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THIS IS THE PLACE

WOMEN WRITING ABOUT HOME

A compilation that delights on many levels and will appeal to anyone who has struggled or embraced the idea of home sweet...

A diverse collection of essays that delve into the fraught concept of home as both a physical and emotional space.

Editors Kahn (Horses that Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith, 2008) and McMasters (Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town, 2008) both contribute essays, and the other contributors vary widely in their viewpoints and characteristics, including geographic location, ethnicity, culture, religion, age, and sexuality. Yet common themes and motifs weave throughout the book—e.g., mothers and maternal figures and the significance of landscape, which assumes the starring role in the pieces by Terry Tempest Williams and Pam Houston. For other writers, home failed to offer refuge and became a place of danger or emotional strain, such as Amanda Petrusich’s home near the Indian Point nuclear plant. Elsewhere, something as mundane as a garage door opener triggers emotional turmoil for the once-homeless Maya Jewell Zeller. Tara Conklin explores the issues involved in leaving your hometown and never really finding home, while Claudia Castro Luna chronicles her struggle to feel at home in America after leaving El Salvador. McMasters’ essay on leaving the city and beginning a new life in a country farmhouse is intense and raw. When a vacation home becomes a permanent residence, she discovered, dreams often shatter: “I thought we would bloom in the country; M. took root, but I withered. I tried growing things, to offset the blood and brutality that seemed to accompany the country life, but I couldn’t—I am no farmer.” One of the joys of any collection of essays is discovering new writers, and the editors’ inclusion of a concise overview of each woman’s work should help readers explore further. Other contributors include Leigh Newman, Jennifer Finney Boylan, and Dani Shapiro.

A compilation that delights on many levels and will appeal to anyone who has struggled or embraced the idea of home sweet home.

Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-58005-668-7

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Seal Press

Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017

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DYLAN GOES ELECTRIC!

NEWPORT, SEEGER, DYLAN, AND THE NIGHT THAT SPLIT THE SIXTIES

An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...

Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.

The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.

An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.

Pub Date: July 25, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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