Back to the paperback
For all their wonders, e-readers still can't deliver these worthwhile summer reads.

Wilson by Daniel Clowes. Here’s the best reason you can’t read the new graphic novel from Clowes (Ghost World) on one of those newfangled contraptions: They’re too small. The new giga-sized graphic novel from Clowes checks in at a foot long and nine inches wide and contains about a metric ton of self-loathing. The titular Wilson is a loner who thinks his desolation is not by choice. When his dad dies, he decides the best thing to do is to try to reconnect with his ex-wife. Told with Clowes’s trademark self-deprecating humor, it’s the most beautiful book about misanthropy you’ll read this year. That’s the Time Out Chicago guarantee! Drawn & Quarterly, May. $21.95.
Moonfire by Norman Mailer. When the moon landing happened, Life magazine asked Mailer to remark on the historic event, and that classic essay is reprinted here. Actually, it’s re-reprinted, because Taschen released this book last year in a gold-standard edition, priced high enough ($1,500) that a young lover of space would have to choose between mortgage payments or Mailer payments. But this new, slightly scaled-down version is still a gorgeous compendium of photographs and notes from the landing, including jaw-dropping spreads. Taschen, June. $39.99.
There Are Many of Us by Spike Jonze. In the spring, a strange movie popped up: It was a short film by director Jonze that had received a fair amount of buzz at Sundance. But the only way us plebes could watch it was through an Absolut Vodka–sponsored site. The movie, I’m Here, concerned a young robot in love. In this book from McSweeney’s—which collaborated with Jonze on a Where the Wild Things Are book—Jonze fanatics get behind-the-scenes stories, gorgeous photographs and insight into the gonzo director’s M.O. McSweeney’s, June. $35.





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