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Behind the lens with two groundbreaking photographers
Review by Robin SmithDid you ever wonder how photographers get those fabulous pictures of birds? If you have ever tried to take a picture of any moving thing in nature, you’ve probably been perplexed by the work of the pros. I have trouble getting a good photo of a hanging leaf and can’t imagine how anyone could record photos like the ones by talented artists in magazines. Turns out, modern nature…
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Grisham’s quirky short fiction debut
Review by Eliza BornéThe king of the blockbuster courtroom thriller has succeeded at stepping into a new genre—short fiction—and created seven rich and enticing narratives.In Ford County, John Grisham’s first collection of stories, we meet a weird and endearing group of misfits with one thing in common: each has lived in Clanton, the seat of fictional Ford County,… -
The Queen of Picture Books directs the King of Blues
Interview by Eliza BornéSandra Boynton may be the only New York Times best-selling writer with a Grammy nomination and more than 4,000 greeting cards under her belt. Her 2002 combined picture book/audio CD Philadelphia Chickens reached #1 on the bestseller list and featured stars such as Meryl Streep, Laura Linney and Natasha Richardson singing in an “imaginary musical revue.” With One Shoe Blues…
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Fire on the mountain
Review by Anne BartlettThe recent “Station Fire” in California’s Angeles National Forest, the worst in Los Angeles County history, burned more than 160,000 acres and killed two firefighters. In comparison, the 1910 Northern Rockies forest fire remembered in The Big Burn covered nearly 3.2 million acres in Washington, Idaho and Montana. At least 85 people were killed, most of them members of… -
The space between
Interview by Amy ScribnerIn the pantheon of popular fiction, Kingsolver is queen. Or close to it. Consider this: she is among the first Barbaras to pop up in a Google search, trailing only a few well-known names such as Streisand, Bush and Boxer. In the two decades since the release of her first novel, The Bean Trees—which was published the day her daughter, now a college graduate, started to walk—Kingsolver has…
Featured ReviewNew York, New YorkIn Jonathan Lethem’s latest offering, readers are once again thrust into a genre-bending, category-defying and humorously disjointed New York City. In Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude, Lethem explored his favorite outer borough through the lens of noir and fantasy—and now he turns his attentions to Manhattan proper with a surrealistic eye that owes as much to Saul Bellow and James Baldwin as it does to Pynchon, Baudrillard and DeLillo.
The narrator of Chronic City, Chase Insteadman, is a former child actor and popular Manhattan socialite who has recently attained notoriety for his personal life—his astronaut fiancée is trapped in the ether, stuck in a layer of low-orbit mines on the International Space…
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Celebrate National Bookstore Day
Fall fiction highlightsAuster’s most impressive work yetIf anyone could be considered an heir to Vladimir Nabokov’s legendary narrative trickery, it would be Paul Auster—a master of literary illusion whose novels have long been lauded for their intricate puzzles and bold subversion of traditional narrative structure. In recent years, though, Auster has used a lighter hand, and novels like The Brooklyn Follies…
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Web exclusives!Crossing the country in search of a cureLibba Bray's picaresque novel takes a new directionLibba Bray’s secret underground lair, from which one day she plans to rule the universe, is, interestingly enough an exact replica of her living room in Brooklyn. Although the fact that it contains the world’s most uncomfortable couch may be her downfall. As she told BookPage while sitting on that couch, “It’s hard to be an Evil Author Overlord™ with an aching… Read More… |
Tops for teensWestfeld sails into history with a whale of a taleWhat if World War I was fought with giant walking machines and genetically modified monsters instead of airplanes and ammunition? What if, instead of telephones and radios, long-distance communication was carried out by talking lizards and trained birds? What if our version of history was somehow turned on its head and futuristic tales were spun instead? Read More… |
Cozy cornerMurder at the neighborhood watering hole
The English invented the cozy mystery and Simon Brett—creator of famous characters Mrs. Pargeter and Charles Paris—is a master of the form. The Poisoning in the Pub, the 10th book in the Fethering series, demonstrates the author’s inventiveness within an established genre.
Jude (no surname), an alternative healer, and Carole…
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