Transparent—reveal their idiosyncratic
work habits, such as making up scenes
involving people they see at airports and
riffing off each other’s ideas in long email
chains. They ponder the art of compromise (“Check your ego at the door”) and
collaboration: “We have a fundamental
desperation to make things, and we are
willing to destroy ourselves to get things
done.” Jay admits that he’s a little jealous
of his younger brother, Mark, but hopes
his brother also gets jealous of him, too.
The brothers conduct a back-and-forth
about the top- 10 films of all time, finally
choosing a list on which both can agree
that includes Joe Versus the Volcano, a
“highly intelligent, misunderstood adult
fairy tale.” The Duplasses ask their wives
what makes the brothers tick: Katie,
Mark’s wife, recognizes how creative and
emotional turmoil helps feed their process; Jen, Jay’s wife, calls the Duplass
family a “fine-tuned little ecosystem.”
The Duplass’s entertaining and energetic
memoir gives their fans a clear look at the
creative genius that drives them. (Feb.)
★ Napa at Last Light: America’s
Eden in an Age of Calamity
James Conaway. Simon & Schuster, $26
(288p) ISBN 978-1-5011-2845-5
In this fascinating and well-researched
book, Conaway delivers an unpleasant
portrait of California’s Napa Valley in the
21st century. Conaway knows his subject
well, having written two previous narra-
tives chronicling the valley’s metamor-
phosis over the decades (including Napa:
The Story of an American Eden). Several sec-
tions of the book explore “specific strug-
gles similar to those all over the country
but heightened by Napa’s fame and out-
sized concentrations of wealth and noto-
riety.” The 1960s through the ’80s were a
golden age for Napa. Newcomers filled
with idealism flocked to the valley
wanting to learn the art of wine making,
all the while respecting sound conserva-
tion principles. But once big money
arrived, personal bonds among the com-
munity members began disintegrating
and land-zoning and water-use issues
divided Napa residents. Once a mainly
mixed-agriculture region that also hap-
pened to produce wine, Napa morphed
into an oenophile Disneyland, according
to Conaway, where new-millionaire wine-
makers have little regard for the natural
environment or quality of life for long-
time valley residents. This is a stunning
and sad look at how an idyllic community
(which has recently been ravaged by fire)
became a victim of its own success. (Feb.)
Bringing Columbia Home:
The Untold Story of a Lost
Space Shuttle and Her Crew
Michael Leinbach and Jonathan Ward. Arcade,
$25.99 (392p) ISBN 978-1-628-72851-4
In this fast-paced and affecting account,
Leinbach, NASA’s last shuttle-launch
director, and Ward, the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory’s solar-system ambassador,
expertly relate “the largest land search-and-recovery operation in United States
history.” The space shuttle Columbia broke
up on reentry in February 2003 due to an
undetected and unlikely breach in the
leading edge of the left wing, and
wreckage rained down along a 250-mile
path across Texas and Louisiana. The
authors intimately reconstruct the tragic
disaster through spare but necessarily
jargon-heavy prose and extensive interviews. It’s a moving and sometimes
uncomfortably close account; they relate,
for example, how the heat shield disintegrated and dusted roads “with something
that looked like fine snow,” as well as
details about the crew’s last moments. A
team of 25,000 people searched an area
“roughly the size of Rhode Island,” recovering 84,000 pieces of debris—many of
them nickel size—and all seven astronauts’ remains. The unadorned, multisen-sory narration richly depicts the emotions
and everyday acts of heroism of all
involved. Keen’s sketches of the recovery’s
dizzying logistics and the science
describing the shuttle’s crash and reconstruction allow readers to experience what
every volunteer interviewed said “was a
singular defining moment” in their lives.
Illus. (Jan.)
★ Craeft: An Inquiry into the
Origins and True Meaning of
Traditional Crafts
Alexander Langlands. Norton, $26.95 (336p)
ISBN 978-0-393-63590-4
Archeologist and BBC presenter
Langlands brings his approachable voice
and unique firsthand experience to this
exploration of the history behind tradi-
tional crafts.
Despite its
modern usage,
craft—or
craeft, in Old
English—is
about more
than just
making; it also
connotes the
knowledge and
resourcefulness
needed to adapt in the face of changing
materials and circumstances. Through a
series of short histories focused on such
crafts as thatching, weaving, and leather
making, Langlands recovers craft as a
model for a more engaged, resilient, and
sustainable way of life. Interlacing each
history with accounts of his own attempts
to practice traditional crafts, Langlands
reveals the intricate balancing acts
required by craft processes while also
reflecting broadly on human interactions
with landscapes. Langlands makes a
strong, if sometimes unnuanced, argu-
ment against the mindlessness of modern
consumption, urging readers to prioritize
long-term use over profitability and dis-
posability. In the ingenuity of craft, he
sees not dead tradition but rather a way
forward for an uncertain, unstable world.
Sustained by Langland’s clear yet lyrical
prose, this book is sure to interest readers
concerned with history, human know-
how, and the future of this Earth. Illus.
(Jan.)
Finding Eden:
A Journey into the Heart of Borneo
Robin Hanbury-Tenison. I. B. Tauris, $35
(240p) ISBN 978-1-78453-839-2
In this straightforward account, British
explorer Hanbury-Tenison (Land of Eagles)
recalls an expedition he led four decades
ago to Gunung Mulu National Park in
Sarawak, Borneo, which would eventually
help to launch the global rainforest-pro-tection movement. Describing Mulu as
“one of the most diverse and interesting
places on earth,” Hanbury-Tenison
bemoans the destruction that has occurred
in places like it over the years. He shares
details of his experiences in Borneo,
where, for example, among bats in darkened caves, he stood “still in absolute
pitch blackness, listening to the sounds of
