It has become customary here at Turnrow to leave the old year behind with a list of our favorite books of the year, as well as those of our friend and loyal customer Billie Ainsworth. She's one of the most voracious readers we know ... a reader of exacting standards who keeps us on our toes trying to find new books to feed her insatiable hunger. Her rigorous standards have been chronicled here before, and this year, as ever, we've done our best to meld our own reading temperaments with hers, a fit some have described as "a cherished compromise" and which others have deemed "treacherous and foolhardy."
This year, Billie's tastes were increasingly calibrated toward domestic dramas. The publishing industry wasn't cranking them out fast enough for her, so she ventured into some older titles and actually brought two of her new favorites, Lesley Kagan and Sandra Kring, to our attention.
But when it came to 2009 books, we were proud to have a hand in her two favorites. The first was John Hart's The Last Child. Straddling both domestic drama and Billie's other favorite genre, suspense fiction, this is the story of a boy's quest to unearth the truth about his young sister's disappearance in the midst of his family's unraveling. It's the third book by Hart, a North Carolina writer who paid us a visit this summer. (He's pictured above with Billie.)
It was a given that Billie would like The Last Child, having enjoyed his two previous novels — The King of Lies and Down River, two novels also very popular with our customers, especially fans of Greg Iles — but this, she proclaimed, was his finest work, and one of the best books of the year.
Billie's second favorite, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, was a bit more difficult. She usually passes on heavy-handed stories of racial intolerance, having grown up here in Mississippi amid so much of it and having read so many books that depicted it poorly, but after much badgering and pleading from us, she took a copy and read it reluctantly. Like us, she found The Help to be deft and insightful instead of preachy. When it passed the Billie test, we knew this book had legs.
For Billie, there were two other milestones in 2009. It was the first year she kept a reading journal and was able to easily go back and determine her favorites. Early on, she set her mind on reading 50 books during the year — a record for her — and finished with 54. The goal was accomplished late in the year and required that she put off reading Stephen King's Under the Dome (equivalent to three books, we all decided) until 2010.
The second milestone, in which we proudly played a role, was reached when she put aside her long-held rule of avoiding short stories. ("They end just when they're getting good," she contends.) We spent much of the year promoting short story collections, since so many great books were being published, but our inducements fell on deaf ears with Billie. This fall we begged her to read John Grisham's Ford County, but again she refused. "These are great stories, right up your alley, and long enough to keep you entertained," we said. She wouldn't budge.
Then Grisham came to Turnrow and signed books. He signed one for Billie, a gift, which read, "To Billie — You better read these. They're brilliant. John Grisham."
Finally, we'd found someone persuasive enough to force her hand. Our ploy worked. Not only did she read Ford County, she actually enjoyed the stories. And with that proud achievement, we can close the book on 2009.
