Books

11/20/2008

Peter Matthiessen wins National Book Award fiction prize
Author and fiction committee chair Gail Godwin gracefully pulled out an envelope Wednesday night and revealed that Peter Matthiessen had won for Shadow Country, a thorough revision of a trilogy of novels released in the 1990s.

11/19/2008

Texans well-represented in National Book Awards competition
Tonight's National Book Awards is the book world's equivalent of the Oscars.

11/16/2008

'Means of Transit' by Teresa Miller: Author recalls growing up quirky in Oklahoma
Oklahoman Teresa Miller brings some much-needed credibility back to the memoir genre with Means of Transit . Despite its subtitle, A Slightly Embellished Memoir , Ms. Miller's reminiscences about her life in the Northeastern Oklahoma town of Tahlequah (with occasional jaunts to Tulsa and the "cities" of Oklahoma and New York) ring truer than just about anything I've read this year.

'A Mercy' by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison has nothing left to prove to anyone. With a Nobel Prize and 77 years in hand, and a fervent following that traverses the line between Oprah and the academy, she could go gently into that good night of letters with her legacy secure.

'A Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt' by H.W. Brands
Do we need another biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt? That is debatable, but H.W. Brands' Traitor to His Class is so brilliantly executed that the question may be set aside for the moment.

'Delta Blues' by Ted Gioia: An engaging look at music born in Mississippi
In an interview in 1964, John Lee Hooker said: "I know why the best blues artists come from Mississippi. Because it's the worst state. You have the blues all right if you're down in Mississippi."

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from Jokae's African American Bookstore, 3223 Camp Wisdom Road. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

Authors touring the area this week
Jay Allison will discuss This I Believe (Vol. II): More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women at 2 p.m. at today at Legacy Books, 7300 Dallas Parkway, Plano.

'November 22, 1963' is a fictionalized account of that tragic day
One of the pivotal moments in the 20th century and a touchstone for generations of Americans, the darkest day in Dallas history is usually depicted in bold strokes of mythic proportions. But in November 22, 1963 , Adam Braver takes a much different view, building this story around myriad details and characters from the margins of history.

11/15/2008

5 reasons why concert fans can't get enough of the Eagles
Oh, those enduring Eagles. Just how – and why – are they able to pull off the seemingly improbable, maybe even the impossible?

11/12/2008

Sources: Laura Bush looking into book deal
Laura Bush wants to write a memoir and will be meeting with several publishers, according to three publishing executives with knowledge of the proceedings.

11/09/2008

'The End of the Straight and Narrow' by David McGlynn
David McGlynn's debut collection of well-crafted short stories stays in the mind longer than most books. That is because he writes patiently and well about real people suddenly facing ultimate issues. Some turn to God; some turn away. There are lots of surprises.

'American Rifle' by Alexander Rose
For more than two centuries of warfare, infantrymen fought with muskets: long, heavy, muzzle-loaded guns fired from the shoulder with jolting recoil and wild inaccuracy.

'Songs for the Missing' by Stewart O'Nan
S ongs for the Missing is the kind of book that makes you wish your flight were longer.

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 7700 W. Northwest Highway. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

11/06/2008

Writers welcome a literary president-elect
Last winter, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison received a phone call from Sen. Barack Obama, then the underdog to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

11/05/2008

Author Michael Crichton dies of cancer

AP file

author Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton, the million-selling author of such historic and prehistoric science thrillers as "Jurassic Park," "Timeline" and "The Andromeda Strain," has died of cancer, his family said. He died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 66 after a long battle with the illness.
Blog: Michael Crichton has died
Legacy.com: Sign the guestbook

11/04/2008

Actress, author Jamie Lee Curtis celebrates her older, happier self
Weeks from turning 50, Jamie Lee Curtis has never been happier. It's not because the longtime movie star, who last enchanted the kids in Freaky Friday , is appearing in the hit Beverly Hills Chihuahua . Although, she says, that was a lot of fun.

11/03/2008

Thousands turn out for Texas Book Festival in Austin
AUSTIN – Let's talk politics at the Texas Book Festival. Or maybe wife-swapping. Or how to oink in Russian.

11/02/2008

McGraw's latest takes a swing at bullies
It's hard to find kids who haven't been affected by bullying. Maybe it's happened to them or someone they know. Maybe they've watched it happen and have stood frozen, unsure of what to do, worried that telling an adult would make them a tattletale.

