Sun-Sentinel Book Reviews
Drownings of NFL players recalled in book
"Not Without Hope." Nick Schuyler, with Jere Longman. William Morrow. $25.99. 246 pp.
Baja Florida. Bob Morris. Minotaur. $24.99. 288 pp.
Baja Florida. Bob Morris. Minotaur. $24.99. 288 pp.
I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography. Charlotte Chandler. Simon & Schuster. $26. 368 pages.
I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography. Charlotte Chandler. Simon & Schuster. $26. 368 pages.
Money to Burn. James Grippando. Harper. $25.99. 368 pp.
Money to Burn. James Grippando. Harper. $25.99. 368 pp.
In this young adult novel, the thrills add up
Numbers: A Novel. Rachel Ward. Chicken House/Scholastic. $17.99.. 328 pp.
A death in the San Francisco fog
City of Dragons. Kelli Stanley. Minotaur. $24.99. 352 pp.
India by way of Theroux
A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta. Paul Theroux. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $26. 279 pp.
Willie Mays: The incomparable 'Say Hey Kid'
" Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend." James S. Hirsch. Scribner. $30. 628 pp.
Review: 'The Little Death' by P.J. Parrish
The Little Death. P.J. Parrish. Pocket Books. $7.99. 384 pp.
Review: 'Shadow Tag' by Louise Erdrich
Shadow Tag. Louise Erdrich. HarperCollins. $25.99. 255 pp.
Review: 'The Unnamed' by Joshua Ferris
"The Unnamed." Joshua Ferris. Reagan Arthur. $24.99. 320 pp.
Review: 'Fun With Problems: Stories' by Robert Stone
Fun With Problems: Stories. Robert Stone. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $24. 195 pp.
Review: 'Rescuing Olivia' by Julie Compton
Review: 'The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers' by Thomas Mullen
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers. Thomas Mullen. Random House. $26. 416 pp.
Review: 'Gator A-Go-Go' by Tim Dorsey
Review: The Red Door by Charles Todd
The Red Door. Charles Todd. Morrow. $24.99. 353 pp.
Poli-porn
Game Change. John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. HarperCollins. $27.99. 400 pp.
Review: The Farmer's Daughter by Jim Harrison
The Farmer's Daughter. Jim Harrison, $24. 253 pp.
Review: The First Rule by Robert Crais
Review: Day Out of Days: Stories by Sam Shepard
Day Out of Days: Stories. Alfred A. Knopf. By Sam Shepard. $25.95. 282 pp.
The best mysteries of 2009
Some excellent crime fiction was published during 2009 – novels that don't just entertain but serve as social commentary.
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage. Elizabeth Gilbert. Viking. $26.95. 285 pp.
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage. Elizabeth Gilbert. Viking. $26.95. 285 pp.
Get Real. Donald E. Westlake. Grand Central Publishing. $23.99. 288 pp.
Get Real. Donald E. Westlake. Grand Central Publishing. $23.99. 288 pp.
Grammar schmammar: How 'proper' English is evolving
It's getting harder to make a living as an editor of the printed word, what with newspapers and other publications cutting staff. And it will be harder still now that Jack Lynch has published The Lexicographer's Dilemma, an entertaining tour of the English language in which he shows that many of the rules that editors and other grammatical zealots wave about like cudgels are arbitrary and destined to be swept aside as words and usage evolve.
Hefner's empire was an au naturel progression
Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America. Elizabeth Fraterrigo. Oxford University Press. $29.95. 329 pp.
Book review: Deeper Than the Dead
Review: 'Hidden Empire' by Orson Scott Card
Hidden Empire. Orson Scott Card. Tom Doherty Associates. $24.99. 335 pp.
Review: 'The Autobiography of Fidel Castro' by Norberto Fuentes
The Autobiography of Fidel Castro. By Norberto Fuentes. Translated by Anna Kushner. Illustrated. W.W. Norton & Co. $27.95. 572 pp.
Review: The Ragged End of Nowhere by Roy Chaney
The Ragged End of Nowhere. Roy Chaney. Minotaur. $24.99. 288 pp.
Review: Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne
Too Much Money. Dominick Dunne. Crown. $26. $275 pp.
Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children
Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children. Conn Iggulden. Harper. $16.99. 176 pp.
Nanny Returns
Nanny Returns. Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Atria Books. $25. 305 pp.
The Morning Show Murders
The Morning Show Murders. Al Roker. Delacorte Press. $26. 312 pp.
From the U.K., an homage to classic 'Sunset Boulevard'
London Boulevard. Ken Bruen. Minotaur. $24.99. 256 pp.
