tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823Thu, 15 May 2008 04:18:08 +0000http://januarymagazine.com/noreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)Blogger646125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-6695328483921629641Thu, 15 May 2008 04:05:00 +00002008-05-14T21:18:08.085-07:00fictionThe whole James Frey… er… fray was so stupid, pointless and messy, I stood aside. People felt slighted, betrayed. Me? I honestly didn’t care. I wasn’t interested before he was outed as having embroidered/manufactured/fabricated parts of his “memoir,” I was less interested when I knew that he had. I remember wondering what all the fuss was about. It’s a book, right? No one dies. And it’s not as http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/new-this-week-bright-shiny-morning-by.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-8649448871323904172Wed, 14 May 2008 19:13:00 +00002008-05-14T12:14:51.622-07:00non-fictionThe recent economic downturn is finding expression in business books. According to Bloomberg’s Susan Antilla, “doomsday books have become publishing's spring fashion.” Pop a couple of Prozacs and sit back for a roundup of the scariest financial books on the market. It’s gloom-and-doom season for purveyors of financial books, so pull out a can of beans from your ammo case in the bomb shelter and http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/business-books-get-doomsday-spin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-8065388443120807290Tue, 13 May 2008 07:45:00 +00002008-05-13T07:50:41.907-07:00M. Wayne Cunninghamcrime fictionToday in January Magazine’s crime fiction section, M. Wayne Cunningham reviews Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman. Says Cunningham: Like the nine previous novels in her private eye Tess Monaghan series, Laura Lippman’s newest installment, Another Thing to Fall, is set in her hometown of Baltimore. And like the others, it’s a sure-fire read for its plot, characterization, dialogue and http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/review-another-thing-to-fall-by-laura.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-551348503819235932Sat, 10 May 2008 07:00:00 +00002008-05-10T00:00:01.735-07:00non-fictionIt cracks me up that the shiny new paperback edition of Nora Ephron’s screamingly funny 2006 book is being pitched towards Mother’s Day. There’s an irony there somewhere, even if I'm not quite sure what it is. I Feel Bad About My Neck (Vintage) is Ephron’s song -- lament? -- for women of a certain age. It is also a memoir, because the view we see here, for better or worse, is all Ephron’s. And http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/i-feel-bad-about-my-neck-by-nora-ephron.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Monica Stark)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-3247377792158580027Fri, 09 May 2008 23:30:00 +00002008-05-09T16:32:47.277-07:00non-fictionConsidering everything that’s been going on for the last eight years, we’re pretty confident in suggesting that Arianna Huffington is not the only card carrying Republican who has gone renegade. However, she’s certainly among the most visible. In case there was ever any doubt, Huffington’s new book -- her 12th -- Right Is Wrong (Knopf), makes it clear what side of the party line she’s sitting onhttp://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/new-last-week-right-is-wrong-by-arianna.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-3288597893708072538Fri, 09 May 2008 22:42:00 +00002008-05-09T15:44:20.552-07:00books to filmExpect Bondmania to move to fever pitch between now and May 28, when James Bond creator Ian Fleming -- who died in 1964 -- would have turned 100 years old. Crap Towns author Sam Jordison recently got into the action at The Guardian book blog: As the 100th anniversary of his birth approaches, it’s tempting to characterise Ian Fleming as The Man With the Golden Pen, as a calculatingly commercial http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/flemings-pornography.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-1136848849204558268Fri, 09 May 2008 10:17:00 +00002008-05-09T03:21:36.214-07:00Summer BlockinterviewfictionToday in January Magazine, contributing editor Summer Block interviews Gail Jones, author of 2004’s Sixty Lights and, more recently, Sorry, which opens with the murder of a white anthropologist in Australia. “The attack is witnessed by a white girl and her Aboriginal friend,” writes Block. “The Aboriginal girl takes the blame, while the white girl forgets the traumatic event, an allegory for http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/interview-gail-jones.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-2682385120762952048Fri, 09 May 2008 01:01:00 +00002008-05-08T18:16:29.068-07:00fictionThough authors are frequently reluctant to talk about where they get their ideas, (“A post office box in Schenectady.”) when discussing his 11th novel, Skeletons at the Feast (Shaye Areheart Books), Chris Bohjalian (The Double Bind, Midwives) has been very forthcoming. About a decade ago, a friend asked him to read his German grandmother’s newly translated diary. “Usually,” writes Bohjalian, “http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/new-this-week-skeletons-at-feast-by.