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What to read this Halloween, based on your ideal spooky activity

Whether you’re a homebody or a thrill-hunter, we’ve got a seasonal, spine-tingling read for you.
Whether you’re a homebody or a thrill-hunter, we’ve got a seasonal, spine-tingling read for you.
NonfictionLifestylesCookbooks

Bodega Bakes

In the personable Bodega Bakes, pastry chef Paola Velez presents just that: sweets that can be made solely from the ingredients found at a corner store.
In the personable Bodega Bakes, pastry chef Paola Velez presents just that: sweets that can be made solely from the ingredients found at a corner store.
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AMORALMAN

A magician never reveals their tricks, but fortunately for us, Derek DelGaudio doesn’t consider himself a magician.
NonfictionAudio

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Review by Autumn Allen

Critically acclaimed writer and longtime creative writing professor George Saunders offers a master class in writing based on a study of seven short stories by classic Russian writers. Saunders narrates A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (14.5 hours) in an easy, conversational tone that makes the listener feel as if they are in a relaxed classroom—or perhaps sitting in a lounge for a one-on-one lesson from this thoughtful teacher. 

Well-chosen, exceptionally talented actors, including Phylicia Rashad, Glenn Close and Nick Offerman, narrate stories from Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and others, and their dramatized performances provide a refreshing contrast to Saunders’ more familiar style. Saunders’ love of literature and his enthusiasm for its interaction with the mind combine with his humor and dry wit to make for an engaging listening experience. More than a writing course, this audiobook is a unique exercise in paying attention and thinking critically.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.

Talented actors narrate stories from Chekhov, Tolstoy and others, and their performances provide a refreshing contrast to George Saunders’ more familiar style.
NonfictionPop CultureMemoir

The Beauty of Living Twice

Review by Amy Scribner

It’s impossible to overstate just how famous Sharon Stone was in the 1990s. After the phenomenon of 1992’s Basic Instinct, the legendary beauty earned further acclaim for roles in Casino and The Muse and became one of the highest paid actors on the planet. As a result, her every move was scrutinized. She would have broken the internet—if that had been a thing back in 1996—when she wore a black turtleneck from the Gap to the Oscars.

In Stone’s generous new memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, she writes about it all, starting with her loving but fraught childhood in blue-collar Pennsylvania, where her family laughed hard and fought loudly. “They did a horrible, beautiful, awful, amazing job with us,” she writes of her parents. “They gave us their best. They gave us everything. All of it. The full Irish.”

Stone also reveals in this memoir that she and her sister were sexually abused by her maternal grandfather. That portion of the book is understandably vague and brief, but it’s clear this betrayal impacted the family irrevocably.

In fact, The Beauty of Living Twice alternates between vague summarization and incredibly personal recollections. Stone writes in detail about the massive stroke she suffered in 2001, which left her in financial and physical ruin that took years to recover from. She dishes on her experiences with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood and her philanthropic efforts around the world. But she only briefly talks about her experience of adopting three sons, one of whom became the subject of an acrimonious custody dispute with her ex-husband Phil Bronstein.

Overall, the book reads like an oral history, as if someone were typing furiously while Stone reminisced about her exceptional life. (“Remind me to tell you about James Brown,” she writes late in the book. She does not, unfortunately, tell us about James Brown.) Somehow, this old Hollywood narrative style works, and Stone delivers a bighearted, wonderfully rambling story full of wisdom and humor.

It’s impossible to overstate just how famous Sharon Stone was in the 1990s, and in her generous new memoir, she writes about it all.

Until Justice Be Done

Masur’s scholarly but accessible history demonstrates how thoroughly racism pervaded both the North and the South during the 19th century.
NonfictionSocial ScienceMusic

A Little Devil in America

Review by Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

Both of Hanif Abdurraqib’s earlier books—They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us and Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest—skillfully weave memoir and cultural criticism. He’s known for unraveling our ideas about music, history and culture and then using threads of commentary and insight to stitch a totally original pattern.

With the same ingenuity, Abdurraqib traces the depth and diversity of Black modes of performance in his brilliant A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance. Opening with an examination of Black dancers who participated in the dance marathons of the early 20th century, Abdurraqib dispenses prose in motions that shuffle forward, step sideways, leap diagonally and waltz gracefully through five sections exploring different facets of Black performance in America.

Performance can be liberating, like when dance marathons give partners “a powerful enough relationship with freedom that you understand its limitations.” It can also provide an opportunity to show off, as in the dance line on “Soul Train.” Performance can demonstrate self-awareness, too—a chance to define yourself by how your body moves when you’re throwing down in a beef, which Abdurraqib vividly illustrates as a kind of performance. He traces the rich history of performance through sketches of Black magicians, dancers and musicians, including Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Josephine Baker, Aretha Franklin and Merry Clayton, who’s most famous for her performance on the Rolling Stones’ track “Gimme Shelter.” Clayton’s chapter may be the best in the book, if only because it gives her the recognition she deserves for her ethereal voice.

A vibrant showcase of sharp writing, Abdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America attests that Black performance at its root is not simply an outward show of talent but also a means of survival. Read carefully. Abdurraqib’s book is a challenge not to accept the usual explanations for the performances we witness.

Hanif Abdurraqib unravels our ideas about music, history and culture and then uses threads of commentary and insight to stitch a totally original pattern.