Protagonist / antagonist
Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told. Kenneth Turan and Joseph Papp. Doubleday. $39.95. 592 pp.
A dissection of life, love in Julie Powell's 'Cleaving'
Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession. Little Brown & Co. $24.99. 308 pp.
Mystery review: Faces of the Gone
Faces of the Gone. Brad Parks. Minotaur. $24.99. 336 pp.
Alice Munro's gloriously unsettling 'Happiness'
Too Much Happiness. Alice Munro. Alfred A. Knopf. $25.95. 304 pp.
Philip Roth ventures further into old age in 'The Humbling'
The Humbling. Philip Roth. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $22. 140 pp.
George Carlin takes aim at George Carlin
Last Words: A Memoir. George Carlin with Tony Hendra. Free Press. $26.99. 294 pp.
A former IRA hitman haunted by his conscience
The Ghosts of Belfast. Stuart Neville. Soho Crime. $25. 326 pp.
America unbound
A New Literary History of America. Harvard University Press. $49.95. 1,095 pp.
Justice Antonin Scalia, by the book
Veteran Supreme Court reporter Joan Biskupic takes a balanced look at 73-year-old Justice Antonin Scalia in "American Original.".
New York, from the beginning
New York: The Novel. Edward Rutherfurd. Doubleday. $30. 864 pp.
Remarkable illustration of a sad life
Stitches: A Memoir. David Small. Norton. $24.95. 329 pp.
John Irving in fine form with 'Twisted River'
Last Night in Twisted River. John Irving. Random House. $28. 554 pp.
Wambaugh still packs a punch
Hollywood Moon, Joseph Wambaugh, Little, Brown, mystery
Multiple surprises in The Long Division
The Long Division. Derek Nikitas. Minotaur. $24.99. 306 pp.
The case against meat illuminated
In World War II, Jonathan Safran Foer's Jewish grandmother crossed Europe, barefoot and starving, one step ahead of the Nazis. A Russian farmer took pity on her and offered her a piece of pork. She wouldn't eat it even to save her life, her reasoning being, "If nothing matters, there's nothing to save."
The search for Google
Googled: The End of the World as We Know It. Ken Auletta. The Penguin Press. $25.95. 336 pp.
Riffing on Agatha Christie in the Canadian woods
The Brutal Telling. Louise Penny. Minotaur. $24.99. 372 pp.
Book artfully chronicles women's revolution
New York Times op-ed columnist Gail Collins' When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present is a riveting and remarkably thorough account of a tumultuous period.
Much to love for Little Women fans in Alcott bio
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. Harriet Reisen. Henry Holt and Co. $26. 384 pp.
Echoes of Ed McBain in Rizzo's War
Rizzo's War. Lou Manfredo. Minotaur. $24.99. 290 pp.
In the cockpit with Sully
An airplane crashes, killing its hapless pilot, in the opening pages of Highest Duty, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's highly readable, if by-the-numbers, memoir.
Mystery fiction review: '13 1/2' by Nevada Barr
Putting her best-selling series about park ranger Anna Pigeon on hiatus, Nevada Barr dives in full force for her first stand-alone psychological thriller about the power of love, manipulation and taking charge of your own life.
Fiction: 'The Children's Book,' A.S. Byatt, Alfred A. Knopf, $26.95. 680 pp.
In fin-de-siecle London, the decadence of the intellectual elite borders on depravity. Political activists embrace violence, artists attract groupies, and everyone is sleeping with everyone.
Asian intrigue
Ever since Michael Connelly first sent his LAPD detective Harry Bosch down the tunnels in Black Echo, the author has made sure his character has been in constant flux.
Non Fiction: 'Million Dollar Les Paul,' Tony Bacon. Jawbone. $19.95 paper. 288 pp.
It may not be an Arthurian tale of Sir Percival in pursuit of the Holy Grail, but Tony Bacon's Million Dollar Les Paul is still about a romantic quest.
Essays: 'Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son,' Michael Chabon. Harper. $25.99. 306 pp.
Much like Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, manhood collapsed because men stopped believing in it — and it shattered into a Babel of smaller nations: patriarchal conservatism, metrosexualism, hip-hop hedonism, stay-at-home fatherhood, a dozen gay subcultures and more.
Holocaust's haunting cruel, legacy
The dark well of the Holocaust has yielded up another wrenching account, this one intimately told by a Polish survivor and her American daughter.
