You and your strapping Caucasian friends are looking forward to a pleasant vacation on the shore, perhaps hooking up with equally comely and tall teenagers, and then romping on a farm collective—that’s right, it’s one Hot Summer! Part Grease, part unintentional stoner epic, this utterly unstoppable 1960s
There are some things you just can’t do in Manhattan. Bungee jumping and gambling, for example. But there are some things you can do, and believe it or not one of them is kayaking—and it’s free. With a kayak, life jacket, and a paddle—and a little
Marilynne Robinson’s recent book Gilead wears its acclaim and awards like a hairshirt, but it’s her earlier novel Housekeeping that mesmerized me. The story of two girls and a nearby lake that seems to swallow everyone they love is a rich show-stopper of style and insight. This
While I don’t think I’ll ever succumb to listening to books instead of reading them, I am regularly inclined to revisit something I have read by having a go at the audio version. I was amused and fascinated by Bob Dylan’s memoir Chronicles but thought it suffered
And so the learner becomes the master. In 1978 the original Battlestar Galactica was one of many space operas riding the coattails of Star Wars’ success; in 2003 the Sci-Fi Channel aired a three-hour “reimagined” Battlestar Galactica mini-series with more drama, excitement, and pathos than all three
You’ve seen his endearing drawings in brother Wes’s The Royal Tenenbaums; catch more of Eric Chase Anderson’s work in his new “novel with maps,” Chuck Dugan Is AWOL. A couple steps up from Lemony Snicket, the novel takes its reader-viewers along for an exciting, but gentle,
A slender novel that does Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues proud, The Portrait by Iain Pears is an unforgettable vengeance scenario. When retired painter Henry MacAlpine lures famed critic (and former patron) William Nasmyth to a lonely isle off the Brittany coast for a final portrait, both men’s pasts
Syndicate Design’s cards are so pretty you'll want to send a letter to everyone you know. Or at least the people you like. Printed by Aardvark Letterpress, Syndicate chooses gorgeous papers and rich inks to match clean, clever, and often offbeat designs. Buy a few of their
Love Sherlock Holmes? Love The Alienest series? Caleb Carr was commissioned by the Conan Doyle estate to write a new Holmes mystery, and so bore The Italian Secretary, a faithful period romp where Holmes and Watson go traipsing off to Scotland to help the queen, with all their antiquated phrasing
West of Lillie’s Bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn, is a weed-tattered lot, and south of that is the Erie Basin, slated to become the world’s largest Ikea. Presided over by its eponymous owner, the bar shuns the neighborhood’s crossroads status and sticks to being a place
