Giant Love, Julie Gilbert
It’s an exploration of how Giant became one of America’s most iconic stories, both on the page and on the screen. Gilbert intertwines three narratives: the fiercely independent life of her great-aunt Edna Ferber, the long research and writing process behind the bestselling novel about Texas oil, land, and social change, and the decades-spanning journey of that novel into George Stevens’s terrific 1956 Hollywood movie epic. Gilbert’s research and personal connection bring warm
VJ, Gavin Edwards
If you’re GenX, you know the importance of MTV in the 80s and 90s. An insider oral history for readers into the early days of MTV through the voices of its original video jockeys themselves. Rather than a distant third-person narrative, author Gavin Edwards weaves together first-hand reflections and interviews from the first VJ pioneers like Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, Martha Quinn, and J.J. Jackson. Their recollections deliver a look at what it was like to be
They Flew, Carlos Eire
A reading meditation on belief, evidence, and the modern mind’s discomfort with the supernatural. Eire is an historian of early modern Christianity who investigates reports of levitation among Catholic saints…. such as Teresa of Avila and Joseph of Cupertino. It’s not to prove or debunk their flights, but to interrogate why modernity feels compelled to do either. The book becomes a philosophical inquiry: What counts as credible testimony? When did Western culture begin to as
Dizzy & Jimmy, Liz Sheridan
A memoir in which actress Liz Sheridan recounts her early-1950s love affair with a young James Dean long before he became a figure of Hollywood lore. Sheridan was a hopeful dancer and aspiring performer in New York City, and met Dean when the two were struggling artists trying to make their way in NYC. Through her memories…. late-night conversations, shared apartments in the Upper West Side, and bohemian wanderings through Manhattan, the book captures the mix of hope, passion
Read Your Mind, Oz Pearlman
Oz Pearlman, a world-renowned mentalist, translates his stage expertise into a practical guide focused on enhancing intuition, reading body language, and mastering the art of persuasion. He avoids overly dense psychological jargon, instead offering actionable ‘hacks’ that readers can apply to business meetings or social interactions. His voice shines through the prose, making the exercises feel less like a guidebook and more like unlocking secret tactics. It skims the surfa
Baby Driver, Jan Kerouac
In her autobiographical novel, Jan Kerouac, daughter of Beat icon Jack Kerouac, delivers an extremely raw journey that mirrors the restless spirit of her lineage while carving out its own identity. It’s gritty prose, and her ability to capture the visceral reality of life on the margins is commendable. Unlike her father’s more romanticized view of the road, Jan provides a necessary female perspective on the 1960s and 70s counterculture, detailing her travels through South Ame
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, David Lipsky
It’s an intimate transcript that captures David Foster Wallace at the precise moment he transformed from a cult writer into an author icon. Based on a five-day road trip during the 1996 Infinite Jest book tour, we follow Lipsky and Wallace through the mundane: diner meals, airport lounges, and long drives through the Midwest…while they engage in conversation. The book functions less like a traditional biography and more like a time capsule; it preserves Wallace’s distinctive
The Wide Wide Sea, Hampton Sides
I love books like this. A subject I’m not too familiar with (Captain James Cook, and his final voyage) and then have Hampton Sides telling it. Tremendous … a masterful work of narrative history. Drawing on extensive research, including the journals of Cook's crew and the oral histories of Indigenous peoples, Sides crafts an all-encompassing, high-stakes adventure. The book chronicles Cook's third voyage, launched in 1776, as he searched for the legendary Northwest Passage
Both Flesh and Not, David Foster Wallace
This book is a posthumous collection of Wallace's essays that showcases his blend of high-octane intellect and profound human empathy. The collection captures Wallace’s evolution from a self-conscious "would-be writer" in the late 1980s to the cultural giant who wrote the title essay, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience”… a masterclass in sportswriting. Other highlights, such as "The Nature of the Fun," provide an intimate, vulnerable look into the writer's psyche, while W
Stella Maris, Comac McCarthy
Published in late 2022, Stella Maris serves as the final literary novel from Cormac McCarthy, released just months before his passing. The novel has an intellectual ambition and it’s a departure from Cormac’s traditional grit. Written entirely as a series of transcripts between a math prodigy, Alicia Western, and her psychiatrist, the book acts as a philosophical vessel for McCarthy’s lifelong obsessions with quantum physics, the nature of language, and the intersection of m
