Books
'Black Nature': Poems Of Promise And Survival
()The anthology of African-American nature poetry features work by contemporary writers, and writers like 18th century poet Phillis Wheatley. Camille T. Dungy, the editor of the collection, says the poems offer a different view of the natural world.
What We're Reading, April 13-19
Another animal fable from Yann Martel; race and President Obama's rise; teen angst from Anne Lamott.
Poetry
Character And Voice: Picks For National Poetry Month()
April 15, 2010 Librarian Nancy Pearl shares the work of a few of her best-loved poets. They include a former nun who wrote about Marilyn Monroe, a man who was left paralyzed after a bicycle accident, and writers who — despite the sometimes rigid requirements of their chosen form — find surprising, inventive ways to use words.
Books We Like
The Story Of Baseball And Sugar In A Small Town()
April 15, 2010 Journalist Mark Kurlansky is drawn to singular subjects — cod, salt and oysters, to name a few. In The Eastern Stars, he takes a look at the history of baseball and sugar in the small town of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic.
Sports
How Baseball Changed Life In A Dominican Town()
April 18, 2010 When you think of baseball, you might think of Cooperstown, N.Y. But it's San Pedro de Macoris, in the Dominican Republic, that's known as "the town where shortstops come from." As of 2008, 79 boys and men from San Pedro had gone to the play in the Major Leagues — including Sammy Sosa, Robinson Cano and Julio Franco.
Paperback Fiction Bestsellers
Paperback Fiction Bestsellers For April 15()
April 15, 2010 In The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery gives an astute commentary on class, presumption and power in France, through the tale of a middle-aged French concierge who hides her hard-won self-education from her building's wealthy tenants.
Book Reviews
From Yann Martel, A Novel Of Atrocity And Taxidermy()
April 17, 2010 The author of Life of Pi returns with a story that arranges a stuffed donkey and monkey in an allegory about the Holocaust. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says Beatrice and Virgil is ambitious and at times artful, but ultimately misguided.
Author Interviews
The Surprising Strengths Of The Middle-Aged Brain()
April 14, 2010 In middle age, most of us get forgetful and easily distracted. But new research finds that our minds improve in some ways as we age: We're better at seeing the big picture and comprehending complexity. Writer Barbara Strauch details how the middle-aged brain grows and changes in The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain.
Books We Like
In A Seaside Town, Hidden Desires Surface()
April 14, 2010 Author Yoko Ogawa's Hotel Iris, published in Japanese in 1996, is the latest of her books to be translated into English. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the story, about a 17-year-old girl who begins an intense, sometimes violent affair with a tenant of her mother's rundown hotel, is decadent and profoundly sad.
Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers
Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers For April 15()
April 15, 2010 Life in Marin County, Calif., may appear to be perfect, but Anne Lamott explores a not-so-beautiful reality that lies just beneath the surface in Imperfect Birds.
What We're Reading
What We're Reading, April 13-19()
April 13, 2010 Another animal fable from Life of Pi author Yann Martel; New Yorker editor David Remnick shows how President Barack Obama's life intersects with the story of race in America; and permissive parents cope with sex, drugs and a rebellious teen in Anne Lamott's Imperfect Birds.
Books We Like
Surviving Human Trafficking: A Noir Fairy Tale()
April 14, 2010 Finnish-Estonian novelist Sofi Oksanen uses a newly formed bond between an escaped Russian sex slave and a solitary Estonian woman to explore the ways decades of Soviet rule ravaged life in the former USSR.
