10182 results were found.
An Interview with Niall Williams
Ensconced in her upstairs room with the rain-soaked skylight above and the River Shannon flowing outside, bedridden protagonist Ruth Swain, in History of the Rain, tries to piece together her family’s past by reading each of the nearly 4,000 books her late father left behind. Here, author Niall Williams discusses…
The Sugar Season: A Year in the Life of Maple Syrup, and One Family’s Quest for the Sweetest Harvest
How is Amazon the bad guy?It wants more of the revenue Hachette and other “mainstream” publishers make from selling through Amazon. I don’t know if that’s a reasonable position, but it sounds like a negotiating one. There probably wouldn’t even be e-books if not for Amazon.I know this position puts…
Monica Bhide:When you asked me what I am reading, I have to admit that I peeked at my bedside collection to make sure everything stacked there was “presentable”!Recently read:The Last Taxi Ride by A.X. Ahmad. I loved this thriller about a Sikh taxi driver in NYC who is accused of…
6 Best Books We’ve Read This Year (So Far)
Joyland by Stephen King. For those who think King is a hack writer who only pens over-the-top horror stories, think again and dive into this beautifully written coming-of-age story. Oh, yeah, it also has a mystery about an unsolved murder at an amusement park thrown in for good measure. ~Gene…
8 of the Year’s Top-Selling Books
It’s too soon to crown the best book of the year, but now’s the perfect time to mention some of the bestselling ones. Publishers Weekly reports that, according to Nielsen, the 20 top-selling titles as of June 29, 2014, include: · Divergent by Veronica Roth (HarperCollins/Tegen) · The Fault in…
Currently in the Middle East, there seems to be a revival of religious sentiment. More women are donning the hijab, and the mosques are overflowing with worshipers. How do you accommodate this phenomenon with your view in The New Arabs that “Arab Generation Y” is less religious?The polling on religious…
Whether you’re transfixed by Edward Snowden or making decisions about your Facebook settings, it’s hard to avoid thinking about privacy these days. For writers, privacy is a weighty term. Privacy means an expansive mental space that is inaccessible to the world outside. Privacy is what writers have craved since storytellers…
There’s something about the long, hot summer season that turns the mind to…reading. Perhaps it’s a hangover from years of school-assigned summer reading. Maybe it’s the illusion that — on your trip to the beach, or the mountains, or Brazil — you’ll have glorious stretches of empty time in which…
An Interview with Tony Horwitz
In your recent New York Times essay, you wrote about the difficulties you encountered in the electronic publication of Boom. Knowing what you know now, how would you have approached the project? Would you have tried to turn it into a more traditional book? For several reasons, this project seemed…
5 Nonfiction Choices to Make You Smarter over Summer Vacation
Flash Boys by Michael Lewis. If latency arbitrage and flash trading are your bag, Lewis’ fast-paced tale of financial corruption at its height is for you. In it, a group of Wall Street do-gooders realizes the markets have been rigged for insiders and are more controlled than ever by the…
July 2014 Exemplars: Poetry Reviews by Grace Cavalieri
The month of vacations with two suitcases—one for clothes, and one for the best Summer reading list below: SAUDADES by José “Joe” Gouveia. Introduction by Martin Espada. Casa Mariposa Press. 40 pages. At first sight José appears to be resting on his famous red motorcycle, but those who know him…
15 Funny Reads to Stave off Boredom
Coyote V. Acme by Ian Frazier. Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America’s Finest News Source by the Onion. Fool by Christopher Moore. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle.Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh.The Duppy by Anthony…
We talk about karma with regard to people anytime it seems that fate destined us to meet them — either because we have so much in common, or they are soul mates, or simply because our paths keep crossing. Authors can be much the same. Not necessarily those bestselling authors…
“Amazon Must Be Stopped.” Do you share our righteous indignation at Amazon’s strong-arming of Hachette? You do! And even though this battle is more “Goliath vs. Goliath” than “David vs. Goliath” (Hachette isn’t exactly a mom-and-pop operation), nobody likes a bully. “Poetry Exemplars.” As usual, Grace Cavalieri’s monthly ode to…
Your Club in Lights: The Toronto-Based No-Longer-Has-an-Official-Name Book Club
Your club’s name: We used to call ourselves “The New Book Club” to differentiate it from another club that several members belonged to. That was at least 16 years ago. And now, we don’t have a name at all. But if I were to make up a name, it might…
As a fiction writer who likes to write about crime, I’ve included a couple of violent female criminals in my work and, truthfully, that bothers me. Even though I’m writing fiction, I should offer an accurate representation of violent criminals, and violent criminals are almost always men. Because, men? We…
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. Nearly 100 years old, this book’s timeless themes — encompassing what feels like the whole of the human condition in small-town America — resonate yet today. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Following the life of Milkman, this well-known novel surveys nearly a century of…
Interview with Gillian Marchenko
