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Hilary Duff to write young adult book series

Stories set in Pakistan win $20,000 prize

Palin working on book about virtues and strengths

Tasha Tudor's children scrap for $2M Vt. estate

'Harry Potter' author hit with plagiarism lawsuit

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03/10/2010

Book review: 'Alice I Have Been' by Melanie Benjamin
Think of Alice in Wonderland , and you probably see a pinafored little girl with long, pale hair, the image from Sir John Tenniel's classic illustrations.

Author Lisa See's fiction inspired by her Chinese ancestry
In the midst of giving a tour a few years ago of places intrinsic to her books – an outing intended to give her fans more understanding of her work – Lisa See was struck with an unsettling insight of her own:

03/07/2010

Books: 'Asleep' by Molly Caldwell Crosby explores the sleeping sickness epidemic
Author Molly Caldwell Crosby, a Highland Park native, recalls her grandmother, Virginia, being distracted and "not fully present."

Book review: 'Valley of Death' by Ted Morgan
By 1954, French colonial rule in Indochina was dying. An eight-year insurrection by the communist Viet Minh had forced the weary French military to make a stand at Dien Bien Phu, a village intercepting a key supply line to Laos.

Book review: 'The Tudors' by G.J. Meyer
One leaves G.J. Meyer's very readable The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty thankful above all else that the age of monarchy is behind us.

Book review: 'The Possessed' by Elif Batuman
Russian literary scholars aren't known for their sense of humor, unless they're Elif Batuman. Her new book, The Possessed , a collection of essays that can best be described as a series of academic misadventure stories, is possibly the best thing to come out of a graduate program in recent years.

Book Review: 'Model Home' by Eric Puchner
It's not easy to pull off a fresh take on suburban life, a topic that has fascinated writers from John Cheever to Tom Perrotta – and many in between.

Book review: 'Islands of the Damned' by R.V. Burgin
The ominous number 13 had popped up with unusual frequency during R.V. Burgin's young life in rural Texas. Now, in September 1944, the Leon County farm boy was riding an amphibious vehicle emblazoned with that same bad-luck symbol as it wallowed toward the Pacific island of Peleliu under devastating Japanese artillery fire.

Book review: 'The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight' by Gina Ochsner
This odd, often funny novel reads like folklore. Set in a remote town in Siberia after the economic collapse of the Soviet Union, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight catalogs the dreams of ordinary people living in a decrepit apartment complex. The novel is at once a love story, a black comedy and a critique of life in the new Russia.

Book review: 'Black Hills' by Dan Simmons
Among fantasy readers, Dan Simmons is admired for his massive intergalactic, apocalyptic space operas ( Hyperion , Endymion ) and has a following among fanciers of horror ( Carrion Comfort , Song of Kali ), thrillers ( Darwin's Blade , Lovedeath ), and hard-boiled detective fiction ( Hard Case , Hard as Nails ).

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from Jokae's African-American Books, 3223 Camp Wisdom Road. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

Author tours
Rick Steves will discuss Travel as a Political Act at 4:30 p.m. today at the Wyly Theatre, 2403 Flora St., Dallas. $15 at www.dfwworld.org.

03/03/2010

Author brings passion for Haitian hero to Arts and Letters Live

Arts and Letters Live

Madison Smartt Bell calls Toussaint L'Ouverture a complex man.

Haiti has long fascinated author Madison Smartt Bell. Drawn first by Haiti's religious practices, Bell came across Toussaint L'Ouverture, the complex, brilliant Haitian revolutionary credited for leading the only successful slave uprising in history.
Event details: D-FW art exhibits | Arts & Letters Live series

03/02/2010

Holt stops publishing 'The Last Train to Hiroshima' after doubts arise
NEW YORK – Publication has been halted for a disputed book about the atomic bombing of Japan.

02/28/2010

Book review: 'The Things That Keep Us Here' by Carla Buckley
If you're still a little freaked out by the swine flu, The Things That Keep Us Here might not be the best choice for your reading list. I've already had the swine flu, but this chilling, engrossing debut novel by Carla Buckley, about a flu pandemic that takes out 50 percent of those it infects, gave me the serious willies.

Book review: 'Shadow Tag' by Louise Erdrich
This tense new novel by Louise Erdrich presents a raw family drama that differs greatly from her earlier complex novels about American Indians , such as Love Medicine and The Antelope Wife .

Book review: 'The Poisoner's Handbook' by Deborah Blum
Delve into The Poisoner's Handbook and you know why the author's husband began sliding his cup out of her reach. After all, science writer Deborah Blum knows more about the biochemistry of poisons than did the Borgias.

Book review: 'The Girl Who Fell From the Sky' by Heidi W. Durrow
Read the newspaper, watch the evening news or turn on the radio and you might catch one: a horrific story of a desperate mother who commits an unthinkable act, taking her babies with her.

Book review: 'Day of the Dead,' by Manuel Luis Martínez
Manuel Luis Martinez's Day of the Dead is a stark tour through the atrocities of a war-torn Mexico.

Book review: 'Chronic Poems' by D.A. Powell
Some poets can show us the exterior world, and some can ferry news of their inner turmoil. Few possess the double vision required to do both.

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from Legacy Books, 7300 Dallas Parkway, Plano. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

Author tours in the Dallas area
Barry Doyle will sign Dallas Iconography at 11 a.m. today at Barnes & Noble, 7700 W. Northwest Highway.

