Review by New York Times Review
THE PRESIDENTS: NOTED HISTORIANS RANK AMERICA'S BEST - AND WORST - CHIEF EXECUTIVES, by Brian Lamb, Susan Swain and ?-Span. (PublicAffairs, $32.) From No. 1 (Lincoln) to No. 43 (Buchanan), a ranking of every president except Donald Trump, as he's still in office. THE STONEWALL READER, edited by the New York Public Library. (Penguin Classics, paper, $18.) The Stonewall uprising, 50 years ago in June, is often seen as the start of the gay rights movement. This anthology of essays, articles, diary entries and more complicates that view by situating the protest in historical context. BECOME AMERICA: CIVIC SERMONS ON LOVE, RESPONSIBILITY, and democracy, by Eric Liu. (Sasquatch Books, $24.95.) A White House speechwriter under President Clinton, who now organizes secular "faith gatherings" to promote civics and democracy, collects his talks on patriotism, identity, responsibility and more. ON DEMOCRACY,by E. B. White. (Harper/HarperCollins, $24.99.) Decades before Liu, the essayist and children's book author White (best known for "Charlotte's Web") also thought eloquently about democracy and its demands, as this anthology shows. FLOYD HARBOR: STORIES, by Joel Mowdy. (Catapult, paper, $16.95.) Mowdy's gritty debut collection of linked stories is set in a rundown community on eastern Long Island, with characters struggling to overcome poverty and trauma.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 2, 2019]
