The Bright List

Lisa McKenzie: Capturing Adolescence Like a Photograph

Stop That Girl, by Elizabeth McKenzie

Elizabeth McKenzie has written one of those rare books that seems to capture adolescence like a photograph.  

Stop that Girl gets it all right; outsized action that rings true, gnarled family relationships that are at once damaging and fortifying, and emotional showdowns both ridiculous and cathartic.

Ann Ransom, the narrator, is a classic child heroine. Brave, sarcastic, and just a bit precocious. She's driven to please her family members even when those around her have competing demands and takes on the role of confidant and caregiver from an early age.

Like anyone who's found themselves in this situation, she does her best to cope, but it's not always what the adult world would expect-- Running off with her new baby sister in a crowded airport to get away from the arguing adults, for example.

Ann's family moves around throughout her life looking for a place where they feel they belong, and California becomes an unstated character in the book. The oil fields, the swimming pools and cul-de-sacs. I felt the presence of my home sate on every page.

Narrated by Elizabeth Evans who does adolescent and young adults with tenderness and an iron core. See: Mermaids and Jesus Land: A Memoir.

-- Willow Pennell

Up and Down California— William Brewer's Cult Classic, on Audio!

Up and Down California, in 1860-1864, The Journal of William H. Brewer, Foreword by William Bright

“Like a trip in a time machine--intimate, vivid, and full of adventure and discoveries.” 

--Tom Steinstra, San Francisco Chronicle

In 1860, William Henry Brewer joined a team in the very first geological survey of California.

A recent and very young widower, impressionable William wrote letters home, back East, to his brother-- this is his extraordinary diary. Brewer's stories let us look at California in a way that is virtually erased from modern-day eyes. 

William's letters are both touching and full of jaw-dropping description, telling of the virgin beauty of the land, the original (and soon to be annihilated) Native culture and relationships he formed, and the beginning of the revolution that would transform California forever. 

A primary document like this is priceless and entertaining primary history. It's the kind of story families treasure from generation to generation, saying, “You have to hear about this.”  No son or daughter of the West should live without reading this once.

Note: Susie Bright's father, Bill Bright, edited the new edition and wrote the recent foreword, endearing himself to the Brewer cult… and believe me, there is one.

Superbly narrated by Tom Stechschulte. You may know him from Cormac Mcarthy's The Road and No Country for Old Men

--Willow Pennell

 

One Woman’s Tub of Cottage Cheese Is Another Woman’s Maxed-Out Master Card.

Appetites: Why Women Want, by Caroline Knapp

“(Knapp) illuminates the ways in which cultural taboos about women who desire create vulnerability to disorders of appetite including food and alcohol addictions, compulsive shopping and promiscuous sex. In this expansive view, ‘one woman’s tub of cottage cheese is another woman’s maxed-out Master Card.’”

--Barbara Mackoff

Some things to know about Caroline Knapp:

She was the daughter of the noted psychiatrist Peter H. Knapp;  she was a successful reporter for the Boston Phoenix; and she wrote a bestselling book about being a high functioning alcoholic called, Drinking: A Love Story. She died in 2002 of lung cancer before this book was published.

These influences make Appetites truly compelling. Knapp’s questions; why women want, and how do women identify and demand their wants, have psychological grounding. She uses her reporting skills on herself and the broader culture to try and answer some of these questions. 

The eating disorder theme in this book is an obvious draw, but Knapp makes pointed discussion of the relationship between women, food, and desire; how stunted desires can express themselves in all kinds of ways, from sex-addiction to compulsive shopping.

The lovely foreword by Knapp’s friend, reporter Gail Caldwell, was so intoxicating and affecting, I got lost in it. I forgot it was the introduction.

Narrated by Gabra Zackman, a veteran narrator who has narrated many stories from  The Best American Erotica 2006 (Unabridged Selections), and Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry

--Willow Pennell and Aretha Bright

The Original Detective— & Master Thief— Who Inspired Sherlock Holmes

Memoirs of Vidocq: Master of Crime, by Francis Eugene Vidoq, translated by Edwin Gile

It’s hard to believe this hasn’t been on audio before.

Get ready for a revelation: Vidocq was an 18th century master thief, who so bedeviled the French police that they eventually begged him to become their Master Detective, turning the tables on crime. He founded the  Sûreté Nationale as well as creating the FIRST private detective agency, He is indeed  the Father of modern criminology!

Arthur Conan Doyle said that Vidocq directly inspired him to write his Sherlock Holmes series. 

Vidocq's memoir, literally, is the first police procedural novel-- and it’s still mesmerizing.

Like Sherlock Holmes, Vidocq had no special technology or advanced science to solve his crimes or set criminal traps-- only his wits and knowledge of the criminal mind.  

Like Holmes, he was, perhaps, a sociopath. He had no interests except in The Game.  

Mystery aficionados will FLIP when they find out who Vidocq was, and that his memoir is available.

Narrated by John Mawson who did such a magnificent job reading The Road to Ruins, a favorite of ours.

--Susie Bright

Uncensored History of an Observant “Bad Guy”-- James Carr's Prison Memoir

BAD: The Autobiography of James Carr, by James Carr

James Carr may not have been the world’s most famous criminal, but he wrote one of the most memorable prison memoirs of the Boomer generation. 

