Nonfiction

Oprah Makes Her “Boldest Choice”

Oprah Makes Her “Boldest Choice” – 1/30/2008 9:27:00 AM – Publishers Weekly Oprah’s going all out with this book club choice, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle: Saying she was “over the moon excited” about the book, Oprah described it as an extension of her life’s mission, “to lead people […]

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book review

“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote

Introductory Notes Truman Capote (1924-1984) was born in New Orleans and educated in private schools in Connecticut and New York. As a young man he worked for The New Yorker. He received early acclaim as a writer, but he continued in the public eye mainly for his flamboyant life in New York City, where his

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Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books

Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books Sorry to be so late with this, but here’s one of those year-end lists that I missed.  In fact, there are several lists here, broken down by subject matter. There are readers’ favorites as well as editors’ picks included, so you can get a feel for what books other ordinary

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What’s a nice girl like Ann Rule doing in a genre like true crime?

What’s a nice girl like Ann Rule doing in a genre like true crime? In this piece in one of her hometown newspapers, true-crime queen Ann Rule, a former Seattle police officer, tells how she found her true calling. Her first book contract was for the story of a serial killer then stalking the Pacific

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Books of 2007: Science

THIRD CULTURE HOLIDAY READING 2007 This is the season for year-end lists of books in which the mainstream review media steer literate culture away from deep questions about how our world works and who we are and toward celebrations of narcissism, celebrity gossip, and literary cliques. John Brockman, editor and publisher at Edge, laments “that

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book review

“Zelda: A Biography” by Nancy Milford

Milford, Nancy. Zelda: A BiographyNew York: Harper & Row, 1970Paperback, 426 pagesISBN 0-060-91069-0 They were among the most beautiful people of the Jazz Age: the dashing young writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his striking young bride Zelda. Fitzgerald christened the era the Jazz Age, and he made his wife its first Flapper. Zelda Sayre was

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book review

“Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, LoveNew York: Viking, 2006ISBN 978-07394-7418-1 Penguin Audiobooks, narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert Recommended After a very messy divorce, writer Elizabeth Gilbert found herself in a deep depression. With her publisher’s advance for the book she would write in her bank account, she set off on a year’s trip around the world in search

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book review

“The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion

Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical ThinkingNew York: Knopf, 2005ISBN 1-4000-4314-X HighBridge Audio, narrated by Barbara Caruso Highly Recommended On the evening of December 30, 2003, Joan Didion’s husband of 40 years, John Gregory Dunne, sat down to dinner in their apartment in New York City. Didion and Dunne had just come home from visiting their

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book review

“Truth and Beauty” by Ann Patchett

Patchett, Ann. Truth and Beauty: A FriendshipNew York: HarperCollins, 2004ISBN 0-06-057214-0 Harper Audio, narrated by Ann Patchett Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy both attended college at Sarah Lawrence at the same time, although they were not friends there. Ann tells us that at Sarah Lawrence everyone–students and faculty–knew Lucy as a tremendously talented poet. Everyone also knew

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book review

“Forgive for Good” by Fred Luskin

Luskin, Fred. Forgive for GoodSan Francisco: HarperCollins, 2002Trade paperback, 240 pagesISBN 0-06-251721-X Highly Recommended This book changed my life. Extensive research has shown that forgiveness is good for us, both physically and emotionally. We can understand this intellectually. But, as most of us also know, it’s much harder to find forgiveness in our hearts. I

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