Lorin Kleinman   Reading, writing, and occasionally eating.

Banvard’s Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn’t Change the World*, by Paul Collins

Paul Collins, whom I first encountered in Believer Magazine, writing about Anna Sewell and Lucy Grealy, here tells a wonderful story of thirteen people who appeared destined for greatness but ended up entirely forgotten.  “Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books,” his account of a year that he and his wife spent in a book-mad Welsh town, is also delightful.

*There’s a longer description here.

Eccentric Islands: Travels Real and Imaginary, by Bill Holm

This is a magical series of essays on islands real and imaginary that Holm, a Minnesota poet, has visited. “Call Me Island. Or call me Holm. Same thing,” he begins, in one of the most beguiling introductions to an author I have ever read. Eccentric Islands is a wise, funny, warm-hearted masterpiece.

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, by Paco Underhill

Underhill is a kind of anthropologist of shopping, and this book is both an explanation of how we behave in stores, and an account of his decades investigating consumer behavior.  Deeply fascinating.