Novelty: "Unfamiliar Fishes" written by Sarah Vowell
23 Mar 2011 05:30:25
When Sarah Vowell writes of setting foot on her lanai at the Ilikai, where I spent my first nights in Honolulu, or sitting beneath a banyan tree in Waikiki, where I made my home, it strikes a chord, transporting me back to those days of optimism and youth in the Pacific. Trouble is, for all the work she appears to have put into telling the tortured past of these islands, she fails to weave a consistently engaging story, even though Hawaii has one of the most interesting histories anywhere in the... Read Full Story
"Conversations with Scorsese" from Richard Schickel
18 Mar 2011 05:20:44
Schickel's "Conversations with Scorsese" offers nearly 400 pages of Q-and-A between the two, covering not only Scorsese's career but, more broadly, the art of making movies and the joy they share in watching them. It's likely to stand as the definitive source for Scorsese's views because he is so engaged — and because Schickel knows just the questions to ask.
Scorsese, now 68, reflects on how his upbringing in a Sicilian neighborhood in New York's Lower East Side influenced films such as "Mean ... Read Full Story
Charlie Sheen and memoirs
18 Mar 2011 05:19:57
The recently fired star of the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" wants to tell his combustible life story, said executives at three publishing houses who asked not to be identified, citing the sensitive nature of the project.
Two of the publishers said Thursday that the book had the working title "Apocalypse Me," a reference to "Apocalypse Now," the Francis Ford Coppola film starring Sheen's father, Martin Sheen. Charlie Sheen has said he is obsessed by the film, which takes Joseph Conrad's class... Read Full Story
"The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim" is the book that was written by Jonathan Coe
18 Mar 2011 05:17:01
Eager to begin his search for meaningful human contact, Max pounces on his seatmate on a flight back to London and launches into a one-sided conversation with such gusto he doesn't notice when the other man suffers a fatal heart attack. It isn't an auspicious start for Max, but it is for us, as it sets the tone for what follows.
In another effort to prompt positive life changes, Max signs on with a startup to drive to the Shetland Islands and sell eco-friendly toothbrushes as part of a marketin... Read Full Story
Interesting name from interesting author : David Sirota and his book "Back to our future"
17 Mar 2011 05:10:37
Those carefree years spent sitting idly and naively by as a cabal of ill-willed corporate leviathans and backward-looking governmental decision-makers put their stamp on a society whose seemingly innocuous, kitschy pop culture masked a me-first, militaristic outlook that is having negative ramifications in the 21st century.
Whatchoo talkin' `bout, Sirota?
It's an oversimplification of Sirota's thesis, but the journalist and radio host's book, "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the Worl... Read Full Story
Jermaine Jackson will release his book
17 Mar 2011 05:07:51
Touchstone announced Wednesday that Jermaine Jackson's "You are Not Alone: Michael: Through a Brother's Eye" will be released this fall. Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, promises a "faithful and loving portrait," but one with "no subject off limits."
Jackson spoke in 2003 of wanting to write a memoir and reports surfaced again after Michael's death, in 2009.
Sisters Janet Jackson and La Toya Jackson also have books out this year. Read Full Story
Joe McGinniss talk the real history of Sarah Palin's life
17 Mar 2011 05:05:45
Joe McGinniss' upcoming biography of Sarah Palin has a cover design more fitting for a detective novel. It has a bold red, black and white color scheme and features a dark, defiant silhouette of the former Alaska governor, her hands on her hips.
The image was released Monday by Broadway Books, which this fall is releasing "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin." McGinniss, known for the classic "The Selling of the President 1968," enraged Palin by moving next door to her in Alaska while... Read Full Story
"Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock" written by Sammy Hagar
16 Mar 2011 05:20:16
ex? During Van Halen's live shows, Hagar says the four band members set up tents under the stage where they would have trysts with hand-picked women who were rounded up by roadies.
Drugs? You name it, Hagar has snorted, smoked or ingested it.
Rock 'n' roll? He's played with some of the biggest names in music, from Van Halen and the Grateful Dead to Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith.
Most musicians' memoirs have some of each category covered, but the Red Rocker's life look-back doesn't skimp on the... Read Full Story
New life of the Charlie Sheen’s books, what was popular many years ago
16 Mar 2011 05:19:09
Bidding for an initialed copy of "A Peace of My Mind," long out of print, had reached nearly $600 on the online auction website as of Friday afternoon.
The poems are as dark as any of his recent rants, including "A Thoughtless Soul," which includes the passage: "A night of drink/A night of hate/A night as dark,
As last night's date."
The former star of the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" has been reading from the book on his webcast, "Sheen's Korner." Read Full Story
`Tiger's Wife' is the first work from Tea Obreht
16 Mar 2011 05:17:29
This book is the fist work from the talented Tea Obreht. This book is talking the reader the history that was based on the background of the Balkans conflict.
Instead, Obreht, who was born in Belgrade but grew up in Cyprus and Cairo before immigrating to the U.S., sets her story in mythical cities and towns with made-up names like Sarobar, Brejevina and Zdrevkov.
This choice frees up Obreht not only from the requirements of history but also from a lot of messy detail about who did what to whom... Read Full Story
"The Informationist" from Taylor Stevens
14 Mar 2011 23:36:17
She was born to missionaries in central Africa, and by the age of 14 had taken up with a group of gunrunning mercenaries who taught her to fight. She eventually became as feared as her mentor, but a violent, traumatic experience led her to flee the continent.
So when Richard Burbank, a Texas oil tycoon, hires her to find his daughter who disappeared in Africa four years ago, Munroe is at first reluctant to take the case — she doesn't work missing person cases. But the facts in Emily Burbank's d... Read Full Story
Louis Begley in last great novelist, become a member of art academy
14 Mar 2011 23:25:29
"I won't be coy about what the election meant to me. I was truly delighted because I take it as a sign that my colleagues — my fellow writers — have accepted me as one of them," says the 77-year-old author of "As Max Saw It" and "About Schmidt," the basis for a film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson.
Begley was a partner for decades at the high-end firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and only in his mid-50s did his first novel, "Wartime Lies," come out. He has had eight novels published, wi... Read Full Story
