tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364288232012-02-15T13:40:00.443-08:00Book reviews, book-related news and author interviewsLinda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.comBlogger25161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-89770484128567272582012-02-15T13:40:00.000-08:002012-02-15T13:40:00.531-08:00

We thought we were done with all that hearts and flowers stuff yesterday, but The Huffington Post had other ideas. Today they deliver surprisingly nasty love letters from authors. Some of these are sexy, some nasty dirty and one, from Benjamin Franklin to Madame Brillon, is just plain douchey.“What a difference, my dear friend, between you and me!” Franklin writes. “You find innumerable faults

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-47405911698148305652012-02-15T01:25:00.000-08:002012-02-15T01:22:32.187-08:00

With the Golden Globes just behind us and the Oscars just ahead, a lot of attention is focused on the movies right now. And when that happens, those of us who love books inevitably think of the words that make those films. In some cases, we take all of that another step and think about writing for film. If all this movie talk turns your head in that way, you might want to take a peek at Writing

Aaron Blantonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-22126500975416982032012-02-14T12:49:00.003-08:002012-02-14T12:54:13.085-08:00

What do The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, The Princess Bride and Byron’s Don Juan all have in common? According to Flavowire, each contains one of the great kisses in literature:After all, there’s nothing more romantic than that most elemental of expressions of affection, and who could paint it better than the likes of Shakespeare, Nabokov and Byron? So if you’re looking for a few ideas (or

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-6592892471516378852012-02-10T05:48:00.000-08:002012-02-10T05:48:01.107-08:00

Though the place of prisons in our society has often been at the core of political and philosophical debate, one thing about them is not up for discussion and that’s the power of the prison library. An article in Best Colleges Online explains:Yet of all the liberties afforded to prisoners, access to a library, and the materials and classes it provides, can be one of the most useful in preparing

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-24447105533370606422012-02-10T00:43:00.000-08:002012-02-10T00:49:42.013-08:00

When a critic says that a poet’s work is “a crime against literature,” you know punches are not being pulled. But when it turns out that the poet in question just happens to be the president of your country, something larger might be at play. In the Irish Independent, books editor John Spain writes:BEING President is no protection from the critics. In one of the most scathing reviews ever

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-25119261113778013562012-02-09T12:54:00.000-08:002012-02-10T00:51:02.350-08:00

If, like me, you’ve grown up on Celtic folk tales, you’ll be familiar with the story of the human male who gets himself an otherworldly bride. With a few exceptions, it’s really only in modern YA paranormals that it’s the other way around.Basically, there are two kinds: There’s the one where she’s the daughter of a king of the otherworld, whether it’s the sea or Faerie; and there’s the one where

Sue Bursztynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09362273418897882971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-776448193707796732012-02-09T08:35:00.000-08:002012-02-09T08:35:00.869-08:00

A children’s story sent in letter form by James Joyce (Dubliners, Finnegans Wake) to his grandson, Stephen James Joyce, in 1936 has been published for the first time by a small press in Ireland. From the Guardian:Joyce's The Cats of Copenhagen is a "younger twin sister" to his published children's story The Cat and the Devil, which told of how the devil built a bridge over a French river in one

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-45222730087161547822012-02-07T05:26:00.000-08:002012-02-07T05:26:00.478-08:00

The Oscar race this year is upon us. Nine films are vying for Best Picture, and I myself have a few favorites. The Artist is amazing, with an idea and performances that are nothing short of stunning. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, heartbreaking in so many different ways, is a pretty faithful adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s brilliant novel. But for me the movie that really stands out

Tony Buchsbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09254707449683889078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-11045372614053183932012-02-07T03:30:00.000-08:002012-02-07T03:30:05.475-08:00

On his first day of work at his new job (“New job has free coffee. I like it.”) Mark lays eyes on Kelly Donahue and vows to “PHYSICALLY DEFEAT HER IN A PHYSICAL FIGHT TO THE DEATH. PHYSICALLY” Mark spends the next eight months pressing, stalking and planning the demise of his co-worker, Kelly Donahue.I Hate You, Kelly Donahue (Adams Media) has been created to look just like a spiral-bound

Monica Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139525425995764883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-53475987676887484042012-02-07T00:15:00.000-08:002012-02-07T00:18:03.517-08:00

In typically fine form, today, Google celebrates the anniversary of the birth of storyteller supreme, Charles Dickens. Dickens, who would have been 200 today, was the author of A Christmas Carol (1843), Great Expectations (1860-1861), David Copperfield (1849-1850) and many others. Today’s celebrational Google Doodle features some of the better known characters from Dickens’ work, including

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-78122885763812625692012-02-02T01:15:00.000-08:002012-02-02T01:15:01.715-08:00

Whatever you’re expecting when you first pick up The Thirteen Hallows (Tor), lay it aside. This will never be the book you guessed it would be. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s best to go in with your eyes open.For one thing, the book is surprisingly violent. Again, that in itself might not be a dealbreaker, but it’s a good thing to know before you start to read. If you are the

Lincoln Chohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928697448708430161noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-11238708470851236012012-02-01T22:25:00.000-08:002012-02-01T22:25:00.254-08:00

Judith Krantz’s steamy, sexy 1970s fiction would seem like the perfect answer to the television success of AMC’s Mad Men. It seems ABC agrees and have greenlighted a miniseries adaptation of Krantz’s bestselling 1978 novel, Scruples.Natalie Portman, who will not appear in the series, will make her television production debut in the one hour drama, while Tony Krantz -- son of the author -- will

