Kansas.com: Books

Climbing aboard once more

GAYLORD DOLD — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:37 CDT

"Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" by Paul Theroux (Houghton Mifflin, 512 pages, $28)

Eccentric novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux has had a long and distinguished career. At times, the critical reception of his work has bordered on the fevered. He is no stranger to controversy.

But his new book, "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star," is a brilliantly executed personal journal and hymn to leisurely train travel. It's a work which exposes not only the inner workings, eccentricities, cruelties and foibles of a dozen or more countries spread along a route from Europe to central and southeast Asia, north through Japan and back across Russia, but also constitutes a baring of Theroux's own personal torment and, at times, triumph over adversity.

The fundamental idea behind "Ghost Train" is that Theroux will re-create his epic train adventure of 1973 which resulted in the publication of a breakthrough work called "The Great Railway Bazaar." Back then Theroux was, in his own words, a failure -- kicked out of the Peace Corps in Africa for nameless indiscretions, axed from the faculty of a stuffy Singaporean University, and at home in London with his bored and dissatisfied wife, trying to find some "push" forward into a writing career. That push was travel writing.

"The Great Railway Bazaar" was an instant smash. Throwing himself headlong into a 25,000-mile odyssey with little more than a toothbrush and a sack full of clothes, Theroux managed to produce a book of astonishing freshness, one which jumpstarted his career.

Portraits of lost men and cave divers

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:37 CDT

Two new books by Kansas authors explore two very different types of men: Darren DeFrain's short fiction looks at men muddling through the morass of life, while Phillip Finch's true account of cave divers follows determined men rising to challenges.

"Inside & Out" by Darren DeFrain (Main Street Rag Publishing, 197 pages, $14.95)

DeFrain, an assistant professor at WSU and director of the university's writing program, gathers stories of the American male in his latest work. Eleven stories, all told from the first-person perspective of working-class men and teenage boys, allow us a look into the thoughts and fears of his characters.

We see a dad trying to make the best of a father-son camping weekend. We see a teenage boy working up the courage to ask the most popular girl to dance, then finding out that the consequences aren't as bad as he had feared. We see a preternaturally tall man who knows his life will be short try to reach out to a battered woman.

No one comes into the world knowing how to relate to others, but some people never quite get it: They do their best to figure out how to deal with others, but frequently, it doesn't work, and then they're lost, drifting, making it up as they go along. It's not just wives and girlfriends they have trouble with, but buddies, fathers and sons as well.

Kids' books celebrate McCain, Obama

REBECCA YOUNG — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:42 CDT

Beautiful illustrations and inspiring words are the hallmarks of two new picture books about our nation's Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

Objectivity is not.

"My Dad, John McCain," by Meghan McCain, can find a home in households that are planted in the McCain camp.

The same can be said for "Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope," by Nikki Grimes, in Obama households.

These two books are pretty. And both carry messages -- courage, hope and possibility -- that are important no matter who wins the election.

Why the Big Read is a Big Deal

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:38 CDT

Wichita's Big Read, which began Wednesday, is more than an opportunity to read a great book. The Big Read is a national campaign to encourage Americans to read, by having communities choose a book for everyone to read and discuss. Wichita's book is Willa Cather's "My Antonia."

"My Antonia" is first and foremost a good story, with memorable characters and insight into a part of our history -- our nation's and this region's. It's an appreciation of the vast, sweeping beauty of the Plains and a recognition of the hardships endured by those who first came here to settle.

It's worth a read for anyone who hasn't read it and worth a re-read for anyone who hasn't read it in a while.

But there's another reason the Big Read is a worthwhile endeavor: to give Wichitans something in common.

Advances in media and technology have given us myriad choices for our entertainment and opened our eyes to a wide variety of art (and a whole lot of trash, too, but that's another story). But in the 200-channels, niche-genre, anyone-can-publish world, we're losing the common ground -- the cultural touchstones -- that help unite us as Americans.

Loss of faith

BETHANY SCHNEIDER — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:38 CDT

'19TH WIFE' A COMPELLING PORTRAIT OF BEGINNINGS AND ENDS OF MORMON POLYGAMY

"The 19th Wife" by David Ebershoff (Random House, $26)

In America, apparently, it's just about as common to lose your religion as it is to find it. For every high-drama rebirth, someone else quietly sloughs off belief and joins the ranks of the secularly inclined. Usually it's a little bit tricky but not too rough. For a while the folks pester you to go to church, to have a chat with the rabbi, to christen your kid, but eventually things even out.

For some, though, it's trickier -- say, for the children of Mormon fundamentalist splinter groups that still practice polygamy. For them, losing your religion is complicated.

David Ebershoff's third novel, "The 19th Wife," swirls around what it means for an individual to turn his back on faith, and what it means for a religion -- Mormonism -- to deny the contemporary effects of its own, long-disavowed past.

