I grew up in New Orleans in the 1960s, and I left in 1990. As I write this, it occurs to me that I have spent almost as much time away from the city as I did in it. I miss it, sometimes painfully, and I’ve been thinking recently that I don’t know enough about it, that I don’t understand my city as I should. It was my home, but such was my childhood that […]
It’s possible you’ve never heard of Michael Lee Brown, but you’re about to—and I don’t mean just here. Michael appears on Broadway at least twice a week, and his first CD was released recently. It’s sure to be the first of many. Every Wednesday and Saturday, Brown plays Evan Hansen in the hit musical Dear Evan Hansen, and he’s an alternate for Evan at other performances as well as for two other lead roles, […]
Of the new novel, Need to Know (Ballantine), thriller writer Lee Child said, “If you read chapter one, you’ll read chapter two. If you read chapter two, you’ll miss dinner, stay up far too late, and feel tired at work tomorrow.” As usual, Mr. Child nails it. And in this, her first novel, so does Karen Cleveland. Her writing is tack-sharp, her story is at least as addictive as today’s hottest street drug (maybe more), […]
In Chloe Benjamin’s luminous new novel, The Immortalists (Putnam), four siblings, all children, seek out a woman who, they’ve heard, can tell each of them the day they will die. Not how, but when. A casual few words: a month, a day, and a year. They’re given a glimpse around a corner and then go on with their lives, not oblivious exactly, but not unaffected by the information either. The year is 1969. The nation […]
You’ve Never Read Anything Like Dark Matter. There. I said it. The new novel by Blake Crouch, is a terrifying, enthralling, lightning-fast, brilliant book. You have no idea how much I want to write about it. I want to tell you everything about it, but that would spoil everything, and that would be very, very bad. Because Dark Matter is the kind of book you want to know absolutely nothing about. Further, to get the […]
Brad Meltzer’s new thriller, written with Tod Goldberg, is called The House of Secrets (Grand Central). The title comes from the name of a television program in which the host, Jack Nash, debunks mysteries. (It’s a lot like the author’s own show, Brad Meltzer’s Decoded.) Beyond that, “house of secrets” also refers to the life Jack built outside the TV show, one in which his kids learned to deal with a celebrity dad who was known […]
Six Junes ago, I read Justin Cronin’s post-apocalyptic thriller, The Passage, and I was blown away. During my read I was amazed by the sheer volume of events and ideas he could write about, as well as how well he could do it. The story had a large cast of characters and it jumps back and forth in time, right up to the edge of confusion, yet he manages to keep all the balls in […]
by Tony Buchsbaum Things got much more crowded — and much more musical — on day two of Book Expo 2016. There were stacks of books everywhere and more authors than you could easily count. There was an even a mini-concert: Kenny Loggins performed two songs in the Quarto booth to announce his debut children’s book, Footloose. I didn’t get look at the book, but Loggins was terrific. He sang a version of his big hit “Footloose” with […]
by Tony Buchsbaum I think of it as book publishing’s running of the bulls. Thousands of people — booksellers, assorted book professionals, and press — gather in quasi-defined lines, crowds really (okay, hordes), hearts aflutter, as the minutes count down to the opening of Book Expo, North America’s biggest book-publishing trade show. There’s a great anticipation as people crane to see beyond the barricades to the publishers’ booths, where all manner of books are stacked up and waiting […]
If I were going to sit down and write a book about the history of men’s fashion, I wouldn’t put the chapters in alphabetical order. Because then I’d have to start with a chapter about ascots, which very few men actually wear today. And yet that’s what True Style (Basic Books) does. Alphabetically ordered chapters, with ascot first and weather gear last. Call me crazy, but are ascots what men want to read about? I mean, […]
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