N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize winner and giant of Native American literature, dead at 89
NEW YORK — N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize-winning storyteller, poet, educator and folklorist whose debut novel “House Made of Dawn” is widely credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature, has died. He was 89. Momaday died Wednesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher...
Works of poetry, fiction and nonfiction receive $10,000 ‘Science + Literature’ awards
NEW YORK — A poetry collection, a coming-of-age novel and a history of deep sea exploration are unlikely to be found in the same section of your favorite bookstore. But they all have enough in common to be this year’s winners of Science + Literature awards, $10,000 prizes administered by...
Scholar discovers stories and poems possibly written by Louisa May Alcott under a pseudonym
WORCESTER, Mass. — The author of “Little Women” may have been even more productive and sensational than previously thought. Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate at Northeastern University, believes he found about 20 stories and poems written by Louisa May Alcott under her own name as well as pseudonyms for...
Sen. John Fetterman to pen political memoir with ‘Friday Night Lights’ author
Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s unconventional political career, along with his many personal battles, sounds like the stuff of Shakespeare. Now, it will be a book that the hoodie-wearing Democrat is planning to write, with the help of “Friday Night Lights” author Buzz Bissinger. All this is according to a...
Rare Spider-Man comic book on sale for $35K in Western Pa.
A local comic book owner made an amazing find: Amazing Fantasy 15, the first appearance of Spider-Man and a rare gem in the comic world. Now, he’s selling it for $35,000. That price might be a bargain given the fair condition of the comic book. A pristine copy once sold...
Books we read in 2023 to prepare us for the future
It has been an overwhelming 12 months in the technology world. Rapid developments in artificial intelligence, which went into overdrive in late 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, have generated countless column inches, panel discussions and political debate. For those who want to contribute to the discourse, understanding the core...
2023 in books: Protests, bannings and the rise of AI helped shape the story of publishing
NEW YORK — Book publishing in 2023 was a story of cooling sales and rising conflict, marked by legal action, protests, censorship and the impact of forces well beyond the industry. Print book sales continued to recede following the pandemic-era surge, but fiction remained strong, thanks in part to the...
2 new books highlight interesting Pittsburghers
A billionaire entrepreneur, Mt. Lebanon’s Mark Cuban started buying and selling baseball cards in a local park when he was 9 or 10. New Kensington’s Rich Engler, who has promoted more than 6,000 concerts in the Pittsburgh area and other markets across the U.S., at one time lived behind a...
Book Review: The Velvet Underground’s story and afterlife told in oral history ‘Loaded’
Before they became synonymous with downtown cool, the Velvet Underground played a multi-band bill at a suburban New Jersey high school in 1965. Parents and kids in the crowd were repelled by the “screeching urge of sound” from Lou Reed and his bandmates, a local reviewer wrote, and retreated in...
Rare Raymond Chandler poem is a tribute to his late wife, with a surprising twist
NEW YORK — Near the end of 1954, the wife of Raymond Chandler died after a long battle with lung disease. The famed crime novelist fell into near-suicidal depression from which he never recovered. He drank heavily and died just five years later, at age 70. Chandler completed no major...
TV Talk: Recently published books go behind the scenes of TV biz
TribLive TV writer Rob Owen offers reading tips for recent books about TV. One of the pitfalls of writing about TV in the #peakTV era is that if you don’t make a point to take a break from watching screeners of TV shows, you’ll never find time to pick up...
Book Review: Lauren Grodstein’s masterpiece of historical fiction set in Warsaw Ghetto during WWII
The Oneg Shabbat archive was a secret project of Jewish prisoners in the Warsaw Ghetto to record their histories as they awaited deportation to Nazi death camps during World War II. Lauren Grodstein has used this historical fact as the basis for her mesmerizing new novel, “We Must Not Think...
Book Review: ‘I Would Meet You Anywhere’ is a breathtaking account of an adoptee’s search for family
Susan Kiyo Ito always knew she was adopted, but uncovering her birth family became a decades-long process marked by moments of warm connection and icy divides — raw stories compiled into a memoir that’s alternately touching and heartbreaking. Opening on the fateful moment when Ito is about to meet her...
