What I'm Reading: 'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins

This is a very buzzed-about, summer beach read type-book, which is not at all my usual jam, but it came with an enthusiastic endorsement from Linda Holmes on NPR's PCHH podcast and my friend (a fellow-PCHH addict), and both recommended the audio book, which is what I ended up with.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is the only or best way to imbibe the book, but I really enjoyed it, and if you are the audio book type, this is definitely for you.

It's lazy to compare it to Gone Girl but...you know...I write a new one of these every week so whatever. If you liked Gone Girl, then you will probably love The Girl on the Train, and it plays around with narrative structure and the idea of the unreliable narrator in much the same way -- which is where the audio book format factors in.  There are three women who narrate the story, and the audio book is performed by three different actresses (including Molly from Sherlock, whose voice is lovely), and so the three-voiced performance is really clever and enhances the whole experience. It's suspenseful and exciting and fun, all the things you want from a summer book.

This Week in Books Ursual K. Le Guin Breaks the Internet

The NYT asked authors Gillian Flynn and Cheryl Strayed to discuss women authors and women characters and the experience of having your runaway best-seller optioned for a movie adaptation by Reese Witherspoon.

Usual K. LeGuin was the recipient of an award for her distinguished contribution to American letters at the National Book Awards (hence her inclusion in this week's #ReadWomen2014) and she used the acceptance speech to throw shade at the literary community for largely ignoring writers of genre fiction, like herself. She also is not a fan of Amazon, apparently.

Meanwhile, there were some surprises in this year's National Book Awards recipients; I was very pleased to see Louise Gluck and Jacqueline Wilson win for poetry and young people's fiction, respectively, and was very surprised that Marilynne Robinson didn't take home the prize for Lila, which is certainly still a contender for every other major literary award for 2014.

Books to Help You Cope with the 'Serial' Finale

It feels like everyone I know is listening to the 'Serial' podcast; more realistically, it's probably only a very small percentage of people I know, but sometimes Twitter can really skew your perceptions of reality (something like only 19% of adults are on Twitter. This is mind-boggling to me). If you haven't gotten into it yet, do so immediately. You will be instantly hooked; it has been characterized as this year's 'True Detective,' which I can't speak to because I never got around to watching that, but I remember the conspiratorial fervor with which people watched it. 

There are eight Serial episodes thus far, and we've been promised "a dozen or so" by creator/producer/host Sarah Koenig, which means we are in the final stretch before the true crime drama comes to a close. This is inevitably going to leave a big, homicide-shaped hole in your life, so the following are my suggestions for how to fill it.

'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote. The greatest true crime story of all time and a piece of storytelling so masterful, it essentially ended the career of Capote, who was never able to produce anything like it ever again, and who delved very deeply into drugs and alcohol while awaiting the final verdict in the case. It is not easy to read. It is bleak and disturbing, but so, so rewarding. This is a nice way to get over 'Serial' because you will be sick of true crime after reading this.

'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn. Not a true crime story, but a really thrilling and suspenseful novel with as many twists and turns as 'Serial,' and a very similar approach to the audience. One of the things I love about 'Serial' is the way my perception of the case changes from week to week, and 'Gone Girl' achieves something very similar. Both are able to exist in an ambiguous. grey area between "guilt" and "innocence."

'Top of the Lake' directed by Jane Campion. Not a book, I know, but excellent and a worthwhile endeavor, nonetheless. Arguably even more difficult to stomach than 'In Cold Blood,' but equally as addictive and rewarding. I heard they are planning more episodes, which has me distraught because it is the perfect mini-series, and I desperately want more and yet never want to think about how it made me feel ever again.

'God'll Cut You Down' by John Safran. This was only just published and I'm still no the wait-list for a copy from the public library, and I'm growing very impatient. This will violate my adherence to #readwomen2014, but it is almost December and I have very little control over the library's request schedule, so I'm leaning into it. Like 'Serial,' it is a true crime story, with the writer himself functioning as a character; like Sarah Koenig, John Safran disappeared into his investigation of the story, and having a journalist serve as the reader's entry point into the story can be really effective.