John Steinbeck’s tender letter to son sells for more than $32,000
BOSTON — A heartfelt letter written by author John Steinbeck offering paternal advice to his teenage son who was experiencing love for the first time has sold at auction for more than $32,000. The two-page, handwritten letter, dated Nov. 10, 1958, went for $32,426 to a collector who wishes to...
In Celeste Ng’s dark new novel ‘Our Missing Hearts,’ libraries shine a light
Celeste Ng wishes she could call it a dystopia. That’s how she used to think about the dark world she was crafting in her new novel, “Our Missing Hearts.” Then the real world darkened. And the setting in Ng’s book — an alternate version of the United States, where Asian...
Review: WWII novel ‘Cradles of the Reich’ sets high bar for historical fiction
“Cradles of the Reich” by Jennifer Coburn (Sourcebooks Landmark) Gundi, Irma and Hilde all find themselves at a Lebensborn Society house for future mothers who are deemed to be racially fit. Each woman is there for the same reason: to usher life into the world. But the three main characters...
Review: History of movie academy favors facts over melodrama
“The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” by Bruce Davis (Brandeis University Press) Film historians and others digging for a deeper vein of Oscar knowledge than mere trivia will turn up many nuggets in “The Academy and...
What’s so controversial about the new Anthony Bourdain book? Plenty, it turns out
A new biography about the late chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain, who took his own life while filming CNN’s “Parts Unknown” in 2018, has been raising hackles well in advance of its Oct. 11 publication date — especially among those who knew Bourdain best. The Times dipped into “Down...
French writer Annie Ernaux awarded Nobel Prize in literature
STOCKHOLM — French author Annie Ernaux, who has fearlessly mined her own biography to explore life in France since the 1940s, won this year’s Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for work that illuminates murky corners of memory, family and society. Ernaux’s books probe deeply personal experiences and feelings — love,...
Terrifying true ghost stories inspired by complicated real women
“A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts” by Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes; Kensington (368 pages, $16.95) —— Seeing isn’t always believing. A figure in an old gown is glimpsed at the top of the stairs, a face looms briefly from the shadows. But everyone...
Illustrator Alex Ross has new ‘Fantastic Four’ book out just as Marvel universe takes a next big step. Coincidence?
EVANSTON, Ill. — Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory. But what happened to good pop culture conspiracies? Like, Paul McCartney is dead. Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing. Walt Disney was frozen. Lewis Carroll was Jack the Ripper. Katy Perry is JonBenét Ramsey. Political conspiracy has overtaken pop culture conspiracy,...
Bargain hunter scores 700-year-old medieval times document
PORTLAND, Maine — A bargain hunter who went to an estate sale in Maine to find a KitchenAid mixer, a bookshelf or vintage clothing walked away with a 700-year-old treasure. Instead of a kitchen appliance, Will Sideri stumbled upon a framed document hanging on a wall. It had elaborate script...
Hilary Mantel, author of ‘Wolf Hall’ Tudor saga, dies at 70
LONDON — Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning author who turned Tudor power politics into page-turning fiction in the acclaimed “Wolf Hall” trilogy of historical novels, has died, her publisher said Friday. She was 70. Mantel died “suddenly yet peacefully” on Thursday while surrounded by close family and friends, publisher HarperCollins...
Spotify launches audiobook store with some 300,000 titles
NEW YORK — The expanding audio books market has a major new retailer: Spotify. On Tuesday, the music streaming service announced its long-rumored audiobook initiative, launching a store that includes more than 300,000 titles, including such popular works as Delia Owens’ “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and Colleen...
Review: Dick Ebersol recalls his outsized TV role in memoir
“From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My Forty Years of Laughter, Tears and Touchdowns in TV,” by Dick Ebersol (Simon & Schuster) Anyone who’s followed the TV industry since broadcasts went color will know the name Dick Ebersol. And while those insiders and diehards are the most likely audience of...
