Garnering Some Attention

And speaking of J. Kingston Pierce, our man at The Rap Sheet does a great job at affectionately grilling James Garner, the former star of The Rockford Files, for an extensive interview that ran, in part, on Kirkus and in part on January’s sister publication.

There are two things that make Pierce’s interview with the star so special. One, Garner has publicly stated that he’d “rather dig a ditch

Pierce’s Pick: Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr.
No sooner has German homicide cop Bernie Gunther returned to a beleaguered Berlin in 1941, than he’s called away again -- this time to Prague, where a gathering of Nazi officials is taking place. Following a locked-room murder, it falls to Bernie to solve it, or maybe lose more than simply his good reputation in failing.Looking

The Greatest Indie Bookstores in the World

Though the pictures make it pretty, in many ways, it’s kind of a lame piece: it includes no thoughts or reasoning, or even what would have helped get these stores on the big list, but I do like the idea of celebrating the very best indie bookstores. In “America’s Greatest Independent Bookstores,” The Daily Beast includes little beyond great photos of 23 great stores.Mind you, a lot of the books

Non-Fiction: Context by Cory Doctorow

In his foreword to Cory Doctorow’s Context (Tachyon), publisher Tim O’Reilly calls Doctorow “one of the great context-setters of our generation, helping us all to understand the implications of the technology being unleashed around us.”This has basically been true about everything Doctorow has cared to share with us, including his sharp and worthwhile novels, beginning with his first book-length

Cookbooks: The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen by Laura B. Russell

At first glance The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen (Celestial Arts) seems too esoteric for words. But this book by the “Gluten Freedom” columnist for the Oregonian takes something esoteric and makes it delicious: not just for those battling gluten-related health issues, but for anyone. As author Russell says in her introduction: “Gluten free or not, I want everything I eat to be delicious.” The

Fiction: Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks

In a 2003 interview with January Magazine, Russell Banks explained why his characters manage to live and breathe as sharply as they do:Again, it goes back to: how does the writer view the universe? How do you view human beings? It's the case, I think, that no one is simply one thing or the other -- except for those few beings who are out of their minds, in a literal and ongoing way. But most

Biography: Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War by Hal Vaughan

From the beginning, I was entranced by the cover. Simple black sans serif type on a plain white background, and the whole is framed by a strong black box.Anyone who was ever at all familiar with the work of designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel would recognize the design: it is Chanel: elegant, simple, sophisticated. Here captured perfectly in a book cover by legendary designer and long-time Knopf art

New Today: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Fans of Tamora Pierce’s series featuring Provost Guard Bekka Cooper will meet the third book in the series, Mastiff (Random House) with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it seems a long time since the last installment, Bloodhound, was released in the first half of 2009. On the other, this is the end of what has been a terrific, ground-breaking series for Pierce, a prolific writer who, nonetheless,

Bathroom Reading: Are You Flushing Away Your Good Health?

Though people have likely been reading on the toilet as long as there have been books and bathrooms, virtually no scientific work has been done to determine if reading on the can is a good idea or if doing it helps flush away your health. Fortunately, The Guardian has some answers:It transpires that toilet readers spend more time on the loo and consider themselves less constipated than non-toilet

Pierce’s Pick: Bad Signs by R.J. Ellory

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses Bad Signs by R.J. Ellory.Seized as hostages by a fleeing psychopath, orphaned half-brothers Clarence and Elliott -- blind to the world outside their institution’s walls -- are suddenly swept up in a frantic getaway across America’s Southwest. That escape leaves a trail of violence and threatens to consume the siblings in their kidnapper’s frightening vision

Children’s Books Move Successfully into the Real World

With Pottermore, the new online community based on the world of Harry Potter, preparing to go into beta, The Guardian looks at how children’s books can often lend themselves to leaching into the real world:Pottermore may be the most ambitious attempt to extend the legacy of a children's book, but it's just the logical technological extension of a process that began when print ceased to be the

