Sometimes profound revelations can be gleaned from observing an artist through someone else's eyes, and several of today's book recommendations present such opportunities. With his signature lyricism, Paul Lisicky "braids memoir, criticism, and cultural study" in Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell, a "moving and insightful personal reflection" on a singer-songwriter who has inspired him for decades. Meanwhile, novelist Allison Epstein "paints a sympathetic portrait" for one of Dickens's "most memorable and problematic characters" in the engaging and atmospheric Fagin the Thief. And young readers will laugh and roll along with former children's poet laureate Mary Ann Hoberman's "skipping, dancing scansion" in How Elegant the Elephant: Poems About Animals and Insects, with its lavish pencil and watercolor illustrations by Marla Frazee.
Plus, in The Writer's Life, founding director of Independent Bookstore Day and San Francisco-based author Samantha Schoech delves into the transformational titles that have influenced her as a lifelong reader, longtime bookseller, and working writer.