Word’s picks: “Fay Wray and Robert Riskin,” by Victoria Riskin
Iconic “King Kong” star Fay Wray’s daughter Victoria comes up with an Empire State Building-sized winner with this thoughtful memoir, which also serves as a fascinating history of Hollywood in its rollicking 1930s prime.
Mike Lindgren, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com].
Community Bookstore’s pick: “Dirt,” by William Bryant Logan
This book, subtitled “The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth,” combines natural history, philosophy and memoir. Botanist William Logan Bryant produces an extended meditation on life on earth from the point of view of “that substance from which we all arise and to which we all must return.” A funny, poetic, and deeply re-orienting work.
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.communitybookstore.net].
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “The Word For Woman Is Wilderness,” by Abi Andrews
This thoughtful exploration into a woman’s excursion to the Alaskan wilderness is the antithesis of Krakauer’s “Into the Wild,” tempered by homage to Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” It reclaims nature and the tendency of adventure and travel writing to feel gendered by being fiercely feminist, without ever being overly so. As young women discover, reclaim, explore, and expand their roles as women in the world, this is an empowering, meditative book to take in.
— Rebecca Fitting, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].