Incarcerated and “working” during the 50s-60s, Carr came up in the Prison system during the time of Attica, the Panthers, and race riots--that up-ended even his cloistered community. 

Remarkable, unsparing, uncensored history of an observant “bad guy” whose collaborating writer on the outside really know how to make it click. 

The narrative is downright harrowing, and it's chilling when, in the introduction, Isaac Cronin points out that little has changed in the California prison system, except that there is no longer very much of a prison reform movement.

BAD is  still referred to by those who make a study of prison memoirs.

Narrated by JD Jackson who did great work on The Marines of Montford Point: America’s First Black Marines.

--Susie Bright

William Burroughs' Favorite Book—The Original Hobo Narrative

You Can’t Win, By Jack Black

This is the real deal: the original Depression-era train-hopper hobo narrative. It’s so poignant and beautifully written, it never went out of print.

Jack Black's clean, uncluttered prose— and complete lack of self pity— make it easy to feel present in the book to this day.

When William S. Burroughs came along, years after this book was published, he wrote it was “the best book I ever read.” His intro to this edition You Can’t Win helped it become the cult classic of a new generation. You can really see Black’s influence on the Beats.

You Can't Win is one of the best memoirs I’ve read: freight-hopping, a brotherhood of thieves, drugs, prison—and, profoundly, librarians.

—Rip-roaring introduction by Burroughs, included!

You Can't Win has been made into a movie starring Boardwalk Empire's Michael Pitt  and is due out this year. Listen to the audiobook now; the film will be an interesting comparison.

Narrated by Bernard Setaro Clark who outright inhabits the part.

--Susie Bright

Everything You Ever Wanted to Gnosis—The Spiritual Traditions of the West

Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to Western Inner Traditions, by Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney

“The editors of Gnosis magazine present a fascinating primer on Western religious traditions.

"Since the early 20th century, seekers in America ‘were seized with a passion for the lore of mystic Asia... Meanwhile, Western traditions seemed to slip out of vogue, especially in the recent realm of New Age spiritualism.

"Smoley and Kinney break down the fundamental differences between Eastern and Western traditions, extracting the best of the West for today's seekers.”

-- Gail Hudson

Even if you aren't a seeker, this is a fascinating introduction to neglected traditions and history in Western culture. 

This discussion of  Western spiritual traditions is objective, piercing, and sympathetic.

Smoley and Kinney write clearly and with subtle, dry humor about serious and complicated issues surrounding spirituality in a way that a non-academic can understand. It's like listening in on a long conversation between two thoughtful masters in their field, over lunch.

Narrated by Ethan Sawyer who gave an astonishing performance on our own Double Life: A Love Story from Broadway to Hollywood.

--Willow Pennell and Aretha Bright

Pursued—A Thriller with a Capital T

Pursued, by Joel Gomez-Dossi

The mysterious disappearances of three sorority girls aren't going to stop our narrator, Jamie, a self-described “twinkish” college student, from looking for love--or just great sex--at the campus party of the year.

He doesn't meet anyone at the party, but he starts seeing the police officer who arrests him there.

The policeman turns out to be a jerk and a stalker—He might also be the murderer.  

Jamie flees for his life and is pursued through the Catskills and New York City.

This book was a page turner; a thriller with a capital T, with memorable--and funny--characters.

Narrated with style by Stephen Bel Davies who we liked so much in Smart Ass, Bad Ass, Kiss My Ass: The Trilogy.

--Aretha Bright

2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners on Audible: the Orphan, a Snow Child, & Anne Frank-- No Justin Beiber!

Pulitzer Winners

The Orphan Master's Son, a novel by Adam Johnson

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo,  a biography by Tom Reiss 

Stag's Leap, by Sharon Olds, winner in poetry.

This title isn't on audio, but I looked for an audiobook to introduce you to Sharon Olds' poetry: check out Good Poems , an anthology of favorites edited by Garrison Keillor.

 

Pulitzer Finalists

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, short stories by Nathan Englander 

The Snow Child a novel by Eowyn Ivey 

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy, a biography by David Nasaw 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, nonfiction by Katherine Boo 

Full List of Pulitzer Winners and Finalists here. I listed all the audio versions I could find— let me know if you have other sources! 

Jobie Hughes Leaves Pittacus Lore Behind, for a Man Who's About to Lose It All

At Dawn, by Jobie Hughes

Here’s a little secret: this "debut" novelist has already sold millions of books!

With a writing partner, under the pen-name "Pittacus Lore," Jobie Hughes wrote I Am Number Four, a YA science fiction adventure about the last of a race of super-beings who were hidden on earth before they were hunted down and exterminated.

#4 was a huge success, and made into a Hollywood movie. 

The protagonist of At Dawn is Stratton Brown-- no super-man, but a real man with a plight no less daunting. Brown is trying to make a go of it, leaving a small town on the brink of oblivion in the MidWest and moving to Chicago— or rather, the razor's-edge of the city.

He's an alcoholic womanizer. He has a mindless job that turns your stomach. He's- maybe-- got a girlfriend who might want a man even more fucked up than he is.

As he looks at  his future, Brown is confronted-- no escape-- by a violent set of past deeds that aren't going to let him turn his head.

Powerful writing, that just doesn't let up.

Narrated by the excellent  Jeff Woodman, who many of you may remember from Life of Pi.

--Willow Pennell