Weekend Picks for Book Lovers
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins; Riverhead, 323 pp.; fiction
Is The Girl on the Train on the fast track to becoming the next Gone Girl?
Is Paula Hawkins 2015’s answer to literature’s best-selling bad girl, Gillian Flynn?
Sure, “Girl” is in both titles. Yep, there are slick young suburban psychos in rotten marriages in this twisty debut thriller from the U.K.
Like Gone Girl, Girl on the Train is told by several narrators, each with different, dubious agendas. But before we even hear from the first one, we’re told that a female body has been “buried beneath a silver birch tree” by someone. Who is she, and who buried her?
Our first narrator is Rachel, the girl on the train. She’s divorced, miserable and an alcoholic who guzzles pre-mixed gin and tonic fizzes out of cans and is prone to blackouts. Each day on her way to London she passes her old house, where her ex-husband, Tom, lives with his new wife, Anna, and their baby girl. At night, Rachel drunk-dials her ex.
USA TODAY says *** out of four. “Hang on tight. You’ll be surprised by what horrors lurk around the bend.”
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[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last]Her by Harriet Lane; Little Brown, 261 pp.; fiction
A child lost in a park begins this tense story about a woman who is stalked by a seeming friend.
USA TODAY says ***½. A “mesmerizing, ultimately wrenching new thriller.”
Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt; Scribner, 240 pp.; non-fiction
A memoir by the actor/comedian about being a serious film geek and what he’s learned from his film obsession.
USA TODAY says ***½. “Engaging… Oswalt’s prose is sparkling. “
The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton; Grand Central, 480 pp.
The coming-of-age adventure story about a grief-stricken, guilt-ridden teen in a dying Appalachian coal town.
USA TODAY says ***½. “A big, old-fashioned yarn well worth the telling.”
Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn Johnson; Harper; 288 pp; non-fiction
Johnson tracks hard-working and dedicated archaeologists in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Machu Picchu.
USA TODAY says ***. Johnson “manages to convey ‘the seductive lure of human rubble.'”
Contributing reviewers: Jocelyn McClurg, Elysa Gardner, Claudia Puig, Roberta Bernstein, Bill Desowitz