Gillian Marchenko’s spare and lyrical memoir, Sun Shine Down, tells the story of her coming to terms with her third daughter being born with Down syndrome while the family was living in Ukraine. Brutally honest and unflinchingly introspective, it explores Marchenko’s struggle with accepting a child who was so different…
Frederica Boswell:Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. One of the first things I heard about this book was a tweet from my Dad. “Dust is stunning. A watershed. The writing will thrill, make you weep, and seriously alter the way you think about #Kenya.” He was in Kenya at the time…
Your Club in Lights: The Coyotes from Skylight Books in Los Angeles
Your club’s name: Our club is called Coyotes, a name we inherited from the previous coordinator stemming from the prevalence of said creatures in Los Angeles. Location: We are run out of Skylight Books in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. How long you’ve been around: The book club…
The spy novel is always a good read when done with insider savvy and literary quality. In past centuries, books by Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad, Wilkie Collins, and Eric Ambler were popular, informed, and well-written. University of Virginia professor Frederick P. Hitz taught a course at Princeton on…
An Interview with Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure, a blind young French girl, lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master locksmith. Werner, an orphaned German boy in a small mining town, tries to raise himself and his sister, along with Frau Elena, an Alsatian nun who…
Radiance of Tomorrow is the story of Imperi, a town temporarily reclaimed from the savagery of war, cruelty, murder, thievery, rape, and the depredations of a mining company intent on its own profits. And yet, the people of this Sierra Leonean village, attempt to thrive. Q&A with Ishmael Beah, A…
33 Terrific Books for Kids. Have tiny bookworms in your life? Here, Children’s National Health System’s family librarian, Lyn Ingersoll, shares some of her favorite read-aloud (and read-alone) titles.4 Promising Summer Reads. The mercury is rocketing skyward and your hair is getting frizzier by the minute. Wouldn’t a great book…
Reading Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, Michael Lewis’ frightening dissection of Wall Street avarice (forgive the redundancy), I thought about the scenes in “The Godfather” where Corleone family lieutenant Pete Clemenza discusses going “to the mattresses.” To Mafia thugs, that meant hiding out in rented rooms until the dust…
For over four decades, the name “Seymour Hersh” has chilled the hearts of Washington power brokers, who have derisively struck back with a host of epithets: “Sly Sy,” “King Sy,” “Terrorist Sy” — none of which have had much of an effect on the dogged newspaperman from Chicago. Rivaling Bob…
6 Tips for Making the Most of Malice
Recently, I attended Malice Domestic for the first time, and it took weeks to recover. The experience was exhilarating and exhausting for all the right reasons. Even before I left, I couldn’t wait for Malice 2015. I had long hoped to attend the DC-area convention that celebrates traditional mysteries, which…
In Marcel Theroux’s Strange Bodies, Nicholas Slopen came back from the dead. Or at least thought he did. He awakened in a locked ward of a notorious psychiatric hospital trying to piece his life back together again. What happened? Here, author, broadcaster, and filmmaker Theroux discusses his latest novel, memory,…
Your Club in Lights: The Georgetown-Based “Doesn’t Have an Official Name” Book Club
Your club’s name: We don’t have an official name for our book club, but our unofficial motto is: “We read wine labels and books.”Location: Georgetown in Washington, DC.How long you’ve been around: Since January 2012.Members: 10.Book you’re currently reading: The Girls’ Guide to Love and Supper Clubs by Dana Bate.Book…
June 2014 Exemplars: Poetry Reviews by Grace Cavalieri
JUNE EXEMPLARS 2014Poetry Reviews by Grace CavalieriCongregation: Poems by Natasha . William Meredith Foundation/Dryad Press. 17 pages.This Way Out, by Terrence Winch. Hanging Loose Press. 90 pages.Eye to Eye. by Maria . HagertyTwinzilla” by Richard The Tulip-Flame by Chloe . Cleveland State University Poetry Center. 51 pages. Foreword by Tracy…
In a desperate bid to keep people reading, there has been a flurry of studies that show how reading fiction makes us more empathetic and less racist, and improves brain function. Luckily, academics know better: Literature is actually a sinister attempt to lure us into a minefield of trauma and…
The other day, I got an email from a woman whose granddaughter had just finished reading my first novel, Logan’s Fire. It was a YA novel published in 1996, so it’s 18 years old. The book has been out of print for at least 10 years. It was nice to…
Many people, even some Washingtonians, don’t know much about Dunbar High School. Founded in 1870, Dunbar was an academically elite, racially segregated public high school and, yet, in its first 80 years, its graduates included the first black member of a presidential cabinet, the first black graduate of the U.S.…
Tom Glenn’s fiction has dealt largely with Vietnam where he spent the better part of thirteen years as an undercover intelligence operative. But Glenn spent five years as a volunteer buddy for AIDS patients; two years aiding the homeless; and seven years ministering to the dying in the hospice system.…
7 “Snowy” Tales to Cool You Off this Summer
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey [Read our review here]Snow by Orhan PamukSmilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter HøegBoy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi [Read our review here]Snow Falling on Cedars by David GutersonThe Snow Queen by Michael CunninghamSnow in August by Pete Hamill What are your book club’s favorite…
