Books

NEW YORK — In his dreams, Raymond Chandler could conjure tales as unsettling as some of his greatest novels, as if haunted by the spirits of Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe. “Nightmare,” a brief and rarely seen sketch published this week in The Strand Magazine, finds the author of “The...

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Kamala Harris says it was “recklessness” for Democrats to leave it to President Joe Biden to decide whether to continue seeking another term last year, but she defends his ability to do the job, according an excerpt of her new book. Harris, in an excerpt...

Charlie Sheen said fatherhood quickly occupied his life when he got sober eight years ago. “It turned into just an interesting daily grind of just sudden responsibility and, you know, having to answer the call and it was amazing,” Sheen said Monday, telling an audience that once he “finally put...

NEW YORK — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot. The landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a...

It was 1969 when a group of college-aged boys gathered in St. Martin’s Hall at Duquesne University to ignite a grassroots effort to return football to the Bluff. Fox Chapel resident Sam Costanzo helped draw up the game plan – and said it was sheer industriousness and passion that led...

NEW YORK — A posthumous and “unsparing” memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, will be published this fall, publishing house Alfred A. Knopf said Sunday. “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” is scheduled for release Oct. 21, the publisher...

“Unfettered” — described by its publisher as an unapologetic account of the unconventional life of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, as written by Fetterman — will become part of the canon of the literal Library of Congress when it comes out on Veterans Day. It’s Fetterman’s maiden memoir, but the second...

NEW YORK — A long-rumored and “unapologetic” memoir by Sen. John Fetterman will be released this fall, his publisher said. Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Wednesday that “Unfettered” is scheduled for Nov. 11. The book’s price is listed at $32. In the memoir, the Democrat will open...

In the pages of the book “Fine Young People,” readers meet Frankie, who is a good daughter, a loyal best friend and a model student in her final semester at an elite Catholic prep school. Frankie’s hockey player classmate Kyle Murphy takes his life after posting a cryptic message about...

It was no secret that President John F. Kennedy was a heartthrob during his time in the White House. But what was a secret — at least according to a new book — is that he once got a flight attendant pregnant during an affair. The book claims it never...

Laura Burkett’s sister, Danielle, ran away to Puerto Rico when she was 15 because she got a bad perm. That’s the opening, truthful anecdote to the 52-year-old Lower Burrell woman’s debut work, “This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Suspicion, and Starting Over.” It launched June 3. The...

The Regional Industrial Development Corporation is marking its 70th year of helping guide southwest Pennsylvania’s turbulent economic journey spurred by the steel industry collapse. Plum native Jeff Fraser tells the company’s tale in a newly released book, “Rebuilding Pittsburgh: RIDC and the Transformation of the Steel City.” It details RIDC’s...

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a book out this fall that promises a close look at President Biden’s decision not to run for reelection and calls for thinking beyond the two-party system. Jean-Pierre herself has switched her affiliation to independent after working in two Democratic administrations, according...

If you’re in search of a more lowkey day out and want to avoid the Arts Festival crowds, there’s still plenty to do around town this weekend. Here are five events to check out instead. ‘The Shark is Broken’ at barebones productions “Jaws” was the original blockbuster film in the...

The second installment of the 2025 Tapas Talks speaker series was held May 1 at the Allegheny Country Club. The talk featured former financier, U.S. Army infantry officer, Pentagon official and author Will Bardenwerper, entitled “Foul Deeds and Fair Balls: An Insider’s View of a Captured War Criminal and the...

An AI-generated book list with imaginary book titles and nonexistent plots was published by two renowned newspapers — the Chicago Sun-Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The articles were published in the papers’ “Heat Index” special sections, a multipage insert filled with tips, advice and articles on summertime activities, The Washington...

SAN FRANCISCO — The internet wouldn’t be the same without the Like button, the thumbs-up icon that Facebook and other online services turned into digital catnip. Like it or not, the button has served as a creative catalyst, a dopamine delivery system and an emotional battering ram. It also became...

Edda Fields-Black is still processing the fact she was awarded a 2025 Pulitzer Prize on Monday. “It’s just beginning to set in. It’s going to take some time for this new reality to set in. But it feels really good,” she said in an interview Tuesday. Fields-Black is a professor...

Carnegie Mellon University Professor Edda L. Fields-Black on Monday won a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History for her book “Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War.” Fields-Black is a professor of history and director of The Humanities Center at CMU’s Dietrich College of...

As of this writing, power is still out for a number of people in Allegheny County. If you are one of those unlucky households and you don’t feel like running a marathon this weekend, here are some other things you can do to get out of the house. ‘Star Wars’...

The need for media literacy — understanding the media we consume and how it gets made — remains acute, and three recent books explore different aspects of the TV business from the perspectives of a writer, director and young stars. ‘They Went Another Way’ $29, Holt TV writer/cartoonist Bruce Eric...

Superman was born Kryptonian, raised Methodist and sketched into existence by two Jewish teens in 1930s Cleveland. Faith and morality are his DNA. There are no overt religious references in Superman comics. But over eight decades, he’s been viewed as a divine entity, a savior figure — his sacrifice Christ-like,...

From the Pittsburgh left to the Immaculate Reception, Stentor Danielson wants every one of his maps to tell a story about the city. His new book, “Pittsburgh in 50 Maps,” is the fourth in a series of map-based compilations by Belt Publishing. Before the Steel City, the Rust Belt-focused publishing...

NEW YORK — Salman Rushdie has a collection of novellas and short stories coming out this fall, his first published fiction since being stabbed repeatedly and hospitalized in 2022. Random House announced Thursday that Rushdie’s “The Eleventh Hour,” billed by the publisher as “five interlinked stories and novellas that explore...

Trafford authors Lori Jakiela and Dave Newman will give a talk on April 3 about the influence of their small towns on their literary works. The married couple live in Trafford, Jakiela’s hometown. Newman grew up in Irwin. They will read excerpts of their work before delivering their talks. A...