by Stephen King |
REVIEWED BY JONATHAN DURBIN
NOVEL
King's latest is a chilling 600-page thriller about Edgar Freemantle, a successful contractor who barely survives when his truck collides with a crane. Maimed and suffering bouts of rage, he tries to stab his wife while in a fugue state; she asks for a divorce soon after. Starting over in Florida's isolated Duma Key, Freemantle discovers a latent talent for art, but there's a problem: His paintings have a tendency to come true, and many of his visions are disturbing. "Art is memory, Edgar," a critic tells him. "The clearer the memory, the better the art." Freemantle's memories (and premonitions) are intimately related to a tragedy that took place on the island some 80 years ago and involve supernatural forces: dead little girls, a waterlogged zombie and a red-robed wraith. With its echoes of The Shining and blazingly fast pace, Duma Key will please King's fans. It's a horrific tale with enough character development to win readers' sympathies before scaring them sleepless.
by Zarah Ghahramani |
REVIEWED BY CAROLINE LEAVITT
MEMOIR
In 2001, 20-year-old Tehran University student Ghahramani was snatched by the dreaded secret police for protesting a controversial professor's firing; without trial or notification to her parents, she was thrown into Iran's brutal Evin Prison for 30 days. In Ghahramani's graceful, chilling memoir, her naiveté gives way to fearless insights about her country—and herself. Questioning the status quo made her a traitor to a fundamentalist regime, but in this searingly honest, brave book, she's nothing short of heroic.
by John Burnham Schwartz |
REVIEWED BY MICHELLE GREEN
NOVEL
A bittersweet story narrated by Haruko Endo, a brewer's daughter who marries into Japan's cloistered Imperial Family, Burnham Schwartz's fourth novel expertly evokes the sense of powerlessness and isolation that mark both royal life and bad marriages. Inspired, according to the author, by the emotional struggles of Japan's fragile Empress, the former Michiko Shoda, and of her daughter-in-law Crown Princess Masako, a Harvard graduate defined in court circles by her inability to produce an heir, The Commoner is an artful meditation on the limits of love and duty. No happy endings here, but with a spare prose style that perfectly mirrors its setting, this novel will thrill readers who crave literary romance.
by Castle Freeman Jr. |
CRITIC'S CHOICE
REVIEWED BY JAKE LAMAR
NOVEL
This nimble thriller is the literary equivalent of a fierce bantamweight fighter: Short but muscular and lightning quick, it packs a surprising punch. Set among the lumberjacks and lowlifes of backwoods Vermont, Go With Me tells the deceptively simple story of the pursuit of a sinister ex-cop named Blackway—"what we've got up here instead of organized crime," one character explains. Thanks largely to a Greek chorus of beer-guzzling layabouts, the tale becomes a contemplation of a dark, unforgiving world. Freeman has a flawless ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for quirky detail. It's hard to resist an author who can write a description like this: "The beard was black at the sides and gray down the middle and made the man look like he was in the act of eating a skunk headfirst." Superb.
by Jennifer Finney Boylan |
REVIEWED BY KIM HUBBARD
MEMOIR
Boylan's captivating first memoir, She's Not There, detailed her passage from male (she was born James) to female. It's a tough act to follow, and Boylan, an English professor at Colby College in Maine, only partially succeeds with this tale of growing up "haunted." (Metaphorical or real, the ghosts she keeps seeing outstay their welcome.) Yet she's excellent, humorous company, and the center of her story—after her sex change, the older sister she adored severed all ties—is simply heartbreaking.
Journalist Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) did two years of research on nutrition and health for his new book, In Defense of Food. His bottom line: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Some specifics:
SHOP THE PERIPHERY OF GROCERY STORES Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy are there.
AVOID FOODS YOUR GRANDMOTHER WOULDN'T HAVE RECOGNIZED That's the processed "edible, food-like substances" in the middle aisles.
AT RESTAURANTS, ASK FOR WHAT'S LOCAL AND GRASS-FED Most local farmers don't use pesticides. And food grown in healthy soil is more nutritious.
DON'T EXPECT PERFECTION If we get it right one meal a day, we'll be doing a lot for our health. I do splurge. I'll have Cracker Jacks maybe once a year. They're delicious! Although the prizes have gone way downhill.
Suffering from polycystic kidney disease, Entertainment Tonight style commentator Steven Cojocaru had a transplant in '05 at 42—and then another when the first failed. The author of a new memoir, Glamour, Interrupted, he talks about his medical odyssey.
WHAT WAS YOUR LOWEST POINT? The day I lost my first donated kidney—June 27, 2005. The donor was my best friend, and when my body rejected her kidney, I felt I was disappointing her.
THEN YOUR MOM GAVE YOU ONE. HOW'S SHE DOING? She feels wonderful. She's a warrior.
AND HOW ARE YOU? Better than before. It used to be only my hair was conditioned. Now I'm in shape.
HOW DO YOU STAY THAT WAY? The steroids I'm on do make you gain weight. It's boot camp for me every day, but I eat right, I have a trainer. I had a two-pack-a-day habit. Now I'm the anti-Amy Winehouse.
WERE YOUR CELEB FRIENDS SUPPORTIVE? Halle Berry sent me the sweetest note. Other friends thought I was crazy to stick to the medical route. The ones who want to take you to the swami in a hut under a freeway.
WHAT'S YOUR PROGNOSIS? God willing it is, and will remain, excellent. I take about 30 pills a day.
HOW HAVE YOU CHANGED? I guess I'm more compassionate.
SO YOU'RE DEEP NOW? I'm professionally vapid! In the hospital I made over nurses. Sideburns were good on Elvis but not on a nurse. I had to be sensitive though—these are women with needles.
STILL LIKE YOUR JOB? Beauty is my life: I work in it, I love it, I insist upon it.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
