When You Care Enough to Read the Very Best, Give These

Book Reviews by Sharon L. Shervington

This was a great year for nonfiction, one that showcased inclusiveness and an expansion of voices in terms of how we see the past. I thought I would chose one of these illuminating nonfiction picks as my favorite book, but that honor goes to Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement.

This novel begins in Shanghai in 1905 and tells the story of Violet Minturn and her mother, who when the story opens runs a high-class brothel, the only one catering to both Chinese and Westerners. As a biracial half-American girl with a mother who is a successful businesswoman, she feels that her status is secure. Wrong!

A series of tragic events follow and the girl and her mother are separated, losing everything, and Violet is thrust into a brutal new life. This is a detailed portrait of a vanished culture where girls were disposable if they weren’t for sale, but more than that it is a supremely poignant and harrowing portrait of the turbulent legacies that women, mothers, and daughters share across generations and continents. (ecco; $29.99; 589 pp.)

Equally riveting is Empress Dowager CIXI, the Concubine Who Launched Modern China, the new biography by the internationally acclaimed author Jung Chang. This is a kind of cultural immersion, beginning in the period from 1835-56, when the girl who would eventually become her five-year-old son’s regent, effectively ruling the nation, was brought into the royal palace as a concubine. She was assigned the name Lan when she entered the court, since female names were considered too insignificant to be recorded.

This is the story of her rise and reign, which spanned the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, numerous threats of invasion, and the onset of the Industrial Age. It also teems with an inside view of the Forbidden City, where much of the staff was made up of eunuchs; intrigue, international diplomats and notables figure prominently too. The story of this unforgettable woman is enhanced by many photographs. (Knopf; $30; 436 pp.)

For another look at the Boxer Rebellion, which began when bands of foreign missionaries and soldiers roamed China, violently abusing the peasantry, the boxed set of graphic novels Boxers and Saints, is an enlightening and beautifully crafted gift. Told in two parts, each in the voice of one member of a couple on opposite sides of the conflict, the takeaway is that there are never easy answers in war. (By Gene Luen Yang; First Second; $34.99).

Set in an alternative Imperial China in the Tang Dynasty, River of Stars is one of the best fantasy novels of 2013, from one of our greatest living fantasists, Guy Gavriel Kay. This is the story of Lin Shan, a young woman whose father has seen that she is educated in ways that are not usual for women; it pairs well with Mr. Kay’s previous novel Under Heaven, although it is not a direct sequel. (RoC; $26.95; 639 pp.)

James McBride consistently amazes; it is impossible to ever tell what this intensely creative writer and musician will do next. But it is a sure thing that it will be outstanding. Proving the point is The Good Lord Bird, about a young enslaved boy in the Kansas Territory, a slavery battleground, who is forced to leave town in John Brown’s train, passing as a girl to survive. Key themes that make up our lives—time, gender, violence, family, history, our elders—all come into play here and are central to the book, along with the famous raid itself. And something else that really sets Mr. McBride apart: circumstances may be tragic, but humor is a replenishing well. (Riverhead; $27.95; 417 pp.)

For some reason, books this year seem to offer cross-genre depth regarding subjects that still may not have received their full due. As with the range of books on women in China, the history of blacks in the face of crippling racism also is explored from a range of complementary viewpoints. The Black Russian is the story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, born in 1872 to former slaves.

From the fallout of his father’s brutal murder, Mr. Thomas left the South, and later the U.S. altogether, criss-crossing Europe before settling in Russia in 1899, where he found no color line. His drive, acumen, and personality helped him to rise to the top, and he became one of the richest restaurateurs in Moscow. This is his story, but it’s also the story of Russia’s own dreadful class system and the bloody Bolshevik Revolution, which cost him nearly everything.

Much like a person of ambition today, he continually re-invented himself. This is a tragic and haunting chronicle that reveals racial, ethnic, and political dynamics that may be little-known, but remain relevant. (By Vladimir Alexandrov; Atlantic Monthly Press; $25; 306 pp.)

One can only wonder what might have happened if Mrs. Rosa Parks had chosen to seek her fortune abroad. But The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharis, goes a long way toward setting the record straight about this 20th-century icon. Parks spent many years in poverty and was able to find employment only as a seamstress and office worker, despite her skills as a talented community organizer and public speaker and her seminal contributions to the Civil Rights movement.

The question of Mrs. Park’s poor treatment by some of the most prominent of the heroes of America’s civil rights struggle is definitively addressed here. It wasn’t until her death, when she rested in state in the Capitol, that she really received the level of respect from a grateful nation that was her due. The author’s even-handed and careful treatment of a topic that has been avoided rather than fully addressed will make readers consider both the beauty and imperfection of justice and what that has meant when race and gender collided in these United States. (Beacon; $27.95; 304 pp.)

Another must-read for anyone who wants to know more than what is usually available on the history of the legacy of complex identifiers of gender and race should pick up a copy of Miss Anne in Harlem. The overlap is particularly evident in the chapters on Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, the Texas heiress who married prominent black journalist George Schuyler. Despite their collaboration, after marriage he changed, and over time her original voice was worn down.

Probably the best known of the six women covered is writer Fannie Hurst, one of the most highly paid writers in the country at her peak, unafraid to tackle taboo subjects such as interracial children. Though each of the women was well known in her day, many of their contributions were never accredited or were lost or ignored. (By Carla Kaplan; Harper; $28.99; 403 pages)

In Short

Phyllis Chesler, one of our foremost voices on psychology and gender, has recently led efforts to pull back the curtain on “honor killings,” which have gained a foothold in the Americas. Here she tells the story of her marriage to a fellow student, a Muslim, who was in the U.S. to study. Upon their return to Afghanistan to meet his family, the author realizes that she is essentially a captive. With the innocence of youth she believed that their religious differences, (she is a Jew) would not be insurmountable. But once they arrived, her husband turned into another person. Denied food that she could digest, she nearly died before escaping. (An American Bride in Kabul; Palgrave Macmillan; $27; 235 pp.)

Mothers Who Can’t Love; a Healing Guide for Daughters is a significant addition to the literature on the results of growing up with a mother who might be on the personality-disorder spectrum. This is a subject that has only recently gotten significant coverage, and provides hope for women who have never understood why their mothers were unable to give the love and support they craved. (By Susan Forward; Harper; $26.99; 287 pages)

Gift Books

The Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant Cookbook is the way to go for the seafood lover in your life. I confess to a soft spot for this book because my dad used to take me there once a month for lunch throughout my teen years. Whether it’s a simple Shrimp Cocktail or Clams Casino, even if you are not a skilled chef you can make these. The book is full of recipes, practical advice, and anecdotes about this New York City landmark. (By Sandy Ingber and Roy Finamore; Stewart, Tabori & Chang; $35)

Art that Changed the World: Transformative Art Movements and the Paintings that Inspired Them uses gorgeous reproductions and timelines from cave painting to Abstract Expressionism to put great art into the social and cultural settings where they were created, making masterpieces more fully accessible. (DK; $40; 400 pp.)

Rose Kennedy’s Family Album is just what it says. This collection of personal family photographs also includes quotes from Rose and correspondence throughout. Caroline Kennedy, who has been a staunch advocate for children and whose books of favorite poems still make great gifts, wrote the forward. (Grand Central; $45; 351 pp.)