#spring picks

Change Lenses

Love is rarely easy, especially if it’s forbidden, even potentially dangerous. Amy Bloom’s White Houses (Random, Mar.; LJ 1/18), a fictionalization of the love affair between newswoman Lorena “Hick” Hickok and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, is a heartbreaking, beautiful novel. Bloom had access to the letters between the women and her research is impressive but does not intrude on the epic “forbidden love” story. Lorena’s voice is so strong and clear, you feel like she’s right there in the room with you, or sitting next to Eleanor in a publicity photo of which she’s destined to be cut out. LJ reviewer Leslie Patterson says, “Bloom brings the ­Roosevelts and their world vividly to life and gives an unforgettable voice to the larger-than-life Lorena,” and calls the work “an original, richly textured, and beautifully written love story.” Reading this book made me want to know more about the women and their contemporaries.

I don’t know if either Eleanor or Hick ever crossed paths with photographer Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), who is most widely known for her photos of New York City in the 1930s, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they had. Living with her art critic lover Elizabeth McCausland in Greenwich Village, Abbott was not as scrutinized as was Eleanor, wife and then widow of a beloved president. Author Julia Van Haaften, a founding curator of NYPL’s photography collection, writes about Abbott’s long life and 60-year career as an artist, modernist, inventor, and author in Berenice Abbott: A Life in Photography (Norton, Apr.).

And then there’s Weegee, aka Arthur Fellig (1899–1968), the outsize personality and street photographer who prowled the alleys of midcentury Gotham, often scooping the cops at crime scenes and documenting nightlife. New York magazine senior editor Christopher Bonanos tells his story in Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Holt, Mar.). Thirty of his photographs enhance the work.

My picks aren’t all historical, though I do favor the 1930s and 1940s with their political and social upheaval. Reading about those times makes one realize things don’t change all that much. Photography still has the ability to shock and awe; Virginia-based Sally Mann has done both with her work. Her 1992 album Immediate Family shocked some with its portraits of Mann’s children in near-feral and near-naked poses; her 2015 “memoir with photographs,” Hold Still, awed with its ruminations on race, place, family, death, and memory. Mann gets a long-deserved career overview with Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings (Abrams, Mar.), co­inciding with a traveling exhibition. Cocurators and coauthors Sarah Greenough (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) and Sarah Kennel (Peabody Essex Museum, MA) and other experts examine Mann’s oeuvre in a lavishly illustrated book.

Last, I end with a final chapter—maybe. Music critic Steven Hyden, whose 2016 pop culture title Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me earned a star from LJ reviewer Craig Shufelt, is back to ponder the icons of classic rock with Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock (Dey Street: HarperCollins, May). If this means I’ll never have to hear the Eagles’ “Hotel California” or the Doors’ “Light My Fire,” I welcome the end-times, but I suspect Hyden’s assessment will be less facile than that.—Liz French

Style Pick: Grayers Jersey Polo

Spring is a season of transition.  Time to stow away those bulky winter weather pieces and trade them in for a lighter fare.  Spring bestows upon us ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth.  With that in mind, here's a list of our spring picks!  Wardrobe pieces that will ease us into a new season.

A Casual Woven Scarf

Funnel Neck Trench Coat

Park Bench Fedora

Antique Lace Tiered Skirt