2010 Summer Newsletter - Literary Essays/Best Collections/Nature

LITERARY ESSAYS

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them (Paperback)

By Elif Batuman
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780374532185
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2/2010
Other Editions of this Title
Though implausible, the most chortlingly funny book I've read in years is about graduate school. Elif Batuman - a blogger, New Yorker contributor, and madcap academic - is a disarming story-teller, and her relentless enthusiasm for books is contagious. In the seven essays of THE POSSESSED: My Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $15), Batuman recaps her immoderate enamorment with Russian literature and how this love leads her to Stanford's Comp Lit department and a cohort which she likens to the spiraling madness of Dostoevsky's Demons (a k a The Possessed). Her love also takes her farther afield, to a mystifying summer in Samarkand studying Old Uzbek epics; to an International Tolstoy Scholars Conference and suspicions of foul play; and to the Neva River to investigate the curiously sinister backstory of an ice palace for The New Yorker. Familiarity with Babel and Bakunin aren’t prerequisites; Batuman's book is a clever treatise on the reasons we read. - Lila Stiff

Camus, A Romance (Paperback)

By Elizabeth Hawes
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780802144881
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press, 6/2010
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Sometimes a reader feels so close to certain books, it’s as if he or she knows the author intimately. Elizabeth Hawes became fascinated with Camus when she read his work in college. Forty years later, he was still on her mind and she set out to track him down. CAMUS: A ROMANCE (Grove Press, $14) is a combination memoir/travelogue, biography/literary essay. We get the voices of both Hawes and Camus as Hawes chronicles her expeditions to the places where Camus lived, recounts her meetings with his surviving friends and family, and presents her research on the reception and legacy of his writing. - Laurie Greer

 

 BEST COLLECTIONS

Into the Story: A Writer's Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss (Hardcover)

By David Maraniss
$26.00
ISBN-13: 9781439160022
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Simon & Schuster, 1/2010
Other Editions of this Title
In the hands of a great reporter and a thoughtful individual, a set of essays can become a way of having a wonderful conversation. In INTO THE STORY (Simon & Schuster, $26) David Maraniss has included an array of work—pieces from his books on Clinton, Roberto Clemente, Vince Lombardi—and from his journalism. He offers the moving portrait of Clark Welch’s return to Vietnam and a horrifying eyewitness account of the events of 9/ll. The collection showcases the range of Maraniss’s interests: politics, sports, friendship, and family. While I had read many of the articles before, I found myself rereading them with great pleasure. Gathered together as chapters in this book, they reflect Maraniss’s admirable craft and sensibility. A great reporter does more than relate the news; he filters it through his education, experience, and moral sense. It is particularly the last of these which I enjoyed here. - Carla Cohen

Silk Parachute (Hardcover)

By John McPhee
$25.00
ISBN-13: 9780374263737
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 3/2010
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John McPhee has long been known for taking very specific topics and sussing out everything that makes them interesting.  With his 28th book, McPhee widens the filter and turns his gaze on himself. SILK PARACHUTE (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25) sheds light on where the ideas for previous books have come from: McPhee’s experience with canoes as a child, his year at Deerfield Academy, his first glimpse of Bill Bradley playing basketball at Princeton.  This book is like a perfect copy of The New Yorker where every story is captivating and every word is worth reading.  - Conor Moran

 

NATURE

Summer World: A Season of Bounty (Paperback)

By Bernd Heinrich
$14.99
ISBN-13: 9780060742188
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ecco, 4/2010
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Summer. Winter dormancy is over and nature has a lot to do in a short time: trees prepare their buds for the next spring’s leaves and flowers, baby warblers eat enough caterpillars to reach full size in six days, insects that live just weeks or days mate and lay eggs for the following generation. And all this happens while the creatures are trying to maximize sun and food and dodge predators and parasites. Much of the action occurs unnoticed by humans, but Bernd Heinrich, a biologist and avid observer of the outdoors, documents the amazing goings-on in SUMMER WORLD (Ecco, $14.99). Pairing professional expertise with a spirited Thoreauvian wonder, Heinrich charts the life cycles and the highly specialized survival techniques of a wide range of flora and fauna, from ants and wasps to frogs and phoebes. - Laurie Greer