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A Merry Ol' Solstice Awaits

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By KEVIN WALKER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 22, 2008

You have to love the summer. Book publishers start cranking out the releases, hoping to catch you in a reading mood. Mission accomplished, as far as I am concerned. The following are among the books available this week.

"Hack," by Melissa Plaut (Willard Books, $14). Plaut is an interesting sort of person. After working in office jobs and not really enjoying it, she decided to quit and give up worrying about her career. Instead, she decided to concentrate on the "now." And, for Plaut, that meant fulfilling her wish of being a taxi driver. This memoir, now out in paperback, details some of her adventures as a New York City taxi driver, which she did for two years, driving more than 6,400 miles. Expect colorful characters.

"This Land Is Their Land," by Barbara Ehrenreich (Metropolitan Books, $24). Perhaps one woman's desire to abandon a "career track" does not interest you because you are absorbed by the state of the nation. If that's the case, reach for the latest from Ehrenreich, who specializes in examining the gap between the haves and the have-nots. She lets you know where she's coming from in the introduction. Here she writes about the state of American affairs by 2004:

"The middle class, battered by wave after wave of outsourcing and layoffs, scrambled to meet the ever-rising costs of health care, fuel and college education. The traditional working class, already savaged by deindustrialization, took the low-paying service jobs that were left, trading hard hats for mops and trays. ... The upper class split into the merely affluent, who shop at Williams-Sonoma, and the uberrich, who had others do their shopping for them, as well as their child raising, bill paying, servant supervising and party throwing."

"December," by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop (Knopf, $23.95). This one, by the author of "Fireworks," centers on a married couple, Wilson and Ruth, and their daughter Isabelle, who has stopped speaking. Why? Well, that's why you buy the book. Here's a sample of Wintrop's style from Page 69: "Ruth feels her heart fall. This doctor, it seemed, was taking a new direction with things; now they seem back to square one - the only way for Isabelle to speak again is to speak about why she won't."

Also this week, the Essence magazine book club recommends "Trading Dreams at Midnight," by Diane McKinney-Whetstone (HarperCollins, $24.95), in which the author again writes about people in Philadelphia; and Natasha Cooper releases a new thriller, "A Poisoned Mind" (St. Martin's Minotaur, $25.95).

Kevin Walker can be reached at (813) 259-7975 or kwalker@tampatrib.com.

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