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-5426461022587839294Thu, 08 May 2008 09:02:00 +00002008-05-08T02:07:05.572-07:00excerptnon-fictionToday in January Magazine, an excerpt of Lust in Translation: Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee by former journalist Pamela Druckerman: The morning after François Mitterrand's funeral, a photo showed the late president's mistress and illegitimate daughter standing by his grave alongside his wife and sons. That tableau has become famous internationally as proof that the French are uniquely http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/excerpt-lust-in-translation-by-pamela.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-2866452156130920278Thu, 08 May 2008 07:30:00 +00002008-05-08T02:01:05.743-07:00Sue Bursztynskichildren's booksSF/FEven if you’ve never read any of Neil Gaiman’s delightful fiction, you might have seen the film adaptation of Stardust, which did justice to the novel and has been compared to The Princess Bride. M Is for Magic (HarperCollins) is a collection of mostly previously published short stories aimed at younger readers -- teenagers, really, rather than children, as the style of most of them is closer tohttp://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/m-is-for-magic-by-neil-gaiman.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sue Bursztynski)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-2554653580923764031Wed, 07 May 2008 21:14:00 +00002008-05-07T14:18:28.187-07:00Lincoln ChoSF/FToday in January Magazine’s SF/F section, contributing editor Lincoln Cho reviews Dark Wraith of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Says Cho: Terry Brooks, the “godfather of American fantasy” has referred to Dark Wraith of Shannara as “the grand experiment.” It’s not difficult to see why. It’s a brand new story set in the distant future world of Shannara that tells the multi-generational story of the http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/review-dark-wraith-of-shannara-by-terry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-1939386331884420676Wed, 07 May 2008 08:01:00 +00002008-05-07T01:06:08.408-07:00Monica Starkart and cultureSquint your eyes a bit and this is a book by any talented writer musing on her well-spent life thus far. Connecting characters from her distant past with figures from her near past and drawing them with a steady hand and a poetic heart. It’s all good stuff. Many lives are rich and hold deep wells of experience and emotion to mine, and often it’s enough. However Eleanor Coppola’s Notes on a Life http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/new-yesterday-notes-on-life-by-eleanor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Monica Stark)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-7169979725628784380Wed, 07 May 2008 05:18:00 +00002008-05-06T22:26:23.305-07:00non-fictionMany of us -- perhaps most -- wouldn’t think to lump yoga and creative writing together. For Jeff Davis, the connection came somewhat naturally when, as a writing teacher, he found himself pushed to his physical and emotional limits. According to Davis, he added a very basic yoga regime into his day to help him deal with the physical stresses of his work. To his surprise, regular yoga practice http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/writing-in-downward-dog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-2304144182519919239Mon, 05 May 2008 07:10:00 +00002008-05-05T00:12:02.619-07:00passagesLike a lot of people, I was heartbroken to see the tragic end the lovely filly Eight Belles came to in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. I won’t go into it in any detail here, it’s not the place -- though I sobbed a bit about it on my personal blog a few hours after the race -- but I did want to point you at Pulitzer Prize-winning (for 1992’s A Thousand Acres) novelist Jane Smiley’s take on the matter http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/jane-smiley-on-eight-belles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-4404195457133639531Sun, 04 May 2008 20:19:00 +00002008-05-04T13:25:53.485-07:00David Thayercrime fictionToday in January Magazine’s crime fiction section, contributing editor David Thayer reviews The Prince of Bagram Prison by Alex Carr. Says Thayer: Atmosphere is one of the hallmarks of the classic thriller, an aspect of suspense that is all too often sacrificed from the recipe for modern-day thrillers. Alex Carr -- a pseudonym used by Virginia novelist Jenny Siler (Flashback, Shot) -- wants to http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/review-prince-of-bagram-prison-by-alex.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-8482570696671517039Fri, 02 May 2008 09:00:00 +00002008-05-02T02:00:00.737-07:00Books You Just Don’t Want to Know AboutLately it seems like every few days there’s a new crop of books announced that make you roll your eyes and pledge to avoid them. At the very least, they make you groan. Last week, the groaners for us were the prospect of Mylie Cyrus’ “memoir” and “rehab singer” Amy Winehouse’s (ahem) marriage manual. In another groaner, we announced that Chuck Norris had been contracted to write a book about thehttp://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/books-you-just-dont-want-to-know-about.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-4330669902598096624Fri, 02 May 2008 02:15:00 +00002008-05-01T21:15:44.096-07:00Sue Bursztynskichildren's booksThe first two books in Allen & Unwin’s “Girlfriend series,” My Life and Other Catastrophes by Rowena Mohr and The Indigo Girls by Penni Russon, were perfectly good teen fiction that would have worked without those hearts on the covers. The new books are more like the kind of fiction the covers suggest, except that things happen in them that you would never have found in fiction aimed at very http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/childrens-books-girlfriend-fiction-3-4.