By Michael Crichton
Harper | 320 pages
Release Date: November 24, 2009
Michael Crichton’s last book Pirate Latitudes is a swashbuckling tale of adventure, full of intrigue, Spanish gold and bloody betrayal. Set in the untamed colony of Jamaica in 1665, the capital city of Port Royal teems with rowdy taverns and raucous bordellos. The only laws that rule the population are greed and self-preservation. When Captain Charles Hunter learns that the galleon, El Trinidad, has just arrived in port heavy with gold, he seizes the opportunity to make his own fortune. Aligning himself with an influential ally, Hunter gathers a team of cutthroats to hijack the gallon and relieve the reviled Spanish of their riches. This ragged band of thieves faces deadly opposition in Cazalla, a commander favored by the King of Spain, who fiercely guards the ship and her cargo. The raid erupts in a violent, adrenaline-filled attack, with both sides willing to fight to the death in order to possess the treasure.
Read more…
Vladimir Nabokov’s last work has finally been published by his son, Dmitri, and the book received a cool reception from some corners of the literary world. Nabokov was working on The Original of Laura just prior to his death in 1977, and though some regard its publishing as an unearthing of a literary treasure, others feel it is a violation of a dying man’s last wish. Before his passing, the author requested that his wife, Vera, burn the collection of 138 index cards that held all his notes for the book. After his death, Vera could not bear to destroy the work, and stored the cards in a Swiss bank vault. This was not the first time she had prevented Nabokov’s work from being destroyed; she previously stopped him from burning the manuscript of his seminal work Lolita. The notes remained locked away for decades, even after Vera’s death in 1991, until their son, Dmitri, recently decided to publish them. Further eyebrows were raised when, Dmitri, released a 5,000-word excerpt to Playboy magazine, though he defended his choice by explaining his father’s fondness for the publication’s cartoons.
Read more…
By Edward Rutherfurd
Doubleday | 880pgs
Release Date: November 10, 2009
Bestselling historical novelist, Edward Rutherfurd, weaves the compelling strands of The Big Apple’s rich history into a fascinating multi-generational tale. The story follows several families, from different ethnic and economic backgrounds, through the years as their fates intertwine to become part of the tapestry of New York’s history. New York: The Novel spans more than three centuries, beginning in the 1600′s with the Native American and Dutch settlements, leading into the bloody conflicts of the Revolutionary and Civil wars, followed by the explosion of the Industrial revolution and the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Rutherfurd details New York’s development as a financial center, and its rapid population growth due to massive waves of immigrants looking for a better life in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. Readers experience New York’s rocky ride in the 20th century, with the stress of World War II and the financial recession of the ’70′s, as well as its economic and cultural resurgence in the ’90′s. The tragic events of 9/11 and the collapse of the World Trade Center bring the novel to a close.
Read more…
By Stephen King
Scribner | 1088pgs
Release Date: November 10, 2009
Stephen King’s latest opus hit stores on Tuesday, and rabid fans can finally discover what’s Under the Dome. The novel centers on the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine, as its tranquility is shattered by an all-encompassing invisible dome. When the force field materializes, planes and cars explode on impact, and a few unsuspecting limbs are severed. No one can get in or out, and the cause of the dome is a complete mystery. Could it be little green men? A military experiment gone horribly wrong? An act of God? Hefting in at nearly 1,100 pages, Under the Dome approaches the epic scale of The Stand. And like The Stand, at the core of this story is a battle between the forces of good and evil. This time around the Baddie is town Selectman “Big Jim” Rennie, who sees the imprisoning dome as an opportunity to take control of Chester’s Mill and run the town as his own police state. Fighting against Rennie’s murderous corruption is a small group of townspeople led by Dale Barbara, local fry cook and guilt ridden Iraq War vet. The factions clash in a bloody battle, with heavy casualties on both sides. But do the good guys win? It is a Stephen King novel after all, so a happy ending is never guaranteed.
Read more…
By John Irving
Random House | 576pgs
Release Date: October 27, 2009
John Irving’s latest novel opens in a small logging camp near the Twisted River in 1954. The status quo of Dominic Baciagalupo’s life as the camp cook is violently shaken when his 12 year old son, Danny, mistakes the Constable’s girlfriend for a bear and kills her. Father and son are forced to flee the New Hampshire camp, followed relentlessly by the obsessed Constable Carl. Last Night in Twisted River spans 50 years and traces Dominic and Danny’s movement from state to state, in an effort to escape Carl and thwart his vengeance. The only connection to their old life is Dominic’s best friend Ketchum, a gruff logger with a warm heart. Over the decades Dominic works a series of restaurant jobs as Danny develops his writing talent and becomes a bestselling author under the pen name Danny Angel. The narration of this novel has been described as chaotic, jumping forward and backward in time with little transition, but at its core, is a touching story about the love between a father and son.
