Covered Bridge: New Books for the Old Fourth
Whether you are traveling to some far off beach this weekend or heading down 30 to the in-laws, consider distinguishing yourself among revelers with a new book. The beginning of summer is to the book industry what November is to film, therefore, an ideal time to check in on your local seller. You’ll find the new tomes upon which National Book Award hopes hang, as well as proven bestsellers reissued in beach-ready paperback. From the New York Times:
The Quartet, by Joseph Ellis
“More than two centuries after the ratification of the Constitution, the historian Joseph J. Ellis writes in his absorbing new book, “The Quartet,” “a mystic haze has formed” around that document. Much as he captured the human beings behind the marble masks of the founders in earlier books, so he examines here the contingent roles that fortune, visionary ideals and pragmatic politics all played in forging a framework for the fledgling nation, a set of ideas and institutions that would become a model of representative government.”
My Generation: Collected Nonfiction, by William Styron
“William Styron was born in 1925 and died in 2006, which places him squarely in the constellation of writers who transformed American literature after World War II. In “My Generation,” a posthumous collection of assorted nonfiction, Styron offers vivid, gossipy and illuminating portraits of these celebrated figures, himself among them. One gets the impression that he happily socialized in an ocean of Scotch and martinis with just about everyone of his “vintage,” as he often puts it, as well as with slightly older and younger authors he admired: Robert Penn Warren, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, James Jones, Terry Southern, Arthur Miller, James Dickey, Ralph Ellison, Philip Roth, J.D. Salinger and many others among the literary anointed.”
Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, by Sarah Hepola
“The first two-thirds of “Blackout,” however, are simply extraordinary. Ms. Hepola’s electric prose marks her as a flamingo among this genre’s geese. She has direct access to the midnight gods of torch songs, neon signs, tap beer at a reasonable price, cigarettes and untrammeled longing.
Ms. Hepola, who is 40 and an editor at Salon, grew up in Dallas. At drinking, she was something of a child prodigy, a Tiger Woods or a Yo-Yo Ma. By 7, she was sneaking sips of Pearl Light from the half-empty cans her parents left in the refrigerator. (Who leaves half-empty beer cans in the refrigerator?)”
Connect With Your Community
Subscribe to stay informed!
"*" indicates required fields
