Guts
by Robert Nylen
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I’m Down
by Mishna Wolff
(St. Martin’s, $24)
Mishna Wolff isn’t seeking our pity when she tells us that she didn’t cut it as a black girl, said Tanner Stransky in Entertainment Weekly. This “buoyant” look back by a white author who spent her early years trying too hard to fit in with black schoolmates in Seattle “explains everything as simply a matter of fact, which is endearing.” Wolff later found it just as difficult to blend with wealthy private-school kids. But the book’s tone remains light, and often hilarious, thanks to the “child-goggles” Wolff peers through as she shares her memories.
Home Game
by Michael Lewis
(Norton, $24)
“There’s always an audience” for fathering memoirs, said Josh Benson in The New York Observer. This one, by Moneyball author Michael Lewis, succeeds in part by setting many pages in Paris, where jokes can be made at the expense of the French. His modest
journey of self-discovery through child-rearing tells us nothing about parenting that every parent doesn’t already know. But Lewis is an “effortlessly prolific writer and storyteller.” He’s produced a “nice book, full of nicely told stories.”
Red and Me
by Bill Russell with Alan Steinberg
(HarperCollins, $25)
Red Auerbach’s “genius” as a basketball coach was that he related to every player individually, said former NBA great (and U.S. senator) Bill Bradley in The New York Times. In this “beautiful book,” the player most responsible for bringing Auerbach and the Celtics a string of championships revisits a long relationship that began with mutual respect and grew despite differences in background and character. Russell “might object to my use of the word ‘love,’” but “that’s what sits at the heart” of his story.
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Weapons: Julia Garner stars in 'hyper-eerie' psychological thrillerThe Week Recommends Zach Cregger's 'top notch' new film opens with 17 children disappearing at exactly the same time
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Freakier Friday: Lohan and Curtis reunite for 'uneven' but 'endearing' sequelThe Week Recommends Mother-and-daughter comedy returns with four characters switching bodies
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Al fresco art: the UK's best sculpture parksThe Week Recommends Soak up the scenery with a stroll through these open-air galleries
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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.”