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Unclean Jobs, Unmatched Talent
I honestly don’t know why novels get all the attention. They may have size on their side, but the truth is, writing effective short stories takes just as much craft as writing War and Peace. And some story ideas are so potent, so deliciously high-concept that they’re best enjoyed in small, intense bursts.
Read More »Mob Memories
Although his life story mirrors the plot of an entire film genre, mobster-turned-government witness Andrew DiDonato doesn’t want you to think he’s a hero (or even a glamorous anti-hero). Instead, with his new biography, Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier’s Life Inside the Gambino Crime Family (Huntington Press, $16) by Dennis Griffin, he simply wants to “lay it all out there and let you see what life as a mob associate is like from the inside.”
Read More »Sites to See
• NOTHING BUT BLUE SKIES (blog.flight001.com)
• 9 1/2 TWEETS (twitter.com/Mickey__Rourke)
• THE ADVENTURES OF SIMPLE DOG (hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com)
The Librarian Loves ...
Selected by Jeanne Goodrich, executive director for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.
The subtitle of Jonathan Raban’s Bad Land: An American Romance (Pantheon Books, 1996) says it all. This Englishman’s paean to the homesteading of eastern Montana during the early 20th century is exhilarating as well heartbreaking.
Read More »Moonlight Mile pleases eager fans
Mystery readers have an extra reason to be thankful this November. Dennis Lehane is back with a new novel, Moonlight Mile (William Morrow & Co., $27), and he’s resurrected his most popular recurring characters for the occasion.
Read More »Sites to See
• EXCELSIOR! (ourvaluedcustomers.net)
• MISTAKES WERE MADE (archive.mistakereports.com)
• SUITABLY RECORDED (sleeveface.com)
The Librarian Loves ...
Selected by Jeanne Goodrich, executive director for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.
In Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (Penguin, 2009), Michael Pollan provides 64 pithy rules for healthful eating, a distillation of the many fascinating observations and findings he’s already provided in The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Penguin, 2006) and In Defense of Food (Penguin, 2008). Based on scientific data (but without the big words) and folk knowledge from around the world, Pollan describes what it means to eat healthfully and well, in short, easy-to-remember adages. It all boils down to seven words: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” A skinny book for a skinnier you!
Read More »From Goth to Glitter
Vampire author Rachel Caine on writing for tweens, her sci-fi background and the next lit trend
The best thing about the Morganville Vampires book series is that the female protagonist isn’t a shaky, stuttering, emo-girl hung up on a vampire who treats her like shit, a la some popular vampire books. Residing in a literary middle ground of sorts, Morganville doesn’t have the following of Twilight but it has been on The New York Times best-seller list, optioned for television/film by a British production company, and Caine recently quit her day job in corporate communications.
Read More »Sites to see
• GETTING JIGGLY WITH IT: www.myjelloamericans.blogspot.com
• BACK TO THE OLD HOUSE: www.lettershome.ca
• PEW PEW PEW: www.erkie.github.com