L.A. Times - Books & Talks

'The Second Plane' by Martin Amis
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
September 11: Terror and Boredom IT would be too easy to read Martin Amis' slim book on Sept. 11 in a day and to dismiss it with a politically correct glare. The dozen essays, columns and reviews and two short stories in "The Second Plane: September 11, Terror and Boredom" are more illuminating than that, though deeply, sometimes self-indulgently flawed.
'The House of Widows' by Askold Melnyczuk
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Family secrets lie at the end of a dark and twisted path FROM its puzzling opening line ("The most common grammatical error is the lie"), there's an ominous vibe to Askold Melnyczuk's third novel, "The House of Widows," and the sense of unease lingers until the final sentence. It's a mysterious, masterfully taut story in which dread plays a prominent role.
'Marco Polo' by Laurence Bergreen
Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700
An account of the adventures of the celebrated 13th century world traveler. MARCO POLO was only 17 when he departed for China in 1271 with his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. Those two merchants of Venice were known to the boy primarily as storytellers of their fabulous exploits, writes award-winning biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen, for they had been absent more than 16 years, Marco's entire childhood. The pair had followed trade routes east, encountered exotic countries and customs and survived many perils; they had even lived for a time at the court of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Empire. Eventually they agreed to accompany his emissary west to the pope, vowing to return to Cambulac (Beijing) with several items the Great Khan had requested.

NYT > Books

Books of The Times: Weapons of Mass Destruction and Other Imaginative Acts
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:26:05 -0000
In addition to fresh revelations about the W.M.D. megascandal, Ron Suskind offers a complex web of intersecting narratives that manage to show us, in this age of terror, “the true way of the world.”
Books of The Times: Behold the Kind-of Hero, in a Sort-of Civil War
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:56:43 -0000
“Man in the Dark” is the latest product of Paul Auster’s more than 20-year career as the most meta of American metafictional writers.
Books: A Doctor Transformed, Into a Patient
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:28:55 -0000
Dr. Thomas Graboys’ memoir of dealing with Parkinson’s disease stands out as a small wonder.

Fiction & Poetry

We Did Not Make Ourselves
Michael Dickman Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
We did not make ourselves is one thing I keep singing into my hands while falling asleep for just a second before I have to get up and turn on all the lights in the house, one after the other, like opening an Advent calendar My brain opening the chemical . . .
Reunion
Jeffrey Skinner Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Why do you keep returning, alive, able to walk and gesture as you could not at the end, your movements sketchy, more holographic than warm? Thanksgiving dinner with all the relatives and I alone with the suspicion I cannot speak: You should be elsewhere. Heavy drinking, as always. The newest . . .
Gorse Is Not People
Janet Frame Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Do you remember your twenty-first birthday? The party, the cake, and cutting a slice of it to put under your pillow that night, to make you dream of your future beloved; the giant key; the singing: I’m twenty-one today! Twenty-one today! I’ve got the key of the . . .

London Review of Books

Just Two Clicks · Jonathan Raban: The Virtual Life of Neil Entwistle
As Barack Obama never tires of saying, America is a country where 'ordinary people can do extraordinary things.' In January 2006, Neil Entwistle, a seemingly ordinary 27-year-old Englishman with an honours degree from the University of York, who had been living in the US for barely four months, shot dead his American wife, Rachel, and their baby daughter, Lillian, with a long-barrelled Colt .22 revolver borrowed from his father-in-law's gun collection. By the time the bodies were discovered in their house in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, huddled together beneath a rumpled duvet in the brand-new four-poster bed bought by the couple just ten days before, Entwistle was home in England, living with his parents in Worksop, as if what had happened in America was a violent dream from which he'd woken to reality in his old back bedroom at 27 Coleridge Road.
A Man or a Girl's Blouse? · Jeremy Harding: Serbia after Karadzic
At the time of the parliamentary elections in Serbia earlier this summer, the possibility that Radovan Karadzic, once the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, might be handed over to stand trial at The Hague seemed remote. The acquittal of the former KLA leader Ramush Haradinaj in April had stunned opinion in Serbia and added to the sense that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was a Serb-grinding machine which spat out Bosnians, Kosovo Albanians and Croats intact. The idea of any more Serbs going on trial was not popular: even someone like Karadzic, born in Montenegro, long resident in Sarajevo and regarded by many as a ludicrous figure. His arrest late last month illustrates how rapidly things are changing in Serbia, and how keen the new pro-European leadership is to drive its policies forward. The process of EU accession has long been conditional on the delivery of the big three: Karadzic, Goran Hadzic, a Croatian Serb wanted for the massacre of Croats in Vukovar in 1991, and Ratko Mladic, the hands-on commander at Srebrenica. But the capture of Dr Karadzic - psychiatrist, poet, New Age healer, telegenic bigot and mass murderer - is the greater public relations coup.
Past Its Peak · Michael Klare on the Oil Crisis
Unlike the oil 'shocks' of the 1970s, the current energy crisis is almost certain to be long-lasting. None of the quick fixes proposed by pundits and politicians - drilling in protected wilderness and maritime areas, curbs on commodity speculators, pressure on members of Opec to increase output - is likely to have much impact. In 1973-74 and again in 1979-80, events in the Middle East led to a sharp reduction in the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf, causing a contraction in global supplies and a rise in energy prices, and thus sparking a global recession. But when equilibrium of a sort was restored to the region, the oil began to flow again and the crisis passed. Now, however, the imbalance between supply and demand is largely due to factors inherent in oil commerce itself - and so is less easily solved.

