Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

As in all charming Nick Hornby novels, we meet the main characters just as they’re about to realize that there’s a now unacceptable divide between where they are in their lives and where they want to be. Pop culture professor Duncan is the smug expert on the reclusive American singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe. His live-in girlfriend Annie is the curator of the local museum in their gray seaside town of Gooleness. When Annie posts a review of a recently released stripped down (ie, naked) version of Crowe’s last album, Juliet, the man himself responds. An email flirtation emerges between childless Annie and the multiply-married (and divorced) father of five. The book’s not so much about music as the passion that it can produce and, in contrast, passions that can be misplaced for a lifetime. (And am I the only one who mistook the optical illusion on the cover for ovaries? It could explain why Barnes and Noble has Women’s Fiction under “Related Subjects.”)

The reviews for Hornby’s latest weren’t all love songs. Entertainment Weekly called it “How Annie Got Her Groove Back” (but still gave it a B+). Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles admits, “Yes, Hornby deserves all the success and affection he’s received, but it’s time to pick up the tempo.” Juliet, Naked may not be Hornby’s masterpiece, but his newest novel will leave many readers wanting the beat to go on.

The Song Is You by Arthur Phillips
Julian Donahue is lured out of the grief over his son’s death and his wife’s resulting infidelity by the siren song of Irish singer Cait O’Dwyer. From the shadows, writing set notes on bar coasters, Julian mentors the struggling Cait from afar. When Cait starts incorporating his comments into her shows and her success begins to grow, Julian begins to find his own voice.

The Alternative Hero by Tim Thornton
Obsession is in the eye of the restraining order petitioner. Clive Beresford formed his teen identity as the #1 fan of the band The Thieving Magpies. When the band goes bust, so does Clive’s underdeveloped sense of self. Years later Clive’s crap job and lacking love life have him still wondering where it all went wrong. Then he learns that the Magpie’s former frontman Lance Webster lives down the street, and he cons his way into a friendship with the broken rocker.

Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane
In this romantic comedy, downsized PR exec Heaven Albright joins unsuccessful music producer Brady Gilbert on his trip from New York to Seattle to pitch the ultimate coffee flavoring to Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. Not exactly “Roger and Me,” these two twentysomethings aren’t looking to expose big business, merely to find something bigger than themselves.

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
In one of Pulitzer prize-winner Chabon’s earlier novels he introduces Grady Tripp–a vain, lazy, adulterous, and hilarious anti-hero. The arrival of his editor sends the pot-smoking prof and one of his students on a weekend spree to protect his uncompleted 2,000 page magnum opus. A sly look at art, academics, and missed opportunities.

Looking Up by Rebecca Gregson
Mark Webb and his wife Caitlin have a  high school reunion to thank for their mid-life bag of mixed emotions. Harried mother Caitlin is surprised by her staid husband’s sudden interest in reconnecting with his high school band mates and, yes, even an exgirlfriend. Caitlin finds herself in a spot of “what if” when a dashing new coworker  looks at her as something more than a mother of four.

Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman
Ah, the 80s. North Dakota native Klosterman discovered a much larger, louder world listening to the screeching guitars and shouted lyrics of the heavy metal heavyweights of the 1980s. Yes, they were ridiculous in many ways. Yes, they wore headbands and spandex and makeup. But, man, did they rock. Klosterman perfectly captures the awe of finding the music that speaks directly to who you are or who you dream of being at a precise moment in time.

Almost Famous written and directed by Cameron Crowe
Crowe won the 2000 Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for this semi-autobiographical film. At 16, his alter ego, William Miller, gets the cherry job of going on tour with the band Stillwater for a profile in Rolling Stone magazine. I know it’s cliche to call anything “coming of age” or to use the phrase “sex, drugs, and rock & roll” but that really does sum it up.

Great reviews and heavy holds lists for Jonathan Tropper’s newest novel This is Where I Leave You speak to the comfort readers find in being able to view family farce from a safe and well-told distance.

Sitting shiva for his agnostic father, Judd Foxman is also mourning his marriage and career. (They go hand in hand when your wife’s sleeping with your teeth-bleached, egomanic boss.) His self-involved siblings and cleaveage-bearing mother enjoy nothing more than picking at each other’s tenderest scabs, leaving them all with impressive emotional scars. For readers who like their domestic drama over the top (and I mean that in the best way):

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Enid Lambert is desperate for one last perfect Christmas before her husband Alfred’s Parkinson’s-induced dementia turns his family into nothing more than an unreliable memory. The three Lambert children are far from perfect, of course, and they return to St. Louis with emotional baggage from their adult lives that battles for attention with the unpacked wrongs from their childhood.

An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
After you’ve served a prison sentence for “accidentally” burning down Emily Dickinson’s house, it’s really no surprise that blame falls to you when Edith Wharton’s crib gets torched. Sam Pulsifer tries to clear his name while living with his unabashedly alcoholic parents and stalking his estranged wife.

Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
Nonny has not one, but two dysfunctional families, and now she’s stuck in a family feud that began the night she was born. Her biological family, the Crabtrees, are the poor lawless outcasts of their rural Georgia town;  her adopted family, the Fretts, are the upper-crust, can-do-no-wrong type. Her adopted mother is blind and deaf, her rocker husband is always half out the door, and her  biological grandmother sets her Dobermans on anyone she doesn’t like.

Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison
Script doctor Money Breton’s got her hands full with three ex-husbands, teams of ridiculous movie people demanding her help, money problems, a new boyfriend, undermedicated ADD, a methadone-addicted daughter, and a son whose recent assault may have exposed him to AIDS. It shouldn’t be funny. It really shouldn’t. But what can I tell you? It really, really is.

Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West
Mourning the death of her mother, Renata escapes to her grandmother’s cottage, but instead of finding rest and relaxation, finds more stress, thanks to her family. Eventually, she discovers that her parents led secret lives to which she was never privy, until now: Grandmother Honora and pals have decided it’s time to let all of the skeletons out of the family closets. And to top matters off, when her father’s new fiancée is found unconscious in the pool at their engagement party, Renata becomes the prime suspect.

Kick Me by Paul Feig
The creator of the short-lived (and much mourned) TV show “Freaks and Geeks” mines the dysfunction not so much of his immediate family but of the absurdity of adolescence itself in this humorous essay collection. The humiliations of growing up are never forgotten, and in Feig’s case–that’s a good thing.

Loser Goes First by Dan Kennedy
The subtitle “My Thirty-Something Years of Dumb Luck and Minor Humiliation” really sums it up. Kennedy’s comic memoir wryly examines the genuine shock one feels when you realize that adulthood is full disappointment that you have to have to deal with yourself. The fashion, music, and other media shoutouts to the 80s and early 90s are particularly rewarding for anyone who has a love/hate relationship with grunge music and Meg Ryan movies.