This is a collection of eight short stories about young African-American women—and some men—navigating the difficult terrain of race, class, sexuality and coming-of-age. As the title implies, the characters face challenging situations in which they are their own worst enemies. Evans has a sharp wit and fresh voice that give an original spin to some age-old themes.

“Snakes” is my favorite of the bunch. A biracial woman reflects back on the fateful summer she spent with her rich, white, racist grandmother and beloved white cousin. “Snakes” makes you consider what a lasting impact a child’s split-second decision can have. It may be worth reading twice.

“Harvest” is also haunting. One beautiful, intelligent, healthy white Columbia University student sells her eggs to pay for her wardrobe and lifestyle. Her college roommates—equally beautiful, intelligent and healthy—cannot do the same. They are black and, simply put, there is no market for their eggs.  The story of the ethics and economics of egg donation is complicated by an unwanted pregnancy. Evans deals gracefully with the stark contrast of one young woman being paid for her eggs while her friend considers paying for an abortion. The story’s ending is surprising and poignant.

Fans of women’s coming-of-age story collections like Nell Freudenberger’s Lucky Girls or Julie Orringer’s How to Breathe Underwater will find much to savor in this collection. Although each of Evans’ stories feature different characters, plotlines and dilemmas, the stories occasionally blur together thematically. What Evans’ collection lacks in breadth it more than makes up for in depth. Help yourself out and give Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self a try.

Mindy

While there is no known cure for workplace-induced ennui, you may find some relief in these novels that take the languor and absurdity of office culture to a whole other level.

Something Happened by Joseph Heller

Joseph Heller’s second novel is a scathing satire on business life and American culture. It’s as inventive, but not nearly as well-known, as Catch-22. Something Happened takes readers inside the head of Bob Slocum, a man who has it all: a steady job, a beautiful wife, three children, a nice house, plenty of mistresses, and plenty more discontent…until something happens. Eavesdrop on Bob as he records the goings on in his life at home and at the office.

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

Dan Underwood, a computer programmer at Microsoft, narrates this novel that follows six computer whizzes. These “microserfs” work at least 16 hours a day as cogs in the machine until they decide to strike out on their own to form a high-tech start up in Silicon Valley. This will touch a nerve with any worker who remembers fondly (or not so fondly) slaving away during the 1990s tech boom.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

The employees of a Chicago advertising firm struggle to cope with a business downturn and multiple rounds of layoffs. Their solution? A rumor mill, covert romances, pranks, too many coffee breaks, and a fierce competition to score the best office furniture. If you’ve ever spent time hoarding Post-It notes in a cubicle, you’re sure to recognize someone you know among this large ensemble cast of quirky office workers.

Now stop reading this and get back to work. Or better yet, leave a comment and tell me about your favorite book set in an office. And then get back to work.

Mindy

My passion for 1950s and 1960s chick lit doesn’t hold a candle to Carrie Bradshaw’s obsession with Manolo Blahnik pumps. But still, I love this fluffy stuff from an earlier era.

Here are a few that are still very readable and enjoyable to this day:

The Group by Mary McCarthy follows eight graduates of Vassar College’s Class of 1933 for several years after graduation. These gals struggle to be modern and liberated, unlike their mothers. McCarthy tackles plenty of hot button issues head-on, like birth control, lesbianism, breastfeeding and Communism.

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe centers on five working girls at a New York City publishing house in the early 1950s as they try to balance love and work. Surprisingly steamy and frank in parts, this book reads a bit like a novelization of Mad Men but with an emphasis on the office girls instead.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann chronicles the lives of three young women who move to New York to make it big in showbiz. Filled with plenty of sex, drugs and self-destruction, this is still a page-turner.

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy is about the adventures (and misadventures) of an American girl living large in Paris in the 1950s. It’s romantic, funny, charming and British (not unlike our dear friend Bridget Jones).

For another take on the chick lit genre, read Kara’s post on “literary chick lit.”

Mindy

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

One caveat: it’s inevitable that a book with so many contributors is bound to be a bit uneven. But discovering those essays that really speak to you makes State by State all the more satisfying.

For me, the essays that work best are those written by people who love, live, or have lived in the state they’re writing about. I found it much more satisfying to read about Joshua Ferris’s childhood vacations to Florida, say, than David Rakoff’s poorly researched weekend excursion to Utah. That style of travel journalism just can’t compare with the warm, proud, complex and conflicted reflections by the writers writing about home. But that’s just me. You’re sure to discover essays you love or hate too.