Music icon plays a triangle
Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked is a taste-based comedy that revolves around a reclusive American singer-songwriter from the 1980s. His name is Tucker Crowe, and he has inspired a small but disproportionately rabid band of followers. One such Crowologist is a middle-aged Englishman named Duncan. The novel begins with Duncan on a fact-finding expedition to Minneapolis, where he makes a pilgrimage to the bathroom that Crowe visited on a night that apparently changed his life.
Mystery fiction review: 'The Hidden Man' by David Ellis
After five gripping stand-alone novels, Edgar winner David Ellis is off to a strong start for his first series about down-on-his-luck attorney Jason Kolarich.
James Ellroy: 'Blood's a Rover' finishes 'Underworld USA' trilogy
Revisionist history that roars off the page, James Ellroy's Blood's a Rover is fevered pulp fiction spiked with real nightmares.
Willing to give anything a try
Bookstores and movie screens are full lately with stories of regular people who have taken up some offbeat activity for a year — cooking Julia Child's recipes, spending no money, traveling the world eating, praying and loving.
American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot Craig Ferguson, HarperCollins. $25.99, 268 PP.
A showbiz adage is, leave an audience laughing and wanting for more. Craig Ferguson does that, with a few tears thrown in too, in his new memoir.
Mystery review: 'The Night Monster' by James Swain
James Swain writes terrifying thrillers steeped in the fear that not only could horrific things happen but that they do happen. Set in Broward County, Swain's series about private investigator Jack Carpenter are modern-day horror tales about personal safety and predators that don't just lurk around the corner, they live there.
Review: 'Blood's a Rover' by James Ellroy
Revisionist history that roars off the page, James Ellroy's Blood's a Rover is fevered pulp fiction spiked with real nightmares.
A return to a killer campus
"One of the deepest pleasures of writing The Spire," says Richard North Patterson in an afterword to his mostly quite satisfying new novel, "was returning, after over a decade away, to writing a psychological suspense novel intensely focused on characters, story, and setting."
Mystery fiction review: 'Evidence of Murder' by Lisa Black
Forensics investigation has become one of the fastest growing categories of mysteries — in novels, assorted TV series and movies. The category is so saturated that it's imperative for authors to show another side of forensics. After all, most police departments could never afford the fancy technology and quick turnarounds that too many TV dramas and movies pretend is reality.
Propoganda machine
Pat Tillman, unlikely football hero and unlikelier warrior, went to Afghanistan and was accidently killed by the men in his own Ranger platoon. It happens. Among the many shadows Jon Krakauer illuminates in his compelling and dispiriting book, Where Men Win Glory, is the commonness of fratricide in high-tech warfare.
Oates delivers loss, longing
In February 1983, alluring songstress and part-time heroin addict Zoe Kruller is found murdered in her home in the dying Rust Belt town of Sparta, N.Y. When the police hunt for suspects, they come up with her mechanic husband Delray and her lover, construction worker Eddy Diehl.
Dan Brown's new novel The Lost Symbol capitol-izing on success
The Lost Symbol. Dan Brown. Doubleday. $29.95. 509 pp.
Sparks fly in Games sequel
This was the dilemma facing Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games: how to follow up a roller-coaster thriller that last year became a young-adult best-seller and was called "addictive" by no less than Stephen King.
Fiction: 'Labor Day,' Joyce Maynard, William Morrow. $24.99. 244 pp.
Here's the premise: A battered, bleeding murderer on the lam from prison meets a 13-year-old boy and his reclusive single mom in the New Hampshire discount store to which they've made a rare foray. They take him home, fall in love, and hole up for a five-day honeymoon of pie making, baseball throwing and headboard banging (or, in young Henry's case, listening to headboard banging) — until, inevitably, the sirens wail.
Mystery fiction review: 'In Their Blood' by Sharon Potts
Miami author Sharon Potts' debut shows the skills of a seasoned writer as she delivers a complex plot that builds believable suspense on every page.
Mystery fiction review: 'Ravens' by George Dawes Green
When handing over that dollar or two for the weekly lottery ticket, who hasn't thought about what it would be like to be a millionaire? What you would do with the money, who you would help, where you would live?
Non-Fiction: 'Fidel and Che: A Revolutionary Friendship,' Simon Reid-Henry. Walker. $28. 448 pp.
You know that too many books have been written about Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara when a young British geographer writes a revisionist version of the relationship between the two icons of Latin American revolution.
Aerosmith's Joey Kramer writes a hard-hitting rock memoir
Who the heck is Joey Kramer and why would you want to read a book about his life? Kramer, as serious rock fans probably know, is the drummer of Aerosmith. In almost any band, being the drummer means taking a back seat to even the guys in the back seat. Especially in this band, where the out-front image of the vocalist and guitarist leading their lesser bandmates to glory may be second only to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the world of rock.
