“Country Girl” invokes O’Brien’s first novel, “The Country Girls,” the book published in 1960 that simultaneously launched her literary career and scandalous reputation. The memoir reveals more through its syntax than through its story.
Larry Gragg’s new book, “Bright Light City: Las Vegas in Popular Culture” traces the evolving perception of the town as it has been depicted in film, TV, fiction and journalism.
Readers were eager to talk about a young adult novel, set in the Civil War era, that had much appeal for adults. And they were treated to a surprise guest: the book’s author, Richard Peck.
Host of ‘My Cat From Hell’ is on a mission to stem the number of unwanted animals flooding shelters and being euthanized. He knows the pain of that loss — he killed shelter animals himself.
Starting Wednesday, authors (450-500 of them), aspiring authors, fans of authors, booksellers and bloggers will schmooze, attend workshops, snatch up freebies, collect autographs and let their hair down during the five-day convention.
Science, Mars and the human heart come into play in ‘Equilateral,’ a historical novel set among those who believed in the potential of the fourth planet.
Mary MacLane portrayed herself as a woman of deep and dangerous desires in ‘I Await The Devil’s Coming,’ a 1902 sensation now back in print.
Timothy Messer-Kruse, author of “The Trial of the Haymarket Anarchists: Terrorism and Justice in the Gilded Age,” examines the litigation during which several “anarchists” were convicted and later hanged for their roles in a bombing that killed seven police officers in Chicago.
Peter Hessler, who grew up in Columbia, reports from far-flung places and writes compelling magazine pieces. “Strange Stones” collects 18 previously published magazine features by Hessler, some of them extensively rewritten for this book.
“Rapture Practice” is not exactly a tribute to Aaron Hartzler’s fundamentalist Christian parents. It’s more along the lines of one of those “I survived my wacky family” tell-alls, although Hartzler takes care not to lampoon his folks. Amazon is featuring the book this month as a “best teen book.”
Our intrepid reviewer pens a missive to Mr. Twain himself in which to respond to this new collection of fan mail.
How long do you allow your life to spiral lower and lower before you shake and shudder and decide you must make a move? Any move. For writer Cheryl Strayed it was four years, from the death of her 45-year-old mother to her decision to backpack solo across the remote, mountainous terrain of the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995.
“The Slippage” opens on the evening of a party in a generic, cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood, laid out like a model train display in a department store window. William and Louisa Day, a financial writer and museum worker, respectively, live on a cul-de-sac where “the houses were all one-story,” a neighbor jokes, “because that’s what they told.”
Broadcast journalist will sit down at 6:30 p.m. Monday with Kansas City Public Library director R. Crosby Kemper III and debates scholar Lee Banville at the library’s Plaza Branch
In ‘Marijuanamerica,’ Alfred Ryan Nerz takes a weed-wonder journey across the country to understand our relationship to the legendary plant and its psychosocial effects.
William Wharton, a World War II veteran and a late-blooming writer, delivers a humble and striking account of witnessing war.
In his impeccably researched book “The Searchers” Glenn Frankel uses John Ford’s 1956 film of the same name as a basis for comparison between the real-life abduction of a young pioneer girl and the mythic story movie makers turned it into decades later.
“The conflicts over money — economics, lending and credit — have been with us forever,” author William Hogeland said. “So it can be a bit of a relief, and make things seem a little less dire, if we can look more realistically at them.”
Authors Chris Lamb and Bill White discuss baseball race relations
The children’s book authors at this weekend’s DNA Litfest know there are more things going on this weekend than college basketball.
Novelist and Park University professor Brian Shawver takes down pedants and romantics alike in his new book “The Language of Fiction: a Writer’s Stylebook.”
Caroline Kennedy, who will be at Unity Temple on the Plaza to discuss her new book, “Poems to Learn by Heart,” has known poetry for its potent and persuasive effects on family and country. Now she sees its power to change the lives of students in the New York City public schools.
Part screwball comedy, part political thriller and part family dramedy, the plot of “Woke Up Lonely” sounds a bit like the movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” as told by a tag-team of Kurt Vonnegut and Lemony Snicket.
There are many legacies to Chinua Achebe’s remarkable career — as a novelist, as an activist, as a teacher, as a critic — but most important, he offered permission to half a century of writers, Africans and others, declaring forcefully and without apology that literature can encompass any and all stories.
James Basker’s selections range from a 1688 anti-slavery petition submitted by Quakers in Germantown, Pa., to the text of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, ratified in 1865.