Pink will give 2,000 banned books to Florida fans, says she’s ‘unwilling to stand by’
Pink wants her fans to read banned books. The Grammy winner announced this week that she intended to give away 2,000 banned books during the Florida leg of her tour. “Books have held a special joy for me from the time I was a child, and that’s why I am...
Book Review: Rock ‘n’ roller and Rush pioneer Geddy Lee goes deep in his memoir, ‘My Effin’ Life’
Geddy Lee is a rock star, that’s undeniable. But he’s also a polite Canadian to the core. So it’s fitting that the Rush icon picked a not-too-bawdy title for his memoir. “My Effin’ Life” is an engrossing tale of a “classic underachiever” who became a Rock & Roll Hall of...
Author Philip Pullman honored in Oxford, tells fans when to expect his long-awaited next book
OXFORD, England — Fans of Philip Pullman have been waiting almost five years for the final instalment in the author’s sextet of books about his intrepid heroine Lyra and her adventures in multiple worlds. They won’t have to wait too much longer. Pullman says he has written 500 pages of...
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sued by book publisher for breach of contract
NEW YORK — Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is being sued by his publisher for contradicting his book’s claim about the 2020 election. All Seasons Press alleges that sworn testimony by Meadows undermined “The Chief’s Chief,” in which he wrote that the election was stolen from former...
Book Review: Henry Winkler grapples with the Fonz and dyslexia in his entertaining new memoir
Henry Winkler’s memoir begins on a Tuesday morning in October 1973, at his first audition for “Happy Days.” He was almost 28 — quite a bit old for a high schooler — and struggling with something he didn’t know had a name. “Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond,” released Tuesday...
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki writes about her years in government in ‘Say More’
NEW YORK — Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has a two-book deal with Scribner, starting with a book in which she will reflect on her years in government and offer advice on both public and private communication. Scribner announced Monday that Psaki’s “Say More: Lessons from Work, the...
Pitt-Greensburg professor’s latest book shares musings during breast cancer battle
When Lori Jakiela saw a scanned image of the cancer growing in her breast, it looked like tiny grains of white rice. “They were lining up in a particular way that made the doctor very concerned,” she said. That was four years ago. But, the rice association stuck in her...
Exhibits and collectors editions mark 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio
NEW YORK — On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, rare originals are being displayed and publishers are offering collectors editions of Shakespeare’s plays, including one that sells for $1,500. Scholars believe that between 200-300 copies still survive from the late 1623 release of “Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories...
Britney Spears’ book ‘The Woman In Me’ makes private details public, and public events personal
LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears’ highly anticipated memoir “The Woman in Me” will be released Tuesday, revealing the pop superstar’s personal take on events that have played out publicly in her decades as one of the most scrutinized figures in American life, along with private moments that she previously kept...
Louise Glück, Nobel-winning poet of terse and candid lyricism, dies at 80
NEW YORK — Nobel laureate Louise Glück, a poet of unblinking candor and perception who wove classical allusions, philosophical reveries, bittersweet memories and humorous asides into indelible portraits of a fallen and heartrending world, has died at 80. Glück’s death was confirmed Friday by Jonathan Galassi, her editor at Farrar,...
Bob Odenkirk used to make up zany poems. He and his daughter Erin have turned them into a kids’ book
LOS ANGELES — Bob Odenkirk has known he wanted to immortalize the playful poems he created with his kids since they were first scribbled down years ago. The Emmy-nominated actor always assumed “Zilot & Other Important Rhymes,” hitting shelves Tuesday, would be a project he completed once his son and...
George Takei picture book on his years in internment camps will be published next spring
NEW YORK — “Star Trek” actor and political activist George Takei has a picture book scheduled for next spring that draws upon his early childhood years spent in internment camps for Japanese Americans. Crown Books for Young Readers announced Wednesday that Takei’s “My Lost Freedom,” illustrated by Michelle Lee, will...