'The Widows of Eastwick' by John Updike: Author's witches confront the jolts of aging
"Women are in league with each other," the critic Camille Paglia once half-warned, "a secret conspiracy of hearts and pheromones." In his 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick , John Updike gave this idea a satirical tweak. He conjured a trio of Rhode Island women (Sukie, Lexa and Jane) who become witches after divorcing. Single and suddenly free, they wreaked havoc on a sleepy town.

'The Theory of Light and Matter' by Andrew Porter: short stories about everyday people and their secrets
In this collection of 10 well-written short stories, San Antonio writer Andrew Porter focuses on people we know: co-workers, neighbors, relatives, friends. His settings also are familiar: suburban neighborhoods, college campuses, the interiors of cars, the interface between city and country.

'Roads to Quoz' by William Least Heat-Moon: Moseying to mysterious places
lmost every chapter of William Least Heat-Moon's fourth travel book contains a sentence or a paragraph or an even longer passage that qualifies as a gem. Mr. Heat-Moon tells stories of places and people so well, and with such memorable language, that his books deserve a second reading, even with so many other worthy books still unread.

'Loot' by Sharon Waxman: Author delves into the plundering of antiquities
Classical scholar Marion True, a curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, was a leading light in the museum world, until her passion for antiquities landed her in court in Italy.

'John Lennon: The Life' by Philip Norman:
At the end of John Lennon: The Life , his simultaneously fascinating and troubling biography of the late Beatle, Philip Norman mentions that Yoko Ono, whose patronage opened unimagined doors for research, ultimately refused to endorse the book.

Mischa Berlinski leads group of Whiting Writers' Award winners
NEW YORK – Novelist Mischa Berlinski, one of last year's finalists for the National Book Awards, is among the 10 recipients of the Whiting Writers' Award for authors of "exceptional talent and promise in early career."

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from the Bookworm, 3245 Main St., Frisco. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

Authors touring the area this week
Dr. Joel Roffman will discuss Coping With Adversity: Judaism's Response to Illness and Other Life Struggles at 1 p.m. today at the Jewish Community Center, 7900 Northaven. Free to JCC members; $5 for nonmembers. Reserve seats at 214-239-7128 or e-mail rweisscrane@jccdallas.org.

10/31/2008

Pulitzer Prize winner Studs Terkel dies at 96
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and activist Studs Terkel has died at age 96. Studs Terkel is best known for his street-wise portrayals of the working class. He contrasted rich and poor along the same Chicago street in the 1966 novel Division Street: America, explored the Depression in 1970's Hard Times and chronicled how people felt about their jobs in 1974's Working.

10/29/2008

Book critic Michael Dirda champions reading for pleasure
The mid-20th-century Italian novelist Italo Calvino once asked: “What do reading and lovemaking have in common?” The answer is, of course, pleasure.

10/27/2008

Acclaimed author Tony Hillerman dies at 83
Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes - Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee - died Sunday of pulmonary failure. He was 83.

10/26/2008

'The Fire' by Katherine Neville: Sequel to 'The Eight' flickers out
It's rare I can say that I've been waiting 20 years for a book to appear, but that's just the case with Katherine Neville's The Fire , a sequel to 1988's thrillingly original The Eight .

'A Passion for Nature' by Donald Worster: Why America owes a debt to John Muir
In a journal entry, John Muir wrote, "There is love of wild nature in everybody." That belief was at the heart of the conservation movement that Muir was instrumental in making a significant force in American life.

'The Ghost in Love' by Jonathan Carroll: Author ably navigates between reality and the fantastic
Let me put it subtly. Jonathan Carroll is the best writer of fantastic – notice I didn't say fantasy – novels in America.

'From Colony to Superpower' by George C. Herring: A comprehensive look at U.S. foreign policy
This 12th volume in Oxford's landmark "History of the United States" is the first in the series to concentrate on a single subject: U.S. foreign policy. It takes us from Presidents George Washington to George W. Bush, Secretaries of State Thomas Jefferson to Condoleezza Rice, wars from the post-Revolutionary to the one going in Iraq.

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 2201 Preston Road, Plano. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

'Alphabet Juice' by Roy Blount Jr.: A lover of words writes an engaging browser's dictionary

Authors touring the area this week
Juliana Barr will sign Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands Tuesday at McCord Auditorium, 3225 University Blvd., at a 6 p.m. reception and 6:30 p.m. lecture. Reservations at 214-768-3648 or smu.edu/swcenter/Barr.htm.

10/24/2008

Fellow authors memorialize David Foster Wallace
Most of the dozen speakers at David Foster Wallace's memorial service brought a bottle of water to the lectern, as if inside were some branded tonic that would ease reliving the loss of a beloved author and friend.