On Trails an ingeniously conceived collection
An unconventional grouping captivates, writes Paul Taunton.
On Trails:
An Exploration Robert Moor Simon & Schuster (July 12)
From the line of ants currently invading your cottage, to the highway you drive to get to it, to the information superhighway you surf (instead of actually surfing, hiking or canoeing) while you’re there: all of these are trails, some ingeniously conceived, others ingeniously evolved. Like Tom Vanderbilt’s Traffic, Moor’s book is an appealing mix of the physical and philosophical.
Pond
Claire-Louise Bennett Penguin Random House (July 12)
Originally published in 2015 by a small Irish press, Claire-Louise Bennett’s unconventional collection quickly captured the attention of the literary world. Mysteriously but wryly told by (presumably) a solitary and unnamed narrator, there is a nod to Thoreau’s Walden and parts that might remind readers of Bernd Stiegler’s Traveling in Place and Xavier de Maistre’s A Journey Around My Room. But its greatest impression is that it is unlike anything else: Its 20 stories portray the things we take for granted as being important.
Heroes of the Frontier
Dave Eggers Knopf Canada (July 26)
After breaking out in 2000 with his bestselling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, one might have expected that Dave Eggers would stick to a single subject: himself. Instead, Eggers has become one of our more prolific literary authors. It’s fitting that Heroes of the Frontier follows a woman fleeing a failed life and marriage as far as she and her young children can go: Alaska.
How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life
Heather Havrilesky Doubleday (July 12)
The author of New York magazine’s advice column Ask Polly, Heather Havrilesky is known for her acerbically helpful advice and honest admissions. Since summer vacation is a time for reflection it’s as good a time as any to deal with the daily troubles that don’t actually respect the seasons. Or at least to laugh at them.
Polaroids from the Dead
Douglas Coupland Harper Perennial
A hit show about O.J. Simpson, a documentary about Kurt Cobain, a series of farewell Grateful Dead concerts, a debut novel inspired by the Manson girls. These are all subjects that have been in the public eye this past year. They are also subjects Douglas Coupland wrote about in Polaroids from the Dead, published 20 years ago this summer. Prescient in its nostalgia, it feels simultaneously timely and completely out of time — about the way a lot of us feel in the world half the time.