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: How a Jihadist Curtailed a President’s Authority
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:28:41 -0000
Jonathan Mahler chronicles Salim Hamdan’s journey from street urchin to jihadist, as well as the lives of the lawyers who transformed him into an international symbol in the war on terror.
Newly Released
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:06:16 -0000
August is supposed to be the time for breezy beach reads. But a crop of books released this month suggests otherwise.
Books of The Times: A Cynical Seer Unnerved by Her Own Inner Psychic
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:17:17 -0000
In Debra Ginsberg’s spooky new novel, a cynical fortuneteller discovers that she really is a psychic.

Fiction & Poetry

Isola Bella
C. K. Stead Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In the stony garden with the bronze plaque that misquotes her she called down from the terrace, “Friend or foe?” She carried a parasol. Her hair was a shiny cap, her face a mask. “Friend of friends,” I answered--“Lawrence . . . Carco . . . Bertie Russell . . .” At each name the mask half-revealed . . .
Here the Birds’ Journey Ends
Mahmoud Darwish Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Here the birds’ journey ends, our journey, the journey of words, and after us there will be a horizon for the new birds. We are the ones who forge the sky’s copper, the sky that will carve roads after us and make amends with our names above the distant cloud . . .
Awake
Tobias Wolff Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Odysseus turned his back on the harbour and followed a rough track leading through the woods and up to the hills toward the place where Athene had told him . . .” Richard read on for a time. He was restless but tried to take an interest in Odysseus’ journey to the home . . .

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

Test your knowledge of Chinese literature
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:06:00 -0000
You’ve had almost a fortnight to brush up your on Chinese literature in honour of the Olympics. Time to see if you’re up to speed
'Offensive' word to be removed from Jacqueline Wilson book
Alison Flood Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:50:17 -0000
After three complaints from parents, Random House is to amend My Sister Jodie
John Sutherland: Let's leave Austen alone, please
John Sutherland Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:35:28 -0000
John Sutherland: What exactly were ITV executives thinking when they commissioned Lost in Austen?

NPR Topics: Books

Podesta: Progressive Politics Will Cure U.S. Ills
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:17:00 -0400
In his new book, the head of the Center for American Progress and former chief of staff for President Clinton says the U.S. needs to create community activists, reform immigration law and form a stronger government; that will lead to a more fair society, he says.
Who Is John McCain?
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:20:00 -0400
McCain is a decorated war veteran who survived years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He's been a United States senator for 22 years. We know the facts of the Republican presidential candidate's life, but who is John McCain? We look beyond the policy and punditry to the experiences that shaped the man.
Former Athlete Battling HIV, Sharing Her Story
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:23:00 -0400
Most black women living with HIV or AIDS got infected through high-risk sex with men. Marvelyn Brown says she's HIV-positive because she did not consider the risks. She's a former athlete, who now travels the country telling her story and championing personal responsibility.

Slashdot: Book Reviews

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.
Bottom of the Barrel Book Reviews — The Lost Blogs
samzenpus Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:50:00 -0000
We get a lot of books for review here at Slashdot. Most are sent out to users on our reviewer list within a few weeks. Others become part of an impressive wall of books on my desk before they find a home. There are a choice few however that are doomed to never see the inside of a Fedex box. This is mostly due to the complete and utter stupidity or absurdness of their subject matter. I've decided to give these failed intellectual endeavors a chance and explore just how big a waste of time a book can be. We start scraping the bottom of the barrel with a little number written by Paul Davidson called, The Lost Blogs. Read below to find out just how bad it got.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Bash Cookbook
samzenpus Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:59:00 -0000
Chad_Wollenberg writes "Anyone who has used a derivative of Unix over the past 20 years has used Bash, which stands for Borne Again Shell. The geek in all of us makes us want to extend our ability to rule the command line. To truly master a Unix environment, you need to know a shell, and Bash is easily the most popular of them. Any Unix/Linux/BSD administrator knows the power at your fingertips is fully extended by what you can do within the Bash environment, and all of us need the best recipes to get the job done." Keep reading for the rest of Chad's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Books

What book got you hooked?
mkehe Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:13:15 -0000
Do you remember your first love – literary, that is?
Our First Revolution
picks Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:09:41 -0000
Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers by Michael Barone. Most of us know about the 1688-89 “Glorious Revolution” that ousted the Stuarts and installed William and Mary, but Barone makes a highly readable, strong case for it as the intellectual precursor of the American Revolution.
The Wrecking Crew
reviews Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:55:31 -0000
In 2003, historian-journalist Thomas Frank moved from Kansas to the national capital. In 2004, he published a book about his home state, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.”

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