Baum on Books

It’s been said that if there are raised letters on the jacket cover and the pages have a ragged, hand-cut look, the book’s important. Of course, that doesn’t mean it is, but in the case of Anita Shreve’s new novel, The Stars are Fire , her 18th, the signaling design proves correct. Shreve, who came to fame with The Weight of Water and an Oprah selection, The Pilot’s Wife , both made into movies, has crafted in The Stars are Fire a moving, suspenseful, delicately erotic, landscape-harsh tale of

Despite its odd title, The Huntress is not about hunting, though Alicia Patterson was an excellent shot and a superb horsewoman. What it is, is a biography of the debutante who was the founder and editor of Newsday . The co-authors are Alicia Patterson’s niece, Alice Arlen, who died this past February, and her husband Michael Arlen, a staff writer for years at The New Yorker . Alicia Patterson was quite a mover and shaker. The subtitle of The Huntress gives the chronology: “The Adventures,

Despite its odd title, The Huntress is not about hunting, though Alicia Patterson was an excellent shot and a superb horsewoman. What it is, is a biography of the debutante who was the founder and editor of Newsday . The co-authors are Alicia Patterson’s niece, Alice Arlen, who died this past February, and her husband Michael Arlen, a staff writer for years at The New Yorker . Alicia Patterson was quite a mover and shaker. The subtitle of The Huntress gives the chronology: “The Adventures,

It’s blustery cold, gets dark early, and has been a challenging political season – a perfect storm that suggests it just might be the time to settle in with good escapist fiction. Falling Into the Mob more than qualifies. It’ll make you laugh and hold your attention as you try to figure out how its skillful author will resolve the absurdities and threats surrounding his unlikely hero. Written by veteran journalist and corporate speechwriter Steve Zousmer, Falling Into the Mob is sure to restore

Glow Kids by Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a neuropsychologist and a leading addiction expert, is a scary book. But it’s an important one, especially if there are young people in your life. The first half of the subtitle encapsulates the book’s theme – “How Screen Addiction is Hijacking Our Kids.” But though the second half of the subtitle – “How to Break the Trance” – implies that all may not be lost, the overwhelming evidence Dr. Kardaras presents about how age-inappropriate video games – he calls

Hell Gate – a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York is well-named because of its powerful and dangerous currents. In 1904 the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the strait and sank, taking down well over 1,000 souls. The worst single-event loss of life in this country until 9/11. Hell Gate’s churning waters, however, don’t stop a group of five graduate students from Poughkeepsie spaced out on drugs from boating through the strait in Dana Wolff’s compelling horror fiction, “The

In his new novel “The Underground Railroad,” Colson Whitehead reimagines a sick and savage period in American history and proves once again that fine fiction immersed in historical facts can often be more truthful – and more powerful – than nonfiction. Almost every schoolchild learns about the Underground Railroad – that secret network of houses, outbuildings and clearings that served as safe houses for slaves fleeing north, particularly in the wake of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act that added the

If you’ve never had the pleasure – and challenge – of reading the witty, trenchant cultural criticism of Arthur Krystal, who’s been called “the George Clooney of the essay world,” you might start with his new collection, “This Thing We Call Literature.” The Clooney reference fits because Krystal’s prose is confident, seductive. There are 10 essays in this slim volume, but you get more bang for your buck because even the prefatory Author’s Note, as well as an extended Postscript, explore the main

What a wild, weird romp award-winning poet and memoirist Michael Ryan pulls off in his debut fiction, “Guy Novel.” Fast-mouth Robert Wilder, a stand-up comic in L.A. is just hours away from getting married, when he stops off at a bank to get money for his honeymoon in Baja. Waiting in line, he spies a gorgeous young woman teller, and, on impulse, offers to drive her home when a raging rainstorm forces the bank to close. He never makes it to his wedding, but he does make it to Baja – with the

It’s rare that a book comes out that’s immediately hailed as definitive, but that’s what happened to Brian Seibert’s monumental and engaging cultural history, “What The Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing.” It’s an intriguing title, which is Seibert’s theme, that tap is both dance and music, movement and sound. When Seibert recently spoke about the book at Southampton Library, he concluded his talk with a brief improvisational performance. The audience went wild. Seibert was delighted, and the