Five Books to Escape into while Social Distancing


Maybe one day soon a headline will read, “Out of Netflix Content, More People Turn to Books for Relief.” If you’re already ready for some literary escapism, check out these five books I read and loved in 2019. Hopefully they help you in this difficult time:

  1. The Storm King, Brendan Duffy. This book has many things that would make me not choose it as a Top Five: a straight male hero; not many strong female leads; privileged men acting out their privilege. Alas, it sucked me in with a short, strong opening chapter that set the tone and the mystery for the rest of the book. Duffy’s writing is a bit dramatic at times, but that’s also what kept the pages quickly turning. You can check out my review here.
  2. The Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery. Montgomery’s beautiful work in The Soul of an Octopus gives us hope about the connectivity between living creatures. Introducing the reader to several octopuses she met at the New England Aquarium, she details their different personalities and their commonalities. In a world where we’re all feeling more connected and scared at the moment by our struggles with Covid-19, reading about these mollusks might just bring you some peace. Read my review here.
  3. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, Kirk Wallace Johnson. The Feather Thief has many of the qualities of creative nonfiction that I love most. Wallace Johnson researched his characters then wrote as though he was walking in their shoes. The thief, Edwin Rist, comes off as cocky, clever, and human. It’s perhaps hard to imagine that the stealing of feathers could be so intense, but Wallace Johnson writes scenes like a good fiction writer would, punctuated with intensity, and makes even the small moments feel big. Read more of my thoughts here.
  4. Mozart’s Starling, Lyanda Lynn Haupt. The author wanted to explore Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s relationship with his own 18th century starling, but the best parts of Mozart’s Starling happen when Haupt writes of sharing her own life and home with her starling, Carmen. Messy, aggressive Carmen also brings tenderness and a love of music into Haupt’s home, and reading about their interactions feels as sweet as feeling the squeeze of a baby’s hand. You can learn more here.
  5. Flawless, Scott Selby and Greg Campbell. I’m a sucker for reporting in my nonfiction books. I enjoy a straight-to-the-point narrative full of background information. Selby and Campbell do a compact job in Flawless, describing the largest diamond heist in history, the characters who pulled it off, and the authorities who investigated it, in just over 200 pages (with a lengthy, satisfying addendum for those who want receipts). They stray too far from the narrative at times in order to pack in the research, but those mistakes are easily overlooked when the meat of the story is so juicy. Read more here.
Stay safe, enjoy some books, and let me know what you think of these picks on Twitter.



Comments

  1. DzvipariMay 10, 2020 at 7:43 AM

    Thanks for this, Jason! I listened to a podcast on Edwin Rist some months ago and I was so fascinated by his story and how he got away with a seemingly impossible heist. Looking forward to trying out the Storm King and your other recommendations. I'm watching entirely too much 90-Day Fiance - Lynnet

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