Hut's Place

Weekly Words About New Books in

Independent Bookstores

October 6, 2024

A Trio of Celebrity Books: A Fable from Trevor Noah, Taylor Swift Fashion, and Lisa Marie Presley's Daughter Completes Mom's Memoir

ONE SIGN THAT THE HOLIDAY BOOK SEASON is fast approaching is the slew of books written by and/or about celebrities. Here are three arriving this week - all very different in subject and approach - that should appeal to fans in coming weeks.

Into the Uncut Grass by Trevor Noah. The noted comedian and author of the still-bestselling Born a Crime has produced a sweet fable - written for children but suitable for adults attracted to the message - in graphic novel form. It's about an impatient young boy so intent on seeking adventure that he skips his family duties and heads with his stuffed bear Walter to the forest outside his house.

Into the Uncut Grass is described by its publisher as being in the tradition of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse - certainly fine company. Noah himself describes the book as a parable about decisions, conflicts, and disagreements, noting in an online video post, "Conflict and disagreement, I learned, are a necessary part of life. But what matters isn't if we disagree, but rather how we handle that disagreement."

Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras by Sarah Chapelle. It's hard to ignore any book about Swift in this day and age, but this lavish photography volume looks to be quite the sartorial gift for fans of the iconic singer. Sarah Chapelle of the successful Instagram and blog Taylor Swift Style has spent more than a decade documenting Swift's fashion choices and the intention behind each ensemble. With over 200 photos dating from Swift's earliest days as a country singer in Nashville, up through the present as a renowned pop icon, paired with the author's commentary, this should be on the holiday gift list of Swifties everywhere.

From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough. Raised at Graceland and constantly in the limelight, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley has penned a raw memoir that was faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead. Undeterred, Riley listened to the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book and finished it for her. The resulting tell-all is written in both Lisa Marie's and Riley's voices as it recounts a life lived - often painfully - in the celebrity spotlight. From the unconditional love she felt from her father to finding his lifeless body, from her lifelong relationship with Danny Keough to her marriage to Michael Jackson, and from being a mother to fighting grief and addiction, Lisa Marie Presley leaves little to the imagination in this candid and often tough autobiography.

Gladwell Revisits Tipping Points Through the Lens of Modern-Day America

Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell. Twenty-five years ago, Gladwell burst upon the bookselling scene with The Tipping Point, which examined the science behind viral trends in business, marketing, and human behavior and that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. In his thought-provoking new book, he revisits the subject equipped with a new lens and with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.

As with previous books, Gladwell uses stories and social science to illustrate and elucidate. He introduces readers to the world's most successful bank robbers, offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day (COVID and the opioid crisis), posits why Ivy League schools care so much about sports, and explains the Magic Third and what it means for racial harmony. His anecdotes and research are interesting and compelling, as is to be expected, but his message is more cautionary now. Two decades ago, fashion trends and consumer products were popular subjects with which to illustrate tipping points. In today's more polarized and anxious America, Gladwell finds examples that touch on more serious and often more troubling themes.

Writing in The New York Times, Emma Goldman opined, "In Revenge of the Tipping Point, splashy theories abound, as they do in Gladwell's podcast, Revisionist History... He turns the conceit [of The Tipping Point] on its head, examining the forces that drive negative epidemics, which to him felt more attuned to our present moment."

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WHY THE COLUMN?

Hi, I'm Hut Landon, and I'm a bookseller in an independent bookstore in BerkeIey, CA.

My goal here is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what indie booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.

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