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Friday, February 08, 2013

Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, Week Of February 7, 2013

February 8, 2013 Al Gore's The Future describes the six forces that are shaping our world. It debuts at No. 5.

Summary

Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of February 7, 2013

Cover of Speaking From Among the Bones

February 8, 2013 Speaking From Among the Bones, Alan Bradley's fifth Flavia de Luce mystery, debuts at No. 6.

Summary

The Two-Way

Book News: Should Ayn Rand Be Required Reading?

cover detail

February 8, 2013 Also: Geico's spokeslizard writes an advice book; Amazon patents the sale of used e-books; and a Stephen Colbert interview gets interesting.

Summary

Thursday, February 07, 2013

The Two-Way

Book News: Anne Of Green Gables Gets A Bad Makeover

The cover photo of an edition of Anne of Green Gables.

February 7, 2013 Also: A look at Winston Churchill's poetic side; Twitter buzzes over Tim Geithner's book plans; and Philip Roth is the object of a takedown.

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Author Interviews

Raising A Glass To The Charms Of The Bar In 'Drinking With Men'

toasting

February 7, 2013 Author Rosie Schaap's new memoir, Drinking With Men, chronicles her life in bars. Schaap writes the 'Drink' column for The New York Times Magazine, and she says goes to bars not for the alcohol but for the sense of community she finds there.

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Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Book Reviews

A Mystery That Explores 'The Rage' Of New Ireland

A cobblestone street in Dublin

February 6, 2013 Reporter-turned-novelist Gene Kerrigan sets his story in Ireland after the 2008 financial crisis. The Rage is a boundlessly readable portrait of a country in which ordinary citizens have been hit the hardest and all the old certainties have vanished.

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The Two-Way

Book News: Chick-Lit Icon Bridget Jones Returns

Renee Zellweger in a scene from Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. A new Bridget Jones book will come out this November.

February 6, 2013 Also: What to do when a book makes you cry on public transportation; Amazon launches its own currency; and Ping Fu's memoir comes under attack.

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Hollywood Hot Shots, Scientology And A Story Worth The Risk In 'Going Clear'

The Church of Scientology building in Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard on Aug. 28, 2011.

February 6, 2013 Journalist Lawrence Wright's new book, Going Clear, is a penetrating look at Scientology and its famous practitioners. The book centers on Crash and Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis, who famously left the church over its support for an anti-gay marriage initiative in California.

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Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Books News & Features

Why Traditional Publishing Is Really In A 'Golden Age'

Michael Pietsch is currently executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown and Company. He'll become CEO of Hachette on April 1.

February 5, 2013 There's a lot of talk going around about the end of big publishing as we know it, but soon-to-be Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch says he and his kind still have a lot to offer — especially in the age of self-publishing.

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Monkey See

Even Balzac Had To Intern

Before he became a founder of realism and an unlikely literary sex icon, the young Honoré de Balzac was proofreading legal filings.

February 5, 2013 A new book chronicles the antics of hard-partying literary giants like Jack Kerouac and Dorothy Parker. But underneath the misbehavior there is a quieter — and much more admirable — story of perseverance.

Summary

The Two-Way

Book News: Mary Ingalls May Not Have Gone Blind From Scarlet Fever

Mary Ingalls, the sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, went blind from illness at age 14.

February 5, 2013 Also: Scandal-mongering author Kitty Kelley turns her gaze on women in Congress; Goodreads makes some unexpected new rules; and Mark Athitakis explains why Barnes & Noble brought literary culture to the suburbs.

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New In Paperback

Feb. 4-10: Werewolves, Nano-Horror And Apartheid's Aftermath

Tuk is a captive wolf living at the Northern Lights Wildlife Center in Golden, British Columbia.

February 5, 2013 In fiction, a novel from Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer, a posthumous thriller from Michael Crichton and a sensual werewolf tale from Anne Rice arrive in paperback. In softcover nonfiction, Paul Krugman confronts our economic depression, and Charles Murray looks at the U.S. class divide.

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Book Reviews

Writing Well Is The Wronged Wife's Revenge In 'See Now Then'

Jamaica Kincaid, author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, lives in Vermont.

February 5, 2013 See Now Then, Jamaica Kincaid's first novel in a decade, follows a neglected wife in a small New England town. Reviewer Heller McAlpin says the book reads as if "Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf had collaborated on a heartbroken housewife's lament."

Summary

Books News & Features

Woody Guthrie's 'House Of Earth' Calls 'This Land' Home

The cover of House of Earth is an oil painting that Guthrie made in 1936 called In El Rancho Grande.

February 5, 2013 Folk musician Woody Guthrie wrote thousands of songs in his lifetime — but as far as anyone knows, he only wrote one novel. Recently discovered, House of Earth is the story of struggling young sharecroppers who dream of creating a safe haven amid the dust storms and economic depression of the 1930s.

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