God, I love swearing. I really do. Dropping a good F-bomb is as cathartic as gobbling up a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Buns ice cream; it’s not good for you, but it feels good (you really need to try that ice cream).But, like ice cream, you occasionally run…
Authorisms: Words Wrought by Authors is Paul Dickson’s latest lexicon. In it you will find contributions to the English language from Chaucer to J. K. Rowling, accompanied by notes on their sources and occasionally a brief story about the origin of the word and a picture of its originator. The…
“Has Gollum’s Literary Progenitor Been Discovered?” This essay, by Josh Trapani, first ran last year, but nerds, er, serious Tolkien fans, rediscovered it in a big way, intrigued by the idea that the Stoor Hobbit from Middle Earth might not have been an entirely original creation. Visitors flocked to this…
“All these stories are so dramatic! Where is the drama in mine? It’s just about a cat!” wailed one of my students after our memoir workshop at StoryStudio Chicago had wrapped up. Granted, we had just workshopped manuscripts about a sister’s suicide, a patient’s death, and a mother’s mental illness.…
For years, I’ve been planning to read Marcel Proust’s multi-volume classic, Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time in English), when I have the time and leisure to savor it — namely, when I retire.There are other lengthy masterpieces, such as Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities,…
3 Ways to Keep Your Club Strong over the Summer
It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy. Maintaining your book club’s momentum, unfortunately, is hard. With kids’ activities, family vacations, and general malaise competing for your time, it’s tough getting together with fellow bookworms.Still, your club is too important to be allowed to wither on the August vine! So preserve…
Memorial Day is set aside to remember and honor those who died while serving in uniform. In the roundtable that follows, veteran Tom Glenn asks two other writers, a reserve officer/diplomat and a war correspondent, to share the feelings about those who died in war. Ron Capps is the author…
Jessica Case: Working in publishing, it’s ironically always a struggle to find time to read for pleasure, but I try to keep my “before bed” reading squarely in the work-free zone, with rare exception. I like to try and read things I am simply not able to publish with Pegasus,…
What happens when a child with special needs ages out of the education system? Every parent has to learn how to let go when a child becomes an adult, but when your child, like Glen Finland’s son, David, is a lanky, handsome 21-year-old with the mind of a “good-natured adolescent,”…
Capital Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in Washington, D.C.
In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio, who, in his quest to woo Portia, borrows money from Shylock, at one point says, “I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind,” which has been loosely translated to mean, “I don’t like it when a villain acts nice.” Au contraire. Far…
House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address
5 Good Reasons to Join a Book Club
Why should people join a book club? “Why would people not join one?” ask Mary Morgan and Charlie Mead of Reading Group Choices, an interactive site dedicated to helping clubs with all aspects of their operations, from choosing great titles to asking discussion-generating questions. Along with the fact that they’re…
If you’re a huge fan of young adult (YA) literature, you already know it’s #IreadYA week. If not, you’re probably thinking, “Huh?” Spearheaded by Scholastic’s This is Teen website, “an online community of readers and young adult book lovers,” #IreadYA week is designed to get devotees to share their love…
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918
For younger children: Madeline by Ludwig BemelmansClifford the Big Red Dog by Norman BridwellGoodnight Moon by Margaret Wise BrownMike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee BurtonThe Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric CarleGood Dog Carl by Alexandra DayGo, Dog. Go! by P.D. EastmanCorduroy by Don FreemanWhere’s Waldo? by Martin…
Every year, I tell myself I’m going to reread all the classics. Every year, I’m wrong. Luckily, I no longer have to worry about finding time to brush up on all the oldies but goodies — Thug Notes does it for me. Like hilarious video Cliff’s Notes, the YouTube series…
As America becomes more diverse, the publishing world looks a lot like the Republican Party: fiercely and proudly white and male. When Book Expo America announced the initial lineup for this year’s BookCon, the only diversity to an otherwise all-white guest roster was represented by a mixed-breed cat. Further controversy…
This Saturday’s Gaithersburg Book Festival will feature many top-notch writers, a few Independent favorites among them! Here’s a rundown of the 2014 GBF authors whose work we’ve reviewed: Last Stand at Khe Sanh by Gregg Jones (Read our review here) The Warriors by Tom Young (Read our review here)This Town:…
“We stand at a historic crossroads. Will the digital age usher in the individual liberation and political freedoms that the Internet is uniquely capable of unleashing? Or will it bring about a system of omnipresent monitoring and control, beyond the dreams of even the greatest tyrants of the past?”Probably both.…
