Bookworm: Many layers of surprise inside ‘Eleanor’
Be prepared to be unsatisfyingly satisfied with ‘American Baby’
Terri Schlichenmeyer
$35, $47.00 Canada; 698 pages
Life, as they say, is an open book. When you re born, someone else starts writing it for you, but it doesn t take long for you to be your own author. Through the years, you ll scribble ideas, compose thoughtfully, add chapters, and crumple pages. Your life s book might be a series of quick notes, long essays, one-liners or, as in “Eleanor” by David Michaelis, you could build an epic story.
In today s world, we might call Eleanor Roosevelt s mother abusive: Anna Hall Roosevelt never had a kind word to say to her daughter, often mockingly calling little Eleanor “Granny.” It s true that Eleanor wasn t lithe and beautiful like her mother; she was awkward and stern, a Daddy s girl for an often-absent, alcoholic father.
The film of Hannah’s much-loved novel
The Nightingale (published in 43 languages), starring Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning, is slated for December 2021, and Netflix is releasing a 10-part series based on
Firefly Lane in early February 2021.
The Great Alone has also been optioned for the screen.
Kristin’s work touches millions of people.
Firefly Lane became a runaway bestseller in 2009, a touchstone novel that brought women together, and
The Nightingale, in 2015, was voted a best book of the year by Amazon, Buzzfeed, iTunes,
Library Journal,
Wall Street Journal and
The Week. Additionally, the novel won the coveted Goodreads and People’s Choice Awards. The audiobook of
11 New Books We Recommend This Week
Dec. 10, 2020
Old worlds spring to life in this week’s recommended titles, from a scientific account of Neanderthal culture to a biography of the seminal American foodie James Beard. There’s a new edition of “The Babur Nama,” the diaries of the 16th-century warlord who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. A look back at the golden age of Egyptology starting in 1822 which is to say, a look back at archaeologists looking (way) back. A biography of the modernist poet and painter Max Jacob, and one of Eleanor Roosevelt, and a novel set in Britain in the decades after World War II. And there’s a reissue of Susan Taubes’s 1969 novel, “Divorcing,” which itself has much to say about history and the passage of time.