Choosing just one winner for the Greatest McCarren Park Eyesore Award is near-impossible, but 20 Bayard (right) is a strong contender. Construction there has proceeded through a partial stop-work order, and now the subway ad campaign has begun. Dana reports (in email): Today on the 7 train (man, I wish I’d taken a photo) I saw a poster for a . . .
Foreskin’s Lament — out this October — is a hilarious and very angry memoir that chronicles Shalom Auslander’s move from the devout Orthodoxy of his childhood into a state of perpetual war with God. Like Twain, Auslander skewers his forebears’ religion not from the outside, a la Dawkins, Hitchens, and friends, but by turning the logic of the belief system . . .
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30pm and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please send details to lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication, with the date in the . . .