Book Reviews

11-year-old Paul Tracey loves baseball — especially his idol, the hottest rookie ever, "Calico" Joe Castle. Paul is in the stands watching his despised father Warren pitching to Joe when the most awful act in the game freezes the rookie's ...  

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books has updated its list of new hardcover mysteries with books scheduled for publication in June 2012. Please note that some titles June publish early, and June already be available, and some June be delayed, published at a later date.Below we're listing those authors with returning series characters, new series characters, and non-series or stand-alone mysteries in separate sections. All titles are available on...  

The textbook publisher McGraw-Hill Higher Education announced a pilot program with University of Minnesota bookstores last week that may eventually make early semester lines and sold-out core texts as obsolete as the diskette. McGraw-Hill will offer its complete catalog of more than 1,600 e-books to University of Minnesota students starting in the 2012 fall semester (the number of participating students was not yet available). Professors...  

Rich fund managers still don’t get it. The Internet has doomed traditional textbook publishers. Professors can put together textbooks for their students by using scholarly journals or other online documents. They don’t need third-party textbooks.  

HARDCOVER FICTION Sacre Bleu a Comedy of Art Christopher Moore Defending Jacob William Landay Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Are You My Mother a Comic Drama Alison Bechdel Calico Joe John Grisham Havana Requiem Paul Goldstein Art of Fielding Chad Harbach Monday Mornings Sanjay Gupta Forgotten Affairs of Youth Smith Alexan Mccall Night Circus Erin Morgenstern HARDCOVER NONFICTION Passage of Power the Years of Lyndon Joh Robert Caro Gods...  

During a presentation for reporters Tuesday about adaptive learning and e-books, Brian Kibby, president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education, frequently referenced the startups angling to bring technology into college classrooms across the country.  

Robert Caro's latest biographical installment on the late president Lyndon Baines Johnson shot to the top of this week's hardcover nonfiction list of the best sellers in Southern California independent bookstores. "Deadlocked" by Charlaine Harris tops the hardcover fiction list, while "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James continues to hold the top of the trade paperback list. (And others in the series the next two spots.) Books and authors page  

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) Rhonda Byrne’s “The Magic” dominates the non-fiction category in the bestseller list this week, while John Grisham’s “Calico Joe” maintains the top spot in the fiction section. Non-Fiction 1. “The Magic” Author: Rhonda Byrne Publisher: Simon & Schuster Price: Rs.399 2. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” Author: Katherine Boo Publisher: Penguin Price: Rs.499 3. “The Man Within [...]  

From the press release: This fall, students at colleges and universities with bookstores managed by Follett Higher Education Group will have another digital textbook option. Follett and Inkling Systems, Inc. today announced a partnership to offer Inkling’s enhanced, interactive digital textbooks through the more than 900 college stores operated by Follett as well as online via efollett.com®. Inkling’s interactive textbooks [...]  

NEW YORK, May 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As universities and educational publishers grapple with the challenge of driving acceptance and adoption of e-books on college campuses, McGraw-Hill Higher Education has come one step closer to reaching the e-book tipping point through a new...  

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The 20 Million Minds Foundation (20MM) in partnership with Akademos today announced the launch of a non-profit faculty-focused Textbook Search Tool to help determine affordable peer-reviewed textbook options that will be run on the...  

The Festival of Books attracted more than 100,000 people to USC this weekend. Photo by Hayley Fox/blogdowntown. The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books drew more than 100,000 people to the University of Southern California this weekend. The expansive event took over the college campus with book sale booths, author tents, performance stages and panel discussions between an assortment of literary and journalistic powerhouses. The campus was...  

The Saylor Foundation provides global grants of US $20,000 to college textbook authors seeking to openly license their educational textbooks for use in free Saylor college-level courses. Authors maintain their copyright and license textbooks to the world via Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) to enable maximum reuse, remix, and redistribution. To learn more and apply, [...]  

