A 21st-century Spy by Oline H. Cogdill - 01/05/2009
After five crime novels set in a fictional Eastern European country during the Cold War, Olen Steinhauer examines the toll working for the CIA takes on one agent in a contemporary spy thriller, The Tourist (Reviews, Dec. 15). What drew you to the spy thriller? John le Carré. It wasn't until I picked up The Spy Who Came In from the Cold that it became clear how spy fiction can encompass all...
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Web Exclusive Reviews: Week of 1/05/2009 01/05/2009
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to a great history of groundbreaking children's edutainment public television show Seseme Street? We can, and will, on the Web this week. Plus more of America's popular favorites: a memoir from Michael Phelps, a history of progressive U.S. politics, a cultural analysis of the Ed Sullivan Show, Jimmy Carter's latest, sex, red meat, Southern belles and Janet Evanovich.
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The Roots of War 01/05/2009
Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East Rashid Khalidi . Beacon , $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8070-0310-7 Khalidi (Resurrecting Empire) provides a compelling history of modern conflict in the Middle East, arguing that current conflicts are by-products of the cold war and the policies, strategies and priorities of the United States and the Soviet Union.
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Nonfiction Reviews 01/05/2009
Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontline of Medical Mysteries Lisa Sanders, M.D. Broadway , $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-7679-2246-3 In her first book, internist and New York Times columnist Sanders discusses how doctors deal with diagnostic dilemmas. Unlike Berton Roueché in his books of medical puzzles, Sanders not only collects difficult cases, she reflects on what each means for both p...
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Children's Book Reviews 01/05/2009
Picture Books Wombat Walkabout Carol Diggory Shields , illus. by Sophie Blackall. Dutton , $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-525-47865-2 A read-aloud with an Aussie accent, this bouncy rhyming tale of wandering wombats delivers age-appropriate suspense as well as a countdown. Six roly-poly brown wombats stroll, single file, in a dusty desert: “They didn’t see the dingo with the hungry eye,...
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Fiction Reviews 01/05/2009
The Bellini Madonna Elizabeth Lowry . Farrar, Straus & Giroux , $25 (352p) ISBN 978-0-374-11038-3 In Lowry’s wildly imaginative debut, Irish-born art historian Thomas Lynch is a “disappointed pilgrim scholar” with a brutish obsession for the “perversely vital” aesthetic of religious art.
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Audio Reviews 12/22/2008
Fiction Moonraker Ian Fleming , read by Simon Vance. Blackstone Audio , unabridged, six CDs, 7 hrs., $19.95 ISBN 978-1-4332-5854-1 One of Ian Fleming’s most notable Bond novels, and one of the worst film adaptations of the series, the story of Sir Hugo Drax and his apocalyptic Moonraker missile program is revisited in this spirited reading by Simon Vance.
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Beyond Her Book Barbara Vey, Contributing Editor, Publishers Weekly November 18, 2008 WW Ladies Book Club Blurbs
Yahoo now has a section with events in your city, so I was checking out the happening... More
August 8, 2007 From Dahl to Dahl
My audiobook listening time is currently being consumed by Tracy Kidder's wholly... More
