Book News for Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Legends of the Fall: The Los Angeles Times has a fall books preview that (no surprise) singles out the new Dan Brown thriller, The Lost Symbol. Brown must be feeling pretty good right about now — his...
View ArticleWhere Men Win Glory
Anyone who has read Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild knows he was born to write about quirky, iconoclastic characters who travel their own road, ultimately leading to a tragic demise. Where Men Win Glory...
View ArticleBook News for Monday, September 14, 2009
In Memoriam: Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker who is perhaps best known for his memoir The Basketball Diaries (made into a film starring Leonard DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg), died of a heart attack...
View ArticleBook News for Thursday, September 24, 2009
Where Authors Win Glory: In the New York Times, Janet Maslin reviews the latest from Jon Krakauer: One effect of "Where Men Win Glory," a disappointing book that is still apt to be popular both because...
View ArticleBook News for Tuesday, November 3, 2009
A Load of Bull-ano: An essay by Horacio Castellanos Moya, reprinted in Guernica magazine, disputes the North American romance of the late author Roberto Bolaño. Moya's argument isn't entirely clear to...
View ArticleThe Mormons and Me
I spent two years with Mormon people, with Mormon books, and embraced by Mormon history to write American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church. People constantly...
View ArticleInto Thin Air
A deadly storm striking tragedy on unsuspecting climbers isn't subject matter I would typically expect to inspire adventure. Yet Jon Krakauer's riveting account of a disastrous 1999 ascent of Mt....
View ArticleRequired Reading: Books That Inspire Travel
Ahead of a trip, many of us gravitate toward books that depict the history and culture of our travel destination. But it can work the other way around, too. Sometimes a book provides such a powerful...
View ArticleMissoula
Any new release by Krakauer is bound to be controversial, but with Missoula, a look at campus rape across America, he's created a lightning rod for vigorous debate. Well-written and incredibly...
View Article