Tales of the Cityteleports the reader into San Francisco, 1976. Trevor Noah wrote: “One of the best accounts ever written about the art of stand-up and the life of the stand-up comic.” Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin (chosen by Kathy Najimy)įor: Fans of hilarious, snappy, overheated generational touchstones. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.” By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. Rufus Wainwright wrote: “It’s all true, and it’s all good.” Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin (chosen by Trevor Noah)įor: People interested in how the (very funny) sausage gets made.īorn Standing Upis testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time. And then there was the time she awoke one morning to find a friend dead beside her in bed. Wishful Drinking is the true and intoxicating story of Carrie Fisher’s life, from being picked, at 19 years old, to play Princess Leia in Star Wars to her battles with addiction and manic depression, to the vicissitudes of a privileged life from having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother, to marrying (and divorcing) Paul Simon. The Persian Boy, I think, was her masterpiece.” Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (selected by Rufus Wainwright)įor: Grown-ups who understand that even when life is sad, you can still find it funny. Sarah Waters wrote: “Renault was one of the great historical novelists, able to do justice to the strangeness of the past, even while bringing it to life for modern readers. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas.
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The Persian Boy by Mary Renault (selected by Sarah Waters)įor: Those who love epic tales of same-sex love, war, and world domination. If you go easy on the daiquiris you might just read them all in time for fall. We plundered the One Grand Books archives to identify ten picks from ten different curators that will elevate your beach towel this summer. But there are also page-turning reads that never get old, some even attaining the venerable status of literary classic. From André Leon Talley’s The Chiffon Trenches to Emily Henry’s aptly-named rom-com, Beach Read, there are plenty of just-published books that are ripe for reading poolside, preferably with a daiquiri in hand.