Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “Family Lexicon” by Natalia Ginzburg
Although every bit is factual, Natalia Ginzburg’s “Family Lexicon” reads as though it were a novel. This genre-defying story centers on the author’s family: her Jewish father, Giuseppe Levi, a scientist and avid mountaineer with a quick fuse; her mother Lidia, an optimistic Catholic; and her siblings Gino, Paola, Alberto, and Mario. The backdrop is Mussolini’s fascist Italy, and every Levi remains staunchly anti-fascist. Despite the complications that disrupt their lives, Ginzburg demonstrates how language, storytelling, and specific turns-of-phrase within a family act as anchors, time machines, and doorways, no matter how many years go by.
— Melissa Hohl, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].
Community Bookstore’s pick: “The Inkblots” by Damion Searls
This book is both a biography of Hermann Rorshach, whose iconic test has moved from psychiatric curiosity to pop-cultural trope, and an extended essay on the intersection of art and psychology at the turn of the last century. Rorshach emerges as a rich and fascinating figure — a student of the theories of Freud and Jung, a a lover of art and literature, and a talented artist. From Rorshach’s vantage point, we witness the birth of abstraction in the visual arts, the developments of new theories of the unconscious, and the role of early photography and optical research in the understanding that how we see is fundamental to how we think.
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.communitybookstore.net].
Word’s pick: “How New York Breaks Your Heart” by Bill Hayes
This book of street photography is the perfect love letter to New York City! Hayes’s photos of ordinary New Yorkers gives us an intimate portrait of the city that is captivating and moving. I found this collection to be beautiful and sentimental in all the right ways. Fall in love with New York. Break up with New York. Fall in love. Break up. Start the cycle all over again.
— Mary Thompson, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com].