The Invention of Miracles

Alexander Graham Bell is best known as the brilliant inventor of the telephone, yet there was a darker side to him, obscured by the glow of his genius.
NonfictionHistory

New Yorkers

Review by Jessica Wakeman

In January 2014, Canadian writer Craig Taylor relocated to New York City with a mission: He would interview New Yorkers about themselves and their city, similar to the task he undertook to create his 2012 book, Londoners. Over six years, Taylor interviewed more than 180 people and recorded 400 hours of conversations. The final product is New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time, which contains 75 oral histories about America’s most populous metropolis.

Taylor groups the book by themes, such as wealth, stress and “hustle.” An array of only-in-New-York careers are represented, such as a security guard at the Statue of Liberty and an electrician for the Empire State Building. Nearly all the isolated stories are interesting; there are only a few duds.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: The audiobook for New Yorkers brings this “profusion of voice in New York” even further into the realm of oral history.

The emotional heart of New Yorkers can be found in the testimonies of people who directly experienced the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Sandy and the COVID-19 pandemic. Reading firsthand accounts of these extraordinary events is poignant and resonant. Likewise, the New Yorkers who share their experiences with homelessness and racism reveal as much about these societal scourges as the best reportage could.

All of that said, New York City is home to roughly 8.5 million people, so readers will inevitably emerge with the feeling that plenty of stories were left out. For example, even with the number of women included in the book, the overall collection leans toward traditionally masculine occupations. Why not include a manicurist, an OB-GYN, a burlesque dancer or a personal shopper from Bergdorf Goodman? And how could a book about New York City include no public school teachers or librarians?

To this end, New Yorkers is more of a collection of Taylor’s own experiences in New York City than a comprehensive representation. Nevertheless, it’s a delightful book for anyone with an interest in New York—and a reminder that everyone has a story, if we’re willing to listen.

In January 2014, Canadian writer Craig Taylor relocated to New York City with a mission: He would interview New Yorkers about themselves and their city.
Nonfiction

The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy

Review by Becky Libourel Diamond

People have long speculated about the possibility of intelligent life-forms on other planets. Scientists and science fiction writers have weighed in on what such beings would look like, as well as on the details of their language, culture and social structure. But what about animal life? Would animal extraterrestrials look similar to those that roam our world, or would they appear totally alien?

In his debut book, The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens—and Ourselves, zoologist Arik Kershenbaum draws on a range of scientific disciplines, including chemistry, physics, biology and the very specific field of astrobiology (the study of life outside of Earth), to contemplate what characteristics otherworldly animals might possess, from movement and intelligence to communication and sociality. Ultimately he theorizes that the various animal features we’ve recognized and recorded on Earth won’t be unique to Earth.

Using current knowledge of how life has evolved on our planet, Kershenbaum poses the questions: What might complex alien life look like, and is it possible to use tools and clues available on Earth to guess? His expertise in the field of animal behavior adds weight and validity to his arguments, such as his assertion that “intelligence evolves all the time to fit specific needs . . . a compelling indication that alien animals too will evolve problem-solving intelligence, on different planets throughout the galaxy.” Helpful definitions and explanations guide the reader through concepts such as chaos theory, natural selection, form versus function and convergent evolution, which is the idea that similar solutions have evolved separately in distantly related species—such as the ability to fly, which is found in both birds and bats.

Through these examples, which he mixes with humor and even references to science fiction books and films, Kershenbaum relays fascinating scientific concepts in layman’s terms. The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy will appeal to anyone who ponders what life is like among the stars.

Zoologist Arik Kershenbaum draws on a range of scientific disciplines to contemplate what characteristics extraterrestrial animals might possess.

The Light of Days

The Light of Days, a scrupulously researched narrative history about young Jewish women who resisted the Nazis in Europe, is a huge achievement.
NonfictionWomen's HistoryAmerican History

The Agitators

Review by Carla Jean Whitley

Former Secretary of State William Henry Seward’s name occupies a plaque outside the Cayuga County Courthouse in Auburn, New York, and the Seward family home is now a museum where visitors can learn about the statesman’s past. But it was another Seward who quietly pushed Henry toward signing the Emancipation Proclamation. His wife, Frances Seward, was the one who befriended, supported and learned from Harriet Tubman, the famous Underground Railroad conductor whose name is also mounted on that county courthouse.

Frances discouraged her husband from compromising on matters related to slavery. But as Henry ascended from the state Senate to the governorship of New York to the U.S. Senate with a position in Abraham Lincoln’s presidential Cabinet, his aspirations conflicted with his wife’s activism. Frances often felt she couldn’t be as vocal as Tubman or Martha C. Wright, who attended the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls and worked alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to seek women’s suffrage. But even when Frances limited her activism out of respect for Henry, she pushed him to value the greater good over his political aspirations.

In The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights, Dorothy Wickenden recounts the friendship between Seward, Wright and Tubman and the ways their influence shaped American history. Wickenden is the executive editor of The New Yorker and the bestselling author of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West. She brings a reporter’s eye for detail to this complex history, which spans from 1821 to 1875 as Seward and Wright fight for abolition and Tubman serves on the front lines of both the Underground Railroad and the Civil War.

Wickenden’s detailed account of these women and their friendship weaves together Tubman’s escape from enslavement, the complexities of Lincoln’s early slavery policy, the beginnings of the women’s rights movement in the U.S. and their imperfect intersections. Using primary sources such as the women’s own letters, Wickenden invites readers to take a closer look at the path of American progress and the women who guided it.

Dorothy Wickenden invites readers to take a closer look at the path of American progress and the women who guided it.

Pipe Dreams

When your subject is the humble but essential toilet, bathroom humor is unavoidable. So expect a few potty jokes in Chelsea Wald’s very interesting Pipe Dreams.

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