Teen trials and tragedies
Even outside the rigid social structures of adolescence, Leopold Bloom King is something of a freak.
Shattered sisterhood
Once upon a time, there were three sisters who shared an attic bedroom because they hated to be apart. They were almost inseparable, until the day that the middle sister, 10-year-old Meg, stayed home from school.
The Big Rewind makes art from splinters
All bad news in life, Nathan Rabin suggests in his mordant first book, should be preceded by this phrase: "We think you should do a solo album."
Cell phone snapshots lead to book 1.3: Images From My Phone
Joel Grey always had disdain for people who took photographs with their cell phones.
Dysfunctional delight in Tales of the Madman Underground
It isn't easy being a teen, especially if you're Karl Shoemaker, the expletive-spewing protagonist at the center of John Barnes' Tales of the Madman Underground. By page 5 of this darkly comic coming-of-age novel for young adults, Shoemaker has sworn as many times, disparaging the numerous cats that his hippie mom has let defile their house and his own frustrated attempts to deal with a living situation from which he desperately wants to escape.
Crime in a sleepy Amish village in Sworn to Silence
Romance writer Linda Castillo makes a successful move to crime fiction with an evocative and often heart-felt look at Amish society.
Justices who rule America examined in Packing the Court
In the wake of the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott ruling, which effectively made slavery legal in the territories, Lincoln declared in his first inaugural address that "if the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made" then "the people will have ceased, to be their own rulers, having, to that extent, practically resigned their government, into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
Nonfiction book review: 'Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City' by Greg Gandin
Historian Greg Grandin has taken what heretofore seemed just a marginal event — Henry Ford's failed attempt to establish a gigantic agricultural industrial complex in the heart of Brazil's Amazon Basin — and turned it into a fascinating historical narrative that illuminates the auto industry's contemporary crisis, the problems of globalization and the contradictions of contemporary consumerism.
Book review: 'Finger Lickin' Fifteen' by Janet Evanovich
The barbecue sauce hits the ceiling in Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Janet Evanovich's new Stephanie Plum novel.
Mystery fiction review: 'Lonesome Point' by Ian Vasquez
Ian Vasquez takes the common themes of sibling rivalry and family secrets to deliver a thoughtful look at unbridled ambition and failed dreams.
When Tiananmen teetered
Zhao Ziyang is the former premier and secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party who was put under house arrest after seeking an accommodation with students in the Tiananmen Square revolt 20 years ago.
Book review: 'Quiet Teacher: A Xenon Pearl Martial Arts Thriller,' by Arthur Rosenfeld. YMAA. $22.95 hardcover; $12.95 paperback. 350 pp.
Arthur Rosenfeld had a good thing in Xenon Pearl, hero of last year's The Cutting Season, a clever tweak on the martial arts thriller.
Josie's trouble: Her husband
It must be true, what people say about God and the details. Because Kate Christensen's deliciously detailed novel, Trouble, is, in a word, divine.
Book review: 'Black Water Rising' by Attica Locke. Harper. $25.99. 448 pp.
Principles keep us grounded, providing a foundation for maneuvering through life and, hopefully, make each of us a better person. But a value system doesn't pay the bills, won't provide for your family or secure your career.
Mystery fiction review: 'Die for You' by Lisa Unger
Smart women can do dumb things, especially when they are in love, especially when they trust their partner, especially when a life together seems so perfect.
Brutal, chilling visit to Bataan
Driven from Manila into the hills of the Bataan peninsula during Japan's World War II invasion of the Philippines, the combined Allied forces fought without hope of reinforcement or escape until they had no choice but to capitulate, in the largest surrender in U.S. military annals.
One last glass
In The Full Glass, the final story in John Updike's final book, the narrator, recollecting the moments of greatest joy in his long life, recalls visiting a relative's farm as a boy and being taken to a spring.
A U.S. Open-inspired tour of classic golf literature
The U.S. Open — "The most democratic sports event in the world," says Kevin Costner to Rene Russo in Tin Cup — reaches its climax today. In celebration of the tournament — and in honor of George Plimpton's dictum that "the smaller the ball, the better the book" — here's a sampling of a few classics of golf literature:
'Twilight' on testosterone
Just in time for summer — and presciently perhaps, for the swine flu — comes The Strain, a sort of Twilight for the testosterone set, swapping romance for thrills and gore.
Mystery fiction review: 'The Last Child' by John Hart
Edgar-winner John Hart is an extraordinary storyteller. Each of his three novels has depicted keen appraisals of human foibles with an emphasis on North Carolina history and a respect for the traditions of the Southern novel. But Hart has made each novel distinct, following no formula or similar style except for the superior quality of his prose.
