Month: February 2019

Taking the “Man” out of the Booker (and It’s All Good News)

February 27, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

Beginning June 1, the prestigious Booker Prize — which for the last 18 yers has been known as the Man Booker under the sponsorship of investment management firm Man Group — will drop it’s double-barreled name. Back in January, the Man Group announced that it had decided to discontinue its sponsorship of the important literary prize. And none of that is going to add up to bad news. From The Guardian: Silicon Valley billionaire, philanthropist […]

Karl Lagerfeld and Books (and Insults)

February 20, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

Fashion icon and designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died Tuesday at the age of 85, had a lot of books. “I hate leisure, except reading,” he once told Women’s Wear Daily. And he walked the walk. He had an extensive library that included over 300,000 volumes in four different languages. His personal library is houses in a special room, but is so full, the books had to be stacked horizontally to fit more on the ample […]

New This Month: Figuring by Maria Popova

February 10, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

Excited to finally be reading Figuring, out this month from Pantheon. The author is the brilliant Maria Popova who “writes about what she reads” on Brain Pickings, which is more than a blog, but rather like the elegant connections from an admirable mind. (And if you’ve missed Brain Pickings in the past, run don’t walk. It will be worth the trip.) Figuring is an extension of that not-exactly-blog, but now in book form. As the […]

Book Industry Slithers Through Early 2019 Scandals

February 9, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

Depending on your perspective, it’s been a difficult few weeks for publishing. Or it’s been a golden one. Certainly author tricks, hijinks and missteps have been everywhere, along with scandals and cups of urine. (Wait. What? Never mind. Keep reading.) Front and center, of course, has been the story around editor-turned-bestselling-author A.J. Flynn/Dan Mallory whose 2018 debut Woman in the Window sold a lot of books and has been nominated for a lot of awards. […]

Stephen King’s Mile 81 Will Be Film

February 9, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

Stephen King’s novella Mile 81 (Simon & Schuster) heralded in the arrival (n full) of the e-book era back when it was first (electronically) published in 2011. Mile 81 wasn’t excerpted from something else. It wasn’t a reprint. It was an ebook, and the only way you could get it was to download it. Suddenly, we know: the ebook had gone from flash in the dark to (almost) mainstream. Fast Forward eight years and it’s […]

This Just In… Layers of Deception by Leo James

February 8, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

What would you risk to achieve your ambition? Would you risk the lives of your family and colleagues to get out of a financial hole? Would you risk all for the next big deal? How far is too far? Layers of Deception is a fast-paced international crime thriller filled with twists, turns and intrigue exposing conflicts between brothers, religion, gender, love, risk and greed. This thriller starts off with a bang (quite literally!) and doesn’t […]

Rosamunde Pilcher Dead at 94

February 8, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

Beloved British novelist Rosamunde Pilcher died Wednesday in hospital in Dundee, Scotland at the age of 94. From The Guardian: Her son, the author Robin Pilcher, confirmed the news to the Guardian . “She had been in great form up until Christmas, then suffered from bronchitis in the new year, but was always expected to bounce back as before. However, she suffered a stroke on Sunday night and never regained consciousness,” he said. Robin described […]

Of Imperialists, Bigots and Cartoon Waterfowl

February 5, 2019 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Ben Terrall, a freelance writer based in San Francisco, California, whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay View, In These Times, CounterPunch, and Noir City. Terrall last wrote for January Magazine about It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America, by David Cay Johnston.) When How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic was […]

Ready for Game Day: Football Short Fiction… and More

February 3, 2019 Linda L. Richards 0

Want some reading material for game day? Here’s a few suggestions. Short Story Book Club offers a round up of football short stories. No really. That’s a thing. You have your game day gear on. You’ve got the food heating on the stove. You’re almost ready for the pre-game show, but before you dive in, you want to have a great football story to share with your friends before the party starts. What do you […]

Brushing Up on McGinnis’ Artistry

February 1, 2019 J. Kingston Pierce 0

Many people know about artist-illustrator Robert McGinnis because of the iconic posters he’s created for such Hollywood film productions as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Barbarella, The Odd Couple, Cotton Comes to Harlem, and James Bond thrillers starring both Sean Connery and Roger Moore. But others of us know McGinnis much better for his paperback book covers — works he’s been creating ever since 1958. This coming Sunday, February 3, will mark the artist’s 93rd birthday. To […]