The Buffalo News: Books & Literature

Books & Literature

Novel shows there’s a fine line between sanity and insanity: By Michael D. Langan NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/24/08 6:52 AM; I hadn’t read 25 pages of “Something to Tell You” by Hanif Kureishi, when I knew I had some challenges as a reviewer. The novel is the story of a Pakistani London psychiatrist, Dr. Jamal Khan, a lover of gossip and former porno enthusiast, his sister, Miriam, who has five kids from numerous husbands and sells dope, and Jamal’s friend, an aging artistic director, Henry, who drinks, does drugs and would like to have more sex, except that his body “resembles a mudslide.”

Introducing a new cast of superheroes: By Dan Murphy NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/24/08 6:52 AM; The Cold War was a great time for superheroes, partially because it was so easy to tell the difference between good and evil.

Pianist’s story — gross but engrossing: By Mary Kunz Goldman NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/24/08 6:52 AM; Ervin Nyiregyhazi was born in Budapest in 1903 and was, as a boy, dubbed “the second Liszt.” After moving to Los Angeles at 25, though, he hit the skids. He couldn’t balance his artistic leanings with the world around him, and his mental problems put poor David Helfgott, the addled hero of the movie “Shine,” squarely in the kiddie pool.

A pioneer in the world of the paranormal: By Mason Winfield NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/24/08 6:52 AM; The paranormal is more polarized than American politics. Like entrenched conservatives and liberals, believers and skeptics (materialists) process every development through their own goggles. At least with U. S. politics there’s a big middle ground, one that will decide the 2008 elections. With the paranormal, the no-man’s land is virtually invisible.

A mix of medicine, spirituality: By Scott Thomas NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/24/08 6:52 AM; This book of short stories follows two well-received novels by Chris Adrian, a pediatrician and Harvard Divinity School student. “Gob’s Grief” and “The Children’s Hospital” totaled more than 1,000 pages of prose. Adrian seems determined to develop his talents by writing until his fingertips bleed, and “A Better Angel” is a less forbidding introduction to this challenging and powerful young writer.

New Books: — Jean Westmoore
Updated: 08/24/08 6:52 AM; CHILDREN’S SELECTIONS

Local authors: Updated: 08/24/08 6:52 AM; Books of interest to readers in Western New York this month include the following new titles:

Kerry's daughter writes of fear and clothing on the campaign trail: By Charity VogelNEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 08/21/08 7:27 AM; It was early in the 2004 contest for president. Alexandra Kerry, daughter of Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, was chatting with another famous political daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, about the whirlwind of life on the campaign trail.

Models expose industry’s seamy side in 3 new books: By Emili Vesilind - LOS ANGELES TIMES
Updated: 08/19/08 7:57 AM; Fashion models aren’t prized for their braininess — or their literary pursuits. But that hasn’t stopped this genetically blessed crowd from expanding its brand with tell-alls, novels and self-help books. Iman and Cindy Crawford have makeup guides, Christy Turlington put out a book on yoga, and reality TV queen Janice Dickenson has spilled three tomes on her sordid, affair-strewn life.

Getting a handle on terrible traffic, awful drivers: By Bruce Andriatch NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/17/08 6:46 AM; You’re driving along a local expressway and you see this sign: “Left lane closed 1 mile.” Other cars begin moving into the right lane. Do you join them as soon as you can? Or are you one of those people who drive all the way to the bottleneck, speeding past those of us who are trying to do the right thing, darn it, and then squirm to the front like the weasel that you are?

It’s rough and tumble on the (fictional) campaign trail: By Gene Warner NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/17/08 6:46 AM; His name is Andy Stanton, and he’s a larger-than-life figure in this novel.

A front row seat to the tumult of 1968: By Susan Salter Reynolds - LOS ANGELES TIMES
Updated: 08/17/08 6:46 AM; In 1968, Norman Mailer covered the political conventions for Harper’s. These were the glory days of literary journalism, when Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote and William S. Burroughs stepped into the ring to ensure, as Mailer wrote, that there would be “no history without nuance.”

Insomniac’s stories leave readers sleepless: By Mark Shechner NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Updated: 08/17/08 6:46 AM; “I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle through another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American wilderness.” So begins Paul Auster’s new novel, “Man in the Dark,” a book about sleeplessness and nightmares: the nightmares we invent and the nightmares we live.

Editor’s Choice: Updated: 08/17/08 6:46 AM; Personal Days ^byEd Park (Random House, 241 pages, $13 paper original) This is a very funny book. It’s also a bitter and decidedly unlucky one. In fact, it’s rather brilliant in its way and, in almost equal measure, sad.