The Downhill Lie
by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, $22)
Give Carl Hiaasen credit for turning a shameless bid for Father’s Day gift buyers into an entertaining read, said Janet Maslin in The New York Times. Though this slim account of Hiaasen’s return to recreational golf after a 32-year hiatus is “skimmable” in parts, his “foolproof comic timing” and “fine-tuned sense of the absurd” will please even fathers who wouldn’t recognize a low fade if it hit them.
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Everyday Drinking
by Kingsley Amis (Bloomsbury, $20)
When it came to drinking, British novelist Kingsley Amis was “reflexively opposed to snobbish appeal,” said Eric Felten in The Wall Street Journal. Amis’ fans will not be surprised that the first of the “general principles” he shares in this “wickedly funny” collection of old drinking columns is that, within reason, a host buying alcohol should always go for quantity over quality. And you can be sure his hangover cures are based on experience.
Inventing Niagara
by Ginger Strand (Simon & Schuster, $25)
It’s annoying when a writer believes that the story of her obsession with a subject is as interesting as the subject itself, said Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times. Several of Ginger Strand’s other narrative gambits may also try your patience, but the author does have some “startling, interesting things to say” about Niagara Falls and its history. To Strand, the legendary honeymoon destination is a “monument to the ways America falsifies its relationship to nature.”
Leisureville
by Andrew D. Blechman (Atlantic Monthly, $25)
Andrew Blechman is more disturbed by Sun Belt retirement communities than his readers likely will ever be, said Glenn Ruffenach in The Wall Street Journal. In Leisureville, Blechman “sounds the alarm” about all the golf, tennis, and sex he witnessed in one gated utopia in Florida. But because he is a “thorough reporter,” his chronicle reveals that the need for companionship, much more than hedonism, motivates these seniors.
The River Queen
by Mary Morris (Holt, $24)
Mary Morris’ second memoir never lives up to its premise, said Kevin Nance in the Chicago Sun-Times. When her father dies and her only daughter leaves for college, the Brooklyn-based author decides to take a Huck Finn–ish odyssey down the Mississippi River in a decrepit houseboat. Unfortunately, there’s a “slack, dispirited quality” to many of the adventures she recounts, and her end-of-the-journey epiphanies feel “unearned and possibly contrived.”
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Trump-Putin: would land swap deal end Ukraine war?Today's Big Question Ukraine ready to make 'painful but acceptable' territorial concessions – but it still might not be enough for Vladimir Putin
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The truth about sunscreenThe Explainer The science behind influencer claims that sun cream is toxic
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Blue whales have gone silent and it's posing troubling questionsUnder the radar Warming oceans are the answer
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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.”