My Song: A Memoir
by Harry Belafonte (Knopf)
Singer, actor, activist Belafonte starts his memoir off with a bang. He tells of how he and pal Sidney Poitier flew to Mississippi with $70,000 in cash to support students registering black voters during 1964’s dangerous Freedom Summer in the South. They were met by the KKK in tiny Greenwood. Raised in Jamaica and Harlem, Belafonte befriended the powerful — the Kennedys and Sinatra for example — and worked for the powerless. Writing the book, Belafonte tells Required Reading, “I felt anxious, because revisiting that much history and recalling some of the more tragic moments were a little bit uncomfortable to have to do. Also, there was a lot of joy in recalling some of the better moments.” If his book is made into a film, Belafonte tells us, he’d chose Brad Pitt to play him. Belafonte will speak at the 42nd Street Public Library Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories
by Dr. Seuss (Random House)
Only a true Grinch wouldn’t be excited that some little-known, long-forgotten Dr. Seuss stories are being released in a new book. The seven newly unveiled Seusses were first published in magazines in 1950 and ’51, but never in book form. The title tale, similar in anti-greed message to “The Lorax,” has a duck wishing for just one week’s food but convinced by a cat that he should wish for even more, that he just doesn’t need. “Steak for Supper” introduces such Seussian beasts as an Ikka, a Gritch, a Grickle and a Nupper.
Lionheart
by Sharon Kay Penman (Marian Wood/Putnam)
As historical novelist Penman continues the tale of Richard and his siblings that made her “The Devil’s Brood” a best seller, the battle of wills between the charming king they called Lionheart and the ruler Saladin isn’t even Richard’s biggest problem; back in England, his brother John is scheming to steal Richard’s throne.
Fenway 1912
by Glenn Stout (Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt)
Perhaps a precursor to the Curse of the Bambino, only 850 people saw the Sox win their final game at the Huntington Avenue Grounds to end the 1911 season, and opening day at Fenway in 1912 (shortly after the Titanic sunk) was rained out. You don’t have to be a Sox fan to enjoy this book, but we would’ve enjoyed at least one Bill Buckner reference.
Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem
by Carol Delaney (Free Press)
To mark Columbus Day, here is a decidedly different approach to the man who “discovered America.” Frequently derided today as an imperialist who was out just for riches and slaves, Columbus is presented by Delaney — a professor at Stanford and Brown, as well as a cultural anthropologist — as a very religious man. He had hoped to find a quick route to Asia, where he would trade for gold (and spices) to finance a crusade to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims and prepare for the second coming of Jesus.