusive range of terrific reading selections. Beloved book critics Hammond and Heltzel map out stellar book choices by ages and stages, including love, home, work, sex and more. Grab a copy for their witty and incisive reviews before you hit the bookstore or library. Who knows? You could find the book that will change your life.
The Spare Room
by Helen Garner
Henry Holt, $22.00
What happens to a friendship when the specter of impending death intrudes? In Garner’s lean, literate novel, middle-aged Helen offers a spare room to her friend Nicola, who has terminal cancer. But as Nicola gets sicker and weaker, and desperately turns to dubious new age treatments, Helen finds, to her horror, that she’s not her friend’s nurse, but her judge as well. A powerful, raw and unsentimental novel about the boundaries of friendship.
On Moving: A Writer’s Meditation on New Houses, Old Haunts, and Finding Home Again
By Louise DeSalvo
Bloomsbury USA, $22.00
When DeSalvo moves into what she thinks will be her dream house, she suddenly feels lost and disillusioned, and wants to know why. Turning to her literary heroes, she finds both company and comfort. Being penniless in Paris gave Henry Miller the creative fire to write his masterpiece; house husband and frequent mover D. H. Lawrence ached for a home that would satisfy his nostalgia; while Virginia Wolfe got over her feeling of dislocation by decorating and arranging her rooms. A gorgeously written exploration of all our hopes, fears and endless yearning for home.
Red, White, and Muslim: My Story of Belief
by Asma Gull Hasan
HarperOne, $14.95
Want a hot-button topic? Try Islam. Journalist, lawyer and American-born Muslim Hasan aims to clear away the headline-grabbing stereotypes and get at the facts, as she elegantly illuminates Islamic beliefs and practices. Patriarchal cultures violate the spirit of Islam and misinterpret the Qur’an, she insists, and most Muslims actually share progressive values and are pro-women. A fascinating primer that also promotes real understanding.
Shout-out: The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks
by Robin Romm
Scribner, $22.00
Written in the three weeks before her mother’s death, this brave, unflinching memoir of loss is furious, aching and absorbing.
Caroline Leavitt is over-optimistically planting flowers in pots for spring. She says to drop her gardening hints or a line at http://www.carolineleavitt.com.
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