The Valley of Amazement
by Amy Tan (Ecco)
The “Joy Luck Club” author’s latest explores the courtesan houses of Shanghai at the turn of the 19th century, as well as the relationships of Chinese mothers and daughters that are her trademark. As the story begins, Violet, half-Chinese and deserted by her American mother, is the city’s most respected madam, having started her career as a “virgin courtesan.” Spanning industrial-revolution San Francisco as well as both provincial and urban China, Tan explores the ugly treatment of women through three generations in both Eastern and Western culture.
The Heart of Everything That Is The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend
by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (Simon & Schuster)
Long forgotten to history, Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud (1821-1909) is the only Native American leader to defeat the United States in war. What drove him to fight was the US Army’s post-Civil War encroachment on the lands by the Sioux’s sacred Black Hills. The 1866-1868 battle, dubbed Red Cloud’s War, ended in a massacre of US soldiers — and put Washington on notice that if they wanted Indian lands, they would have to die for it. (Of course, Red Cloud’s victory was short-lived).
Sorry! The English and their Manners
by Henry Hitchings (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
English author Hitchings (“Who’s Afraid of Jane Austen”) explores his nation’s take on polite conduct, from the Middle Ages — “One shouldn’t attack an enemy while he is defecating” — to the Twitter age — “Don’t use sock puppets to praise yourself.” Hitchings concludes that good manners have evolved. And he can’t resist a dig at Americans, singling out John McEnroe’s act at Wimbeldon in 1977: “As charming as a dead mouse in a loaf of bread.”
Alice in Tumblr-Land And Other New Generation Fairy Tales
by Tim Manley (Penguin)
Traditional fairy tales too old-school for you? Long Island native Manley drags them into the 21st century with his short LOL tweaks. The Ugly Duckling, for instance, makes a few appearances: “The Ugly Duckling still felt gross compared with everyone else. But then she got Instagram, and there’s this one filter that makes her look awesome.” And there’s this: “After college, the Three Billy Goats Gruff moved to Brooklyn and started an indie rock band.”
Dr. J The Autobiography
by Julius Erving and Karl Taro Greenfeld (Harper)
Julius Erving lost his virginity to a step-cousin at age 13, and it was all over after that. After turning pro, he writes, “One of my first discoveries about life on the road in the ABA is that there are an awful lot of girls, who will cost you some valuable ZZZs.” And he later admits, “There is something wrong about how I treat women,” recalling a “run of eight women in eight days.” One fun nugget: When Dr. J meets Bill Russell for the first time, Russell says he thought Erving — misspelled as Irving in the Boston Globe — was a Jewish kid.