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In defense of the childless; Justin Cronin’s ‘The Ferryman’... | Presented by
William Morrow
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Reviews and recommendations from critic Ron Charles. Presented by William Morrow
 

 

  By Ron Charles
 Email

St. Martin’s Press; Donald Trump in Waco, Texas on March 25, 2023 (Photo by
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

A book sits at the center of the latest trial involving the much-tried Donald
Trump. In 2019, E. Jean Carroll published a memoir called “What Do We Need Men
For?” (review). The relevant section describes Trump sexually assaulting Carroll
in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s.

The then-president denied Carroll’s accusations. In a statement from the White
House, Trump said, “Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try
to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book.”

The claim that a woman would publicly detail such a humiliating ordeal in order
to “sell a book” suggests much about this defendant’s understanding of women.
And publishing. 

According to BookScan, “What Do We Need Men For?” has sold fewer than 5,000
copies. As usual, the former reality TV star has radically overestimated the
promotional value of his name. 

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Following the instant bestseller City on Fire, “The Godfather for our
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from Don Winslow. Stephen King raves, City of Dreams is “a crime classic.”

 

The details of Carroll’s lawsuit playing out this week in New York have been
expertly covered here and powerfully analyzed here.  

But I’ve been thinking about the skepticism that women face whenever they say
they’ve been sexually assaulted. Such reflexive distrust seems strange. It’s not
as though most of us have experience with crafty women making false rape
claims. 

Or maybe we do. After all, that narrative is built right into our earliest, most
fundamental experiences with literature. 

Even before I knew what sex was, I learned in Sunday school that Potiphar’s wife
falsely accused Joseph of trying to rape her. Then before I’d kissed a girl, I
fell in love with “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which revolves around Mayella falsely
accusing Tom Robinson of rape. And in college, I studied Freud’s “discovery”
that his female patients who remembered being raped were actually projecting
their own fantasies.  

A few stories don’t shape a mind, of course, but those classics are in perfect
harmony with the misogynist suspicion that has informed generations of men. In
her 1975 book, “Against Our Will,” Susan Brownmiller writes, “Male fear of the
false rape charge brought by a lying woman — the old syndrome of Potiphar’s wife
— is written into the rape laws of various states.” 

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Brownmiller concedes, “Fear of false accusation is not entirely without merit in
any criminal case, as is the problem of misidentification, and honest mistake.”
But then she points out, “The irony, of course, is that while men successfully
convinced each other and us that women cry rape with ease and glee, the reality
of rape is that victimized women have always been reluctant to report the crime
and seek legal justice.” 

It’s easy to frame this week’s case as a contest between what Carroll says and
what Trump says. But it’s also a contest between what she says and what our
literature has been saying over and over again for hundreds of years.

REVIEW


DON WINSLOW DELIVERS A MOB NOVEL IN CLASSIC STYLE

By Maureen Corrigan ●  Read more »

 

Copyright 2023 American Booksellers Association

The covid-19 pandemic sparked inspiring reports about the survival — even
triumph — of independent bookstores. I love those stories, but they make me
nervous. No one should be lulled into imagining that brick-and-mortar bookstores
are sitting on Easy Street. Selling books will always be a razor-thin business
with high fixed costs. 

ADVERTISEMENT



 

This is where you come in: Tomorrow is the 10th annual Independent Bookstore
Day. It’s your chance to celebrate those literary businesses that contribute so
much to our communities. More than a thousand indie bookstores across the
country will be offering in-person and virtual events, readings, musical
performances, contests and classes for kids. Use this interactive map to find a
participating store near you.  

Saturday only you can buy exclusive Indie Bookstore Day merchandise, including
literary tote bags, mugs, T-shirts and more (full catalogue). I’ve got my eye on
the Bibliophile: Banned Books 500-Piece Puzzle, designed by Jane Mount. The On
My Way to the Bookstore onesie, featuring art by Richard Scarry, is perfect for
anybody with a tiny reader here or on the way. 

