CityState: C urrent l Edited by Jamie Coelho
Reading Roundup
Newport restaurateur whose
husband manipulated her into
sexual relationships outside
of their marriage. The book
makes us think about female
desire and the imbalance of
power along gender lines.
These books feature Rhode Island authors, settings or subjects. By Jamie Coelho
Kid Number One: Alan
Hassenfeld and Hasbro
By G. Wayne Miller
This book, written by
Providence Journal reporter
G. Wayne Miller, tells the
story of how “Kid Number
One,” Alan Hassenfeld,
suddenly became chairman
and CEO of Pawtucket-based
Hasbro after his brother,
Stephen, tragically died from
AIDS. The toy company was
founded by Hassenfeld’s
immigrant grandfather and
great-uncle, who escaped
religious persecution in
Eastern Europe in 1903 and
went on to create the world-
famous toy company that
Hassenfeld helped take to
greater heights.
The Big Impossible
Honeymoon Alone
By Nicole Macaulay
This Rhode Island-based
mother of four wrote a novel
about a woman ditched by
her date — for her twenty-
three-year-old cousin, no less
— at her sister’s ’80s-inspired
wedding and decides to take
the wedding psychic’s advice
to follow fate to find love. It
leads her to London, where
she confronts the unfairness
of societal pressures to nab a
husband all while realizing
that fate can also prevent us
from finding our happily
ever after.
quirky take on all the
must-dos in Rhode Island.
There are experiences in here
that every local has to try
at least once, such as day
tripping to Block Island,
partying like a yachty at the
Clarke Cooke House’s Boom
Boom Room, walking along
Newport’s Cliff Walk and
feasting on Rhode Island’s
famous specialties like Del’s
Lemonade (no straw, of
course), a coffee cabinet,
bakery pizza and more.
Lost Restaurants
of Providence
By David Norton Stone
100 Things to Do in Rhode
Island Before You Die
By Robert Curley
The guidebook is a fun and
Some of Providence’s most
famous restaurants have come
and gone, but the memories
(and photographs) remain.
Thankfully, author David
Norton Stone takes us on a
journey of restaurants past
where you can still smell the
fresh coffee brewed every
twenty minutes at the Silver
Top Diner and hot butter
cakes flipped in the window
at Childs. The book details
how Providence was already a
food city long before all the
national press declared it so.
Three Women
By Lisa Taddeo
This book features the stories
of three ordinary American
women, one based in
Newport, who come to terms
with their own sexuality and
female desire. Over several
years of reporting, Taddeo
details the real-life story of a
By Edward J. Delaney
This book of short fiction
challenges our human
existence with sublime stories
about people exploring
feelings of “guilt and redemp-
tion, aspiration and failure.”
One subject revisits the past
through a Google street view
of his childhood home, where
he confronts his insecure
upbringing after reinventing
himself. Another story gets
inside the inner workings of
the mind of a school shooter.
Another tells the story of a
1960s family navigating
tumultuous times in America
and in the home. The prose
is spellbinding and real, as if
Delaney possesses each
subject for just enough time to
write down their life story.
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY
l JANUARY 2020 17