LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JUNE 2015 | Page 38

Local June_FinalEDITED.qxp_002houston 5/21/15 7:24 PM Page 38

SUMMER READS
SOME BOOK SIGNINGS FEEL LIKE HOME GAMES – HAPPY SPECTACLES WHERE AN AUTHOR RETURNS TO A PLACE THAT MEANS A
LOT TO THEM AND READS FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS THAT HAVE A
GREAT DEAL OF INVESTMENT IN THE WORK. IN THE PAST FEW
MONTHS, FORMER HOUSTONIANS JILL ALEXANDER ESSBAUM,
MARY HELEN SPECHT AND GWENDOLYN WOMACK HAVE ALL VISITED BRAZOS BOOKSTORE FOR THE RELEASES OF NEW BOOKS,
AND ALTHOUGH THESE AUTHORS HAVE MOVED ON TO OTHER
CITIES, THEIR EVENTS WERE FULL OF LOCAL SUPPORT – PEOPLE
WHO REMEMBERED THEM FROM THEIR DAYS IN HOUSTON,
BEFORE THEIR WORK RECEIVED NATIONAL ATTENTION. AS A CORNERSTONE OF THE CITY’S LITERARY COMMUNITY, BRAZOS HOSTS
AUTHORS FROM ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY AT ALL STAGES OF

THEIR CAREERS, BUT IT ALWAYS FEELS SPECIAL WHEN THE AUTHOR
HAS SOME BAYOU CITY CONNECTION. IT’S NO SECRET THAT
OUR CITY TAKES CARE OF ITS OWN, AND HERE ARE SIX BOOKS TO
PICK UP THIS SUMMER, ALL BY AUTHORS WHO MAKE HOUSTON
THEIR HOME AT LEAST PART OF THE TIME. NOTHING BEATS SUMMER READING – ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU CAN READ LOCAL.

WHISPER HOLLOW,

HAPPINESS FOR
BEGINNERS,

BY CHRIS CANDER

BY KATHERINE CENTER

In Houston, Katherine Center fans are
a kind bunch, and they seem to be
everywhere – you’ll catch them at
book signings, boutiques and weekend festivals, and they’ll waste no
time telling you all about their
favorite author. Sometimes it seems
that Center has her own de facto publicity team that numbers in the thousands, and when you read her newest novel you’ll understand why. Like Cheryl
Strayed’s Wild, Katherine Center’s Happiness for Beginners tells a story of a
woman discovering herself in nature. The main character, Helen, is recently
divorced and in need of a change – so she signs up for a wilderness survival
course in Wyoming. Out of character for her? Yes – but ultimately just what she
needs. The deeper you get into this book, the more you realize that the Wild
comparison does Happiness for Beginners a bit of a disservice; somehow
Center’s novel contains even more hard truths and uplifting moments.
Recently, at Brazos Bookstore, somebody who had never read Center picked up
her book, took one look at the cover, and clutched it to her chest. “I love hiking,”
she said – and that was it. Expect to hear about Center from this newest convert
the next time you run into her.

www.katherinecenter.com

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L O C A L

| june 15

BENJAMIN RYBECK is marketing director at BRAZOS BOOKSTORE, where
he runs author events and oversees web content. His own fiction has
received honorable mention in The Best American Nonrequired Reading
and The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and he regularly writes about books
for Kirkus Reviews, as well as numerous other venues. A graduate of the
University of Arizona MFA program, he will teach for Inprint this fall.

Chris Cander is Houston’s newest literary star. For evidence of this, you
needed only to attend her book launch
party at Brazos Bookstore in March, a
packed event full of old friends and
new fans. There’s nothing immediately
intimating about Cander – she wears a
smile and seems genuinely enthusiastic
about everything literary (not a cynical
thought in her head, it seems). But as
soon as she began her reading, you could sense the room wither from the force of
her words. Surely people thought, I could never write like that.
The appeal of Whisper Hollow isn’t just the language itself – it’s the breadth and
humanity of the story Cander tells. Her characters live in a West Virginia coal-mining town, responding to a tragedy within their community. But Cander’s novel isn’t
limited to that one incident; instead, it expands around it, pulling in the stories of
many families and time periods. Intricately researched? Yes, but also anchored by
small, recognizable experiences: the private language that families use to speak
amongst each other, the complicated ways in which people grieve.
Is it all so heavy as that? No – not with Whisper Hollow, and certainly not with
Cander, because she ultimately votes in favor of people’s inherent goodness. You
know how sometimes, when you read a book, you can just feel the author’s inherent kindness in every word? Well, here you go.

www.chriscander.com