Americans Might Not “Get” Film Version of TinTin

As Stephen Spielberg’s long-awaited 3-D version of the Belgian comic book classic opens in the UK, some critics are not sure how well the 80-year-old comic character will play in the United States when the film arrives in theaters in time for the holidays.“American audiences may find the film a bit difficult,” TinTin expert Michael Farr told the BBC, “Some have known him and loved him, like

New Next Week: The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

Those who were enchanted by Ami McKay’s 2006 debut, The Birth House, have been anxiously awaiting her sophomore effort. It feels like it’s been a long time coming. And concerned as they are with women and medicine in a different era, The Virgin Cure (Knopf Canada) would seem to feature related themes, in many ways the two books couldn’t be more different, though McKay has opted for a similar

Which are Better: E-Books or the Printed Kind?

The question is both complicated and astonishingly simple. We maintain that it’s also deeply personal. Which might be true for me may not hold true for you. Mashable doesn’t agree:Ever wonder which method of reading is better for you -- electronic screen or printed text?The answer: There is no difference.Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification. For one thing, it’s not the same. For another,

The Princess and the Shock Therapy

Writer, actor and eternal princess Carrie Fisher was born on this day in 1956.Though she will always be Star Wars’ Princess Leia to many of us, Fisher was born a Hollywood princess. The daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, some would say she was born royal. But Writer’s Almanac brings us Fisher the writer:“By the time I was 13, maybe even younger, I would write to calm myself down,”

Increased Transparency for Authors

When it comes to their sales figures, it’s been a tradition to treat authors like mushrooms and keep them in the dark. But it looks as though all of that is about to change. From the New York Times:Three major publishers said on Wednesday that they would allow their authors to access book sales data directly online, a move that appeared to challenge Amazon and its continued efforts to woo authors

Young Adult: Angel Arias: The Night Creatures Book 2 by Marianne De Pierres

In Burn Bright, Retra, a girl from the Puritan-like Seal community in Grave, followed her runaway brother to the island of Ixion. On Ixion, where teenagers party throughout the night (there is no day) she discovered some terrifying truths about what happened to those teens once they got too old for Ixion. But Retra, now named Naif, was a lot stronger than she had thought. She has fought for her

Scorned National Book Award Hopeful Felt “Gutted”

In a Vanity Fair exclusive with Brett Berk, scorned National Book Award hopeful, Lauren Myracle said she felt “gutted and ashamed” when she heard she was nominated, then un-nominated, then nominated again, only to have it all taken away. “The novel in question,” writes Berk, “Shine (Abrams, 2011), concerns a violent hate crime against a small-town gay youth, the ensuing cover-up by local

Biography: Recipes for Life: My Memories by Linda Evans

I hadn’t thought about Linda Evans in a long time. Maybe a lot of people haven’t. According to IMdB, aside from a couple of forgettable television movies in the mid-to-late 1990s, she really hasn’t done very much in a while. Which gets you to thinking: maybe there’s more to life than what you read on IMdB.The record gets set entirely straight in Recipes for Life: My Memories (Vanguard) a

Biography: One With the Sea by Richard Daniel O’Leary

In One With the Sea (Jetty House), much is made of author Richard Daniel O’Leary’s affinity and passion for the sea. But it’s more than that that pushes the young man back to become head of a large shipping and cruise company. What started as a one-man operation grows to be a national company. By the time O’Leary retired in 2005 after 34 years as head of Cruise International, he was responsible

Non-Fiction: The Joy of the Quickie: More Than 150 Ways to Do It Now! by Kate Stevens

“In the world of sex, the ‘quickie’ is like a fun-size candy bar you pop into your mouth for an instant burst of feel-good satisfaction.” So we are instructed in the introduction to The Joy of the Quickie (Adams Media) by Kate Stevens who wrote the book and thus oughta know.But it’s a whole book, right? So defining the quickie is not enough. She also has to tell us how to do it and, for a lot of