If you can’t make it to a bookstore, Bookshop.org, the indie alternative to
Amazon, will be offering free shipping on Saturday and Sunday. (Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

And through Sunday, Libro.fm, the audiobook provider for indie bookstores, has
more than 1,000 audiobooks on sale for $5 or less. 

Best-selling novelist Celeste Ng is this year’s Indie Bookstore Day ambassador.
“In an increasingly impersonal world,” Ng says, “independent bookstores are an
antidote to feeling disconnected and dehumanized. Let’s make sure they not only
survive, but thrive.”

REVIEW


IN DEFENSE OF THE CHILDLESS

By Becca Rothfeld ●  Read more »

 

 

Books to screens

 * “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” finally debuts today in theaters. Our
   critic calls it “decidedly and joyfully innocent” (review). The movie is
   based on Judy Blume’s much-banned novel, which since 1970 has been blamed for
   corrupting girls with the knowledge that they have physical bodies (story).
   Book World’s Nora Krug recently reread the book with her 13-year-old daughter
   (“For once we agreed”). I also enjoyed the discussion of the novel on “First
   Edition,” a new podcast from BookRiot co-founder Jeff O'Neal (listen). 
 * “Tom Jones” defeated me in college, but I’m looking forward to the upcoming
   Masterpiece version, which begins Sunday night (trailer). The four-part
   series on PBS stars Solly McLeod, Sophie Wilde and Hannah Waddingham.
   Fielding’s 1749 classic — that’s the year of publication and almost the
   number of pages — tells the story of a young man making his way in the
   world. 
 * “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,” starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope
   Wilton, opens today in theaters. It’s based on Rachel Joyce’s 2012 debut
   novel about a retired man who decides, against all reason, to walk 500 miles
   across England to see an old colleague in hospice. I remember sobbing through
   much of the novel (review). I broke down about 30 seconds into this trailer. 

REVIEW


JUSTIN CRONIN’S ‘THE FERRYMAN’ CARRIES READERS FROM MYSTERY TO MAYHEM

By Ron Charles ●  Read more »

 

Reginald Dwayne Betts, founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, speaks about placing
libraries in prisons at the National Building Museum in Washington in 2022 (File
photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post) 

Yesterday, the “Today” show’s book club, Read with Jenna, picked “Chain-Gang
All-Stars,” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. It’s a superb, challenging choice.
Since reading that shocking novel, I can’t stop thinking about America’s obscene
love affair with incarceration (review). The United States is the world’s
leader, with about 2 million people locked away in prisons and jails. 

There are many complicated factors to this crisis, but the vast majority of
incarcerated adults are functionally illiterate. And illiteracy is a strong
predictor of recidivism. So what are we waiting for? 

This week, Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-Mo.), Sheila Jackson Lee
(D-Tex.) and Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) introduced the Prison Libraries Act. Their
legislation would spend $60 million over six years to expand library and
education services in prisons across the country. 

“It has long been proven that providing education in jails and prisons improves
rehabilitative outcomes, reduces recidivism rates, and ultimately improves
public safety and reduces incarceration costs,” Jackson Lee said in a statement.
“It is time we rethink and restore humanity for everyone within our community.
Those returning from jail or prison should be better, not worse off when coming
home.”

Among the supporters of this bill is the celebrated poet Reginald Dwayne Betts,
founder and CEO of the nonprofit Freedom Reads, which works to build libraries
in prisons. In a statement Betts said, “I once spent three years in prison
without being able to walk into a library. I worked 40 hours a month for 23
cents an hour just to have a new book. I know what libraries give and know they
are central to the joy and hope and possibilities held within a book. This bill
is a reminder of how central that is to our world.” 

If this sounds like a good idea to you, let your senators and representative
know that you support the Prison Libraries Act (H.R. 2825).

And if you’d like to donate money or your own books to incarcerated individuals,
check out this list of books to prisoners programs around the country.

