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Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times by Gregory Cowles, Senior Editor, Books.
The singer-songwriter Josh Ritter has a
line I sometimes quote to aspiring writers anxious about balancing their
artistic ambitions with their desire for an audience. “I’m singing for
the love of it,” Ritter proclaims in “Snow Is Gone,” “have mercy on the
man who sings to be adored.” Do your thing, in other words, and let your
fans find you on your home turf. Compromising your principles still
doesn’t guarantee an audience, but you’ll always have to answer to your
idea of yourself.
Sermon’s over! Time
to read.This week’s recommended titles offer up a handful of
characters who refuse to pander to the crowd, from the prickly Princess
Margaret (in Craig Brown’s unconventional biography) to the haughty
fashionista Loulou de La Falaise (in Christopher Petkanas’s oral
history) to the eccentric Keiko, protagonist of Sayaka Murata’s novel
“Convenience Store Woman.”
Times
being what they are, we also suggest a book about the impact of the
opioid crisis, and a graphic novel about the pathologies of race
relations, and Michiko Kakutani’s look at the erosion of objective truth
as a democratic value. Rounding things out are a couple of histories —
one about milk, the other about anti-Semitic violence in Eastern Europe —
and a clutch of debut novels worth tossing in your beach bag.
Read more...
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Source: New York Time