If you decide to read the entire book, I recommend not reading it cover to cover. The alphabetical journey from Alabama to Wyoming isn’t all that magical.

The editors might have thought of a more creative way to organize the essays, perhaps by admission to the Union (Delaware to Hawaii), by toothlessness rate (West Virginia to Hawaii) or roller coasters per capita (New Hampshire to Wyoming). Please note: the statistical tables in the back of the book are completely awesome.

I abandoned the alphabetical approach after getting bored in Arizona. Here’s how I ended up reading it. I highly recommend this more haphazard approach:

First, read about the states where you grew up and where you currently live. I found Carrie Brownstein’s Washington delightful. You may disagree.

Next, check out the authors you know and love, who may or may not be writing about states you know and love. This approach took me to Jhumpa Lahiri’s Rhode Island and Ann Patchett’s Tennessee early in my reading.

Try some authors who you don’t necessarily know or love but whose work you’re curious to sample. This led me to Ha Jin’s Georgia among others.

Still not finished? Try some states where you perhaps traveled briefly for a family vacation, drove through on your way to somewhere else, or have a great aunt whom you have never met. You may discover some real gems. Thanks, Alexander Payne, for making Nebraska seem hip (maybe), and Louise Erdrich, for making North Dakota seem kinda cool.

Mindy

Violence, romance, mystery, politics, heartbreak. This film—surprisingly enough—has it all.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill features one human, Mark Bittner, and many birds. Mark, a long-haired, scraggly-bearded, just-scraping-by musician forged a very unusual connection with a flock of wild parrots who found a home in the green spaces of his neighborhood. He became a feeder, friend and advocate for the birds. Mark and talented film maker Judy Irving are excellent guides to the world of wild parrot life.  

The birds themselves are colorful characters (quite literally), and they somehow manage to steal every single scene. Although watching how the parrots navigate the perils of urban living was interesting, their personalities and personal lives kept me watching. Each parrot has a name, unique personality and place in the social structure. My favorites were Picasso and Sophie, the inseparable lovers.

Who knew parrots had such meaningful social lives? Maybe I am a bird person after all.

Mindy

Whether or not you have perfect pitch and poise, you can escape into an opulent world of opera and ballet and nobody will know the difference. Here are four novels as elegant, dramatic and intriguing as the dancers and singers who grace these pages.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Attendees of a lavish party in an unnamed South American country are taken hostage. Several key figures are held captive for months.  These include Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman and opera lover, and Roxane Coss, a famous American soprano. Despite language and cultural gaps, deep relationships and bonds are formed over the many months of captivity between hostages and even with the captors.

The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell
Erika is an opera singer trapped between her career and her marriage at the turn of the 20^th century. Erika’s husband desperately wants a child. Despite Erika’s own ambivalence toward motherhood, the couple consults Dr. Ravell, a fertility expert. Mesmerized by Erika’s beauty and talent, Ravell vows to do anything—honest or deceitful—to help the couple conceive. Meanwhile, Erika secretly makes plans to leave her husband and pursue her career in Italy.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
Andras Levi, a Hungarian Jew, travels to Paris to study architecture in the late 1930s. There he meets and falls in love with Klara, an older Hungarian ballet instructor with a troubled past. World War II and the Holocaust loom large, but themes of romance, art, architecture, theater and dance provide a hopeful balance against some of the inevitable devastation.

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
Nina Revkaya, a retired star of the Bolshoi Ballet now living in Boston, decides to auction her jewelry collection. The process evokes powerful memories of her life and work in Stalinist Russia and an act of betrayal that caused her to flee. Drew Brooks, an auction house employee, and Grigori Solodin, a Russian professor, explore the mysterious provenance of Nina’s jewels, along with a love letter, a poem and unanswered questions about themselves.

