Scanning the Bookshelf from Creators Syndicate

Brief book reviews for 06/23/2008

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live" by Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt; Running Press, Philadelphia; 240 pages; $40.

In September, 100 of America's finest professional photographers and thousands of amateurs spent a week shooting 250,000 digital images of life at home.

The result, "America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live," created for Agai ...

Updated: Mon Jun 23, 2008

Brief book reviews for 06/30/2008

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World" by Tony Horwitz; Henry Holt & Company, Inc.; 464 pages; $27.

It's one of the most quoted 20th century lines about literature: "Literature is news that stays news." And Ezra Pound was right. That's why we keep repeating his line.

History has a harder time of it. After all, it's stubbornly tied to age ...

Updated: Mon Jun 30, 2008

For Sedaris, ‘Sometimes Life Just Feels Like a Story' for 07/04/2008

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

“I'm bad at meeting people,” says David Sedaris, talking by telephone from his hotel room in Kansas City. The claim is just a little suspect, coming from a guy who will sign books for as long as it takes to embellish everyone's copies.

And sign he will, in 30 cities before the U.S portion of his tour ends Tuesday in Tucson, Ariz. (Then comes a Brazilian book festival and a Canadian tour ...

Updated: Fri Jul 04, 2008

Alan Furst and the Spy Game: Match Made in Prose Heaven for 07/11/2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Alan Furst appeared last year before a standing-room-only audience at Warwick's in San Diego, he promised that his next book would appear this year. He was true to his word and "The Spies of Warsaw" — Furst's 10th historical spy novel — is one of his best, a richly satisfying read that should appeal to both newcomers and longtime fans.

"In the dying light ...

Updated: Fri Jul 11, 2008

Jay Martin Turns History into Fiction -- and 'Magic' for 07/18/2008

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

All sports have histories, of course, but baseball, more than any other, seems part of some larger history of America, Latin America and beyond.

This sense of history is part of what makes Jay Martin's new volume of stories, "Baseball Magic," so involving. He's not known chiefly for his fiction. He's a professor of humanities and government at Claremont McKenna College who wrot ...

Updated: Fri Jul 18, 2008

Dark Masterpieces: Classic Works by Tezuka Now Emerge in English for 07/25/2008

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Osamu Tezuka played such a central role in Japanese comic books (manga) and animation (anime) that he is often called the Asian Walt Disney. Tezuka himself cited "Bambi" and other Disney works as inspiration, while his most famous creation, "Astro Boy" (1952-68), bears an uncanny resemblance to Mickey Mouse.

Fair enough. But if you pick up either "MW" or &qu ...

Updated: Fri Jul 25, 2008

So Many Books ... And So Little Time for 08/01/2008

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The title of Gareth Hinds' new work may ring a bell: "The Merchant of Venice" (Candlewick Press, 68 pages, $21.99). Attempts to make the Bard's works "relevant" by staging them in different, usually modern, settings and times are often cringe-inducing, but adapter-illustrator Hinds ("Beowulf") remains true to the master, albeit in truncated form.

Hinds' stra ...

Updated: Fri Aug 01, 2008

For Ann Patchett, the Best Part of the Process is Not the Writing for 08/08/2008

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When author Ann Patchett starts a new novel, she's as likely to be putting on rubber gloves as sitting down at her keyboard.

While most of us grumble at the thought of cleaning the kitchen, the highly respected novelist said she revels in household chores as an opportunity to invent new characters and plot lines.

"I am an amazing housewife," said Patchett. "I'm marr ...

Updated: Fri Aug 08, 2008

Right now, his Art is an Open Book for 08/15/2008

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

He's made 12 books thus far and continues to embrace the form. "Coverage" is a different type of work. It's a cross between poetry and conceptual art, and it's made to be mailed — in installments. He just had his first solo exhibition in a gallery, at Harrington Fine Arts in San Francisco, which included paintings and assorted other works.

Eric Baskauskas, now 23, grew up ...

Updated: Fri Aug 15, 2008

So Many Books ... And So Little Time for 08/29/2008

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Benjamin Nugent takes a semi-serious scientist's approach to "American Nerd: The Story of My People" (Scribner, 224 pages, $20).

I'd write more on "American Nerd," but it's time to play "Dungeons & Dragons."

If you haven't already read Ian Frazier's comic classic "Coyote v. Acme," get thee to a bookstore immediately. And while you're the ...

Updated: Fri Aug 29, 2008

'What It Is' is a Charming, Creative Work from Barry for 09/05/2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Lynda Barry borrows the phrase "childhood and other neighborhoods" from poet Stuart Dybek. Then, she gives the phrase her own spin in "What It Is," Barry's delightful and hard-to-categorize book.

