The selection of books this summer has been terrific. Unfortunately some of them are still in hardback or large paperbacks. But do consider your local bookshop before you order the e-book version!!
My absolute favourite is Emma Cline’s The Girls, probably the best debut I have read in years. The author is 27 and her prose is amazing. Don’t be put off by the story line which is a new, fictionalized take on the Charles Manson murders in California in 1969. Cline explores the human element of the various members of the Manson family, but rather than concentrating on the charisma of Charles, she examines the attraction young girls have for each other as they seek their peer group. Beautifully recounted, the book was an extra shock for me as I felt teleported back to my childhood in California – I could feel the sun, smell the L’Air du Temps perfume from my youth and revel in the freedom of those long, slow summers.
Just out is Annie Proulx’s long awaited new novel Barkskins, an epos spanning three centuries and covering two young Frenchmen who seek their fortune in 17th century New France. The stories of the two men who begin as barkskins or woodcutters are intertwined with the history or Canada and the early United States. Proulx draws a brutal picture of wilderness life, of the effects of the devastation of the vast forests of the new continent on the native Americans and on the ecology of the country. Billed as her greatest work, the author regales us with wild adventures anchored both in history and imagination.
Eowyn Ivey’s second book has been published and this is also a wilderness tale mixed with the magic realism of the Pacific Northwest. Located in Alaska, where Ivey’s acclaimed debut The Snow Child took place, To the Bright Edge of the World recounts the 1885 mission of Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester to navigate the Wolverine River in a move to open up the newly acquired territory of Alaska. Forrester’s adventurous young wife, Sophie, is left behind at the military barracks to carve out her own destiny during her husband’s year long absence. Written as letters and journal entries, this is one of the most moving accounts of life’s challenges I have every read. Ivey is well on her way to matching Proulx’s reputation as a genius of literature.
After postponing my reading of what some booksellers and critics call the best book of 2015, I finally picked up Hanya Yanagihara’s tome, A Little Life, and found myself drawn into its pages and hoping it would never end. Four friends who meet each other during university in New York City maintain a special friendship well into middle age. While its premise is tragic, this book is a moving testament to Yanigihara’s skill in detailing the lives, emotions and the tenderness of the bonds of this group of young men. Truly worth your time this summer – and I promise you, it will kidnap your heart.
Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, was a National Book Award finalist in 2015 and Obama phoned the author to tell her this was his favorite book. Reviews by the public are mixed depending on how much energy you are willing to put into a complex read. It is a brilliantly written and structured tale of a marriage, its joys, its secrets, and what a couple really shares with each other. The first half of the book shows the reader how the couple interacts – from the husband’s point of view; the second part reveals in brilliant twists just how complicated and remarkable the 24 year long marriage really is. Groff has been awarded many prizes over the years for the rich prose and creativity of her three novels.
For some real nitty gritty thinking about new strategies for approaching city planning and design, I can highly recommend the two books below, both written by Dutch authors who are working on the world scale.
A customer and old friend, Fred Bakker has just published The Smartest Places on Earth:Why Rustbelts are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation. (Dutch title: Hier wordt de toekomst gebouwd). Authored by Bakker, the former editor of Het Financieele Dagblad and Antoine Van Agtmael, who during his tenure at the World Bank in the 1980s coined the term “emerging markets,” the book argues that depleted industrial centres in the US and Europe are regenerating as “brainbelts” which will be capable of identifying strategies for addressing some of the world’s new issues. The book describes a recipe for turn-around – a sort of 266 page inspirational Ted talk for those pondering the future of cities. The bookstore would love to organize a reading or workshop on this topic if there is interest.
I had the privilege of participating in a stimulating book discussion at Springhouse, home for Radical Innovators on the Ruijterkade in Amsterdam. Kees Dorst, Professor of Design Innovation at the University of Technology, Sydney, was visiting and discussed with a variety of design thinkers from around the world his new book, Frame Innovation: Create New thinking by Design. Dorst describes a new, innovation-centered form of design thinking to tackle problem-solving in organizations. He maps solutions that include rethinking a store layout so retail spaces encourage purchasing rather than stealing, applying the frame of a music festival to understand late-night problems of crime and congestion in a club district, and creative ways to attract young employees to a temporary staffing agency. This frame creation provides an inspiring guide which will help practitioners determine their own (bottom-up) ways of innovating.
A tip about a wonderful book translated from Dutch and brilliantly reviewed by both The Guardian and The New York Times. War and Turpentine, written by the award-winning Flemish poet and author, Stefan Hertmans, is a distillation of the musings of Hertmans’ grandfather on World War I. As Neel Mukherjee wrote in his review: War and Turpentine is the astonishing result of Hertmans’ reckoning with his grandfather’s diaries. It is a book that lies at the crossroads of novel, biography, autobiography and history, with inset essays, meditations, pictures. It seems to be aching to be called “Sebaldian”, and earns the epithet glowingly.”
