Explore Booksellers suggests titles to enjoy and to improve your life

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Explore Booksellers in Aspen recommends titles that explore misdeeds, memoir and minimalism.

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From the publisher: “Old Crimes: and Other Stories” delves into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate across generations. And despite the characters’ yearnings for connection, they can’t seem to tell the whole truth. A woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband’s commentary. A telephone lineman strains to communicate with his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. A young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty. A family reunion, ripe with treasured memories, takes place amid a secret that will alter all of their futures. Throughout, McCorkle takes us deep into these conflicted and sympathetic characters, puzzling to figure out the meaning of their own lives.

From Jason Jefferies, general manager: Jill McCorkle is a master of her craft, and while I am tempted to call “Old Crimes” one of her greatest books, I will instead just call it equal to her others. There are no bad choices here, only greatness. The stories contained in this collection are about deception, secrets, and the oftentimes seedy underbellies of human behavior, but also about love, hope, and the potential for redemption.  

The reader will find herself coasting on McCorkle’s immaculate prose, only to find herself at a sudden moment of epiphany that is both a surprise and in retrospect, inevitable.  How could we have not seen it coming?  “The Lineman”—which is not about a football lineman, but about a telephone lineman grappling with modern technology and the slow loss of his livelihood—is one of the best short stories I have ever read. Jill is compared by her publisher to Alice Munro and Elizabeth Strout, but Joyce and Nabokov are also fair game. Pick this one up. You will not regret it. That is a professional bookseller’s guarantee. 

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From the publisher: If we’re lucky, we all encounter at least one person whose life elevates and inspires our own. For Daniel Wallace, that was his longtime friend and brother-in-law, William Nealy. Seemingly perfect, impossibly cool, William was James Dean, Clint Eastwood, and MacGyver all rolled into one: an acclaimed outdoorsman, a famous cartoonist, an accomplished author, a master of all he undertook. William was the ideal that Daniel sought to emulate, and the person who gave him the courage to become a writer.

But when William took his own life at age 48, Daniel’s heartbreak led him to commit a grievous act of his own, a betrayal that took him down a path into the tortured recesses of William’s past. Eventually a new picture emerged of a man with too many secrets and too much shame to bear.

From Scraps McMasters, special advisor to the general manager: Daniel Wallace is a fantastic author (you may know him for his novel “Big Fish”), and an even greater person. “This Isn’t Going to End Well” is his first memoir, and it is the memoir I didn’t know I wanted, but the exact book that I needed. It is about the oftentimes uncatalogued demons that lie under the skin of those who we think we know best, and ultimately, about how we should not remember our loved ones for the way they died, but for the way they lived. Undoubtedly one of the best books of the year. Maybe of the decade.

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From the publisher: Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It’s the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world.

In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of “Deep Work” introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.

From Merran Waller, lead bookseller: “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport reminds us that it’s okay to reclaim our time and attention by stepping back from the constant technological noise. Detailing how handheld technology encroaches on essential facets of our lives, such as vital intentional solitude, human connection, and overall healthy well-being motivates the reader to assess the minutiae of their daily digital consumption. 

With a background in computer science, Newport cites opposing scientific studies to create a compelling case for the necessity of digital minimalism. The direct language is graced with humorous anecdotes making the subject easier to digest. Newport offers tangible, small steps anyone can take to integrate phone use in an intentional and more meaningful way that fits their unique personality and lifestyle, leading to stronger friendships and self-connection after reading this compelling book.

Type of Story: Review

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