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Reviews

Reviews

by Patti Smith - Memoir, Nonfiction

In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone, including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smith’s world. Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape, and more than a million followers responded to Smith’s unique aesthetic in images that chart her passions, devotions, obsessions and whims. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world.

by Matthew Perry - Memoir, Nonfiction

“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty.” So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; 14-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; 24-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called “Friends Like Us”; and so much more.

by Katherine Dunn - Fiction, Humor

Sally Gunnar spends her days alone at home, reading drugstore mysteries, polishing the doorknobs and waxing the floors. Her only companions are a vase of goldfish, a garden toad, and the door-to-door salesman who sells her cleaning supplies once a month. She broods over her deepest regrets: her blighted romances with self-important men, her lifelong struggle to feel at home in her own body, and her wayward early 20s, when she was a fish out of water among a group of eccentric, privileged young people at a liberal arts college. There was Sam, an unabashed collector of other people’s stories; Carlotta, a troubled free spirit; and Rennel, a self-obsessed philosophy student. Self-deprecating and sardonic, Sally recounts their misadventures, up to the tragedy that tore them apart.

by Bárbara Mujica - Fiction, Historical Fiction

1910, Mexico. As the country’s revolution spreads, Dolores, the daughter of a wealthy banker, must flee her comfortable life in Durango or risk death. Her family settles in Mexico City, where, at 16, she marries the worldly Jaime del Río. But in a twist of fate, at a party she meets an influential American director who recognizes in her a natural performer. He invites her to Hollywood, and practically overnight, the famous Miss del Río is born. In California, Dolores’ star quickly rises, and her days become a whirlwind of moviemaking and glamorous events. But as her career soars to new heights, her personal life becomes increasingly complicated, with family tragedy, painful divorce and real heartache.

by Barbara Kingsolver - Fiction

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, DEMON COPPERHEAD is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

by Constance Wu - Essays, Memoir, Nonfiction

Growing up in the friendly suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, Constance Wu was often scolded for having big feelings or strong reactions. “Good girls don’t make scenes,” people warned her. And while she spent most of her childhood suppressing her bold, emotional nature, she found an early outlet in local community theater. At 18 she moved to New York, where she’d spend the next 10 years of her life auditioning, waiting tables and struggling to make rent before her two big breaks: the TV sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat” and the hit film Crazy Rich Asians. Through raw and relatable essays, Constance shares private memories of childhood, young love and heartbreak, sexual assault and harassment, and how she “made it” in Hollywood.

by Rita Zoey Chin - Fiction

Born in a carnival trailer, Leah Fern begins her life as "The Youngest and Very Best Fortuneteller in the World." When Leah is six, her mother --- magician Jeannie Starr --- leaves her at the home of Edward Murphy, a kindly older man with whom Leah shares one fierce wish: that Jeannie Starr will return to them. After 15 years as a small-town outcast, Leah decides to end her life on her 21st birthday. But the intricate death ritual she has devised is interrupted by a surprise knock on her door. Her mysterious neighbor, art photographer Essie East, has died and left Leah a very strange inheritance. Through a series of letters, Essie will posthumously lead Leah on a journey to nine points on the map, which will reveal the story of Leah's mother.

by Yiyun Li - Fiction

Fabienne is dead. Her childhood best friend, Agnès, receives the news in America, far from the French countryside where the two girls were raised --- the place that Fabienne helped Agnès escape 10 years ago. Now, Agnès is free to tell her story. As children in a war-ravaged, backwater town, they’d built a private world, invisible to everyone but themselves --- until Fabienne hatched the plan that would change everything, launching Agnès on an epic trajectory through fame, fortune and terrible loss.

by Jann S. Wenner - Memoir, Nonfiction

Rolling Stone founder, co-editor and publisher Jann Wenner’s deeply personal memoir vividly describes and brings you inside the music, the politics and the lifestyle of a generation, an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond. He takes us into the life and work of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. He was instrumental in the careers of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe and Annie Leibovitz. His journey took him to the Oval Office with his legendary interviews with Bill Clinton and Barak Obama, leaders to whom Rolling Stone gave its historic, full-throated backing. The people Wenner chose to be seen and heard in the pages of Rolling Stone tried to change American culture, values and morality.

by Lionel Shriver - Essays, Nonfiction

Novelist, cultural observer and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age. A writer who embraces “under-expressed, unpopular or downright dangerous” points of view, she filets cherished shibboleths and the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken us. Bringing together 35 works curated from her many columns, features, essays and op-eds, along with some unpublished pieces, ABOMINATIONS reveals Shriver at her most iconoclastic and personal. Relentlessly skeptical, cutting and contrarian, this collection showcases Shriver’s piquant opinions on a wide range of topics --- including religion, politics, illness, mortality, family and friends, tennis, gender, immigration, consumerism, health care and taxes.