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sue Bursztynski)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-8091305522240433817Fri, 02 May 2008 02:12:00 +00002008-05-01T19:17:13.966-07:00Sue Bursztynskichildren's booksSunny Side Up (Allen & Unwin) is Marion Roberts’ first novel. It is gentle and humorous and sad all at once. For me, personally, it has the added pleasure of being set in the Melbourne suburb where I live. I recognize the places described and can assure you that they’re real, as are some of the shops mentioned. Eleven-year-old Sunday -- mostly known as “Sunny” -- lives with her mother and theirhttp://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/childrens-books-sunny-side-up-by-marion.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sue Bursztynski)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-8354782234174287139Thu, 01 May 2008 16:35:00 +00002008-05-01T09:38:27.219-07:00Between now and the end of May, Platinum Studios -- “an entertainment company that controls an international library of more than 5,600 comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media”-- invites would-be comic book artists to submit entries for the 2008 Comic Book Challenge. Once submissions close, an internal team will select the Top 50 who will move on to http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/calling-all-comic-book-artists.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-1944521012822301532Thu, 01 May 2008 15:50:00 +00002008-05-01T08:53:30.273-07:00This one is going to be huge. Let’s face it: he’s extremely successful and very visible. A combination that’s a no-brainer bestseller in a business book. Reuters offers the details: New York’s billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg will offer business and political advice in a book entitled “Do the Hard Things First” due out in September, the publisher said on Tuesday. The book, written in http://januarymagazine.com/2008/05/billionaire-bloomberg-will-offer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-6529733290651643139Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:35:00 +00002008-04-30T01:08:49.189-07:00Author Snapshotfictioncrime fictionAnyone who knows Barbara Fister even slightly is not in the least surprised to discover that her novels are smart, sophisticated and deeply concerned with the larger world. In many ways, all of those words -- smart, sophisticated, concerned -- describe the Madison-born and Minnesota-based author perfectly. An academic librarian at a liberal arts college, on her own Web site, Fister says her “http://januarymagazine.com/2008/04/author-snapshot-barbara-fister.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-7581346694058025313Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:49:00 +00002008-04-29T23:05:34.725-07:00books to filmbanned booksThough it opened at both the Vancouver and Toronto Film Festivals last year, I’m still stoked about the May 9th Alliance Films limited release of Kari Skogland’s film adaptation of The Stone Angel by Canadian author Margaret Laurence (1926-1987). From the Alliance Web site: Based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel is the story of feisty firecracker Hagar Shipley (http://januarymagazine.com/2008/04/stone-angel-to-open-at-theater-kinda.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-914257088913982445Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:28:00 +00002008-04-29T12:34:40.564-07:00Jack LondonBook BusinessThe 22nd annual salon du livre gets underway in Geneva on Wednesday. This year 120,000 visitors are expected during the five day event. Highlights will include celebrations of Egypt, the canton of St. Gallen, Italy’s Aoste Valley and 19th century American author Jack London. According to 24 Heures: the 2008 fair “has set aside 100 square meters to exhibit documents and photographs of London (http://januarymagazine.com/2008/04/jack-london-honored-in-geneva.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-722682240301483959Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:00:00 +00002008-04-27T21:59:01.988-07:00Diane LeachfictionToday in January Magazine’s fiction section, contributing editor Diane Leach reviews Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff. Says Leach: Reading Our Story Begins was often painful, reminding me as it did Wolff’s fellow travelers, Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus, those masters of domestic disaster. Our Story was especially reminiscent of Carver, who mined a similar geographic landscape and counted Wolff http://januarymagazine.com/2008/04/review-our-story-begins-by-tobias-wolff.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36428823.post-7484822067035162770Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:46:00 +00002008-04-27T20:49:35.086-07:00Sue Bursztynskichildren's booksToday in January Magazine’s children’s book section, contributing editor Sue Bursztynski reviews Diego’s Pride by Deborah Ellis. Says Bursztynski: Deborah Ellis specializes in novels about children in the world’s trouble spots. For example, one of her early novels, Parvana, was about a girl trying to cope with life in Afghanistan just after the Taliban takeover. It was successful and the first ofhttp://januarymagazine.com/2008/04/review-diegos-pride-by-deborah-ellis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Linda L. Richards)