Scott O’Connor’s Half World is about the 1950s Cold War mind-control program, MKUltra, that the CIA ran until 1973. The first half of the book focuses on Henry March, a highly professional, though psychically wounded, analyst who routinely uses brainwashing, psychedelic drugs, hypnosis, sexual abuse, and torture on unsuspecting Canadians…
Your Club In Lights: The Oregon-Based Mother-Son Book Club
Your club’s name: The Mother-Son Book Club. We never came up with a fancy name. Location: Ashland, Oregon. How long you’ve been around: We started it in August 2013. How many members: There are eight of us: four moms and four sons. Book you’re currently reading: Maniac McGee by Jerry…
What a year it’s been at the Independent! Over the last 12 months, we’ve tripled our audience and dramatically diversified our offerings — adding a Beyond the Book section, regular columnists (Alice Stephens, Larry De Maria, E.A. Aymar, Ron Goldfarb, and Darrell Delamaide), and a Book Club Hub. All without…
To many people, the steampunk movement is a fashion statement: all corsets, top hats, and goggles. The aesthetic started as a sub-genre in science-fiction literature, exemplified with works by K.W. Jeter and James Blaycock. Steampunk posits a sort of alternative Victorian era where steam technology takes the place of electric…
In the Hour of Victory: The Royal Navy at War in the Age of Nelson
You may have already turned to Meetup — the free find-a-fun-group-to-hang-out-with website — for all your bowling-league or softball needs, but did you ever use it to track down the perfect book club? Well, you should.After creating an account (again, it’s free), simply plug in your location, your area of…
(Full disclosure: M.K. Tod’s “The Top 10 Historical Fiction Authors” was technically one of the top vote-getters yet again, garnering just over eleventy-billion views. We’re keeping it off this list for the sake of other pieces’ self-esteem.) 1. “The Mormon Excommunication of Fawn Brodie: Why Banishing the Famous Biographer Reverberates…
To open a book by Anthony Doerr is to open a door on humanity. No matter what appalling evils surround the characters — including evils in which they participate — Doerr manages to deliver a world lit with love and compassion. The focal point of Doerr’s new novel, All The…
Post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories are more popular than ever. Whether it’s just a normal end of the world (The Road), a zombie-ridden end of the world (World War Z, The Walking Dead), or a future determined by inequality (The Hunger Games, Elysium), catastrophic destinies for mankind are definitely in.It’s fortunate…
Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love
May 2014 Exemplars: Poetry Reviews by Grace Cavalieri
Graffiti Calculus by Mary-Sherman Willis. CW books. 86 pages.The Hunger of Freedom by Shelby Stephenson. Red Dashboard LLC Publishing. 76 pages. Pachinko Mouth by Michael Gushue. Plan B press. 35 pages. In Defense Of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987-2011 by Peter Gizzi. 221 pages. Selected Poems and Songs by Robert Burns,…
Interview with Maggie Shipstead
In her exquisitely written second novel, Astonish Me, Maggie Shipstead explores the intimate world of professional ballet. The novel is astonishing in the intricacies of its plot and its ability to create fans even out of dance illiterates. The beauty and perfection of ballet is juxtaposed with its vulgar physical…
Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution
You’re Going to Suck at Parties: My Speech to Graduates
I was invited to speak at Marymount University’s English Night, an evening dedicated to English undergraduate and graduate students upon the completion of their degrees. I received my master’s at Marymount (’11) and published my debut novel (’13) when I wasn’t studying or working or Call of Dutying, so the…
One can eat and drink his or her way through Martin Walker’s entire Bruno series, launched in 2008. Benoit Courreges, aka Bruno, is a decorated former soldier and now the (mostly) content policeman in a bucolic small town in the South of France. The series is a passionate valentine to…
4 Buzzed-About Springtime Reads
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The setting is occupied France during WWII. Can a blind French girl and a German boy survive in the same war-torn world? Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals by Patricia Lockwood. “A breathtaking new collection from one of today’s boldest and most adventurous poets.”…
Journalist, foreign correspondent, and author Gregg Jones devoted his third book to the story of the iconic battle at KheSanh. The search to unearth details of the bloody six-month encounter in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam tested Jones’ mettle. Tom Glenn, himself a Vietnam vet with long experience in-country,…
Last Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines’ Finest Hour in Vietnam
The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great
Your Club in Lights: the Cleverly Named Columbus, OH, “Book Club”
Your club’s name: We do not have a name for our group. We just refer to it as “Book Club.” Location: Columbus, OH. How long you’ve been around: Since July 1997; I [Courtney Velker Oakley] joined in January 2001. How many members: 12. Book you’re currently reading: TransAtlantic by Colum…
Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin’s Plot for Global Revolution
A Window on Eternity: A Biologist’s Walk Through Gorongosa National Park
5 Signs You’re Not Ready to Join a Book Club
You avoid reading the backs of cereal boxes because they’re too wordy.Your favorite books are movies.You love IKEA assembly instructions because they’re text-free.You have more than one child under the age of 5.You have more than one child over the age of 5.
