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Boston area author visits, week of May 11-17
By Judith Maas SUNDAY: Jack O’Connell (‘‘The Resurrectionist’’) and Perrin...
best sellers
Hardcover Nonfiction
1. The Last Lecture
By Randy Pausch. Hyperion.
2. Ladies of Liberty
By Cokie Roberts. Morrow.
3. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea
By Chelsea Handler. Simon Spotlight.
4. In Defense of Food
By Michael Pollan. Penguin.
5. Home
By Julie Andrews. Hyperion.
Hardcover Fiction
1. Unaccustomed Earth
By Jhumpa Lahiri. Knopf.
2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
By Junot Díaz. Riverhead.
3. The Miracle at Speedy Motors
By Alexander McCall Smith. Pantheon.
4. The Whole Truth
By David Baldacci. Grand Central.
5. Hold Tight
By Harlan Coben. Dutton.
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
Review
A celebrity interviewer takes a turn at tell-all
Barbara Walters's memoir, "Audition," focuses on herself as a celebrity confronting countless personal challenges.
Photo Gallery
Best books of the year
From the thousands of books published in 2007, Globe critics selected the fiction and nonfiction titles that stand out.
Henry Winkler
The Fonz, who also goes by Henry Winkler , reads at Porter Square Books on Sunday. His new release is "The Life of Me: Enter At Your Own Risk." The book isn't a Winkler memoir - it's a part of the "Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever" book series for kids, which is based on Winkler's childhood. 5:30 p.m. Free. ... (Boston Globe, 12 a.m.)
'The Faithful' is a steady look at a changing church
In America, the Catholic Church is in trouble. Enervated by a priest shortage, its faithful often disregard official teachings with abandon while struggling to maintain a Catholic identity in a Protestant land. (Boston Globe, 5/7/08)
'The Prince of Frogtown' is a warts-and-all view of a flawed father
A few weeks back, sheriff's deputies in a north Georgia county followed "the sweet smells of sugary corn blended with the bite of distilled alcohol," as the Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter put it, to the site of a moonshiner's still up in the woods across Cane Creek. ... (Boston Globe, 5/6/08)
Don't pinch us if we're dreaming
If we keep going at this rate, the ratio of books about the Red Sox to actual Red Sox fans is going to reach 1:1. Everyone gets a book! Until then, though, we eagerly anticipate the latest from talented Herald Sox scribe Tony Massarotti, who also happens to be one of the more tolerable sports talk radio guests around. Warning: ... (Boston Globe, 5/6/08)
Between the sheets
It will be steamy at the Waltham Public Library tonight when historical romance novelist Emily Bryan gives a talk called "Neurotica: The Secret Life of a Romance Author." Bryan, whose real name is Diana Groe, is the author of "Distracting the Dutchess," "Silk Dreams," and "Pleasuring the Pirate." Yes, you read that right. Arrrg. 7:30 p.m. Waltham Public Library, 735 ... (Boston Globe, 5/6/08)
Dan Doyle draws up a game plan for sports parenting
After many years of playing basketball and coaching college basketball and hosting tournaments for scholar-athletes from around the world and raising six children, Dan Doyle has some advice for parents of young athletes. (Boston Globe, 5/6/08)
Tips for sports parents
From "The 11 Danger Signs of Parental Over-Involvement" You obsess over the statistics of your young athlete. You become angry if your child has a bad game, or makes what you believe are foolish mistakes. (Boston Globe, 5/6/08)
Dylan's mystery girl tells it like it was
It was one of the most iconic record album covers ever released, and Suze Rotolo was part of it: On a snowy day in 1963, she snuggled with Bob Dylan as the two walked down a Greenwich Village street. "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" went on to become one of his best-known records, but the long-haired girl on ... (Boston Globe, 5/6/08)
Reading
OK, this one doesn't have anything to do with Cinco de Mayo, but it is about something hot. At the Back Bay Borders tonight, Michael Tonello reads from his new book, "Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag." Yes, it's a whole book about buying a bag. But people, we're talking about ... (Boston Globe, 5/5/08)
'Lost Supreme' lets Ballard be heard
When most people think of Florence Ballard - if people bother to think of her at all - she is usually categorized and dismissed as yet another terse cautionary tale about drugs, alcohol, and the toxicity of the music industry. (Boston Globe, 5/5/08)
Tips on finding the best leaders
Deciding Who Leads How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct, and Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, by Joseph Daniel McCool, 216 pp., Davies-Black Publishing 2008 Because of the inherent risks and rewards of attracting senior management, leadership recruitment and succession planning are at the top of the agenda for growth-minded corporations. Organizations' futures are determined by the investments they make ... (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Bookings