guardian.co.uk Books

Alexander Chancellor: It's time to forget about ticking off things to do before we die
Alexander Chancellor Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:11:31 -0000
Alexander Chancellor: Its only useful function is to provide easy entertainment for dreaming couch potatoes
Poet Ahmed Faraz buried in Islamabad
Alison Flood Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:53 -0000
The Pakistani poet Ahmed Faraz, who died on Monday night after kidney problems, has been buried in Islamabad.
Michael Jackson goes into studio with Robert Burns
Alison Flood Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:44:43 -0000
David Gest claims to have collaborated with pop legend on album setting poems to music

NPR Topics: Books

Sifting Through Summer, Page By Page
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:20:00 -0400
The last summer holiday, Labor Day, is fast approaching and Karen Grigsby Bates is planning to use the weekend to kick back and catch up on some summer reading.
Writer Ethan Canin Tackles The American Dream
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:52:00 -0400
America America is an ambitious, old-fashioned novel about politics, power and class in a small, upstate New York town. The Nixon-era tale is Canin's sixth book.
How Not To Sell A Mercedes In Africa
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:25:00 -0400
Journalist Jeroen van Bergeijk wanted an adventure, so he bought a 1988 clunker in his native Amsterdam and drove it across the Sahara with the intention of selling it. Within a week of arriving in Africa, he had dozens of offers. By then, however, he was attached to his vehicle and the possibilities it held.

Slashdot: Book Reviews

Zero Day Threat
samzenpus Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:10:00 -0000
Ben Rothke writes "Zero Day Threat: the Shocking Truth of How Banks and Credit Bureaus Help Cyber Crooks Steal Your Money and Identity is an interesting and eye-opening look at how banks and credit card companies make ID theft and fraud rather elementary. But with all that, this book must be read in the larger context of how today's society deals with, and is often oblivious to, risk. When is comes to risk, American society tolerates tens of thousands of drunk-driving deaths, gives millions in federal tobacco subsidies, and is oblivious about near-epidemics such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. With all that, it is doubtful that the myriad horror stories Zero Day Threat details will persuade Congress or the other players to do anything to curtail the problem with identity theft and internet fraud." Keep reading for the rest of Ben's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Bottom of The Barrel Book Reviews-Confessions of a Recovering Preppie
samzenpus Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:34:00 -0000
An anonymous reader writes "Michael de Mare's, Confessions of a Recovering Preppie, has been sitting on my desk a long time, for good reason. They say you can't always judge a book by it's cover but in this case, the unintentionally embarrassing front is perfect. Confessions is a painfully ordinary collection of college stories. Michael seems to have a different definition for the word preppie than the good people at Webster or I do. Even though the author specializes in cryptography, he seems unable to decipher any social situation, himself or the code to writing a book worth reading. Click below to see how confusing it gets.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
My Job Went To India
samzenpus Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:11:00 -0000
Josh Skillings writes "The author, Chad Fowler, draws upon his experiences as a software engineer, a team leader over a group of Indian developers, and as a jazz musician, to describe 52 ways or tips that will help you to become a more valuable employee. These tips are described in two or three pages each, and are usually illustrated by a practical example or story. The tips are well thought-out, well-explained and make sense. Chad draws upon the open source movement as well, highlighting ways that contributing to and learning from open source can improve your career. These tips gave me greater respect and appreciation for the open source movement in general." Read on for the rest of Josh's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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