France bewitched by ‘Bojangles,’ a book full of joy and tears

PARIS (AFP) -- It is the literary sensation of the year in France. A first novel by a dyslexic author that has had readers crying -- and laughing out loud -- on the Paris metro.　Before he wrote “Waiting for Bojangles” in seven weeks at his parents' home, 35-year-old Olivier Bourdeaut had “failed at just about everything else in my life,” he told AFP.　“I wish I was joking,” said the failed estate agent whose last job was a switchboard operator for an educational publishing company, “surrounded by

April 12, 2016

Spain in Our Hearts’ tells the American story of the Spanish civil war

“Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939”　By Adam Hochschild　Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (464 pages, $30)　The Spanish civil war, which ran from 1936 to 1939, is most notable to historians for how it foreshadowed the horrors of World War II.　Yet few distant conflicts are so burned into our culture and consciousness.　Ernest Hemingway, who covered the war, made it the setting of “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “the best goddamn book” he ever wrote. George Orwell, who fought in i

April 6, 2016

American children’s author wins Astrid Lindgren prize

STOCKHOLM (AFP) -- American children’s author Meg Rosoff on Tuesday won the 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for young people’s literature, the organization announced.　“Meg Rosoff’s young adult novels speak to the emotions as well as the intellect. In sparkling prose, she writes about the search for meaning and identity in a peculiar and bizarre world,” the jury said in its statement. 　Rosoff was born in Boston in 1956, attended Harvard University and later published her first book “How I Liv

April 6, 2016

Tina Fey talks ‘Bossypants’ and other books, zings Talese

NEW YORK (AP) -- Even for someone as loved as Tina Fey, a reported $6 million advance seemed like a lot of money for a book of essays. 　But five years after its publication, “Bossypants” has sold 3.75 million copies, according to Little, Brown and Co. And it confirmed a market for smart, funny nonfiction such as Amy Poehler’s “Yes Please” and Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”　In an email interview Tuesday with the Associated Press, Fey discussed “Bossypants” and some books she

April 6, 2016

Intimate memoir of life in a southern coal town

“Dimestore: A Writer’s Life” 　By Lee Smith　Algonquin Books (202 pages, $24.95)　Lee Smith’s parents raised her to leave the Appalachian town of Grundy, Virginia, where they “were closed in entirely, cut off from the outside world by our ring of mountains.”　They taught her proper grammar, sent her to school with delicate lunches instead of the cornbread and buttermilk she wanted, packed her off every summer to Birmingham, Alabama, for “lady lessons.”　None of this really worked.　Smith adored her ho

April 6, 2016

Dive into ordinary but well-crafted lives in ‘High Dive’

　“High Dive” 　By Jonathan Lee 　Knopf (336 pages, $25.95)　Jonathan Lee’s new novel “High Dive” reimagines the weeks leading up to the Grand Hotel bombing on Oct. 12, 1984.　Splitting time between Brighton, England, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lee focuses the attention not on Margaret Thatcher, the intended target of the attack, nor other political figures at the Conservative Party Conference, but on the lives of three individuals.　The narrative opens with Dan’s initiation into the Irish Republi

April 6, 2016

‘The Caped Crusade’ details the cultural history of Batman

“The Caped Crusade” by Glen Weldon　Simon & Schuster (325 pages, $26)　Batman has been a lot of things during the past 77 years: a gun-toting vigilante, an object of panic at the height of American homophobia, a campy ’60s television icon, a grumbly middle-aged antihero and a mass media star.　But through all of these iterations, what has given Batman his longevity? The answer lies in the pages of “The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture” by Glen Weldon, a sharp, deeply knowledgeable

April 6, 2016

Priceless tomes in Italy hold key to European identity

ROME (AFP) - As Europe struggles with an identity crisis, a new exhibition in Rome looks at the birth of European culture through ancient manuscripts and the earliest printed books, including a first edition of Dante's Divine Comedy.　While mass migrant arrivals have fuelled xenophobia and threatened to undermine the EU’s core values, the exhibition extols the melting pot of cultures which shaped Europe -- beginning with the 13th century Italian poet, himself a political exile and migrant.　“The e

April 4, 2016

Museum invites visitors into colorful world of Eric Carle

ATLANTA (AP) -- Atlanta's High Museum of Art is inviting visitors into a colorful world populated by playful animals and imaginative children.　"I See a Story: The Art of Eric Carle" opened Saturday and features more than 80 collages from 16 books by the author of children’s favorites like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "The Grouchy Ladybug." Carle's bright images explore themes including childhood, nature and journeys.　Adults can revel in the nostalgia of books they read as children or read t

April 3, 2016

Korean novel enthralls Mexican young adults

A Korean young adult novel is gaining popularity in Mexico, with positive reviews spreading via social media, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea said Friday. 　“Wizard Bakery” by Koo Byung-mo was published by Mexican publisher Nostra Ediciones under the translated title “La Panaderia Encantada” in December last year. 　Since then, the novel has been receiving positive responses on social media. Readers have posted reviews on over 30 blogs, prompting the publishing house to produce a sho

April 1, 2016

Haunted Mansion comic book unearths history behind the Disney ride

Early in the first issue of Marvel Comics’ “Haunted Mansion,” a new one-off, five-issue series inspired by the Disneyland staple, readers encounter a ghost. This is expected. After all, as Haunted Mansion lore tells us, there are 999 of them living inside the manor.　Only this ghost isn’t of the grim, grinning sort, as described in the attraction’s popular song. This ghost is all bones and menace, with a foreboding cape and a sword flailing wildly.　It’s the Haunted Mansion Disney aficionados know

March 30, 2016

Red Riding Hood packs heat in US gun group’s reinvented fairytale

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Here is Little Red Riding Hood, rifle slung over her shoulder, confidently striding through the forest. Now we see her granny, taking aim with a shotgun at the Big Bad Wolf.　What’s that? You don’t recall your favorite Brothers Grimm characters packing heat? 　Then you must not have read the versions of classic fairy tales that have been reworked by the National Rifle Association, to help empower children by teaching them that well-armed citizens -- even in the world of storybo

March 30, 2016

Behind the scenes of CIA briefings

“The President’s Book of Secrets” 　By David Priess　PublicAffairs (384 pages, $29.95)　On Aug. 6, 2001, the third day of his August vacation in Texas, President George W. Bush welcomed two visitors into the living room of his ranch house.　Steve Biegun, the executive secretary of the National Security Council, was filling in for National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Michael Morell was a CIA analyst assigned to brief Bush daily on intelligence developments. He handed Bush the President’s Daily

March 30, 2016

Life in 1930s China made relatable through simple details

“Half a Lifelong Romance” 　By Eileen Chang　Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (400 pages, $12.33)　“Half a Lifelong Romance” is broad in its scope and exceptionally moving in its characterizations, painting a picture of life in China in the 1930s.　The novel, by Eileen Chang, was originally published in serialized form in Shanghai in 1950, under the name “Eighteen Springs (Shiba chun).” A translated U.S. edition recently was released.　“Half a Lifelong Romance” introduces a broad cast of characters a

March 30, 2016