Henry's not horrid, he's humorous
Horrid Henry. Francesca Simon, illustrated by Tony Ross; Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky ($4.99 paper, ages 7-10)
Days leading up to WWII
Judging by its title, a reader might assume that this book focuses on a period in early 1945 with Germany on the verge of surrender and Japan coming to realize that it, too, was doomed to defeat. Not the case, however.
O'Rourke's latest title says it all
Does anyone have something nice to say about big, fast American cars? Someone?
The storyteller's story: A book about Gabriel García Márquez
In a January 2006 interview with a Barcelona newspaper, Gabriel García Márquez, whose memory had begun to fail, deflected a question about his past.
Mystery fiction review: 'Running From the Devil' by Jamie Freveletti
Jamie Freveletti's debut takes control of a category of long neglected thrillers — the women's adventure story — and shows how to excel at these novels.
Novel review: 'Genesis,' by Bernard Beckett
A dystopian sci-fi novel told primarily in two dialogues, set in different eras, may not seem the stuff of a compulsively readable thriller, but New Zealand author Bernard Beckett packs an amazing amount of suspense into this unlikely structure.
Mystery fiction review: The Human Disguise by James O'Neal
James O. Born, best known for his award-winning crime fiction, makes a full turn — complete with a new name and a different genre, science fiction.
Che: Trying to grasp a singular moment
We've all seen the photograph: Che Guevara in his beret and scraggly beard, staring purposefully into the distance as if facing down destiny.
Fiction review: Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Long before Bernard Malamud made it mythological, decades before Auster's magical labyrinth sprang upon its leafy blocks, Brooklyn was home to thousands upon thousands of Irish immigrants. To be exact, 70,000, many of whom came to America for work and a better quality of life.
Fiction review: Nobody Move by Denis Johnson is a great modern take, funny and bleak, on classic noir
Nobody Move. Denis. Johnson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $23. 208 pp.
Amos Oz goes through the motions in Rhyming Life & Death
As a work by one of Israel's most honored novelists, Rhyming Life & Death seems to exist more to keep its author's skills limber than to fully engage his characters or readers.
Fiction review: Don't Cry: Stories by Mary Gaitskill
Fiction Don't Cry: Stories. Mary Gaitskill. Pantheon Books. $23.95. 226 pp.
Sexual slavery and human trafficking in rural Florida sparks mystery debut
Mystery fiction review: 'A False Dawn' by Tom Lowe
A False Dawn. Tom Lowe. Minotaur Books. $24.95. 336 pp.
Samurai health advice from the 17th century hits home with modern readers
Nonfiction book review: 'Yojokum: Life Lessons From a Samurai' by Kaibara Ekiken; translated by William Scott Wilson
It came as a shock of delight while reading Yojokun, a work of classical Japanese philosophy, to realize that what I held in my hands was a self-help book. A self-help book of rare charm and elegance, but a self-help book nonetheless.
Children's books celebrate spring
Spring children's books celebrate nature, poetry and baseball
All in a Day. Cynthia Rylant; Illustrations by Nikki McClure. Abrams. $17.95. 32 pp. Ages 4 to 8.
Mystery fiction review: 'The Long Fall' by Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley doesn't have it Easy anymore.
Science fiction review: 'The Caryatids' by Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling is a bright guy, a perceptive futurist, and the author of 10 novels — three of them New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Along with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, he's one of the three most important science-fiction writers around. He has won two Hugo Awards for short fiction.
Nonfiction book review: 'Nasty, Brutish and Long: Adventures in Old Age and the World of Eldercare' by Ira Rosofsky
In 1651, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously said the natural state of mankind was, among other things, "nasty, brutish and short."
Fiction review: 'Wintergirls' by Laurie Halse Anderson
From Lifetime movies to non-fiction accounts and heavy-handed novels, the theme of anorexia has almost become a cliche. These accounts are often melodramatized and glamorized: vertebrae spiking through skin; calling size zero fat; pasting "thinspiration" from glossy magazines on their mirrors. So what makes Wintergirls different? Three words: Laurie Halse Anderson.
John Cheever Biography Review: John Cheever's Nobel Struggle
Blake Bailey does not make it easy for the casual reader of his gargantuan John Cheever biography. But those who persevere will be rewarded with a compelling portrait of a complicated and tortured author, some of whose stories are among the best ever written.
Oline H. Cogdill: Mystery fiction review: 'Safer' by Sean Doolittle
A move from the big bad city of Boston to a quiet small college town in Iowa may not sound exciting but it does sound safer. A new town, a new house and a new job are chances for fresh starts.
