Nicholas Sparks debuts 20th novel, “Two By Two”

“Two By Two” By Nicholas Sparks(Grand Central Publishing)In 1996, Nicholas Sparks introduced the world to Allie and Noah in his best-selling novel “The Notebook.” Their story became an overnight sensation. Two decades later, Sparks continues to prove he's an expert in exploring real world challenges in a believable romantic genre. His twentieth work, “Two By Two,” extends his impressive collection of literary tales. Russell Green is living a dream life. His young daughter, London, is adorable; h

Oct. 12, 2016

Caroline Leavitt writes of off-kilter ’60s America

For fans of Emma Cline’s best-selling debut “The Girls,” Caroline Leavitt’s “Cruel Beautiful World” offers another opportunity to spend time in the wild, off-kilter America of the late 1960s, the period when peace-and-love idealism began to curdle into something far less wholesome, a period reigned over in the collective imagination by Charles Manson. Leavitt‘s title and lovely period book cover get it just right.While Cline placed her teenage protagonist in the middle of a fictionalized Manson

Oct. 12, 2016

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem talks about life on the road

Gloria Steinem was under the weather.Her famously level gaze that for decades could silently convey “Really?” looked only weary as she sipped pomegranate juice to ease a cough.Always svelte, Steinem now tips toward frail, yet padded about barefoot in the India-infused garden level of her New York City duplex, rocking a flamingo-pink T-shirt and black slacks.To update her famous retort about age: This is what 82 looks like.Steinem's hair, with its iconic middle part, mingles gray with blond. No,

Oct. 12, 2016

Korean writer, translator launch US book tour

As part of a move to help promote Korean literature abroad, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea is hosting book launch events in various US cities.The books to be unveiled are Bae Su-ah’s “The Essayist’s Desk” and “Recitation,” which will be released by Open Letter Books in October and Deep Vellum Publishing in January next year, respectively. Korean novelist Bae Su-ah (Literature Translation Institute of Korea)The marketing events will be held between Oct. 5 and Oct. 14 in New York, S

Oct. 5, 2016

Poetry of life’s paradoxes in ‘Belly Button Disc’

“Whether the cow is brown, black or spotted, its milk is all white,” Kim Dong-ho muses in “White Milk,” included in his newly published compilation of translated poems “Belly Button Disc.”The book comprises 56 selected poems originally written by Kim in Korean and co-translated into English by Kim Won-chung, professor of English literature at Sungkyunkwan University, and poet-translator Ko Chang-soo. 　In his work, 82-year-old poet Kim examines life’s mysteries and the world from a Taoistic persp

Oct. 5, 2016

A writer’s wisdom of the ages -- at 60

“Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year: The Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning?” By Ian BrownThe Experiment (320 pages, $24.95)As a cranky wit and a wondrous observer, Ian Brown has a compelling take on the joys and agonies of growing older. His pleasures are your pleasures, and his fears will feel as familiar as old friends.Does Brown relish having turned 60? Hardly. He seems a little stunned by it — ambushed and wounded. It’s as if the thought of turning 60 caught up with him in

Oct. 5, 2016

Pulitzer prize journalist takes on Donald Trump

Over an election season dominated by blatant flip-flops and lofty claims, there is one position that Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump has stood by firmly: He hates the media.But his strong and often times brutal disdain for reporters is surprising, given that in his four decades in the public light, no one has been able to take him down. Not a single newspaper article has prevented him from getting this close to the presidency, and for that he should be thankful.Because Trump has

Oct. 5, 2016

Mark Seliger takes on the unsung in book of trans portraits

NEW YORK (AP) -- Nearly 50 years have passed since police raided New York’s Stonewall Inn, touching off protests on Christopher Street that fueled the LGBT movement.To mark the moment, the popular bar and haven for homeless youth, sex workers, trans people and others in search of community and self was designated a national park in June by President Barack Obama.It’s against that backdrop that longtime resident of the Greenwich Village neighborhood, famed photographer Mark Seliger, decided on a

Oct. 5, 2016

Chicago blogger Luvvie Ajayi offers wit, wisdom in new book ‘I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual’

“I’m Judging You” By Luvvie AjayiHenry Holt (256 pages, $17)The wit of culture blogger Luvvie Ajayi (AwesomelyLuvvie.com) has earned her quite the following.She has been called upon by the likes of McDonald’s, Comcast and wine brand Rosa Regale to take over their social media accounts, live Tweet events and blog about “Scandal” and “Being Mary Jane.”And earlier this month, Oprah herself crowned the Chicago web strategist, naming her to the inaugural list of Super Soul 100 leaders recognized for

Sept. 28, 2016

‘Children of the New World’ finds virtual realities disenchanting

“Children of the New World” By Alexander WeinsteinPicador (240 pages, $16)The typical protagonist of Alexander Weinstein’s cautionary tales in “Children of the New World” is a man who could benefit from reading these stories, but probably never would, unless someone found a way to pipe them directly into his eyeballs.He’s no longer young, though sometimes youngish, emotionally connected to few people beyond his wife (if he has one) and easily swept away by virtual reality, shared-world environme

Sept. 28, 2016

Mara Wilson is not Matilda anymore

When Mara Wilson was a little girl, Hollywood couldn’t get enough of her.She was one of those child actors who seemed preternaturally mature. Her vocabulary was surprisingly expansive. She could carry on full-blown conversations with adults. And she appeared to be in full control of her emotions, bringing out the puppy dog eyes at just the right moment.Interviewing Wilson on the “Today” show in 1994, Katie Couric declared: “Every time I see you in a movie, I just want to put you in my pocket and

Sept. 28, 2016

Jonathan Safran Foer’s ‘Here I Am’ depicts a marriage falling apart

“Here I Am”By Jonathan Safran FoerFarrar, Straus and Giroux (592 pages, $28)True to the crumbling marriage at its center, what’s best in “Here I Am” — Jonathan Safran Foer’s moving, maddening and messy novel — comes early.Julia and Jacob have been married for 16 years and have three boys. In the beginning, they’d committed to a policy of complete honesty, convinced they could tell each other everything and be stronger for doing so.But by the time we meet them, Jacob is sexting a work colleague a

Sept. 21, 2016

Harmonies, strife in Love’s Beach Boys tale

“Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy”By Mike Love with James S. HirschBlue Rider Press (448 pages, $28)Mike Love is acutely aware that he is perceived as a villain.In his new autobiography, “Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy,” Love puts the conventional public framing of his relationship to his cousin and musical collaborator Brian Wilson simply: “For those who believe that Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist.”But every villain is the hero of his own story, and “Good

Sept. 21, 2016

‘Little Nothing’ a fierce fairy tale

Fairy tales waste no time getting under the skin. They pretend to be innocent, once upon a time and all that, but they never are. The darkened wood, the hooded stranger, the soup served at dinner hide only briefly a more sinister intent.Freud called it uncanny, this transfiguring of the familiar into something weird and powerful, and writers have long reveled in making this leap. Between reality and fantasy is a delicious brew of dissonance and disorientation, all in the service of greater truth

Sept. 21, 2016

‘The Oliver Stone Experience’ a deep dive into monumental movie career

“The Oliver Stone Experience” By Matt Zoller SeitzAbrams (480 pages, $50)Is there another living American director with a greater run of movies than Oliver Stone? The dozen films he directed over a span of 13 years, from 1986-1999, form a body of work unparalleled in contemporary cinema. They came one after the other -- artful provocations, sometimes clouded in disreputable airs, that delved into recent history and modern-day affairs with a defiant ferocity and style: “Salvador,” “Platoon,” “Wa

Sept. 21, 2016