The Studio

New books by Atlanta authors perfect for poolside reading Summer Reading

By Collin Kelley & Joe Earle

Smile A While

Kyle Brooks

Better known by his nom de plume, BlackCatTips, the painter and muralist has created his first book, which includes many of his familiar smiling faces alongside poems about things you can do to smile and be happy. While it looks like a children’s book, Brooks said “Smile A While” is for all ages. The artist was reluctant to release a book, but after friend and marketing whiz Laura Thompson gave him a small Andy Warhol art book along with a business plan to get the book into the world, Brooks spent a year working on the paintings and verses. The book will debut at a reading and signing on Aug. 8 from 10 a.m. to noon at The Grove at Colony Square in Midtown. To order the book and find out about more events, visit blackcattips.com.

None of the Above

Shani Robinson and Anna Simonton

Robinson, one of the teachers caught up in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, and journalist Simonton explore the racial and economic disparities that brought about the case.

The Magnetic Girl

Jessica Handler

We Are All Good People Here

Susan Rebecca White

Two life-long friends reconnect when their daughters are endangered by secrets from their mothers’ radical college days.

Ummarriageable

Soniah Kamal

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

Anissa Gray

The lives of three sisters are upended when one of them is sent to prison for defrauding the town they live in.

Deaf Republic

Ilya Kaminsky

The new director of Poetry at Tech, Kaminsky’s tourde-force collection of poems weaves a narrative of a town in a war-torn country whose populace goes deaf in protest and resistance againt the occupiers.

The Favorite Daughter

Patti Callahan Henry

A woman returns to her small South Carolina hometown to care for her father diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and discovers his secret past.

A thought-provoking retelling of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” in classobsessed, modern-day Pakistan.

Memoirist Jessica Handler and her mother shared an interest in stories of remarkable women, so years ago, when Handler’s mother came across an article about Lulu Hurst, she emailed a copy to her daughter. The article was titled “The Feats of the Magnetic Girl Explained.” That article would inspire Handler’s debut novel, a fictionalized account of Hurst’s days as vaudeville act and how she supposedly used magnetism in her body to lift people seated in parlor chairs or to knock grown men across the stage. Hurst later admitted in her own autobiography that she was a charlatan and her powers were actually tricks and stagecraft. For her version of Lulu’s story, Handler invented a sick younger brother, who hopes Hurst’s magnetic powers might heal him, and explores her relationship with her parents, who enjoy the benefits of their daughter’s growing celebrity. Handler says she spent about a decade working on the novel and even tried to perform some of Hurst’s “magnetic tests” herself, but never fully mastered them. “The chair thing, I can’t figure,” she said.

Sunset Beach

Mary Kay Andrews

A down-on-her luck woman who works for her father, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, stumbles onto a murder in a sleepy beach community.

Never Have I Ever

Joshilyn Jackson

A boozy book club turns into a nightmarish game of one-upmanship as a newcomer threatens to expose secrets and lies about one member’s past.

The Last Widow

Karin Slaughter

The thriller writer brings back medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent on the case of a missing Centers for Disease Control scientist and the diabolical enemy behind the plot.

Smokelore

Jim Auchmutey

Fox Summer Film Festival kicks off with ‘Little Mermaid’

A guided tour of the history of barbecue in America, including vintage art and recipes.

The Fox Theatre will kick off the 2019 Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival on July 14 at 2 p.m. with a sing-along screening of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” to mark the movie’s 30th anniversary.

This year’s lineup also includes “To Kill a Mockingbird” (July 14, 6:30 p.m.), “Mary Poppins” sing-along (July 21, 2 p.m.), “The Princess Bride” (July 27, 7:30 p.m.) and an 80th anniversary screening of “The Wizard of Oz” (Aug. 25, p.m.). There will also be Saturday Morning Cartoons on July 27 at 10 a.m.

As in previous years, the festival will showcase films on the Fox Theatre’s impressive 26-by-56-foot screen. For select showings, guests will have the opportunity to attend a preshow experience, which will include a sing-a-long with a vintage cartoon and performances on the world-renowned “Mighty Mo” organ.

Tickets are on sale now at FoxTheatre.org.

Visual Arts

Atlanta Down Under – The Building of Atlanta’s Subway System: Photographs in this exhibition are from 1977 until 1987 and show major construction of downtown stations, tunnels, buildings, streets, and workers. Daily. Free. decaturartclasses.com

David Rogers’ Big Bugs: These largerthan-life sculptures combine landscape art, recycled art to show the important role of bugs to the ecosystem. Daily. $18-$20. fernbankmuseum.org

Erin Jane Nelson –Her Deepness: With photography collaged and stitched into fabric and ceramic works, Nelson creates foreboding memorials to our natural world. Tues-Sun. Free. thecontemporary.org

Hand To Hand - Southern Craft Of The 19th Century: Exhibit focuses on a selection of masterworks from the High’s holdings of 19th-century Southern decorative arts. TuesSun. $14.50. high.org

Imaginary Worlds - Alice’s Wonderland: The exhibition of giant topiary-like plant sculptures at both the Midtown and Gainesville gardens is back by popular demand after last summer’s blockbuster show. Tue-Sun. Free!-$21.95. atlantabg.org

Kaleidoscope Katrantzou: An exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of the coveted designer’s eponymous label Mary Katrantzou. Tue-Sun. $10. scadfash.org

Leon Kelly – American Surrealist: Nearly 40 years since Kelly’s death, this exhibition will serve as one of the first retrospectives spanning the artist’s entire career. Tue-Sun. $5. museum.oglethorpe.edu

Salvador Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven: Two fine print portfolios of illustrations for the “Comte de Lautréamont’s Les Chants de Maldoror” and “Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy.” Tue-Sun. $5. museum. oglethorpe.edu

Wire & Wood - Designing Iconic Guitars: Explore the basics of guitar design while also considering how some guitars have become icons, how they reached that status. Tue-Sun. Free-$8. museumofdesign.org