Sister's death devastates in 'Goldengrove'

CAROL DEPTOLLA — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:38 CDT

"Goldengrove" by Francine Prose (Harper, $24.95)

So much seems tragic when we're teenagers: our appeal -- or rather, the lack thereof -- to the opposite sex; our embarrassing parents; a spectacularly bad haircut. Nico, the 13-year-old protagonist of Francine Prose's new novel, experiences all that through the prism of true tragedy: the death of her golden, talented older sister, Margaret.

In "Goldengrove," set in a small town in New York state, grief over Margaret's death on a warm day in May brings people together and also pushes them apart -- some to the brink. "The ragged hole that one death could rip in a few fragile lives," as Prose puts it.

Anyone who has ever grieved will recognize the painful manifestations -- Nico's inability to sleep, yet wanting only to lie in bed all day; the retreat inward, away from others, but clinging to the few whom she thinks understand her: "the tiny band of survivors figuring out how to live without Margaret"; no energy or interest in the most basic tasks, such as tidying or eating:

"Everything tasted like Styrofoam, and we had to sit perfectly still if we didn't want to catch sight of Margaret's place at the table. There was always too much food and not enough air in the room. Our efforts at conversations were punctuated by sighs that were partly sadness and partly just trying to breathe."

Basketball player, author to visit Wichita

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:38 CDT

Paul Shirley, a Kansas native and professional basketball player, made the list of 2008 Kansas Notable Books for his book "Can I Keep My Jersey?" (Villard, 336 pages, $15 paperback). The book is a chronicle of his bounce-around career playing basketball in the NBA, minor leagues, Europe and even Siberia.

Shirley is making an appearance in Wichita on Monday. The reading and signing is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Watermark Books, 4701 E. Douglas.

Shirley also writes a column for ESPN.com called "My So-Called Career" while trying to get back into the NBA.

For more information, call 316-682-1181.

Mommy cliques: Are they for you?

MELISSA FLETCHER STOELTJE — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:42 CDT

Clique.

It's the funny little word that denotes those tight clusters of like-minded souls that form especially in high school -- the preps, the jocks, the goths, the cowboys, the cheerleaders.

Blame it on the human herding instinct. Most people think they've escaped the world of cliques once they leave the high school campus, but the truth is, cliques can form anywhere -- at work, in neighborhoods, at the local swimming pool.

But nowhere is the world of cliques as freighted with meaning and import as the ones that form around the practice of mothering.

Call them "mommy cliques." Or the new buzzword: momtourages.

Dog-eared books

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:42 CDT

The best-selling book "Marley & Me," by John Grogan, has set off a tidal wave within the publishing industry: the dog memoir as genre. Its popularity has spawned countless other tomes about man and man's best friend -- a search of "dog" and "memoir" at Borders netted 54 results. That's not to mention the scores of self-published books and Web sites.

For your convenience, the Subcommittee for Canine Literary Reference has synopsized "Marley & Me," along with four recent post-Marley memoirs.

• •

"Marley & Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog" by John Grogan (Harper Paperbacks, $13.95)

• Synopsis: A cute Labrador retriever, mischievous at times, teaches the author important lessons about life, love and loyalty.

Cookbooks worth looking into

TIFFANY FIGUEIREDO — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:41 CDT

It's nice when a cookbook delivers more than a cheap thrill, enabling us to justify its purchase to ourselves and to those who sit at our table. Here are a few that do.

'A Love Affair With Southern Cooking'

By Jean Anderson (William Morrow, $32.50)

Part recipe collection and part cultural almanac, Anderson's James Beard Award-winning ode to Southern cuisine is the kind of cookbook that one reads like a novel.

Loosely organized around meal components (appetizers, entrees, sides, desserts, bread), the book meanders from recollections about the prolific food writer's Low Country upbringing by her Yankee parents to the back stories of some of the country's best-loved brands, such as Little Debbie and Jack Daniel's, to a running timeline of significant historical culinary events.

Ketchup

SHARON THOMPSON — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:41 CDT

Not just for burgers & fries

"The Heinz Tomato Ketchup Cookbook" by Paul Hartley (Ten Speed Press, $12.95) shows how versatile ketchup really is.

The book includes historical anecdotes and trivia from the Heinz Co., along with vintage advertising art.

In his recipes, Hartley shows how ketchup can do more than jazz up a burger.

RIB-EYE STEAKS WITH STILTON SAUCE

Book lover

SCOTT EYMAN — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:38 CDT

"Books: A Memoir" by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster, 272 pages, $24.95)

In between writing more than 20 novels, including "Lonesome Dove," and a passel of screenplays, including "Brokeback Mountain," Larry McMurtry never really let go of his day job: running a bookstore, first in Washington; then in his hometown of Archer City, Texas.

"Books" is a loosely structured, enjoyable memoir about that day job that offers some teasing hints of actual autobiography in the middle of ruminations about the eccentricities of the bookselling profession, as well as why McMurtry came to regard it as a sort of intellectual safety net.

