The Blog

What are you looking forward to in 2014? A vacation? A birthday? A wedding? The possibilities are many, and anticipation is half the fun. Although they may not have the glamour of a vacation, one way I like to start the new year is to think about books I want to read. Not books I think I ought to read because they’re on the best-seller lists, but books by authors I like or books that have plot lines that interest me. Throughout the year I keep a running list of books I hear about or read about that appeal to me, so when Christmas rolls around and family members ask what’s on my wish list, I’m ready. Then, in January, I can spread those books out and savor them like the big Christmas dinner I shouldn’t have eaten.

The first book I’m consuming in 2014 is Nightwoods by Charles Frazier. I like Charles Frazier, partly because he’s a North Carolina author and having been reared in the Tarheel state, I feel a kinship with him. His debut novel, Cold Mountain, is a lushly written story of a Civil War soldier’s hike across North Carolina to return home after he’s wounded in the war. I loved this novel for its well-drawn characters and rich descriptions of the landscape. His second novel, Thirteen Moons, intrigued me with its insights into the culture of the Cherokees, North Carolina’s Native Americans. Nightwoods is back in North Carolina, but this time there’s no grand event like the Civil War or the forced migration of the Cherokees to build the story around. These characters seem like simple folk caught up in the horrors and hopes of rural and small-town life in the 1960s. I’ll let you know if it’s worth the anticipation I’ve given it.

Next on my plate is probably going to be A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I haven’t read many of Irving’s novels, and I think that is an unfortunate omission on my part. There’s no way with my slow reading, the large number of novels Irving has written, and all the other novels I want to read that I’m going to get to all his books. So, after studying reviews, I’ve decided this is the one I should read. I hope I’m right.

Barbara Kingsolver
Photo by Annie Griffiths

An author whose fiction oeuvre I have covered is Barbara Kingsolver. I discovered her back in the early 1990’s when a fellow writer told me I had to read Animal Dreams for its splendid metaphors if nothing else. My friend was right. And there’s a lot more to love about Animal Dreams than splendid metaphors. After that, I read Kingsolver’s earlier novels and the ones that followed. The Poisonwood Bible, which I consider her masterpiece, blew me away. If you haven’t read it, make the time. You won’t regret it. Her latest work is Flight Behavior, and as you can guess, I’m salivating already.

Although I’m not a slave to the best-seller lists, I do read a lot of reviews, and another southern novel that’s getting much praise is The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly. My favorite independent editor, Ally Machate, loved it, and that’s endorsement enough for me. I read Franklin’s earlier novel, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, and found it totally absorbing, so I’m expecting at least as much from The Tilted World. Plus, one reviewer said it has the best sex scene she’s ever read. Come to think of it, I may have to read this novel before A Prayer for Owen Meany.

A few others I’m thinking about adding to the menu are This Bright River by Patrick Somerville, The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, Guests on Earth by Lee Smith, and The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg. And because I make a point of reading debut novels if the subject matter appeals to me, The Violet Hour by Katherine Hill.

Looks like it’s going to be a delicious year. What books are on your list for 2014?