They were just roomies, then a bond was forged

Friendships are often forged in uncomfortable environs, when individuals who wouldn’t ordinarily meet are forced to interact. Such is the case in “Dreams of Significant Girls,” a young-adult novel that unfolds in a Swiss boarding school and makes roommates of three girls from radically different bac

Aug. 26, 2011

‘The Help’ makes the leap from bookshelf to big screen

Movies cost a lot of money to make. Some estimates say that the average budget for a mainstream Hollywood release, including the costs of promotion and advertising, is more than $100 million. So studios don’t usually take a chance on unproved ideas (unless they’re self-explanatory concepts like “Sna

Aug. 26, 2011

Brains and beauty on show at naked readings

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Sit back and enjoy readings of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde or Henrik Ibsen, sip a glass of wine ― oh, and gaze upon the readers themselves: they’re naked.That combination of delights is on offer once a month in New York thanks to the enterprising group Naked Girls Reading.At a recent s

Aug. 22, 2011

Biography of playwright

Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy WassersteinBy Julie Salamon(The Penguin Press)Wherever Wendy Wasserstein went, women came up to her and wanted to talk about her struggles to find a meaningful balance of work, love and family ― all the while being thin.In plays like the Pulitzer-

Aug. 19, 2011

Insight into Korea’s colonial era

Peace under HeavenBy Chae Man-sik Translated by Chun Kyung-ja(M E Sharpe, Inc.)Korea’s Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) brought many changes to Korea, and one of them was the start of capitalism here. Late author Chae Man-sik’s darkly satirical novel, “Peace under Heaven” presents a portrai

Aug. 19, 2011

CNN anchor: Talented, imperious, scarred, publicly out

Want a yardstick for how far into the post-ironic era we have drifted?This summer, TV newsman Don Lemon published a memoir, “Transparent,” in which he came out as gay and talked about being sexually abused as a boy.Yet he got far more attention for a snarky three-minute segment that Jon Stewart devo

Aug. 19, 2011

A decade after horror of Sept. 11, a new kind of storytelling

When details were released of the recent raid to hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden in his Abbottabad compound, a daring narrative complete with Navy SEALs and Blackhawk helicopters, many readers of international thrillers probably had the same thought: Sounds like a scene from a Brad Thor novel.Tha

Aug. 19, 2011

Iraq’s last king lives on in Tintin comics

BAGHDAD (AFP) ― Everyone here knows that the July 14 bridge, a convenient route to the U.S. Embassy and government offices in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, marks a 1958 coup when Iraq’s last king was murdered. But not many know that King Faisal II lives on in the classic “Tintin” comic books.This

Aug. 16, 2011

American writer talks about owning Brooklyn deli with his Korean in-laws

Korean-language edition of Ben Ryder Howe’s memoir ‘My Korean Deli’ releasedFor Ben Ryder Howe, a self-identified WASP working as a literary man on the Upper East Side, owning a deli in Brooklyn was certainly an adventure.It was in 2002 that Howe, married to Korean-born corporate lawyer Gab, decided

Aug. 15, 2011

Light side of Fitzgerald

“A Short Autobiography” By F. Scott Fitzgerald and James L. W. West III(Scribner)An often light but still poignant side of F. Scott Fitzgerald is evident in this compilation of 19 of his previously published items and articles, written mostly for popular magazines during 1920-1940.Edited by Fitzgera

Aug. 12, 2011

Imagined Garden of Eden

Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of EdenBy Brook Wilensky-Lanford(Grove Press)It’s a challenge: Choose the location for the original Garden of Eden from the 17 suggested by this book’s new map.In the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, God is quoted as pinpointing the fruitful area whe

Aug. 12, 2011

Parenting guide for the college years urges empathy

It hadn’t occurred to me that my husband and I might skip the college family weekend this fall, when our older son becomes a freshman. But the authors of “Don’t Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money” have given me pause.Parents and their college-age sons and daughters are tied by an electronic umbilic

Aug. 12, 2011

Author returns to Alaska for fish and stories

It took 10 years of nonstop classes, workshops and study for Melinda Moustakis to earn her Ph.D in writing.In the process, she had work published in serious literary journals around the country and picked up one of the most coveted prizes in American literature, the 2011 Flannery O’Connor Award for

Aug. 12, 2011

Best-selling children’s novel to be sold in Germany

A translated version of a best-selling South Korean children’s novel about the adventures of a hen who escapes her coop in search of freedom will soon be sold in Germany, the book’s local publisher here said Tuesday.“The book will be published in Germany and other German-speaking countries sooner or

Aug. 9, 2011

Korean author debuts in English with popular novel

NEW YORK (AP) --There's a big difference between ``mother'' and ``mom.''``Mother'' is someone to be respected, perhaps held at arm's length. But ``mom'' is an intimate name. It's the woman on the floor playing with her child, wisps of hair falling around her face, instead of the woman in the starche

Aug. 7, 2011

Juan Williams pitches for civility in political debate

Fox News commentator and former NPR news analyst Juan Williams calls himself the worst kind of bigot on the very first page of his new book, “Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate.” “I am a bigot,” he writes. “I hate Muslims. I am a fomenter of hate and intolerance. I am a black guy who makes fun of

Aug. 5, 2011

U.S. military’s strategic manhunts

Wanted Dead or Alive: Manhunts from Geronimo to bin LadenBy Benjamin Runkle(Palgrave Macmillan)When U.S. Navy SEALs last spring ended a seemingly endless manhunt by killing Osama bin Laden in his hide-out in an affluent suburb north of Pakistan’s capital, the world learned that the code name given t

Aug. 5, 2011

Visual and sound artist publishes book with music

Steve Roden combines found old pictures, recordings and text for his latest projectThe genesis of “... i listen to the wind that obliterates my traces,” a new book of vintage photographs with musical accompaniment, came simply, during one of artist Steve Roden’s regular visits to the flea market.“Th

Aug. 5, 2011

Sweet, adorable tale for kids

While We Were Out By Lee Ho-baek(Kane/Miller Book Pub)A cute little rabbit sneaks into an empty house through an unlocked balcony door, while the family is away visiting grandma. The bunny is thrilled to explore the place and the new things she’s never done before.For any kid who has wondered what t

Aug. 5, 2011

Marvel: New Ultimate Spider-Man boasts big changes

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Peter Parker is dead and gone, but Spider-Man’s still slinging webs and fighting crime.A half-black, half-Latino teenager named Miles Morales, as unveiled by Marvel Comics (Yonhap News)And it’s not just a new teenager climbing Manhattan buildings, it’s an entirely new crime

Aug. 4, 2011