Nonfiction review: 'The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power' by David E. Sanger
To put it in the language of economics, this book is about the huge opportunity cost of Bush's Iraq misadventure.
Fiction: 'Promised Virgins' by Jeffrey Fleishman
Newspaper reporters will love this book. Editors and publishers? Well, maybe not so much.
A year of reading dangerously: Mysteries worth remembering in 2008
During 2008, I read 250 mystery novels. That's not a lot when you consider 1,500 mysteries are published each year. Here are the best, ranked in order.
Fiction review: 'Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve" by Gioconda Belli
Fiction drawn from the Bible has always been the province of hacks or, at best, the middle-brow.
Oline H. Cogdill: Book Review: 'Dead Silence,' by Randy Wayne White
Florida author Randy Wayne White wastes no time plunging his hero Marion "Doc" Ford into a thriller that doesn't stop for a breath until the last sentence.
Book review: 'Feed Me! Writers: Dish About Food, Eating, Weight, and Body Image,' by Harriet Brown
"That cursed cause of so much human misery — the paunch." That's from Homer's The Odyssey, but it might as well have come straight out of Feed Me!, a new essay collection edited by Harriet Brown.
Two new endings to Charles Dickens' last novel
So, Charles Dickens' great fragment, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, has been finished by a contemporary writer?
Oline H. Cogdill: Mystery book review: 'All the Colors of Darkness' by Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson's evocative series about Yorkshire detective Alan Banks continues to inject contemporary issues and nuanced character studies into carefully plotted police procedurals.
Non-fiction book review: 'The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon' by David Grann
I've been waiting for this book since 2005. That's when David Grann'sarticle about explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest to find the mythic city of El Dorado in the Amazon appeared in The New Yorker. The story has everything to fire the imagination: Romance, nostalgia, bravery, monomania, hardship, adventure, science, tragedy, mystery.
Book Review: 'The Agency,' by Ally O'Brien
If you have hitherto regarded literary agents as mousy types, Ally O'Brien will change your view. The Agency is a delicious mash-up of chick-lit and thriller, kind of what The Devil Wears Prada might have been if written by John Le Carre.
Fiction review: 'The Little Giant of Aberdeen County' by Tiffany Baker
Once upon a time not so long ago, in a New York village, there lived a very large woman with special powers, a very small but wizardly gardener and a very quiet woman who kept a fateful secret.
Chauncey Mabe: Fiction review: 'Land of Marvels' by Barry Unsworth
It is always fascinating when two authors, working separately, produce strikingly similar novels. Consider, for example, the way Barry Unsworth's latest historical fiction, Land of Marvels, and Peter Ackroyd's The Fall of Troy (2007) use nearly identical material to differing ends.
Mystery fiction review: 'Bone by Bone' by Carol O'Connell
Carol O'Connell specializes in stories about damaged, complex and strong characters. Her nine novels about tormented New York Police Detective Kathy Mallory have earned O'Connell a fervent following.
Fiction review: 'Miles from Nowhere' by Nami Mun
It may sound like faint praise to say that Nami Mun writes with strong verbs, but given the overwrought, undercooked prose of the "literary" novels that all too often emerge from today's creative writing programs, a simple, inventive verb choice is a thing to be celebrated.
Fiction review: 'Kissing Games of the World' by Sandi Kahn Shelton
When you settle down with a "chick lit" novel, you're not so much concerned with where the plot is going (it's a given that the main characters will wind up in a happy embrace) as how the characters will get there.
'And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of our Vinyl'
It began as a hobby for two nice Jewish boys, Roger Bennett and Josh Kun, then became a labor of love and then a cause.
'Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know,' by Randall Stross
It is hard to believe that a tiny company created in 1998 by two Stanford graduate students had, by 2002, become such a fixture in cyberspace and beyond that the American Dialect Society named the verb "to google" the second most important word or phrase of the year. The winner that year: weapons of mass destruction.
Oline H. Cogdill: Charles Todd's 'A Matter of Justice' uses the Boer War
In Charles Todd's series, everything echoes back to war.
Oline H. Cogdill: Mystery book review: 'Envy the Night' by Michael Koryta
In 2003, when he was just 21, Michael Koryta was already an established author, the youngest winner of St. Martin's Press annual private-eye novel contest. That book, Tonight I Said Goodbye, won a few more awards and earned an Edgar nomination; Koryta followed with two more novels featuring detective Lincoln Perry.
