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Books

07/05/2009

Poetic License by Tom Chandler: A ‘Recipe’ for clarifying thoughts and feelings
Our brains are poor computers. They are more like a kind of salad, with everything we know tossed and mixed around with every other thing we know. The fact is, we don’t know what it is we know until we take the time to sort it out by writing it down. This is another of poetry’s uses.

A Bosnian immigrant offers a fresh look at America in “Love and Obstacles”
LOVE AND OBSTACLES: Stories,by Aleksandar Hemon.Riverhead Books. 210 pages. $25.95.

“The State of Jones” is the story of an insurrection within a rebellion
THE STATE OF JONES,by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer.Doubleday. 402 pages. $27.50

“American Passage” traces the history of Ellis Island
AMERICAN PASSAGE: The History of Ellis Island,by Vincent J. Cannato.Harper. 487 pages. $27.99.

New thrillers, one with lots of local angles
“Living in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, birthplace of Mr. Potato Head, had its ups and downs. But this working-class city of seventy-two thousand on the Blackstone River was no one-spud wonder. It was also the minor-league home of one of the most storied teams in baseball.”

“Born to Run” follows a hidden tribe of super runners
BORN TO RUN: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen,by Christopher McDougall.Knopf. 304 pages. $24.95.

06/30/2009

Books Calendar: June 30
TUESDAY

Divine or Human?
As mystical experiences go, Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s transcendent moment was not the kind that launches a new world religion. Still, it changed her forever.

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

In Print: Kids like to read mysteries with plenty of clues and action
Adults who take the time to ask kids what they really like to read find mysteries are high on the list. From beginning readers to teenagers, kids revel in the vicarious thrills of a fast-moving plot full of action and clues. Nate the Great by Marjorie Sharmat, first published in 1972, remains a favorite in the early elementary grades. With 20-plus books in the series, children who enjoy the adventures of young detective and his dog, Sludge, have plenty to keep them busy, while mystery-loving parents who read the series aloud to their offspring will get a kick out of Nate’s hard-boiled narrative, with its short sentences and (sort of) tough manner.

Literary couple loved co-writing screenplay for ‘Away We Go’
CHICAGO — Acclaimed author Dave Eggers and his wife, Vendela Vida, were expecting their first child, and they were doing all the things that first-time parents are apt to do, reading the baby books, setting up the nursery and politely listening to heaps of advice from well-meaning friends and strangers.

06/28/2009

“The Geopolitics of Emotion”: U.S. dominance may be coming to an end
THE GEOPOLITICS OF EMOTION: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope Are Reshaping the World,by Dominique Moisi.Doubleday. 176 pages. $21.95.

The power of the short poem
Three recent books indicate that the art of the short poem may benefit from a long writing life.

“The Last Supper”: A summer in Italy has its sunny moments
THE LAST SUPPER: A Summer in Italy,by Rachel Cusk.Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 239 pages. $25.

“My Father’s Tears and Other Stories”: Updike’s final achievement
MY FATHER’S TEARS AND OTHER STORIES,by John Updike.Knopf. 292 pages. $25.95.

“The Cutting”: Bright, appealing hero carries gruesome thriller
THE CUTTING,by James Hayman.Minotaur. 326 pages. $24.95.

06/23/2009

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

Vampires struggle, too, in small Southern town of Harris’ novels
MAGNOLIA, Ark. — Vampires typically roam the foggy streets of London or the humid nights of New Orleans, opulent worlds filled with beautiful monsters and formal balls.

Books Calendar: June 23
WEDNESDAY

AUDIO REVIEWS: A pair of kids’ books on Cuban history
Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, by Margarita Engle, read by Matt Green, Vane Millon, Ozzie Rodriguez and Roberto Santana. Unabridged, 1½ hours. Listening Library, $22.

06/21/2009

Thrillers: Reacher and Trevellyan, heroes for our time
“Suicide bombers are easy to spot,” ex-military cop Jack Reacher reflects at the outset of Lee Child’s superb new thriller, Gone Tomorrow (Delacorte, 427 pages, $27). “They give out all kinds of telltale signs. Mostly because they’re nervous. By definition they’re all first-timers.”

“After Many A Summer” relives the fans’ heartbreak when the Dodgers and Giants moved west
AFTER MANY A SUMMER: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age of New York Baseball,by Robert E. Murphy.Union Square Press. 418 pages. $24.95.

Children’s fantasies become destructive in Alice Hoffman’s latest, “The Story Sisters”
THE STORY SISTERS,by Alice Hoffman.Shaye Areheart Books. 325 pages. $25.

Adrian Goldsworthy sticks to the facts in explaining “How Rome Fell”
HOW ROME FELL,by Adrian Goldsworthy.Yale. 531 pages. $32.50.

A father who’s far from the mainstream
HOME GAME: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood,by Michael Lewis.Norton. 190 pages. $24.95.

06/16/2009

History of gum has plenty of facts to chew on
Show of hands — anyone ever dump a whole packet of Chiclets into your mouth when you were a kid? Crunching those multicolored rectangular bits into a big rubbery wad of flavor was even better than Pixie Stix.

Books Calendar: June 16
TUESDAY

Top 10 Bestsellers: June 16
Our national bestseller list comes from USA Today, which compiles it each week from a wide sampling of bookstores around the country.

Audio Books: Freakdom reigns; reporter in the spotlight
The Resurrectionist, by Jack O’Connell, read by Holter Graham. Unabridged, 11¼ hours. HighBridge Audio, $34.95.