Author readings
- Boston area authors visits
best sellers
Hardcover Nonfiction
1. When You Are Engulfed in Flames
By David Sedaris. Little, Brown.
2. The Last Lecture
By Randy Pausch. Hyperion.
3. The Dark Side
By Jane Mayer. Doubleday.
4. Life With My Sister Madonna
By Christopher Ciccone. Simon Spotlight.
5. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea
By Chelsea Handler. Simon Spotlight.
Hardcover Fiction
1. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
By David Wroblewski. Ecco.
2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
By Junot Díaz. Riverhead.
3. Unaccustomed Earth
By Jhumpa Lahiri. Knopf.
4. Love the One You’re With
By Emily Giffin. St. Martin’s.
5. Chasing Harry Winston
By Lauren Weisberger. Simon & Schuster.
Features
Photo Gallery
Zinn turns to comics
Howard Zinn has turned to a new platform to give his version of US history — the graphic novel.
- Related No ordinary comic book
Photo gallery
Guilty pleasure reads
We can't feel guilty about recommending any of these entertaining novels from 2007, although in one or two cases, perhaps we should.
Memorable children's books
Four picture books this year share one thing: they are as rich for an adult as for a child.
Photo Gallery
Graphic novel roundup
Inquiries into history and outsider status spark a striking sampling of recent graphic literature.
Photos
Q&A with Steve Almond
Heavy metal, candy, sex, Kurt Vonnegut and other habits occupy prolific Somerville writer Steve Almond when he's not typing away.
From Blogcritic magazine
Photos
Readers' summer reading lists
We asked readers to submit their recommendations for summer reads. Browse through some of the suggestions and share your own.
Review
Love, loss, and Southern tradition fuel 'Girls in Trucks'
The women of Katie Crouch's debut novel navigate between the Old South and the New South.
Love, loss, and Southern tradition fuel 'Girls in Trucks'
First-time novelist Katie Crouch speaks with a big, self-aware voice about the role of tradition, especially Southern tradition, in the age of cellphones, laptops, and globalization. Crouch grew up in Charleston, S.C., at a time when new investment and immigration from the North collapsed the rigid social hierarchies of the city. The women of her debut novel, "Girls in Trucks," ... (Boston Globe, 7/23/08)
A writer answers the call of the wild
The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind — and Almost Found Myself — on the Pacific Crest Trail , By Dan White, HarperPerennial , 374 pp., $14.95 (Boston Globe, 7/22/08)
Darkness on draft
It's one of the worst reasons you could ever come up with to vote for a politician, but thinking "That's the type of guy I'd like to have a beer with" about a novelist, well, that's just fine by us. Andre Dubus III fits the bill nicely, and with his reading at the Newtonville Books "Books and Brews" series tonight, ... (Boston Globe, 7/22/08)
Witty family saga packs 'Punch'
The titular "punch" of Noah Hawley's delightful and provocative third novel is delivered by David Henry squarely to his brother Scott's nose, and when the novel begins, the two men sit side by side in the emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. (Boston Globe, 7/21/08)
Casting call
Look closely around Boston or any major city in the United States and you'll probably find a plaque commemorating the Works Progress Administration for building sidewalks and parks as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to help pull the nation out of the Great Depression. Susan Quinn's new book, "Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made ... (Boston Globe, 7/21/08)
New releases
DVDS - DOCUMENTARY Earth: The Biography Massive ice floes. Hiccupping volcanoes. An atmosphere and ocean in perpetual, chaotic flux. And that's even before we pesky humans started mucking around with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The earth certainly has faced enough challenges in its 4.5 billion years and this five-part National Geographic special glories in every disastrous, high-definition moment. ... (Boston Globe, 7/21/08)
Rethinking the Reagan supremacy
The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 By Sean Wilentz Harper, 564 pp., illustrated, $27.95 Ronald Reagan "changed the trajectory of America," Barack Obama proclaimed in January. Presiding over a re-energized Republican "party of ideas," Obama opined, Reagan tapped the aspirations and addressed the apprehensions of average Americans, who were hungry for clarity, confidence, and "a return to that sense ... (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
James bonds
House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family By Paul Fisher Holt, 693 pp., illustrated, $35 Over the past decades, beginning with F. O. Matthiessen's "The James Family" (1947), many biographies and portraits of various Jameses have appeared. Notable among them are ones by Alfred Habegger on Henry James Sr., Robert D. Richardson on William James, Jean Strouse ... (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Independent and local, writ large
Last summer, there was a Harry Potter release and accompanying brouhaha - an entire event in Coolidge Corner complete with Marauder's Map. (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Disputing 'Side Effects'
I am writing to express my disappointment at the inflammatory review of Alison Bass's book, "Side Effects" ("The unhealthy ties that bind FDA to drug firms," July 5). Judging by the statements in the review, "Side Effects" is inaccurate and does not reflect the facts related to paroxetine as we know them and as have been shared publicly. (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Short takes