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-42102633402152428352012-02-01T16:30:00.000-08:002012-02-01T16:32:39.851-08:00

As Black History Month gets going, we can think of no better way to get into the spirit of things than with a gorgeous essay by poet Nikky Finney (Head Off and Split, Black Poets Lean South) at the Huffington Post:We are called angry Black women because we are not afraid of bare arms. We pay close attention to our arms, holding our children tight inside of them. We are called angry Black women

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-73853962036608630152012-01-30T16:56:00.000-08:002012-01-30T16:56:00.882-08:00

Are e-books a bubble? And, if the answer is yes, when is it going to burst? That’s what novelist turned technology naysayer Ewan Morrison asks in The Guardian today, preparing us for a brave new world where the whole e-book thing blows up in our faces:The internet is full of ironies. I, for one, could never have guessed that writing about the end of books would generate more income for me than

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-25215631993147610632012-01-25T09:05:00.000-08:002012-01-25T09:05:00.222-08:00

As I write this it seems likely that you’ve never heard of Kim Thúy, a writer with a gentle voice and a deep and compelling story. But you will.In Vietnamese, “Ru” means lullaby. In French it is a small stream. And for Ru (Random House Canada) both things are true. And more as well.The French language edition of Ru, published in 2009, won Canada’s Governor’s General Award, one of the highest

India Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12781184661158867132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-89284079225972677762012-01-23T10:28:00.000-08:002012-01-23T10:28:00.376-08:00

As any Harry Potter fan will tell you, Quidditch is just one of the wondrous things author J.K. Rowling devised for her magical books. But unlike many of those things, Quidditch, with its quaffles and snitches, has been brought to life. The Guardian brings us a glimpse of a match at Oxford:To onlookers it may have seemed outlandish and bizarre, but to these mostly teenage Oxford students it was

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-80242251290073446672012-01-23T09:00:00.000-08:002012-01-23T10:22:58.726-08:00

The Duke of Portland set of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America sold at auction at Christie’s in New York on Friday for $7.9 million. The Washington Times describes the books:The 3 1/2-foot-tall books feature hand-colored prints of all the species known to Audubon in early 19th-century North America. Audubon insisted on the book’s large format -- printed on the largest handmade sheets

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-16441905314713212752012-01-20T05:05:00.000-08:002012-01-20T12:25:06.813-08:00

The latest viral video craze is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase, “electronic books.”“The Joy of Books” celebrates “real” books in stop motion style and well over two million viewers have heeded the call and shared that joy. From The New York Daily News:There have been many eulogies penned and dirges played to mark the expected passing of the printed page. But even as the Kindle catches

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-55443482818161030912012-01-20T03:47:00.000-08:002012-01-20T03:47:01.342-08:00

The year before he died of prostrate cancer in 2004, Johnny Ramone appeared in 16th place on the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list in Rolling Stone and was listed on Time magazine’s 10 Greatest Electric-Guitar Players of all time. Eight years after his death, the autobiography of punk band The Ramones guitarist will be released. From The Wall Street Journal:Commando: The Autobiography of

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-59694852424323041192012-01-20T02:15:00.000-08:002012-01-20T02:15:00.178-08:00

When Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s beloved book Beloved was challenged in Michigan last week, The New York Daily News responded with what has to be one of the top newspaper headlines of all time. Ready?Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' is simplistic pornography, say two Michigan parents who don't appear to be very smartThat’s the headline. The piece itself doesn’t pull any punches, either:Okay, if

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-75743773458029538322012-01-20T01:30:00.000-08:002012-01-21T13:35:08.067-08:00

Amazing to see that J. Kingston Pierce’s Killer Covers blog turned three yesterday. As Pierce says, it’s gone pretty fast. But how to celebrate such a momentous occasion? Pierce writes: I went ’round and ’round on the most appropriate way to celebrate Killer Covers’ third birthday, and finally settled on the idea of showcasing three covers by three different illustrators I discovered during the

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-53364261628663214722012-01-20T00:05:00.000-08:002012-01-20T00:05:00.935-08:00

What happens when authors and the publishing establishment react badly to reader reviews on sites like Goodreads and Amazon? All hell breaks loose, according to the Guardian.

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-58735494608575052602012-01-19T17:45:00.000-08:002012-01-19T17:45:00.727-08:00

Southern fiction has its own smooth rhythms. You can feel this along with the smokey hues of the new South in the work of New York Times bestselling Sarah Addison Allen. Her most recent book, 2011’s The Peach Keeper (Bantam), is a memorable example of the best of the type of fiction that this author is becoming known for.Secrets long hidden come to light in the garden of a grand home built by one

Sienna Powershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00066864126359185592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-36203335557170302002012-01-18T00:05:00.000-08:002012-01-18T00:05:01.463-08:00

The ramifications of the proposed Internet Blacklist Legislation are numerous and potentially dire. The Electronic Frontier Foundation boils it down most succinctly:The Internet blacklist legislation -- known as PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House -- invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers Internet innovation. Urge your

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-22142830783265366552012-01-17T01:35:00.000-08:002012-01-17T10:02:06.667-08:00

Though he says it really well and has a dead cool name, it’s difficult for me to swallow very much author and essayist Garth Risk Hallberg posits in a recent New York Times piece. This is especially true after doing some thinking about all that was said and implied in a piece January ran last week on how reading impacts our neural pathways. From Risk Hallberg’s piece, “Why Write Novels at All?”

