Book News
Book-happy.
According to the results of a survey from the Pepsi Optimism Project, Americans are optimistic — more optimistic, in fact, than they were back in November 2008. The survey shows that people have become more optimistic about personal relationships, health, finances and overall well-being.
What attracted our attention, though, was the sort of things that make people feel optimistic.
While the official survey report zeroed in on the importance of a constellation of live events like music concerts, theatrical performances and speeches, the one “optimism booster” cited by more respondents than any other — 88 percent — was “books.”
Unfortunately, that’s not broken down by categories, so it’s not quite clear whether fiction or nonfiction lifts people’s spirits, so you should probably read a little of both, just to be on the safe side.
Less than a third of Americans, the survey adds, gain optimism from blogs — although it was unclear whether that means reading blogs, writing them, or both.
mediabistro.com
First Lines
Personal Non Grata by Ruth Downie
Justinus was lying in the stinking dar of the ship’s hold, bruised and beaten, feeling every breath twist hot knives in his chest. The light that trickled in through the worrying gaps in the hull showed the angle of the ladder above him. Beyond it, thin bright lines betrayed the position of the hatch. He remembered the slam, and the rattle of the bolts. Now he heard the sharp yell of a reprimand over the thumps and footfalls ujp on the deck of the Pride of the South, a ship that could hardly have been less appropriately named.
Whatever they were up to, it seemed he didn’t need to die for it. If they planned to kill him, they could simply have thrown him overboard. Perhaps they would maroon him on a remote island somewhere while they sailed off to enjoy spending his master’s money. He would eat berries, spear fish, and wait to be rescued. Sooner or later he would return home, thinner and browner and with a well-rehearsed apology to his master.
Independent bestsellers
Fiction
1. The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson
2. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
3. The Defector, by Daniel Silva
4. The Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
5. Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See
Nonfiction
1. Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. The End of Overeating, by David A. Kessler
3. Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers
4. The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, by Douglas Brinkley
5. Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall
indiebound.org