02/27/2010

Argyle novelist taps into her own cultural balancing act
Imagine uprooting your culturally mixed family from their home in a diverse neighborhood and moving halfway across the country to a town where nearly everyone looks and talks the same. People are puzzled when you have a last name like Ramirez, but you're as pasty as the paper in your printer.

02/23/2010

Superman's debut comic book sells in NYC for $1M
NEW YORK (AP) – A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman sold Monday for $1 million, smashing the previous record price for a comic book.

02/21/2010

Book review: 'A Dead Hand' by Paul Theroux
This is not the Bollywood India of colorful costumes, where everyone breaks into song and dance at the end. There is no slumdog millionaire here.

Book reviews: 'Where Armadillos Go to Die' by James Hime, 'From Birdwomen to Skygirls' by Fred Erisman, 'Texas Tornado' by Jan Reid, 'The Glory Guys' by Mona D. Sizer

Book review: 'The Routes of Man' by Ted Conover
In a state like Texas, crisscrossed by freeways, highways and avenues covering vast distances, it is no wonder that road conditions, including speed limits, are a big deal. Author Ted Conover is aware of such common concerns.

Book review: 'Monsieur Pain' by Roberto Bolaño
1938: the Peruvian poet César Vallejo is hiccuping to death in a Paris hospital bed. His organs are fine, and his doctor is baffled, and there is nothing established medicine can do.

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from Borders, 5500 Greenville Ave. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

Book review: 'The Bell Ringers' by Henry Porter
Every step you take / I'll be watching you ... The refrain from the stalker's love song, "Every Breath You Take," by the Police, might serve as the epigram for this gripping new British thriller.

Dallas-area book and author tours
Noam Zion will discuss A Night to Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices at 11 a.m. today at Legacy Books, 7300 Dallas Parkway, Plano.

Book review: 'The Bread of Angels' by Stephanie Saldaña
Stephanie Saldaña's The Bread of Angels is an imperfect but poignant memoir about hitting rock bottom in love and faith. It's also a traditional love story with obstacles that will keep readers guessing at the outcome.

02/16/2010

Book review: 'The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted,' by Gerald Imber
In this biography, New York physician and writer Gerald Imber resurrects William Stewart Halsted, the father of modern surgery. In the late 19th century, Halsted introduced the idea of having surgeons wear sterile rubber gloves to prevent postoperative infections, and he pioneered surgeries for breast cancer and hernias.

02/15/2010

Books: An odd trip in 'Chronic City' by Jonathan Lethem
AUSTIN – Novelist Jonathan Lethem hails from Brooklyn, as does much of his fiction. In Motherless Brooklyn , about a detective with Toilette's syndrome, and The Fortress of Solitude , the story of an interracial friendship, his home borough is as much a character as a locale.

02/14/2010

Book review: 'The Yellow House' by Patricia Falvey
Patricia Falvey, who was born in Northern Ireland and now splits her time between there and Dallas, makes a strong fiction debut with The Yellow House , a stirring romantic drama set during the nascent period of "the troubles" that tore Ireland apart throughout the 20th century.

Book review: 'Union Atlantic' by Adam Haslett
Straddling the headline worlds of war and economic meltdown, Adam Haslett's debut novel, Union Atlantic , depicts the inner workings of a Boston-area banking institution and how its pathological employees squandered billions.

Mary Karr, Mark Bowden among speakers planned for Mayborn conference
Memoirist Mary Karr, Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden and Sports Illustrated writer Gary Smith will be the keynote speakers at this year's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.

Book review: 'The Lost Books of the Odyssey' by Zachary Mason
"I have never been at a loss for a tale, lie, or synonym," says the hero of Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey , who shares this much at least with Homer's Odysseus.

Book review: 'The Great American University' by Jonathan R. Cole
As a former provost of Columbia University, Jonathan Cole's observations about America's research universities carry weight. After noting that there are about 4,500 institutions of higher learning in the U.S., responsible for about 1.5 million baccalaureate degrees each year (plus about 90,000 professional degrees and 50,000 doctoral degrees), he offers a prescription and a warning.

Book review: 'You Are Not a Gadget' by Jaron Lanier
It's just another day in Digital City. Millions of Web denizens flit about the online world, sampling video satire on YouTube, updating their Facebook status, hopping over to Wikipedia for some quick research, dumping photos into Flickr accounts, checking out book and music recommendations on Amazon, and firing off tart zingers (and worse) in response to bloviators who spark their ire.

Book review: 'The Brightest Star in the Sky' by Marian Keyes
The narrator of Marian Keyes' The Brightest Star in the Sky floats ethereally inside a Dublin apartment building, closely watching its quirky residents.

Local and national best-sellers
This week's list of local best-sellers is from Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 2201 Preston Road, Plano. National best-sellers are from The New York Times. Parentheses indicate book's position last week; indicates first week on list.

Book and author tours in the Dallas area
John D. Bledsoe will discuss and sign The Gospel of Roth: The Good News About Roth IRA Conversions 7 p.m. Tuesday at Legacy Books, 7300 Dallas Parkway, Plano.

02/11/2010

Books: 9/11, end of Cold War changed perspectives for Alex Berenson
Business is booming again for espionage novelists. Just ask Alex Berenson, whose fourth spy novel, The Midnight House , just hit bookstores.

02/10/2010

Vampire author Anne Rice set to release video book

Associated Press

Anne Rice

Anne Rice is giving the video book a try. The author of "Interview With a Vampire," "The Vampire Lestat" and many other favorites has agreed to terms with the video book company Vook on a multimedia edition of "The Master of Rampling Gate."
Quoted: What they're saying about Anne Rice
Link: What is a vook?