“New and Notable book reviews - AZCentral.com” plus 3 more |
- New and Notable book reviews - AZCentral.com
- Everyone's a Critic: Book reviews from you - Florida Times-Union
- Book reviews - Green Valley News and Sun
- Children’s book reviews – Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult ... - Publishers Weekly
| New and Notable book reviews - AZCentral.com Posted: 28 Nov 2009 09:51 PM PST Get out your gift lists and jot down these four titles. They're good books released for the holiday season, and at reasonable prices. 'The Jazz Loft Project' Sam Stephenson (Knopf, $40) This seductive volume will appeal to lovers of jazz, photography and New York City. In 1957, the great photographer W. Eugene Smith moved into a fourth-floor loft in the city's then-edgy flower district. He'd left behind his family, a rocky relationship with Life magazine and his Pittsburgh project, which had consumed three years of his life. He now shared a shabby, rat-infested building with artist David X. Young, jazz musicians Dick Cary and Hal Overton and a steady flow of jazz players, both the admired (Thelonius Monk, Zoot Sims, Ronnie Free) and the unknown, who came to the loft to jam. Smith taped their late-night sessions, which often stretched to dawn, and took photographs of the players, of the celebrities who came to listen (Norman Mailer, Diane Arbus) and, from his window, of the city life below. The book is dark and wonderfully evocative. You can almost hear the rain against the windows, see the cigarette smoke in the air, imagine the startling music they made. 'The Onion: Our Front Pages 1988-2008' (Scribner, $28) If humor and good taste are a contradiction in terms, it's no secret which camp the Onion prefers. Its staff is fearless. They ran snarky headlines just two weeks after 9/11 ("Rest of Country Temporarily Feels Deep Affection for New York") and months after the Columbine shootings ("Columbine Jocks Safely Resume Bullying"). They got away with it because bad taste and truth often have something in common, and the Onion cashes in on it. There's lots of cringe-worthy fun here, although I'm sad to say my favorite Onion story, about the opening of a Barnes & Noble in the killing fields of Cambodia, did not make the cut. In a foreword, NBC anchor Brian Williams says the Onion is "the sole news outlet capable of acknowledging that it is not above the hue and cry, that it is, in fact along for the ride, and that we have all of us together spiraled out of the darkness and down into something we cannot yet name or comprehend." Surely the Onion will mock him for it soon. 'Heads On and We Shoot: The Making of Where the Wild Things Are' (Harper, $39.99) What would Maurice think? They worried about that. Dave Eggers was nervous when he went with director Spike Jonze to Sendak's house one wintry day in 2003 to talk about their script for his book, "Where the Wild Things Are." But Sendak was welcoming, and when they left, Jonze felt that "we had a wind at our backs. We went into the unknown, and it was Maurice behind us, pushing us with force in that direction." This is the behind-the-scenes story of a movie made by a crew (it included a "creature designer") of adults who had read the book long ago. Some still had strong feelings about it. Here you'll learn about many things, from the injuries Max Records (he played Max) incurred during the shooting - he kept a list - to the logistics of filming the "dirt-clod war" to the contents of KW's belly ("slime," Max said, "that smelled like rotted lemons"). It was challenging and satisfying, and you get the feeling they had a really good time. 'Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds' Edited by Billy Collins (Columbia, $22.95) I picked up this book because its illustrations are by David Allen Sibley, whose bird guide is a standard among American birders (his paintings now grace a guide to trees as well). But it was the poems that kept me in my chair for two hours. This was surprising. I am not an admirer of "theme" anthologies and I am not a bird-watcher. Yet I watch birds. I have no list, no expertise, only an affection for the creatures that dive and hover, bicker and coo, and swoop incessantly among the wires above my yard. On that single, rather weak credential, I'm here to tell you that Collins has assembled a book that is lovely and oddly moving. Whether the poems are funny or sad, they make you think about what we see when we look at birds, and what we imagine them to be. If you enjoy birds in the way I do, two hours will go by fast. Poets include Marianne Moore, Robert Penn Warren, John Updike, Gerald Stern and Gary Snyder. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Everyone's a Critic: Book reviews from you - Florida Times-Union Posted: 28 Nov 2009 09:01 PM PST 'A Death In November: America In Vietnam, 1963' This is a neglected classic of history written by a veteran observer with decades of experience in Southeast Asia and access to documents in three languages. In 1963, the United States prompted the assassination of the nationalist, anti-communist president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, and began to escalate our political and military involvement. Substitute contemporary liberals and hawks for their peers in 1963, Obama and Lieberman for JFK and Henry Cabot Lodge, and there is an uncanny parallel to today's conflict in Afghanistan — each generation combating a perceived threat to our freedom by state-building and military escalation thousands of miles from the United States. — Michael Hoffmann, Atlantic Beach 'The Total Brain Workout' "A boy is looking at a photo: 'Brothers and sisters have I none, but this man's son is my father's son.' Who is the person in the picture?" It's a famous conundrum, Can you solve it? Don't worry if you can't. Whether it be from disease, drugs, aging or assimilating too much mush from the tube (the primary culprit), we all are in need of help. Canadian college professor Marcel Danesi says his "The Total Brain Workout" (Harlequin, 246 pages, $16.95), a collection of more than 400 puzzles and brain teasers, is designed to be "chicken soup" for your fuzzy thinking cap. Arranged from easy to complicated to stimulate brain function, he says that working through the book in order will help keep the brain sharp and healthy. Got it yet? Get the book; he includes answers. — C.F. Foster, Riverside 'Ansel Adams in Color' A revised and expanded edition of "Ansel Adams" is now available. The first book was published in 1993, and the new one has 20 additional images. Like most people, I associate Adams with his black-and-white photos. It's interesting to see some color. But, for whatever reason, they don't strike me as breathtaking, the way his black and whites do. Still, the book is a well-done, comprehensive look at his work, certainly worthy of notice. — Amanda Tew, The Times-Union 'Itty Bitty Toys' Without a doubt, this book, subtitled "How to Knit Animals, Dolls and Other Playthings for Kids," is for the highly skilled set. Besides the Russian nesting dolls and the pull-toy mother duck and her babies, it includes detailed instructions for reversible toys such as a mouse that turns into a cat and an egg in a nest that transforms into a bird. Projects are cute but complicated. — Brandy Hilboldt Allport, The Times-Union
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| Book reviews - Green Valley News and Sun Posted: 27 Nov 2009 04:09 PM PST Trial by Fire, This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Children’s book reviews – Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult ... - Publishers Weekly Posted: 23 Nov 2009 08:02 PM PST
ShelfTalker: A Children's Bookseller's Blog
May 6, 2009 When Titles Go Bad I've been selling books for 13 years. And in those years I've helped hundreds, maybe ... More This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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