20 S UNDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2022...................................................Here Comes the ScribeThere was
the bride who instructed a makeup artist
to make her bridesmaids look like “little
piggies” so they wouldn’t steal the spot-
light. There was the couple who
dreamed of transform-
ing a summer camp in
Maine into a luxury
venue for their nup-
tials. There was the
wedding where a
grandparent suffered
a heart attack, prompt-
ing a second (im-
promptu, unre-
hearsed) procession —
firefighters followed
by the police followed
by paramedics. And of
course, there were the newlyweds who
traded vicious barbs and the divorced
parents who refused to find common
ground and the many moments of
kismet and serendipity one would ex-
pect when two people say “I do.”
During the 13 years Xochitl Gonzalez
spent as a wedding planner, this was all
part of the job — and it prepared her to
become a novelist. Now a graduate of
the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the
author of “Olga Dies Dreaming,” a frothy
romp with serious undertones (picture a
brainy bride in a lacy hoop skirt), Gon-
zalez said in a phone interview, “We did
not plan simple weddings. They were
intense and elaborate, and I think what
happened is, you get very good at hav-
ing a Spidey sense. You’re able to man-
age many, many threads at a time.”
When you’re managing an event,
Gonzalez explained, you begin with
infrastructure (budget, tent, restrooms)
before moving on to “the decorative
stuff” (flowers, finery, music). This
approach came in handy as she tackled
her multilayered narrative about a high-
end wedding planner caught between
her own aspirations and the legacy of
her Puerto Rican family. “I have a prob-
lem-solving brain and there’s a certain
amout of novel-writing that I find to be
problem-solving,” Gonzalez said. “You
create this hypothetical world and these
circumstances and you work your way
through them in a way that feels believ-
able and has a certain logic.”
Another quality that’s useful in both
professions: a sense of humor. “You
have to be able to laugh, to be able to
find certain things ridiculous,” Gonzalez
said. “That ability to find humor in mo-
ments of gravity or sadness or absurdity
is something I really wanted to preserve
in the storytelling.”
“Olga Dies Dreaming” landed on last
week’s hardcover fiction list at No. 15. It
has also been adapted into a Hulu pilot,
with Gonzalez as a writer and executive
producer. She said, “The biggest differ-
ence between this career and the other
is, I’m so much less stressed out. I don’t
live in constant fear of litigation.” 0
Inside the List
E LISABETH EGAN
‘You’re able
to manage
many, many
threads at a
time.’THE MAN WHO ATE TOO MUCH:The
Life of James Beard,by John
Birdsall. (Norton, 480 pp., $20.)The
food writer John Birdsall, who has
a knack for “the single perfectly
placed word,” according to our
reviewer, Ligaya Mishan, takes on
the life and culinary feats of James
Beard in this comprehensive and
delectable biography. “Birdsall’s
sentences have rhythm, too, and
compress time and place so that a
meal becomes a history.”MY YEAR ABROAD,by Chang-rae Lee.
(Riverhead, 496 pp., $17.)This
novel charts the extraordinary year
that Tiller Bardmon, a young white
man with Chinese ancestry, spends
with a Chinese American entrepre-
neur, along with the suburban life
that follows it. As our reviewer,
Alexander Chee, commented, the
book is “a wild-ride picaresque,
wisecracking, funny, ambitious, full
of sex and danger.”THE KINDEST LIE,by Nancy Johnson.
(Morrow, 352 pp., $16.99.)Ruth
Tuttle is in a successful marriage in
Chicago until conversations about
starting a family recall questions
regarding the child she gave up for
adoption years before in her blue-
collar Indiana hometown, prompt-
ing her to return in search of an-
swers. As our reviewer, Mary Pols,
noted, this is an “easy, accessible
novel filled with hard, important
truths.”HOOKED:Food, Free Will, and How
the Food Giants Exploit Our Ad-
dictions,by Michael Moss. (Random
House, 304 pp., $18.)According to
our reviewer, Daniel E. Lieberman,
this account brings together inves-
tigative reporting, science and food
writing to illustrate how the pro-
cessed food industry manipulates
“addiction-inducing sensations” to
get Americans hooked on deeply
unhealthy food.AMORALMAN:A True Story and
Other Lies,by Derek DelGaudio.
(Vintage, 256 pp., $17.)In this
memoiristic account, DelGaudio
revisits his childhood in Colorado
and relays the story of one game of
poker he plays as a false dealer, all
while engaging in philosophical
questions of reality and self-image.
