Now that Angel at the Fence has been outed as the latest faked "memoir", how should readers react? Herman Rosenblat of Angel is probably too old to write another book, but what about other fabricating authors such as James Frey (A Million Little Pieces) or Margaret Seltzer (Love and Consequences)?

I don't think I'll ever read their books; there are too many other great books and worthy authors out there. Why reward bad behavior?

Do you have a blacklist? Will you read books by Frey, Seltzer or other authors who have fabricated? Or does fakery amount to a literary death sentence?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The book blogosphere is a wondrous place, with reviewers, authors, publishers and fans constantly creating, discussing and at times arguing with each other.

So when I realized that Dave and I hadn't updated the blog roll since we started blogging, I decided we had to start 2009 with a wider list of resources than the paltry few we've given you so far. But I want your help!

Besides this wonderful blog, where do you go for your all-thing-bookish news? And yes, that includes your own site; a little self-promotion never hurt anyone.

So what do you want to see? More local authors? Bookstores? Convention news? The largest cache of Harry Potter fan fiction on the Interwebs?

 I know, I'm asking for trouble with that last one...

Posted by Nancy Knight at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Before 2008 ends, here's one more Top 10 list from fellow blogger Jennifer Vido, who lives in Harford County and is vice-chairperson of the county library board. Jen reviews books for major publishing houses, has a monthly column called Jen's Jewels and a web site that offers monthly book give-away contests. She's also an advocate for those like herself who suffer from arthritis, and hosts an annual fundraiser to battle the disease. This year's event, on Feb. 20, features Louis Bayard, author of The Black Tower. For details, contact her at jensjewels@gmail.com. Her Top 10:

1. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

2. Sweetsmoke by David Fuller

3. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

4. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

5. Souvenir by Therese Fowler

6. Betrayal by John Lescroart

7. Beside A Burning Sea by John Shors

8. The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan

9. Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead by Saralee Rosenberg

10. The Divorce Party by Laura Dave

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Marylandia
        

Here's how I picture fellow blogger Oline Cogdill of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: On New Year's Eve, she sits in a room surrounded by piles of mystery novels, pots of coffee and a laptop. When midnight comes, she plunges into a months-long reading marathon, barely stopping to eat meals, open mail or feed pets.

How else can you explain her ability to read 250 mystery novels in 2008 -- and blog about most of them? She claims that's not a lot, compared to the 1,500 mysteries published each year. But to me, she's the Cal Ripken of readers. Here are Oline's favorites from 2008:

1. The Finder by Colin Harrison. A scheme to steal paperwork erupts into a perceptive thriller about New York life.

2. Envy the Night by Michael Koryta. The legacy of violence, the relationships of parents and adult children and the futility of revenge make for an action-packed story.

3. Exit Music by Ian Rankin. The perfect send-off for Scottish cop John Rebus who's retiring at age 60, but refuses to go gently.

Here's the full list (not all 250, just her favorites). 

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Fallout from the fabulism of Angel at the Fence continued today. The publisher of a children's book adaptation, Angel Girl, pulled that book, the Associated Press reports. Laurie Friedman's Angel Girl, based on Herman Rosenblat's tale of meeting his future wife at a concentration camp, had been released in the fall by the Lerner Publishing Group.

As we noted in Read Street, Rosenblat, 79, whose many admirers had included Oprah Winfrey, acknowledged last weekend that he didn't meet his wife during the war. His memoir, scheduled for release in February, was quickly canceled by Berkley Books.

Adam Lerner, president and publisher of the Minneapolis-based Lerner Publishing Group, said in a statement today that the company had been misled by the Rosenblats.

"We are dismayed to learn about Herman and Roma Rosenblat's recantation of part of their Holocaust survival story," Lerner said. "While this tragic event in world history needs to be taught to children, it is imperative that it is done so in a factual way that doesn't sacrifice veracity for emotional impact."

Friedman said in a statement that the Rosenblats had reviewed her manuscript and assured her of its accuracy. "I wanted to find a way to share what I felt was an important and inspiring message for children. My goal in writing `Angel Girl' was to communicate that even in the darkest of times, no one should give up hope. Unfortunately, I, like many others, am disappointed and upset to now learn of Herman's fabrications."

Herman Rosenblat, a prisoner at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in the 1940s, had charmed the world for years with his story of meeting a young girl who would throw him apples and bread from the other side of a barbed-wire fence. Rosenblat appeared twice on Winfrey's television talk show and was a popular speaker and interview subject.

But scholars doubted Rosenblat, noting that the alleged meeting area at the camp was next to the SS barracks. After numerous inconsistencies were raised recently by The New Republic, he recanted.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

So it's happened again: The next hot memoir turned out to be a bit more fiction than non, and everyone is appalled and shocked, SHOCKED that this could happen in today's Internet culture.

Herman Rosenblat, author of Angel at the Fence, admitted Saturday that he and his wife of 50 years, the former Roma Radzicky, met in New York on a blind date, not on opposite sides of a concentration camp fence, as he wrote in his memoir about surviving Buchenwald and other concentration camps during World War II. By yesterday, his agent had denounced the fraud, and his book, which was scheduled to debut in February, was all but a dream.

According to the Associated Press, Rosenblat, 79 -- who is a Holocaust survivor -- said in a statement that “I wanted to bring happiness to people. I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world.”

Nonetheless, that love story is completely bogus, and now he's upset Oprah. Nobody upsets Oprah, buddy. Except for that James Frey guy, and look what happened to him! That's right, another book deal.

Look, I'm pretty sick of this memoir-turned-novel business, too. But maybe this is what happens in an age when you can instantly check IMDB.com to see if that guy from Independence Day is the same guy who played Jayne in Firefly. (Why yes, Adam Baldwin was the conflicted Major Mitchell in that 1996 blockbuster.)

Who knows, maybe your favorite 19th-century memoir was a complete fantasy, and you never even knew it. After all, those guys didn't have Google to worry about.

But lying about the Holocaust has some larger ramifications, as the AP details later in their story:

The damage is deep. Scholars and other skeptics as well as fellow survivors fear that Rosenblat’s fabrications will only encourage doubts about the Holocaust. “I am very worried because many of us speak to thousands of student each year,” says Sidney Finkel, a longtime friend of Rosenblat’s and a fellow survivor. “We go before audiences. We tell them a story and now some people will question what I experienced.”

 I'm sure this isn't what Rosenblat intended, but there's another lesson in reality.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The gift-giving season is just about over, and now it's time to survey all that you are thankful for: friends, family, food, new cherished memories...and I want to know all about your bookish gifts, both given and received!

Did Santa bring you a gift certificate to your favorite bookstore?

Did you fulfill your loved one's greatest wish and buy them the Oxford English Dictionary? (OK, maybe that's just my greatest wish.)

I was spoiled with not one but two gift cards, one for Salamander Used Books on The Avenue in Hampden. And since the OED is a bit out of our price range, I got the next best thing: Reading the OED, by Ammon Shea. And the pop-up Nutcracker Christmas book I gave to my little niece was a hit with young and old.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and that you're nearly ready for 2009, and a whole new year of books.

(Photo by woodsy at stockxchng)

Posted by Nancy Knight at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The Maryland Humanities Council is preparing for the second One Maryland One Book program, which is designed to get folks across the state reading the same book and discussing civil rights, multi-culturalism and related issues.

The book for 2008 was Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen, a non-fiction account of a Washington, D.C., teen who wants to get a good education and break out of tough neighborhood. During the fall, the council sponsored discussions at schools and libraries across Maryland – sort of a statewide book club.

Now the council is in the process of choosing the 2009 book from a list of 10. I’m part of the group that will help make the selection, and for my "homework" I’ll read The Color of Water by James McBride and deliver a short presentation. Others under consideration are: Song Yet Sung by McBride; The Reappearance of Sam Webber by Jonathon Scott Fuqua; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; Gifted Hands by Ben Carson; The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini; Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat; The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri; Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama; and Digging to America by Anne Tyler.

That’s a strong list; it will be tough to pick just one book. So, I thought I’d throw it open to a broader audience for comment. Let me know what you thought of The Color of Water or any of the others listed.

The council wants a book that will appeal to high school students as well as adults, and will spark discussions about "race, identity, civil rights or multicultural experiences in Maryland and America." To weigh in, just post a comment.

I’ll share your thoughts with the selection committee when we meet in early January. And I’ll keep you posted as the field is narrowed and the 2009 program takes shape.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Marylandia
        

In Sunday's Sun, read a review Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers by Chauncey Mabe of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Some excerpts from the review: Successful people, Gladwell says in Outliers, his third book, are the product not of genius, or talent, or ambition, or even hard work. ... Aha! So that’s how Gladwell, a middling writer for The New Yorker, became a literary star with an ill-deserved reputation as an original thinker, able to command a $40,000 speaking fee.