Bookies’ Favorite Wins International Prize

Julian Barnes, the bookmakers’ favorite, has been named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape). Barnes has been shortlisted for the award three previous times -- for Arthur and George (2005), England, England (1998) and Flaubert's Parrot (1984). This is his first win.When Barnes’ place on the Man Booker shortlist was announced, judge Gaby

A Holiday Gift for the One Percent

When it comes to gift-giving, we’re all really searching for the very same thing. For each of us, it might come in a different package, but we have a single goal in mind. We want the gift that will make the recipient happy. Full stop. The right present. The one of a kind gift.Fortunately for one lucky person -- no doubt, someone in the one per cent -- the buyers of Neiman Marcus have put their (

SF/F: American Apocalypse by Nova

An Internet success story when it was self-published, now in an edited and redesigned edition from Ulysses Press, this newly published edition of American Apocalypse: The Collapse Begins makes dystopia a little more stylish.One of the things I find difficult to understand about the book is its success. After all, in many ways, it’s hitting a little too close to home. Like any good

Young Adult: The Witch Hunter Chronicles: Army Of The Undead by Stewart Daly

The year is 1666. The hero: Jakob, a teenage member of the Hexenjager, a German military witch and demon hunter organization. Jakob has been a member for only about a month when, one night in a cemetery, investigating something fishy involving exhumed bodies, he learns something the Witch Hunters weren’t expecting. Something a lot nastier than a bunch of warlocks or minor demons. Try

Pierce’s Pick: Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson.“Disgraced knight-turned-sleuth Crispin Guest takes on a job for the Archbishop of Canterbury: figure out who’s behind threats to the displayed bones of martyr Thomas à Becket. But he’s distracted from that task by the arrival of an old acquaintance, poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who’s been accused of murdering a visiting pilgrim.”

When Books Turn Into Pumpkins

The last couple of years, it seems like everyone keeps talking about the death of the book. What no one warned us about, though: how a book might turn into a pumpkin.Seriously, though: there’s a part of me that is appalled at this desecration. And another part can’t help but admire the innovation.Long story short, someone else might want to use this information to turn some of their unwanted

“All Art is Useless”

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on this day in 1854. He is well known for his brilliance, a life lived large, his wonderful plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest, and for a single novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, which was published in 1890.The Writer’s Almanac remembers Wilde today, reminding us that in the preface to The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Wilde wrote:“All art is quite

Ian Rankin on Battling the Blank Page

As The Impossible Dead, Ian Rankin’s 31st novel is about to be released, the author who put the Tartan in Noir talks to The Independent about process, production and the deadly fear of staring at the blank page.“No matter how many awards you’ve won or how many sales you’ve got, come the next book it’s still a blank sheet of paper and you’re still panicking like hell that you’ve got nothing new to

When Dating Advice Goes Bad

Maybe if you’re looking for dating advice from Steve Harvey, Jwoww or Neil “On talking to women: It’s not lying, it’s flirting” Strauss, you’re just asking for it, but The Huffington Post rounds them up anyway.Which books have the worst dating advice ev-ah? You can check the brief, witty piece here.

Super Green Edition of Atwood’s New Book Available Now

Margaret Atwood, an author well known to be deeply concerned about the environment, will see a special edition of her newest book, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (McClelland & Stewart) printed on special super environmentally friendly paper.The paper, created by Vancouver-based Canopy, is made using with a special blend of wheat straw, flax straw, and recycled paper. From Quill &

New Yesterday: Crafting With Cat Hair by Kaori Tsutaya

We all have our limits. We all have our lines. Thing is, you’re never sure where yours will be drawn until you hit it. When we saw Crafting With Cat Hair (Quirk), we knew we’d hit ours.Are your favorite sweaters covered with cat hair? Do you love to make quirky and one-of-a-kind crafting projects? If so, theCrafting With Cat Hairn it’s time to throw away your lint roller and curl up with your

