CRP's Blog

Staff Reads are back after the holidays! What books and articles did we read (or not read) over the break?

Bookwise, I’m still working my way through 2666. It’s long and a bit of a slog, but I’ve had the chance to break up the effort with some valuable magazine articles that I came across while reading about Making a Murderer, which I watched, shouted at, and eventually researched during my holiday vacation. The first, “Murder by Craigslist,” is another story of true crime in the rural United States that The Atlantic published a few years ago. The second, “Inside America’s Toughest Federal Prison,” details some of the major failings of the federal prison system and the inefficacy and inhumanity of one of its favorite forms of detention: solitary confinement. –Geoff George, publicist

My best laid plans to read as much as possible during my holiday break went astray, and so for 2016 I decided to put down my in-progress books and start over with a clean slate (so fair warning, there may be a repeat of a couple late-2015 titles in upcoming Staff Reads). I picked up Joanne M. Harris’s The Gospel of Loki  the other night and am firmly under the spell of the trickster god as he tells his story, his “tissue of lies,” in his own words. He’s only just emerged from Chaos, but Harris’s writing is anything but. (And for the record, I picked up the book as a lover of mythology, not because of Tom Hiddleston’s cinematic portrayal of Loki. But I’m not going to say I haven’t mentally cast him in the role). —Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

During a few lovely flight-delayed hours at Midway over the holiday I finished Free as a Bird, a middle-grade novel set in British Columbia that packs a wallop. The story begins with Ruby Jean, who has Down syndrome, being deposited at an institution by her mother. Ooomph. You read about this experience in Ruby Jean’s own words—she’s the narrator of her story. Amid the horrible reality of institutional living, Ruby Jean eventually encounters a social worker who believes in her ability to learn and take care of herself—and live with a family outside of the institution. Ruby Jean successfully preparing and enjoying toast and tea—once she’s given the opportunity to do so—is a real breakthrough moment. The author, who has a sister with Down syndrome, does an excellent job of illustrating (for young readers and adults) how important a nurturing environment is to Ruby Jean’s personal growth. While the book was at times difficult to stomach, it tackles an important subject and portrays internal thoughts of a protagonist who doesn’t often have a voice.  –Meaghan Miller, senior publicist & social media coordinator

In order to complete my goal of reading fifty books this year, I spent the holidays avoiding the family and speeding through the shortest books in my to-be-read pile. As a result, I finished four books over the holidays: David Sedaris’s Holidays on Ice, Wilson Rawls’s Where the Red Fern Grows, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? –Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

—compiled by Emily Lewis