REVIEW


‘HAPPY PLACE’ SHOWS THAT EMILY HENRY IS STILL QUEEN OF ROMANCE

By Annie Berke ●  Read more »

 

 

“Rejoice now at this happy news.” Three years after it closed for an $80.5
million renovation, the Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill has finally
set a firm date for its reopening: Nov. 17, 2023. 

I can’t emphasize how exciting this will be for residents in the Washington area
and lovers of the Bard everywhere. (What did Shakespeare really look like?)

The Folger has been extensively redesigned to make the world’s largest
Shakespeare collection more accessible and more interactive for people of all
ages and all levels of knowledge. Among the new features will be an exhibit that
displays the Folger’s unparalleled collection of First Folios — 82 of them. Two
new halls will provide space for rare books and manuscripts; a learning lab for
expanded classes, workshops and readings; and a replica of a 17th-c. printing
press that visitors can try out. 

Guests will also find a cafe and gardens filled with native plants and plants
mentioned by Shakespeare. (Locals, don’t worry: The magnolia tree planted when
the Folger opened in 1932 has been safely preserved.)

And, of course, live performances will return to the Folger’s remarkable replica
of an Elizabethan theater, where I’ve seen so many fantastic Shakespeare
performances. 

We’ll have much more detail about all this as the Nov. 17 opening grows closer,
but it sounds like the Folger has been reconceived both to preserve its
treasures for scholars and to demonstrate its connections to a new age. Dusty
reverence has been brushed aside for vigorous relevance. 

Can’t make it to Washington? Buy your own First Folio this weekend at the New
York International Antiquarian Book Fair: It will only cost you $7.5 million.

REVIEW


IN THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE, WE ARE THE REAL ALIENS

By Annalee Newitz ●  Read more »

 

Four of the 500 covers designed by AI artists for Book.io’s eBook NFT of “Brave
New World,” by Aldous Huxley. (Courtesy of Book.io)

The next revolution in publishing may already be upon us, and I’m not sure if
that’s good or bad. At the Consensus blockchain conference finishing up today in
Austin, Texas, a company called Book.io is giving away 10,000 e-books of “Brave
New World.” Each one is a “decentralized encrypted asset,” like a non-fungible
token on a blockchain.

If I had a bitcoin for every incomprehensible article I’ve read about
blockchains, I’d be a cryptocurrency millionaire, but let me try to explain what
makes these new e-copies of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 classic so special. 

First, remember that when you buy an e-book version of, say, Curtis Sittenfeld’s
“Romantic Comedy” from Amazon, you don’t really own the e-book. You only own a
license to view it. That’s why you can’t sell your e-books or give them away. 

Book.io, in partnership with a blockchain company called the Algorand
Foundation, takes an approach that’s both futuristic and old-fashioned: When you
receive a digital book from Book.io, you actually own it; it’s yours the way a
traditional bound book is yours. If it’s rare, it could become more valuable.
You can give it away and even sell it on an electronic exchange. 

But what are the benefits for publishers? Joshua Stone, the CEO of Book.io,
tells me they’ll love this new e-book platform because for the first time “they
can know who their consumers are, and they can see what else they have, what
other types of books they may purchase.” 

This strikes me as closer to “1984” than “Brave New World,” but Stone assures me
that purchase and reading information on the blockchain is anonymized. I’m only
partially convinced, but, to be honest, I’m only partially comprehending. 

Another curious quality of these “decentralized encrypted assets” is that their
code — or metadata — can be written in such a way that every time an e-book
sells on the secondary market, a royalty would be paid to the author and
publisher. That’s a significant improvement over the used physical book market,
which cuts out authors and publishers completely. 

Not surprisingly, Bertelsmann, which owns Penguin Random House, and Ingram, the
world’s largest book distributor, are investors in Book.io. And so is the
billionaire crypto-enthusiast Mark Cuban. In fact, in a couple of weeks, Book.io
will release an NFT e-book version of Cuban’s 2011 “How to Win at the Sport of
Business.” 

