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

Children’s Books: The Greatest’s Story, Told Twice
Mon, 12 May 2008 15:42:56 -0000
Two handsome new books for different age groups take on the formidable challenge of telling the story of Muhammad Ali’s epic life.
Children’s Books: Earth to Young People: Help!
Sat, 10 May 2008 01:28:12 -0000
A “family encyclopedia of ecology” and the first book by “the MySpace community” spell out environmental threats and suggest action to help.
Children’s Books: When We Last Saw Our Heroes ...
Sat, 10 May 2008 12:57:15 -0000
Sequels to the popular children’s books “Not a Box,” “Zen Shorts” and “Little Pea” — plus the latest in Mo Willems’s “Pigeon” series.

Fiction & Poetry

The Teacher
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
It was the girls who first brought him here. I call them “girls” because of their girlish temperaments, though they were almost middle-aged. Maeve was by far the more emotional of the two, with a habit of turning her pale-blue eyes upward like a saint or a martyr . . .
Summer Evening by the Window with Psalms
Yehuda Amichai Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Close scrutiny of the past. How my soul yearns within me like those souls in the nineteenth century before the great wars, like curtains that want to pull free of the open window and fly. We console ourselves with short breaths, as, after running, we always recover. We want to . . .
Never Mind
Dorothea Tanning Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Never mind the pins And needles I am on. Let all the other instruments Of torture have their way. While air-conditioners Froze my coffee I caught the toaster Eating my toast. Did I press the right Buttons on all these Buttonless surfaces, Daring me to press them? Did you . . .

London Review of Books

When the Floods Came · James Meek on England's Water
Looking through the photographs I took in Tewkesbury in May, I found two pictures of Chuck Pavey and his floodwater hand. There's Pavey, a 66-year-old retired electrician in a Manchester United hooded top, a wispy white pageboy haircut and dark glasses, standing by a wall on the bank of the River Avon. He's holding his right hand horizontally in the air, about thirty centimetres above the top of the wall, which comes up to his waist. The olive-coloured Avon ripples away, three or four metres further below. In the background is an arched pedestrian bridge, a willow tree with its lower fronds stroking the water, and the massive red brick wall of a derelict flour mill. In the next picture, Pavey is standing next to the freshly whitewashed wall of the White Bear pub, looking more agitated, as if he's afraid I still haven't got the point. It's the same stance, except that this time the hand has risen above his head. It hovers about two metres above the level of the road; it comes three-quarters of the way up the casement of the pub window. I got the point. If you'd tried to stand where Pavey was standing on Monday, 23 July 2007 - the day water levels peaked in Tewkesbury - you'd have been treading water.
The Iron Rule · Jacqueline Rose: Bernhard Schlink's Guilt
Towards the end of Bernhard Schlink's best-known novel, The Reader, the narrator is pondering his future after taking his state exam in law. He has just seen his former lover, Hanna Schmitz, convicted of war crimes: she had been a concentration camp guard, something he hadn't known when she seduced him as a 15-year-old boy. None of the roles he saw played out in court appeals to him: 'Prosecution seemed to me as grotesque a simplification as defence, and judging was the most grotesque oversimplification of all.' He has lost his belief in post-Enlightenment law as enacting a gradual but steady progress towards 'greater beauty and truth, rationality and humanity, despite terrible setbacks and retreats'. Now the law seems to him more like Odysseus' journey - a process that endlessly circles back to its original starting point only to set off again. In this reading, the Odyssey is a story of motion, at once successful and futile, driven and without aim: 'What else is the history of law?'
Diary · Jenny Diski tries to stay awake
If you set aside the incomparable cruelty and stupidity of human beings, surely our most persistent and irrational activity is to sleep. Why would we ever allow ourselves to drop off if sleeping was entirely optional? Sleep is such a dangerous place to go to from consciousness: who in their right mind would give up awareness, deprive themselves of control of their senses, volunteer for paralysis, and risk all the terrible things (and worse) that could happen to a person when they're not looking? As chief scientist in charge of making the world a better place, once I'd found a way of making men give birth, or at least lactate, I'd devote myself to abolishing the need for sleep. Apart from the dangers of letting your guard down, there's the matter of time.

guardian.co.uk Books

Review: Infected by Scott Sigler
Eric Brown Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:48:56 -0000
Infected by Scott SiglerSigler's cliché-ridden story about a mysterious alien plague should be avoided like ... well, the plague, advises Eric Brown
Review: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
Eric Brown Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:33:55 -0000
The Collected Stories of Vernor VingeA disappointing collection of short fiction proves that for Vinge, bigger is better, writes Eric Brown
Review: Sideways in Crime edited by Lou Anders
Eric Brown Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:08:10 -0000
Sideways in Crime edited by Lou AndersA wonderfully varied collection of crime stories set in alternative histories proves to be great fun, writes Eric Brown

NPR Topics: Books

Two New Books Probe China's Changing Character
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:04:00 -0400
What happens when an entrenched culture suddenly opts for rapid change and the upheaval of centuries of cherished tradition? Maureen Corrigan finds some answers in two new works of nonfiction.
Identifying Who Survives Disasters — And Why
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:21:00 -0400
Time magazine reporter Amanda Ripley takes readers inside fires, floods and airplane crashes in The Unthinkable, a disquieting study of disaster psychology.
Smart, Sassy Heroines Pack A Literary Punch
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:14:00 -0400
You may not like her, but you do what she wants. She's a tough chick, a woman with sass and an instinct for survival. Brace yourself for these three books featuring heroines with attitude.

Slashdot: Book Reviews

Selling Online with Drupal e-Commerce
samzenpus Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:16:00 -0000
Michael J. Ross writes "Many Web developers wish to create e-commerce sites that also support collaborative editing of content, community forums, and other features that can increase traffic to the sites. But most shopping cart products do not include those capabilities, or, if such third-party add-ons exist, they may be quite limited in functionality. Similarly, most if not all content management systems (CMSs) lack native e-commerce capabilities. Yet that barrier is being overcome, because a handful of e-commerce modules have been created for the most popular CMSs. Perhaps the most promising pairing, at this time, is Drupal and the e-Commerce module — a combination covered in the book Selling Online with Drupal e-Commerce by Michael Peacock." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Inside Steve's Brain
samzenpus Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:19:00 -0000
cgjherr writes "There are management insights to be learned from Steve Jobs? You're nuts. The only things you can learn from Jobs is how to drive people nuts. Or at least, that's what I thought up until I read 'Inside Steve's Brain.' Turns out, there are things to learn from Steve's obsessive perfectionism. Certainly I wouldn't copy every aspect of Jobs' management style. Doing that will likely get you fired, or at least reprimanded, in most companies. But there is some stuff to be learned from how Jobs designs products and analyses the market, and that's the view that Leander Kahney gives us access to." Keep reading for the rest of Jack's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide
samzenpus Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:10:00 -0000
lamaditx writes "There is a good chance that you have heard about "Web 2.0" — the buzz-word coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2005. You will find several reviews of books about this topic on Slashdot. These cover mainly technical aspects of implementation whereas this book introduces the strategical thinking behind the whole Web 2.0 movement... Web 2.0 is so much more than the technology.' The table of contents is available from O'Reilly, together with a chapter preview. The book does not come with any extras but includes the usual free 45 days access to the book on Safari. When reading a book I usually flip through it quickly to get an impression for it, in this case there are three things which I noted right away." Keep reading for the rest of Adrian's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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