Galley Talk: Black Out 05/05/2008
I am a big fan of Lisa Unger's work—I chose Beautiful Lies as my favorite paperback of 2006. When I received Black Out [Shaye Areheart, May 27] I admit that I was a bit disappointed that it was billed as a “stand-alone.” But as soon as I started reading, I was hooked by the story told in a strong female voice, and I couldn't wait to see what twists and turns lay ahead.
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The Importance of Being God by Adam P. Knave - 05/05/2008
Though writers are known for their egos, few have come out and literally declared themselves God. New Wave fantasist and poet Thomas M. Disch does just that in The Word of God or, Holy Writ Rewritten (Reviews, May 5). Why declare yourself God and why now? God is eternal and eternally relevant. One of the wonderful things about being God is you can say such nonsense and it's all true.
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The Spy Thriller Rules by Paul Goat Allen - 05/05/2008
Central Europe provides the locale for Rules of Deception (p. 43), California novelist Christopher Reich's new spy novel. You were born in Tokyo and have lived in Switzerland. In what way do you think your experiences abroad have affected your writing? I've always loved the “buzz” away from home, a stranger in a foreign land.
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On the Train Again 05/05/2008
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: 28,000 Miles in Search of the Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux . Houghton Mifflin , $28 (464p) ISBN 978-0-618-41887-9 Acclaimed travel writer and novelist Theroux hasn’t lost his affection for trains, but his view of the scenery outside has darkened in his latest odyssey.
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 5/5/2008 05/05/2008
This week: trendspotting and bullsh*tting, novel- and biography-writing, napping and dieting, a personal tour of the Congo and a vision for democracy in Iran. Plus: an overweight narcissist sheds the pounds, a Kyoto girl trains to be a geisha, and three historians look at the sex-obsessed weekly newspapers of mid-19th century New York.
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Were We Right?: Augusten Burroughs’s A Wolf at the Table 05/02/2008 Running with Scissors author Augusten Burroughs centers his newest foray into his troubled childhood, A Wolf at the Table, on his relationship (or lack thereof) with his cruel and neglectful father. Burroughs’s fourth memoir is receiving a scattering of superlatives and jeers, with PW finding “enormous pleasure” in the book.
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Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 5/5/2008 05/05/2008
Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children Phillip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff . Random , $26 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6430-4 The authors of this unsettling indictment of American industrial mendacity detail the impact of the “trillions of tons” of largely unregulated toxic pollutants that have been poured into the environment after WWII when synthetic chemical compound...
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