"Infamous Players" the book that was written by Peter Bart
13 May 2011 05:00:17
Returning to that well-covered era requires a far more engaging and insightful treatment than Bart provides in "Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob (and Sex)."
The machinations behind megahits like "The Godfather" and "Love Story" are well-known. Bart's look back works best when he revisits "Harold and Maude," "Downhill Racer" and other noteworthy but neglected films.
A journalist who became a Paramount executive, Bart does add some shading to the studio portrait, most of it dark. Produc... Read Full Story
"Normal Gets You Nowhere" from Kelly Cutrone
12 May 2011 04:25:07
"Normal Gets You Nowhere" is her follow-up to 2010's "If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You." Both are designed to help young women navigate through a tough world.
Cutrone wants women to live outside the box, citing Eleanor Roosevelt, Joan of Arc and Amelia Earhart as examples of women who weren't afraid to jump headfirst into their fates.
Cutrone was once addicted to drugs and close to rock bottom. She speaks of becoming a young mother and of all the compli... Read Full Story
Does new book "Caleb's Crossing" written by Geraldine Brooks will surprise critics
12 May 2011 04:24:25
"Caleb's Crossing" was inspired by Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, a Wopanaak Indian who graduated in 1665 and died a year later of consumption. From the few facts available about the man, Brooks skillfully imagines his life and how it intertwines with that of narrator Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of a preacher, and her family.
This is historical fiction at its finest. Brooks assumes the voice of a time, while artfully blending the lyrical and concise: "He is coming on the Lord's Day. Though my father ... Read Full Story
Paula Fox revelations about life through years
12 May 2011 04:23:02
"I've always known a lot of very bad people, destructive, brutes of a certain kind. Then I've seen these lovely impulses and what not, and they've stayed with me and comforted me," she says during a recent interview in the living room of her Brooklyn town house, a cobblestone garden in back.
Known for the memoir "Borrowed Finery" and for such novels as "Desperate Characters" and the award-winning "The Slave Dancer," Fox has a poised and graceful presence, with a strong chin, a proud smile and ge... Read Full Story
"Caleb's Crossing" from Geraldine Brooks
11 May 2011 02:12:24
"Caleb's Crossing" was inspired by Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, a Wopanaak Indian who graduated in 1665 and died a year later of consumption. From the few facts available about the man, Brooks skillfully imagines his life and how it intertwines with that of narrator Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of a preacher, and her family.
This is historical fiction at its finest. Brooks assumes the voice of a time, while artfully blending the lyrical and concise: "He is coming on the Lord's Day. Though my father ... Read Full Story
Do you love classic detectives? Then take new book "Sixkill" written by Robert B. Parker
11 May 2011 02:09:23
arker breathed new life into the genre, launching a renaissance that made way for dozens of best-selling, hard-boiled detective writers from Walter Mosley to Dennis Lehane.
Now, 15 months after Parker died at his writing desk at age 77, his 39th novel featuring Spenser has been published. (Parker's estate and publisher recently announced that new Spenser books will be written by Ace Atkins.)
Most book reviewers prefer the early Spenser novels, including "Mortal Stakes" (1975) and "Looking for Ra... Read Full Story
New novel "Doc" from Mary Doria Russell
11 May 2011 02:07:37
Russell's fresh and lively portrait of young Doc Holliday is just as concerned with other people in Dodge City, Kan., as it is with the consumptive Southern gentleman who stepped off the train in their frontier town in the late 1870s. A few years later he would enter American folklore as one of the gunmen alongside lawman Wyatt Earp at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
Before that deadly fracas, Earp was in Dodge City, too, though as a policeman firming up his reputation for no-nonsense law an... Read Full Story
This book not onlyfor blondies, read the second book from Candace Bushnell
10 May 2011 04:26:34
"Summer and the City," her second book in the series, is a mixed bag. It is set in the early 1980s. Carrie has just graduated from high school and is planning to attend Brown University in the fall. She's been invited to participate in a writing class in New York City for the summer.
On her first night in the city, Carrie meets party girl Samantha Jones. Samantha takes her to an event where Carrie meets an older, recently divorced and incredibly handsome playwright. That is how Carrie begins her... Read Full Story
"The Ballad of Bob Dylan" written by by Daniel Mark Epstein
10 May 2011 04:25:10
Because of Bob Dylan's conversion to Christianity, his handlers say, he will no longer play the songs that made him a symbol of 1960s counterculture and are looking to a Broadway musical as a way to keep them alive.
The story that Daniel Mark Epstein pitches is essentially the same story he tells in this book: A young man comes to New York's Greenwich Village from out West, perfects his art against a backdrop of interesting characters and becomes a full-fledged rock 'n' roll star before finding ... Read Full Story
How become one of the best cookers in the book "Beaten, Seared, and Sauced: On Becoming a Chef at The Culinary Institute of America" from Jonathan Dixon
10 May 2011 04:23:45
The problem is there's not that much to tell. Dixon was a nearly 40-year-old writer muddling through life with a series of uninspiring jobs and lack of direction when he decided to pursue his passion for cooking. He enrolled at the CIA in Hyde Park, N.Y., on a scholarship.
He reports that yelling and browbeating were most chefs' preferred methods for imparting their knowledge, but that's unlikely to come as a surprise to anyone who has read many of the chef memoirs on the market. According to th... Read Full Story
"The President Is a Sick Man" written by Matthew Algeo
07 May 2011 19:48:01
At the beginning of his second nonconsecutive term as president, Grover Cleveland discovered a horrible growth on the roof of his mouth. At a time when cancer made the victim a pariah and doctors knew nothing about the medical science behind the dreaded disease, Cleveland decided to have it secretly removed.
On July 1, 1893, Cleveland went on what was described as a fishing trip. A team of doctors boarded the yacht and removed the cancerous tumor from his mouth — along with most of his upper jaw... Read Full Story
"The White Woman on the Green Bicycle" is a new book from Monique Roffey
07 May 2011 19:46:48
The bloated, leathery, spotted skin of George and Sabine Harwood, the central couple in Monique Roffey's novel "The White Woman on the Green Bicycle," should serve as a caution against staying in the sun too long.
The British couple moved to Trinidad as newlyweds in 1956, just as the Caribbean island began its transition from a British colony to an independent nation. Through the Harwoods' turbulent marriage, Roffey explores the harsh legacy of slavery and colonialism, along with the disappointm... Read Full Story