Radio Girls, Sarah-Jan Stratford, 2016
At Townie Books in Crested Butte, Colorado, I picked up a sparkling novel which traces the history of women working at the BBC in its early 1920s broadcasting years. The atmosphere at the new company was electrifying – new technology, the chance to reach into the living rooms of people all over Great Britain, and the dynamism of Hilda Matheson, Director of the popular Talks programmes, who dreamed of expanding the knowledge base of all layers of British society. This is historical fiction at its best, giving us a believable picture of the new world after the end of the Great War. An appealing and thoroughly enjoyable book!
Jay McInerney, Bright Precious Days.
Bright, Precious Days is the third in a Manhattan psychological trilogy, tracing the ups and downs of the lives of Corinne and Russell Calloway. Now in their 50s, the couple struggle with mid-life ennui and uncertain financial futures in a warm, well-drawn portrait of the times. The book can be read alone. On September 13, McInerney will speak at the John Adams Institute.
Young Adult books
I ran across a book from 2012 recently and was impressed by its treatment of teen issues of identity and sexuality. Written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (and also issued as an audiobook read by Lin-Manuel Miranda), Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe has received an array of awards. It recounts the summer of two loners – Aristotle, an angry sixteen year old with a brother in prison and Dante, a self-assured teen with his own way of looking at the world. Beautifully written from the perspective of the non-communicative Ari, it portrays the boys’ discovery of important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.
My top young adult book of 2015 was All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. This incredibly talented author dealt in an uplifting (!) manner with the issue of teen suicide. In her latest novel, Holding Up the Universe, she tackles how teens attempt to fit in to their peer groups. Jack, with his swagger and nonchalance, is a master of disguising the fact that he cannot recognize faces. Libby, in the face of vicious sneers about her overweight, is determined to move beyond what people think because she wants to be “the girl who can do anything.” These two unforgettable characters take on their high school community and learn to see each other for who they are. A strong and poignant book!
Boekhandel van Rossum has selected the following teen book for our monthly Forum van Rossum reading group. Those who have read the book are welcome to join us for the discussion on 29 September at 8 p.m. in the bookstore.
Kook by Chris Vick is a hard-hitting novel about a group of teens in the surfing sub-culture of Cornwall on the southern coast of England. Sam, whose father drowned when Sam was four, has just moved from London back to his birthplace in Cornwall. At loose ends as he tries to settle in, he becomes fascinated by his neighbor Jade, a beautiful and fanatic surfer always looking for the Big Wave. The storyline is powerful (no spoilers here) and portrays the characters realistically – from escapism in drugs and alcohol to the search for excellence in what one is passionate about – from science to survival tactics in deep water. Superbly written, the book draws you into its story with amazing skill. Do join us to share your views!
Take some time this summer to read the Young Adult books of Meg Rosoff, recent winner of the most prestigious Children’s and Young Adult award, the ALMA, a sort of Nobel prize for younger readers. Rosoff’s books are for ages 13+ and are highly regarded by adults as well.
The Scottish (Young Adult) fantasy Riverkeep by Martin Stewart is a debut inspired by the rivermen of Glasgow and has already been compared to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Game of Thrones. Nearly sixteen, Wulliam is preparing to take on his father’s responsibilities as Riverkeep, tending the river and rescuing bodies from the watery deep. But when his father’s body is invaded by a sinister spirit, Wull sets out on a dangerous quest to find the great sea-monster, the mormorach, which may be able to save his father. This is a terrific debut, and has the feel of a future classic.
We all Looked Up, the debut Young Adult novel by Tommy Wallach of Brooklyn, NY tackles teen issues in a world in which the asteroid Ardor is expected to collide with Earth within two months. Four Seattle high school students try to determine the meaning of their lives in a society which begins to vacillate between anarchy and an emerging police state, between end-of-the-world partying and ethical dilemmas. Two months to discover what is really important in life.
The prestigious British Da Costa Award of 2015 went to The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge. This brilliant Victorian fantasy with a gothic darkness takes place ten years after Darwin has announced his theory of evolution, throwing both religion and the study of natural sciences into turmoil. The bright but underestimated daughter of an esteemed Anglican minister and scientist comes into her own when her father mysteriously dies and she investigates his death and his legacy, the chimerical Lie Tree. An ingenious and exciting (young) adult thriller with supernatural elements.
Part cowboy Western and part Arabian Nights, Rebel of the Sands is a thrill of a read with elements of dynastic conflict, romance and mythical djinns. Alwyn Hamilton’s debut novel is terrific fun and it is, fortunately, the first in a planned series. Ideal adventure for 12+.
