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As a non-citizen U.S. resident, learn what documents you need to return to the U.S. if you leave.

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2 books offer just the right summer mix of humor and nostalgia

Maureen Corrigan

Sandwich Harper Collins hide caption

Summer reading. For me, those words suggest an unhurried expanse of time to lose myself in a good story — fiction or nonfiction. Save the dystopian novels till the fall, please; right now, I want books that glimmer like fireflies with dashes of humor and nostalgia. I’ve just read two that fit those summery specifications.

Catherine Newman’s new novel is called Sandwich , after the town on Cape Cod where her characters have rented a cottage for one precious week every summer for the past 20 years. The title also winks at the situation of our main character, Rachel, nicknamed “Rocky” who’s “halfway in age between her young adult children and her elderly parents” — all of whom crowd into that ramshackle cottage.

In the opening scene of Sandwich Rocky’s husband, Nicky, stands paralyzed, plunger in hand, before the cottage’s single, overflowing old toilet. As Rocky’s vacation week progresses, other things also slosh and overflow: secrets; messy emotions, like anger and shame; and, as Rocky tells us, her own aging body:

Books We Love

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NPR staffers pick their favorite fiction reads of 2024

Menopause feels like a slow leak: thoughts leaking out of your head; flesh leaking out of your skin; fluid leaking out of your joints. You need a lube job, is how you feel. Bodywork.

Newman elegantly segues from Nora Ephron -like comic passages like that one to elegy. To return to the same place every summer, after all, is to be periodically brought up short by the passage of time. In the middle of the novel, for instance, Rocky uses another metaphor to describe her position in her family and this time her tone is infused with anticipatory grief:

Life is a seesaw, and I am standing dead center, still and balanced: living kids on one side, living parents on the other. Nicky here with me at the fulcrum. Don’t move a muscle, I think. But I will, of course. You have to.

Sandwich is my idea of the perfect summer novel: shimmering and substantive. One more aspect of Newman’s book deserves highlighting: like many other recent novels by best-selling female authors — I’m thinking of Jennifer Weiner , Ann Patchett and Megan Abbott — Newman introduces a storyline here about abortion. She writes about that contested subject — and the emotions it engenders — in a way that I’ve never encountered in fiction before.

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue Doubleday hide caption

As a city kid who grew up in an apartment without air-conditioning, I have happy memories of seeking relief from the heat by wandering around grand New York department stores like Bloomingdale's, Macy’s and B. Altman. Julie Satow’s new narrative history, called When Women Ran Fifth Avenue , is a treat for anyone like me who yearns to time travel back to some of those palaces of consumption at the height of their grandeur. But even more revelatory are the stories Satow excavates of the women who presided over three of the greatest and now-vanished New York department stores: Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor and Henri Bendel.

Geraldine Stutz rescued Bendel’s in the 1960s — as shopping moved to the suburbs -- by turning its small size into an advantage: creating exclusive boutiques within the store that attracted customers like Gloria Vanderbilt , Cher and Barbra Streisand . Some 30 years earlier, Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, who Life Magazine dubbed America’s "No. 1 Career Woman” revolutionized fashion by championing the sporty “American Look” at a time when French designers held sway.

'The Plaza' Is A Nostalgic Look At The History Of New York's Most Famous Hotel

But the stand-out figure of the trio is Hortense Odlum, a self-described “housewife” whose husband bought a near-bankrupt and “sagging” Bonwit Teller during the Great Depression and asked her to visit the store to judge it with a woman’s eye. One of her first smash successes was the introduction of a “hat department” on the main floor. In 1934, Hortense became the first woman president of an American department store.

Two summer suspense novels delight in overturning the 'woman-in-trouble' plot

Satow specializes in entertaining cultural histories — her previous book was a history of New York’s Plaza Hotel. Here, she intersperses descriptions of such wonders as Salvador Dali-designed window displays at Bonwit’s with accounts of the racism pervasive in these department stores.

For those readers immune to the allure of shopping or the shore, be assured that more of summer reading recommendations — especially mysteries and crime novels — are coming your way. You can also see what NPR staff and critics are recommending here.

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The glaad wrap: trailers for “my old ass” and “conversion,” stand-up special “no flies on me” out now, new music from jenny parrott, maris, and more, video game remakes provide opportunities to tell better lgbtq stories, nonbinary love in the south: a queer love story of health, pride, and resistance.

