The Coral Sea

Patti Smith's National Book Award-winning memoir, Just Kids, detailed the rock star and poet's extraordinary relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The Coral Sea, Smith's 1996 ode to her late friend, was written just a few years after his death. Appearing in a welcome new edition, it's a haunting, achingly evocative tribute.

May 24: Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Works was published on this day in 1951. Included in this omnibus edition were most of the pieces upon which her reputation now stands, putting her in a rank…

Do you recall the tagline from the very first Superman movie? "You'll believe a man can fly!" Well, I'm tempted to craft such a hyperbolic assertion for China Miéville's…

advertisement