Beach Reading

We’re in the midst of a Santa Ana-induced heat wave in Southern California, so more beach weather! I have ten more recommendations for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Fiction

A Naked Singularity, Sergio de la Pava

This is a unique book, self-published in 2008, and reminiscent of A Confederacy of Dunces, that other unique, magnificent novel. Casi is a public defender in Manhattan. His clients are criminals, to be sure, but each one is a character with a backstory, each just a little bit sympathetic. There is great detail of detail in criminal procedure, with extended arguments by both the DA and Casi. Interspersed are conversations Casi has with other colleagues in the public defenders’ office on the deepest, most existential questions of life, all tied loosely to the true career of Wilfredo Benitez, the great boxing champion. I can’t believe I missed this book, and cannot imagine how it did not win every literary award. Nearly 700 pages of crisp dialogue and philosophical musings, it is a singular treasure.

Enlightenment, Sarah Perry

Unrequited love is the theme of this novel. Thomas is an acclaimed novelist living in a rural village in England. He is a closeted gay man who falls in love with a straight man. If he cannot find love, no one else is allowed to, and when the wild teenage girl of a friend finds a boyfriend, Thomas works to break them up. Finally, there is a ghost of a woman who lived in the village a century ago who, as Thomas uncovers, was the first to discover a celestial comet, but never received recognition for her discovery, soThomas seeks to rectify this. The real pleasure in this novel is the prose, the beautiful passages of longing, desire, celestial bodies and the ever-damp English weather.

The Lost Cities of El Norte, Peter Stark

A reimagining of Coronado’s search for the Seven Cities of Gold. He never found them, of course, but he did see the Grand Canyon and ventured as far as the fertile plains of Kansas. He turned back to Mexico, dejected, and facing a rebellion among his troops. He also missed out on an opportunity to establish a permanent Spanish presence on the Great Plains. The author alternates perspective between Coronado and the Native Americans he encounters (and fights). A gripping tale of historic proportions.

The Wicked Boy, Kate Summerscale

Two brothers, ages 13 and 12, try to get by on their own by telling neighbors and relatives that their mother left to visit her aunt, and their father is away on a merchant ship. Only the latter is true, and the older boy eventually confesses to murdering his mother. Was it justifiable, or was he swayed by the violent tales told in the “penny dreadfuls,” the video games of the 19^th century that were thought to poison the minds of the youth? The tale is a true one, and Summerscale has carved a niche for herself as the paramount true crime novelist of today. The crime raises questions of guilt, youth, insanity, and redemption, all written by an expert novelist. Wickedly enjoyable.

Cool Machine, Colson Whitehead

This is the third in Whitehead’s Harlem crime trilogy, centered around Ray, a furniture salesman with a criminal past. Ray is mostly an upstanding citizen, but his past, with their criminal characters, manage constantly to pull him astray. This caper involves breaking into the Waldorf Astoria to steal Jesse Owens’ 1936 Olympic gold medal, and recovering a rare African mask, but the delight in this series is Whitehead’s writing, his pace, his characters, the perfect way he captures the grit of New York of the 1970s.

Etna, Paul Yoon

Etna is pulled from his home on the farm and conscripted into the army. He loses close friends in the war, manages to survive, but then has to find his way home, encountering many challenges and obstacles along the way. Sound familiar? This is a retelling of the Odysseus story, but in this case, Etna is a dog. Unlike Odysseus the person, your heart will simply melt for Etna. Beautiful, poignant and yes, heartbreaking, a truly moving story.

Nonfiction

The Cauldron, Simon Sebag Montefiore

Montefiore is a preeminent historian of the Middle East, and this is the finest single-volume history of the region from 1900 to the present. Told in clear, objective terms with a propulsion that transforms a factual narrative to a gripping story. History at its best.

Tin Can Coast, Joseph Ogilvy

Ogilvy begins with a thorough description of the ecological wonder that is the California Current, stretching from Alaska to Baja, containing the greatest abundance of marine life in the world. He then turns to the history of how humans have lived off of its abundance, from the original inhabitants thousands of years ago to today. He chronicles the rise and fall of commercial fishing in California, leaving us with a deeper appreciation for the remarkable bounty of nature, and a eulogy for how we effectively killed it.

The Nord Stream Conspiracy, Bojan Pancevski

In 2022, the Nord Stream pipeline was sabotaged, and speculation ran wild as to who was behind it. Pancevski, a Wall Street Journal reporter, puts the pieces together in a gripping tale out of a Bond plot. Very few divers are capable of diving to the depths of the seabed, and those willing to risk their lives did so more for the adrenaline rush than for any political reason. The meticulous, methodical efforts by the German federal police, alone among any nation, to solve the crime, is as compelling as the execution of the original plot. The story continues to play out in German courts, but guilt or innocence is almost besides the point.

Keeping the Faith, Brenda Wineapple

The Scopes “Monkey” trial riveted the world a century ago, pitting William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president, against Clarence Darrow, the greatest criminal defense attorney of his day. The story should be familiar, mostly through a good movie, Inherit the Wind, starring Spencer Tracy, but simply, John Scopes was a teacher who deliberately violated a Tennessee law against teaching evolution in schools. The outcome of the trial was never in doubt, and Darrow, defending Scopes, exposed Bryan’s contradictions and ignorance of even the Bible that Bryan claimed to defend. While the trial itself was a gripping tale, the forces that opposed each other that day, reason and scientific proof on the one hand, ignorance and “fake news” on the other, are still with us.

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