Susan Orlean was living in New York in 1986 when she heard the shocking news that the Los Angeles Public Library had been destroyed by a monster fire. More than 1 million books were burned or damaged, while 350 firefighters battled the blaze for seven hours. Orlean was raised in a book-loving family where her mother took her to a library near their home in … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Books
South Florida has a perhaps surprisingly strong books culture, and not just because it has been home to major writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston. It also is home to Books & Books, a remarkably successful Miami-based chain of independent bookstores, and as the Miami Book Fair it helped found has grown, newer players have appeared on the scene to celebrate … [Read more...]
Authentic South Florida flavor makes murder mystery tell
By Sharon Geltner “I was living through the worst time of my life. I was going to kill myself.” That statement is not from the west Broward mystery, The Other Side of Everything, the debut novel by Lauren Doyle Owens, a 10-year resident of the area. Instead, it’s what the author said about her own life. “I didn’t kill myself,” Doyle Owens said in a recent interview. … [Read more...]
Rather reports on state of nation, and it’s grim
By Myles Ludwig Veteran newsman Dan Rather took the stage at the Palm Beach Convention Center to a standing ovation at the Palm Beach Book Festival on April 14. He was being honored as the Festival’s book of the year awardee for his current What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism, a collection of essays about what Rather believes it means to be an American. It was … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Book Festival offers ‘Oscars’ of literary world
By Georgio Valentino Every spring, a hand-picked selection of the country’s most celebrated writers descend on the Palm Beaches for a boutique book festival of chart-topping proportions. Among the headliners of this fourth annual edition of the Palm Beach Book Festival are multiple award-winning authors Dan Rather and Kwame Alexander. The event is the brainchild of … [Read more...]
‘Line Becomes a River’ finds tragedy on both sides of the border
After Francisco Cantú graduated from college with honors, he decided to enlist in the U.S. Border Patrol, which detains Mexicans illegally crossing into the United States. In The Line Becomes a River, the author’s illuminating prose cites injustices and tragedy on both sides of the border. Mexicans enter the United States in the middle of the night far from … [Read more...]
Min Jin Lee: ‘Pachinko,’ and exercising your compassion muscle
By Janis Fontaine Min Jin Lee has earned her place among today’s outstanding writers with the publication of Pachinko, an epic tear-jerker that follows a poor, hard-working Korean family for most of the last century, beginning in 1910. The book topped dozens of best books lists for 2017, including The New York Times, and was nominated for a National Book Award. Lee’s … [Read more...]
Khizr Khan: The man who fell in love with America
Few people will ever forget the dramatic moment at the 2016 Democratic National Convention when a Muslim-American speaker held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution and challenged Republican Donald Trump to read it. The speaker, Pakistan native Khizr Khan, had lost his son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq when he tried to stop two suicide bombers. He won … [Read more...]
Thorough research enlarges compelling tale of man wrongfully convicted
Willie J. Grimes was a mild-mannered, middle-aged black man who was convicted of first-degree rape and sentenced to life in prison. But Grimes had nothing to do with the crime. The jury relied on flimsy evidence, such as the victim having picked him out of a hazy picture lineup. After Grimes spent 24 years in prison, he was released in 2012 when DNA evidence showed he was … [Read more...]
George Saunders: On Lincoln, writing out of need, and empathy
American writers may have made a poor showing in the Nobel sweepstakes these past few decades, with only the joke award to Bob Dylan last year to show for all their scribbling. Yet since the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s shiniest literary trophy, was opened to Yanks (and anyone else writing in English) in 2013, American writers have shouldered their way to prominence. George … [Read more...]