Back to School Reading List: Powers, Bierman & Keim, and Kushner
As kids are heading back to school, I, for one, am still soaking up summer activities while I still can: paddle boarding, pickleball, and reading on the porch.
For those of you taking end-of-summer trips or traveling for Labor Day, I suggest checking out the Writers on a New England Stage podcast! It’s all of the events in one convenient spot: wherever you listen to your podcasts. Relive the conversations you loved or catch up with authors you missed! June’s events with Doris Kearns Goodwin and Mo Rocca are already up on the podcast.
Our next Writers on a New England Stage event will be Pulitzer Prize winner, Richard Powers on October 1, so I’m preparing with his award-winning book The Overstory. If you are a Music Hall member, join us at Book Club on September 9 to discuss it—if you’re not a member, it’s only $60 to join for the whole year for the whole household!
For readers of Andre Dubus III, Joyce Carol Oates, Amor Towles, Christina Baker Kline, and Margaret Atwood, Powers’ new book, Playground, will surely fill the void this fall! Playground is set in the world’s largest ocean—the last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game—and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity.
In other book news: I’m devouring Meet the Neighbors and When the Ice is Gone by next week’s authors: Brandon Keim and Paul Bierman. Our dear friend, Jamey French will moderate this “double bill” author event on Wed., August 28, and will cover the human impact on both our animal neighbors and on the world’s ice sheets. I hope to see many of you at this truly inspiring and insightful event!
And a new author event dropped in recently with Rachel Kushner and her new book Creation Lake on Sat., September 14. Called “one of the most gifted authors of her generation” (NYT Book Review), Kushner’s new book is a propulsive page-turner about a secret agent who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France. This book is on nearly every Most Anticipated list, so don’t miss out on one of the hottest books of the fall!
I hope to see you all soon, and Happy Reading!