book reviews

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How-to Guides for New Tipplers
 How-to Guides 
 for New Tipplers 
BOOK REVIEW
Dec 17, 2008 12:50 PM CST

How-to Guides for New Tipplers

Five new guides to seasonal cheer

(Newser) - The holiday season tends to produce a glut of books on wine, and while all primers leave out the most important part—actual bottles—five new reads get a once-over by Eric Asimov in the New York Times.
  • Andrew Jefford’s Wine Course, by Andrew Jefford: a "poetically inspirational"
...

History Often Forgets About This Adams
History Often Forgets About This Adams
BOOK REVIEW
Nov 26, 2008 4:22 PM CST

History Often Forgets About This Adams

And it's a shame: Sam, cousin of John, helped shape our revolution

(Newser) - When people think of Samuel Adams these days, the beer, and not the Revolutionary War hero, may come to mind first. But a new book from Ira Stoll—Samuel Adams: A Life—makes the case for bringing the cousin of John Adams out of "the attic of history."...

45 Years Later, JFK Theories Live On
 45 Years Later, 
 JFK Theories Live On 
BOOK REVIEW
Nov 23, 2008 3:20 PM CST

45 Years Later, JFK Theories Live On

New book on JFK assassination offers new ideas, little proof

(Newser) - In the canon of great conspiracy theories, the JFK assassination remains unquestionably king. The enduring national mystery has given rise to some of the most complicated explanations, and the theory offered by a new book is one of the more pleasingly convoluted, reports Vanity Fair in a look at Legacy ...

The Culture Wars, College Football Style
The Culture Wars, College Football Style
BOOK REVIEW
Nov 21, 2008 5:00 PM CST

The Culture Wars, College Football Style

Michigan-Ohio State rivalry illuminates tale of '60s, '70s upheaval

(Newser) - The cultural disconnect between conservative college football programs and America’s liberalizing culture in the late 1960s and early ‘70s is the theme of War as They Knew It, a book by Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg. The survey of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry (which continues tomorrow) through...

Death Takes a Holiday in Saramago's Latest
Death Takes a Holiday in Saramago's Latest
BOOK REVIEW
Oct 10, 2008 6:24 AM CDT

Death Takes a Holiday in Saramago's Latest

Author of Blindness deals with death in new novel

(Newser) - The premise of Jose Saramago’s Death With Interruptions seems a bit cutesy at first, with a Buffy-esque Grim Reaper deciding to take some time off her job, writes Shannon McBeen in Radar. But as Saramago explores the ramifications of universal immortality, he manages to transform “the admittedly weak...

Waiter Serves It Up in Tell-All
 Waiter Serves It Up in Tell-All
BOOK REVIEW
Aug 26, 2008 12:42 PM CDT

Waiter Serves It Up in Tell-All

Behind the scenes at a New York bistro

(Newser) - A waiter known for grumbling about his work online has now recounted his misadventures in a book, Waiter Rant. Steve Dublanica tells Bloomberg about its highlights: runaway rodents, crazed customers, and his background in the mental health field. "Dealing with rabidly insane psychopaths is perfect training for dealing with...

Pelosi Teaches America's Daughters to Complain
Pelosi Teaches America's Daughters to Complain
BOOK REVIEW
Aug 4, 2008 3:17 PM CDT

Pelosi Teaches America's Daughters to Complain

Dem's 'tiresome' tome not worth (short) read

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi’s new book is titled Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters. But if its contents, and the Democrat’s actions, are any indication, America’s daughters mostly have the power to whine, Samantha Sault writes in the Weekly Standard. Amid “tiresome feminist complaining,”...

Wife Shouldn't Worry Laura Bush: Dowd
 Wife Shouldn't Worry
 Laura Bush: Dowd 
OPINION
Jul 9, 2008 1:11 PM CDT

Wife Shouldn't Worry Laura Bush: Dowd

First lady is sympathetic character in controversial novel

(Newser) - Words like "smear" and "gossip" have flown around American Wife, the novel probing the secret life of Laura Bush, but the book itself is pretty harmless, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times. Kings and queens have always inspired art, Dowd notes, and Wife isn’t sensationalist—...

Evangelicals' Sex Talk Has Hidden Agenda
Evangelicals' Sex Talk Has Hidden Agenda
BOOK REVIEW
Jul 8, 2008 7:50 PM CDT

Evangelicals' Sex Talk Has Hidden Agenda

Despite racy rants, they push abstinence, anti-gay views: author

(Newser) - Sex is no longer taboo for the religious right—but the evangelical sexual revolution is no liberation movement, historian Dagmar Herzog argues in her new book, Sex in Crisis. Instead, Herzog asserts that “evangelicals, over the last couple of decades, have beaten liberals at their own game by adapting...

Nixonland Gets 'Excellent' Prez Utterly Wrong
Nixonland Gets 'Excellent' Prez Utterly Wrong
Book review
Jun 19, 2008 4:46 PM CDT

Nixonland Gets 'Excellent' Prez Utterly Wrong

Conrad Black, author of rival bio, scorns hit job, recites strong points

(Newser) - The biography Nixonland is a hatchet job on an “excellent president,” media mogul Conrad Black (from behind bars) writes in the New York Sun, picking apart author Rick Perlstein’s slights—and reminding of the profound accomplishments of the 37th president. Beyond crediting Nixon with coarsening the political...

Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'
Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'
BOOK REVIEW
Jun 13, 2008 4:25 PM CDT

Summer's 'Most Enchanting Debut Novel'

Edgar Sawtelle is Hamlet -inspired 'bolt from the blue'

(Newser) - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, the debut novel from former software developer David Wroblewski, is “a great, big, mesmerizing read, audaciously envisioned as classic Americana," Janet Maslin raves in the New York Times. "Pick up this book and expect to feel very, very reluctant to put it...

Top 10 Summer Cookbooks
 Top 10 Summer Cookbooks 
BOOK REVIEWS
Jun 5, 2008 11:44 AM CDT

Top 10 Summer Cookbooks

Step outside to find the best seasonal ingredients

(Newser) - Summer cooking should combine those elements we love most about the season: fresh fruits and vegetables, bright colors, arresting aromas, and the great outdoors. So NPR selected the 10 best cookbooks for jumping out of the frying pan and into the garden:
  1. Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and
...

Salon 's Favorite Thrillers
 Salon's Favorite Thrillers 
May 26, 2008 6:09 PM CDT

Salon's Favorite Thrillers

5 gripping novels for those long summer days

(Newser) - Memorial Day means beaches, languid hours, and a page-turner within reach—so Salon has collared the season's best thrillers. This year's lineup includes: An art forger who gets in too deep; a Stalinist official who tries to do good; and a college prof who needs help solving an imaginary murder....

Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey
Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey
BOOK REVIEW
May 13, 2008 7:23 AM CDT

Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey

Critic lashes fake memorist's 'execrable' new novel

(Newser) - The flap over James Frey's memoir-that-really-wasn't was bound to cast some clouds over his new novel Bright Shiny Morning. But lack of believability continues to be a key issue for the author with his "execrable" new book of two-dimensional characters in a city that bears little resemblance to LA,...

Willie Bio an Epic of Whiskey, Weed, and Women
Willie Bio an Epic of
Whiskey, Weed, and Women
Book Review
May 4, 2008 3:01 PM CDT

Willie Bio an Epic of Whiskey, Weed, and Women

Joe Nick Patoski's biography of Nelson a 'sprawling masterpiece,' says Radar

(Newser) - Joe Nick Patoski hopped aboard Willie Nelson's tour bus more than 35 years ago, and despite the ever-present haze of marijuana smoke, appears to have emerged clear-eyed to write Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. The work is a "sprawling masterpiece" of the Texas hippie, John Clarke Jr. writes in...

After 10 Years, Harry Potter Off NYT Best-Seller List

Rowling mainstay, which forced changes in the survey, finally vanishes

(Newser) - As the next edition of the New York Times Book Review goes to press, an era ends—books from author JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, for the first time in 10 years, are nowhere on the best-seller list.

Cracking the Steve Jobs Code
 Cracking the Steve Jobs Code 
book review
Apr 21, 2008 6:39 AM CDT

Cracking the Steve Jobs Code

Author peers into the brain of Apple's elusive guiding force

(Newser) - Though it’s near impossible to get an interview with Steve Jobs, author Leander Kahney’s book Inside Steve’s Brain gives a “fresh, noble perspective” on the Apple icon’s impenetrable mind, Jon Swartz writes in USA Today. Like most who try, Kahney couldn’t score facetime, but...

Politicians: They're All Crazy
Politicians: They're
All Crazy
Book review
Apr 15, 2008 3:56 PM CDT

Politicians: They're All Crazy

Blair, Bush, JFK all went nuts, argues ex-doctor and politician

(Newser) - It’s no wonder George W. Bush and Tony Blair messed up in Iraq: They were crazy. At least that’s ex-British politician David Owen’s belief. In his new book, In Sickness and in Power, the ex-doctor explores the health of leaders throughout time. Bush and Blair were afflicted...

How Osama Rejected His Family's Values
How Osama Rejected His
Family's Values
Book Review
Apr 1, 2008 1:20 PM CDT

How Osama Rejected His Family's Values

Author examines bin Laden's roots, Saudi clan's ties to US

(Newser) - Osama is the most famous of the bin Ladens, but he’s also the clan's black sheep. In his new book, The bin Ladens, Steve Coll explores the sprawling family, which is so different from its most famous scion that Osama’s war takes on a Freudian dimension. The book...

Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura
Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura
OPINION
Feb 29, 2008 7:59 PM CST

Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura

Son's imagined convo with dead dad might've saved final manuscript

(Newser) - Dmitri Nabokov's decision not to destroy his famed father's unfinished manuscript followed an imagined conversation with Vladimir's ghost, writes Ron Rosenbaum for Slate. Rosenbaum, who sleuthed his way through the "to burn or not to burn" debate, was previously told by Dmitri—who hinted at the book's genius before...

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