I am often asked whether I preferred writing “facts” for newspapers rather than the “fiction” I now attempt with varying degrees of success. I can honestly say that I much prefer the latter, since it is more believable. In my books, the really evil villains usually wind up dead or…
Announcing the Independent’s New Book: “A Sampler”
The Washington Independent Review of Books is proud to announce the release of its first-ever print edition, A Sampler. (Think of it as the internet in paper form.) Featuring some of our favorite pieces from our first three years, A Sampler provides 350+ pages of book reviews, author interviews, Q&As,…
Alisa Bowman: I usually have three types of books going at once: a Dharma book (I’m Buddhist), a science-themed tome that teaches me about human nature or the world in general, and a good read, usually a memoir or a novel. I remain forever thankful for the person who invented…
Your Club in Lights: the Reading Divas of the DMV
Your club’s name: The Reading Divas of the DMV. Location: Bowie, MD. How long you’ve been around: Our first meeting was held in August 1998. How many members: 16 currently. Book you’re currently reading: Anybody’s Daughter by Pamela Samuels Young. Book you last read: Who Asked You? by Terry McMillan.…
Publishers Weekly just came out with a list of what it’s calling “the Best Books of 2014.” Here are a few: Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction: An Expanding Universe by Chris Andrews (Columbia University Press; coming July 29).Half a King by Joe Abercrombie (Del Ray; coming July 15).Qur’an in Conversation by Michael…
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1927-2014
With Gabriel García Márquez’s passing yesterday at the age of 87, a giant literary light has gone out. Known as “Gabo” throughout the Latin world, García Márquez made famous the style of writing dubbed “magical realism,” wherein the everyday exists alongside the fantastical. The author of 10 works of fiction…
Finding Clubs with an African-American Focus
Looking for a book club with an emphasis on African-American authors? Check out Mosaic Books’ extensive list of such clubs around the country. Broken down by state, the entries offer a brief snapshot of each club, as well as information on joining (some are by invitation only, but it couldn’t…
Recently, my husband and I saw David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face,” a play that addresses issues of Asian-American identity that I’ve lived with every day, all my life, but had never encountered before in any play or movie, and all too rarely in my most beloved art form, the novel.…
National Library Week is April 13-19th. Sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries around the nation, the week — which was first observed in 1958 — marks the annual celebration of all things library-related. Among other goals, it serves to shine a spotlight on the tremendous community resource that…
6 Novels Where Weather Takes Center Stage
That Old Ace in the Hole” target=“_blank”>That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx. When young, earnest Bob travels to the Texas Panhandle to trick the locals into selling their land to a hog corporation, he immerses himself in the place — droughts, tornadoes, storms, and all.Snow Mountain Passage…
The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur
Light Between Oceans” target=“_blank”>The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. And the Mountains Echoed” target=“_blank”>And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. Where’d You Go, Bernadette” target=“_blank”>Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. Has your club read any of these? Should this list have included other — and, in your humble…
8 Fascinating Fictional Russian Characters
If you have tired of watching Anna Karenina’s anguished life on film, seeing Raskolnikov’s next villainous act recreated in the comics, or enduring one too many Lolita wannabes in print or on the screen, it’s time to dig deeper into Russia’s literary troves. There, you’ll find rogues, critters, ghouls, and…
Mystery Loves Company: Three Debuts, Plus Two Masters
The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes (Scribner, 306 pp, February 2014) Technically, this is still a mystery debut since her first two books were novels. I really wanted to love this book. It received advance praise from many of my colleagues and has a fabulous engaging cover and…
April 2014 Exemplars: Poetry Reviews by Grace Cavalieri