Q&A: Amanda Gorman talks UN poem, fame, future presidency
LOS ANGELES — When Amanda Gorman was invited to read a newly developed poem at the U.N. General Assembly, the young sensation took a deep look at how several societal issues — such as hunger and poverty — have impacted Earth’s preservation. Just like her stirring inauguration poem last year,...
Review: A war story, ‘Mosquito Bowl’ defines courage, duty
“The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” by Buzz Bissinger (Harper) U.S. Marines training for the invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa didn’t know they would face the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theater of World War II. The nearly three-month battle in...
Former Penn State president Graham Spanier defends himself in new book
Former Penn State University President Graham Spanier has written a book alleging that he, deceased Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and two other university administrators were falsely accused of — and unjustly punished for — covering up child abuse by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. “The book is an...
Review: Ian McEwan returns with masterful book ‘Lessons’
“Lessons,” by Ian McEwan (Alfred A. Knopf) “Roland occasionally reflected on the events and accidents, personal and global, minuscule and momentous that had formed and determined his existence.” That one sentence in Ian McEwan’s new novel, “Lessons,” nicely sums up the book. When we first meet Roland Baines he is...
Review: Jann Wenner’s memoir looks at his rock, rolling role
“Like a Rolling Stone: A Memoir” (Little, Brown) Jann S. Wenner takes us on a long, strange trip with his accessible and entertaining rock ‘n’ roll memoir. As the founder, co-editor and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine, Wenner had an unusual back stage pass to the rock ‘n’ roll revolution...
Art Spiegelman to receive honorary National Book Award
NEW YORK — This fall, Art Spiegelman will receive an honorary National Book Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He feels honored, and a little worried. The unexpected pleasure of being cited by the National Book Foundation comes months after the jarring saga of his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus” being...
Peter Straub, influential horror author and Stephen King collaborator, dies at 79
Horror writer Peter Straub, who cemented his place in the genre with works including “Ghost Story,” “The Talisman” and “A Dark Matter,” has died. He was 79. Straub’s son, Benjamin, told the Los Angeles Times he died “surrounded by love ones” in Manhattan on Sunday from complications due to a...
Steph Curry aims to inspire with ‘I Have a Superpower’ book
NEW YORK — On nearly every basketball court around the world —from NBA arenas to elementary school gyms — you’ll see players of all sizes regularly attempting long 3-point shots. There’s one man largely credited with transforming basketball from a must-see above the rim game to box office-long range shooting:...
Barbara Ehrenreich, ‘myth busting’ writer and activist, dies
NEW YORK — Barbara Ehrenreich, the author, activist and self-described “myth buster” who in such notable works as “Nickel and Dimed” and “Bait and Switch” challenged conventional thinking about class, religion and the very idea of an American dream, has died at age 81. Ehrenreich died Thursday morning in Alexandria,...
Review: ‘Black Snow’ delivers an uncomfortable, important World War II history lesson
In 1940, Seattle-based Boeing engineers designed a massive beast of an aircraft. The B-29 Superfortress — composed of 55,000 parts — had a tail three-stories high, enormous propellers and a 5,500-mile range. The aircraft, one of which is on display at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, would play a key role...
Review: Terrified woman tracked through Western wilderness
“Fox Creek” by William Kent Krueger (Atria) Retired sheriff and part time private detective Cork O’Connor is working the grill in his Aurora, Minnesota, restaurant when a stranger wanders in looking for help finding his wife, Delores, who has run off to have an affair with a Native American named...
Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” drew death threats from Iran’s leader in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen Friday by a man who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York. A bloodied Rushdie,...
Kyle Petty, born into NASCAR royalty, writes about life with ‘The King,’ son’s death
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — “We’ll never get outta here alive.” That’s what was running through Kyle Petty’s mind one day at a dirt track in Pender County, N.C. As Kyle remembers it, he was 18 at the time and had just started racing — and being the grandson of racing legend,...