So far, Book.io has sold 130,000 copies of some 70 titles. But Stone tells me
these are still “early days.” Maybe. It might never catch on. Or a few
super-popular genre writers might join the platform, and how we interact with
e-books could be revolutionized in a couple of years.

REVIEW


AN UNAPOLOGETIC ODE TO ANTONIN SCALIA

By Benjamin C. Waterhouse ●  Read more »

 

Censorship statistics compiled by the Office for Intellectual Freedom/American
Library Association.

On Monday, the American Library Association confirmed that 2022 saw “the highest
number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in
libraries more than 20 years ago.” 

The ALA’s annual report, “The State of America’s Libraries,” lays out a daunting
challenge for Americans: “Books are no longer the sole target of attacks
orchestrated by conservative parent groups and right-wing media,” writes Deborah
Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Both school
and public librarians are increasingly in the crosshairs of conservative groups
during book challenges and subject to defamatory name-calling, online
harassment, social media attacks, and doxxing, as well as direct threats to
their safety, their employment, and their very liberty” (full report).

The ALA’s new list of the 13 most challenged books in America gives a clear
indication of what’s driving today’s intolerance. Each of these titles sparked
complaints about allegedly explicit sexual content; more than half of them
involved LGBTQ+ people. The message from censors to queer kids is clear: You are
fundamentally offensive. 

One way to fight back against that particular brand of hate is to check out and
read these books:

 * “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe
 * “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” by George M. Johnson
 * “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison
 * “Flamer,” by Mike Curato
 * “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green
 * “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
 * “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison
 * “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie
 * “Out of Darkness,” by Ashley Hope Perez
 * “A Court of Mist and Fury,” by Sarah J. Maas
 * “Crank,” by Ellen Hopkins
 * “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” by Jesse Andrews
 * “This Book is Gay,” by Juno Dawson

For a deep-dive on past and current practices of censorship, watch “Banned
Books, Burned Books: Forbidden Literary Works,” by Georgetown University
professor Maureen Corrigan (trailer). Many of you will recognize Corrigan as the
book critic for NPR’s “Fresh Air”; she also frequently reviews for Book World
(and, full disclosure, she’s a friend of mine). In this 24-episode series of
lectures streaming on Wondrium, Corrigan explores history’s most famous
censorship battles (“Ulysses,” “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” etc.) along with the
heated debates about race and sexuality that are roiling libraries and
classrooms today (more information).

REVIEW


DENNIS LEHANE’S MASTERFUL NEW NOVEL REVISITS THE TERRAIN OF ‘MYSTIC RIVER’

By Dennis Drabelle ●  Read more »

 

(Courtesy of AudioFile)

AudioFile magazine has launched SYNC, their annual giveaway program for teens.
Each week from now through Aug. 2, you can download — and keep — two free
audiobooks (details). This week’s offerings are “Top Secret: The Battle for the
Pentagon Papers,” an L.A. Theatre Works docudrama by Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy
Aarons; and “You Can’t Say That! Writers for Young People Talk about Censorship,
Free Expression, and the Stories They Have to Tell,” edited by Leonard S.
Marcus.

Future audiobook giveaways will include classics by Lewis Carroll and Langston
Hughes and new works of history, biography, fantasy, romance and adventure.

Now in its 14th year, the SYNC program is a remarkable deal, so spread the word.
(Residents of Florida and Texas are strongly cautioned: Some of these stories
suggest that gay people exist.) 

REVIEW


HOW THE ADVANCED PLACEMENT CURRICULUM UNDERMINED ITS ORIGINAL GOALS

By David Perry ●  Read more »

 

Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, speaks at the Library
of Congress in Washington in 2022. (File photo by Shawn Miller/Library of
Congress.)  

Ada Limón has been reappointed for a second term as the U.S. Poet Laureate. Such
reappointments for an additional year are not uncommon, but this is the first
time that a laureate’s second term will be two years long.

