Cardinal says book by Benedict XVI’s secretary unseemly
ROME — The archbishop of Vienna, a longtime friend and former student of Pope Benedict XVI, has confirmed that it was he who wrote a letter to his former teacher urging him to accept election as pontiff in 2005 if the votes went his way. Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn issued a...
On NBC’s ‘Today,’ Jenna Bush Hager is becoming book publishing’s best friend
Ever since the death of former First Lady Barbara Bush, her granddaughter Jenna Bush Hager has been desperate to find an unlikely family heirloom. “She had a needlepoint pillow that said, ‘Reading is sexy,’” the “Today with Hoda & Jenna” co-host recalled in a recent conversation at NBC’s studios in...
Boris Johnson signs deal for memoir of turbulent premiership
LONDON — Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has signed a deal to write a memoir of his tumultuous time in office, which began with a vow to “get Brexit done” and ended in scandal and resignation. Publisher HarperCollins said Monday that the as-yet untitled book will be a prime...
Nonfiction books to watch for in 2023
The top history, memoir and other nonfiction for the first quarter of the year. Last week we gave you a list of fiction to watch for in 2023. Now here is some good-looking nonfiction. “Rough Sleepers,” by Tracy Kidder. (Random House, Jan. 17) Kidder spent five years following a Boston...
The quest to find King Tut is detailed in new book about the storied pharaoh
“The Complete Tutankhamun: 100 Years of Discovery” by Nicholas Reeves; Thames & Hudson (464 pages, $50) Ancient Egyptians made him a god. Modern Egyptologists made him immortal. When Tutankhamun came to the throne around 1330 B.C., he still counted his age in single digits. When he died, his body weakened...
After hype, readers get hands on Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’
LONDON — After weeks of hype and days of leaks, readers got a chance to judge Prince Harry’s book for themselves when it went on sale around the world on Tuesday. The book’s publisher said “Spare” sold 400,000 copies in the U.K. in all formats — hardback, e-book and audio...
Review: Janet Malcolm’s quasi-memoir on pictures and memory
“Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory,” by Janet Malcolm (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) When Janet Malcolm died 18 months ago at 86, her New Yorker colleague Ian Frazier wrote a eulogy for the magazine noting that the famed and feared journalist had been working on a series of essays based...
Prince Harry’s book exposes grief, war, drugs, family rifts
LONDON — Bereaved boy, troubled teen, wartime soldier, unhappy royal — many facets of Prince Harry are revealed in his explosive memoir, often in eyebrow-raising detail. From accounts of cocaine use and losing his virginity to raw family rifts, “Spare” exposes deeply personal details about Harry and the wider royal...
Review: India’s Partition in deeply human debut novel
“The Book of Everlasting Things” by Aanchal Malhotra (Flatiron) Star-crossed lovers. Intoxicating scents. Old war journals containing ghosts and secrets. What more could you want in a work of historical fiction? Aanchal Malhotra’s debut novel “The Book of Everlasting Things” paints a riveting picture of the 1947 Partition of India...
2023 public domain debuts include last Sherlock Holmes work
WASHINGTON — Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the American public in 2023. The long-running contested copyright dispute over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of a whipsmart detective — which has even ensnared Enola Holmes — will finally come to an end as the 1927 copyrights expiring Jan. 1 include...
Books to look forward to in 2023
Making a January list of “books to look forward to” is a hopeless task; there will be hundreds and hundreds of books out in the new year, each of them potentially thrilling to somebody. But here’s a representative list of just a few that caught my eye. Here’s hoping all...
Review: ‘The Good Country’ revives Midwest’s history
“The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest 1800-1900” by Jon K. Lauck (The University of Oklahoma Press) Dismissed as Flyover Country. Romanticized as the Heartland. Now, historian Jon K. Lauck seeks to redefine the Midwest as “The Good Country” — a place of progress and democratic ideals —...