• Embracing Our Stories: Reflections from the American Black Film Festival

The 2024 American Black Film Festival: My First Visit and Its Lasting Impact

• Loren Allred and Scott Hoying “Come Alive” in New Cover Single! Here’s How To Listen
• !Ojo! Vibrant Borderlands Documentary “Hummingbirds,” Eva Longoria in “Land of Women,” Michaela Jaé Rodriguez in “Loot,” Omar Apollo’s Upcoming Album, and More!
• Not All Gifts Come in Boxes: In My Bag at ABFF

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived in a rainy, humid Miami after a day of hectic travel and delayed flights, but days later I left with no regrets. As a seasoned red carpet veteran, I’ve covered the American Black Film Festival Honors ceremony in Los Angeles for the past few years, but I’ve never had the privilege of actually attending the flagship festival–or visiting Miami, for that matter–so I was able to cross two things off of my never-ending bucket list. 

Like all film festivals, ABFF featured a healthy mix of panels and screenings. My first day began with an exclusive screening of the season two premiere of Hulu’s “Unprisoned,” starring Kerry Washington. Although I was aware of the show’s existence, I hadn’t watched any of the first season. The episode that we screened roped me in. I’d classify it as a heartwarming dramedy, and it was fun to watch Washington slip into a role that’s such a far departure from the iconic Olivia Pope. The panel conversation that followed was moderated by author and radio host, Bevy Smith. Kerry Washington and author Tracy McMillan joined her as speakers. I was familiar with some of Tracy’s previous work in television on the OWN network, but I had no idea that “Unprisoned” is based on and inspired by her actual real life!

During the conversation, Washington and McMillan spoke to the importance and impact of therapy, especially in multigenerational households. “ I think there’s always something to gain because what’s most important about therapy is not the person who’s sitting across from you, it’s you where you’re sitting. Are you open? Are you willing to see yourself?,” Washington said, with McMillian adding that “Unprisoned” is about “getting free.”

Bevy rounded out the chat by sharing that her inner child’s name is “Little Brown Bevy,” and she encouraged us to explore fun names for our own inner child. 

Later that evening, I attended a panel for Tyler Perry’s upcoming film “Divorce In Black” starring Meagan Good and Cory Hardrict. The trailer was full of suspenseful moments that were easily reminiscent of a good Lifetime Network film. Richard Lawson and Debbi Morgan also star in the film. During the panel conversation, Good gave Morgan her flowers. The two first worked together in the classic film “Eve’s Bayou,” which coincidentally was released in 1997, the same year ABFF started. “T o work with Debbi again […]  it was really, really beautiful to relate to her now as a grown woman,” Good said. “She’s just such a queen, and such a light, and such a phenomenal actress and human being. It just was really, really special to have that full circle moment.”

Additional highlights from the festival included “P-Valley” star Nicco Annan who premiered an episode from his upcoming docuseries, “Down In The Valley.” The six-episode show explores taboo culture around varying topics in the deep south, and it is highly entertaining. I also attended a panel about navigating finances with Nia Long as the speaker and another one on the power of networking with TV One’s Senior Vice President of Programming, Austyn Biggers. Jussie Smollett re emerged alongside Hollywood veteran, Vivica A. Fox in a drama titled “The Lost Holliday,” which was produced by Mona Scott Young. 

Rapper Trina also made an appearance in a one-on-one conversation with Chris Spencer for TV One’s “Uncensored,” where she shared stories of her upbringing in Miami-Dade County. Issa Rae was joined on stage with “Blackish” creator, Kenya Barris, in a conversation that was a bit all over the place. She interviewed him about his lengthy career, and at one point Barris spoke to the ills of censorship and cancel culture. He referenced his infamous public twitter spat with Judd Apatow in 2014 in the wake of Bill Cosby’s sexual assault accusations that were presented in a a pre- #MeToo world. 

To round the week out, GLAAD hosted their inaugural Queer Lens Brunch which featured two panel conversations, two short films, and a podcast teaser. The first panel featured Donnie Hue Frazier III, Alexander King, and Soy Giraud. I moderated the conversation and the three panelists detailed how their lives have changed since being awarded $5,000 a piece as winners of a pitch contest that took place at GLAAD’s Black Queer Creative Summit back in September 2023. The main panel featured actors Alexandra Grey, Jonica Booth, and Jussie Smollett. It was moderated by Sidra Smith, and everyone spoke to their nuanced journeys navigating Hollywood at the intersections of Blackness and their respective LGBTQ+ identity.  

ABFF 2024 was a unique experience and an opportunity to spotlight creatives at varying levels. As the festival continues to expand and grow with each passing year, one can only hope that diversity in perspective will be prioritized so that the full colorful spectrum of Blackness can be showcased and acknowledged. 