"One reason I've hung on to bookselling is that it's progressive," writes McMurtry, "the opposite of writing, pretty much. Eventually, all novelists, if they persist too long, get worse. No reason to name names, since no one is spared. Writing great fiction involves some combination of energy and imagination that cannot be energized or realized forever. Strong talents can simply exhaust their gift, and they do.

"Book-selling, though, being based on acquired knowledge, is progressive. The longer they deal and the more they know, the better books they handle."

Kansas' role in the Civil War

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:39 CDT

Two new history books take a close look at Kansas in the years preceding the Civil War, one through the lens of contemporary newspapers, and the other as directly relates to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820, allowing popular sovereignty to determine the status of new territories entering the union. The principle of letting the people decide the slavery question, once put into practice, turned into a disaster for Kansas and sparked the era of "Bleeding Kansas."

"Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858" by Craig Miner (University Press of Kansas, 305 pages, $34.95)

This new book by WSU professor Craig Miner, the author of several previous books on Kansas history, explores the image of Kansas during the four years following the Kansas-Nebraska act, and how this planted the seeds of the Civil War.

"Kansas was more important to the coming of the Civil War than was previously recognized," he writes, "... more because of how events there were talked about in the national press than because of the significance of those events themselves."

'GET A LIFE THAT DOESN'T SUCK' BOOK SIGNING

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:40 CDT

In a nod to Wichita native Michelle DeAngelis' new book, "Get a Life That Doesn't Suck," we asked visitors to our WichiTalk blog, "What's your No. 1 tip for a life that doesn't suck?"

Here are excerpts of some of the answers. Visit our blog at http://blogs.kansas.com/wichitalk/ to read comments in full, see additional posts or to add your own.

• • •

Don't take it seriously.

-- cj

how to Build a body

REBECCA YOUNG — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:41 CDT

The shinbone's connected to the ankle bone. The stomach's connected to the small intestine. The gluteus maximus is connected to the gluteus medius. Readers of "Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book," by Richard Walker, will learn those facts and more as they are enlisted as assistants to the fabled scientist in his attempt to create "a living breathing human being."

Subtitled "The Monstrous Truth About How Your Body Works," this engaging treatment comes from the editorial consultant and author of Dorling Kindersley's "Encyclopedia of the Human Body."

Pair the Frankenstein book (DK Publishing, $25) with nonfiction master Seymour Simon's latest, "The Human Body" (Collins, $20), and youngsters can become near experts in the most interesting subject of all -- themselves. Both books are new in bookstores.

Walker's book is the more detailed. The holographic heart embedded in a soft cover, along with the monster theme, are attention-grabbers. But don't be fooled. The information within is substantial and fascinating.

After a fun introduction titled "Dr. Frankenstein's masterplan," Walker methodically explains how to build a body, beginning with the raw materials: atoms, molecules, cells, DNA and proteins.

A little light on Russia's dark side

LISA MCLENDON — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:41 CDT

"Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder and the Dark Heart of the New Russia" by Steve LeVine (Random House, 194 pages, $26)

It's been nearly two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the most recent status of U.S.-Russian relations involves the phrase "Cold War" -- without "post-" in front of it.

Even though Russia has a new president, Dmitry Medvedev, his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, is prime minister and remains in charge. Depending on whom you ask, Putin reined in the corrupt excesses of the Boris Yeltsin years and brought stability and prosperity to Russia, or he rolled back fledgling freedoms and turned a blind eye to violence and murder as long as his own power was not threatened.

Steve LeVine, a journalist and author of "Putin's Labyrinth," is firmly in the latter camp. He is an insightful observer and a thorough researcher who has spent years reporting from the former Soviet Union. But his book is not a sweeping look at the ins and outs of Putin's regime, nor is it a biography of Putin. Instead, LeVine seeks to explain how Putin's regime and policies have affected the lives of others and, by extension, the culture of Russia.

He sums up his view of Putin's cultural impact early on: "At the very least, in Putin's Russia the state cannot be counted on to protect the lives of its citizens. At worst, hired killers and those who employ them have reason to believe that they can carry out executions without fear of the law."

Portrait of a lady

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:41 CDT

"American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House, 576 pages, $26)

BY LISA McLENDON

Right off the bat, just forget what you might have heard about this book being a mirror of the life of Laura Bush. Yes, it's about a sensible school librarian who marries the happy-go-lucky scion of a wealthy political family. Yes, he becomes the owner of a baseball team, then governor, then president. And yes, that president wins by Supreme Court decision and later gets involved in an unpopular war.

But "American Wife" is really about the life of one woman, Alice Lindgren Blackwell, and purely on its own merits as a novel, it's moving, thoughtful and wonderfully wrought. Focusing on people and relationships rather than politics, Sittenfeld writes with a confidence and maturity that belies her youth.

She has masterfully crafted her portrait of Alice, giving the character intelligence, depth and the self-doubt that can plague even the most grounded and confident of people. And she has artfully plumbed the intimacies of marriage, the daily give-and-take as much as the bigger struggles -- and the physical intimacies -- as well as the way that spouses see each other in ways unlike any outsider, no matter how close.