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-83377442082698198822012-01-16T14:15:00.000-08:002012-01-16T14:15:00.270-08:00

Hmmm… three words that might not go together under most circumstances.Canadian. Literature. Sex.But CanLit is Sexy, a new anonymous microblog, conjures up some silliness in the wake of great changes on the Canadian publishing scene. CanLit is Sexy says they are:The finest collection of CanLit pickup lines from the authors themselves. A misguided response to the end of McClelland & Stewart as an

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-31691211261500766192012-01-16T12:40:00.000-08:002012-01-16T12:40:01.096-08:00

If you’re looking for Pierce’s Picks, from now on, you’ll find it on the nearby Rap Sheet, edited by Pierce himself.While you’re at The Rap Sheet, you’ll see some very sad news: Reginald Hill, creator of the Yorkshire-based detective team of Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, died last Thursday at age 75.In a lovely tribute, Karen Anderson writes:The last three books in the Dalziel/Pascoe series

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-36016761913257205702012-01-10T05:05:00.000-08:002012-01-10T05:05:00.474-08:00

In The Winter Palace (Bantam) Polish-born author Eva Strachniak (Necessary Lies) tells the story of Russia’s Catherine the Great from the perspective of an almost-invisible Polish servant.Despite the fact that Catherine the Great is one of the most interesting -- and arguably controversial -- of Europe’s 18th century monarchs, I’ve never before encountered a work of fiction about her life before

Monica Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139525425995764883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-81039900644538950352012-01-10T00:05:00.000-08:002012-01-10T00:05:00.471-08:00

On Monday publisher Little, Brown announced that they will publish a book by pop icon Elton John later this year. Proceeds of the book, Love is the Cure: Ending the Global AIDS Epidemic, will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, an organization that has, over the last two decades, raised almost a quarter of a billion dollars towards fighting the disease.The Little, Brown announcement said that

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-27612764542714335562012-01-09T16:10:00.000-08:002012-01-09T16:10:16.074-08:00

Despite disappointing openings for the English language version of the screen version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Sony Pictures has said they’re going to go ahead with other film versions of the other books in Stieg Larsson’s trilogy.Like Dateline Hollywood, January wonders if Sony is now rethinking the wisdom of having opened Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as a Christmas film. The darkness

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-22718703422631463042012-01-09T09:05:00.000-08:002012-01-09T09:05:00.413-08:00

And for those who love, love, love their old school books, a bit of porn.“A photo blog collection of all the best bookshelf photos from around the world for people who *heart* bookshelves.”Nuff said: Bookshelf Porn is here.

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-68214004766436632942012-01-09T08:38:00.000-08:002012-01-09T08:38:00.715-08:00

Not long ago we were arguing for or against reading electronically. In an interesting piece for the Guardian, writer and editor Robert McCrum points out that the battle now is complete and, in some ways, there are no winners or losers: just a redistribution of priority.If the ebook is all about ease, and short attention spans, the ink and paper book must satisfy not just the thrill of reading,

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-8014147130128925672012-01-09T08:05:00.000-08:002012-01-09T08:05:00.893-08:00

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith:Former Moscow secret policeman Leo Demidov’s wife and two daughters travel to New York City in 1950 as part of a “peace tour,” only to be implicated in the killing of an African-American singer. Afterwards, Demidov -- denied the chance to investigate officially -- launches a years-long, international quest for truth ... and

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-19843673803008463742012-01-04T06:05:00.000-08:002012-01-04T06:05:00.366-08:00

The beginning and end of the year are always the busiest time at January Magazine. In that time, we produce several features that our readers have come to enjoy and expect. Because a lot of people take breaks from their regular schedule through the holidays, we thought we’d let you know what we’d been up to while you were looking in the other direction. Some of this stuff is just too special

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-59145737710913034492012-01-03T10:45:00.000-08:002012-01-17T00:28:09.111-08:00

We’ve been saying all along that it doesn’t make much difference if you read by traditional or electronic methods: it’s the reading itself that’s the thing. Turns out, we were right.According to a study done at Washington University, reading a book blazes new neural pathways. Our brains are actually physically changed by the experience of reading. From The Guardian:Psychologists from Washington

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-41201641885209281862012-01-03T08:15:00.000-08:002012-01-03T08:15:01.538-08:00

Joe Dunthorne’s 2008 debut, Submarine, was darkly funny, gently experimental and widely lauded. His sophomore effort, Wild Abandon (Random House) is not that book, though Dunthorne has brought some of his themes along for the ride. (One suspects we’ll be seeing them again and again.)Seventeen-year-old Kate and 11-year-old Albert have been raised on a commune in rural Wales. The impending break-up

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-50235509303006106572011-12-31T18:40:00.000-08:002012-01-01T03:21:44.544-08:00

It’s gotten to be a New Year’s ritual: taking a sad hour or so to reflect on the talented lights we've lost through the previous 12 months. With that reflection comes another: you can’t help but think about the stories that will never be told.In the month of January we were sad to share news of the death of the doyenne of American Mysteries, Ruth Cavin. An editor at Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-17089864734579501162011-12-31T15:10:00.000-08:002011-12-31T15:10:00.975-08:00

