Word’s pick: “The Fifty Year Mission” Edward Gross and Mark Altman
You do not have to be a hard-core Trekker to enjoy this unauthorized oral history of the original “Star Trek.” This book is an exploration of a pop-culture phenomenon — one that has dramatically changed the landscapes of television and culture. Gross and Altman not only examine the ideals that set “Star Trek” apart from its contemporaries, but they emphasize the technical aspects that set it ahead of the pack and led to its enormous fanbase — and to the existence of fandom itself. Told in the words of the designers, writers, actors, and producers who made it happen, the genius of this book lies in its editing, which showcases the juiciest gossip while also celebrating the epic spirit of boldly going where no one has gone before.
— Ashanti Wallace-White, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbrooklyn.com].
Community Bookstore’s pick: “Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry
The cathedral of modernism was many-spired, and some of its best-built books fell in the shadow of those quick to the canon. Everyone knows Joyce, Woolf, and Mann, but what about Ivy Compton-Burnett, Henry Green, and Malcolm Lowry? Of the underground modernists, whose works often dabbled in a kind of gorgeous apocalypse, Lowry’s “Under the Volcano” is the most gorgeously apocalyptic. It follows the life and death of an alcoholic, told in one hallucinatory day draped across a sun-speckled, dreamlike Mexico. Lowry himself was lost to drink, but his masterpiece lives on as a shout in the dark — a warning.
— Hal Hlavinka, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.communitybookstore.net].
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “Here Comes the Sun” by Nicole Dennis-Benn
A debut book about vacationers for your summer reading list, this novel introduces a Jamaican community both involved in and displaced by tourism. Following Margot, we see a woman willing to put her well-being and happiness aside, wanting to succeed and protect her younger sister at any cost. But what secrets do the other women in her family keep from her? And what are Margot’s own secrets?
— Jess Pane, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].
