Arts & Entertainment

SUMMER READING

from page 41

Lion of Hollywood:
The Life and Legend
of Louis B. Mayer
(Simon & Schuster;
$35) gives a history
of movie-making
by telling about
one of the giants
working behind the scenes. Author
Scott Eyman, who explores the truths
and images of the man who headed up
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1924 to
1951, tells about Mayer's rise to busi-
ness fortune and his influence in poli-
tics. Traditional family values, while
touted on the Mayer screen, were
compromised in the Mayer home,
where the author also invites readers.

impact of this enduring work.

Hillel Halkin is a prize-winning jour-
nalist who brings a mystery from the
past to public attention. Halkin's latest
book, A Strange Death: A Story

Originating in Espionage, Betrayal
and Death in a Village in Old
Palestine (Public Affairs Books; $26),
came about as the author explored his
new surroundings after moving to
Israel in 1970. At the center of the
mystery is the suicide of a woman who
headed up a British spy ring.

IJ

itiV.BRONX BURNING

Saul Bellow, Erica Jong and Philip
Roth have something in common.
They are among a group of Jewish
American writers who have con-
tributed essays to Who We Are: On

Being (and Not Being) a Jewish
American Writer (Schocken Books;
$24). The essays cover a large range in
geography, religious experience, influ-
ences of mentors and assimilation into
the larger culture. Derek Rubin, who
teaches American studies in the
Netherlands, edited the book.

Shirley Povich loved sports and sports
stories, from the signing of Jackie
Robinson by the Dodgers to the
Dempsy-Tunney long-count fight. He
reported what he witnessed in the
Washington Post. The late Povich,
sometimes called the dean of
American sportswriters, comes to new
readers through the book All Those
Mornings ... at the Post (Public Affairs
Books; $27.50), a retrospective of his
columns. The selection of pieces to
include was made by former Post
sports editor George Solomon and the
writer's three children, David, Lynn
and TV talk-show host Maury as they
celebrate the 100th anniversary of
their dad's birth.

Harriet Rubin goes
back in history and
comes forward with
analysis as she probes

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2005

42

The Divine Comedy.
Her book, Dante in
Love: The World's
Greatest Poem and
How It Made
History (Simon &
Schuster; $13), makes use of the skills
she developed as a book editor and
passionate reader. The author leads the
way into the medieval world to probe
the conditions, the thoughts and

Politics and base-
ball — and battles
divided according
to both arenas in
1977 New York
— are at the heart
of Jonathan
Miller's Ladies

and Gentleman,
The Bronx Is
Burning: 197Z Basebal4
Politics and the Battle for the Soul of a
City (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; $25).
Mahler, a contributing writer for the
New York Times Magazine, covers the
race for mayor and race as an issue in
baseball. He also addresses a diversity
of problems facing the city in that
year, when crime rates and a power
blackout brought international atten-
tion.

Wi3.11,11t

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist
Explores the Hidden Side of
Everything (William Morrow; $25.95)
looks into money issues in unusual
ways and employs the use of story-
telling. That's because the authors
want to point out that economics is
the study of incentives regardless of
activities. All sorts of groups — from
real-estate agents to crack gangs —
enter the subject matter. Author
Steven Levitt brings economic insight,
while co-writer Stephen Dubner
applies journalism skills.

MEMOIRS

Peggy Lipton doesn't
appear to keep
many secrets. Her
seemingly tell-all
book, Breathing
Out (St. Martin's
Press; $24.95),
brims with tales of
lovers and drugs as
well as parenthood
and stardom.

Lipton, who gained public attention
in the TV series The Mod Squad
includes photos of family and famous
friends, and the images show her at
different times of her life.

Goldie Hawn's comedic antics don't
hold center stage in her memoir,

Goldie: A Lotus Grows in the Mud

(Putnam; $25.95). While describing
her rise to super stardom, she spot-
lights the development of the values
that came to guide her. Family mem-
bers, including a Jewish mother, take
the prominent roles. The impact of a
visit to Israel fills a chapter.

An expanded autobiography describ-
ing the life of Lauren Bacall is found
in By Myself and Then Some
(HarperEntertainment; $26.95).
Anyone into Hollywood history will
recognize the names dropped on just
about every page of the star's sequel to
By Myself. Bacall's marriages to
Humphrey Bogart and Jason Robards
Jr. enter into the written picture sup-
plemented by photos from the years
her name dominated theater mar-
quees.

A.J. Jacobs might as well have the
nickname A.Z. Jacobs, that is when it
comes to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
He read the volumes A-Z and tells
about the results in The Know It Alk

-

-

One Man's Humble Quest to Become
the Smartest _Person in the World
(Simon & Schuster; $25). Picking and
choosing facts to add to the humor of
his presentation, Jacobs also jokes
about the effects on his marriage, his
work and a complicated relationship
with his dad, who made his own
attempt to read Britannica.

Them: A Memoir of Parents (The
Penguin Press; $29.95) was not
intended to flatter. Francine du Plessix
Gray recalls her mother and stepfather,
Tatiana and Alexander Liberman, as
hostess and host of New York's elite
while he worked as the art director of
Vogue. The author also recalls the cou-
ple's absence during difficult times in
her life. With the backdrop starting in
the middle years of the 20th century,
the book covers Tatiana's death in
1991 and the very different life Alex
came to lead.

Eli Wallach, almost 90, most recently
appeared in the film Mystic River and
the upcoming King of the Corner, and
he's looking for more work. Wallach
tells about all he's done — in film,
theater and elsewhere — on the pages

of The Googh the

Bad and Me: In
My Anecdotage
(Harcourt; $25).
The new author,
one of the first
students at the
legendary Actors
Studio, tells lots
of star stories and
brings his wife of 57 years, actress
Anne Jackson, into the mix. The cou-
ple, acting royalty, recently gained the
tides King and Queen of Brooklyn,
where his dreams of stardom grew.

SHORT
STORIES

Joan Silber has two overriding subjects
in the tales of Ideas of Heaven: A Ring
of Stories (WW. Norton & Company;
$23.95). Religion and sex make appear-
ances throughout the work. Although
separate stories, there are links as a
minor element in one becomes a central
element in the next. A glamour-hungry
woman in France, a Renaissance poet in
Venice and missionaries in late 19th-
century China are among her characters.

Referred Pain and
Other Stories by
Lynne Sharon
Schwartz
(Counterpoint; $24)
indudes domestic
dramas and dark
comedies in this
collection of 12
tales. The author,
who has written
books of fiction and non-
fiction, places some of her characters in
worlds of fantasy as they appear to be
living ordinary lives. "Hostages of
Fortune," for instance, describes a cou-
ple raising two imaginary children.

Jay Neugeboren covers many subjects
through 12 short stories in News from

the New American Diaspora and Other
Tales of Exile (University of Texas Press;
$16). The author, represented in more
than 50 anthologies, uses a diversity of
subjects to explore physical and emo-
tional displacement. Deep issues are at
stake whether the narrative has to do
with Torah or popular sports.

❑

Suzi Brozman, Bob Menaker and other
writers for the Atlanta Jewish Times con-
tributed to this report.