The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler is the first in a children’s series (10 to 13) but most fantasy readers of all ages will love the premise of Readers in the dangerous world of an extraordinary library. Alice is sent to be an apprentice to Uncle Geryon and discovers that when she is drawn into a book she is literally living the story – and needing to develop skills to fight off the dangers she encounters. The rip-roaring storytelling continues in the even faster-moving follow-up, The 
Mad Apprentice. And the author is far from finished with his tales!
Meg Rosoff, the highly esteemed author of Young Adult novels such as How I Live Now, Just in Case, and The Bride’s Farewell, has just been awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the most prestigious oeuvre prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. On Wednesday, May 11th at 3 p.m. Meg will visit Boekhandel van Rossum to discuss her newly translated teen book, Picture Me Gone (Mij niet gezien), as well as her first adult novel Jonathan Unleashed, a hugely funny look at a quirky young man struggling to make it in his first job in New York City. In her work questions of body, identity, and gender, the confusions of falling in love, and the desire and sexuality of the young are addressed with clever humor.
Martin Lindstrom, an engaging and respected business analyst and international brand-building advisor, has written the bestseller Buyology and just published his new work Small Data. This book looks at the tiny clues which uncover big trends in a way which Big Data databases cannot hope to match. Lindstrom interviews thousands of people in their homes, looking at those themes and things which evoke emotion in consumers. A vibrant, idiosyncratic and challenging book!
Her new book Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges shows us the science behind Cuddy’s technique – not “Fake it ‘til you make it” but “Fake it ‘til you become it.” Presence is a manifesto for students and managers facing intimidating challenges, for young girls who need to bolster their self-esteem – in short, for all of us who need to get our minds and bodies working together to promote our ideas. Cuddy shared a personal anecdote with me about a son who spent five minutes every morning striking a power pose with his father and rediscovered for a brief moment the man he had lost to dementia. A fabulous concept, a great read. Watch our website for an announcement of Cuddy’s visit to Amsterdam. We are working on it!!
The Canadian author Patrick DeWitt, whose Booker short-listed Sisters Brothers brilliantly parodied the traditional Western, plays with the “folk tale noir” in the recently released comic novel Under Majordomo Minor. The puny Lucien Minor, aka Lucy, leaves his Middle European village to seek his fortune in the gothic castle of an absent baron. The story proceeds from one quirky scene of train pickpockets to a party of debauched aristocrats and a shakily satisfying tale of young love. DeWitt writes with marvellous absurdity and strictly on his own terms. Enjoy but expect the unexpected.
Stefan Zweig, a prolific and popular Austrian writer (1882-1942) is perhaps best known now for his autobiography, The World of Yesterday. Penguin has just issued in its Modern Classics series a new translation of Ungeduld des Herzens which originally appeared as Beware of Pity and has been renamed Impatience of the Heart. This is a fabulously dramatic tale of a gallant and naive soldier who, with the best of intentions, lets his pity for a young crippled aristocrat entangle him in a complex relationship in interbellum Europe. Zweig is a master craftsman and a great storyteller.
At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen recounts the rather unlikely story of spoiled American upper class socialites who head to Scotland, determined to prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster – and this in the midst of the WWII U-boat attacks on the High Seas. While the plot is predictable – (the bored young wife, Maddie, learns about real life), Gruen’s skills as an author (Water for Elephants) manifest themselves and this turns out to be a page-turner. Certainly the perfect airplane read!
acclaimed Young Adult novel by authors Jason Reynold and Brendan Kiely, erupts with a shocking incident of police brutality against the young African-American high school student Rashad. Reynolds is the voice of Rashad and Kriely portrays the white teen Quinn who witnesses the attack and wants nothing more than to have life return to normal. This exploration of racism focuses on the role each of us plays in building walls instead of bridges between our communities. See the 
The Strangler Vine was recommended to me by a bookseller from Daunt Books, a shop I haunt when I am in London. Miranda Carter, author of an award-winning biography of Anthony Blunt and wife of the economic journalist and fiction writer John Lanchester, has launched herself into literary thriller writing with an adventure in colonial India in the 19th century. The hapless young Ensign William Avery, always British, ever in uniform, is paired with the intelligence agent gone native, Jeremiah Blake, and sent off to track down a British author who has gone missing in a jungle where Kali-worshipping Thugs are undermining British rule. This is a romp of a read which includes a tiger hunt and high adventure. The sequel, Infidel Stain, reunites the detectives in Victorian London where a series of murders in Drury Lane requires investigation.
Lily King’s book Euphoria was one of the New York Times’ top ten for 2014. It is the feverish, scintillating tale of three anthropologists striving to come to grips with the culture and societies of various tribes in the bush of New Guinea. Loosely based on a 1933 field trip to the Sepik River made by Margaret Mead, her then husband, and her future husband, it is a taut tale of new ideas in understanding other cultures – and a love triangle. Mead was a highly emancipated thinker with a personalized approach to studying groups of people and King has written a brilliant novel about a part of her life.