New Delhi, April 28 (IANS) Rhonda Byrne’s “The Magic” dominates the non-fiction category in the bestseller list this week, while Jeffrey Archer’s “The Sins of the Father” is at the top spot in the fiction section. Non-Fiction 1. “The Magic” Author: Rhonda Byrne Publisher: Simon & Schuster Price: Rs.399 2. “Thinking Fast and Slow” Author: Daniel Kahneman Publisher: Allen [...]  

Ten minibooks cover all you need to know about search engine optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential tool for getting a handle on web site promotional tactics and tools. With this complete reference, you'll explore issues not covered anywhere else, including international SEO, how to optimize servers for SEO, and much more. Ten separate books join forces to provide you with a comprehensive, straightforward guide to...  

The Livermore-based community college has a creative new lending program that puts textbooks in students' hands for a fraction of what it would cost to buy the books. "Textbooks are crazy-expensive," student Katie Jo Rodgess said. "This semester ...  

The transformation of EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey from free ebook to paperback bestseller shows that fan fiction communities are a potentially lucrative source of materialEL James's Fifty Shades of Grey has stormed to the top of the bestseller charts on both sides of the Atlantic, going from self-published ebook and print-on-demand paperback to a Vintage/Arrow Books series, with two sequels hurried into print and a multimillion-dollar film...  

Microsoft announced this week that it will invest $300 million in Barnes & Noble's (B&N) Nook e-reader to help create a subsidiary for the bookstore's e-book and college textbook businesses. The new agreement values the Nook and textbook businesses at $1.7 billion.  B&N's shares jumped nearly 70 percent after the announcement on Monday. As Microsoft sits just months away from releasing its tablet-friendly Windows 8 operating system, the move...  

You know the name Elizabeth Gilbert from her bookshelf - "Eat, Pray, Love," "Committed," "The Last American Man," "Stern Men." "Eat, Pray, Love" was made into a movie, starring Julia Roberts in 2010. But Gilbert's new foray introduces a cookbook ...  

A textbook used in seventh-grade history classes at Norwin Middle School lies about the history of Islam and Christianity, according to a local pastor. "I read the Koran. I looked at the textbooks. I took them out of the school, read the textbooks. I began ...  

For example, Douthat laments the success of books and movies that tap into a cheap form of mysticism.  “I do respect that spiritual quest,” Douthat said, referencing the enormously popular book and movie, “Eat, Pray, Love.”  

"We'll be north of 15,000 books today." By the numbers ... 59 percent of college students by current editions (new or used) of assigned textbooks. 14 percent of college students rent their assigned textbooks. Illicit acquisition activity is significant ...  

The erudite and witty commentator lifts the tarp that cloaks our military and reveals the condition of our national security state. We have made peace with being perpetually at war, yet 99 percent of our population has no familiarity with our ...  

NEW YORK, May 11, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- As universities and educational publishers grapple with the challenge of driving acceptance and adoption of e-books on college campuses, McGraw-Hill Higher Education has come one step closer to reaching the ...  

Under the program, the University of Minnesota Bookstores will identify the digital materials each instructor needs for classes and bill students’ bursar accounts directly. Students will have automatic and immediate digital access to course ...  

Veronica Roth has announced today that Insurgent has debuted at number one on The New York Times' Bestseller List for hardcover books. "Just found out that Insurgent was #1 on the NYT hardcover list this week! And so was Divergent, on the paperback list! #  

YourTeacher today announced the release of their first math iBook for schools: Algebra 1. Available exclusively at Apple’s iBookstore, YourTeacher’s patent-pending math iBook is the world’s first ‘Textbook with a Teacher Inside ®.’ PRLog (Press ...  

In case you slept in Saturday morning, here's some of what you missed at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. And yes, Scooby-Doo is roaming the fest, too. Overheard at #bookfest: "It's like Disneyland for nerds!" @HuffPostBooks OH at #bookfest:...  