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Read excerpt: ‘My Crazy Tía’ from Daniel Chacón’s ‘The Last Philosopher in Texas’

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Can you step into the past to see how things used to be – or jump into the future to see what awaits? 

Those questions are at the center of “My Crazy Tía,” one of more than 30 short stories in El Paso author Daniel Chacón’s “ The Last Philosopher in Texas : Fictions and Superstitions.”

The creative writing professor’s seventh book is the latest pick in the El Paso Matters Book Club, which brings readers online Q&As and in-person discussions with featured authors, as well as book reviews. Now, the book club brings you excerpts from selected books – a peek into what you can expect when you dive in and join us in reading.

In “My Crazy Tía,” the protagonist’s “crazy aunt” offers to show her how to time travel – and see her dead mother.

Below is an excerpt from “My Crazy Tía,” with permission by the author and Arte Público Press , the book’s publisher.

“My Crazy Tía”

Tía came from Fresno to visit us for Christmas, and one morning as I was having hot chocolate and pan dulce in my grandmother’s kitchen, she was sitting across the table from me. I was reading a book on the Kindle app of my phone, but I could feel her looking at me. Everyone else was still asleep: the cousins, the uncles and aunts, the cats and dogs. Crazy tía smelled like patchouli oil and sweet fabric, as if her clothes had been hanging in a closet for two generations.

“Do you want to know how to time travel?” she asked me.

“What?”

“I can show you how to time travel, m’ija . You could go anywhere in time that you want.”

“Sure, you can,” I said.

“I swear. I’m being serious. But … “

“But what?”

My aunt wore a colorful dress. a long flowing robe and all kinds of gaudy jewelry: bracelets, necklaces, a big bright ring on every finger. She looked like a high priestess of some woo woo Religion.

”There is one thing,” she said.

I know she wanted me to say, “What?” But I didn’t want to, so I shrugged my shoulders and went back to reading the book I had downloaded to my phone. It was good.

“Okay,” she said. “If you don’t want to time travel, that’s fine with me.”

“ Tía ,” I said, “time travel is impossible. Science proves it.”

“Okay, Miss Intellectual. Tell me why it’s impossible.”

I was only sixteen at the time and just remembered in a science class our teacher telling us that it’s impossible according to the laws of physics, but I didn’t remember why.

“It just is,” I said. “It’s a scientific fact.”

El Paso Matters Book Club: Daniel Chacón

Q&a with ‘the last philosopher in texas’ author daniel chacón.

The El Paso author talks about his latest book, his inspiration and aspirations, and why we sometimes ask ourselves, “Am I the dreamer or the dreamed?”

Review: ‘Last Philosopher in Texas’ invites readers into author’s world of possibility

From Page 1 to the very end, we get the unlikely convergence of people, relationships and realities that have become Daniel Chacón’s trademark.

“ Qué scientific fax! I can do it. Any place in time that I want, and I can show you how. M’ija , haven’t you ever wanted to visit the past to see how things used to be? Or jump into the future to see how you’re doing?”

“Okay, fine,” I said, like I was indulging her craziness, but really, I wanted it to be true. I wanted to go into the past. I wanted to see what my mother was like. She was twenty-two when she died.

“Let’s do it,” I said, trying not to sound too much like I believed her. “Teach me how to time travel, then.”

“There’s only one rule,” she said.

“You can only go as far as your lifetime. From the time you were born until the time you die. You can’t go back 100 years. You can’t go hang out with Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán. Not going to happen. You weren’t alive then. Only your lifespan. Do you want to try this?”

“Sure. Whatever.”

My heart was pounding so loud I think my aunt heard it. I wanted to see my mother. I was four when she passed. All I have are blurry images of her face and the smell of lotion or soap and how her arm felt on the back of my head, soft and warm. She was young. Did she like having a baby? Was she still young enough to want to have fun? Did she like to party? Did she laugh with her friends?

You can read “My Crazy Tía” in its entirety in “The Last Philosopher in Texas,” which is available at Literarity Book Shop . Profits from sales of the book purchased from Literarity benefit El Paso Matters. 

El Paso Matters Book Club: Book Talk

What : Daniel Chacón will discuss his latest book,  “ The Last Philosopher in Texas: Fictions and Superstitions ”

When : 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 2

Where : El Paso Public Library Westside Branch, 125 Belvidere St.

Learn more and RSVP : El Paso Matters Book Club.

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by El Paso Matters Staff,El Paso Matters June 26,2024

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