Here are the week's reading intentions, for the period ending July 16, 2019

Here are the week's reading intentions, for the period ending July 16, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Black Leopard Red Wolf, by Marlon James
2. All the Names They Used for God, by Anjali Sachdeva
3. Circe, by Madeline Miller
4. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
5. Finding Dorothy, by Elizabeth Letts
6. Early Riser, by Jasper Fforde
7. The Female Persuasion, by Meg Wolitzer
8. The Lost Man, by Jane Harper
9. The Overstory, Richard Powers
10. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai

Elizabeth Letts's new novel Finding Dorothy (just out this week) peels back the layers of The Wizard of Oz and finds widow of L Frank Baum trying to maneuver her way onto the MGM set where they are filming the movie. Library Journal's reviewer writes "Fans of the Oz novels or film will be enchanted" while Book Page offers: "In some ways reminiscent of Jerry Stahl's excellent I, Fatty, Letts' Finding Dorothy combines exhaustive research with expansive imagination, blending history and speculation into a seamless tapestry. It's true that Oz author L. Frank Baum's widow spent time with Judy Garland on set. And it's from this point of departure--California, not Kansas--that Letts leads us down a parallel pair of yellow brick roads."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Millennial Whisperer, by Chris Tuff
2. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
3. Not for Long, by Robert W Turner
4. Educated, by Tara Westover
5. Dreyer's English, by Benjamin Breyer
6. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
7. Mother Winter, by Sophia Shamiyev
8. Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat
9. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
10. The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis

Also new this week is Mother Winter, Sophia Shamiyev's story of trying to find the estranged mother she left behind when she emigrated to the United States from Russia. Her fans include Chris Krauss, Michelle Tea, and Eileen Myles, who wrote "Vividly awesome and truly great." Well that was truly a textual read. Paris Review's is a little more detailed: "The lyrical prose of Sophia Shalmiyev’s memoir, Mother Winter, splits open like layer after layer of an ornate matryoshka. With a mesmeric voice and scathing vulnerability, Shalmiyev peels her past down to its hollow core: the vacancy left by her absent mother. "

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin (event Tue Mar 5, 7 pm, with Lucy Tan)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
3. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
4. The Discovery of Witches V1, by Madeline Miller
5. The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
6. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
7. Improvement, by Joan Silber
8. Hotel Silence, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
9. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
10. The Milkman, by Anna Burns

So exciting to see both An American Marriage and The Immortalists break into the top 10 paperbacks at The New York Times. And while Paris by the Book has not yet hit national lists, Liam Callanan's third novel has now hit six regional indie bestseller lists. On the other hand, several other 2018 bestsellers won't see paperback releases for some time - Circe has been delayed until September 2019 while Where the Crawdads Sing (August 2018) has no paperback scheduled and likely won't see a paperback release until 2020. Circe's success has also lifted sales of Song of Achilles, Madelijne Miller's previous novel.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
2. Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman, by Richard P Feynman
3. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
4. All the Pieces Matter, by Jonathan Abrams
5. All the Wild Hungers, by Karen Babine
6. Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari
7. Climate, by Charles Eisenstein
8. Fascism, by Madeleine Albright
9. The Cooking Gene, by Michael W Twitty (event at UWM Golda Meir Library, Tue Feb 19, 4 pm)
10. Uneasy Piece, by Patrick Sharkey

Several February 12 paperback releases make this week's top 10, most notably Born a Crime: Scenes from a South African Childhood from Trevor Noah. You probably know that one, but there's also All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of the Wire, from Jonathan Abrams. From Samantha Nelson at AV Club: "Ten years after it wrapped, The Wire is widely considered one of the best shows of all time, but Abrams presents a number of views about its impact. Did it hurt Baltimore? Portend the death of Freddie Gray? Glorify crime and violence? Like The Wire itself, All The Pieces Matter doesn’t provide much in the way of answers. But the stories Abrams tells deliver the same mix of humor and despair that made The Wire worth writing so much about."

Books for Kids:
1. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade
2. On the Come Up, by Angie Thomas
3. Watch Us Rise, by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan
4. How to Properly Dispose of Planet Earth V2, by Paul Noth
5. How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens V1, by Paul Noth
6. The Good Egg, by Jory John, with illustrations by Pete Oswald
7. Archie the Daredevil Penguin, by Andy Rash
8. Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild V6, by Dav Pilkey
9. The Trials of Morrigan Crow: Nevermoor V1, by Jessica Townsend
10. The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis, by Jim Haskins, with illustrations by Aaron Boyd

It's the 2nd week of sale for Angie Thomas's On the Come Up and it's a national bestseller. Maria Russo interviewed Thomas for The New York Times: "I had this character, Bri, and I knew she had to be a rapper, but that’s all. I got the idea for the plot after The Hate U Give, when I began to deal with challenges to the novel, people trying to censor it." Variety notes that Fox bought the film rights to the new book.

Over at the Journal Sentinel Life section:

--Rasha Ali offers 17 kids books to read for Black History Month. This is from USA Today.

--Hillel Italie interviews Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf. He notes "I’ve always thought we go back to the myths when we want answers." Read the rest here in Associated Press.