The Nightingales of Troy: Stories of One Family's Century By Alice Fulton Norton, 254 pp., $23.95 These beautiful connected stories feature several generations of good Catholic women in upstate New York. Ruth is introduced in the 1960s as "the loneliest girl in North America. . . . the only Catholic High student who subscribed to Zen Teen, the Journal of ... (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
New & Recommended
The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company By David A. Price The history of the firm whose string of blockbusters has sparked a renaissance in Hollywood animation (Knopf, $27.95). (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Shelf Life
Stage craft The Federal Theatre Project was among the most innovative and controversial initiatives of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. For four years, the project provided jobs for actors, writers, and directors and produced cutting-edge theater; it also helped to launch the careers of Orson Welles, John Houseman, Arthur Miller, and Elia Kazan. (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Spirituality books in New England
1. "The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity," by William P. Young (Windblown, paperback) 2. "Ninety Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life," by Don Piper (Baker , paperback) (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
A DJ seeks the beat in Berlin
Slumberland By Paul Beatty Bloomsbury, 243 pp., $24.99 Two of the liveliest strains of contemporary fiction find their roots in different strands of popular culture: hip white guys like Jonathan Franzen, Michael Chabon, and Jonathan Lethem take inspiration from the comic books of their youth, and the concomitant fascination with genre and role-playing, while writers like Colson Whitehead, Junot Díaz, ... (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Olympus on fire
Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World By David Maraniss Simon & Schuster, 478 pp., illustrated, $26.95 The world, and not just Rome, was a fascinating and frightening place in 1960, full of promise and peril, hope, unrest, and almost incomprehensible complexity. The Cold War, with the forces of communism and capitalism at loggerheads, appeared to be building inexorably ... (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Paradises wounded, but not lost
The Wild Places By Robert Macfarlane Penguin, 340 pp., paperback, $15 Walking the Wrack Line: On Tidal Shifts and What Remains By Barbara Hurd University of Georgia, 160 pp., $22.95 Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators By William Stolzenburg Bloomsbury, 291 pp., $24.99 If you're worried about the future of ... (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Bookings
TOMORROW: Ann Hood reads from "Comfort," at 7 p.m., at Hingham Public Library, 66 Leavitt St., Hingham. . . . Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez discusses "Dirty Girls on Top," at 6 p.m., at Borders Back Bay, 511 Boylston St. . . . Poet Martha Rhodes and writer Dean Albarelli read at 7 p.m., at the Fine Arts Work Center, 24 Pearl St., ... (Boston Globe, 7/20/08)
Hustvedt's 'Sorrows' draws on diaries and dreams
The Sorrows of an American By Siri Hustvedt Holt, 306 pp., $25 If HBO's recent hit show "In Treatment" has proven anything, it's that psychotherapy can make for compelling drama. Of course it doesn't hurt that the show's therapist is simmering Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, whose radiant paternal calm managed to launch even this heterosexual male into an unexpected "projective" ... (Boston Globe, 7/19/08)
Mystery, politics in historical context
After thoroughly enjoying "The Emperor of Ocean Park" and "New England White," Stephen L. Carter's astute and at times satirical thrillers, I was looking forward to his newest novel, "Palace Council." (Boston Globe, 7/17/08)
Latest from the wires
AP Exclusive: Robert Downey Jr. postpones memoir (AP, 7/22/08)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/17/08)
USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/17/08)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/17/08)
Harris goes straight in latest novel (AP, 7/17/08)
Author Danielle Steel writes to 'give people hope' (AP, 7/16/08)
AP Exclusive: Solzhenitsyn work coming out (AP, 7/15/08)
Larry King takes on his toughest subject: his life (AP, 7/14/08)
Bill Russell writing book about coach Red Auerbach (AP, 7/14/08)
400-year-old volume of Shakespeare recovered a decade after it was stolen; man in custody (AP, 7/11/08)
Memoir says Madonna's true love is herself (AP, 7/10/08)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/10/08)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/10/08)
USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/10/08)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/10/08)
Vampires at midnight! Parties for last 'Twilight' (AP, 7/10/08)
Memoir says Madonna's true love is herself (AP, 7/9/08)
Sedaris' new book: more mature, thoughtful writer (AP, 7/7/08)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/3/08)
USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/3/08)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS (AP, 7/3/08)
McClellan campaigns for himself in promoting book (AP, 6/30/08)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 6/26/08)
USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 6/26/08)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS (AP, 6/26/08)
Musician Shawn Colvin working on memoir (AP, 6/25/08)