Sparkling Reading in a Brilliant Season: Summer Books from New School writers
Life's Short, Talk Fast: Fifteen Writers on Why We Can't Stop Watching Gilmore Girls, edited by Ann Hood (part-time associate teaching professor in the School of Public Engagement), WW Norton.
With a title quoting a mainstay of the philosophy of Lorelai Gilmore, this lively, thoughtful anthology asks: Why, nearly 25 years after it first appeared on television, does this comedy-drama series remain an endlessly revisited, regularly streamed cultural touchstone for so many devoted viewers?
Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy, by Teresa Ghilarducci (professor of economics and policy analysis and director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School), University of Chicago Press.
One of the nation’s preeminent experts on the economics of retirement tells of elders locked into working – not because they love their jobs, but because it’s how they must make ends might. Ghilarducci briskly and compellingly argues for a more humane and realizable social contract. “There is humanity – and at times righteous fury – in these pages,” Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne writes in the book’s foreword.
Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertino (adjunct professor, creative writing), Macmillan.
As Voyager 1 lifts off, carrying its famous “sounds of Earth” golden LP across the solar system, an unusual baby is born in Philadelphia. As a child, she recognizes that she is different, and possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine then enables her to contact extraterrestrial relatives who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. A New York Times reviewer describes this as “a remarkable funny-sad novel” about an outer space visitor for our era.
The Witches of El Paso, by Luis Jaramillo (assistant professor of writing), Simon & Schuster.
A struggling lawyer and her 93-year-old great aunt embark on a quest that crosses borders of space and time in search of a lost child – in the process, discovering (and rediscovering) supernatural gifts, and the powers and price they involve. A debut novel that author Mira Jacob calls a “sexy, smart, and soulful” tale of familial survival in a fractured world.
A Termination, by Honor Moore (graduate faculty, writing program), A Public Space.
“A masterly account,” writes celebrated essayist Vivan Gornick, “of what it meant, in the 1960s, to be a woman of spirit and intelligence plunged into the particular hell that is unwanted pregnancy. Both haunted and haunting, A Termination will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.” To be released in August.
After David, by Catherine Texier (assistant professor of creative writing), ITNA Press.
Ignoring the concerns of friends and family, a 60-something recent divorcee begins having casual sex with younger men she meets online. An ensuing, revitalizing affair with a man nearly half her age tempts her to leave behind complicated memories of a failed marriage. “In the deft, sensuous prose she’s known for,” writes novelist Elizabeth Crane, “Catherine Texier reminds us that women of a certain age still have desire, and still are desired.”
Bushwick's Bohemia: Art and Revitalization in Gentrifying Brooklyn, by Mario Hernandez (Ph.D. in sociology, 2019), Routledge.
A tale of decline and development, culture and commerce, displacement and defiance. Drawing on extensive interviews with residents and a deep dive into the historical record, Hernandez tells the story of a Brooklyn neighborhood’s remarkable odyssey from symbol of post-industrial blight to emblem of hip urbanity.
New Narratives on the Peopling of America: Immigration, Race, and Dispossession, edited by T. Alexander Aleinikoff (dean of the New School of Social Research) and Alexandra Délano Alonso (professor of global studies), Johns Hopkins University Press.
A collection of 20 original essays about the complex tapestry of American identify, contributed by a diverse and stellar lineup of journalists, scholars, activists, and others. One reviewer describes this anthology as “a pathbreaking book…beautifully written.” Another predicts that it will be “read and taught for generations.”
Lauren Leiker is a research assistant and Bruce Cory is editorial advisor at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.