POETRY MONTH Mantic by Maureen Alsop. Augury Books. 68 pgs.Bicentennial by Dan Chiasson. Alfred A. Knopf. 80 pgsDarkened Rooms of Summer; New and Selected Poems by Jared Carter. (Ted Kooser Contemporary Poetry Series) Univ. of Nebraska Press. 196 pgs.GLTTL STP by Dorrit Caroll. BrickHouse books. 60 pages.The Girl in the…
5 Do’s and Don’ts When Choosing Books
Don’t choose favorites. Sure, you may have loved that recent bestseller du jour. But how will you react when fellow club members tear it apart? (Imagine them calling your kids ugly; it’ll feel a lot like that.) A better plan? Pick a book that no one already has strong opinions…
Laura Lippman and the Great Debate
The most recent issue of the 3rd Degree, the official publication of the Mystery Writers of America, featured a terrific essay by Laura Lippman that will probably make some people angry. In the essay, titled “Folks, we’re in this together…” Lippman made many notable points, chief among them the idea…
The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age
Abdulrazak Gurnah Discusses His Novel “The Last Gift”
In The Last Gift, Abbas, the main character, has never told his secrets, until a debilitating stroke unblocks the dam of his silences and the memories won’t stop. Abbas’ wife, son, and daughter learn about their father’s childhood in Zanzibar from their comfortable small home in England. Abbas left more…
The Book I Thought I’d Never Write: An E-Book
I like books — their weight, their spines, their dust jackets, their fonts, their rough-cut pages, their indexes, and the fact that I can shelve them in our home. I also like the fact that authors can personally sign and inscribe books. I like libraries, too, and savor a stroll…
Your Club in Lights: One More Page Books Fiction Book Club
Your club’s name: One More Page Books Fiction Book Club. Location: One More Page Books, Arlington, VA. How long you’ve been around: Since the store’s opening, over 2 years. How many members: It varies each month. Typically around 10-12. Book you’re currently reading: A Visit from the Goon Squad” target=“_blank”>A…
“The Mormon Excommunication of Fawn Brodie: Why Banishing the Famous Biographer Reverberates 65 Years Later” by James Reston Jr. We’re not sure why this fascinating feature — which originally appeared nearly two years ago — shot to the top of the most-read list, but we’re not complaining. Books Alive! 2014.…
50 Essential Books Sure to Make You a Better Photographer
The following 50 books each, for good or for ill, helped shape the person I am today. The first 10 or so were easy, came right off the top of my head. After that, I slowly scanned the shelves and waited for the strongest memories to hit. Catch-22 by Joseph…
Joyce Varney’s novels were tops on the chart in the 1960s. She was a GI war bride from World War II who came to America and settled in New England with her husband’s posh Victorian family; she finally divorced and wrote her way to independence. The Welsh Story, in 1965,…
Surprise: You’re Part of the One Percent!
Your wallet may beg to differ, but if you’re in a book club, there’s a good chance you’re connected to the one percent. Well, okay. Maybe not that one percent. But if you read, love, and (most importantly) buy books, you’re absolutely connected to 2013’s one-percent rise in book sales…
“It was beautifully written, but…” was one of the comments in our book group when we recently discussed Julian Barnes’ Possession: A Romance” target=“_blank”>Possession again. The 2002 film, based on A.S. Byatt’s bestselling novel, has been on cable lately and I watched it for old time’s sake. Aside from the…
7 Places to Find Markets for Your Poetry
Here are seven places to find the right market for your poetry: Poets & Writers. P&W is perhaps the premier place to find a market for your work. Originally a newsletter which listed poetry readings throughout the New York City area, P&W quickly blossomed into a registry for poets and…
The 130+ writers (aspiring or otherwise) gathered in Bethesda Saturday for the Independent’s second-annual Books Alive! conference may have come looking for advice and tricks of the trade, but they left feeling inspired and rejuvenated. “It was a fun and energizing day,” says David Stewart, the Independent’s president. “A chance…
If it seems like everyone you know is part of a book club these days, it’s probably because, well, everyone you know is part of a book club these days. Or so it appears. According to a recent New York Times piece by James Atlas, roughly five million American bookworms…