Mindy

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

A close-knit group of classics students at an elite Vermont college are under the pull of a morally bankrupt professor. The clique’s lifestyle consists of studies and debauchery in equal measure. They accidentally kill a man during a frenzied ancient Greek style bacchanalia. When one member of the group seems on the verge of confessing, the others plot to kill him too. This psychological thriller will keep you thinking and guessing, even though you already know whodunit.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Blue van Meer is a smart and precocious student at an elite private school in North Carolina. Blue gets drawn into a group of charismatic friends and their enchanting teacher, Hannah Schneider. When one of Hannah’s friends drowns and Hannah herself dies under mysterious circumstances, Blue sets out to unravel a host of mysteries. The book, structured like a literature class syllabus, is chock full of clever literary references, which you’ll either adore or abhor. If you’re looking for a mystery that’s a bit different in style and structure, this is one to try.
The Raising by Laura Kasischke

Beautiful, innocent, straight-A Nicole was mangled beyond recognition in a horrific, bloody car accident. A year later, her boyfriend Craig, who was driving that night, is back on campus and trying to pull his life together. But Nicole’s mournful sorority sisters accuse Craig of murder and try to drive him off campus. Meanwhile, several students claim to be haunted by Nicole’s ghost. Craig’s roommate, Perry, and a few professors try to sort out what’s really going on. If you like your academic mysteries tinged with sex and the supernatural, you won’t want to miss The Raising.

What are you waiting for? Crack those books. Don’t worry. You won’t be graded and we won’t be having a quiz in the morning.

Mindy

Months pass and remorseful Dog attempts to make new friends with a duck, an anteater, a penguin, a snowman and many other quirky characters. But none of them can replace dear Robot. Meanwhile, Robot regrets his swim, dreams of rescue, wonders why Dog left him and gets picked apart by beach scavengers. Dog and Robot each reflect on their friendship and their fateful beach trip.

Robot Dreams tells the story of Dog and Robot in pages filled with beautiful color and charming illustrations. This nearly wordless book is deceptively simple, sweet, comical and surprisingly poignant.  This quick read is a perfect choice for sharing with a young friend or as a treat for your inner child.

Mindy

Sure, we all know that Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.. But how many of us know that four conspirators were locked up in a fort in the Dry Tortugas, 70 miles off the coast of Key West? It was news to me. Of course I knew that Garfield was not just a lasagna-loving cartoon cat, but also an assassinated president. But I had no idea that he spent two months recuperating from the shooting before he eventually died in New Jersey.  

Oddly enough, this book on presidential assassinations feels complete, even without President John F. Kennedy’s fateful day in Dallas. (I bet Vowell could write an entire book on that assassination alone.) Vowell prefers to focus on the 19^th century politics and presidents in order to draw parallels to and critiques of the early 21^st century political climate. Vowell is a harsh critic of George W. Bush, and her analysis may offend some readers.

Overall, what might be an otherwise dull, dry history tome is instead a humorous, rambling romp through American history and politics. You’ll laugh a lot as you cruise from one obscure historical site to another with cheeky Vowell as your guide.

Mindy

Paula McLain’s new novel The Paris Wife fits this genre to a T. Based on Ernest Hemingway’s marriage to Hadley Richardson, it is set in Paris in the 1920s, which Hemingway wrote about so wonderfully in A Moveable Feast. However, you don’t need to be a Hemingway fan to be captivated by this book. Told from Hadley’s point of view, it explores the rise of Hemingway’s literary career at the expense of the couple’s marriage. The book resonates with a kind of knowing intimacy that can be hard to find in most of the “just the facts, ma’am” biographies.

If you’re waiting for your hold on The Paris Wife to come in or you’ve read it and loved it, you may be looking for something similar. Loving Frank and American Wife are two of my favorites novels that also explore the intimate lives of the wives of famous men.

In Loving Frank, Nancy Horan recreates the tumultuous love affair of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright. Mamah comes alive on the pages as a strong, intellectual feminist who struggles against society’s narrow expectations for women. Mamah and Frank were both married with children when they fell in love. Neither spouse would grant a divorce, so Frank and Mamah scandalously abandoned their children and eloped to Europe in 1909. Criticized as immoral, Mamah paid a very heavy price for their affair. Although I was familiar with Wright’s architecture, this is a story I would never have known about if it weren’t for Horan’s gripping novel.

I was reluctant to read Curtis Sittenfeld’s American Wife. Why would I ever in a million years want to read a book—fiction or non-fiction—about Laura Bush? But once I picked up this thinly veiled account of Laura’s life, I simply couldn’t put it down. The story of Alice and Charlie Blackwell’s marriage and their unlikely path to the White House is an absolute page turner. Sittenfeld takes many liberties with the facts and she speculates enormously about the couple’s inner lives and motivations. Yet Alice and Charlie emerge as surprisingly sympathetic people. Alice was such an intriguing, complex character, I was almost tempted to read a real biography of Laura Bush. Almost.

Mindy