‘The Pittsburgh Novel’ catalogs Western Pennsylvania fiction back to the late 1700s
As a young man in the early 1960s, Peter Oresick stopped at his local library and borrowed a copy of “Request for Sherwood Anderson,” a story collection by fellow Ford City native Frank Brookhouser. In the book, he recognized settings and surnames from his hometown – and that was the...
Gaslighting is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2022
NEW YORK — “Gaslighting” — behavior that’s mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as...
Bob Dylan publisher sorry for $600 book’s replica autographs
NEW YORK — Bob Dylan’s publisher is offering refunds for a $600 special edition of his new book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” acknowledging that the allegedly “hand-signed” copies were not individually inscribed. “To those who purchased THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG limited edition, we want to apologize,” Simon &...
Book award finalists are ‘debut novelists’ in name only
NEW YORK — In the minds and official records of the publishing community, Sarah Thankham Mathews is a first-time author. Her novel “All This Could Be Different” has been widely praised as a promising start for the 31-year-old Indian American, whose narrative about a young immigrant’s personal and professional conflicts...
Review: Movie fans will roar, growl over ’50 MGM Films’ book
“The 50 MGM Films that Transformed Hollywood: Triumphs, Blockbusters, and Fiascos,” by Steven Bingen (Lyons Press) The title of film historian Steven Bingen’s new book is reminiscent of B-movie trailers of the 1950s that breathlessly hype “The Most Important Picture of the Year!” But like many of those overripe flicks,...
Booker Prize winner lets ghosts of Sri Lanka’s past speak
LONDON — Shehan Karunatilaka wrote his Booker Prize-winning novel “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” to give voice to Sri Lanka’s dead. He hoped the ghosts of the country’s bloody past could speak to its troubled present. When the book became a finalist for the 50,000-pound ($58,000) fiction award this...
North Allegheny native creates Thanksgiving e-cookbook tailored to food allergies and special diets
There should be a dish for everyone at the Thanksgiving table, and that includes those with food allergies and special diets, according to “An Octofree Thanksgiving” author Liz Fetchin. “An Octofree Thanksgiving” is a new e-cookbook that proves a palate-pleasing, stress-free holiday feast free of the top eight food allergens...
Julie Powell, food writer of ‘Julie & Julia,’ dies at 49
NEW YORK — Food writer Julie Powell, who became an internet darling after blogging for a year about making every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” leading to a book deal and a film adaptation, has died. She was 49. Powell died of cardiac arrest Oct....
Emily Post’s etiquette tome overhauled for 21st century
NEW YORK — Embracing without permission. Disparaging one parent in front of children struggling with divorce. Flaunting privilege. Being a bad listener or, worse, a terrible loser. The world and all its interactional black holes would likely have Emily Post spewing her tea. The grand dame of all things manners...
Judge blocks Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster merger
NEW YORK — A federal judge has blocked Penguin Random House’s proposed purchase of Simon & Schuster, agreeing with the Justice Department that the joining of two of the world’s biggest publishers could “lessen competition” for “top-selling books.” The ruling was a victory for the Biden administration’s tougher approach to...
Ex-Trib ‘Fanfare’ columnist Kate Benz pens book about Kansas farming town
Traveling from Pittsburgh to Boulder, Colo., to drop off her son at college, Kate Benz ended up with an honorary hometown and new extended family in Kansas — and a book about it all. Her plan was to take the shortest route west, then fulfill a longtime desire to explore...
Review: How Meacham’s Lincoln defeated ‘Big Lie’ of his day
“And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle” by Jon Meacham (Random House) Fun fact: Feb. 12, 1809, is the birthdate for both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. While we tend to contemplate “The Great Emancipator” as fully formed well before he became the 16th president, his moral...
AC/DC’s Brian Johnson writes about his Cinderella lives
Before he began tearing the roof off arenas as lead singer of hard rock icon AC/DC, Brian Johnson was fixing roofs. In his new memoir, the “Hells Bells” singer recounts how he went from being a vinyl car roof fitter in the northeast of England to leading one of the...
