Articles by admin

Simon Winchester Sits Down With the Bat

December 29, 2006 admin 0

January Magazine contributing editor Edward Champion delivers a great episode of his Bat Segundo show. This time his subject is Simon Winchester, as the author flogs his latest, A Crack In the Edge of the World, a book that got Publishers Weekly all misty. PW said Winchester’s “compelling narrative,” was “a magnificent testament to the power of planet Earth and the efforts of humankind to understand her.” Sweet. According to Champion, subjects discussed in the […]

Gift Guide: Art & Culture

December 21, 2006 admin 0

January Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide 2006 concludes with selections of books focused on various aspects of art & culture. Suggestions in fiction are here. Children’s books are here. Non-fiction is here and cookbooks can be found here. You can see the lead item to this feature here. 24: Behind the Scenes by Jon Cassar (Insight Editions) 168 pagesI’m an addict. I am a 24 junkie. I have fallen prey to the endless loops of plot […]

Gift Guide: Cookbooks

December 21, 2006 admin 0

January Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide 2006 continues with selections of cookbooks. Suggestions in fiction are here. Children’s books are here. Non-fiction is here. And check back for further gift book selections over the next few days. Another Cup of Sugar by Anna Olson (Whitecap Books) 197 pagesAs a rule, I’m more cautious of sequels when it comes to cookbooks than I am with movies. With movies, there’s always the chance that the filmmakers will catch […]

Gift Guide: Non-Fiction

December 21, 2006 admin 0

January Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide 2006 continues with non-fiction books. Selections in fiction are here. Children’s books are here. And check back for further gift book selections over the next few days. A Mermaid’s Tale by Amanda Adams (Greystone Books) 180 pages“Crimson-tailed mermaid in a celadon sea — this is how I see her. Blood-red scales that glint in clear green water. Long hair that trails past scaled hips, unfurling in waves of dark brown […]

Gift Guide: Books for Children

December 19, 2006 admin 0

January Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide 2006 continues here with books for children. Selections in fiction are here. And check back for further gift book selections over the next few days. Baby Grizzly by Aubrey Lang, Photographs by Wayne Lynch (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) 36 pagesWhat I’ve liked best about Fitzhenry & Whiteside’s Nature Babies series is the gently National Geographic tone and content the books consistently deliver. Packaged for children aged five to eight, Baby Grizzly […]

No Image

Page 69 Test Applied by 100th Author

December 19, 2006 admin 0

The Campaign for the American Reader blog has been conducting an interesting experiment over the last few months. Marshal Zeringue, executive director of the project, has been asking authors from various fields to apply the page 69 test to their most recent book. Today’s entry, from William Easterly, author of The White Man’s Burden, was the 100th of these tests thus applied for the blog. Authors who’ve tested their books have included Danielle Trussoni (Falling […]

No Image

Carter Book Stirs Controversy

December 18, 2006 admin 1

Though former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has written 23 books, none has stirred interest and ire as sharply as his latest, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Simon & Schuster). In the latest issue of Newsweek, Eleanor Clift spoke with Carter about the firestorm the book has ignited. Clift writes that Carter’s book “has drawn fire for its use of the word ‘apartheid,’ and a former associate, Kenneth Stein, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Emory […]

No Image

Holiday Gift Guide 2006

December 18, 2006 admin 0

Watching television this holiday season has been mildly frightening. Maybe I’ve never noticed it before — maybe you’ll tell me this isn’t new — but the message I saw pushed in my face over the holidays this year and the one that has been picking up in tempo as the key gift days approach is this: if you want to make someone happy, you need to buy the right present. More: to make them really […]

Gift Guide Part One: Fiction

December 18, 2006 admin 0

Over the next few days, we’ll be offering up our selections for the 2006 holiday season. We begin here with a few selections of works of fiction. Have a great holiday! And don’t forget to take some time to read. A Strange Commonplace by Gilbert Sorrentino (Coffee House Press) 154 pagesIf Jack Kerouac had lived, if he’d gotten sober enough to tell a whole and coherent story, if he’d gotten more life — but sane […]

No Image

And So It Begins. Again.

December 18, 2006 admin 3

In 2007, January Magazine enters its 10th year of continuous publication. That’s a deliciously long time to have been doing anything, let alone reading and thinking about and writing about books and authors. We have accomplished so much of what we set out to do in 1997. (1997!) In some ways, even more. In many ways it feels as though we at January Magazine evolved the format that has become associated with blogging. A decade […]