Book Notes: How much does reader need to be told?
By Rae Padilla FrancoeurMore Content Now"What We See When We Read: A Phenomenology with Illustrations," by Peter Mendelsund. Vintage Books, New York, 2014. 419 pages, paperback. $16.95."What We See...
View ArticleA change of venue: Boston crime author Dennis Lehane’s first movie script set...
BOSTON - The devil didn't make him do it, but Hollywood did.In "The Drop," his first script for the big screen, author Dennis Lehane has shifted his milieu from the mean streets of Boston to Brooklyn....
View ArticleBook Notes: Tavis Smiley looks at MLK’s last year
By Rae Padilla FrancoeurMore Content Now"Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year" By Tavis Smiley with David Ritz. Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2014. 288...
View ArticleBook Notes: Do clothes make the woman?
By Rae Padilla FrancoeurMore Content Now"Women in Clothes" Edited and written by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Leeanne Shapton and 639 others. Blue Rider Press/Penguin Group, New York, 2014.Why do women...
View ArticleBook Notes: Being Mortal’ mulls end-of-life care
"Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by Atul Gawande. Metropolitan Books, New York, 2014. 282 pages. $26.Society is slow to change. We've learned how to treat diseases and conditions...
View ArticleBook Notes: Penguin Book of Witches’ examines Salem hysteria
"The Penguin Book of Witches" Edited by Katherine Howe. Penguin Group, New York, 2014. 321 pages, paperback. $17.Katherine Howe's new book, "The Penguin Book of Witches," will be a go-to fall read for...
View ArticleBook review: 'The Next Elvis,' by Barbara Barnes Sims
"The Next Elvis: Searching for Stardom at Sun Records," Barbara Barnes Sims (LSU Press)One thing Barbara Barnes Sims doesn't do in "The Next Elvis," the memoir of her time working at Sun Records in the...
View ArticleBook Notes: Feast on Best Food Writing 2014’
"Best Food Writing 2014" Edited by Holly Hughes. Da Capo Press, Boston, 2014. 400 pages. Paperback. $15.99.With summertime and Halloween now solidly behind us, we can tuck into one of our favorite...
View ArticleBook Notes: In Mark Bittman’s new cookbook, faster is better
"How to Cook Everything Fast: A Better Way to Cook Great Food" By Mark Bittman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2014. 1056 pages. $35 hardcover.In 1,056 pages, Mark Bittman, a food writer who...
View ArticleBook review: The Indestructibles: Breakout’ offers twists and turns galore
My fellow Gatehouse Media editor Matthew Phillion is at it again: "The Indestructibles: Breakout," his sequel to last spring's young adult superhero saga "The Indestructibles," comes hot on the heels...
View ArticleBook Notes: Harry Bosch is on The Burning Room’ case
Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch has a year to go before retirement from his job as cold case homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.And Bosch has traversed a long, grueling road from the...
View ArticleBook Notes: When the narrator is the story
By Rae Padilla FrancoeurMore Content Now"The Forgers" By Bradford Morrow. The Mysterious Press, New York, 2014. 256 pages. $24."The Forgers" is a smart, literary suspense novel that requires a trust...
View ArticleBook Notes: Rogue Wave’ is a seasonal delight
"Rogue Wave: Best New England Crime Stories," edited by Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast, Barbara Ross, Leslie Wheeler. Level Best Books, 2014, Somerville, Mass. 269 pages. $15.95.Every year at this time,...
View ArticleBook Notes: Daum uncovers Unspeakable’ truths about life
"The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion," by Meghan Daum. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2014. 257 pages. $26.For some tough, smart reading to kick off the new year, consider "The...
View ArticleBook Notes: An Irish tale of strength from grief
"Nora Webster," by Colm Toíbín. Scribner, New York, 2014. 384 pages. $27.Colm Toíbín's newest novel, "Nora Webster," is set in the late 1960s and early '70s in County Wexford in southeast Ireland.The...
View ArticleBook Notes: Essays on aging, from an aging poet
"Essays After Eighty" by Donald Hall. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston/New York, 2014. 144 pages. $22.When a friend told me she decided not to buy poet and essayist Donald Hall's "Essays After Eighty"...
View ArticleBook Notes: The Silent Girls’ shows off Vermont’s dark side
"The Silent Girls," by Eric Rickstad. HarperCollins, New York. 416 pages. $11.99 paperback, available Jan. 25, 2015. E-book available now.If you think a gothic northern Vermont mystery might harmonize...
View ArticleBook Notes: Joan Price offers a guide to sex after 50
"The Ultimate Guide to Sex After 50" by Joan Price. Cleis Press, 2015. 396 pages. $22.95.Yes, it's true. There's plenty of romance after 50. And because I'm writing for family newspapers, I won't get...
View ArticleBook Notes: Latest Rizzoli & Isles’ thriller keeps readers guessing
"Rizzoli & Isles: Die Again," by Tess Gerritsen. Ballantine Books, New York, 2014. 330 pages. $27."Die Again," Maine author Tess Gerritsen's newest Rizzoli & Isles mystery thriller, begins not...
View ArticleBook List: 10 alternatives to 50 Shades of Grey’
While some eager viewers are champing at the bit (or ball gag, as the case may be) for this weekend's big-screen release of "50 Shades of Grey," we're more in the mood for levity than the lash. If the...
View Article