Seana

In 1971, an oil spill caused incalculable damage to the San Francisco Bay. Francis was upset about this, but soon found that it hadn’t markedly changed his own relation to our petroleum based lifestyle. He decided to live a life entirely without cars. Walking everywhere soon led him to deeper realizations about the way he (and we) lives on earth. This is the story of his odyssey.—Seana

This might be subtitled “Everything you want to know about Custer’s Last Stand and the kitchen sink too.” Hefty historical tomes don’t usually appeal to me, but the peculiar virtue of this book is that once you surrender to Connell’s discursive style, you find yourself very viscerally on the scene of that tragic day and see it happen through eyes on all sides. –Seana

It took me a while to get to this memoir, quite frankly. It wasn’t the fact that it records the year after Didion loses her husband to a heart attack, while her daughter is gravely ill in the hospital, though that might have been enough. I’d been warned off because some found it too distanced and clinical in its approach. Although this is understandable, I found Didion’s grief to be quite transparent despite her style. Book groups may find it interesting to discuss how the style strikes each of its members. –Seana

Of all the big literary books coming out that fall, this was the one that I personally was most looking forward to. Byatt, perhaps best known for her Booker Prize–winning Possession, has not disappointed. Her novel picks up on many things familiar from her earlier works, including her interest in fairy tales and her consummately researched portrait of an earlier England. This tale begins when the lives of three boys from different backgrounds converge in 1895 in a British museum. This mammoth novel, with its large cast of characters, unfolds from this deceptively simple start. Byatt’s fans will not want to miss this one. Neither should you. —Seana

Most people wouldn’t think that starting a novel in front of a men’s urinal was the very best beginning. But then most people do not have the deft touch of Nick Hornby, who has in recent books shown that even such unpromising topics as suicide or goodness have their comic elements. The urinal turns out to be just one site in a pilgrimage revolving around rock star Tucker Crowe that Duncan forces his less-than-enthusiastic girlfriend Annie to be part of. If you’ve been waiting for Hornby to return to those musical roots that brought you High Fidelity, well, wait no longer. —Seana