Speaking of crime, this week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses The Silver Stain by Paul Johnson:Half-Greek, half-Scots gumshoe Alex Mavros (The Golden Silence, 2004) gets involved with a film being made about the 1941 German invasion of Crete. When one of the movie’s consultants is found hanged, Mavros must determine whether the tragedy has to do with old animosities or a conspiracy involving drugs and

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-13652556263055203722011-12-31T10:55:00.000-08:002011-12-31T12:53:34.873-08:00

Near the end of each year, our sister publication, the crime fiction-focused Rap Sheet, looks back at the top covers of the year and gets its readers involved in choosing the very best one. Editor J. Kingston Pierce says: Come the end of every year, it’s now a tradition here at The Rap Sheet to look back over the preceding 12 months and choose our favorite crime novel fronts. We commenced this

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-37717003210208553922011-12-22T00:15:00.000-08:002011-12-22T14:08:50.646-08:00

After a year of reading, months of choosing, weeks of editing and days of final preparations, January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature is complete. This is our biggest end-of-year feature ever, with selections in eight categories: fiction, non-fiction, crime fiction (parts one and two), art & culture, cookbooks, books for kids, science fiction & fantasy and biography. You can read about

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-74064637323244248652011-12-21T22:15:00.000-08:002011-12-22T14:13:29.972-08:00

This is the fiction segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Cookbooks, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy, Best Crime Fiction (part I) and Best Crime Fiction (part II). 11/22/63 by Stephen King (Scribner) It’s no secret that Stephen King knows

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-10129184846240287852011-12-21T13:47:00.001-08:002011-12-26T09:43:42.805-08:00

This is the second crime fiction segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Cookbooks, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy and Best Crime Fiction (part I). The Gentlemen’s Hour by Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster) Although Winslow’s

J. Kingston Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17073921191624535912noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-19662958383076703572011-12-21T00:15:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:34:43.514-08:00

This is the non-fiction segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Cookbooks, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy, Best Crime Fiction (part I) and Best Crime Fiction (part II).30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans by Karl

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-41151241219369878592011-12-20T15:10:00.000-08:002011-12-30T05:12:00.603-08:00

This is the crime fiction (part I) segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Cookbooks, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy and Best Crime Fiction (part II). The Accident by Linwood Barclay (Bantam) Canadian author Barclay burst upon

J. Kingston Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17073921191624535912noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-59041361042496509962011-12-20T09:05:00.000-08:002011-12-20T09:05:00.953-08:00

Please, please, darling let us stop this. This artificial separation between us is painful, it is undignified, and it fools no one. In company, we sneer at each other and make those cold, cutting remarks. And why? You laugh at me for telling the same stories again and again. I call you boring and joyless. Is it wrong, my dear, that I hope the cruel things I say of you cut as deeply as the ones

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-31954228871014324022011-12-18T05:47:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:38:55.322-08:00

This is the biography segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Cookbooks, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy, Best Crime Fiction (part I) and Best Crime Fiction (part II).An Improvised Life: A Memoir by Alan Arkin (Da Capo)While Alan Arkin’s An

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-82461317398588377802011-12-17T21:15:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:41:33.482-08:00

This is the art & culture segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Biography, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Cookbooks, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy, Best Crime Fiction (part I) and Best Crime Fiction (part II).Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World by John Szwed (Viking)For a good

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-40750093298787204702011-12-17T10:08:00.000-08:002011-12-17T10:15:50.148-08:00

Tis the season of lists. Everyone -- including us -- is telling everyone about their favorite books of the year. But Flavorwire asks a question that is at once silly and salient: what do your choices say about you?It’s the end of the year, which means every media outlet and talkative friend has been regaling you with a fascinating list of their own personal favorite books of 2011. Now, we love

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-90240953024186165842011-12-17T00:05:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:42:22.722-08:00

This is the science fiction & fantasy segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Cookbooks, Best Crime Fiction (part I) and Best Crime Fiction (part II).All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen (Tor)Lev AC Rosen’s debut is smart,

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-55828269879277329532011-12-16T16:19:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:43:11.168-08:00

This is the cookbook segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography, Best Books for Children and Young Adults, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy, Best Crime Fiction (part I) and Best Crime Fiction (part II).Back to Baking: 200 Timeless Recipes to Bake, Share, and Enjoy by Anna Olson (

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-20869548802808762832011-12-16T06:05:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:44:08.532-08:00

This is the children’s book segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature. You can see other sections as follows: Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography, Best Cookbooks, Best Science Fiction/Fantasy, Best Crime Fiction (part I) and Best Crime Fiction (part II).A Sword in Her Hand by Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem and Pat van Beirs (Annick Press)A Sword in Her

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-86315892712596708982011-12-16T05:01:00.000-08:002011-12-16T05:01:00.669-08:00

Wondering is the whole e-book thing is going to catch on or have we just been going through some kind of phase? Wonder no more. Amazon has announced that their Kindle devices are flying “out of the warehouse in dizzying numbers.” From CNet:"For the third week in a row, customers are purchasing well over 1 million Kindle devices per week, and Kindle Fire remains the #1 bestselling, most gifted,

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-12519643509321659772011-12-16T02:29:00.000-08:002011-12-16T02:29:00.356-08:00