Gladwell follows a strategy honed at The New Yorker and perfected in his previous books, The Tipping Point and Blink, best-sellers both. He surveys the work of researchers and genuine thinkers, connects some dots (not all of which fit comfortably), coins some cool phrases, and presents it all in a breezy style.

That’s not to say Outliers isn’t a pleasurable, modestly informative way to spend a few hours, in the manner of a Discovery Channel documentary. Gladwell explains why star hockey players are almost always born near the beginning of the year, why Bill Gates became rich and famous, why Korean airline pilots used to have a propensity for flying perfectly good airliners into the ground, why so few people with extremely high IQs win the Nobel Prize.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Reviews
        

Celebrate the New Year with the Creative Alliance's tribute to words and music. Featured artists include Rafael Alvarez, Rahne Alexander, Michael Kimball, Jai Brooks, We Are Hip Hop Too's Gray the Poet and Love Reigns. Other musical performers include Liz Downing, John Berndt, Cliff and Rocky, and award-winning classical guitarist Zane Forshee. Not enough? Add Maryland's Poetry Out Loud Champion Will Poxon, the Baltimore Improv Group, and animated films based on poems.

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Patterson, 3134 Eastern Avenue in Baltimore. Cost: $5 (benefits kids' arts education programs). A brunch buffet and cash bar are separate; brunch reservations are strongly suggested. For more information: 410-276-1651 or info@creativealliance.org

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Book It
        

Just in time for post-holiday dieting, get some advice from nutrition expert Joy Bauer, a University of Maryland grad who gives advice on television and in magazines. Or try Eon, a hard-charging sci-fi book that Nancy found engaging.

Joy’s Life Diet by Joy Bauer (Collins, $25.95). Today show nutrition and health expert Bauer gives her four-step plan for losing weight and keeping it off.

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman (Viking, $19.99). Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for years, hoping to apprentice to one of the 12 energy dragons of good fortune. But Eon is actually Eona, a 16-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the chance to become the human link to an energy dragon’s power. For young adults.

There’s No Traffic on the Extra Mile: Lessons on the Road from Dreams to Destiny by Rickey Minor (Gotham, $25). The music director of American Idol shares his view on how to succeed in life.

Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun (Riverhead, $21.95). Nami Mun’s first novel is a 1980s urban odyssey in which Joon-Mee, a 12-year-old Korean-American, leaves her troubled Bronx family for the life of a New York City runaway.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Outliers: The Story of Success is the latest book by New Yorker essayist Malcolm Gladwell. His previous two books, The Tipping Point and Blink, have built for him a huge audience and it is because he does such a - I have to say it - entertaining job of explaining complex ideas. He makes you see the world in a different way, and Gladwell fans will not be disappointed in this latest effort.

As he has for his previous books, Gladwell is the reader on this edition from Hatchette Audio, and he brings to the task his mellow voice and his calm demeanor. But when he finds something extraordinary or shocking, his voice conveys it, and we have the feeling that we are discovering something unusual along with him. It is a special time of intimacy that only an audiobook can create.

I will be talking in depth Monday in the print edition of The Sun about Outliers, but here is my pitch for listening to the audio version: a discussion with the author at the end of the recording in which he reveals, in the most charming way, the secret of his success. I will give you a hint. It has to do with a couple of buddies he has had since the first grade.

Another bonus? Gladwell explains why so many comedians come from Canada!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Audiobooks
        

You guys really came through when we requested some tried-and-true Christmas classics. I was shocked at how many suggestions you provided, and how good those books sound!

But what can you read to get you in the mood to light the menorah?

I mentioned on Twitter that I was first introduced to Judaism by Ann M. Martin in Baby-sitter's Little Sister No. 10: Karen's Grandmothers.

Yeah, yeah, it's not high literature, but I was 8 years old, give me a break. And now I know you guys can do a lot better than that!

So, Happy Hanukkah! Now give me some reading recommendations!

(Photo courtesy of AKphotos on stock.xchng)

Posted by Nancy Knight at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Recommended
        

In The 21st Century Cowboy, Maryland-based photographer Nadine VerStandig gives us a look at the changing lifestyle of an American icon. Pictured here is "Secrets on the Fence," one of many beautiful photos in her book.

The Urban Hermit by Sam MacDonald is the comic tale of a Baltimore man's year-long attempt to get his life back in order. As a "big, fat bastard" with financial problems, MacDonald creates the Urban Hermit Plan -- a budget of $8 a week and 800 calories a day -- to change his life.  

Fruits of Victory by Baltimorean Elaine F. Weiss highlights the Woman's Land Army of America, which took over the farm work for men who had gone off to World War I. The "farmerettes" served in Pikesville, Fallston and communities across the country, plowing, planting and harvesting to help the war effort. Sort of a rural version of World War II's Rosie the Riveter.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Marylandia
        

For the man or woman who has everything: How about original artwork by Winnie the Pooh illustrator E.H. Shepard? Or Dreams From My Father, signed by the President-elect and his wife? 

A collection of Shepard's drawings for the A.A. Milne books brought about $2 million in a London auction last week, Reuters reported. The image "He went on tracking, and Piglet ... ran after him," sold for about $200,000. The second highest bid was for "Bump, bump, bump - going up the stairs," which depicts Christopher Robin dragging his bear by the leg up the stairs.

Meanwhile AbeBooks.com reports some more reasonable deals on recent sales. Among them: Dreams From My Father, $5,000 for edition signed by Barack and Michelle Obama; Space Odyssey Series by Arthur C. Clarke, $3,750 for signed, complete set of first editions; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, $3,000 for First American edition, one of 250 numbered copies signed by the author; The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, $3,000 for signed, complete set (10) of first editions.

Nancy, are you reading this? Hint, hint.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Michael Phelps is an American hero. He's the greatest Olympian of all time, the fastest swimmer who's ever lived and he didn't let a little thing like ADHD stop his dreams.

Of course, the world knows how, with his mother, two sisters and lifelong coach by his side, Phelps smashed nearly every swimming record there is in the world.

Unfortunately, none of this saves his latest book, written with sports journalist Alan Abrahamson.

Part of the problem may be that with 24-hour news coverage for an intense two weeks this summer, it was nearly impossible to escape the Phelps fever. If you were anywhere near a television, you saw detailed accounts of every meal Phelps ate, every lap he took, every heartfelt glance he shared with his mother.

The other part of the problem is that the book is written horribly.

For die-hard Phelps fans, swimming fiends or Olympic historians, I'm sure this book is essential. For anyone else in the world, it's a waste of time, albeit a short one.

The book is organized in chapters that loosely correspond with each gold medal race Phelps swam in Beijing, flitting through time and space so that many times I had no idea what relation a certain event had within the timeline.

The book is written from Phelps' point of view, which implies access to his thoughts and dreams. As far as I could tell, there aren't many thoughts beyond "Wait, what did that hater say about me? Well, I'll show him!" While it's nice to see the human side of the swimming machine, I'm not very comfortable that the lesson to be learned is "If you win, everybody else has to shut up."

The best parts of the book are the ones in which he reveals the doubts that his DUI and injuries brought to his career, and how he overcame the obstacles -- although he is extremely vague as to how he broke his hand and wrist in the first place. With a lifetime of grooming for the Olympics, the injuries crystallized his resolve, and showed how personal the chase really was for Phelps. I'm sure it was difficult to include these episodes for him, and I hope he shares more about them in the future. Everybody loves a comeback story, and these were the most personal and profound sections of the book.

Unless you live for statistics, I suggest you skip the innumerable paragraphs that are more numbers than words; many sentences include just lap times and names of people. Without an index, it was impossible for me to remember which names went with which swimmer, anyway.

In short, this book looks more like a way to cash in on this summer's success than to teach us more about Michael Phelps as a man and Olympian. A cursory Google search will tell you just as much about his journey to the Olympics. But rest assured, any Phelps fan will love Santa forever if they find this under the tree -- if only for the many pictures of the swimmer in nothing but his Speedos.

So tell me how Phelps has inspired that special person in your life (or yourself), and you'll have a chance to win the book. 

Posted by Nancy Knight at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Reviews
        

Looking back at a year of reading, I noticed that many of my choices in 2008 were older books.

When I headed to Colorado on vacation, I read Willa Cather’s My Antonia. I also filled some glaring holes in my reading list; that led me (at last) to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Other favorites from my 2008 list included: Deadwood by Pete Dexter, Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid and Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander.

I also noticed that my To-Be-Read list grew and grew and grew in 2008 -- I've run out of shelves and bookcases at home. So for 2009, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to cut the TBR list down to size. Instead of feeling guilty and conflicted about the 15 or 20 books lying around my office, den and bedroom, I'm going to be more selective. If it doesn't make my Top 10 got-to-read-this list, I'm going to leave it alone. Easier said than done? We'll see. 

What’s at the top of your TBR list? And do you limit its size, or let it grow?

p.s. Happy Holidays to everyone! 

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

The publishing industry has been chilled by the nation's economic woes, and with the exception of vampire fiction, sales have slowed. Here are some sleeper hits of 2008, according to the Associated Press:

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, written by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson. In a year when Nobel literature judge Horace Engdahl ridiculed Americans as indifferent to foreign writers, this French novel about a middle-aged concierge and a troubled young girl has 65,000 copies in print, up from an original 20,000. 

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. An Irish novel centered on a 100-year-old mental patient, it was published in June with a first printing of just 4,000. Thanks to strong reviews and, again, word-of-mouth, the book is now in its sixth printing, with 30,000 copies.

Obamanomics by John R. Talbott. A catchy call for a bottom-up economy seems like an obvious hit now, but not when it was offered a year ago, as Hillary Clinton was the presumed Democratic presidential nominee and the Iraq War the foremost current event. Published in July with a first printing of 15,000, soon after Obama clinched the nomination, the book now has 55,000 copies in print.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Why has Christmas inspired so many great movies -- but few memorable books?

One of my favorite movies -- I believe most critics rate it among the greatest ever made -- is Scrooged, the modern version of A Christmas Carol with Bill Murray as a venal TV executive. It's a standard in Dave's Christmas Film Festival, along with A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life. (I sometimes include Diner, for its manger scene.)

But when I looked at my shelves for a book about Christmas, I came up empty. I could read Dickens again. Or Jean Shepherd, whose short stories inspired A Christmas Story. But surely there's more. Any suggestions?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

I'm hoping this is a bad joke. Therumpus.net has an interview with James Frey, who was justifiably fried by Oprah and others for blurring fact and fiction in his "memoir" A Million Little Pieces.

Frey says he's writing a book on Jesus that will touch on gay marriage and prostitution. Probably will be timed for a Christmas release. This guy sure knows how to dredge for publicity -- if not how to make friends. Some excerpts from the interview with Stephen Elliott:

SE: Now this is a book about a man, a carpenter. Frey: It’s the third book of the Bible, called The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. My idea of what the Messiah would be like if he were walking the streets of New York today. What would he believe? What would he preach? How would he live? With who?

SE: I remember you saying he would perform gay marriages. Frey: Absolutely.

SE: And he would live with a prostitute. Frey: Love is love. It doesn’t matter how or who you love. I don’t believe the messiah would condemn gay men and women. It addresses the supernatural aspects of religion, how we need to think of religion given the technology available to us. We know have the power of God in many ways: the atomic bomb, the ability to create life in a test tube, cloning, artificial intelligence.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Get yourself over to Daedalus tonight for a free cupcake and discussion with Cakelove founder and new author Warren Brown.

And if you stop by the store at any point today, you also get a free gift. As if cupcakes weren't enough!

 Friday night, switch from love to war, when the new issue of Ars Poetica is presented at the Hamilton Arts Collective.

The poetry reading features Patric Pepper, author of Temporary Apprehensions, and Reginald Harris, author of 10 Tongues; the $5 cover is a fundraiser for the collective and Poems Against War, the journal.

On Saturday, join the Maryland Writers Association meets at Ukazoo. Nine authors featured in their anthology, New Lines from the Old Line State, will discuss their works and sign books.

After the upcoming week, things start to slow down for the holidays, events wise. So enjoy the free food and cheer while you can!

Posted by Nancy Knight at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Book It
        

I read a lot of wonderful -- and then again not-so-wonderful -- books this year. And while I don't regret many of my reads, there are always so many that I just never got around to.

Roberto Bolano's 2666 is one of them. Translated by Natasha Wimmer, I've heard the grisly detective novel praised on NPR, in bookstores and newspapers nearly everywhere I've gone. It doesn't sound like the type of book I ususally enjoy -- hundreds of women are murdered in a small Mexican town, while an ensemble cast of characters are drawn to the darkness -- it's been called a darkly humorous masterpiece, written in the last days of Bolano's life. How can you resist a description like that?

The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti, was first brought to my attention via a postcard sent with one of my One Story mailings. Judging a book by its cover, it looks awesome -- the silhouettes of a piratey man with his hand on a young boy's shoulder, walking away from a rickety house grabbed me right away.

Tinti's tale has been compared favorably to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island. The Good Thief follows a young boy in 19th-century New England. A one-handed orphan, Ren is saved from certain death when his older brother Benjamin comes for him. But is he really Ren's brother? And what does Benjamin want? I don't know! I need to read it!

Toni Morrison's lateste novel, A Mercy, is partially set in Maryland, which always piques my interest. Publishers Weekly loved it, and more importantly, we gave it a great review. Exploring slavery in 17th-century America as seen through the eyes of a young slave girl, I have no doubt it will be as heart-wrenching as Morrison's past novels.

Drew Gilpin Faust's Repubic of Suffering, Tana French's In the Woods and Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy round out my to-be-read list.

And with 2009 so close, and the promise of more great books on the horizon, I know the list will only get longer. Oh, the tribulations of a booklover!

Posted by Nancy Knight at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Check It Out
        

I'm a big fan of humor writing, especially tales with an ethnic twist. Maybe that comes from being the product of a religiously mixed (Protestant/Jewish with some Catholic a bit further back) marriage. Or from growing up in industrial Connecticut, where Poles, Germans, Italians, Puerto Ricans and others came for jobs. (The infield on one of my baseball teams was Kozlowski, Borowski, Oparowski and Rosenthal.)

My favorite in this category was Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander, who gave a reading at Breathe Books in Hampden.  Auslander's memoir recounts his rebellion against Orthodox Judaism and family dysfunction. He constantly challenges God, the rabbis and his parents to see how far he can stray. Still, he can never relax and enjoy his rebellion, because he fears a last-minute cosmic vengeance directed at him and his family. The story is both hilarious and sad, but the writing is always terrific. 

A sampling: God "liked us so much that he killed anyone who didn't like us. But when we didn't obey what he had commended, he didn't like us. He hated us. Some days he hated us so much, he killed us; other days, he let other people kill us. We call these days "holidays."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

A Delaware man who wrote about urban crime apprently got much too close to his topic.

Matthew Minor, 38, of Wimington pleaded guilty Monday to federal drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges, according to an AP report. Minor, who has written a novel about Wilmington's drug trade, acknowledged he and others had made trips to Arizona since 2006 to pick up cocaine and marijuana. He says the drugs were sold on Wilmington's streets.

Federal prosecutors say Minor was investigated for two years as a major drug dealer in the region. In September 2006, authorities stopped a truck hauling about 120 pounds of cocaine and 125 pounds of marijuana tied to Minor. Minor, who used the pen name Mustafaa, wrote the novel Family Tiez about Wilmington's drug trade.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Whatever
        

I'm not a big reader of short stories; I tend to lean toward novels when I need a fiction fix. But this year, I read more than my usual share. Amid the Bouchercon conference of mystery writers, I read Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories and Hardly Knew Her, a new collection by Laura Lippman. Nancy turned me onto Neil Gaiman, so I looked for his work in Poe’s Children, a horror anthology that also includes tales from Peter Straub and Stephen King.

But my favorite of 2008 is Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri; it's the latest from the author of The Namesake. The title story illustrates her power as a writer. Hardly anything happens, but we're treated to a three-generation tale that touchingly explores  parent-child relationships, the death of a loved one and the dull ache of assimilation.

And though her language is spare and unerstated, there are many graceful turns. Here's one: "She was grateful for the opportunity to sit on the porch ... listening to the vast breeze work its way through the treetops, a grander version of the way [her son] used to sigh when he was a baby, full of contentment, in the depths of sleep." 

I haven't read Namesake or her first short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, but I'm a fan.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The holiday season's blockbusters have already been released, so this will be a slow period for new books. Out Tuesday:

Blood Sins by Kay Hooper (Bantam, $25). In this disturbing paranormal thriller, the second in a trilogy (after Blood Dreams) from best-seller Hooper, Noah Bishop, of the FBI’s Special Crimes Unit, and Haven, a civilian investigative organization, take on the fanatical Rev. Adam Deacon Samuel.

Amazon.com; Publisher’s Weekly

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

In 2008, I filled some glaring holes in my background by reading some modern classics (how's that for an oxymoron). I was pleasantly surprised by To Kill a Mockingbird and My Antonia, which are staples on middle or high school reading lists, but somehow had never been assigned to me. (I swear I didn't skip the assignment.)

But of the older books I read, even more enjoyable was Deadwood (1986) by Pete Dexter, which I read for a taste of the West while visiting Colorado.

The fictional tale of an aging Wild Bill Hickok offers a warts-and-all view of the West. There's little heroism here. Just mud and blood, disease and early death. And a motley assortment of characters, including Boone May, a gunslinger who carries around a human head in hopes of collecting a bounty.

And Dexter has perfect pitch -- almost every page has a gem of a sentence. Bill, lamenting the influx of settlers in the West, says: "I don't mind the noise, it's just getting to be a weaker class of people all the time that's making it."

It's well worth a read.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

 I'll be the first to admit that books may have twisted my grasp on reality a bit.

For instance, growing up, no mere man could ever compare to the heroes of my favorite books. And so every other month or so, a new literary crush would pop up.

Mr. Darcy wasn't exactly Prince Charming (although Colin Firth did amazing things with the role) -- but man, I wanted to be Elizabeth Bennett.

Not to mention Logan Bruno, the Kentucky cutie who swept the Baby-sitters Club's Mary Anne Spier off her feet? I wanted one! 

And, as I recently discussed with kristinky on Twitter, how in the world did Jo resist Laurie?

Dave insists he never experienced the literary crush, and maybe it is more of a female rite of passage. But maybe you could prove I'm not crazy and share a few of your own.

(Photo courtesy of jixue on stock.xchng)

Posted by Nancy Knight at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Nancy and I are big believers in giving (and getting) books for the holidays. So is blogger My Friend Amy, whose online campaign called "Buy Books for the Holidays" notes that books are a good value and appeal to every interest. Giving books, she adds, makes you look intelligent and cool. Couldn't agree more.

I also got a kick out of blogger Carleen Brice's campaign to make December "National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month." Her recommendations include Third Girl from the Left by Martha Southgate, Kinky Gazpacho by Lori Tharps and
Going Down South by Bonnie Glover.

Publishers have their own campaign -- Books are Great Gifts -- no doubt designed to offset the layoffs and other bad news in the industry. Books, the site says, are great presents for Christmas because they have shelf life longer than a fruit cake and for Chanukah because eight candles make for great reading light. 

In this spirit, we'll give away 10 books. Just tell us: What book did you enjoy most in 2008?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

This Sunday in The Baltimore Sun, read Diane Scharper's review of Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master. The book is by Sun flim critic Michael Sragow, who described it in this Read Street interview; he'll also be the guest on the WYPR's Midday show Monday at noon. Here's an excerpt from the review:

In filmmaking as in any art, God is in the details. If that’s not the point of Michael Sragow’s definitive biography of Victor Fleming (1889-1949), it’s one of them. Another is that Fleming, a great though mostly forgotten film director, was a detail man — par excellence.

Take the scene in which Clark Gable cried in Gone with the Wind, one of Fleming’s hits. Gable rebelled when Fleming directed him to cry. Believing that the movie needed "this cathartic revelation," Fleming tried various means of persuasion, some nice and others — such as getting Gable drunk, cussing him out and insulting him — not so nice. Although there are discrepancies as to what transpired, in the end Fleming won. Gable cried. Gone With the Wind garnered several Academy Awards — including one for Gable as best actor and one for Fleming as best director.

While almost everybody recognizes the name Clark Gable and remembers his masterful performance in GWTW, very few know Fleming, the director responsible for Gable’s triumph and the movie’s fame. ... That’s wrong, according to Sragow, who believes that Fleming was one of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers.

Sragow likes his subject and writes about Fleming in a reader-friendly style, which is difficult to do if one is sharing insights into filmmaking techniques. Discussing Lord Jim (1925), for example, Sragow points out that Fleming "excels at the poetry of disaster." The film becomes "direct and visceral, nothing like the knotty experience of reading the book." To keep the text from becoming too heavy, Sragow includes apt — at times juicy — quotes. Fleming emerges as not just a consummate director but also as a colorful character, who had an eye for the actresses he directed — as they did for him. As one of his daughters said, "If there’s ever a question of whether Daddy and some woman did or they didn’t, assume they did."

Sragow keeps readers hooked by balancing the history of Fleming’s career with anecdotes from his private life. Using a loose narrative structure, the book offers an absorbing look at a filmmaking artist able to "translate thought back into images," instead of merely action as most American directors do. Sragow even tries to get inside Fleming’s head and often succeeds, although Fleming left behind few personal papers.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Marylandia
        

For those who enjoy very personal tales, some biographies of note:

My Father's Paradise by Ariel Sabar. The former Sun reporter tells the story of his father Yona, a Jew who grew up in a mud hut in Kurdish Iraq. Yona left -- with all other Iraqi Jews -- for Israel after that country was born, and later became a professor of Aramaic (his native tongue) at UCLA. A subplot is the tenuous relationship between Ariel and Yona, and their attempts to reconcile. 

The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle by Russell Miller. On the doctor-turned writer who brought us Sherlock Holmes.

Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando by Stefan Kanfer. A look at the personal and professional highs and lows of one of America's greatet actors.

Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master by Sun film critic Michael Sragow. The Hollywood director is not as well known as Brando. But he brought Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz to the screen in a single year, and helped mold the image of such stars as Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda and Clark Gable.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

 Yes, I am starting this post with a review of a book that won't be released until Dec. 26th. Dave disapproves; but you know what? I'm rebelling.

You know how some people swear by regional wines? They'll try anything, as long as it's from South Africa.

I've developed a similar love of Australian authors.

Garth Nix. Justine Larbalestier. And now, Alison Goodman, whose Eon: Dragoneye Reborn is the right way to end the year.

The story is set in a fictional country, which is clearly based on Asian culture. This country is protected by 12 dragons. Each dragon has a spiritual bond to someone who is known as the "dragoneye," because they can see the dragon that is largely invisible to others.

Goodman turns her patriarchal society on its ear with her hero/heroine, Eon. "Eon" is actually Eona, a young woman who can see the dragons, even though women are forbidden from the dragon court.

Girl power ensues.

I'm going to be honest: This story is not for the faint of heart. It is a bit of a slog, and would have benefited from being split in two, but the world is engaging and the characters are beautifully fleshed out.

The book is labeled YA, as most foreign fantasy is lately, but I do want to warn parents that there is a lively B story involving what is essentially a transvestite and her eunuch bodyguard. I actually loved them more than the protagonist.

Now, let's move on to books you can actually purchase before the holidays are over. I will reiterate my love for the graphic adaptation of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as much for my love of Baltimore as for the gorgeous art. And I'm sure you can't go wrong with Rowling's Beedle the Bard.

As for science fiction, I had an epiphany while preparing this entry: I haven't read one science fiction novel from 2008! So help me out with some suggestions, since I am embarrassingly ignorant. (I think I know what my bookish New Year's resolution will be.)

But just say no to Stephenie Meyer.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Not that you really have to choose! Tomorrow night at Ukazoo, Santa will host a fireside reading of A Visit from St. Nicholas, followed by a group reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Throw in some carols, cookies and hot chocolate for all, with a gift for the kids, and they're just overflowing with holiday spirit.

If you've got more love for the city than the jolly old elf, you can meet the authors of Spirit of Place, Sarah Achenbach and Bill McAllen at Red Canoe the same evening. Spirit of Place is a gorgeous book featuring interviews of Baltimoreans in their favorite parts of Mobtown.

Saturday at 12:30 p.m., Michael Phelps will be at the Barnes & Noble downtown. He'll be signing his new memoir, No Limits: The Will to Succeed, and who knows, maybe just being in the same room as him will help your backstroke.

And Wednesday night, bring out your inner storyteller at Baltimore Chop Books, where Eight-Stone Press will hold open-mic "auditions" for inclusion in the latest Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore zine.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Book It
        

As we continue in the holiday spirit, here are four for the kiddies, from picture books to a novel. Nancy and I are a bit removed from this demographic, so if you have others to recommend, please do.

The Lump of Coal by Lemony Snicket. Daniel Handler, the writer who gained fame for the Snicket series about a series of unfortunate events, switches here to a Christmas fable. It appeared in USA Weekend in 2004, so it may seem familiar.

Swing! by Rufus Butler Seder. In this picture book, skaters really spin and kids really turn cartwheels, thanks to the magic of scanimation. It's hard to describe, you can see it on YouTube.

Jake Starts School by Michael Wright. You've heard the story: Boy meets school, boy hates school. But the artwork is hilarious, and kids are sure to love the gas-passing scene.

If You’re Reading This Book, It’s Too Late by Pseudonymous Bosch. My sixth-grade nephew was enthralled by this adventure/mystery, and its Snicket-ish sense of humor. 

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Anyone who was paying attention during our Bouchercon Week probably noticed that many of our favorite mystery authors are more than a little enthralled with the horror subgenre right now.

Charlaine Harris, Mario Acevedo, even our beloved Poe, all enjoy infusing their novels with a scare or two, and readers seem to be eating it up lately. Just when I thought I didn't really like mystery novels, they add a little bit of of horror, and I'm picking that book up.

Take my favorite mystery novel this year, Lauren Groff's The Monsters of Templeton. The story opens with a young woman returning home pregnant and scandalized -- apparently trying to run over your lover's wife with an airplane is bad form -- who discovers that her unknown father is most likely a man she's known all her life. Oh, and a gigantic monster that was living in the town's lake just washed ashore, very much dead.

Mix in some ghosts and a whole town of characters that make me yearn for the Gilmore Girls, and I don't understand how anyone can resist this book.

I already shared with you my love of The Graveyard Book, the plot of which revolves around the mysterious killer Jack. And even in Clive Barker's Mister B. Gone, which is unabashedly horror, the demon narrator leaves the reader guessing until the last minute; how exactly did he get stuck inside the pages of a book? And will he really tear me limb from limb if I keep reading these words?

Another big mystery for me has been the popularity of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. The final book, Breaking Dawn, was published this year to millions of frenzied fans. I must admit, I didn't get past the first book, with no desire to continue reading, but this commentary on why the finale should never be made into a movie makes me ask: Why was it ever made into a book?

To each his own. I'm just thrilled there were so many great mysteries, horror novels and combinations of the two to go around.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

It is that time of year when all sorts of publications produce Top 10 lists, and book reviewers are no exception. I took a look at several Top 10 Books of 2008 lists and checked to see which books have been released on CD. Here's my list and, amazingly, there are 10 books on it! Here they are, in no particular order.

1. A Mercy by Toni Morrison

2. The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust

3. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

4. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer

5. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins

6. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gorden-Reed

7. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan

8. One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs

9. The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

10. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich

You can also check out AudioFile's top 10 lists for 2008, which include a variety of categories. Performances would have influenced these lists.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

For all you foodies, our friends at The Sun's Taste section have picked the season's best cookbooks -- those that offer the most tips, variety and recipes. The chocolate velvet poundcake pictured here, from The Art & Soul of Baking, is just one of the recipes you can try. The top five:

The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild (Wiley / 2008 / $34.95). Perfect for: The very busy cook who likes to stay on trend. There are more than 1,000 recipes here, and they’re short and tasty. Produce guides encourage no-fuss seasonal eating. And a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine comes with the book.

The Art & Soul of Baking by Sur La Table and Cindy Mushet Andrews (McMeel Publishing / 2008 / $40). Perfect for: The passionate baker. Veteran pastry chef Mushet serves up a "pro" tip with almost every creation. The precision of her 275 recipes, with weights as well as measures, leads to good results. There’s lots of guidance for beginners as well as veteran bakers, and beautiful photography.

Best of the Best, Vol. 1 by the editors of Food & Wine (Food & Wine Books / 2008 / $29.95). Perfect for: The cookbook addict who wants 25 great new cookbooks — but has space for only one. This annual compilation of recipes from the year’s best cookbooks offers a stellar roundup for 2008, from authentic Asian recipes to the latest from Alice Waters. Many of the authors share a bonus recipe not in their original cookbooks.

A Day at elBulli by Ferran Adria (Phaidon / 2008 / $49.95). Perfect for: The armchair-traveling fan of molecular gastronomy. We’re not big on complicated chef books, but this one makes you feel as if you’ve booked a table at the famous restaurant in Spain — and had a behind-the-scenes schooling in how pulp extraction, freeze-drying and using liquid nitrogen can create fine food.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I have had pleasure of reading many fantastic nonfiction and historical books this year. Then again, I've read some real snorers.

So let me share with you which ones you should snag and which you should avoid, whether for your loved ones or yourself.

My most recent read was Doomed Queens, by Kris Waldherr. The paperback goes through history, highlighting tragic royals the world over, from the biblical Athaliah to the legendary Eva Peron.

Waldherr is quite a wit, ending each mini-biography with a "cautionary tale," such as Cleopatra's: "Choose your allies well, or they will come back to bite you in the asp."

Bad puns aside, it's refreshing to read history from a distinctly female point of view. And did you know Cleopatra had two sisters who had royal ambitions of their own? Of course, they didn't seduce two powerful Romans, so you don't hear much about Berenice and Arsinoe.

And to make the book more universally charming, Waldherr has included paper dolls you can cut out and assassinate over and over and over again. Just pick your poison or bonfire or whatever morbidity strikes your fancy.

For those who want a little less death and bit more cheer, Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates may be just the ticket.

While it wasn't the nonstop laughfest that Assassination Vacation proved to be, Vowell's history of the Pilgrims was heartfelt and personal. She blended anecdotes about Sept. 11, the war on terror and helping her grandfather out on the farm -- as well as the adorable Owen stories that should be mandatory in everything she writes -- with our Puritan ancestors' rise to power in the New World. While she doesn't maintain the light touch that I prefer throughout, any history buff would appreciate her view of the City Upon a Hill and how it affects us even today.

If your tastes run closer to the Revolutionary set, I suggest you pick up The United States Constiution: A Graphic Adaptation, by Jonathan Hennessy and illustrated by Aaron McConnell. It's a gorgeous piece of work that gives context to each of the articles and all 27 Amendments. 

And since this was the Year of Lincoln, I will make a long story short and tell you to pick up Manhunt, by James L. Swanson and avoid The Lincolns. While I appreciated all of the details local author Daniel Mark Epstein included in his portrayal of the Lincoln marriage, I feel the reader would have been better served if it had been published in two different tomes, instead of one.

It was riveting through the early years, dragged through the middle years and became untenable by the time Abe made the White House. Or maybe the book was just reflecting the truth a little too well.

Moving away from history, if you want to read something that will keep you fired up for weeks afterward, I suggest Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. During every meal I found myself lecturing and cajoling everyone around me about the dangers of refined breads, chickens that lack a free-range label and Go-gurt. I probably wasn't much fun to be around, so thanks for those who still love me, and I'm sorry to those who don't. Also, go read it!

For economy nerds, whose ranks are currently growing, The Gridlock Economy, by Michael Heller is amazing -- and there's even a Chesapeake Bay chapter.

And I will continue to push the Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore! series for any and all Marylanders. It's funny, touching and does a much better job describing the Baltimorean mindset than I ever will.

(Illustration of Catherine of Aragon from Doomed Queens)

Posted by Nancy Knight at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I had planned to start our holiday gift guide with fiction picks, but after hearing that Tribune, The Baltimore Sun's parent company, had filed for bankruptcy protection, I changed my mind. To paraphrase Auntie Mame: I need a little Christmas -- right this very minute. (Even if I am Jewish.) So here are some books that will provide laughs:

State by State edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. A lighthearted, satirical look at America, with contributions from authors such as Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island), Ann Patchett (Tennessee), Sarah Vowell (Montana) and Jonathan Franzen (New York). The writing is a bit uneven -- I object to having my home state of Connecticut characterized by a neurotic, New York commuter -- but entertaining throughout.

Deciding the Next Decider by Calvin Trillin. The great humorist provides a play-by-play of the presidential campiagn -- in verse. On Palin: "She styled herself as coming from the masses/A Harry Truman with more costly glasses." 

Theories of Everything by Roz Chast. A collection of Chast cartoons from 1978-2006, highlighting anxieties such as family conflicts ("The Big Book of Parent-Child Fights"), growing old and traveling outside New York City. One classic: A middle-aged man sits, reading obituaries whose headlines say: "Two years younger than you" and "Exactly your age".

Crazy Stuff by Nicolas Marcais and Philippe Marchand. More than 400 pages of the goofy, the inventive and the obscenely expensive, including a paintball Panzer tank ($20,000), a giant knife with 87 different tools, Insta-Snow, the Inflatable Boyfriend and a zero-gravity flight.

The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac by FreeDarko. Spun out of the FreeDarko.com site, this colorful, graphics-rich almanac is perfect for any hoops junkie. With stats and colorful writing, it details the sport's biggest names, including Tim "Mechanical Gothic" Duncan and Stephon "Hategoat" Marbury. 

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

If you're looking for some great book gifts, Read Street is here to help. For the rest of the week, we'll offer suggestions in all sorts of categories: biographies, sci-fi, children's and audiobooks.

But we'd also like to hear from you. Are you planning to give the gift of reading this year? Have you found a great book-related gadget? Let us know -- we'll choose some lucky commenters for our own holiday giveaway.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

As we noted earlier, today is the release date for Michael Phelps' new book, No Limits. We'll give you our own take, but in the meantime, here are excerpts from a review by The Baltimore Sun's Kevin Van Valkenburg, a sports writer who covered Phelps at the Beijing Olympics:

What is there left to say about Phelps' phenomenal performance in Beijing that hasn't already been said? And if there is anything left to be said, how can it be told in a way that is more than just a quickie, post-Olympics update that rehashes his life story and weaves it into a first-person narrative?

No Limits - which was written by former Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Abrahamson, now of NBC Sports - never quite figures out how to overcome these two obstacles. ...

Abrahamson does his best to channel Phelps' voice throughout the 200-plus pages, and he often does a nice job of sprinkling in previously unreported details about Phelps' incredible 10-day run in China. But because the story is presented in the first person, as though Phelps is actually speaking to the reader,

it requires a serious suspension of disbelief when Phelps starts talking about subjects that are important to the narrative in a clear departure from the way he typically expresses himself. ...

The book does offer up occasional snippets of previously unpublished material, such as Phelps' admission that he broke his hand in 2005 punching a wall. ...

The book closes, though, by skimming over or ignoring some of the most interesting questions about Phelps' story: What does it mean to be famous in America? How do you not lose a piece of yourself when your wealth and your status mean that people are going to have trouble being honest with you? And what kind of man will Phelps one day decide he wants to be outside the pool, when he leaves behind his mother and his coach to form his own family?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Today, Baltimore Sun film critic Michael Sragow releases his book about Hollywood giant Victor Fleming. We asked Sragow about the director who, in a single year, brought two icons to the screen. First question: What are Fleming's greatest accomplishments?

Sragow: Do you mean apart from directing Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz in the same year?
Forget all the tired punditry and academic tomes about American masculinity: Victor Fleming did more than anyone to create the key images of the American male, the ones that continue to have enormous impact both here and around the world. As a cinematographer and in his first films as a director,  he helped mold the image of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., whose blend of athleticism and humor and open-air vitality made him the first action superstar, influencing comic-book heroes, later performers as different as Burt Lancaster and Cary Grant, and even politicians: Do the words “vigor” and “charisma” bring  anyone to mind?
But  that’s just the beginning. The strong, silent  type, who articulated character in action and made every spoken syllable count – Gary Cooper perfected that character when Victor Fleming directed him in The Virginian, back in 1929, and Henry Fonda brought a new, more sensitive variation to it when Fleming directed him in Fonda’s debut film, The Farmer Takes a Wife.

Then there’s the can-do guy who knew how to do anything from run a Vietnamese  rubber plantation (or run a Union stockade for the Confederacy)  to tame a gorgeous hellion – that’s Clark Gable as shaped by Fleming in a series of films, most notably  Red Dust and Gone With the Wind (despite the dispute of his sole directing credit, Fleming directed all of Gable’s major scenes as Rhett Butler – and Fleming was often described as “the real Rhett Butler”).

And there’s the character Pauline Kael used to call “the man with the hoe,”  the fellow with complex emotions that he can’t express except  through mood and posture: that’s the Spencer Tracy who Fleming brought to full-fledged stardom with Captains Courageous and Test Pilot.
With those two movies, and The Virginian, Fleming both invented the buddy movie and brought it to perfection.
He was just as skilled with women, summoning signature performances from Clara Bow in Mantrap, Jean Harlow in Red Dust and Bombshell, Janet Gaynor in The Farmer Takes a Wife, Myrna Loy in Test Pilot, Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz,  Ingrid Bergman in Dr. Jekyll and Mt. Hyde, Hedy Lamarr in Tortilla Flat, and Irene Dunne in A Guy Named Joe.
As a master of film craft, Fleming was nonpareil in his use of real locations on films such as The Virginian – and then became a master of studio illusion in films as different as Red Dust and The Wizard of Oz – and was a genius at mixing the two, as in Captains Courageous.
He came up through one- and two-reel Westerns, toyed with animation and special effects as early as 1919, pioneered the naturalistic use of sound, made the first feature-length mockumentary, used the Technicolor camera with unparalleled ebullience and invention in Oz,  and, had he lived, might have been the first to use CinemaScope in The Robe. And in non-Hollywood achievements, he was one of the first to make instructional films for the Army and also served as President Woodrow Wilson’s personal cameraman for Wilson’s tour of the European capitals after World War I; Fleming filmed the first political photo ops as well as the first footage designed for government and presidential archives.

Read Street: Despite those accomplishments, he's not well-known today. Why is that?
Sragow: He never hired a press agent; in Hollywood he was such a huge figure, he didn’t have to. James Agee never got around to profiling him for Life Magazine as Agee once planned. Fleming died before directors became national celebrities. He left no diaries, papers or production journals (though his pal Charles Cotton kept a detailed chronicle of an African safari with Fleming). His moviemaking friends developed a bad habit after his death of taking credit for Fleming’s work. It became easy for some academic to credit great films made at big studios to “the genius of the system,” and easy for other academics to ascribe “auteur” status only to a chosen few, such as Ford, Hawks, and Hitchcock, who had clear-cut directorial signatures instead of doing something new every time out, the way Fleming did.

Read Street: What attracted you to his story? 

Sragow: Because I am a critic, first, the greatness of his films. But he was also a great man. Every time I read a biography of someone else, Vic just leapt out as the authentic protagonist, a fellow who made himself up as elegantly as Gatsby yet was as rough and tumble as a Hemingway hero. He was a friend to naturalists, inventors, race-car drivers, aviators, and playwrights.  He romanced great beauties but never exploited them or talked about them., and even stood up for them, whether with friends or the press or even a mogul like Louis B. Mayer, who tried to chisel Norma Shearer (she and Vic had a brief affair, and he made her career with Empty Hands) out of money owed her estate after the death of her husband, Irving Thalberg.

Read Street: What surprised you as you learned more about him?

Sragow: He never stopped growing.  People wrote him off as a silent director, then he had huge back to back hits with The Virginian and Common Clay. They thought he’d lost his game when he aborted his production of The Yearling, then he made the ultimate World War II weepie hit, A Guy Named Joe. Besotted with Ingrid Bergman, he failed terribly with Joan of Arc, but might have come back stronger than ever, as he did after he followed Reckless with Captains Courageous. And as a man he had seemingly inexhaustible energy. He was devoted to his family, and would always return home for dinner with his wife and daughters even when he was shooting GWTW during the day,  editing OZ at night, and squeezing in a radio play with James Cagney. Despite his legions of romantic conquests, he  was intent on staying faitfhul to his wife, and was downright courtly to her in public – until he succumbed to Ingrid Bergman. 

Read Street: Can we see echoes of his work in today's movies?

Sragow: Directly and indirectly: Australia quotes liberally (though pointlessly) from GWTW and OZ, David Lynch and Guillermo del Toro are OZ fanatics, Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff harks back to Test Pilot and Red Dust and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde also inform aspects of Unbearable Lightness of Being and Henry & June. Walter Hill’s epic Broken Trail, a record-breaker for cable movies, recalls The Virginian as well as Hawks’ Red River.

Since Fleming invented much of today’s filmmaking vocabulary, he can be seen everywhere. And actors and American men in general have never stopped measuring themselves against the personae he and Gable and Cooper and Fonda and Tracy invented, just as children of both genders and all ages put  themselves into Dorothy’s ruby slippers and smart, sexy women continue  to identify with Mary Astor and Jean Harlow as they were in Fleming films and fantasize about what it must have been like to be Clara Bow.  

Read Street: How do you feel knowing that your book will be released the same day as Michael Phelps'?
Sragow: Hey, bring on the crossover readership! When MGM asked Vic to meet Olympic swimmers at the Ambassador Hotel (remember, Olympian Johnny Weissmuller was MGM’s Tarzan),  he took one look at Eleanor Saville and genially snapped, “Nice legs, sister!” You can look it up in the book!

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Meet the Author
        

This week's new books include Michael Phelps' No Limits, which describes his record gold medal sweep at the Beijing Olympics.

No Limits: The Will to Succeed (Free Press, $26). Phelps reveals the secrets to his remarkable success, from his training regimen to his mental preparation and, finally, to his performance in the pool. If you want a signed copy, Phelps will hold a book signing Saturday at the Inner Harbor Barnes & Noble, starting at 12:30 p.m.

The Treasure by Iris Johansen (Bantam, $25) Set largely in 12th-century Europe, this intricately plotted historical romance, the sequel to Lion’s Bride, is replete with majestic castles, ruthless assassins and gentlemen rogues. Two lovers are unwilling participants in a deadly struggle for control of an artifact that could contain the secret to immortality.

Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master by Sun movie critic Michael Sragow. Fleming, though an obscure figure today, was a film-making giant in early Hollywood. He helped mold stars such as Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Jean Harlow. And he salvaged both The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, which had run into trouble with their original directors.  

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I met Padma Viswanathan at a reading at Johns Hopkins, where she got a master's in creative writing, and was captivated by her story. The Toss of a Lemon is an intergenerational tale set in India, drawn from family lore and her imagination. We did this interview via email:

What was the inspiration for your book? The Toss of a Lemon was inspired by stories my grandmother told me of her grandmother, who was married as a child and widowed at 18. My great-great-grandmother, like my main character, Sivakami, chose to raise her children in her own house, despite severe restrictions on Brahmin widows in south India in the early 20th century. Their heads were shaved; they did not wear colors; and, most cruelly, they were not permitted to touch or be touched--even by their children--from dawn to dusk. My character, Sivakami, essentially doesn't leave her house more than a few times in the remaining sixty years of her life, but still succeeds in running her household on the income from her agricultural properties, in giving her son a secular education, and in raising her grandchildren when her daughter proves incapable, all with the help of a trusted servant, her closest confidant.

How much of the book sprang from your own experience or from stories told to you? I feel as though there is something, if only a tiny detail, on almost every page, that owes to things [my grandmother] told me. My own experiences and observations, both in India and otherwise, also very much figure in ... . I incorporated details gleaned from research as well as from a lifetime of eavesdropping! And then there are elements of pure fancy, but these might not be as obvious as one might think: I have a witch living next door to Sivakami, for example, which fact is taken directly from my family history, though I made up some elements of her biography. Ditto the fact that Sivakami's husband, an astrologer, predicted his own death: my great-great-grandfather did that. But then Sivakami's daughter, in a twist that some reviewers have called magical realist, begins shedding gold dust. This bit was totally my invention, though it has a number of--to my mind!--quite logical links to the world I reconstructed.

Did the story evolve as you wrote it, or did it follow the original outline? There was no original outline! I wrote the first chapter first, but that was about the only bit of writing that emerged in sequence. I could tell, when I wrote that passage, that I had found the voice of the narrator and a tone that would be appropriate and sustainable. Once I did that, though, I proceeded by randomly dipping into my transcripts for anecdotes and incidents that intrigued me sufficiently that I wanted to write them into chapters. ... The more I wrote, the more I cut and shaped and fictionalized. 

Do people with Indian heritage have a different reaction to the book after reading it? Sort of: India is so diverse that a young Muslim from Gujarat, for example, would have only a slightly closer identification to the story than many westerners. But there are many Tamil Brahmins living in North America, and they do have a unique reaction to the book. Younger ones have said that they learned about a place and time that vanished, for better and worse, before their time; older ones have thanked me for returning to them many of the sights and sensations they miss from their childhoods, even while they ruminated, via the story, on a tumultuous time when old assumptions were being challenged and overturned. But many western readers have also said that they have a personal identification with the story, which is, at its core, about a mother struggling to raise her family and making the best decisions she can for her children on the basis of imperfect information. None of us can tell the future--even if one of my characters thinks he can!--and each of us has been a child, if not a parent. Most of the book's readers have embraced it on this personal level ... .

Has any reaction from readers surprised you? Oh, there was one odd incident: One of my intentions with The Toss of  Lemon was to make readers conversant in the complex ways the caste system was enacted in this time and place. Both Sivakami, my main character, a Brahmin widow, and Muchami, her servant, a closeted homosexual, are on the receiving end of caste oppressions, though in very different ways. Despite this, they collude in maintaining the very system that oppresses them. ... My intention was to implicate the reader, to make them feel how seductive the caste system is, how it sustained people, and so give a sense of why it persists, even today, if in mutated forms. So then it was a surprise when one blogger suggested that I should have made some more overt declaration: "In case you don't know, the caste system is unfair and cruel and we must all work to dismantle it." ... The post was followed by comments--from people who hadn't read the book--agreeing with how terrible it is that I glorify the caste system! Ultimately, I had to laugh it off.

How has the book's publication changed your life? I worked on the book for 10 years in relative isolation, so it was a little startling for me when my agent, the first person in the publishing industry to read the book, started talking to me about the characters in it. Apparently, I had half-convinced myself that the story was really just a world inside my head, where I would walk around, recording what people said and did in circumstances that I created for them! ... I don't want it to change my life in any fundamental way, though. I have a husband and two small children; I have another book to write, as well as short-story projects. Tobias Wolff has said he lives a banker's life, by which I think he means he sticks to a routine and mundane concerns. I wouldn't normally dare compare myself to Wolff, whose work I admire intensely, but I aspire to keep my life as boring as he claims his is! It seems a good formula for productivity.

What are you working on now? I’m working on a second novel, called Losing Farther, Losing Faster. It centers on an Indian man named Seth, who lives in contemporary western Canada. Seth is a devotee of a very popular Indian guru, and, when the novel opens, he learns that his guru has been accused of a—highly ambiguous—sexual misdeed. My character has to try to come to terms with his faith in light of the accusations.

Photo by Joy von Tiedeman

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Meet the Author
        

This Sunday in The Sun, read Glenn C. Altschuler's review of Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by John Stauffer. Here's an excerpt from the review:

In Giants, Stauffer, a professor of English at Harvard University, examines the lives of these two extraordinary self-made men, the ex-slave from Maryland who became a radical reformer, and the pragmatic politician who pondered whether he could — or should — end "the peculiar institution" while preserving the Union. Their debates, and the friendship they forged, he argues, elegantly and eloquently, helps us understand a major — though not yet complete — shift in American history toward the inclusion of African-Americans in our national ideals of freedom and equality. ...

On occasion, Stauffer gives Douglass, the archetypal agitator, more credit than he deserves. In supporting the actions of John Brown with friendship, words and money, did Douglass, in any meaningful way, assist "in electing Lincoln and killing him"? Did the president "finally" begin to listen to Douglass when he used his war powers as commander-in-chief to emancipate the slaves? Or was Douglass’ role in establishing this "important precedent" actually rather limited?

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Douglass’ frustration with a leader stuck "in slothful deliberation" turned to admiration. "It is a day for poetry and song," he exulted, "a new song." Lincoln, he maintained, "was not in the fullest sense, either our man or our model," but pre-eminently "the white man’s president." But had he pushed emancipation too soon, he now acknowledged, Lincoln would have alienated millions of Americans "and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible." ...

Douglass, Stauffer concludes, had "stunningly encapsulated Lincoln’s presidency." A pragmatic idealist, he had "steered the nation through a revolution." A one-time colonizationist who had "treated blacks as step-children," he had grown in the crucible of war and "adopted them ... as part of the national family." 

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

 Now's the time of year that many begin to meditate on past kindnesses, letting the people and institutions in their lives know just how much they are appreciated.

To quote my favorite holiday movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol, "It is the summer of the soul in December." (And it has nothing to do with the fact that the lyric is sung by a couple of cute Muppet horses.)

In other words, we can all be unabashedly thankful and generous this time of year, and no one raises a cynical eye. Unless you know Scrooge 2.0.

So here's a roundup of a few literary organizations that help others unceasingly, and would welcome a little help in return:

The Enoch Pratt Free Library With events for the entire family all year round, helping Pratt live up to its "Free" name doesn't feel like such a sacrifice.

The Book Thing This is one of the easiest places I know of to donate and then pick up a few books. No appointments, no questions. You hand over the books and then start browsing.

Baltimore Reads This group has been on a mission to bring books to Baltimore children for 20 years now. And with their adult literacy and work force programs, they just keep on giving.

CityLit Project If you've ever enjoyed a local author, or thought of becoming one, this is an organization you can get behind.

And I know I'm missing tons of other worthy institutions. The point is, don't take your literary pleasures for granted. If you can spare a few moments of time or a few dollars, keep these organizations in mind.

(Photo courtesy of prattlibrary.org)

Posted by Nancy Knight at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Don't worry, I won't babble on about my Paris trip for days and days, but I'd like to note one last memory: the bits of literary Baltimore scattered around the city. A couple of tidbits:

During Paris' literary fervor, when Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce and others mingled on the Left Bank, a central meeting place was the bookstore run by Sylvia Beach, a former Baltimorean. She nurtured young writers, and even published Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses when the established houses would not touch it. Her shop, which closed during World War II, is not related to the one that now operates under that name, though both clearly share a deep love of books.

In the Centre Pompidou, the main museum for modern art, I came across Jacques Lipchitz's bust of Baltimorean Gertrude Stein. Stein left Johns Hopkins medical school to pursue a writing career, and settled with other ex-pats in Paris. She also introduced Baltimore's Cone sisters, Claribel and Etta, to such artists as Henri Matisse, which led to the remarkable Cone collection, now in the Baltimore Museum of Art. 

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Dorothy Sterling, a prolific author who helped educate America's children about prominent blacks and the civil rights movement, has died at age 95, according to the New York Times. Sterling, a long-time member of the Baltimore-based NAACP, wrote more than 30 books, including Freedom Train, about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, 

After working as a researcher at Life magazine, she left to write books, the Times said. Determined to write the biography of a strong woman who could inspire girls, she found her way to Tubman and discovered a new field of research. “I was excited, but also bewildered and angry,” she wrote. “Why had I never heard of Harriet Tubman or Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass or William Lloyd Garrison? Here was a wealth of information, dozens of inspiring stories to tell to young readers.”

Her other books for children and young adults included It Started in Montgomery and Tear Down the Walls!: A History of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Obituaries
        

The Pratt's annual book sale comes just in time to save you a lot of money for the holidays, and to raise some money to ensure the library can continuing serving city residents. With 25-cent paperbacks, 50-cent hardcovers, $1 DVDs and a special Sunday "Dollar Box Day," it may become your one-stop Christmas shopping. Check it out all day tomorrow and Saturday, and Sunday afternoon.

