The Reasons I Won't Be Coming
CRITICS CHOICE
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If you're ever offered the chance to be a guy in a Perlman story, run. The Australian novelist-cum-barrister, who explored unrequited love before in Seven Types of Ambiguity, includes here three punishing monologues by romantically downsized men who aren't taking it well. One, "The Hong Kong Fir Doctrine," is as harrowing a vision of being dumped as you will ever find.
Perlman writes fiction with muscle: no small epiphanies while cooking dinner for him. One moment you're struck by his compassion for his characters, then you remember he's the one being mean to them. It's provocative stuff. What you won't find in these gripping stories is much comedy or dialogue—except in the last one, about private eye Bernard Leibowitz ("You're actually... my first client"). Perlman has lighter colors in his paint box. All he needs is to break them out a bit more often.
Stars of David
Abigail Pogrebin
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At 40, Pogrebin, a former producer for 60 Minutes and Charlie Rose, grew curious about what she and other Jewish people shared. In search of the "secret handshake," she interviewed 62 prominent Jews about being Jewish—defined as that "amalgam of ritual, Israel, Holocaust, matzo, Torah, and Seinfeld." Heavily showbiz and skewing older (Natalie Portman, 24, is one exception), Pogrebin's group lacks diversity, but the responses are as varied as fingerprints. Some have abandoned ritual, yet many—like comedian Joan Rivers, described as "bluntly, tribally Jewish"—maintain strong cultural ties. Their stories entertain: A young Steven Spielberg hid his family's forbidden dinner—live lobsters—under his bed when the rabbi dropped by, only to have them crawl out. And there are commonalities: Conflicted though they may feel about their heritage, several subjects renewed interest in religion after having children. Actor Jason Alexander dreaded Hebrew school, but now his two sons attend.
The Reindeer People
Piers Vitebsky
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On and off for almost two decades, anthropologist Vitebsky has lived with Siberia's remote Eveny nomads. In temperatures that dip below minus 90 degrees ("saliva solidified before it hit the ground"), the Eveny make their living off reindeer, using them for transportation, their hides and their meat. Now Vitebsky has gathered his intimate knowledge of these nomads and their animals in The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia.
The title suggests a breezy read about spirituality and nature, and that's exactly what this book is not. Vitebsky puts today's reindeer herders in a broader context by looking at the history of reindeer domestication, the effect of perestroika on nomadic life, and yes, tales about the spiritual relationship between the people and the animals. It's a captivating look at a part of the world most people will never see, and it's not all serious. Vitebsky, who points out that the Eveny are complex people, notes that during breeding season one family saucily named its most sexually inexhaustible reindeer "Bill Clinton."
BUZZ BOOK Sitcom Style
On Seinfeld, Jerry's cereal boxes were alphabetized. On Roseanne, the Afghan throw was stolen so often they finally sewed it to the couch. If you've ever wondered about such things—or longed to imitate, say, the Friends set's "bohemian eclectic" look, Diana Friedman's whimsical book is for you. Some scoop on The Brady Bunch house:
WHAT THEY WERE THINKING: Since dad Mike Brady was an architect, the show's producers wanted a contemporary interior that looked neither too affluent nor too blue-collar.
FUN FACT: The iconic living room staircase actually led nowhere.
UPDATE: The house's exterior was a home in North Hollywood; its current owners have thick shrubbery and an iron fence to deter the many trespassers wanting a close peek.
GET THE LOOK: For an open, clean feel to your home, advises author and design writer Diana Friedman, "choose angled and planed furniture and spare accessories ... natural elements like stone and plant life bring the outside world in."
>A LOVE LIKE NO OTHER
Coedited by PEOPLE associate editor Jill Smolowe, this book of essays by 20 adoptive moms and dads—including Smolowe and her husband—illuminates both the thrilling and trying elements of adoption.
