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What Do We Want? Freedom
Jedediah Purdy—who debunked irony in his attention-getting first book—now explores the conundrums of freedom in A Tolerable Anarchy.
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Children's Book Reviews: Week of 1/19/2009
Picture Books Same Same Marthe Jocelyn , illus. by Tom Slaughter. Tundra , $15.95 (24p) ISBN 978-0-88776-885-9 Jocelyn and Slaughter (previously paired for Eats) strikingly introduce the concept of classification. Slaughter's graphic cut-paper compositions command attention with their paint-box—bright colors.
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Love Among the Avatars
The Accord Keith Brooke . Solaris , $7.99 paper (416p) ISBN 978-1-84416-589-6 In this expansion of a 2007 short story of the same name, British writer Brooke explores the nature of love, self and reality in the Accord, a virtual reality populated by digital recordings of real people’s souls.
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Nonfiction Reviews
Living the Sweet Life in Paris: Adventures of an American Pastry Chef David Lebovitz . Broadway , $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7679-2888-5 The title of the fifth book from Lebovitz, celebrated pastry chef and Chez Panisse alum, is a bit of a misnomer: this feisty memoir-with-recipes is just as tart as it is sweet.
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Fiction Reviews
Into the Beautiful North Luis Alberto Urrea . Little, Brown , $24.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-02527-0 Nayeli, the Taqueria worker of Urrea's fine new novel (after The Hummingbird's Daughter), is a young woman in the poor but tight-knit coastal Mexican town of Tres Camarones who spends her days serving tacos and helping her feisty aunt Irma get elected as the town's first female mayor.
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NYCC Weathers Economic Storm
Now in its fourth year, New York Comic-Con, scheduled for February 6—8, stands as the second biggest comics/pop culture expo in the U.S. and the fourth largest event in New York City (following the International Auto Show, the International Orchid Show and the New York City Marathon). This year's Comic-Con brings together a high-powered mix of cartoonists, publishers, movie companies, vi...
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Scholastic Rolls Out Carman’s Multimedia Venture
Skeleton Creek -- conceived, written and produced by Patrick Carman, author of the Land of Elyon, Atherton and Elliot’s Park series -- is a new ghost mystery from Scholastic that plays out on the page and in online video footage.
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Metropolitan Books Publishes Waltz with Bashir—the Graphic Novel
Metropolitan Books will publish a full-color graphic novel adaptation of Israeli director Ari Folman’s much acclaimed animated documentary, Waltz with Bashir, in February.
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Grant Morrison, Batman and the Superhero Genre
For more than 20 Years, the Scotish comics writer Grant Morrison has been regarded as one of the most original and inventive writers in the comics medium.
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Antix Goes for the Laughs
What may have come to Francis Lombard and Shawn Walker in a heat-induced dream has evolved into a full-fledged comic company called Antix Press. Antix made their official debut in October at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco; with new titles chock full of comedic value. Whereas most new comics companies have been staying in the action adventure mode, Lombard and Walker identified a lack of humor comics on the market and decided to base their new company around that genre.
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Comics Briefly
NYCC Schedule Posted; Cosplay Across Japan Tour; Caroline Kennedy Comic; Jaffe, Feiffer, Pekar Onstage; NPR Reviews ‘Omega the Unknown’; Pekar Opera Staged; and Archie Origin Story
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Nonfiction Reviews
That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution Lars Schoultz . Univ. of North Carolina , $35 (768p) ISBN 978-0-8078-3260-8 In time for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, Schoultz, a University of North Carolina political science professor, offers an exhaustive study of the relationship between the U.
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A Priest Without a Pulpit: Barbara Brown Taylor
An Episcopal priest without a parish, Barbara Brown Taylor wrote about how that came to pass in Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith. The next part of her journey is the subject of An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith.
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Children's Book Reviews: Week of 1/12/2009
Picture Books My Brother Bert Ted Hughes , illus. by Tracey Campbell Pearson. Farrar, Straus & Giroux , $16.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-374-39982-5 Pearson provides a suitably sunny setting for this light verse by the late acclaimed British poet, about a boy, Bert, who can't say no to any exotic pet. Among those hidden in his bedroom are a gorilla, a lion, pangolins (a kind of anteater) and R...
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Natasha Wimmer on Translating Roberto Bolaño
Reviewing the late Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño's posthumous masterpiece 2666 in the New York Times Book Review this past November, Jonathan Lethem echoed much of the book press, noting, “[I]n the literary culture of the United States, Bolaño has become a talismanic figure seemingly overnight.
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Four Score and Seven New Books on Lincoln: A PW Reviews Roundup
With the coming bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (that’s February 12, 2009, for those counting), publishers are releasing even more new titles on the perennially popular Civil War president.
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Jeff & Jeff
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi Geoff Dyer . Pantheon , $24 (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-37737-1 Two 40-ish men seeking love and existential meaning are the protagonists of these highly imaginative twin novellas, written in sensuous, lyrical prose brimming with colorful detail. In the first, Jeff Atman is a burnt-out, self-loathing London hack journalist who travels to scorching, Bellini-soaked ...
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Fiction Reviews
Nobody Move Denis Johnson . Farrar, Straus & Giroux , $22 (192p) ISBN 978-0-374-22290-1 National Book Award—winner Johnson (Tree of Smoke) goes lean and mean in this slick noir, originally serialized in Playboy last summer. Jimmy Luntz, a chain-smoking, fast-talking addictive gambler, is in the hole several grand to underworld bad dude Juarez, and he knows his kneecaps have a date ...
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Safety Act Catches Publishers Off Guard
The children's book industry is currently dealing with a new and pressing challenge that is threatening publishers, bookstores, libraries and schools. It's not the economy or school spending or reading rates—it is a recent act of Congress, which has blindsided the industry with the implementation of stiff safety standards on all children's products, and whose application to books is vague.
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Industry Scrambling to Comply with Child Safety Act
A new government regulation that requires testing of all products aimed at children 12 and under is causing headaches for publishers, booksellers and manufacturers. Books, audiobooks and sidelines fall under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which is set to go into effect Feb. 10; industry organizations are attempting to get books excluded from the Act, even as they work to understand just what the rules could mean for all parties involved.
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