"It's a good way to start," she writes about being creative, "by thinking of childhood as a place rather than a time ... like an unplayed-with-playset, needing ...

Updated: Fri Sep 05, 2008

Elizabeth McCracken's Memoir is Precise, Poetic and Painful for 09/12/2008

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There aren't many first novels as memorable as Elizabeth McCracken's "The Giant's House." Her 1996 debut is one of the oddest and most moving love stories in recent fiction — the platonic romance of Peggy Cort, an introverted librarian, and James Carlton Sweatt, only a kid when he wanders in the library and a true giant, at 8 feet 7 inches, when he dies at 20.

By the way, ...

Updated: Fri Sep 12, 2008

Author Gives Voice to Guantanamo Bay's Voiceless for 09/19/2008

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

San Diego and Guantanamo Bay are both by the ocean, but that's about where the similarities end. One is known for wealth and luxury, the other for deprivation.

Mahvish Rukhsana Khan straddles both worlds. She lives in San Diego, and for the past two years she's traveled regularly to "Gitmo," working as a translator for lawyers representing terrorism suspects housed there.

< ...

Updated: Fri Sep 19, 2008

Author Christopher Reich Plays by His Own 'Rules' for 09/26/2008

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Christopher Reich writes thrillers, so he understands the formula. Put your hero in a race against time and have something important hang in the balance.

What he didn't expect is that his own career would follow a similar plotline.

The Encinitas, Calif., author started out huge. His 1998 debut novel, "Numbered Account," spent six weeks on The New York Times best-seller l ...

Updated: Fri Sep 26, 2008

So Many Books ... And So Little Time for 10/03/2008

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The good news, for us: Sandra Tsing Loh is having a midlife snit-fit. A nasty, nerve-wracking crisis of the soul. Yay!

Is 'Yay!' the appropriate response, you, delicate soul, wonder? Of course it is, grasshopper! Because when Loh's feeling low (apologies, cliche, she's so sick of it) is when she's at her high point, at the top of her turn-your-head-inside-out writing, performing, philoso ...

Updated: Fri Oct 03, 2008

'The Hemingses of Monticello' is a Challenging, Provocative Work of History for 10/10/2008

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"The Hemingses of Monticello" is garlanded with so much advance praise; you might pick it up, expecting an autumnal beach book. You'd be disappointed. Early chapters slog through colonial Virginia, and the narrative halts often for musings about law and love, sexual attraction and family dynamics, freedom and slavery.

The tale gains speed whenever Thomas Jefferson and Sarah &qu ...

Updated: Fri Oct 10, 2008

'Wounded Warriors,' 'Submersion Journalism': Dispatches from the Front Lines of Life for 10/17/2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Wounded Warriors," the title of Mike Sager's third collection of magazine stories, makes it sound like a book about soldiers, but that's only partly true. It's about warriors in a broader sense.

Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant is at war with his own limits. Charlie Van Dyke, who weighs more than 600 pounds, is at war with what people think of him. Activist Al Sharpton is at w ...

Updated: Fri Oct 17, 2008

Billy Collins, 'Sociable Guy' and Ace Ambassador for Poetry for 10/24/2008

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Let's be frank: Popular poets who also attracted critical acclaim were a rarity in the 20th century. They still are. Robert Frost had both a large audience and approval from critics and scholars. Allen Ginsberg ultimately did too, though they had divergent audiences.

Billy Collins has a big following now, and critics have embraced him too. His new collection, “Ballistics,” has a first pr ...

Updated: Fri Oct 24, 2008

I Think, Therefore I Think I Am (Just Guessing) for 10/31/2008

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At the time of year when skulls and skeletons get their due, Russell Shorto's new book, "Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason," seems to have good timing. But any links to Halloween or the Day of the Dead are, admittedly, nonexistent.

Nonetheless, true to its title, the philosopher's bones are central to Shorto's saga. And for Rene Desca ...

Updated: Fri Oct 31, 2008

So Many Books ... and So Little Time for 11/07/2008

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

It's been out for a while now, but the timing is perfect to catch up with Ilan Stavans' graphic novel "Mr. Spic Goes to Washington" (Soft Skull Press, 112 pages, $15.95, paperback). Stavans, a professor at Amherst College and the editor of anthologies ranging from the poetry of Pablo Neruda to "The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories," has great fun with the story of Samuel Patric ...

Updated: Fri Nov 07, 2008