Shop Local, Read Local: 15 Authors With Boston Ties You Should Read
Saturday is Independent Book Store Day. Since you’re already shopping local, why not read local, too? Here are a list of authors with local ties who have published new works in the past year.
Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter by Nina MacLaughlin (March 2015)
MacLaughlin spent her twenties sitting at a desk, churning out articles for the Boston Phoenix. But she couldn’t take staring at a screen so long, and quit in 2008 to make a radical change–she became a carpenter’s assistant. Hammer Head chronicles that adventure, from the joys of making something by hand to the challenge of being a women in a world that is 99 percent male. She currently lives in Cambridge where she writes and remodels houses. See what she’s working on next – whether a book signing or making cement – on her blog.
Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Croke (April 2015)
What’s an elephant stairway? Croke explains in this heartwarming story about James Howard “Billy’’ Williams and his bond with the elephants of Burma in the 1920s. During the Japanese occupation of Myanmar, then known as Burma, a company of elephants helped Williams build bridges and evacuate refugees. Croke reports on animal issues for WBUR’s The Wild Life and previously wrote The Boston Globe’s Animal Beat column and developed nature documentaries for Disney and A&E.
The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl (April 2015)
“Book’a’neer’ (bookka-ner), n. A literary pirate; an individual capable of doing all that must be done in the universe of books that publishers, authors, and readers must not have a part in.’’ Pearl, who has taught writing at Emerson College and Harvard University, explores the story of literary thieves in the late 1800s, when the publishing industry was chaos. Loose copyright laws allowed books to be printed without an author’s permission. Publishers profited, but the authors, though they gained notoriety – like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain – suffered financially. Pearl currently lives in Cambridge, and probably hopes to reap at least some monetary benefit from this book.
Can’t and Won’t by Lydia Davis (April 2014)
This collection of stories starts right with the cover, on which Davis explains why she was denied a writing prize, because she used too many contractions. That was just a dream, and Davis’s stories may fly by as if a dream themselves. The Northampton-born writer has a trademark succinct style, but these stories can be revisited again and again. Davis is now a professor of creative writing at University of Albany, SUNY.
The Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and a Crusading Editor Reignited America’s Civil War by Dick Lehr (November 2014)
Lehr is well known around Boston; His 2000 book Black Mass is being made into a movie right now. He was a reporter at The Boston Globe from 1985 to 2003 and is currently a journalism professor at Boston University. His latest book takes us back to 1915, when a journalist and a filmmaker went head-to-head in a public confrontation that pitted black against white, Hollywood against Boston, and free speech against civil rights.
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (April 2015)
Krakauer is best known for writing about the outdoors – though the mountaineer was actually born in Brookline – but in his latest book, he focuses on the sexual assaults than were rampant at the University of Montana. After a close friend of his was raped, he wanted to learn more about this issue. He quickly discovered it was everywhere, without much being done. In his process of speaking to Missoula cops and detectives, they admitted that they learned from him how to better interview victims.
Thirsty Girls by Susan Minot (February 2014)
In her latest novel, Minot strays about as far away from her New England roots as possible. Though two of her past works, Monkeys and Folly, were set in Boston, Thirsty Girls tells the story of an American journalist and Ugandan kidnap victim as they navigate the atrocities and aftermath of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own by Kate Bolick (April 2015)
Bolick’s latest work, coming on the heels of her 2011 hit essay “All the Single Ladies’’ explores what it means to be single by choice. Bolick, who grew up in Newburyport and later wrote for The Atlantic Monthly in Boston, tempers her own narrative with that of other independent New England ladies, including Edna St. Vincent Millay and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Find Me by Laura van den Berg (February 2015)
van den Berg grew up in Florida, but got her M.F.A from Emerson College and has since taken up residence in North Andover. She’s written two award-winning collections of short stories to date, and became a novelist in February with the publication of Find Me. The novel explores a world in the midst of an epidemic. Local influences shine through as the protagonist, Joy Jones, remembers her upbringing around the Boston area.
Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon (August 2014)
Yoon’s first collection of stories, Once the Shore, was met with critical acclaim. His latest work, Snow Hunters, is the story of a young man named Yohan. Displaced and disconnected from his home after his time as a North Korean Prisoner of War, he immigrates to Brazil. There, he grapples with connection and culture as he attempts to start a new life. Yoon currently lives in Andover with his wife, who happens to be another author on this list – Laura van den Berg.
Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova (April 2015)
After discussing the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s in Still Alice, Genova’s latest book looks at a family struggling with the impact of Huntingon’s disease. Well, she did teach neuroanatomy at Harvard Medical School and did research at Massachusetts General Hospital. Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment or cure. In the novel, set in Charlestown, a family’s lives are changed forever when a father get this horrifying diagnosis. Genova currently lives on Cape Cod.
Off the Leash: A Year at the Dog Park by Matthew Gilbert (July 2014)
Born and raised in New Bedford, Gilbert was never a dog person. But he became one after spending a year at Amory Park, overlooking Boston, with his yellow lab Toby. Gilbert is currently a TV critic at The Boston Globe, and “reluctantly’’ journeyed into the dog-park subculture. There, he was captivated by the energy of the dogs and people all gathered in packs. This book will appeal to dog lovers everywhere.
Remember Me Like This by Bret Johnston(February 2015)
Johnston is the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard whose talent transcends categories; he has written about writing itself, a collection of stories, and a documentary. This February, Johnston forayed into novel writing. His debut work in the genre, Remember Me Like This, exposes a family’s emotional upheaval in the wake of their kidnapped son’s homecoming.
The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding (May 2014)
E. Forbes Smiley III, an antiquarian map dealer, got his best maps by sneaking into library’s rare map rooms and cutting out the pages by hand. From the Yale University Library to the BPL, Smiley stole 97 maps valued at over $3 million total. Blanding is a Boston-based investigative journalist, and dove into this weird and wild story that uncovered all of Smiley’s crimes, for which he served three years in prison.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (October 2014)
In this New York Times bestseller, Gawande tells what it means to be human through his research and personal experiences. Gawande practices surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and teaches in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard. In case that’s not impressive enough, Gawande has also been a staff writer for The New Yorker for nearly two decades and won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006.
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