Nancy Pearl Recommends Books for 2022
I had lunch with Nancy Pearl at the Womens University Club after she gave a lovely presentation about books she’s enjoyed recently. If you’ve ever listened to her on the radio you know she has a voice that is calm and easy to understand. She spoke candidly and vulnerably about her experience with aging and not remembering all the names or some other things as well as she used to. She also admitted that world affairs had caused her to quit reading because she couldn’t concentrate. At that time she began listening to audio books choosing old favorites from long ago like John LeCarre and how much she enjoyed them the second time. I’m happy to report she’s reading again and here are some of her favorites to read now.
I scribbled notes about each book and put holds on two of them at the library while she was speaking. You may recall she became famous as a librarian at the Seattle Central Branch Library where I volunteered for many years although I arrived after she had left her day job to become a speaker, author, interviewer and NPR radio commentator. Her action figure sold locally at Archie McPhee was wildly popular in 2003 and now there is a new one where she looks more like a super hero than a librarian. A schedule conflict netted me a seat close to her at the luncheon which belonged to the Program Chair. I was pleased to be able to tell her about the many library visitors who had asked me where her desk was as they had to speak to her.
The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont is the best in the genre of what happened in those 11 days Agatha Christie disappeared after learning of her husband’s philandering. Nancy Pearl says what makes this the best of that bunch we’re all tired of is that it’s told from the point of view of the young woman who is having an affair with her husband.
Shadow Intelligence by Oliver Harris fills the giant space left by the death of John Le Carre. It features the dense text style with all the details you want, up to the minute spy-craft and all you need to know about what it’s like to be a Stan country squeezed by Russia and China geopolitics.
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West by Blaine Harden
Zorrie by Laird Hunt
Thank You, Mr. Nixon by Gish Jen
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Nile by Candice Millard
Ancestor Trouble by Maud Newton
The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Three Girls from Bronzeville by Dawn Turner
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton