October 2008 Archives

Those of us who can't get enough Food Network can now get a fix at the newsstand.

This just in from the Associated Press:

After dozens of best-selling novels, Danielle Steel still has words to spare: She's starting a blog.

"It's like a letter to a friend, and fun to be able share something and say, 'Gee I did this,'" says Steel, 61, whose run of hits includes three this year alone: "Honor Thyself," "Rogue" and "A Good Woman."

A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit against Google over the Internet search engine's use of copyrighted material, reports the Associated Press.
According to a statement issued Tuesday by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and Google, the agreement "will expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search."

I am on a memoir kick. I just go to the library and scan the shelf until something pops out at me. This time it was "All Over But the Shoutin'" by Rick Bragg.

The name Bragg is familiar to journalists, especially feature writers. His works covers the pages of journalism compilations. And, yes, he was also accused of plagiarism in 2003. But he is a brilliant writer.

He chronicles the story of his poverty ridden life sans his father in Alabama. He just has this way of describing situations without using cliches. And it's just the right balance. If it hadn't been a library book, I would have highlighted dozens of sentences.

Like the one that said the snowflakes were murdered by the warmth on the sidewalk. That's just brilliant. We all think of snowflakes melting, but not getting murdered by warmth.

This just in from the Associated Press:

Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes -- Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee -- died Sunday of pulmonary failure. He was 83.

In conjunction with the publication of its latest book, "Visions of Paradise," National Geographic is inviting the public to submit images that best represent their vision of heaven on Earth to the Visions of Paradise Photography Contest, Oct. 21-Dec. 21.

Local writer Scott Butcher has authored his first coffee table book, "York: America's Historic Crossroads" (Schiffer Publishing). This is the first of three photo books that Butcher is doing. "Delaware Reflections," with 250 photos of the Delaware Coast from Lewes to Fenwick Island, will be released this spring.

York County native Rita Mae Brown and her feline partner, Sneaky Pie Brown, have written a new mystery, "Santa Clawed," which will be released Nov. 4.

To read the first chapter, click here.

I'm a sucker for cats and books, so I can't wait to read this.

From the Associated Press:

DES MOINES, Iowa - He was a yellow tabby with twinkling green eyes, who arrived in the overnight drop box of a farmland library one frigid January night. Dewey Readmore Books became the library's star boarder and an international celebrity.

Now he's the subject of a best seller that chronicles the struggles of the library worker who found the trembling kitten, the town that embraced him and Dewey himself.

"Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World," by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter, has 336,000 copies in print and has quickly climbed to the top 10 on The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly and other lists of best sellers.

This just in from the Associated Press:

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- As the father of three girls, Tim McGraw understands the challenges that face dads who want to please their daughters.

So the children's book he's co-written with Tom Douglas has some simple advice: As long as you're spending time with them, it doesn't really matter what you do.

The books are about teenagers with real-life issues like popularity and weight loss, but the authors aren't just writers. They are experts in adolescent development who are aiming to help their young readers live healthier lives.
The Beacon Street Girls series has had results, too. To read about the books and their effect on girls, click here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/health/14well.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

Here is a review from one of our readers, Loretta Martin:

Being the celebrity watcher that I am, I sometimes wait for years to find out the true story about what had really happened when a scandalous incident occurs. Around the world the tabloids put out every scenario you can -- or can't -- imagine. Usually there are so many versions of what actually happened that you don't have any idea which one is really true, and most of them aren't. You finally end up picking the one with the reasoning that fits with your line of thinking -- and then you sit back and wait for the truth to be told.

The death of Robert Wagner's wife, Natalie Wood, and the circumstances surrounding her death in late November of 1981 were a shock to everyone. They were on board their boat, the "Splendour." Christopher Walken and Wood were in the middle of filming "Brainstorm" and he was an invited guest the night the tragedy occurred. The tabloids had a field day making up their versions of the story and Wagner had been advised by his attorney not to answer any questions the reporters might ask. So he didn't, and I wondered if we would ever hear the truth from Wagner himself.

"The Horseshoe Curve: Sabotage and Subversion in the Railroad City" by Dennis P. McIlnay of Hollidaysburg received the Gold Medal as the Best Regional Nonfiction Book in the Mid-Atlantic Region from the Independent Association of America.

The children of Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. faced off in an Atlanta courtroom Tuesday. Their dispute over their mother's personal papers could derail a lucrative book deal.

This just in from the Associated Press:

LONDON -- Aravind Adiga won the prestigious Man Booker award Tuesday for his first novel "The White Tiger."

Adiga won the $87,000 prize for his book about a protagonist who will use any means necessary to fulfill his dream of escaping impoverished village life for success in the big city.

Here's hoping Cornell professor Barry Strauss, whose narrative history of the Trojan War I enjoyed immensely, keeps writing books.

I recently read a similar history of his, "The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece -- and Western Civilization."

The Battle of Salamis was part of the war between Greece and Persia -- the same war that included the much better known Battle of Thermopylae (see book reviews here).

But whereas the Spartans' courageous stand at Thermopylae served as a holding party to keep the Persian forces from quickly advancing into the heart of Greece, Salamis served as the war's turning point. Its Gettysburg, in some ways.

I've been a fan of English mystery writer Ruth Rendell since devouring one of her books lent to me by a friend years ago, "A Demon in My View." It is one of Rendell's excellent psychological thrillers. She also writes more conventional mysteries starring Inspector Wexford.

That was an unexpected find in Laura Lippman's "What the Dead Know."

This just in from the Associated Press:

BOSTON -- The question of whether to choose an official book for the state of Massachusetts made for a whale of a debate.

The state House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill naming "Moby-Dick" the state's official "epic novel."

This just in from the Associated Press:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- France's Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature for works characterized by "poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy" and focused on the environment, especially the desert.

Le Clezio, 68, is the first French writer to win the prestigious award since Chinese-born Frenchman Gao Xingjian was honored in 2000 and the 14th since the Nobel Prizes began in 1901.

Best-sellers at Borders Books & Music in Springettsbury Township for the week that ended Sept. 28"
1. "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini.
2. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski.
3. "The Shack" by William Young.
4. "The Grace That Keeps This World" by Tom Bailey.
5. "Haunted Places in York County" by Leo Motter.

Drew Peterson, the former Bolingbrook police sergeant tells all -- or maybe not -- in "Drew Peterson Exposed," from Canadian publisher Kunati Books.

Once I got past the first chase scene, "Odd Hours" picked up the pace.

I'm now in Dean Koontz's trance, the one that makes me carry around his latest book, just in case I get a spare moment to read even a few pages. (I don't bring it to work with me. It would be too tempting.)

I know at first, I was pretty disappointed. But I'm enjoying the trip down Memory Lane with Odd and his ghost dog.

I read "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards during a weeklong trip to the beach this summer.

It's a quick read, but a pretty good one.

It's the story of a doctor forced to deliver his own child during a blizzard in the '60s. It turns out his wife has twins. First, she delivers a healthy boy. But when the boy's twin sister arrives, the doctor can tell that the baby has Down syndrome.

To read the first two chapters of John Lutz's new thriller, "Night Kills," click here.