New-Book Roundups:
European Touchstones

In Eiffel's Tower, Jill Jonnes takes readers behind the scenes of the construction of that most iconic of Paris icons, built as the spectacular centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair. Her fast-moving, detailed account also brings to life the celebrities and artists—from Annie Oakley to Paul Gauguin—who traveled to Paris for the expo, and the Belle Epoque city in which they mingled. Victorian Oxford provides the gothic, mysterious setting for the novel The Ingenious Edgar Jones, by Elizabeth Garner. The title character is a boy born in Oxford on a night of meteors, pointing to his future greatness—or so his father, a night porter at Oxford University, believes.

Picture-Book Sampler

Parisian Hideaways, by Casey O'Brien Blondes, brings together a compendium of intimate Paris hotels selected for their interior design, authenticity, and personal service—accompanied by luscious images by Béatrice Amagat. One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Coastal Towns of America, by Stephen Brewer, ranges from Port Townsend, Washington, to Montauk, New York, and is bound to inspire that next seaside getaway.

Reading Matchmaker
If You Like . . .

. . . beach reads with literary chops, check out Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead. Acclaimed author Whitehead captures the summer of 1985 from the perspective of Benji, a black teenager who attends an almost all-white Manhattan prep school, secretly likes Abba, and spends every summer in the all-black community of Sag Harbor on Long Island. With endearing humor, Benji learns to navigate social landmines and gets closer to defining his own identity—all amidst the fizzy details of summer: Karts-a-Go-Go, Belgian waffle cones, and hot-footing it over black-sand beaches.

One Last Thing
Northern California Feasting

I moved to Northern California more than a quarter-century ago. At first I was drawn by the progressive worldviews the Bay Area seemed to cultivate, but over the years I have been equally seduced and sated by another kind of cultivation: the extraordinary bounty of fresh fruits, vegetables, and other savory fare that are produced virtually year-round here. Jonah Raskin celebrates this bounty in his sprightly new account, Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating, and Drinking Wine in California. Taking readers inside Sonoma County's envelope-pushing farms, orchards, and vineyards, Raskin works the fields, meets the farmhands and winemakers, and crafts an intimate appreciation of Northern California's traditional farming heritage and contemporary organic renaissance. Field Days re-awakened for me my first sun-dappled Sonoma County picnic, which climaxed with the sparkling-wine-and-strawberry realization that, after years of world-wandering, I had found a new home.