James Marcus Book Recommendations & Book Mentions
This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.
James Marcus on X
"Glad to the Brink of Fear" (about R.W. Emerson) forthcoming from @PrincetonUPress, "Amazonia," former editor of Harper's, teaching at @nyu_journalism
The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times
Anthony HeilbutJames MarcusOn the fiftieth anniversary of his classic The Gospel Sound, the amazing Anthony Heilbut talks about the music and the culture, with many diverting detours: https://t.co/TzHxY2VVdu
Paperback, 2004
$20.00$10.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn
David HajduJames Marcus@joshfrmusic Those are the lyrics quoted in David Hajdu's wonderful "Lush Life." Amazing to think that Strayhorn was beginning to compose this song at age 17 or 18.
Paperback, 1997
$19.00$9.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Bridge
Sam SongJames MarcusNot even Sam Cooke ever pitted Jesus against sex in this way. Cooke would say that Jesus won--I call it a draw. But Green's singing just gets deeper as the song goes on, especially after the bridge, when his falsetto and his tenor battle for his soul: https://t.co/ZJFgon2bBD
Paperback, 2007
$16.90$8.45 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Hawthorne: A Life
Brenda WineappleJames Marcus@aliner Absolutely a different personality. But also, I think Melville was infatuated with Hawthorne and the reverse was not true. As Brenda Wineapple puts it: "Hawthorne did not love Melville, not the way--whatever way that was--that Melville needed love."
Paperback, 2004
$26.00$13.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Pnin
Vladimir NabokovJames Marcus@_motherslug @tonyjballas Vladimir Nabokov's "Pnin" has an amazing sequence of squirrel metaphors throughout the entire novel.
Paperback, 1989
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Paul Chowder Chronicles: The Anthologist
Nicholson BakerJames Marcus@anarchpetditty In Nicholson Baker's novel The Anthologist, the narrator makes a passionate pitch for the four-beat balladic line--in his view the rise of the iambic pentameter was a complete disaster for English poetry. I would post a link to the review I wrote but, sob, it has disappeared.
Paperback, 2014
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Secret Goldfish: Stories
David MeansJames Marcus@lesbrains For stories, anything by David Means--let's say "Assorted Fire Events," although the latest one is equally brilliant. I also love the two novellas paired in Jane Smiley's "Ordinary Love and Good Will."
Paperback, 2005
$14.99$7.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Emerson's Memory Loss: Originality, Communality, and the Late Style
Christopher HanlonJames Marcus@AldousAsterion Assuming you don't mean the many amazing biographies, I've really loved Evelyn Barish's "The Roots of Prophecy," Christopher Hanlon's "Emerson's Memory Loss," Joel Porte's "Representative Man," and Len Gougeon's "Virtue's Hero."
Hardcover, 2018
$98.00$73.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book(max discount $25)
The Fan Who Knew Too Much: The Secret Closets of American Culture
Anthony HeilbutJames Marcus@blgtylr Have you ever come across this piece by Anthony Heilbut (he writes about the same subject at much greater length in his collection "The Fan Who Knew Too Much")? https://t.co/9mE4dUOxfW
Paperback, 2013
$16.95$8.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Preston Falls
David GatesJames Marcus@BramPresser I prefer Preston Falls by a narrow margin but Jernigan is great too--nobody does a downward-spiraling narrative like David Gates.
Paperback, 2005
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book