Kim Church’s debut novel, Byrd (Dzanc Books), tackles the issue of adoption from the viewpoint of a mother who gives up her child. It is woven together like a quilt from multiple points of view, narrative vignettes, and most uniquely, letters written to the adopted child. Byrd has already gotten…
Your club’s name: The LBC (it stands for the oh-so-creative name Ladies’ Book Club). Location: Various living rooms around Wallingford, CT. How long have you been around: Our first meeting was almost exactly 13 years ago. The baby I had just given birth to is now a very tall teenager.…
My last column was about sex, so I have been a bit perplexed about how to follow up on that. Actually, the column was about crafting sex scenes; like most writers, I talk a good game. So, today, I think I’ll talk about genres and point of view. (I can…
March Exemplars: Poetry Reviews by Grace Cavalieri
BOOK REVIEWS Prodigal by Anne Caston. Aldrich Press. 89 pgs. Caribou by Charles Wright. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 79 pgs. How To Dance As The Roof Caves In by Nick Lantz. Graywolf. 81pgs. Time Is A Toy: The Selected Poems Of Michael Benedikt, edited by John Gallaher and Laura Boss.…
Elle Cosimano: Side Effects May Vary” target=“_blank”>Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy. The premise of this book grabbed me and hasn’t let go. Maybe because it seems too real, and so relatable, and maybe because it poses such a fascinating question. What would we do if we could live…
5 Emergency Discussion Questions
It’s your turn to lead the book discussion, but your fail-safe plan — to use an online guide that, it turns out, doesn’t exist for your particular novel — just failed. Suddenly, you’re working without a net.Should you bail on this month’s meeting? No! Instead, engage your club by asking…
Books Alive! Presents: Peter Baker
Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. His latest book, Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution” target=“_blank”>Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution. He is a regular…
“For thirty-five years I’ve been in wastepaper, and it’s my love story.” So begins Bohumil Hrabal’s slim “novel,” Too Loud a Solitude (translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim). Or is it a memoir of the author’s lost intellectual freedom, buried under communism’s oppressive bulldozer? And does it matter?…
Your Club in Lights: The DC Ladies Book Club
Club name: The DC Ladies Book Club. Location: We’re based in the DMV [Washington, DC-Maryland-Virginia], but we’re a virtual book club and welcome readers from all over! How long have you been around: The book club launched in November 2013. How many members: We’re still very new, so we only…
The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
Literary Death Match, fortunately, did not deliver on its name. There was no blood, no extermination at the Washington, DC, event. Even the ego was gently handled. There was a competition, and elimination, but it was all in the name of self-promotion and selling books.The premise: Two rounds of two…
D.F. Swaab has written a biography of the brain from birth to dotage and it is fascinating throughout. During childbirth, mother and baby are already communicating. The baby’s role in his or her own delivery is as crucial as the mothers. Disruptions to this process can be regarded as the…
4 Ways to Revive a Dying Book Club
Suddenly, instead of preparing for meetings, your club members prepare excuses for why they can’t come this month. Or next month. Is your club beyond saving? No! According to Molly Lundquist, a former college English instructor and founder of LitLovers, a site devoted to reading and book clubs, the best…
Books Alive! Presents: Michelle Singletary
A nationally syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, Michelle Singletary pens the weekly award-winning “The Color of Money” column, which is carried in more than 100 newspapers. Singletary is also the author of The 21-Day Financial Fast: Your Path to Financial Peace and Freedom” target=“_blank”>The 21-Day Financial Fast: Your Path…
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
March 1939: Before the Madness−The Story of the First NCAA Basketball Tournament Champions
“I have some stuff you might be interested in,” the now notorious Edward Snowden wrote in December 2012 to Glenn Greenwald, the freelance internet blogger and columnist for the Guardian, and to Laura Poitras, the documentary maker who had worked in her medium on security affairs.He surely did, as the…
Score One for the Little Guys!
