Sunday books: for May 23, 2010.

The poet, who has a fresh book of poetry out as well as a book on Walt Whitman, ponders life, darkness, 9/11 and Monet.

The music writer turns his pen to the cinema. The result is an insightful series of observations on films, stars and filmmakers that are an absolute pleasure to read.

A reissue of Thomas’ ‘Collected Poems’ offers an occasion to consider the poet’s elemental voice and outrageous behavior.

A woman who places Chinese babies with adoptive parents in the U.S. is fueled by a pain that the author knows too well in real life.

The influential postwar gallerist, whose stable included Johns, Warhol and Rauschenberg, turned artists into stars.

The Canadian writers in this sci-fi collection, including William Gibson and Douglas Coupland, weave imaginative tales of the future.

This scholarly work delves into the history of migrant labor across the American West, lending valuable context to an issue still with us today.

Also: ‘American Music’ by Jane Mendelsohn and ‘My First New York’ from the editors of New York Magazine.