Spring Reading, 2013

Eat and Run is the inspiring and true story of the vegan ultra-marathoner who hated running as a child, and has come to triumph in some of the longest races in the world. Scott Jurek deals with concepts of food as fuel as well as his own history that brought him to a point where he can complete 100+ mile races in record times. Powerful and motivating, it certainly makes me want to get out of bed in the morning.

I’m a bit obsessed with Cheryl Strayed. Much like Gabrielle Hamilton of Blood Bones and Butter, Strayed is an incredible writer with a strong voice that will blow you away. Wild is an account of Strayed’s 1,000-mile solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail, undertaken at age 26 following the sudden loss of her mother. Despite the blood and bruises and the terrible things that happened to her toenails, I couldn’t help but root for her with every sentence, and dream about following in her footsteps.

What is being called one of Jess Walter's funniest, most romantic, and purely enjoyable novels yet, Beautiful Ruins tells the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later. Inventive and surprising, Beautiful Ruins is full of flawed yet fascinating people, all of them reaching toward some impossible goal. Richard Russo says, “Why mince words? Beautiful Ruins is an absolute masterpiece.”

“M.L. Stedman, a spectacularly sure storyteller, swept me to a remote island nearly a century ago, where a lighthouse keeper and his wife make a choice that shatters many lives, including their own. This is a novel in which justice for one character means another’s tragic loss, and we care desperately for both. Reading The Light Between Oceans is a total-immersion experience, extraordinarily moving.” —Monica Ali

An amazing debut novel that combines mystery and historical fiction. Lina Sparrow is looking for the “perfect plaintiff” for a historical class-action lawsuit involving reparations for descendants of American slaves. In the process, she discovers a famous artist who was possibly not the real creator of her paintings. This one will grab you and not let go until the end. One of my top three books of the year.

I adored The Gods of Gotham both for the riveting mystery and the evocative depiction of New York in 1845. Salty and enthralling with plenty of historical details, believable characters, and twisted plot lines this is a great book for transporting you to another time and place and enticing you to stay there.

“Narrator Evelyn Roe looks back on her decades-long life with beloved husband Adam, their houseful of beautiful daughters, and the stunning secret of Adam's genesis that defined their marriage and nearly derailed it. First-time novelist Riley's exquisite language draws the reader into this improbable, beautifully rendered, somewhat biblical love story with a wildly imaginative premise that is irresistible, tender, and provocative.” —Library Journal

William H. Gass is one of the last remaining of a generation of post-modern writers that changed the aesthetic direction of fiction. Author of dozens of avante-garde essay and story collections as well as the groundbreaking novels Omensetter's Luck, The Tunnel and now Middle C, Gass is our current consumate prose stylist, trickster and innovative storyteller.

I read an advanced copy of this back in October, and I've been counting down the days to March so that I can press this into the hands of everyone I know who loves unreliable narrators, love triangles, and books about books about books. This utterly absorbing debut follows our narrator through several identity changes, romantic trysts, and missions to bring his unstable best friend, a brilliant writer, back from the brink of fame-induced emotional breakdowns. It has the feel of equal parts Great Gatsby and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - dreamy and irresistible.

I am so happy to be able to present this beautiful and quintessentially Santa Cruz book to you. I never knew Alan Chadwick, but back in the distant days when I was a student at UCSC, I definitely lived in the wake of his time there. Teachers and friends spoke of him familiarly, with both affection and some astonishment. He was a Shakespearean actor who also happened to have a genius for gardening. Paul Lee is the perfect person to tell us this history, which is not about the institution of the university, but of the vitality that lived there for a time, almost in spite of it.