{"id":2456045,"date":"2020-03-19T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=322865"},"modified":"2020-03-19T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T04:00:00","slug":"at-home-in-aspen-book-recommendations-from-aspen-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/at-home-in-aspen-book-recommendations-from-aspen-words\/","title":{"rendered":"At home in Aspen: Book recommendations from Aspen Words"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the new coronavirus upends daily life in the Roaring Fork Valley and around the world, and people look for ways to practice self-care and take a break from reading the latest bad news, we asked the local experts for book recommendations.<\/p>\n

The staff of the literary nonprofit Aspen Words has recommended 12 books to read right now. Their selections range from escapist page-turning novels to enlightening works of historical fiction about crises, from a prize-winning biography of Stonewall Jackson to just flat-out great reads (and a few Aspen Words-related authors).<\/p>\n

You can find them all in e-book form online from home.<\/p>\n

And stay tuned to aspenwords.org and the nonprofit\u2019s social handles for more picks and initiatives to bring the Aspen Words literary community online while we\u2019re all at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring these uncertain times,\u201d the staff wrote in an email to supporters, \u201cwe believe Aspen Words\u2019 mission to connect people through literature and stories is more vital than ever and we\u2019ll be working in myriad ways to continue to create literary community.\u201d<\/p>\n

ADRIENNE BRODEUR<\/p>\n

\u201cRecollections of My Nonexistence\u201d by Rebecca Solnit<\/a><\/p>\n

Historian and activist Rebecca Solnit has written more than twenty books. I find her work endlessly thought-provoking and am eager to hear her thoughts on what she describes as the \u201cconsequences of the voicelessness that was and still is the ordinary condition of women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWriters & Lovers\u201d by Lily King<\/a><\/p>\n

I became a fan of Lily King when I read her critically-acclaimed novel, \u201cEuphoria,\u201d which sent me on a reading binge of all her previous works of fiction. I loved every single one and have been eagerly awaiting this this novel for months!<\/p>\n

MARIE CHAN<\/p>\n

\u201cWeather\u201d by Jenny Offill<\/a><\/p>\n

The timing of reading this book feels a bit eerie in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Offilll examines a sense of doom in the face of climate change and the changing political landscape. She covers these subjects through humor, anxiety, panic, and disaster preparedness. Also, her sentences are delicious.<\/p>\n

\u201cRebel Yell\u201d by S.C. Gwynne<\/a><\/p>\n

When I feel unsettled by current events, I turn to our troubled history. It helps me with perspective, and I learn so much about we humans.<\/p>\n

MALLORY KAUFMAN<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dutch House\u201d by Ann Patchett<\/a><\/p>\n

When my mind races I like to turn to books that are simultaneously engrossing and comforting. Ann Patchett delivers this time after time, with absorbing novels that let you enter another, yet familiar world. For a time that feels so strange and unfamiliar a book rigorously rooted in nostalgia feels like the right remedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Firm\u201d by John Grisham<\/a><\/p>\n

Other times, when things feel out of control, leaning in is the best escape. John Grisham is the master of page-turning thriller\/mysteries and his debut novel \u201cThe Firm\u201d is a wonderful place to enter the whirlwind Grisham universe \u2013 which has nearly unlimited options for readers craving an escape full of creep, twists and turns.<\/p>\n

ELIZABETH NIX<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shetland: The Four Seasons\u201d by Ann Cleeves<\/a><\/p>\n

These novels feature brooding detective Jimmy Perez, who solves crimes in Scotland\u2019s remove, starkly beautiful Shetland Islands. I find these novels satisfying, in these uncertain times, because I know there\u2019ll be a resolution by the end of the book; the crimes will be solved. The novels also serve as the basis for the popular BBC TV show \u201cShetland\u201d (available on Amazon Prime video).<\/p>\n

\u201dSaint\u201d X by Alexis Schaitkin<\/a><\/p>\n

In this smart thriller, events are set in motion by the mysterious death of a teenage American tourist on a fictional Caribbean island. This page-turning novel is an examination of race, class and obsession.<\/p>\n

ELLIE SCOTT<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Great Believers\u201d by Rebecca Makkai<\/a><\/p>\n

This beautiful story is set mainly in 1980\u2019s Chicago, during another otherworldly crisis in public health\u2014the AIDS epidemic. It parallels the art world of 1920s Paris with that of Paris in 2015 and examines the ways in which the Lost Generation of artists working post-World War I continue to speak to us through universal stories of loss, friendship and in celebration of chosen families.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour House Will Pay\u201d by Steph Cha<\/a><\/p>\n

Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, this novel explores the fraught tensions between African American and Korean American communities living in Los Angeles. Alternating between eras, from the Rodney King riots in the 1990s to present day, this story taught me so much about a complicated slice of recent American history, with consequences that reverberate today.<\/p>\n

CAROLINE TORY<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Yellow House\u201d by Sarah Broom<\/a><\/p>\n

I chose \u201cThe Yellow House because Sarah Broom is coming to Aspen Summer Words and I\u2019ve always been fascinated by New Orleans, a city I\u2019ve never visited. Also, it is a National Book Award winner!<\/p>\n

\u201dSmacked\u201d by Eilene Zimmerman<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been wanting to read \u201cSmacked\u201d ever since Eilene attended Summer Words, met her agent, and published her New York Times piece \u201cThe Lawyer, The Addict\u201d. I also have a weird obsession with books about addiction.<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images As the new coronavirus upends daily life in the Roaring Fork Valley and around the world, and people look for ways to practice self-care and take a break from reading the latest bad news, we asked the local experts for book recommendations. The staff of the literary nonprofit Aspen Words has recommended 12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 09:10:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}