Author, journalist and bon vivant Christopher Hitchens died on Thursday at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The cause of death was pneumonia, a complication of the esophageal cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010, just after the debut of his memoir, Hitch-22.Vanity Fair, where Hitchens had been a contributing editor since 1992, offered up a beautiful, if brief, memoriam within a

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-19430008449915273782011-12-16T01:00:00.000-08:002011-12-16T01:00:00.414-08:00

Illustration Now 4 and Illustration Now: Portraits, both published by Taschen and edited by Julius Wiedermann, showcase some of the best and the brightest in contemporary illustration.Often as fascinating as the illustrations themselves is the variety of media with which they are produced. It’s interesting to note that 15 years ago -- perhaps even 10 -- it would not have been necessary to specify

David Middletonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10281181661341523981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-616005773391158802011-12-15T15:10:00.000-08:002011-12-15T19:41:12.969-08:00

At a time when the fate of both books and libraries seems to hang in the balance, the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center at the University of Nevada Reno has erected a most unconventional tree.Knowledge Center librarian Erin Fisher masterminded the nine-and-a-half foot treat using pre-1950 National Union Catalog books. “The rarely used reference books made an ideal book tree,” says the university, “

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-37355102386625094302011-12-15T08:19:00.000-08:002011-12-15T08:19:00.635-08:00

Here’s a new microblog that seems likely to get memed all over the place: Ryan Gosling Works in Publishing. “Why not?” the site asks, “maybe he could.”Well, hey girl: I’m thinking maybe he does not. This one has “meme book, please,” written all over it.

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-10502184482561786422011-12-14T03:23:00.000-08:002011-12-14T03:23:00.832-08:00

Best of compilations tend to make super gifts for people who you’re not sure what they have or need, but you know what they like. Because it’s the best, right? And in this case, the best of everything on topic, but it pretty digestible chunks. Who wouldn’t like that?The Best Food Writing 2011 (Da Capo) is the 11th edition that Holly Hughes has edited so, clearly, she knows this beat pretty well.

Aaron Blantonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-60680863571497716922011-12-14T01:36:00.000-08:002011-12-14T01:36:03.432-08:00

The Huffington Post has announced a book club with a difference to begin January 3rd, following up with a free event at St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York City on February 7th. So what’s different?Books are not separate from the rest of our lives - just as a song can provide the perfect soundtrack to a real-life experience, so the characters, ideas, dilemmas, behaviors we learn through our books

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-91115284825243073162011-12-14T00:35:00.000-08:002011-12-14T00:35:00.332-08:00

It wasn’t very long ago that people who love them despaired over the near-death of the short story. Writers kept writing them, but it seemed that -- for the most part -- readers had stopped reading. And then the e-book revolution happened and all of that changed. Writing for Good E Reader, teacher and YA author Mercy Pilkington writes:More than one traditional publishing house has decided to

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-24282809972400383422011-12-12T06:30:00.000-08:002011-12-12T06:30:01.276-08:00

You can’t eat a book. Can’t use it to pay rent or taxes. Physically, you don’t need books. By this definition, books become a luxury item. In leaner times, people buy fewer books for themselves, making them the ideal gift giving item: their appearance under the tree special and welcome. The January Magazine Holiday Gift Guide has been rolling out for several weeks now and -- knowing us

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-75140423108966003082011-12-12T00:05:00.000-08:002011-12-12T00:05:01.924-08:00

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses Dark Men by Derek Haas:Contract killer Columbus (The Silver Bear) has retired with his lover to an Italian village. But he keeps up his tracking skills, just in case -- which is how he discovers that someone’s following him. To free himself once and for all, Columbus must return to Chicago and face whoever has kidnapped his former fence.Looking for previous

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-14341090408362753882011-12-11T20:47:00.000-08:002011-12-11T20:47:00.223-08:00

With a release this close to Christmas, it can’t help but feel like a gift, especially since The Artist of Disappearance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) feels like a special treat from this deeply accomplished author. She gives us here not one story, but three in the form of a trio of perfectly executed novellas: “The Museum of Final Journeys,” “Translator Translated” and the title story, “The Artist

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-91969956740794084122011-12-10T06:05:00.000-08:002011-12-10T06:05:01.029-08:00

It’s the season of roasts. It really is. Between Thanksgiving, New Years and all the various holidays that fall around Christmas, unless you’re a vegetarian, you’ll probably be partaking in at least one or two roasts over the next month or so. If, along with partaking, you’re also planning on making you might find that Sunday Roasts (Chronicle) by Betty Rosbottom will help boost your repertoire

Aaron Blantonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-48291522201539618222011-12-10T00:05:00.000-08:002011-12-10T00:05:01.084-08:00

“It’s like a children’s book that you’d never let a child read,” Douglas Coupland told the Globe and Mail when talking about his most recent book. “We just wanted to do something really dark and nihilistic, really, with no social redeeming value.” His plan worked.It has, it seems, been that kind of year, what with the incredible success of Adam Mansbach’s Go the F*ck to Sleep, which has been on

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-89790332589376443122011-12-09T15:00:00.000-08:002011-12-09T15:00:01.772-08:00

When, for one reason or another, you read extensively in children’s literature, you develop an eye or, perhaps, an ear. There are stories that entertain or teach or merely amuse. A very few do all of those things at once, and they do them in such a way that you know you are encountering a story for the ages. Instant classic is the way that is quite often put, implying a story that will be read

