The Bottom of the Harbor
by Joseph Mitchell (Pantheon)
In celebration of the centennial of the fabled New Yorker reporter’s birth, his classic collection from 50 years ago is being re-released. Mitchell wrote about outsiders, fringe people and, in particular, the New York waterfront when it was peopled with characters worth writing – and reading – about. There’s Louis Morino of the late Seaport eatery Sloppy Louie’s in “Up in the Old Hotel”; George H. Hunter and a Staten Island cemetery in “Mr. Hunter’s Grave”; and lots more.
Bombay Anna
by Susan Morgan (University of California Press)
The life of Anna Leonowens was really more interesting than what was portrayed by Deborah Kerr in “The King and I.” Not a mere governess, the real Anna did help with the King of Siam’s 82 (!) children, but she also went on to establish herself as an author and lecturer, suffragist in Canada, journalist in Russia and Sanskrit scholar in Germany.
Free Byrd
The Power of a Liberated Life
by Paul Byrd (Howard Books)
Byrd, a journeyman pitcher now with the Cleveland Indians, writes how he’s maintained a Christian lifestyle despite the temptations of a baseball life – which for him include cheating on the mound, cheering against his teammates and pornography. While Byrd’s comparing his big league debut versus Randy Johnson to the story of David and Goliath is a bit over the top, baseball-loving Required Reading was attracted by the book’s clever title.
Telex From Cuba
by Rachel Kushner (Scribner)
Kushner’s atmospheric debut novel tells of an American community driven from Cuba in 1958 by the Castro revolution, through the eyes of young friends Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites. The two live with their families in a gated enclave flush with 300,000 acres of United Fruit Company sugar cane fields. For young ‘uns, the telex of the title is sort of an old-school e-mail.
The Flirt
by Kathleen Tessaro (Avon)
Would-be actor Hughie Armstrong Venables-Smythe is handsome, but doesn’t have much else going for him – until he sees an ad in the paper. He becomes a professional flirt, a modern-day courtier hired to help bored housewives and husbands desiring to get their neglected wives off their backs. His professional flirting is so successful Hughie tries it out on the real object of his affections.