Memoirs, novels, short stories among the newest paperbacks
Here are six fresh paperbacks that come highly recommended.
‘The Vanishing Half,’ by Brit Bennett (Penguin, $16.99): No sophomore jinx for Brit Bennett, who followed up her widely praised debut novel “The Mothers” with one of the most acclaimed books of 2020, about a pair of separated twins leading very different lives. After breathlessly reading it that year, I wrote, “‘The Vanishing Half ’ has much to say about race and identity, about family and kinship (there are several layers of sisters here), about performance, about a woman realizing she could become ‘whichever woman she decided, whichever side of her face she tilted to the light.’ And it says these things with a voice of quiet wisdom, a voice you miss when you realize the story is done.”
‘The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz,’ by Erik Larson (Crown, $15.99):
Larson has an uncanny way of making history read like fiction (“In the Garden of Beasts,” “Devil in the White City”). New York Times reviewer Candice Millard wrote of his World War II saga, “Through the remarkably skillful use of intimate diaries as well as public documents, some newly released, Larson has transformed the wellknown record of 12 turbulent months, stretching from May of 1940 through May of 1941, into a book that is fresh, fast and deeply moving.”
‘My Year Abroad,’ by Chang-rae Lee (Penguin, $17):
The story of a college student seeing the world during a life-changing
trip, Lee’s sixth novel was named among 2021’s best by multiple outlets. Reviewer Frances Cha in The Washington Post described it as “a wild tale that moves coolly between satire and thriller,” concluding, “Lee tells a story of what it means to be plucked from darkness into the light of recognition, and in doing so, explores the fundamental human desires to be seen and to love.”
‘The Souvenir Museum,’ by Elizabeth McCracken (HarperCollins, $16.99):
Reading McCracken is always a joy (I particularly loved her witty, big-hearted “Bowlaway” a few years back); this collection of short stories, longlisted for the National Book Award, seems to be no exception. In a collection “filled with appealing oddballs” wrote NPR reviewer Heller McAlpin, McCracken is “an acrobat who dazzles with her verbal flexibility and lands the end of each tightly composed story with incredible skill — and feeling.”
‘Just As I Am,’ by Cicely Tyson with Michelle Burford (HarperCollins, $17.99): This graceful
but searing memoir from the legendary star of “Sounder,” “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” “Roots” and many more was published just two days before its author died at 96; with an actor’s impeccable timing, her work seemed finally done. I read the book in awe of her honesty and her accomplishments, writing last year, “It’s a life lived in all its fullness, and reading it reveals to us — as great actors do — a complete person.”
‘Educated: A Memoir,’ by Tara Westover (Random House, $15.99): It has been a long wait for Westover’s bestselling memoir to come out in paperback — the hardcover emerged, to immediate acclaim, back in 2018. In it, Westover tells of her harrowing upbringing in a survivalist family, and of making her way to college (and eventually a doctorate) with no prior formal schooling. New York Times reviewer Alec MacGillis writes “By the end, Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others.”