Dinner With the President: Food, Politics, and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House by Alex Prud'Homme

 

A delicious idea for a book, Prud’homme tucks into the subject matter with gusto. The book acknowledges the role of slavery in the Presidential kitchen. It traces how food became a significant component of politics. Remember Arugula Gate? The early sections are understandably slim and sometimes unnecessarily compensate by digressing into adjacent material. A last section, covering a round-table discussion with experts about the topic, also feels tacked on. Nevertheless, from the vichyssoise that President Kennedy loved to the cottage cheese that President Nixon savored, there’s lots of fun behind-the-scenes peeks at what each President has brought to the table.

Close to Home by Michael Magee

 

Despite his college degree, Sean Maguire is in the same socioeconomic rung as his childhood friends who didn’t pursue higher education. “We were stuck in Belfast, working in a nightclub four nights a week, with no prospects, and no chance of anything better coming our way,” he says. Worse, Sean grinds away at hundreds of hours of community service because he uncharacteristically assaulted a stranger when provoked. Scraping by on the barest minimum during a recession and dealing with dysfunctional family, Sean is every disillusioned young man. A rich debut peppered with humanity, it ends on a sliver of hope.

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

1970s Harlem shows up in kaleidoscopic color in this sequel to Whitehead’s earlier novel set in the New York borough, Harlem Shuffle. Furniture dealer Ray Carney features here again and is trying to lead an upright life. But he gets enrolled in a sketchy endeavors when he goes looking for tickets for an upcoming Jackson 5 concert. Cutting through momentous time swathes of the ‘70s when America underwent a social catharsis of sorts, this novel retains much of the biting humor of the original. But the disparate periods lack a cohesive glue and so come apart at the seams occasionally.

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Twenty-nine-year old doctoral student Ingrid Yang is confined to the narrow definitions of a life she believes she must have. To get there she must finish her PhD dissertation first. Unfortunately the Chinese poet she is researching is not the most engaging subject Ingrid’s adviser believes him to be. As Ingrid gets pulled into a major reveal about the poet’s identity, she confronts racism and its many fallouts in the country. An incisive and nuanced exploration of contemporary life in multiracial society, all cloaked in generous doses of razor-sharp humor. One plot twist too many but still fun and illuminating.

Cocoon by Zhang Yueran

Childhood is complicated enough but friends Li Jiaqi and Cheng Gong’s lives are further muddied by the upheavals of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. “Maybe this was the truest representation of childhood. Walking through a fog made of secrets, stumbling along a path we couldn’t see, not knowing where we were going. Growing up felt like making it through the fog and seeing the world clearly–but actually, that wasn’t the case. We’d just wrapped that fog around ourselves, each of us spinning it into a cocoon,” Gong says. The mildly confusing denouement doesn’t detract from the rawness of this memorable novel.

Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith

If you’re looking for authentic Italy, of the crumbling villa variety, look no further. Valetto is a dying town–its population has dwindled to just ten. But Hugh Fisher has deep ties to the village in Umbria where his aunts live and has returned to celebrate the 100th birthday of his grandmother. As Hugh navigates recent losses of his mother and wife, he also confronts the brutal weight of history. Not one word out of place, saturated with imagery and atmosphere while paying homage to family ties, this is one masterpiece of a novel. I devoured it and so will you.

The Half-Known Life: In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer

 

Where truly does paradise lie? What does it even mean? Part travelog, part rumination, Iyer visits the most spiritual places in the world – the high plains of Ladakh, Varanasi, in India, Iran, Jerusalem, Sri Lanka, the holy Japanese mountain, Koyasan – to unearth the meaning of paradise. “Paradise could seem the cruelest notion of all if it meant pretending that the real world didn’t exist,” says Iyer in his deeply affecting book. With his signature searching and soothing voice, Iyer proves to be a trusted companion, brilliantly balancing nuggets of philosophy against descriptions of breathtaking and memorable places the world over.