Monica Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139525425995764883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-9841021799562112002011-12-09T08:28:00.000-08:002011-12-09T08:28:00.577-08:00

I may always remember 2011 as the year the world went vegan. I didn’t, but enough people did that January Magazine saw a record number of books roll in on that topic. According to our editor, January saw more vegan cookbooks than any other single topic.What does it all mean? Though I could go into a deep philosophical monologue on the the long-term impact of the 50 Mile Diet and other

Aaron Blantonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-67645885925869066192011-12-08T06:10:00.000-08:002011-12-08T06:10:00.655-08:00

I want Roadsworth to come to my city. I want him to spawn a movement and encourage others everywhere to take up his special brush. It seems that Montreal, or parts of it, anyway, are much more beautiful due to his slightly subversive art.I say “slightly” because it maybe isn’t as subversive as it once was, but even then it was pretty. In 2001, his art started appearing on the streets of Montreal.

Sienna Powershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00066864126359185592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-56121815411820819162011-12-08T00:05:00.000-08:002011-12-08T00:05:01.914-08:00

If the person on your list is a baseball fan, you have a lot of options. But if your ball fan is also a St. Louis fan, you maybe only have one: The Year of the St. Louis Cardinals (Fenn/M&S) is very like a high quality souvenir program: one that, of course, couldn’t have been produced on the day.The book includes the Cardinals’ rise to the top of the league, a recap of all of their post-season

Jones Atwaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14210794595635496172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-35440394094603317642011-12-07T15:00:00.000-08:002011-12-07T15:00:01.289-08:00

It’s true that no other President is as closely associated with the American West as Theodore Roosevelt. Born and educated in the east, Roosevelt first set foot out west when he was a young man and instantly fell in love with the open spaces and way oflife. These things would come to influence both him and his presidency greatly, his noted conservationism shaped as it was by his extensive

Aaron Blantonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-86822907942520823412011-12-07T13:00:00.000-08:002011-12-07T13:00:00.263-08:00

Someone who has a complete collection of Italian cookbooks will obviously require The Country Cooking of Italy (Chronicle) in order to make it more complete. A beautiful book meant to be cooked from and shared, coffee table-style, and with a pedigree that will make aficionados demand it.Author Colman Andrews is something of an American foodie blue blood. Andrews was a co-founder of Saveur

Monica Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139525425995764883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-42511085011969598322011-12-07T12:35:00.000-08:002011-12-07T12:35:00.399-08:00

Writer and linguist Noam Chomsky (Making the Future, How the World Works), was born in Philadelphia on this day in 1928. From Writer’s Almanac:He said, “We shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”January Magazine interviewed Chomsky in 2008. That interview is here.

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-49412541028557534842011-12-07T11:45:00.000-08:002011-12-07T11:45:00.283-08:00

Seventy years ago today, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Noted historian Stanley Weintraub remembers in Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 (Da Capo).That bombing set the stage for a holiday season like no other. Weintraub moodily chronicles 11 days in that fateful December, showing us aspects we’d never been given access to before: how the powers that be came together to

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-62140173030046957122011-12-07T09:05:00.000-08:002011-12-07T09:05:00.749-08:00

Jamie Fitzpatrick’s debut novel is, on the face of it a book about a early-middle-aged man who plays recreational hockey and who is dealing with a number of personal crises. Since I am none of those things, the book didn’t instantly shout “read me,” despite the fact that, like me, Fitzpatrick hails from Newfoundland.So the book sat with me for a while. Then recently, I was grading papers until

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-35278664857656180732011-12-06T06:05:00.000-08:002011-12-16T21:34:16.421-08:00

In the beginning, I took a lunch with Daniel Greenberg of the LevineGreenberg Literary Agency.For the future of print was without hope, and void; and darkness had fallen upon the face of the entire publishing industry.There is something pitch perfect about the tone and tenor of The Last Testament: A Memoir by God (Simon & Schuster). Something so frankly charming, as well as funny, it’s hard not

Jones Atwaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14210794595635496172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-70416179699115663072011-12-05T09:48:00.000-08:002011-12-05T09:48:00.498-08:00

Nobody does the Middle Ages better than the pseudonymous Margaret Frazer. Her 15th-century mystery series featuring Dame Frevisse (which began with 1992’s The Novice’s Tale) is an enchanting modern re-creation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.Her second, spin-off series, which focuses on Joliffe the Player, offers different challenges. The latest of those books, A Play of Heresy (Berkley),

Roberta Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930397103567892829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-53316079083968714982011-12-05T06:30:00.000-08:002011-12-06T00:01:39.343-08:00

Say the word “house” and everyone creates their own mental picture. A place, perhaps, of comfort. Shelter. Even safety. And those are fine things, maybe even good things. But what we come to understand in Philip Jodido’s book, Architecture Now! Houses: 2, (Taschen) is that “house” can mean so much more.Jodido brings us the idea -- not a new one, but still -- that “house” can be more than the sum

Aaron Blantonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-20594886459165230602011-12-05T04:30:00.000-08:002011-12-04T22:56:12.433-08:00

At a glance, the words “sinful” and “vegan” have no business showing up together in a sentence, never mind the title of a book. But Sinfully Vegan (Da Capo Longlife) puts a lie to all of that, filling a whole book with delicious and completely vegan desserts. Who would have thought that was even possible?Ironically named author Lois Dieterly says that she enthusiastically embraced a vegan

