11/03/2009

AUDIO REVIEWS: Kathy Griffin and the founding of Facebook
“Official Book Club Selection, A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin,” read by Griffin. Abridged, 6½ hours. Random House Audio, $32.

Freakonomics boys push their luck too far in sequel
Their provocative treatment of climate science and global warming gets a thumbs down from scientists

BESTSELLERS
1. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days” by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books) (F-H)

BOOKS CALENDAR
TUESDAY

11/01/2009

A book, and DVD by men, for men, about men
The men’s movement moves on.

A book, and DVD by men, for men, about men
The men’s movement moves on.

From emulating Washington to outsourcing his life
A.J. Jacobs is a professional guinea pig. He has dedicated a good chunk of his journalistic career to undertaking social experiments with varying degrees of difficulty and then writing about them. Hilarity, and quite a bit of learning, ensue.

The fascination of China, ancient and modern
A fragment of silk torn by an emperor’s teeth floated down from the plane carrying him to Manchuria, in this mysterious, haunting, multi-layered tale.

Saving the work of the ancients
Belozerskaya offers us Cyriacus Pizzecolli, Cyriacus of Ancona, as the begetter of archaeology, and makes her case in 300 heavily researched pages. But she’s an art historian, so some might dispute her definition of archaeology and her attributing its fatherhood to an obscure Renaissance merchant-turned-

Arsenault’s R.I. mystery hums along to a surprise finish
This is the fourth mystery written by former Journal political reporter Mark Arsenault, and it is by far his best. The level of writing is crisper, his details sharper and more revealing, and his plot so craftily spun that you won’t know who did what to whom until virtually the last pages of the book.

Another Spenser novel from Robert Parker’s swift, sure hand
“I had just finished a job for an interesting woman named Nan Sartin, and was happily making out my bill to her, when a woman came in who promised to be equally interesting.”

10/31/2009

In Print: Books to set the mood to spooky
Ghoulishly delicious reading about weird facts and fables, monsters and vampires

10/27/2009

Treat your youngsters and their friends to these great Halloween books
Books are the Halloween treats that won’t give anyone tummy aches or rotten teeth. Some of these books even go above and beyond the tricks and treats and give life lessons and help others.

2012: Eh, it’s not the end of the world
The world is coming to an end.

Kids’ Books: For fall, a satisfying harvest
Fall is harvest time for children’s books as well as gardens. A cornucopia of books this year offers something for all ages and tastes. We only have to look at the 1,000-plus readers who showed up at Providence’s Civic Center recently to celebrate Jeff Kinney’s newly published Dog Days, the fourth book in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, to know that kids are still reading, despite rumors to the contrary. Kinney has grabbed the interest especially of boys with his funny, perceptive combination of words and cartoon-like pictures about life in middle school. Even some dads were waiting eagerly for the newest installment in the wildly popular series.

BOOKS CALENDAR
TUESDAY

BESTSELLERS
Our national bestseller list comes from USA Today, which compiles it each week from a wide sampling of bookstores around the country.

Prolific novelist W.E.B. Griffin has a killer Philadelphia instinct
PHILADELPHIA — In the time it takes you to read this sentence, W.E.B. Griffin will have written another novel.

Another Stoker bites into the Dracula legend
The vampire whose unquenchable thirst for blood Bram Stoker chronicled in the 1897 classic Dracula has returned.

Electronic books may transform publishing industry
FRANKFURT, Germany — Electronic books may transform not only the publishing industry, but the very definition of what constitutes a book.

10/25/2009

Today’s vampires are in a different vein
Forget those vicious vampires made famous by scary guys like Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. Today’s vampires are downright sweet: lovesick teenagers, studly heartthrobs, folks just like you and me — except for that taste for human blood.

The Beltway Sniper’s violent past
SCARED SILENT: A Memoir,by Mildred Muhhamad.Atria Books. 261 pages. $23.

When a whaler got trapped in ice
FINAL VOYAGE,by Peter Nichols.Putnam. 294 pages. $26.95.

They all sought a new life in America
BECOMING AMERICANS: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing,edited by Ilan Stavens. The Library of America. 724 pages. $40.

Africans are not just ‘strange beings with unpronounceable names,’ author asserts c
THE EDUCATION OF A BRITISH-PROTECTED CHILD,by Chinua Achebe.Knopf. 173 pages. $24.95.

How Moses helped shape American history
AMERICA’S PROPHET: Moses and the American Story, by Bruce Feiler. William Morrow. 352 pages. $26.99.

10/20/2009

Dr. Gupta’s book of miracles
LOS ANGELES Surgeons crowded around the 23-year-old driver who had been rushed into the University of Michigan hospital with head and chest injuries from a serious automobile accident.

BOOKS CALENDAR
TUESDAY

Click by click, libraries and readers wade into digital lending
Kate Lambert recalls using her library card just once or twice throughout her childhood. Now, she uses it several times a month.

BESTSELLERS
Our national bestseller list comes from USA Today, which compiles it each week from a wide sampling of bookstores around the country.

10/25/2009

London’s Highgate Cemetery is ghost-story heaven
LONDON — West of Karl Marx and just up the path from Charles Dickens’ widow and daughter stands author Audrey Niffenegger, deep in the heart of London’s Highgate Cemetery, the setting for her new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry.

10/18/2009

Maurice Sendak sees ‘Wild Things’ become a movie
NEW YORK About the hoopla surrounding the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak is characteristically gruff.

Torture, torment, terror: Living through the dark days behind the Iron Curtain
ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE: A Family’s Journey to America,by Kati Marton.Simon & Schuster. 274 pages. $26.

Two scathing portraits of controversial wars
“I spend that night operating on someone only to have them die a few hours later in the ICU. I read stories of friends going to concerts and frat parties. I should be there with them. This isn’t how a twenty-year-old should be spending his glory years.”

An eloquent argument for educational reform
THE MAKING OF AMERICANS: Democracy and Our Schools,by E.D. Hirsch Jr.Yale University Press. 261 pages. $25.

Styron brings his seamless prose to world of Marines
THE SUICIDE RUN: Five Tales ofthe Marine Corps,by William Styron.Random House. 194 pages. $24.

Frankenstein story exquisitely brought back to life
THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN,by Peter Ackroyd.Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. 353 pages. $26.95.