The groundhog may or may not see his shadow on his special day in February but we all know that either way winter is far from over and is the best time to burrow in and cozy up to a good book. In our brave new world that cozying up might be with an e-reader ora good old fashioned "physical" book. If you are one of the many who have recently acquired an e-reader or like to download books onto other devices such as your iPad or iPhone, I have great news for you. The Tattered Cover is now your Google E Bookstore! You can download ebooks from our website, www.tatteredcover.com. Check it out for more information.
In whatever fashion you choose to read them, the new year has brought a wonderful new
selection of titles to our shelves. Two of my favorite works of fiction come to us thanks to the the brilliant eye of Amy Einhorn, the editor of The Help
. She is something of a celebrity editor, and like celebrity chefs, she knows just the right ingredients that 
result in something wonderful to savor. You Know When The Men Are Gone is a collection of linked short stories by the very talented Siobhan Fallon. The stories are centered at Fort Hood and lay bare the lives and struggles of the families of deployed soldiers. Ms. Fallon knows of what she writes, being an Army wife herself, and these stories reveal a culture unknown to many of us. I highly recommend this debut author and I know we will be seeing more from her. The Weird Sisters
, a novel by Eleanor Brown, also a debut from Amy Einhorn, is the story of three sisters, daughters of an eccentric Shakespeare scholar, who find themselves back at their childhood home, ostensibly to help care for their mother while she is in cancer treatment, but really because each sister has found her life to be at a crossroads. The dynamic among the sisters is compelling and feels very authentic. Being the middle of three sisters, I know all too well how sisters can be. Eleanor Brown recently moved to Denver and we are thrilled to have her here. The Denver metro area has a vibrant, supportive writing community and she is a terrific addition to our cultural environment.
A third novel that I am championing this season is West of Here by Jonathan Evison. Close to the end of this sweeping, moving novel, Lord Jim, a dying Klallam Indian, speaks these words: "'We are born haunted', he said, his voice weak but still clear. 'Haunted by our fathers and mothers and daughters, and by people we don't remember. We are haunted by otherness, by the path not taken, by the life unlived. We are haunted by the changing winds and the ebbing tides of history. And even as our own flames burn brightest, we are haunted by the embers of the first dying fire. But mostly', said Lord Jim', 'we are haunted by ourselves.'"I was haunted by West of Here, a novel brimming with unforgettable characters that prove
out Lord Jim's last words. Dreamers, adventurers and ordinary people, damaged or
damaging, populate the fictional town of Port Bonita, Washington. Moving back and forth from the late 19th century and the building of the dam that will determine the town's future, and 2006, when the dam is decreed to be dismantled, Jonathan Evison fills his novel with a compelling cast that prove out Lord Jim's last words. The 21st Century characters of Port Bonita, many of whom are related to the 19th century inhabitants, bear the burden of their history, and many repeat the mistakes of their forbears. There is redemption in the end, though not without some hard lessons learned. Lessons taught, though, in a manner that the reader is at once highly entertained, enlightened about the harsh realities of exploring and taming the Northwest, and left with a good number of wonderful characters that were hard to bid adieu. A word of caution: some of the 1890 exploration scenes are so vivid that you might want to read them sitting cozily by a crackling fireplace. Or at least with snacks handy.
And to close, in the "isn't publishing a small world" department, Jed Rubenfeld, a Yale
University Law School professor, has just published his second thriller, which I loved,entitled
The Death Instinct. The story revolves around the Wall Street bombing of 1920 and battlefield horrors of The Great War endured by the protagonists, an American doctor and troubled young French woman with deeply guarded secrets. Sigmund Freud is a prominent character, and as you can imagine, the mysteries inside the mind are as confounding and discomfiting as the mysteries surrounding the horrific bombing. Mr. Rubenfeld is married to the writer and Yale University 
Law School professor Amy Chua, who just published her memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, about raising their daughters the Chinese way. Ms. Chua has been all over the media and her book is controversial, to put it mildly. I hope some of her coverage leads to more exposure for The Death Instinct. It deserves it.
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