Monica Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139525425995764883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-46040802871941367072011-12-05T01:36:00.000-08:002011-12-05T01:36:00.487-08:00

With the entire print publishing industry under threat from electronic fronts, the most correct response might just be for the industry to create more beautiful books. In a lengthy and well-considered piece in the Guardian, Kathryn Hughes explores the idea of, not fewer books, but more beautiful ones:Publishers have started building their marketing strategies around form rather than content. The

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-34972610970153092112011-12-05T00:05:00.000-08:002011-12-05T00:05:01.504-08:00

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses The Boy Who Shoots Crows by Randall Silvis. Pierce writes:Silvis (Disquiet Heart, 2002) introduces us into the search for a Pennsylvania boy who went missing while hunting crows. Charlotte Dunleavy, a recent escapee from Manhattan, may have heard something useful to the investigation -- but her memory isn’t working properly. Could she be hiding her

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-824231190653064602011-12-04T09:05:00.000-08:002011-12-11T22:34:30.068-08:00

It’s difficult to imagine the child who wouldn’t be tickled by the slightly risque nature and spirited delivery of 50 Underwear Questions: A Bare-All History (Annick). What’s Under a Sari? What is a knickerbocker? What kind of underpants should a superhero wear? And maybe the most fun of all: what might future underwear look like?50 Underwear Questions is more than just whimsical questions and

India Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12781184661158867132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-19554574618875631762011-12-02T06:05:00.000-08:002011-12-02T06:05:01.338-08:00

It’s rare that a really good book be followed by an even better sequel, but that just what’s happened here. Melanie Dunea (Precious, My Country) follows up her wonderful 2007 book My Last Supper with My Last Supper: The Next Course (Rodale). And the next course really is terrific.Here’s the premise: photographer Dunea asks famous chefs to talk about their own last meal. What would it look like?

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-90186297826458692112011-12-02T03:05:00.000-08:002011-12-02T03:05:00.238-08:00

It’s encouraging to me as a human to see the large numbers of really good authors of young adult and children’s books getting a lot of attention and drawing ever-increasing armies of new readers. I’d be hard pressed this holiday to choose a single must-have book to buy in the place where a Twilight or a Harry Potter book used to go. Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books are contenders, of course.

Monica Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139525425995764883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-32235138768325026212011-12-02T00:05:00.000-08:002011-12-02T00:05:01.514-08:00

Though it covers a relatively small region, it does so with amazing depth. If you’re looking for a gift for someone from or in Western Canada who has a passion for beer, Beer Quest West (Touchwood) will answer all the questions… and then some.According to author Jon C. Stott, Canada’s two westernmost provinces are home to more than 70 microbreweries. Compare this with the ten breweries that

David Middletonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10281181661341523981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-85051233813030015312011-12-01T12:01:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:01:00.558-08:00

Though sports journalist Mike Brophy’s My First NHL Goal (McLelland & Stewart) is ostensibly about the goal that marked the beginning of 50 hockey player’s professional career, it’s actually about so much more. Most of this it due to Brophy who knows the game about as well as anyone can and who has, through his career, had access to the top players in the land. Well, in any land, and that’s

Jones Atwaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14210794595635496172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-34047690827143766712011-12-01T09:38:00.000-08:002011-12-01T09:38:01.011-08:00

Fans who have been waiting for a follow-up to Vernor Vinge’s stellar A Fire Upon the Deep have been waiting a long time. A long, long time. Certainly longer than any marketing savvy publicist would tell an author to make readers wait because, let’s face it: no matter the universe, 20 years is a long time.But, actually, it is only in our universe that 20 years have passed. There is only a single

Lincoln Chohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928697448708430161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-51992482118462952492011-12-01T08:28:00.000-08:002011-12-01T08:28:01.572-08:00

If you love sappy Christmas stories and/or later life romances, you probably don’t even need us to tell you about The Christmas Wedding (Little, Brown) by fiction factory James Patterson. You’re probably already there.Widowed Gabby wants her family together for Christmas, so plans a wedding for herself and her bridegroom. The hitch to their getting hitched? She’s keeping his identity a secret in

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-52215835605581358182011-11-30T05:47:00.000-08:002011-11-30T05:47:00.999-08:00

Okay: so it’s silly as anything, but still kind of fun. In an all out battle between good ol’ Sherlock and everyone’s favorite Miss Marple, who would kick whose keister? Undaunted by anything as tedious as reality -- or a definite lack thereof -- Andrew Losowsky, books editor at the Huffington Post, set about trying to find the answer:It began, as so many things, with an argument. One of those

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-64227497340460433652011-11-30T00:48:00.000-08:002011-11-30T00:48:00.265-08:00

“One person’s exotic is another person’s everyday.” That’s the basic premise behind Everyday Exotic (Whitecap) as well as the television show that spawned this new book.Host of the show and co-author of the book, Roger Mooking was born in Trinidad and Tobago, raised in Edmonton, Alberta and somehow the culinary traditions of both are seamlessly fused into the cuisine he coaches. Imagine for a

Aaron Blantonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-77931444240485826962011-11-29T12:05:00.000-08:002011-12-11T22:35:53.424-08:00

