Scary pairings: Check out these Halloween book/film adaptationsVideo
From spine-tingling pages to images that seem to jump off the screen (and make us jump), the Halloween season offers plenty of frightful moments for both book lovers and movie buffs alike. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh public and readers services librarian Shayna Ross has curated a list of some of...
Quaker Valley grad publishes poetry book
Bonita Lee Penn uses her words to empower women. Her poetry gives a voice to those who are not heard or are marginalized. Through her writing, she tells the story of her experiences as a black woman and the troubles she sees in the world. “Usually, I am inspired by...
Prince’s anticipated, posthumous memoir is ready for fans
NEW YORK — Panic, joy, shock: Dan Piepenbring felt them all when Prince plucked him to collaborate on his first memoir, followed by more shock and profound sadness at news of the superstar’s death while the book was in its early stages. Though the project was thrown into chaos when...
‘A Different Way to Win’ details Dan Rooney’s life’s work, with the Steelers and beyondVideo
Jim Rooney interviewed over 50 people to tell the story of his famous and beloved father — the late Dan Rooney, best known as owner and president of the Pittsburgh Steelers. “A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney’s Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule” will be available...
Genre-bending bio of Thomas Edison is highly illuminating
The late Edmund Morris, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer known for his willingness to brush aside the norms of his genre if it suited his narrative ends, does it again in his final book: a fresh look at Thomas Alva Edison, perhaps America’s most prolific and consequential inventor. Morris, who died...
Tree of Life survivor among ‘A Gathering of Authors’Video
An author alone in a bookstore bothers Francine Costello. “I hate to see authors sitting in a bookstore waiting for people to come and buy books so they can sign them, and no one is there,” said Costello, co-owner of Word Association Publishers in Tarentum. “They are all by themselves....
Ronan Farrow details lack of enthusiasm at NBC for Weinstein story
In reporter Ronan Farrow’s account of his contentious divorce from NBC News, the more evidence he gathered on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct, the less enthusiastic his bosses seemed to be. NBC’s decision to let Farrow take his work to The New Yorker magazine is widely regarded as...
Ex-inmate Cyntoia Brown-Long argues for redemption in memoir
Cyntoia Brown-Long, now 31 years old, knows as much about life in prison as she does about being free. At 16, she was arrested for robbing and killing a man she says picked her up for sex and later was sentenced to life in prison. But two months ago, Brown-Long...
Olga Tokarczuk, Peter Handke win Nobel literature prizes
STOCKHOLM — Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian writer Peter Handke won the 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prizes for literature on Thursday, a rare double announcement that came after no prize was announced last year due to sex abuse allegations that tarnished the group awarding the prizes. The Swedish Academy...
Michelle Obama’s next book is a companion to ‘Becoming’
NEW YORK — Michelle Obama’s first book since “Becoming” is more about her readers than about herself. “Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice” will be published Nov. 19 by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The new release was announced Monday and is a companion to...
Author, veteran to discuss ‘Women in the Marines’ at Westmoreland libraries
Retired Marine Corps Col. Nancy Anderson will discuss her recently published book, “The Very Few, The Proud: Women in the Marines,” during programs at several Westmoreland County libraries. Anderson, who earlier this year served as interim CEO of the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday in The...
Latrobe-area writer focuses on Fred Rogers’ kindness, hometown impactVideo
Beloved children’s television host Fred Rogers achieved his greatest effect on others by being “defiantly kind,” Latrobe-area writer Chris Rodell asserts. Rodell offers an example — a 1995 encounter with Latrobe native Rogers that lifted the spirits of a younger man — in his new book released this month, “Growing...
Western Pa. authors to pitch books at Oakmont event
A dozen local authors will gather in Oakmont this month to pitch their books to an audience of hundreds in five minutes. The 12th annual event, sponsored by Tarentum-based Word Association Publishers, will be held from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at Riverside Landing in Oakmont, 12 Washington Ave....
