Yours Ever
by Thomas Mallon
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Thomas Mallon’s book on letter writing is “one of those perfect Christmas gifts to give to bachelor uncles,” said Carolyn See in The Washington Post. Not only does it look nice, “it’s as full of learning as a candy bar chock-full of nuts.” The only problem is that Mallon attempts to cover too much ground. He’ll leap, for instance, from the White House memos of Richard Nixon to Florence Nightingale’s war-front correspondence. The transitions are “dizzying.” Be sure your bachelor uncle possesses “an exceedingly quiet mind.”
The Infinity of Lists
by Umberto Eco
(Rizzoli, $45)
Lists have apparently always fascinated novelist and scholar Umberto Eco, said Albert Mobilio in Bookforum. A list has rhythm, a list “can tell a story,” a list is a potent antidote to the burden of a ceaselessly acquisitive consciousness. “Eco is especially fond of lists that take visual form,” from Joseph Cornell’s shadow boxes to the portraits-in-vegetables created by 16th-century painter Giuseppe
Arcimboldo. In a book that “ranges widely,” Eco proposes that every list is haunted by the infinite variety of things that it excludes.
Memoir: A History
by Ben Yagoda
(Riverhead, $26)
Ben Yagoda’s “all-too-restrained” history of memoir writing does include some interesting insights, said Judith Shulevitz in The New York Times. The reliability of memoirs has been an issue since Daniel Defoe framed his 1719 novel about Robinson Crusoe as if it had been written by the protagonist himself. Yagoda also offers wise counsel about how a reader can tell when an author is trying to deceive. But he “prefers cataloging to philosophizing,” and the subject demands more than his “one thing after another” approach.
The Tyranny of E-mail
by John Freeman
(Scribner, $25)
It’s rare that a book about a problem is better on solutions than diagnosis, said Ben Yagoda in The New York Times. To be fair, Granta editor John Freeman “has some good innings” swinging away at e-mail’s penchant for wasting our time and brain space. But his warnings are undercut by his inclusion of a long history of communication technologies. When you discover that people once feared postcards, shaking your fist at e-mail feels less appropriate than adopting Freeman’s modest tips for avoiding e-mail overload.
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”