Ron Charles: Recommended Reads of 2011

Ron Charles is the Fiction Editor for the Washington Post Book World. At the 2011 Gaithersburg Book Festival, Charles hosted a Q&A with Eleanor Brown, author of the New York Times bestselling novel, “The Weird Sisters.” Ron’s recommended reads of 2011 are:

Doc by Mary Doria Russell. Russell’s novel about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp is a bold act of historical reclamation that scrapes off the bull and allows those American legends to walk and love and grieve in the dynamic 19th-century world that existed before Hollywood shellacked it with cliches.

Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell. Campbell’s gritty but tender novel features an unforgettable teenager whose determination to carve out a life on her own in rural Michigan is challenged by nature and some very bad men.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Patchett’s gripping novel about a fertility scientist sent to the Amazon jungle to track down a missing colleague grapples with the behavior of Western pharmaceutical firms and the strange choices individuals make in the remote wilderness of their own conscience. (Editor’s note: “State of Wonder” was  also recommended by Caroline Leavitt, author of “Pictures of You.”)