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Monday Interview: Azar Nafisi on Things I’ve Been Silent About
Azar Nafisi is the daughter of Ahmad Nafisi, a former mayor of Tehran, and Nezhat Nafisi, who was one of the first women to be elected to the Iranian parliament under the Shah. She left Iran in 1997 and in 2003, she wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, (Random House) which has sold more than 1.5 million copies. Her new memoir is Things I’ve Been Silent About (Random House, $27; 978-1-4000-6361-1).
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An Antarctic Chiller
Robert Masello's Blood and Ice (Reviews, Nov. 10) blends Victorian-era romance, an Antarctic adventure set in the present-day and a science-based horror story. What audience are you hoping to reach with Blood and Ice? I hope it will appeal to people who read authors as diverse as Anne Rice, James Rollins, and Preston and Child.
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Passing Strange
In Passing Strange (Reviews, Dec. 1), Sandweiss uncovers the double life of Clarence King, the renowned geologist who mapped the American West—and crossed color lines, passing as a black Pullman porter, James Todd, to marry Ada Copeland, a black nursemaid. How did you come across this story? I read Thurman Wilkins's spectacular biography of Clarence King in graduate school.
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Q & A with Mo Willems
Bookshelf spoke with Mo Willems about his new picture book, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed (Disney-Hyperion, Jan.).
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The Monday Interview: Meryl Gordon
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Journey of the Heart: Stephen Lovely
In Irreplaceable, Stephen Lovely maps the web of connections made after a heart transplant.
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She Loves Paris
Surely, the author of nine mysteries set in nine different neighborhoods of Paris must reside in Paris. No, Cara Black lives in San Francisco—but she does have an affinity for cafes. We meet at Bernie's, on 24th Street (where Black's last novel, Murder in the Rue de Paradis, is prominently displayed near the cash register), to talk about the next installment in her increasingly popular se...
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Q& A with Tony Abbott
Since 1994, Connecticut author Tony Abbott has published more than 70 books for young readers. These include standalone hardcover novels Kringle, Firegirl and The Postcard, as well as a handful of paperback series, among them The Secrets of Droon, which has sold more than 10 million copies. His new paperback series with Scholastic, The Haunting of Derek Stone, debuts with City of the Dead.
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The Ballot or the Bullet
Collier (The Bottom Billion) surveys the causes and costs of political violence—and etches out a path to peace in Wars, Guns, and Votes.
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Chinese Gothic
Yiyun Li follows a much-lauded story collection with The Vagrants, a gothic tale of corruption, murder and political paranoia in 1979 China.
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The Dementia Spiral
In Welcome to the Departure Lounge, Meg Federico tells the alternately hilarious and heartfelt story of caring for her 80-year-old mother, suffering from dementia.
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Nothing to Lament About
Ken Scholes moves with a big man's grace. He's an unassuming fellow hailing from the deeply wooded shadows of Mt. Rainier in Washington State on the verge of one of the strongest literary debuts in the recent history of fantasy and science fiction with his novel, Lamentation, coming out from Tor Books in February 2009.
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The 'Clues' Keep On Coming
Scholastic’s multimedia The 39 Clues series continued to grow this week, with the second book, One False Note by Gordon Korman, going on sale in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The first book was The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan. One million copies of that title are now in print worldwide, along with an additional 500,000 trading card packs. One False Note landed with a 500,000-copy first printing.
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Q & A with Jonathan Stroud
Jonathan Stroud burst on the YA scene back in 2003 with The Amulet of Samarkand, the first book in his bestselling Bartimaeus Trilogy. Disney-Hyperion will publish Heroes of the Valley, Stroud’s first novel since the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Children's Bookshelf spoke to Stroud from his home in England.
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The Golden Age: Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot
Renowned sociologist and MacArthur winner, Lawrence-Lightfoot documents the rich possibilities for intellectual growth and personal transformation between the ages of 50 and 75 in The Third Chapter.
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John Freeman
In the past few years, space for book reviews has been steadily shrinking, leading some in the industry to worry that the age of the professional book critic could be at an end. But John Freeman, former president of the National Book Critics Circle and ambitiously prolific reviewer, has managed to keep himself busy by writing for about 200 publication in the U.S. and abroad.
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Across Continents
After two searing memoirs, Abraham Verghese writes Cutting for Stone, an epic novel following twin brothers born to a South Indian nun in Ethiopia who grow up to become doctors.
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Yarnspinner: Jesse Ball
Jesse Ball's second novel, The Way Through Doors, comprises a series of stories within stories told by a municipal inspector who has to keep the woman he loves awake all night so she doesn't slip into a coma. Why are you so taken with characters who have odd occupations—a municipal inspector, a guess artist, someone whose job it is to deliver messages on a tray? In the U.
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Monday Interview: Ellen Heltzel
An interview with Ellen Heltzel, co-author with Margo Hammond of Between the Covers: The Book Babes’ Guide to a Woman’s Reading Pleasures, which was just published by Da Capo.
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Walking into the Dark Forest
Jan Burke, author of the Irene Kelly suspense series (Kidnapped, etc.), ventures into paranormal territory for the first time in The Messenger.