In a statement released this week, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said the
longer second term would give Limón more time to complete several outreach
projects. 

On June 1, Limón is scheduled to unveil a poem she’s written for NASA’s Europa
Clipper mission. Not merely a commemoration of the voyage, her verse will
actually be engraved on the spacecraft that’s set to fly 1.8 billion miles to
Jupiter, where scientists believe the poetry market is thin. 

This fall, Limón has something more earthbound in mind: She’ll launch a
collaboration with the Poetry Society of America that will bring poems to our
national parks.

The author of six poetry collections, Limón is, to my mind, the ideal poet
laureate. (I adored speaking with her for Life of a Poet in 2019.) You can find
her on Instagram and in the New Yorker. Her work is critically acclaimed — her
2018 collection, “The Carrying,” won a National Book Critics Circle Award — but
she also resonates with non-academics, including people who think (erroneously)
that they’re not into poetry.

PERSPECTIVE


THE POETIC GOVERNANCE OF CHILE’S FIREBRAND PRESIDENT

By Ariel Dorfman ●  Read more »

 

Four Way Books

Eugenia Leigh’s new collection, “Bianca,” is hard to read — but harder to look
away from. In these fierce, intimate poems, Leigh writes about motherhood
complicated by mental illness and post-traumatic stress. “I expected to die much
younger than I am now,” she writes in a piece called “Cruelty.” Every one of
these poems is a victory, artistic and personal. 

The First Leaf

I thought I forgave you. Then I took root and became
someone’s mother. This unending dread, ever checking

for his breath. I have never wanted to be less like you
than I do now, daily gauging the venom,

how much of you blights my blood. When my baby wails, I ask
whether I too could beat his body quiet. And when I choose

to be a mother, choose to be tender to my child — a choice
my mangled brain makes each day — my fury surges.

The distance between him alive and him dead
is how well I am. And I think about the woman in the news

who poured water on her sleeping baby’s face. And I
think how for decades, I was grateful you never killed me. How

that was enough to make me think you loved me.
I raged as a child, but never

in the right direction. So when my therapist said
that not killing me yet didn’t mean not killing me ever —

that if I had stayed, I would have died — I had to
watch her get angry to know to get angry.

On the eighth week of the pandemic, my son, whom I sheltered
at home for all that time, found on our fifth-floor balcony

a tiny green leaf the width of his pinky.
The last time we’d strolled outside, the city was frigid. Frost

everywhere we looked. And Dad, let me tell you, the leaf
stunned us both. Unexpected, like the olive branch

snatched by the dove barreling back to the ark.
He refused to let go — the first leaf of all the leaves

my child will ever hold. He looks so much like his father.
Nothing at all like us.

Excerpted from “Bianca,” by Eugenia Leigh (Four Way Books). Copyright © 2023 by
Eugenia Leigh. Reprinted with permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved.

REVIEW


THIS BLOODY, FORGOTTEN CONFLICT SHAPED THE LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON

By Daniel N. Gullotta ●  Read more »

 

Shhhh: Ron and Dawn Charles playing hooky along the Potomac River on April 21,
2023. (Ron Charles/The Washington Post)

Last Friday, as soon as the newsletter went out, my wife announced that we were
taking the rest of the day off. Had she warned me, I would have pre-emptively
mewled my way out of it, but caught unawares, I was powerless to resist. 

We rented bikes in Bethesda and rode them down to Georgetown. Don’t be too
impressed: It’s all downhill. After grabbing chocolate shakes at Good Stuff
Eatery, we took the subway home. 

It’s remarkable how restorative a few hours of disruptive outdoor activity can
feel. Wherever you are, I recommend it. 

Meanwhile, send any questions or comments about the Book Club to
ron.charles@washpost.com. You can read last week’s issue here. Please tell
friends who might enjoy this free newsletter that they can get it every week by
clicking here. And remember, you can find all our books coverage, updated every
day, here.

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