The New York Times does it best, of course. What lines from poems and plays have fueled the imaginations of more contemporary writers? Take this 12 question, multiple choice quiz to see how you rank. And prepared to be amazed. The thing that astonished me the most comes early on, in question 2: Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel “Things Fall Apart,” Joan Didion’s 1968 essay collection “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and Robert B. Parker’s 1983 thriller “The […]
Robert MacNeil, the journalist who brought news to PBS, died Friday “after a long illness” according to the PBS news representative who confirmed MacNeil’s death. It was the Canadian-born journalist’s coverage of the Watergate scandal that led to the first newscasts on PBS. He was the founding anchor of “PBS NewsHour,” first launched in 1975 as “The Robert MacNeil Report” and later renamed “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” when journalist Jim Lehrer was added to the lineup. […]
The 2024 shortlist for the International Booker Prize was announced last week, introducing us to six books from around the globe that have been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. The prize recognizes the vital work of translators with the £50,000 prize money divided equally: £25,000 (about $31,000 US) for the author and £25,000 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators). In addition, there is a prize of £5,000 […]
by Courtney Bill Tekteksen, or East Point, Saturna Island. August 10, 2018. Sixty people collected on the grass overlooking the Salish Sea. They cross their legs, lean back on their hands, fumble to take pictures of the fading sky. They had gathered to listen to a talk about the southern resident orcas. In the distance, past the sculpted sandstone cliffs stood the San Juan Islands and a view of Mount Baker. The East Point Lighthouse […]
This week it all feels a little on the nose, but this is early days in J.M. Adams’ career as a novelist. The ground covered in Second Term will feel less jolting in due course. This is the good stuff, even though the timing might be either not terrific or too terrific, depending on your perspective. It is September 2012. Cora Walker, a DIA defense operative, discovers a terrorist plot in Benghazi and jumps into […]
Sometimes, these days, it’s better to laugh than cry. You know: when life gives you lemons, chug some lemonade. The lemonade in the banned book scenario is a brand new reading list: created for us by those who would restrict what we’d read. Thankfully, it doesn’t work that way. Not sure what to read this week? Choose one of these. And we can make light (back to that laugh so you don’t cry scenario) but […]
Food With Spirit is the latest release from Las Vegas chef, author, and television personality Alicia Shevetone. The book focuses on cooking for one or two people without creating massive amounts of leftovers, but also without sacrificing flavor. Food With Spirit features 50 recipes spread across five sections: Appetizers, Soups, Entrees, Sides, and Desserts. Each is beautifully illustrated and all 50 recipes are infused with some of our favorite intoxicants, from spiced rum to the […]
Scottish crime-fictionist Denise Mina has demonstrated her versatility in recent years with modern fictional takes on historical dramas (Rizzio, Three Fires). In the vivid, crisply penned new tale, The Second Murderer (Pegasus Crime), she stretches her muscles still further, dispatching Raymond Chandler’s solitary Los Angeles gumshoe, Philip Marlowe, in search of Chrissie Montgomery, a naïve 22-year-old heiress gone missing after her engagement party. Marlowe suspects Chrissie’s repugnant father—who comes from money “so old there was […]
North Bath, the fictional upstate New York setting of Richard Russo’s “Fool” trilogy, seems to be finally and firmly on the skids in the brand-new novel Somebody’s Fool (Knopf). The town is slated for annexation by a wealthier, more liberal neighbor, Schuyler Springs. Even the local police station is being shuttered, its longtime chief, Douglas Raymer, surplussed to make room for his Black ex-employee and sometime-girlfriend, Charice Bond, at the helm of the Schuyler PD. […]
Christopher Huang’s twisty new whodunit, Unnatural Ends (Inkshares), should make you feel better about your own upbringing, no matter how wretched it seemed. It’s 1921, and Sir Lawrence Linwood has been bludgeoned to death in the study of his Yorkshire manse, likely by someone he knew. His three adopted, adult, and successful children—Alan, Roger, and Caroline—return home for the funeral, only to learn of a peculiar clause in their pater’s will: the one of them […]
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