“This is the stuff not of nihilism,
but of someone searching for true
belief,” our reviewer, Errol Morris,
commented. “Perhaps searching
for something beyond belief.”THE SURVIVORS,by Jane Harper.
(Flatiron, 400 pp., $17.99.)Kieran
Elliott returns to his coastal Tasma-
nian hometown years after he was
partially responsible for two storm
deaths. As our reviewer, Sarah
Lyall, observed, “Harper skillfully
evokes the landscape as she
weaves a complicated, elegant web,
full of long-buried secrets ready to
come to light.”Paperback Row/ B Y MIGUEL SALAZARPRINT | HARDCOVER BEST SELLERS
WEEKS
ON LIST
THIS
WEEK
LASTWEEKTHIS WEEKLAST Fiction WEEK Nonfiction
WEEKS
ON LIST1
(^7) THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, by Matt Haig. (Viking) Nora Seed 59
finds a library beyond the edge of the universe that contains
books with multiple possibilities of the lives one could have
lived.
2
- (^2) THE MAID, by Nita Prose. (Ballantine) When a wealthy man 3
is found dead in his room, a maid at the Regency Grand
Hotel becomes a lead suspect.
3
(^5) THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY, by Amor Towles. (Viking) Two 16
friends who escaped from a juvenile work farm take Emmett
Watson on an unexpected journey to New York City in 1954.
4
(^4) THE HORSEWOMAN, by James Patterson and Mike Lupica. 2
(Little, Brown) As the Paris Olympics draw near, a mother
and daughter, who are champion horse riders, compete
against each other.
5
(^) ONE STEP TOO FAR, by Lisa Gardner. (Dutton) The second 1
book in the Frankie Elkin series. Frankie searches for a
young man who went missing during a bachelor party
camping trip.
6
(^6) THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, by Laura Dave. (Simon & 36
Schuster) Hannah Hall discovers truths about her missing
husband.
7
(^8) THE JUDGE’S LIST, by John Grisham. (Doubleday) The 14
second book in the Whistler series. Investigator Lacy Stoltz
goes after a serial killer and closes in on a sitting judge.
8
(^12) THE STRANGER IN THE LIFEBOAT, by Mitch Albom. (Harper) 12
After a ship explodes, 10 people struggling to survive pull a
man who claims to be the Lord out of the sea.
9
(^10) WISH YOU WERE HERE, by Jodi Picoult. (Ballantine) Diana 8
O’Toole re-evaluates her seemingly perfect life when a
pandemic disrupts her vacation in the Galápagos Islands.
10
(^1) TO PARADISE, by Hanya Yanagihara. (Doubleday) Difficult 2
circumstances and societal pressures affect characters
living in America in 1893, 1993 and 2093.
1
(^2) THE 1619 PROJECT, edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin 10
Roper, Ilena Silverman and Jake Silverstein. (One World)
Viewing America’s entanglement with slavery and its legacy,
in essays adapted and expanded from The New York Times
Magazine.
2
(^) ENOUGH ALREADY, by Valerie Bertinelli. (Harvest) The 1
actress and TV personality describes her personal setbacks
and difficult journey to self-acceptance. (†)
3
(^) THE BETRAYAL OF ANNE FRANK, by Rosemary Sullivan. 1
(Harper) New technology was used to investigate who
revealed the location of Anne Frank and her family to the
Nazis.
4
(^1) UNTHINKABLE, by Jamie Raskin. (Harper) The Maryland 3
congressman describes leading the impeachment effort
against the former president shortly after his son’s death by
suicide and the insurrection at the Capitol.
5
(^3) GREENLIGHTS, by Matthew McConaughey. (Crown) The 56
Academy Award-winning actor shares snippets from the
diaries he kept over the last 35 years.
6
(^4) WILL, by Will Smith with Mark Manson. (Penguin Press) The 11
actor, producer and musician tells his life story and lessons
he learned along the way.
7
(^5) CRYING IN H MART, by Michelle Zauner. (Knopf) The leader 27
of the indie rock project Japanese Breakfast describes
creating her own identity after losing her mother to cancer.
8
(^7) THE STORYTELLER, by Dave Grohl. (Dey Street) A memoir 16
by the musician known for his work with Foo Fighters and
Nirvana.
9
(^10) UNTAMED, by Glennon Doyle. (Dial) The activist and public 87
speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.
10
(^) BLOOD IN THE GARDEN, by Chris Herring. (Atria) A senior 1
writer for Sports Illustrated gives a history of the New York
Knicks during the 1990s.
An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A dagger (†) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders.
SALES PERIOD OF-JANUARY 16-