A Wild Swan and Other Tales, by Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham, a 1980 graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will be giving two presentations this week, a Q&A Friday afternoon in the Dey House and a reading that evening in Van Allen. He is here as the 2015-16 Jonathan Goldsmith Visiting Author.

A Wild Swan and Other Tales is his most recent work, looking beyond the fairy tales of old, the ugly, dark parts of the stories intentionally left out, tales more reality than fairy.

Bottomland, by Michelle Hoover

Michelle Hoover saw the family resemblance between herself and great aunt Myrtle but only in photographs. Myrtle and sister Esther disappeared. What happened next is a family dispute; depending on whom she asked, Hoover was told both returned, only Esther returned but Myrtle was fine, or only Esther returned and Myrtle was lost to the family. In the end, the truth may never be known, but Bottomland, released Feb. 23, offers an option.

The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders has been one of my favorite books long enough that I can remember thinking S.E. Hinton wasn’t that young when she wrote it; she was 16. A teenager frustrated by the violence and anger that divided her hometown in Oklahoma, she thought writing a book was her best option to promote change. The “Socs” and “Greasers” battle over the city, starting rumbles and killing enemies. In simple, direct language, Hinton shows how early hatred can start and how useless and destructive it grows to be.