| Axl Rose: No drinks? No concert | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 6:49:51 AM by Blog57 Team | | On the surface, it appears to be a match made in heaven: Guns N' Roses per forming in a city that so often serves as a setting for Stephen King's horror novels. But nobody's saying "Heeeerrrre's Axl!" And why not? Because Mr. Rose and his pals can't go 90 minutes without doing a little swilling. The Maine fire marshal's office told Axl and friends they wouldn't be allowed to drink onstage - and we ain't talkin' Evian - in a concert in Portland that was set for this past Monday. So Axl, in pure diva (divo?) mode, pulled the plug. Now I have to confess I find the law, which Maine authorities concede is ancient, a little ridiculous; not only can't performers have a brew or two, but people who work in establishments with liquor licenses (we call them "bars") are prohibited from imbibing as well.... | |
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| | | Lives of Mao, Rubirosa, Novels by Turow, Marquez: Paperbacks | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 12:50:54 PM by Blog57 Team | | Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Caravaggio, Osama bin Laden, Chairman Mao and Porfirio Rubirosa feature in new paperbacks this month, as do characters in novels by Scott Turow and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden before 9/11 and in the early days of the war in Afghanistan gets firsthand treatment in ``Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander'' (Three Rivers Press). The author, Gary Berntsen, notes the unusual degree of cooperation among U.S. forces and their allies as they destroyed much of the Taliban and cornered bin Laden along the Pakistan border. Berntsen recounts the beleaguered al-Qaeda fighters' attempts to negotiate after bombardment by B-52s and vents his ire over the failure of American military leaders to order U.S.... | |
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| | | Keillor's book store opens in St. Paul | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 6:47:29 PM by Blog57 Team | | You won't find "The Da Vinci Code," Harlequin romance novels or the "Dummies" series of how-to books in Garrison Keillor's new bookstore, and if you find the latest John Grisham novel it could be on the "Quality Trash" table. The man behind "A Prairie Home Companion" wasn't around on Wednesday when Common Good Books opened in a basement nook in St. Paul's Cathedral Hill neighborhood, but his literary tastes were on display. There's a special focus on local and regional authors and Keillor's favorite poetry. The works of another Keillor favorite, and St. Paul native, F. Scott Fitzgerald, fill an entire shelf. "We're not trying to be all things to all people," said store manager Sue Zumberge of Edina. "It's not because we look down on those; it's just because you can find them elsewhere." Keillor also folded the typical genres of sci-fi, classics, mysteries and thrillers into plain old fiction.... | |
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| | | Uneasily between Lit and Oprah | | Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006 6:47:30 AM by Blog57 Team | | There is a gulf between Literature and popular novels. There always has been, and it will continue as long as hacks boil out the pages for profit and The New Yorker publishes things that look like they could have been ghostwritten by John Updike. Occasionally, authors straddle the line, striking a balance between enough pretension to appear literary and enough plot to keep the pages turning. Maybe even an Oprah nod. But Heidi Julavits' recent The Uses of Enchantment does its best to insult both sensibilities. It falls time and again into a pedantic literary voice, a forced-elegiac tone obfuscating probably every reader's sympathy or interest in any character, particularly Mary Veal, the central figure of the novel. And whatever steam "the central mystery" of the book builds is obsessively pushed and deferred in favor of more pretension.... | |
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| | | THE NOBEL PRIZES / Literature / Provocative Turkish novelist takes writing honor | | Posted Saturday, October 14, 2006 10:47:25 PM by Blog57 Team | | Not so long ago, novelist Orhan Pamuk faced imprisonment in his homeland of Turkey. On Thursday, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for novels of rich melancholy that evoke what the Swedish Academy called "new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures." A best-selling and provocative author in Turkey who has steadily gained an international following, Pamuk is also seen by his supporters as a courageous, if sometimes reluctant, champion for the cause of free expression. Speaking from New York, where he is teaching at Columbia University, Pamuk said, "This is first of all an honor bestowed upon the Turkish language, Turkish culture and Turkey itself, as well as on my writings ... which I produced (while) solitary in my room." Pamuk, a trim, gray-haired man wearing a dark blue sport coat, slacks and a blue shirt, waved off several questions about the political impact of his award.... | |
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| | | Favorite Nooks | | Posted Thursday, October 05, 2006 6:47:52 PM by Blog57 Team | | My bedroom is laid-back, comfortable and neat. This is where I relax and indulge in things I love like reading books (James Patterson novels) and watching TV shows (24 and Nip/Tuck) and movies (Garden State, Elizabethtown and Coach Carter) on DVD. Its very private. It makes me feel safe, far from the maddening crowd. I also eat here. Also in the photo are my babies: Chanel the Yorkie and Tiffany the Chihuahua. .... | |
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| | | Gently prolific | | Posted Tuesday, September 26, 2006 10:47:49 AM by Blog57 Team | | Alexander McCall Smith doesn't sound like a superstar author of best-selling mystery novels. For one, there's the muted Scottish accent, along with a self-deprecating tone and a frequent, generous laugh. He apologizes profusely for having missed an earlier appointment for a phone interview. He even turns deferential when asked if he'll wear a kilt to his Sacramento appearance Wednesday evening as part of the California Lecture Series. "I will, if you think it will be appropriate. I've got it with me," he says. .... | |
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| | | Book review: 'After This' | | Posted Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:47:28 PM by Blog57 Team | | Using the same authenticity with which William Faulkner portrays Yoknapatawpha County and Thomas Hardy renders Dorset, Alice McDermott sets her narratives in Brooklyn, Queens and suburban Long Island. She writes about the milieu in which she was raised -- Irish Catholic neighborhoods in the post-World War II era. Besides having a similarity in setting, her six novels consistently explore familial love and the joys and sorrows it occasions. The impact of death on a family and its correlative, acceptance of loss, are also constants in her fiction.Indeed, death lurks throughout McDermott's latest offering, "After This." From the moment she introduces Jacob Keane, the oldest child in a closely knit, middle-class, Irish Catholic family, readers feel uneasy about his survival. Unlike his siblings -- Michael, Annie and Clare -- he is a tentative child, often fighting tears, fearful of everything from storms to his brother's roughhousing.... | |
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| | | Bible-based comic books seek a larger audience | | Posted Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:49:22 PM by Blog57 Team | | SAN DIEGO - On his recent book tour, Robert Luedke skimmed four nearly empty rows of folding chairs at a Borders hoping someone in the audience an audience of three would have a question. Or maybe, against the odds, someone would ask him to sign a poster touting his works. No one did. One listener had grabbed a seat in the back row to read Vogue magazine. Eventually, the man spoke up. .... | |
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| | | Graphic novel paints vivid image of 9/11 attacks | | Posted Friday, September 01, 2006 4:47:54 PM by Blog57 Team | | Comic book-style sound effects burst off the pages of a new "graphic novel" version of the federal government's official inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks. "The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation" creates a stark picture of the events leading up to 9/11, the attacks and the failure of the government to stop them. Ernie Colón, one of two comic book artists who created the 140-page work, hopes his version will be more accessible than the 9/11 Commission's text-heavy, and frequently dry, 585-page version. The bipartisan commission appointed by President Bush and Congress issued its report in 2004. "We very much hope ours gets into the hands of young people," Colón said. Graphic novels, once only of interest to the geeky comic book set, have become increasingly mainstream.... | |
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