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Expert opinions
Local independent booksellers share their fall-reading secrets
BY DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD



AS college freshmen stagger under the weight of required-course texts and high-school students try to prove they did their summer reading, where do the rest of us turn for tips on a good read? Some of Boston’s independent booksellers are more than happy to offer their opinions on which titles should make your fall list.

Carole Horne, vice-president and head buyer at Harvard Book Store, suggests there’s much to be gleaned from Derrick Bell’s Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth (Bloomsbury, $19.95). A recognized lawyer and constitutional scholar who once gave up a Harvard position to protest minority-hiring lapses, Bell is an ideal person to read on, in Horne’s words, " the meanings of integrity and success. "

For nonfiction of a less-imposing nature, Tim Huggins, owner of Newtonville Books, picks The Partly Cloudy Patriot (Simon & Schuster, $22) by Sarah Vowell. " She’s hilarious! " says Huggins of the essayist, whose name is familiar to listeners of National Public Radio’s This American Life. Trying to limn her conflicted feelings about American culture, Vowell covers such diverse topics as Little Big Horn and Tom Cruise. Throughout, she revels in her own self-proclaimed nerdiness with winning self-deprecation.

Even Vowell might be hard-pressed to find the humor in Brad Watson’s bleakly gothic debut novel The Heaven of Mercury (W.W. Norton, $23.95). Watson, known for his 1996 short-story collection Last Days of the Dog-Men, follows the failed marriages of two Southern couples as they’re undone by the long-unrequited passions of the protagonist. Not a barrel of laughs, to be sure, but Huggins assures that " this is the best novel I’ve read in five years. "

No such grand claims are being made about Jennifer Weiner’s Good in Bed (Washington Square Press, $13), but New Words store manager Donna Szeker notes that this comic novel offers ample pleasures of its own. " It’s very, very funny, " Szeker says, " and full of amusing characterizations, like a good beach read or a page-turner. " Like Bridget Jones without so much self-loathing, Good in Bed tells the tale of a full-figured woman trying to deal with boyfriends and society at large.

Less comical, but also a memorable portrait of a strong woman, Michele Tea’s Chelsea Whistle (Seal Press, $14.95) recounts the celebrated spoken-word artist’s early childhood in the gritty city of Chelsea outside Boston. With an alcoholic father and overworked mother, Tea developed a tough shell and a morbid style, playing dead as a child and later dressing goth for dates with a hearse-driver boyfriend.

Tea might well make a good character for a Chuck Palahniuk novel. Wildly distinct characters populate Palahniuk’s works, from 1996’s Fight Club to 2001’s Choke, and, says New England Mobile Book Fair manager Matthew DeMarrais, he keeps that pattern going in Lullaby (Doubleday, $27). Two parents lose children to sudden-infant-death syndrome, only to discover that an ancient children’s song is to blame. Being characters in a Palahniuk novel, the pair first exploit the song, making it into their own killing machine, before deciding to eradicate it from the earth. DeMarrais says that " all the hipster kids will be reading this " edgy new work.

DeMarrais is also looking forward to National Book Award winner Tim O’Brien’s newest, July, July (Houghton Mifflin, $26). Excerpted in the New Yorker and Esquire, this is a departure for the author of 1990’s The Things They Carried. Less visceral and more emotional, it’s a Big Chill extravaganza that reunites the class of 1969 (draft dodgers and all), whose matters of the heart mingle with heart conditions, revealing the never-ending march of time.

Judy Manzo, owner of Book Ends in Winchester, turns the clock back even further with her suggestions. For fiction, she recommends the World War II thriller Blood of Victory (Random House, $24.95), by Alan Furst. " His books sell wildly here, " she says, and Book Ends staff members are eager to see what Furst does with this tale of a Russian spy seeking to break the flow of oil into Nazi Germany.

Without a secret agent in sight, David McCullough’s John Adams (Touchstone, $18.95) is expected to be the other hot seller this fall. Customers have been patiently awaiting the arrival of the paperback edition of this engaging biography (by the author of the acclaimed Truman). Asked why the paperback release is such a big event, Manzo points out a significant fact: the price is just over half the cost of the hardcover — and as any bookseller can tell you, the only thing customers love more than a good story is a good deal.

If you prefer your nonfiction to be more contemporary, Brookline Booksmith’s buyer Ally Rosenberg suggests checking out Running with Scissors (St. Martin’s, $23.95), by Augusten Burroughs. " This was one of our picks that really caught on, " she says, noting that the twisted memoir, the tale of a teen’s affair with his mother’s psychiatrist’s grown son, has made it onto the New York Times bestseller list.

Rosenberg is also excited about the new short-story collection by A.M. Holmes. " Everything she writes is incredible, " she says, and Things You Should Know (HarperCollins, $23.95) is sure to be memorable, with tales of shape-shifting, unusual impregnation techniques, and a man who keeps track of his mom by implanting an electronic chip in her head. Colorful and full of the unexpected, it’s the kind of book that makes you glad to leave dusty classics to the school kids and revel in the grown-up pleasures of discovering a new book.

David Valdes Greenwood can be reached at valdesgreenwood@worldnet.att.net

Issue Date: September 19 - 26, 2002
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