April brings many things to celebrate---Poetry Month, Earth Day, and new Spring publications. Here are a few titles I am looking forward to:
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
I recently watched the HBO mini-series Station Eleven and was again reminded of pandemic survival and the importance of the arts to preserve humanity, so looking forward to another futuristic pandemic and perhaps lessons in the healing powers of wild places.
A fascinating, epic exploration of who gets to record the world’s history—from Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burns—and how their biases influence our understanding about the past.
There are many stories we can spin about previous ages, but which accounts get told? And by whom? Is there even such a thing as “objective” history? In this thought-provoking book, Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses, such as the writers of the Bible, novelists, and political propagandists, influence what becomes the accepted record. Cohen argues, for example, that some historians are practitioners of “Bad History” and twist reality to glorify themselves or their country.
Making History investigates the published works and private utterances of our greatest chroniclers to discover the agendas that informed their—and our—views of the world. From the origins of history writing, when such an activity itself seemed revolutionary, through to television and the digital age, Cohen brings captivating figures to vivid light, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, Winston Churchill and Henry Louis Gates. Rich in complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a revealing exploration of both the aims and art of history-making, one that will lead us to rethink how we learn about our past and about ourselves.
Interesting to think about who will be recording our history…
Randy Rainbow, the man who conquered YouTube with a stylish pair of pink glasses, an inexhaustible knowledge of show tunes, and the most gimlet-eyed view of American politics this side of Mark Twain finally tells all in Playing with Myself, a memoir sure to cause more than a few readers to begin singing one of his greatest hits like “A Spoonful of Clorox” or “Cover Your Freakin’ Face.”
As Randy has said, “There’s so much fake news out there about me. I can’t wait to set the record straight and finally give people a peek behind the green screen.” And set the record straight he does. Playing with Myself is a first-hand account of the journey that led Randy Rainbow from his childhood as the over-imaginative, often misunderstood little boy who carried a purse in the second grade to his first job on Broadway as the host at Hooters and on to the creation of his trademark comedy character. In chapters titled “Pajama Bottoms” (a look back at the days when he wore pajama bottoms on his head to pretend he was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz), “Yes, It’s My Name! Shut Up!” (no explanation necessary...) and “Pink Glasses” (a rose-colored homage to his favorite accessory), Playing With Myself is a memoir that answers the question “Can an introverted musical theater nerd with a Mac book and a dream save the world, one show tune at a time?”
Friends started sharing Randy Rainbow’s videos during the COVID “lockdown” and I was delighted by his creative insights into current events, especially at a time when I needed to laugh!
Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America by Peter Wohlleben, and Jane Billinghurst
Awaken your senses and learn how to be a forest detective—with Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees. German forester Peter Wohlleben teams up with his longtime editor, Jane Billinghurst, as the two write their first book together. They will teach you how to listen to what the forest is saying, no matter where you live or which trees you plan to visit next.
When you walk in the woods, do you use all five senses to explore your surroundings? For most of us, the answer is no—but when we do, a walk in the woods can go from pleasant to immersive and restorative. Forest Walking teaches you how to get the most out of your next adventure by becoming a forest detective, decoding nature’s signs and awakening to the ancient past and thrilling present of the ecosystem around you.
- What can you learn by following the spread of a root, by tasting the tip of a branch, by searching out that bitter almond smell?
- What creatures can be found in a stream if you turn over a rock—and what is the best way to cross a forest stream, anyway?
- How can you understand a forest’s history by the feel of the path underfoot, the scars on the trees along the trail, or the play of sunlight through the branches?
- How can we safely explore the forest at night?
- What activities can we use to engage children with the forest?
Throughout Forest Walking, the authors share experiences and observations from visiting forests across North America: from the rainforests and redwoods of the west coast to the towering white pines of the east, and down to the cypress swamps of the south and up to the boreal forests of the north.
The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs, with contributions by Greg Pliska
What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, Sudoku—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they’re among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A. J. Jacobs set out to determine their benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost.
In The Puzzler, Jacobs meets the most zealous devotees, enters any puzzle competition that will have him, unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik’s Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw. The Puzzler will open readers’ eyes to the power of flexible thinking and concentration. Whether you’re puzzle obsessed or puzzle hesitant, you’ll walk away with real problem-solving strategies and pathways toward becoming a better thinker and decision maker—for these are certainly puzzling times.
The pandemic saw a spike in the sales of jigsaw puzzles and more people read or downloaded newspapers for the daily crosswords. Running throughout the text will be 100+ of the greatest puzzles of all-time plus 10 brand-new puzzles, commissioned by one of America’s top creators, Greg Pliska—plus more original puzzles and a cash prize on the secret contest website that will earn the first reader to crack it a $10,000 prize.
PLAN AHEAD. GET OUTSIDE. THINK SPRING.
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