Saturday afternoon, breathe books will host Mort Zachter, author of Dough. Zachter's memoir follows the changes in his life when he discovers his family's millions, after living in near-poverty for much of his life.

Patricia Smith, a 2008 National Book Award nominee, provides some poetry and conversation at the Wheeler Auditorium at the Central Library of the Pratt Sunday afternoon from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

And on Wednesday, the Homewood Museum is holding a book signing and wine tasting for the Johns Hopkins University Press. You can meet JHU Press authors and browse Press books in the museum Shop at this free event.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Book It
        

Folks love Paris for the romance, museums, food and fashion. But on my visit last week, I was most struck by the rich culture of reading. We stayed in the Latin Quarter, home of the Sorbonne, and there was a bookstore on almost every block. Some were giants, such as Gibert Jeune, which has eight stores in the Place St. Michel; others specialized in topics such as art or architecture.

I also stopped into the nearby Village Voice Bookshop, where Michael Neal helped me select some translated French novels (while recounting his admiration for H.L. Mencken). And I visted quirky Shakespeare & Company, which jams books into every inch of space -- and even offers a couple of free beds for the literarily-inclined.

It was a joy to see so many stores devoted to reading -- and so many people poring over the shelves. How did we lose that here in the United States?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

What if Sarah Palin had been really smart in addition to being really good-looking and really popular?

Christopher Buckley's new book, Supreme Courtship, arrived in bookstores just days after the Alaska governor had been selected to be John McCain's vice presidential running mate, making him seem almost prescient.

In this supremely funny book, the president chooses a gorgeous, plain-spoken Texan TV show judge to be his nominee to the Supreme Court - just to spite the ego-maniacal senator who wanted the job for himself.

And we are off to the races.

Pepper Cartwright is a smart lawyer and was a good (real) judge, has the No. 1 rated show on television - and America loves her. It is her "numbers" against the terrible approval ratings of the president and Congress, and guess who wins?

Buckley is known for his farces lampooning Washington institutions, such as the tobacco lobby, (Thank You for Smoking) and social security reform (Boomsday), and this one is as on target as any.

But it is read by Anne Heche, a performer who brings a lot of People magazine baggage with her. And although her characterizations, especially of Pepper Cartwright, are spot on, I keep thinking of her as the women who dumped Ellen DeGeneres for a guy.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Audiobooks
        

Today is a glorious day for Harry Potter fans.

Just when you thought Hogwarts-mania had passed, J.K. Rowling provides what is essentially the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales of her wizarding world: The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

This collection of five vignettes was announced last December, and there are not one but two options for those craving the latest Harry Potter installment: the Standard Edition, which can be found at your local bookstore, or the Collector's Edition, available only at Amazon.

For roughly $85 more, you get not only the tales themselves, but extra ready-for-framing illustrations, a replication of Rowling's hand-written introduction and an outer case decorated with skulls and faux gems.

Me? I'll be sticking with the $12.99 version.

But no matter the edition you spring for, you'll be happy to know that the net proceeds will benefit the Children's Voice Campaign, which campaigns for youths rights throughout Europe. The happy recipient will just be happy to know that for now, Rowling isn't done with The Boy Who Lived.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Retailers everywhere are offering holiday discounts and those online are offering free shipping in order to attract buyers, and audiobook sellers are no exception.

Random House Audio is offering 15 percent off and free shipping on some wonderful new titles, including The Man Who Owns the News, Michael Wolff's book about Rupert Murdock, Toni Morrison's A Mercy and Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final installment of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga.

You can listen to clips from these and other books. When ordering, use the coupon code GIVEABOOK08 to receive your discount.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Audiobooks
        

I'm back from visiting my daughter, who's studying in Paris for a semester. I toyed with the idea of blogging there, but found it incredibly difficult to type while holding a criossant aux amandes and sipping chocolat chaud.

This week I can catch everyone up on the trip, including the city's phenomenal bookstores and its rich literary culture. It's a marvel -- there's nothing like it in the United States.

But first I want to thank all the Read Streeters who suggested books to make my trip more meaningful. Here's my pre-flight list: The Black Tower by Louis Bayard, a well-written mystery built around the French Revolution; Metro Stop Paris by Gregor Dallas, a look at the city's cultural history through neighborhood Metro stations; The Flaneur by Edmund White, a collection of engaging essays about Parisian life, and Murder on the Ile St. Louis by Cara Black, part of the Aimee Leduc mystery series. Each provided a fresh look at the city.

My TBR list still includes the writings of A.J. Liebling, The Discovery of France by Graham Robb, and Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne. On the trip, I also bought a couple of books by French authors: Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas, and The Interrogation by J.M.G. Le Clezio, who won the 2008 Nobel for literature. It's an imposing pile, but it will help stretch the vacation memories. If you have others, let me know while I'm still riding the sugar-high of les patisseries and chocolatiers.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Let's face facts: Sometimes shopping for your favorite reader is tough. Sure, you know they read, but that doesn't mean you have any clue if they'll adore the latest Toni Morrison.

So here are a few one-size-fits-all gadgets that just about any reader would like, including the gorgeous ABC 3-D pop up book that was just released in October. It's perfect for tricking kids to open a book at the youngest ages possible. I also dig the video's old-timey music.

For the readers who are always lending their books out, with dubious rates of return, here are a couple of ways to help them keep track of their lovelies. First is the old-fashioned personal library kit offered by Restoration Hardware. It even includes one of those neat little stamps from which a much-younger Nancy believed librarians derived their fearsome shushing powers.

If your friend is a little more 21st-century, try buying them a year or even lifetime subscription to LibraryThing, which catalogs entire libraries and connects users to like-minded readers. Other perks include free review-copies of books and access to the catalogs of libraries worldwide.

Does your favorite bookworm get so wrapped up in their texts that they forget their lunch date with you? Try giving them mxyplyzyk's cleverly designed book clock, which you can find under the office category.

And if they're still running late, you can up the passive-aggressive ante by presenting them with these Shakespearian Insults magnets. Fun for the whole family!

If you've got a bit more money to spend, this Oxford English Pagemark Dictionary is perfect for new readers. If they run up against a few unfamiliar words, they can just type it in this device and keep on reading.

Speaking of having money to spend, for a mere $615, you can give the reproducted gift of Thomas Jefferson's revolving bookstand. It's gorgeous and I want one, and I know it's never happening. Something to strive for. Luckily, the Library of Congress also offers this far more affordable Velveteen Rabbit set, including the book and a toy rabbit looking for a child's love.

Got your own suggestions? Let us know about it! Especially if they don't break the bank.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

First, I want to thank everyone for their yummy responses to the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day post! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend, with plenty of leftovers for all.

And in a completely scientific manner, (I had my boyfriend pick a number between one and 21 at random) Eva is our big winner! So Eva, just e-mail me your mailing address, and you'll be baking in no time.

Now, if you're anything like me, you avoided the Black Friday craziness and opted for the more sane approach: Online shopping.

So let me segue into this week's topic, the perfect gifts for your favorite readers, with one more cookbook, which may be the last one you ever need to buy: Tastebook.

I gave one of these attractive books earlier in the year, and it was a big hit. You simply upload different recipes that you already love, decide on a size (25 recipes for $20 up to 100 recipes for $35) and then your favorite cover.

Of course, you may not have 100 recipes up your sleeve, and that's perfect! Any slots that you don't fill, the recipient can fill themselves. For instance, I picked about 10 recipes that I loved, and left the rest unused, so they can be filled up with whatever new amazing recipes come up.

What's that you say? You can't even think of one recipe to include? Luckily for you, the editors at Epicurious, Food Network, Allrecipes.com, 101cookbooks.com and many others have assembled Tastebooks that you can buy ready-made from the site.

And right now, Tastebook is having a special: Buy three, and shipping is free. I'm sure you can think of at least three people who love to eat.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Releases this week include: Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam, $27.95). Leaving behind her private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, S.C., Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where she encounters an injured man in Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric prison ward, who has a bizarre story to tell.

The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry (Ballantine, $26). Ex–Justice Department agent Cotton Malone searches for answers after learning that his father's death wasn’t in a 1971 nuclear sub accident in the North Atlantic, but occurred on a secret sub mission to the Antarctic.

Hooking Up with Tila Tequila by Tila Tequila (Scribner, $26). The pin-up girl tackles a variety of subjects from making it big to getting what you want in bed.

Cruel Intent by J.A. Jance (Touchstone, $25.95). As if remodeling an old mansion near picturesque Sedona, Ariz., isn’t stress enough for Ali Reynolds, the plucky former TV newscaster must also deal with cybernetic lonely hearts, frustrated lust and murder.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)