Pierce’s Pick: The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin

This week, J. Kingston Pierce chooses The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin.“Detective Inspector Malcolm Fox and his Internal Affairs investigators are back (after The Complaints, 2009), this time looking into misconduct charges against a fellow policeman. But that simple case soon adds dimensions and dangers, connecting to a vicious murder and to terrorist attacks by Scottish separatists in the mid-

Publishing Industry Ready for Reboot as Frankfurt Gets Underway

Publishing is facing a revolution, author Mitch Joel told a rapt audience at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which opened today. Joel, a digital marketing expert and the author of Six Pixels of Separation (Grand Central), told his audience that the industry is ready for a reboot. From Publishers Weekly:Consumers in today’s networked world are moving faster than marketers, Joel noted, and their

Eugenides’ Page Six Plot

Jeffrey Eugenides’ latest novel, The Marriage Plot, will be published early next week. Now normally, that would have me thinking about the details of plot and the delicious treat the book is likely to provide: an unlikely ivory tower romance that Kirkus called “A stunning novel -- erudite, compassionate and penetrating in its analysis of love relationships” and Booklist said it was an “

A Different Animal for Kalla

Today in “The Afterword,” the National Post’s book section, Adam Gopnik prepares to deliver the Massey Lectures; Philip Marchand looks at Human Happiness, by Brian Fawcett and several other reviews, including January Magazine editor Linda L. Richards’ look at The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla:When approaching Kalla’s writing, it’s important to remember he was an emergency-room physician

Swedish Poet Wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Tomas Tranströmer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature yesterday, recognition that former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove told the Washington Post was “long overdue” the 80-year-old Swede.In a press release, the Swedish Academy, who awards the prize, said that Tranströmer, who is widely considered to be one of Sweden’s most important writers, was recognized “because, through his condensed,

Passages: Steve Jobs at 56

His contributions were significant, his vision clear, Apple Computers co-founder Steve Jobs passed away yesterday after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56.This quote, from a commencement speech Jobs gave at Stanford University in 2005, gives us a tiny glimpse of the man credited with some of the 21st century’s most important inventions thus far.Remembering that I'll be dead soon

Spelling for a Cause

Here’s a fun event: on October 24th in the Highline Ballroom of the Standard Hotel in New York City, Nancy Franklin and Francine Prose “return to defend the coveted aluminum foil crown against a swarm of usurping spellers.” That’s right: a spelling bee for a good cause. What could be more fun?

The Place to Bee starts with canapes and cocktails and a silent auction at seven pm, followed by the

Crime Fiction: Following Polly by Karen Bergreen

I know it sounds odd to call a book about a stalker “charming,” but that remains the best word to describe Following Polly (St. Martin’s Griffin), the debut mystery by lawyer-turned-comedian Karen Bergreen.

Usually stories about stalkers are too creepy for me, not the sort of thing I want on my bedside table. But this tale of Alice Teakle, a shy and rather forgettable woman who loses her

Art & Culture: Learn World Calligraphy by Margaret Shepherd

If you’ve ever thought you’d like to learn -- or learn more about -- calligraphy this is your book and Margaret Shepherd is your perfect guide. The author of 14 books on the topic, she is also the person responsible for the classic in the field, Learn Calligraphy. Shepherd is the source on this topic. As a result, CBS Sunday Morning, Oprah Magazine, Vogue and many others have interviewed her on

Fiction: The Price of Escape by David Unger

It seems that just about everyone who has read or reviewed The Price of Escape (Akashic) has referenced Franz Kafka or Joseph Conrad. Or both. You don’t have to be a literary genius to understand that’s not necessarily a good thing. Both of those writers were brilliant, sure. And both of them touched a lot of people with their prose. But there’s some crazy dark shit that goes on in both of their

Discworld Author Prepares for Battle

“Movies are a sore point,” noted fantasy author told me in an interview in 2002. “There’s always things in development heck.”Nearly a decade later, Practchett’s “development heck” seemed to have dropped to a whole new level when the author, who is famously battling early onset Alzheimer’s disease, prepares for a very different battle. From The Telegraph:The 63-year-old novelist is suing Paul