Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Books

Margo's picks

Recommendations from Times book editor Margo Hammond:

By MARGO HAMMOND
Published March 12, 2006

MOM's CANCER by Brian Fies (Abrams Image, $12.95, 128 pp)

This unflinchingly honest graphic novel is a welcome departure from the excess sentimentality that followed the death of Dana Reeve, widow of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, from lung cancer. In words and images, Brian Fies tells the story of his mother's battle with stage four metastatic lung cancer and its impact on his family. First posted online as an emotional outlet, the illustrated story became such an inspiration to families undergoing similar experiences that Abrams Image decided to issue it in book form. It won the 2005 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic.

SOUND AND FURY: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship by Dave Kindred (Free Press, $27, 368 pp)

I know there have been umpteen books about Muhammad Ali, but this one is about both Ali and Howard Cozell. As the Edith Wharton verse that serves as an epigram for this engrossing biography puts it, "There are two sources of light,/ The candle, and the mirror that reflects it."

A YEAR IN THE WORLD: Journeys of a Passionate Traveler by Frances Mayes (Broadway, $26, 448 pp)

Most of us think of Frances Mayes in Tuscany (she's the author of Under the Tuscan Sun), but she does get to other places. This is a series of essays on places from Andalucia to Turkey's Lycian Coast. Mayes also reveals her next plan: to open a cafe "just outside the town of 10,000" where she grew up in south Georgia. She even has a name for it: The Yellow Cafe. "Roads always lead to Rome/home," she concludes. "They always have."

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN by Annie Proulx (Scribner's, $9.95, 55 pp)

You saw the movie, now read Proulx's exquisite short story that inspired it. Originally published in the New Yorker, it has recently been put out in book form. When Larry McMurtry, who along with Diana Ossana adapted Proulx's story for the screen, accepted his Oscar, he paid tribute to Proulx's storytelling. "And finally I'm going to thank all the booksellers of the world," he said. "Remember, Brokeback Mountain was a book before it was a movie. From the humblest paperback exchange to the masters of the great bookshops of the world, all are contributors to the survival of the culture of the book. A wonderful culture, which we mustn't lose. Thank you."

FLORIDA FAVORITE: Escape to the Everglades by Edwina Raffa and Annelle Rigsby (Pineapple Press, $12.95, 100 pp)

Adults may want to read Michael Grunwald's The Swamp (see Craig Pittman's review on Page 1P) to learn about the state of the Everglades in present-day Florida, but kids should check out this tale to find out what the area was like before most of the Seminoles were forced out of Florida during the Seminole wars. Set in 1837, this story is about a 14-year-old boy who is raised by his Seminole uncle when his parents die. Running Boy, later known by the adult name of Will Cypress, must sort out his loyalties, not an easy task for someone whose mother was Seminole and whose father was white.

[Last modified March 11, 2006, 10:54:20]