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July 23, 2008 4:51:20 PM CDT

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Stories related to: book reviews

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17 Stories

  • July 2008

    • Wife Shouldn't Worry Laura Bush: Dowd

      newser  |  New York Times  |  Jul 9, 08 1:11 PM CDT

      Wife Shouldn't Worry Laura Bush: Dowd

      Words like "smear" and "gossip" have flown around American Wife , the novel probing the secret life of Laura Bush, but the book itself is pretty harmless, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times . Kings and queens have always inspired art, Dowd notes, and Wife isn’t sensationalist—it’s a well-researched attempt to get inside a guarded but intriguing figure. More »

      Tags

      White House  • sex  • literature  • first lady  • Laura Bush  • book reviews  • Curtis Sittenfeld

    • Evangelicals' Sex Talk Has Hidden Agenda

      newser  |  Salon  |  Jul 8, 08 7:50 PM CDT

      Evangelicals' Sex Talk Has Hidden Agenda

      Sex is no longer taboo for the religious right—but the evangelical sexual revolution is no liberation movement, historian Dagmar Herzog argues in her new book, Sex in Crisis . Instead, Herzog asserts that “evangelicals, over the last couple of decades, have beaten liberals at their own game by adapting liberal rhetoric for conservative ends," writes Louis Bayard in Salon . He thinks, however, that Herzog has overstated the case a bit. More »

      Tags

      homosexuality  • evangelicals  • religious right  • book reviews  • sex education

  • June 2008

    • Nixonland Gets 'Excellent' Prez Utterly Wrong

      newser  |  New York Sun  |  Jun 19, 08 4:46 PM CDT

      Nixonland Gets 'Excellent' Prez Utterly Wrong

      The biography Nixonland is a hatchet job on an “excellent president,” media mogul Conrad Black (from behind bars) writes in the New York Sun , picking apart author Rick Perlstein’s slights—and reminding of the profound accomplishments of the 37th president. Beyond crediting Nixon with coarsening the political discourse permanently, Perlstein revels in his “manic, corrupt, rat cunning,” plus, Black notes, “cynicism, opportunism and chicanery.” More »

      Tags

      Conrad Black  • Richard Nixon  • book reviews  • biography  • EPA  • welfare  • race riot

    • Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'

      newser  |  New York Times  |  Jun 13, 08 4:25 PM CDT

      Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'

      The Story of Edgar Sawtelle , the debut novel from former software developer David Wroblewski, is “a great, big, mesmerizing read, audaciously envisioned as classic Americana," Janet Maslin raves in the New York Times . "Pick up this book and expect to feel very, very reluctant to put it down," she says of a coming-of-age story involving a deaf boy and the dogs his family breeds. More »

      Tags

      book  • dog  • book reviews  • fiction  • great books

    • Top 10 Summer Cookbooks

      newser  |  NPR  |  Jun 5, 08 11:44 AM CDT

      Top 10 Summer Cookbooks

      Summer cooking should combine those elements we love most about the season: fresh fruits and vegetables, bright colors, arresting aromas, and the great outdoors. So NPR selected the 10 best cookbooks for jumping out of the frying pan and into the garden: Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients : Organic creations to complement eight distinct seasons. More »

      Tags

      list  • book  • summer  • book reviews  • cooking  • fruits and vegetables  • cookbooks

  • May 2008
  • April 2008

    • Cracking the Steve Jobs Code

      newser  |  USA Today  |  Apr 21, 08 6:39 AM CDT

      Cracking the Steve Jobs Code

      Though it’s near impossible to get an interview with Steve Jobs, author Leander Kahney’s book Inside Steve’s Brain gives a “fresh, noble perspective” on the Apple icon’s impenetrable mind, Jon Swartz writes in USA Today . Like most who try, Kahney couldn’t score facetime, but his book illustrates the opposing traits that make his subject—equal parts Disney and Barnum—who he is. More »

      Tags

      Apple  • book  • iPod  • Steve Jobs  • book reviews  • biography  • Pixar

    • Politicians: They're All Crazy

      newser  |  Daily Telegraph (UK)  |  Apr 15, 08 3:56 PM CDT

      Politicians: They're All Crazy

      It’s no wonder George W. Bush and Tony Blair messed up in Iraq: They were crazy. At least that’s ex-British politician David Owen’s belief. In his new book, In Sickness and in Power , the ex-doctor explores the health of leaders throughout time. Bush and Blair were afflicted with “Hubris Syndrome,” a medical condition Owen invented to describe the power-mad. More »

      Tags

      George W. Bush  • book  • Tony Blair  • John F. Kennedy  • mental illness  • book reviews  • leadership

    • How Osama Rejected His Family's Values

      newser  |  New York Times  |  Apr 1, 08 1:20 PM CDT

      How Osama Rejected His Family's Values

      Osama is the most famous of the bin Ladens, but he’s also the clan's black sheep. In his new book, The bin Ladens , Steve Coll explores the sprawling family, which is so different from its most famous scion that Osama’s war takes on a Freudian dimension. The book "possesses the novelistic energy of a rags-to-riches family epic," Michiko Kakutani raves in today's Times.  More »

      Tags

      Saudi Arabia  • Osama bin Laden  • book reviews  • international relations

  • February 2008
  • December 2007

    • The Best Unsung Books of 2007

      newser  |  NPR  |  Dec 30, 07 11:07 AM CST

      The Best Unsung Books of 2007

      Looking for a read off the beaten path? NPR asks two literary bloggers—Laura Miller of Salon and Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation—for the best works, fictional or factual, that were overlooked by mainstream book-review sections in 2007. The Farther Shore, by Matthew Eck: "A new kind of military novel" Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille , by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop: The last work of the legendary Argentine experimental novelist More »

      Tags

      list  • book  • book reviews

    • Book Lovers Make Plea for Better Reviews

      newser  |  New Republic  |  Dec 9, 07 4:51 AM CST

      Book Lovers Make Plea for Better Reviews

      The book may be in decline in our fast-changing world, one complete with electronic readers and shrinking attention spans, but the editors at New Republic will have none of it. They reject the notion that books must conform to the digital age and take newspapers to task for the decline in quality—and quantity—of book reviews. "We toy with the obsolescence of the book at our mental peril," the editors write. More »

      Tags

      Internet  • literature  • Amazon.com  • book reviews  • electronic books

  • November 2007

    • Authors List Literary Faves of '07

      newser  |  Guardian (UK)  |  Nov 26, 07 4:38 PM CST

      Authors List Literary Faves of '07

      Read the books writers are raving about with the help of this list from the Guardian : David Hare: Five Germanys I Have Known , Fritz Stern Nicola Barker: Teenage , Jon Savage Margaret Drabble: Edith Wharton , Hermione Lee More »

      Tags

      list  • book  • book reviews

  • September 2007

    • Readers Hurt by Paper Cuts

      newser  |  Columbia Journalism Review  |  Sep 3, 07 4:40 PM CDT

      Readers Hurt by Paper Cuts

      Newspapers are under financial pressure, and one of the first things to go is often the book reviews. But author and editor Steve Wasserman thinks that's a serious problem. “Civilization is built on a foundation of books,” he declares in a polemic in CJR, and  stripping their pages of book reviews, he says, is indicative of the anti-intellectual hostility endemic in many newsrooms. More »

      Tags

      book  • newspaper  • literature  • reading  • book reviews  • print journalism

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