Every Day I Read
Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books, Hwang Bo-reum’s delightful collection of bite-sized essays translated by Shanna Tan, brims with observations on the reading life. Bo-reum—author of the blockbuster novel Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop (2022)—is a companionable writer with a straightforward style and unabashed passion for literature. Her new book presents ways to cultivate and enrich the habit of reading, with reflections on the value of breaking away from the internet, approaching books with intention and exploring new genres.
Bo-reum’s essays are studded with invaluable perspectives. “You Don’t Always Have to Finish It” looks at the importance of letting yourself off the hook if you don’t like a book. In “Underlining and Annotations,” the author admits that she never reads without having a pencil handy, and in “Read Big Books,” she shares tips for tackling lengthy tomes: “[F]ocus on small progress goals,” she writes, “such as reading for thirty minutes, or an hour.” From start to finish, Bo-reum delivers plenty of inspiration. Budding bibliophiles and confirmed bookworms will both savor her heartfelt volume.
Fear Less
Tracy K. Smith’s Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times couldn’t have arrived at a more urgent moment. In this earnest, compassionate volume, Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former U.S. Poet Laureate, proposes poetry as a source of solidarity and solace. Poems, she writes, “are built to bridge distances of all kinds: between people and events separated from one another by time, geography, temperament, and belief.”
Part of Smith’s goal with Fear Less is to make poetry more approachable for the uninitiated. To those who find the genre daunting, she offers easy access through clear-eyed assessments of poems by Mark Doty, Joy Harjo and Naomi Shihab Nye, among others. The volume’s closing chapter is a breakdown of the building blocks of poetry: elements like imagery, voice and form. Throughout the book, as Smith explores poetry’s relationship to redemption and grief, she demonstrates the genre’s singular ability to serve as a unifying force. Infused with sincerity and Smith’s unique genius, Fear Less will brighten the season for any bibliophile.
Zen in the Art of Writing
Last published in 1990, Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity, the exuberant, instructive collection from Ray Bradbury, has been reissued in time for the holidays. A master stylist and sci-fi elder statesman, Bradbury (1920–2012) wrote award-winning poems, screenplays, short stories and novels, including Fahrenheit 451 (1953). In this wide-ranging book, he discusses sources of creative inspiration and shares Zen-inflected hints (“work, relax, don’t think”) regarding the writing process.
Bradbury is an endearing presence on the page, and his enthusiasm for writing is delightfully apparent: “[I]f I let a day go by without writing, I grow uneasy,” he admits in the volume’s preface. “Two days and I am in tremor. Three and I suspect lunacy.” The essays, which span 30 years, serve as a miniretrospective of his career, as he reflects on the composition of early short stories and the evolution of classic works like Dandelion Wine (1957). With a new introduction by Dan Chaon, it’s a candid collection from an inimitable author.
Disinheritance
Disinheritance: The Rediscovered Stories celebrates the distinguished career of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927–2013), the award-winning author of 12 novels and numerous acclaimed screenplays (A Room With a View, The Remains of the Day). Bringing together stories published in The New Yorker and other magazines, Disinheritance spans almost six decades and provides a wonderful overview of Jhabvala’s output.
Many of the stories spotlight the educated class in a changing India. In “Before the Wedding,” Maya, the daughter of a government minister, observes the bustling preparations for her arranged marriage, a match that represents the pinnacle of her existence: “She was eighteen, an important person—the bride-to-be.” The story “A Birthday in London” focuses on a group of German Jewish refugees, who take stock of their lives in the lingering wake of World War II. Jhabvala writes with discernment about the dynamics of family and depicts in electrifying detail minor domestic dramas that have major repercussions. Her acute sense of craft—apparent in sentences of lapidary refinement—and ability to depict revelatory moments make Disinheritance an essential collection for literature lovers.
How Ros Ballaster brought Jane Austen’s sartorial world to life.
Jane Austen’s Fashion Bible
A perfectly felicitous mix of imagery and insight, Jane Austen’s Fashion Bible is a dazzling tribute to an author who’s always in vogue. This handsomely designed volume, edited by scholar Ros Ballaster, looks at Austen’s world through the lens of style. The book features illustrations from La Belle Assemblée, a fashion publication popular during Austen’s time, and the visuals create elegant context for excerpts from her manuscripts and letters, as well as beloved novels like Emma and Persuasion.
Fashion Bible was conceived, Ballaster writes, as an “homage to the aesthetic achievement of both the fashion journal, the makers whose skills it showcased and the fiction Austen spun about women’s lives.” Across the pages, style trends of the Regency period take center stage. There are demure morning dresses, opulent frocks for evening and practical costumes for a day spent seaside or on horseback. And, oh, the accessories: cunning fans and feathered bonnets, lace caps and kid gloves. Accompanied by Ballaster’s perceptive analysis of Austen’s work, the illustrations bring the era of Emma to vivid life. Très chic!
