Life Is a Gift
The Zen of Bennett
by Tony Bennett (Harper)
If you teared up at Tony Bennett’s “God Bless America” in San Francisco during the baseball playoffs, this one’s for you. It’s a gentle read — maybe the equivalent of easy listening — filled with vignettes from the great crooner’s life and lots of stories on his showbiz pals — Sinatra, Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong Count Basie and, more recently, Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga. An exception: Bennett’s war stories — liberating a concentration camp, just escaping death by a sniper. These moments, the 86-year-old Astoria native says, are why he became a pacifist.
Life Among Giants
by Bill Roorbach (Algonquin)
A controversial quarterback gets more ink than Tim Tebow in the latest novel from Roorbach (“Big Bend” and “Summers With Juliet”) — this one about the “giant” forces of celebrity, death and sports. At 17, 7-foot-tall David “Lizard” Hochmeyer has a football scholarship to Princeton and promising future when his parents are murdered in what looks like a mob hit. Lizard’s life then takes a turn that includes an affair with a famous ballerina who lives with a rock star, a stint as a celebrity chef, time as the QB for, not the Giants, but the Miami Dolphins — and the quest for revenge.
The Disappearance of Darkness
Photography at the End of the Analog Era
by Robert Burley (Princeton Architectural Press)
Canadian photographer Burley offers a wistful look at film photography as its era comes to a close. Using a 4-by-5 film camera, he shows us the implosions of giant Kodak factory buildings in upstate Rochester; conversion of Waltham, Mass., Polaroid buildings to retail and offices; destruction of film factories in Canada and Europe; as well as stores such as Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kan., which received film from around the world after announcing Jan. 19, 2011 would be the last day it developed Kodachrome.
A Drop of Chinese Blood
by James Church (Minotaur Books)
Maybe this author could teach Gen. Petraeus a thing or two about keeping secrets. Described as “a former Western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia,” the writer known as James Church has kept his real identity under wraps through five mystery novels about North Korean police officer Inspector O. In the new book, we meet O’s nephew, Major Bing, the Chinese state security chief. We also meet Madame Fang, the most beautiful woman in the world, as she disappears over the North Korean border. Enter Uncle O.
Dogfight
The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse
by Calvin Trillin (Random House)
Following his success with “Deciding the Next Decider,” about the 2008 election, New Yorker writer Trillin has put his stamp on the just-concluded campaign. If your longing for the days of Herman Cain (“Although his patter in debates could tickle/Cain’s pool of Knowledge seemed less pool than trickle”) and Michele Bachman (“Michele, our belle/Thinks that gays will all be sent to hell”), you’ll enjoy this. And remember, it could always be worse: The campaign could still be going on.