Nonfiction review: 'Buy-ology: Truth and Lies about Why We Buy' by Martin Lindstrom
Martin Lindstrom has a point and a purpose — and only one — in this slim volume. It is to debunk the so-called science of market research by arguing, through a series of research-based examples and personal anecdotes, that what consumers say about why they like or loathe brand X or brand Y has little relationship with their actual buying behavior.
Fiction review: 'Anathem' by Neal Stephenson
Maybe I'm just not smart enough for science fiction anymore.
Oline H. Cogdill: Mystery fiction review: 'The King of Swords' by Nick Stone
The Miami of the early 1980s has become an almost mythical place, an era steeped in the lore of Miami Vice and Scarface and seen as the epicenter for drugs and the glamour of a new South Beach.
In Just After Sunset Stephen King scares and surprises
Halloween is over, but here comes Stephen King, proffering a bagful of tricks and treats. What may scare devotees of the shockmeister, however, is that he writes most effectively in Just After Sunset not about monsters and maniacs but love and marriage.
Oline H. Cogdill: A Deadly Silver Sea is a swashbuckling adventure
A cruise on a luxury ocean liner becomes the epicenter for a terrorist plot in the fourth and most thrilling mystery from Orlando author Bob Morris.
Michelle Obama biography struggles to tell us something new
Pity Liza Mundy, the author of the first of an anticipated bevy of biographies about America's next first lady. Michelle: A Biography is a pedestrian piece by a writer caught between two big constraints: The life of Michelle Obama is clearly an unfinished story and what is known has been well publicized.
'The Man Who Invented Christmas' is an artful look at Dickens
One of the many famous anecdotes arising from the life of Charles Dickens, the most important English novelist in the 19th century, came when the poet Theodore Watts-Duncan reported that a young cockney street vendor, having just heard of the author's passing, exclaimed, "Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?"
Nonfiction review: 'Descartes' Bones' by Russell Shorto
Most Americans probably have only a vague notion of René Descartes, the 17th century French philosopher and mathematician, as the guy who declared, "Cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). It's a statement that, in our ironic age, is probably more notable for spawning such comic takeoffs as "I stink, therefore I am" or George Carlin's "I think I am; therefore, I am. I think."
Fiction review: 'A Mercy' by Toni Morrison
Three of America's most enduring literary stars, Philip Roth, John Updike and Toni Morrison, re-examine early themes in their recent novels, with varying success.
Mystery fiction review: 'Ritual' by Mo Hayder
It's a supreme compliment to say that British writer Mo Hayder's crime novels confidently veer toward the macabre, tapping into modern horror tales of cults, the occult and the just plain gruesome. While her thrillers have a cringe factor, Hayder's sophisticated storytelling, affinity for complicated characters and involving plots have racked up awards and made her an international best-seller.
'Marley& Me' author releases new memoir, 'The Longest Trip Home'
John Grogan's follow-up to his mega-selling Marley & Me poses a signal challenge, both to the author and to the whole enterprise of the "memoir."
'In the Dark' offers a look inside London's underworld
British author Mark Billingham's high standards for hard-boiled novels that mirror society rise several notches in his stand-alone, In the Dark.
'Green, Inc.' promises way more than it delivers
From scrappy beginnings as bands of activists, scientists and lawyers, many of the big environmental groups have gone corporate.
John Updike's witches return, older, sadder, less fun
Someone, it seems, has cast an evil spell over John Updike's latest novel. In The Widows of Eastwick, the writer, who has more than 60 books to his credit and literary trophies galore, returns to the scene of his 1984 Rhode Island romp about desperate housewives turned The Witches of Eastwick.
Fiction review: 'The Gate House' by Nelson DeMille
There is a wonderful line in Aleksandar Hemon's new book The Lazarus Project that simply won't go away. That sentence — "Home is where somebody notices your absence" — could also qualify as the recurring theme in The Gate House, Nelson DeMille's sequel to The Gold Coast, his 1990 best-selling novel about the violent collision of upper-class WASPs and powerful Mafia criminals.
Addiction illustrated
Might as well face it, says Susan Cheever: you can indeed be addicted to love.
Oh, sister, where art thou?
Julia Glass' third novel, I See You Everywhere, is the kind of book that puts the "middle" in middlebrow.
REVIEW: The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
L.A. story delves into law, order
A solid, suspenseful plot full of twists and surprises is de rigueur for a Michael Connelly novel -- and he certainly brings plenty of that in his 19th novel.
REVIEW: Sarah Shun-Lien Bynums Ms. Hempel Chronicles
The education of a teacher
The person who learns the most in a middle-school classroom may well be the teacher.
