“James,” a spin on “Huckleberry Finn,” does just about everything a novel can do. It starts with the provocative idea that Huck’s enslaved pal Jim (who prefers to go by James) was much smarter than anyone knew. “James,” which closely follows events from Mark Twain’s original story, finds the title character on the lam after he’s accused of murder in a page-turner that features vivid characters, breathless plotting, wizardly experiments with point of view and a moving conclusion.
Expect lots of awards for “James.” Don’t care about boxing. Don’t know many teenage girls.
Not interested in Reno, Nev. All of these things are true of me and they’re crucial to “Headshot,” but that just goes to show how sometimes the book you need is one you’d never think of. Each chapter in “Headshot” covers a different bout in a round-robin boxing tournament for adolescent girls.
We learn what they’re thinking when they box, whether they like boxing, what drew them to the sport/might make them quit, what they think about their opponents, as well as what troubles them about their families and friends. By the end of the book, you feel like you know the contestants intimately. It’s my new favorite Towles book, and that’s saying something since his “The Lincoln Highway” was a refreshing adventure.
These seven cinematic tales introduce us to endearing and confounding people like the title character of “The Ballad of Timothy Touchett,” who accidentally .