TODAY: Jack O'Connell and Perrin Ireland read at 2 p.m., at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newtonville. . . . Hillary Jordan reads from "Mudbound," at 4 p.m., at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Cambridge. . . . . (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Short Takes
Split By Suzanne Finnamore Dutton, 272 pp., $24.95 Having marched us through a sassy semifictional account of her pregnancy in "The Zygote Chronicles," in "Split" Suzanne Finnamore files a dispatch from the next, less cheerful stop on the grand tour of life: the implosion of her marriage to a husband whose philanderings had been sensed but never acknowledged, like a ... (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
New & Recommended
The Plague of Doves By Louise Erdrich In her new novel, set in North Dakota, the award-winning author examines the long reach of the past (Harper, $25.95). A Summer of Hummingbirds By Christopher Benfey The hummingbird as muse for 19th-century artists is the subject of this deftly written sequence of intertwined vignettes (Penguin, $25.95). Terror and Consent: The Wars for ... (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Novices peek at literary world
Most of the time they are literary agents and book editors who sit behind desks as they pore over unpublished manuscripts. But last weekend they were Simon, Paula, and Randy. (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Rake in the florins, the Medici way!
I have decided to ignore our crashing economy, exploding debt, and the withering away of the dollar, fascinating though it all is, and have turned my attention to 15th-century Florence and the financial legerdemain of the Medicis. My guide has been Tim Parks's lucid and witty "Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence" (Atlas, $13.95). I had been ... (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
An early end; dating the undead
Before I Die By Jenny Downham Listening Library, unabridged fiction, six CDs, seven hours, $34, read by Charlotte Parry; also available as a download from audible.com, $23.95. (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Dissatisfied with congress? Scientists try to help.
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex By Mary Roach Norton, 319 pp., illustrated, $24.95 You want to love a book called "Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex," especially because its author is Mary Roach, who has already proven herself on the topic of death in bestsellers "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" and "Spook: Science ... (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Fate accompli
The House on Fortune Street By Margot Livesey HarperCollins, 311 pp., $24.95 The late novelist Iris Murdoch said that literature was meant "to be grasped by enjoyment," a notion that certainly applies to the work of the wonderfully mutable Margot Livesey and her newest novel, "The House on Fortune Street." It is a story about sadness, about our desperate deceptions ... (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Baseball as a fight for the Finnish
Sort of Gone: Poems By Sarah Freligh Turning Point, 88 pp., paperback, $17 Anatomy of Baseball Edited by Lee Gutkind and Andrew Blauner Southern Methodist University, 210 pp., $22.50 The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally Made It to the Big Leagues After Eleven Years in the Minors By Chris Coste Ballantine, 224 pp., illustrated, $25 The Best Sports Writing of ... (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Latest from the wires
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USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 5/8/08)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS (AP, 5/8/08)
Penguin tale tops list of `challenged' books (AP, 5/6/08)
Julie Andrews writes autobiography of early life (AP, 5/2/08)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 5/1/08)
USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 5/1/08)
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Darryl Strawberry is writing `Straw' memoir (AP, 4/30/08)
Stephenie Meyer, teen sensation, writes adult novel (AP, 4/30/08)
Book about Eliot Spitzer to be published by Penguin (AP, 4/30/08)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS (AP, 4/26/08)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 4/26/08)
USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 4/26/08)
Huckabee writing book on his failed presidential bid (AP, 4/30/08)
Author Cynthia Ozick wins 2 lifetime achievement awards (AP, 4/26/08)
Miley Cyrus to write memoir (AP, 4/26/08)
Turning around companies in crisis (Reuters, 4/18/08)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS (AP, 4/17/08)
USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS (AP, 4/17/08)
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Rowling implores NYC judge to block publication of guide (AP, 4/17/08)
US writer among Orange Prize fiction finalists (AP, 4/15/08)
'Harry Potter' fan testifies in trial and weeps (AP, 4/15/08)
Rumsfeld memoir to be published in 2010 (AP, 4/14/08)
Rowling says lexicon theft of her work (AP, 4/14/08)
Jack Handey's thoughts get deeper (AP, 4/12/08)
Bond creator letters sold (AP, 4/11/08)
Jack Handey's thoughts get deeper (AP, 4/11/08)
Publisher enjoys paperback hits (AP, 4/10/08)