(David Bernstein) Rehabilitating Lochner is now available for pre-order at Amazon for $15.30–quite a discount relative to the $37.00 the hardcover is going for (Cato sells it for $10 less). Amazon has meanwhile reduced the price of the Kindle edition to $15.07. Interested readers can check out a recent LibertyLaw blog symposium on the book, with reviews [...]  

Bookbyte, a leading online retailer of used and new textbooks, offers a chance to win prizes simply by completing a buyback with Bookbyte. Bookbyte, a leading online retailer of used and new textbooks, continues to buy textbooks back at great prices.  

“There are other offending cartoons that were also found in the textbook and a committee has been created to examine which ones are offensive and remove them,” he said. No textbooks carrying the offending cartoon would be sold by textbook wh ...  

E-books, textbook rental services, and new laws could help students save money. Textbook prices, which have nearly tripled in the past 20 years, may finally start to decline thanks to some new laws, technology, and upstart companies. Undergraduates who ...  

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said the company is going to start embedding NFC chips into Nooks. Lynch said the company plans to ask publishers to embed NFC chips in hardcover books so that in-store shoppers can get information on hardcover ...  

The Pasco County School Board has postponed adopting new social studies textbooks after questions were raised about the process for selecting the books. Superintendent Heather Fiorentino pulled the elementary textbooks from the board agenda even ...  

The Pasco County School Board has postponed adopting new social studies textbooks after questions were raised about the process for selecting the books. Superintendent Heather Fiorentino pulled the elementary textbooks from the board agenda even ...  

LONGMONT -- The author of two books of recipes and stories from hundreds of Holocaust survivors will make a stop in Longmont next week. Joanne Caras, who compiled and wrote "Holocaust Survivor Cookbook" and "Miracles & Meals," will speak at the ...  

Unlike traditional textbooks, YourTeacher’s iBooks have a personal math teacher built in, ready to provide the ‘heavy lifting’ instruction for every student. Think of them as an army of assistants for the perpetually overworked and ...  

David Pogue in The New York Times called the initial device ... meaning prices for their e-books likely will again drop on Amazon. Microsoft has a long-standing interest in the e-book field. It launched e-book software in 2000, but was never ...  

In exchange, Microsoft gets a long-desired foothold in the business of e-books and college textbooks. Microsoft invested $300 million and is taking a 17.6 percent stake in the venture. The agreement underscores the importance of electronic ...  

A satirical glossary of terms to be included in the Pasco School District's new social studies textbooks for elementary schools: Committee — Group of educators culled together to make recommendation on spending $850,000 for textbooks.  

An Interview With McGraw-Hill Higher Education President, Brian Kibby, About The Future Of Ebooks [TCTV]. John Biggs. posted yesterday. Comments. View Staff Page. Biggs is the East Cost Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has ...  

New Delhi, Apr 21 (IANS): Rhonda Byrne's "The Magic" dominates the non-fiction category in the bestseller list this week, while John Grisham's "Calico Joe" maintains the top spot in the fiction section.  

In “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” Ben Fountain sets up a Thanksgiving football game as an artfully detailed microcosm of America in general, and George W. Bush’s Texas in particular, during the Iraq war.  

Toni Morrison’s new novel encapsulates all the themes that have fueled her fiction: the hold that time past exerts over time present, the hazards of love, the possibility of redemption and transcendence.  

This long book about the short life of the author and poet Richard Brautigan distills San Francisco and Montana in the 1960s and ’70s and the wild lives of the subject and his friends.  

This summer, the Motherlode Book Club will be reading two books parents and older children alike can enjoy, from Jodi Piccoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer, and Carl Hiaasen.  

A new biography of David Hockney traces his early life and work in England and Los Angeles up to 1975, including fascinating accounts of how some well-known paintings evolved.  

Technology, metaphysics and the art and science of putting together a broken heart and a nonfunctioning machine are central to Peter Carey’s novel “The Chemistry of Tears.”  

The author of “The Lost Years” and many other novels was once thrilled to spot a fellow air passenger reading one of her books. Moments later, the reader was fast asleep.  