Move over, Amazon. The Los Angeles Times is adding an “IndieBound” button to its Festival of Books’ authors page, giving shoppers the option of buying titles from small booksellers rather than solely from the Seattle-based behemoth. Under pressure from the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association, whose members have supported the…
Habits are highly resistant to change. Unfortunately, it’s one more human default. We’re designed that way. But for those really serious about change, Dr. Art Markman, a psychology professor and author, can help. His book Smart Change (Perigee Trade, 2014) identifies five ways we can systematically alter our behavior to…
Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich’s Enduring Mystery
The works which Fuze finds most compelling, say the publishers, have: An intriguing story and engaging, multi-dimensional characters. Fuze’s novel Black Wings, by Kathleen Toomey Jabs, for example, features a courageous naval officer investigating the fatal crash of one of the Navy’s first female fighter pilots who also happens to…
Books Alive! Presents: Joe Yonan
A two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner for best newspaper food section, Joe Yonan is the Food and Travel editor at the Washington Post, where he’s worked since leaving the Boston Globe in 2006. His popular “Cooking for One” column for the Post has won honors from the Association of…
Our traffic reached an all-time high last month, but five posts in particular generated a lot of interest. (Musicians and poets — who knew?) Here’s a rundown of February’s most-read pieces:1) “An Exemplars Special: E.E. Cummings, a Life” by Grace Cavalieri. Her monthly feature, “Poetry Exemplars,” already enjoys a huge…
Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image
In the city known for its Clustered Spires, a love of literature and reading has blossomed. Thanks to the appearances, book signings, and other special events hosted by Frederick Reads (a partnership between Frederick County Public Libraries and dozens of local organizations), friends and soon-to-be friends are able to gather…
Susan Minot closes her eyes and sees more than most people. As a novelist, poet and writer of short stories and screenplays, her prose is rich and economical. She’s been called a minimalist, but she often stretches beyond that categorization. Her new novel, Thirty Girls, is an emotionally-charged, haunting work…
8 Breeds of Historical Fiction
Straight-up. Like Shakespeare’s history plays, some historical fiction offers a straightforward imagining of an event through real and fictional characters, placing the reader in the center of it. Because the novelist can supply characters’ thoughts and motivations, not to mention entertaining dialogue, the resulting story often goes down more smoothly…
Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want
Announcing Our New Events Calendar
Do you have a book signing, author appearance, poetry slam, or other literary happening coming up? Share it FOR FREE on our new calendar! Just send the details to [email protected]. Soon after, anyone who clicks “Events” at the top of our homepage will see your listing in all its glory.…
It is sometimes astonishing as the credits of a film roll by to see how many people are involved in bringing a story to the screen. There is a seemingly endless number of contributors, many of them highly paid, combining their talents on this single work. The result can be…
Glorious War: The Civil War Adventures of George Armstrong Custer
Books Alive! Presents: Joan Nathan
James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Joan Nathan contributes regularly to the New York Times, hosted her own show on PBS, and once guest-curated an exhibit at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It’s her 10 bestselling cookbooks, however — including Jewish Cooking in America: Expanded Edition” target=“_blank”>Jewish Cooking in America — for…
In the cold northern parts of the United States, architect Frank Joyner’s quiet retirement is shattered by the arrival of gas companies in the wake of the discovery of massive natural gas deposits in the area. As the companies begin leasing land from local owners to carry out large-scale hydrofracking…
At 370 pages in, I set it aside. It sat there, whispering, “Read me … just a few more pages.” But I was done. For the first time, I put a book down with no intention of returning to it. I spent days questioning my decision, wondering whether I should…
· Reflux · Fear and Dislike in Las Vegas · The Unclothed Lunch · Presumed Not Guilty · Intact Have your own title that doesn’t quite do it? Share it in the comments section below, tweet it to @WIRoBooks, or post it on our Facebook page. It may appear in…
Twenty Years In, Red Hen Press Rises Above the Flock
The field of publishing can sometimes seem like a barnyard, with five big roosters stalking around, dominating the plot and duking it out at intervals, while their smaller sisters scramble to catch the crumbs left behind. But as the number of roosters has decreased over the past few years, the…
13 Spring Biographies to Watch For
Updike by Adam Begley. Coming in April from Harper, this long-awaited biography of John Updike, the first to cover the late writer’s entire life, is expected to garner a lot of attention. The Extraordinary Life of Rebecca West: A Biography by Lorna Gibb. Coming from Counterpoint in May. Maeve Binchy:…
Today I will deal with a subject that bedevils many authors: sex.Not the act itself, which bedevils everyone between puberty and senescence (and maybe after senescence — but if you can’t remember what you are doing, why bother doing it?). I mean the sex scene, which is even more difficult…
The annual count by women’s lit organization VIDA may confirm that the book-review world is still a boys’ club, but we here at the Independent are proud not to be members. Of the 311 book reviews we published in 2013, 162 (52%) were written by men, while 149 (48%) were…
In this irresistibly imagined below stairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at…
Books Alive! Presents: Chris Matthews
Host of MSNBC’s Hardball, Chris Matthews is also a bestselling author. His books include American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions” target=“_blank”>American: Beyond our Grandest Notions; Life’s a Campaign; and
When I began writing this column, I started to follow book-world news more closely, trying to keep current on the issues. I suppose I shouldn’t have been shocked to discover that it’s a viper’s nest of intrigue and feuds out there (finally, I’ve discovered what is impeding my quest to…
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