‘The Hunger Games’ prequel title, book cover revealed
“The Hunger Games” prequel has a title and a book cover. Suzanne Collins’ “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is due out May 19. Scholastic announced the title Friday along with the cover art, which features the now famous mockingjay symbol, along with a snake. Collins announced earlier this year...
Local sci-fi, horror authors to participate in panel discussion in Monroeville
Visitors to the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Monroeville later this month may find themselves immersed in a world where women have leeches for arms, intergalactic mercenary werewolves fly through space beating people up and aliens wink at passers-by in bars with names like The Pickled Quasar. But it’s not...
Store-bought is fine: ‘Barefoot Contessa’ writing memoir
The next book by million-selling chef Ina Garten will be a little more personal. Celadon Books announced Wednesday that Garten is working on a memoir, not yet titled. It’s tentatively scheduled for 2022. Garten, longtime host of the Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa,” has written such bestsellers as “Barefoot Contessa Parties!”...
6 new paperbacks to pick up, including a biography of Fred Rogers
These paperback roundups have a tendency to be fiction-focused — in my own reading, I’m always drawn toward novels — but in honor of the new season, let’s mix things up a bit. Here are six nonfiction books, freshly out in paperback, all of which look like they’d be splendid...
Review: Inspirational Mister Rogers quotes fill new coffee-table book
If you need something to hold you over between the Mister Rogers documentary and the upcoming biopic starring Tom Hanks, a new coffee-table book of his quotes is now in bookstores. “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” is small and short, with the cover featuring...
‘The Nanny’ explores deadly mystery in English upper class
Fans of Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca,” along with devotees of the “Downton Abbey” series, likely will enjoy English author Gilly Macmillan’s newest novel, “The Nanny.” Inside a rambling mansion outside of London, Lady Virginia Holt, her daughter, Jo, and Jo’s young daughter, Ruby, share an uneasy existence. Thirty years ago,...
Carnegie Library, CMU help Book Fairies in fight against banned books
As part of Banned Books Week, Sept. 22-28, Carnegie Mellon University’s English department is partnering with the ACLU and the Book Fairies of Pennsylvania to shed light on the topic of book banning. The Book Fairies share the joy of reading by leaving their books in public places to be...
Comics creator Frank Santoro explores growing up in ‘Pittsburgh’
Frank Santoro, a comics creator of international stature, has a new graphic novel set in the Swissvale neighborhood where he grew up, entitled “Pittsburgh.” The book — first published in France, now in the U.S. by New York Review Comics — is a family saga chronicling the relationship of his...
Author Jenkins to speak at Saint Vincent on ‘The Church in the 21st Century’
Best-selling author Philip Jenkins will give the Pope Benedict XVI Lecture at Saint Vincent Seminary on Oct. 29. Jenkins, author of more than 25 books, will speak on the topic “The Church in the 21st Century: Is the Church Entering a Golden Age or a Dark Age?” at 7:30 p.m....
Collection of premier proverb scholar opens at UVM
BURLINGTON, Vt. — From “Strike while the iron is hot” to “Been there, done that,” proverbs have been developed around the world for centuries, spread by word of mouth, writings, and nowadays social media. University of Vermont Professor Wolfgang Mieder, thought to be the world’s premier paroemiologist, has been studying...
Civil War authors to appear at Latrobe library
Two men who have penned books on Civil War topics will be featured in a series of local author presentations this fall at Adams Memorial Library in Latrobe. Derry resident Alfred C. Young III will speak about his book, “Lee’s Army During the Overland Campaign,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday in...
Book tells about Tarentum native’s Vietnam War rescue mission
Allen Ellis Weseleskey says he would do it all over again. In the same way. Facing the same imminent danger. Weseleskey, who was born in Tarentum, lived in Springdale and currently resides in Virginia Beach, Va., is a retired Navy captain. On March 9, 1968, in Vietnam, he rescued a...