Two new books examine the current culture of motherhood: one bemoaning it and the other suggesting what might be done to improve the balance of work and family demands.  

“A Disposition to Be Rich,” by the prizewinning historian Geoffrey C. Ward, is a scandal-filled but eminently fair book that airs his great-grandfather’s dirty laundry.  

The author of “Friday Night Lights” goes on the road with his young-adult son, a savant with serious intellectual deficits, and writes an unflinchingly honest memoir.  

Mr. Bowman was a novelist and cultural critic whose first books, “Let the Dog Drive” and “Bunny Modern,” received wide praise in the 1990s for their satirical voice.  

The Brooklyn Art Library houses the ongoing Sketchbook Project, an endeavor that has amassed some 12,500 sketchbooks made by people from more than 130 countries.  

Gregg Allman’s memoir talks about growing up with his brother, Duane; life with the Allman Brothers Band; his substance abuse; and his relationships with women.  

Some authors, like the novelist James Patterson, are producing 12 or more books a year to satisfy readers who are increasingly used to on-demand entertainment.  

Two new books — one about showing affection to boys, and another about the transition from Brooklyn to suburbia — offer vastly different takes on parenthood.  

“Alien vs. Predator” is a first collection of poems by Michael Robbins, who is often praised for his ability to whip high and low culture into stiff peaks.  

Mr. Higham, whose books drew vast attention for their memorably vast claims, wrote a number of biographies on some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.  

In Elisa Carbone’s “Heroes of the Surf,” two young boys travel from South America to New York City on a steamship that encounters rough waters.  

Frank Deford’s memoir recalls a lost era of sportswriting, when players slept in fleabag hotels and stubbed out cigarettes in the dugout.  

When the mother of this novel’s heroine needs a stem-cell transplant, the girl must spend the summer with her grandmother.  

Audiobooks and road trips offer a chance to reacquaint children, and their parents, with the joy of listening to stories.  

The novelist Anne Enright’s memoir “Making Babies” takes a strange, wide-ranging look at the changes motherhood brings.  

Janet Maslin asks, Who is the real amateur in this pairing: the subject, President Obama, or the author, Edward Klein?  

In Richard Ford’s new novel, a 15-year-old boy watches his family fall apart, and flees north to something even worse.  

Two Hasidic girls, united as a result of Nazi persecution, pursue opposite paths in this novel by Anouk Markovits.  

Kristin Cashore’s teenage queen struggles through a fog of secrets in this companion to “Graceling” and “Fire.”  

Two new books teach the basics of ballet, and a third stars a swan auditioning for — what else? — “Swan Lake.”  

Ms. George’s home held a menagerie, as did her books, most of them written for children and young adults.  

From stolen sweets to missing parents, the sleuths in these stories have their work cut out for them.  

The plan would move half the books in the stacks of the flagship Fifth Avenue library to New Jersey.  

A CNN national security analyst documents the operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.  

John Irving’s new novel has a bisexual narrator and a decades-long story.  

The success of Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” has inspired other comedians to write memoirs.  

Here’s a sampling of beach reads to suit every taste, from history to science fiction.  

Two novels about princes display different approaches to the world of fantasy.  

Four books explore friendship through animal pairs.  

Readers can learn from the birds in these picture books.  

Two girls conceal a great-aunt’s death to salvage some order in their lives.  

A novel based on a boy’s life under the Khmer Rouge.  

Tim Carvell’s 12-year-old narrator has a lot on his mind.  

Two young women fight for Britain during World War II.  

Joseph Olshan’s novel “Cloudland” concerns the impact of a murder on a rural community.  

Beth Ann Bauman’s 17-year-old heroine brings contemporary issues to light.  

Shelter — from storms or from busy routines — is the subject of three books.  

In the bustling Thailand of R. P. Harris’s novel, a special bond is formed.  

Picture books about siblings.  

Picture books about bedtime.  

Picture books that are odes to the maternal.  

Read an online discussion of the novel “Time and Again,” by Jack Finney.