It’s true: the best of the season can bring out the worst in everyone. If the person you’re buying for is a candidate for The Misanthrope’s Guide to Life (Adams Media) you probably don’t need much prompting. We all know at least one of those “Bah! Humbug!” sorts. The only thing often missing for this sort of friend or relative is the perfect gift. And now? Here it is! From the book:The

Jones Atwaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14210794595635496172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-39202940051445973902011-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:002011-11-29T06:00:14.469-08:00

Fans of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series are unlikely to wait and ask questions before grabbing a copy of her latest, The Scottish Prisoner (Delacorte). And the end of November release date ensures that this meaty hardcover will be showing up in a lot of holiday packages.Fans who do rush out for this newest Gabladon will not be disappointed: the author serves up not only her usually engaging

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-62273036432532056582011-11-28T15:00:00.000-08:002011-11-28T15:14:22.151-08:00

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses Utu by Caryl Férey. Set in New Zealand, Utu follows Paul Osborne, who’s called back to the Auckland police force from a bender in Sydney to take over an investigation by Jack Fitzgerald, an ex-colleague who committed suicide. But probing Fitzgerald’s death will introduce Osborne into a mystery involving Maori discontents, revenge and political

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-36444862235329638502011-11-28T12:17:00.000-08:002011-11-28T12:29:00.386-08:00

From the land that brought you the 100 Mile Diet, Kristeva Dowling takes it all a step further, getting back to the land in a very determined way in order to control what gets to her table.For her it began with a labor strike and a resulting lack of produce at her grocer’s. “It was this revelation that made me begin to question the necessity for Canadians to have pineapples in January.” The road

India Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12781184661158867132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-16576156961661536492011-11-27T00:37:00.000-08:002011-11-27T11:57:49.979-08:00

In Catherine Austen’s new novel we spend a lot of time breaking out of dystopia. The story harkens back to the very best elements of Ira Levin’s 1975 novel (later made into a couple of astonishingly bad movies) Stepford Wives.At the center of the 21st century, select children of the well-behaved city of New Middletown line up and take their medicine. The treatment turns them into the

Lincoln Chohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928697448708430161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-23263329989206963862011-11-26T11:18:00.000-08:002011-11-26T13:17:55.179-08:00

Celebrated poet Ruth Stone died at home of natural causes in Ripton, Vermont, on November 19th. Born in June of 1915, Stone was 96 when she died. From The Huffington Post by way of AP:Widowed in her 40s and little known for years after, Ruth Stone became one of the country's most honored poets in her 80s and 90s, winning the National Book Award in 2002 for "In the Next Galaxy" and being named a

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-68850811130990969682011-11-25T05:47:00.000-08:002011-11-26T16:50:28.735-08:00

As I write this, it is the 48th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and I have just finished reading Stephen King’s new novel about a man who goes back in time to try to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from firing the three bullets that would change the world, 11/22/63 (Scribner). What a ride! When high school teacher Jake Epping is convinced by a dying friend to step into the past, he

Tony Buchsbaumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09254707449683889078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-27460353896585613302011-11-25T02:41:00.000-08:002011-11-25T02:41:00.234-08:00

Forty years after his death, the first novel by the author of On The Road was found by the writer’s brother-in-law.The Sea Is My Brother (Penguin Classics) is based on his Kerouac’s time as a merchant seaman. According to the BBC, the book features “correspondence with his best friend Sebastian Sampas and recalls his ‘life and experiences’ at sea, says the book’s editor Dawn Ward.”"This book is

January Magazinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644474227357066738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-80947780726037483232011-11-25T00:33:00.000-08:002011-11-25T00:33:01.081-08:00

There’s something charmingly nostalgic and convincingly high tech about artist, inventor and filmmaker Rufus Butler Seder’s Scanimation books. Take his interpretation of The Wizard of Oz (Workman) for instance. It is, in all ways, a perfect little package. A delight. Even before you open the book, the glittery red of Dorothy’s shoes glints at you from the cover. But then you do open the book,

Sienna Powershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00066864126359185592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-6379878516351461962011-11-24T13:30:00.000-08:002011-11-24T13:30:01.752-08:00

Here’s the scenario: you’ve been invited to a holiday dinner and it was requested you bring some type of dessert. You really would like to make a cake, but every time you think about all those bowls and all that mixing, you sit back down and start thinking about buying something rustic enough to pass off as your own. Then guilt sets in, and it all begins again.It was times like these that I

Monica Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139525425995764883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-63076267789341310422011-11-23T01:20:00.000-08:002011-11-23T01:20:00.951-08:00

It seems that there is a little less magic in the world today, since we got the news of the death of Anne McCaffrey.Best known for her award-winning and bestselling Pern series, McCaffrey has said that her best novel was 1960’s The Ship Who Sang.According to her publisher’s blog, McCaffrey, 85, died at her home in Ireland Monday “shortly after suffering a stroke.” Her health had been declining

Linda L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05868426000807302834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-91974784314704432422011-11-22T06:17:00.000-08:002011-11-22T06:17:00.540-08:00

“In the beginning, there were dragons: proud, fierce, and independent. Their scales were like gems, and all who gazed upon them despaired, for their beauty was great and terrible.”Inheritance (Knopf) is the fourth and final book in wunderkind Christopher Paolini’s heart-stoppingly good series. It finishes this deeply imaginative story in a satisfying and completely creative way.Looking back it

Lincoln Chohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928697448708430161noreply@blogger.com0