REVIEW: Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence
The simplest Buddhism
To the casual Western inquirer, Buddhism can seem as forbidding as a silent monastery on a snowy mountainside.
Read your way into fall with kids' books
With a national election just weeks away, one new release that is certain to appeal to every caucus group is this lively biography of a perky Scottish terrier who became internationally known as the first pet and close companion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the last five years of his life. Named Murray the Outlaw of Fala Hill after one of FDR's ancestors -- Fala for short -- the celebrity canine was a free spirit who occasionally went walking through the streets of Washington on his own, and accompanied the boss on important trips everywhere.
Book review: 'Dead as a Doornail' by Charlaine Harris
HBO's True Blood has kicked up plenty of attention for series creator Alan Ball, already respected as the force behind Six Feet Under.
Suffering souls in Annie Proulx's West
In hell, says Annie Proulx, the details are in the devil. His Satanic Eminence appears twice in the nine stories in Fine Just the Way It Is, and they open a fire-and-brimstone-besmirched window into Proulx's sardonic worldview.
Book review: Elizabeth McCracken's remarkable 'An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination'
Sometimes a book comes your way that is so wrenching you are sure you cannot finish it, yet so compelling that you know you must.
Fiction review: Vapid 'American Wife' by Curtis Sittenfeld
In 2004, when Curtis Sittenfeld was 28 and awaiting publication of her acclaimed debut novel, Prep, she was compelled to pen an essay for Salon.com. While President Bush's "policies are at best misguided and at worst evil," she wrote, "I love Laura Bush. In fact, there is no public figure I admire more."
Oline H. Cogdill: Mystery: Scottish detective's retirement looms in 'Exit Music' by Ian Rankin
In Ian Rankin's award-wining novels about John Rebus, the Scottish author has made the contrary Edinburgh police detective age with each outing.
Book review: 'The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
The disparate ingredients Victor Pelevin throws into his latest postmodernist stew — erotic sci-fi, the meaning of life, bitter social satire — never quite blend into a palatable dish.
Chauncey Mabe: Novel: 'The Island of Eternal Love' by Daina Chaviano
It's a bit of a letdown Daina Chaviano has chosen the magical-realist family saga, worn and tired from wide use in recent years, for the first of her novels to be translated into English.
Oline H. Cogdill: Mystery fiction review: 'Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill' by N. M. Kelby; 'Prodigal Son' by Thomas B. Cavanagh
With Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill, N. M. Kelby joins that elite group of crime fiction writers who toil in absurdist humor and outlandish situations. That group includes Carl Hiaasen and, well, Carl Hiaasen, and now Kelby.
Novel: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. David Wroblewski. Ecco/
Chauncey Mabe: Novelist Leif Enger struggled to write post-western 'So Brave, Young, and Handsome'
When Leif Enger gave up writing crime novels with his brother, Lin, he figured that was it for fiction.
Fiction review: 'The Enchantress of Florence' by Salman Rushdie
The Enchantress of Florence. Salman Rushdie. Random House. $27. 357 pp.
Audio Review: The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters: A soldier returns from Iraq
Award-winning British author Minette Walters's trademark is terrifying, but finely nuanced psychological thrillers. But with last year's riveting The Devil's Feather and her new The Chameleon's Shadow, Walters has focused her thrillers on people who have been through the war in Iraq and their uneasy return civilian life.
Audio review: First Patient by Michael Palmer
With a cover blurb by no less than former President Bill Clinton, it doesn't take much of a stretch to figure who The First Patient is in this entertaining and outlandish novel.
Audio review: The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry: The quest for an icon
The Venetian Betrayal. By Steve Berry, read by Scott Brick. Random House Audio. Unabridged; 12 CDs; 15 ½ hours; $49.95. In print: Ballantine Books; $25.95. 496 pp. Steve Berry has built a career taking an iconic treasure that may or may not exit, putting it at the center of a worldwide hunt and populating a plot with myriad outlandish characters. Blame it on Dan Brown and call it The Da Vinci Code-esque.
'T' Is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
In the middle of Sue Grafton's alphabet series about private detective Kinsey Millhone, it seems as if the author is just coasting along, waiting for "Z" to come and wondering why she had undertaken this monumental task of committing to 26 novels.
Top 2007 Mysteries
Laura Lippman's storytelling skills have been evident since her first award-winning novel, Baltimore Blues (1997), introduced private investigator Tess Monaghan. That debut showed the author's acute ability to deliver sturdy tales that push the edges of the traditional private eye novel. Her nine-novel series examines contemporary life through a witty, unconventional heroine who is intrinsically part of Baltimore's unique vagaries.
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