It finally feels like summer here in New York (and I have the first ripe cherry tomatoes in my garden to prove it, Sungolds and a new-to-me heirloom called Amy's Apricots). |
We've got an appropriately summery book on our cover, too: John Taylor Williams's "The Shores of Bohemia," a gossipy and utterly fascinating account of the iconoclastic summer colonies that dotted Cape Cod in the first half of the 20th century. Scores of intellectuals, writers and artists flocked there — John Dos Passos, Eugene O'Neill, Mary McCarthy, James Baldwin and Tennessee Williams, to name just a few. "One of the hoariest sayings about P-town is that the 'P' stands for permission, and the pages of this book are full of those who took it," Andrew Sullivan writes in his review. "Marriages, divorces and remarriages occurred with dizzying frequency. Affairs were constant; so was terrible parenting. It also appears at times as if everyone was perpetually drunk. … It's amazing that any of them got any work done. But all the carousing didn't seem to affect productivity." |
On the fiction side, we've got Lizzie Pook's "Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter," an engaging historical novel set in 19th-century Australia; Alhierd Bacharevic's "Alindarka's Children," which our reviewer, Sophie Pinkham, describes as "part Slavic fairy tale, part '1984,' part 'Children of Men'"; and Alison Fairbrother's warm, funny debut, "The Catch." As Julia May Jonas notes in her review, "Writers have forever used objects as a tool by which to tell their stories — Hawthorne's letter, Maupassant's necklace, Hammett's falcon." Fairbrother's tools? A baseball and a tie rack. |
I particularly enjoyed Sarah Weinman's crime column (I love locked-room mysteries, and she writes about one — Tom Mead's "Death and the Conjuror" — which has my name on it). Then there's Erika L. Sánchez's By the Book interview. Sánchez has turned her home's attic into an office and says, "No one besides my husband is allowed to come up to my office unless they ask me for permission. A room of my own, you know? I'm a bit of an attic witch." A woman after my own heart. |
I've finally emerged from my reading rut and am gulping down Graham Greene's "Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party," which Molly Young featured in her last newsletter. (Have you subscribed to this newsletter? If you haven't, you should — it's gold for voracious readers, brimming with offbeat recommendations. She hasn't steered me wrong yet.) On the TV front, I've finished "Shetland" and have started both "DCI Banks" and "The Staircase." Thanks to all of you who recommended "DCI Banks" — I'm enjoying it immensely. |
As always, if you have time, I'd love to know what you're reading. You can email me at books@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent, and I answer as many of them as I can. |
Tina Jordan
Deputy Editor, The New York Times Book Review
@TinaJordanNYT |
- In three new picture books two siblings, a playful teacher's class and three friends let their imaginations loose in the great outdoors. Reviewed by Sophie Blackall.
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- By the Book: Erika L. Sánchez, the poet and novelist, whose new book is the memoir "Crying in the Bathroom," wishes more authors would write about money.
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 | | Thoka Maer |
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Your sneak preview of books coming out in 2022 from around the world. Get globetrotting. |
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