Read more…
Apparently, the Heene family has cribbed a page from Edgar Allan Poe. Though the family recently created a media circus with the false claim that their son had floated away in a helium balloon, the idea of a balloon hoax is not original. According to The Guardian, the April 13, 1844 issue of the New York Sun reported an exclusive account of the balloon “Victoria” crossing the Atlantic Ocean in just 75 hours. The newspaper published excerpts from the diary of the balloon’s navigators, and the story culminated with their “sighting” near the South Carolina coast. But, the entire account was revealed as a hoax a couple days later, with Edgar Allan Poe named as the perpetrator. (A real balloon would not make the transatlantic trip until 1919, when the British dirigible R-34 arrived in New York after a 108 hour voyage.) Always the master storyteller, Poe loved a good hoax, and the balloon story was just one of five hoaxes that he contrived through out his life. Like the Heenes, he was thrilled at all the public attention surrounding his fabrication: “. . . I never witnessed more intense excitement to get possession of a newspaper.” Poe beat the Heenes to the punch by 165 years, though it seems unlikely that the family knew about the original hoax. At least no one has cause to call child protective services on Poe.
Read more…
By Patricia Cornwell
Putnam Adult | 512pgs
Release Date: October 20, 2009
A series of dark and dangerous events ensnare Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta in The Scarpetta Factor, Cornwell’s seventeenth novel in the series. Now working as CNN’s senior forensic analyst, she is grilled on air about Hannah Starr, a young woman missing and presumed dead. When previously undisclosed information comes to light, and a mysterious package arrives at Scarpetta’s home, she realizes this case reaches much farther than Starr’s disappearance. As the investigation becomes more sensationalized and Scarpetta’s viewership rises, her producer pushes her to launch her own show called The Scarpetta Factor. But she fears becoming a media cliché, and that her newfound fame will attract unwanted, or even deadly, attention.
Read more…
By Rosina Lippi
G.P Putnam’s Sons ©2008 | Hardback 351pgs
Two guarded souls come together in the beginning pages of The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square. When John Dodge first meets Julia Darrow, he is immediately intrigued by her choice of wardrobe. Julia, owner of Lambert Square’s upscale bedding boutique, Cocoon, requires all employees (herself included) to wear pajamas to work. Dodge soon learns that these pajama-wearing ladies are just a few of the Southern eccentrics that people the shopping area of Lambert Square, and the town of Lamb’s Corner in general.
Read more…
"Dark Carnival" by Ray Bradbury ©1948
Literary icon Ray Bradbury will unveil a different kind of artistry next week, with his first public showing of a new giclée print at the Santa Monica gallery Every Picture Tells a Story. The author best known for the acclaimed books The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 has been painting since the 1930′s, and often depicts subject matter inspired by his writing. Such is the case with his new print, made from a darkly ominous oil painting completed in 1948, un-offically titled Dark Carnival after his collection of short stories with the same name. In an interview with “Hero Complex” columnist Geoff Boucher, Bradbury explains the inspiration for this piece: “I didn’t like the original cover that was on the book when it came out so I designed my own. I made this painting and hoped that someone would use it as the cover in the future.” Several decades later, Bradbury’s hope became reality when Gauntlet Press printed a Dark Carnival special edition in 2001, which featured his painting on the cover.
Read more…
David Garrick as Richard III (detail) by William Hogarth
Did history and literature give Richard III a bad rap? Shakespeare immortalized the English king as a Machiavellian tyrant, and history has branded him as a hunched-backed villain, rumored to have murdered two princes in order to secure his ascension to the thrown. But according to author Philippa Gregory, Richard III may have just been misunderstood. In a recent interview with the LA Times, she discusses her new historical novel The White Queen (Touchstone, 432pgs), and her surprising take on this controversial figure. “It’s an act of historical recovery,” she says, “…history, of course, gets told by the victors. That’s what Shakespeare tapped into in his play about Richard — that and a medieval belief that a malformed mind led to a malformed body.” Gregory argues that there is historical evidence that supports a case for Richard’s innocence and for the guilt of the Tudor family, who eventually took Richard’s life and his thrown during the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
Read more…
