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Events planned for this summer will celebrate Edith Wharton’s legacy and benefit the Mount. (David Dashiell) |
Shelf Life
Celebrating Edith Wharton
The administrators of Edith Wharton’s country estate in Lenox have retired their Save the Mount blog. While foreclosure has been staved off, the estate has organized a number of ticketed events this summer to celebrate Wharton’s legacy and bring in revenue.
On July 23 to 25 the Mount will host the inaugural Berkshire WordFest. Appearing will be New Yorker staff writers Susan Orlean, Tad Friend, and Judith Thurman; former Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl; humorist Roy Blount Jr.; radio journalist John Hockenberry; and about a dozen other authors.
Also of special note on the Mount’s calendar is the Wharton Salon, which in August will present a theatrical production of Wharton’s novella “Summer,” a tale of sexual awakening and coming of age set in 1890. The Wharton Salon’s inaugural season last summer was a sellout.
Tickets for all events at www.edithwharton.org.
Children’s books honored
An illustrated history of children who marched in a historic civil rights demonstration and a mystery novel involving middle-schoolers in Manhattan were honored this month with Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, established in 1967.“Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary” by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking) is the nonfiction winner. Documentary photographs and interviews focus on the youngest members of the 1965 march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery.
The fiction winner is “When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead (Random House). Earlier this year it won the John Newbery Medal, the top prize for children’s books.
“I Know Here” by Laurel Croza and illustrated by Matt James (Groundwood) is the winner in the picture book category. It captures the trepidations of a girl whose family is moving from a familiar home.
The judges for this year’s awards were Julie Just, children’s book editor of The New York Times Book Review; author Gregory Maguire; and Martha V. Parravano, executive editor of The Horn Book Magazine.
Rakoff to headline series
David Rakoff, a witty social commentator, frequent contributor to the radio show “This American Life,” and visiting writer at Lesley University, will be the headliner on June 30 for the university’s summer reading series.
Rakoff’s third collection of essays, “Half Empty,” will be published in September. The series, beginning Friday, features Lesley faculty members. On Saturday, Jane Brox will read from her new book, “Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). The sweep of “Brilliant” extends beyond farming, the focus of her three previous books.
Also appearing in the series will be fiction writers Hester Kaplan, Rachel Kadish, and William Lychack.
Readings begin at 7 p.m. at Marran Theater in the McKenna Student Center, 47 Oxford St., Cambridge.
Coming out
■“The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America” by Stefanie Syman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)■“Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math” by Alex Bellos (Free Press)
■“Family Ties” by Danielle Steel (Delacorte)
Pick of the week
Erik C. Barnum of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., recommends “Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin” by Hampton Sides (Doubleday): “Riveting is the first word that comes to mind to describe this brilliant account of a pivotal event in America’s history. If this were fiction, I would fault the author for the outrageous plot and too colorful characters, but I find I must praise him for his impeccable research and completely engrossing writing.”
Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com. 
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