BNA_Daily | January 13, 2010
Believe it or not, Unfinished Desires is not a romance novel turned murder mystery–it’s a story about a nun. Mother Ravenel, to be exact, an aging woman writing the history of the Catholic school she attended and eventually ran. Author Gail Godwin uses Mother Ravenel’s history to portray the complicated dynamics of packs of teenaged [...]
BNA_Daily | May 27, 2009
Michael Scott’s bestselling series “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” has been called the series to fill the Harry Potter gap and has even merited a publisher-created online game. So does the third book in the series, The Sorceress (out yesterday), live up to the buzz? According to reviews so far, yes!
The sorceress in [...]
BNA_Daily | May 20, 2009
As the weather heats up and American flags are hung for Memorial Day, we can’t help thinking about this summer’s beach reads. Romance is the classic “guilty pleasure” beach pick, but now there’s a sub-genre that’s growing faster than the rest – paranormal romance. Paranormal romance combines science fiction, horror, and romance to create love [...]
BNA_Daily | May 18, 2009
David Ignatius, Body of Lies author and journalist for the Washington Post, has once again combined his foreign affairs expertise with his talent for fiction in The Increment. Out today from W.W. Norton, The Increment is the story of CIA chief Harry Pappas, who takes matters into his own hands after learning of Iran’s continued [...]
BNA_Daily | May 11, 2009
By Chuck Palahniuk’s count, 73 people have fainted during his readings, mostly from the disturbing details of his story “Guts.” Needless to say, his writing invites a variety of reactions, from his devoted fan following (a self-proclaimed cult), to critics who dismiss him as nothing more than a “shock jock.”
BNA_Editor | May 1, 2009
This week at Books & Authors we’re spanning the globe with news involving the PEN World Voices Festival, President Obama, and pigs everywhere. If you’d like a reprieve from the dire news of the auto industry and growing need for Purell, take a look at the links below for some literary light.
Jay McInerney has been [...]
BNA_Editor | April 28, 2009
Here at Books & Authors, we spend most of our time huddled on couches or comfy chairs, reading our weekly fix of genre fiction and heartbreaking works of nonfiction (honestly, if anyone can recommend a nice nonfiction work that won’t bum us out, please share). The rest of our time we spend online, searching for [...]
BNA_Editor | April 28, 2009
Back in February, an article on certified “genius” (at least, according to whomever hands out the MacArthur grants) author Colson Whitehead appeared in The Daily Beast with the eye-catching title - “The Great Summer Read Is Almost Here.” The reporter was referring to Whitehead’s newest novel titled Sag Harbor (out today), an autobiographical bildungsroman about [...]
BNA_Editor | April 28, 2009
2009 has been a hard year on literary figures so far, with the world losing John Updike in January and the great J.G. Ballard last Sunday. A master of postmodern irony, Ballard wrote across a wide spectrum of topics and themes, ranging from the apocalyptic extremes of The Drowned World and The Drought to the [...]
BNA_Editor | February 3, 2009
For many readers, it’s hard to think of British fantasy literature without the name “Terry Pratchett” immediately coming to mind. Even if you’re not a fan of Pratchett or his ever-expansive Discworld universe, you can’t deny the man’s popularity. Before Harry Potter emerged, forever changing J.K. Rowling’s life and bank draft, Pratchett was a publishing [...]
