Board Review Session 1 Saturday August 25 2012

History With Teeth: JFK, Columbus The Conqueror And ... Shark! Stephen Rex returns to the scene of JFK's assassination, while Ali Smith presents an intricate tale of a dinner party gone wrong. In nonfiction, Charles C. Mann reassesses Columbus, Juliet Eilperin investigates sharks, and Paul Hendrickson revisits Hemingway.

New In Paperback July 23-29

Fiction and nonfiction releases from Stephen King, Ali Smith, Charles C. Mann Juliet Eilperin and Paul Hendrickson.

xi/22/63

In 11/22/63, Stephen King tells the story of a small-scale-town instructor who goes back in time to finish ane of the watershed events of American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Just that turns out to exist fifty-fifty tougher than it sounds. Although King is known as a science fiction and horror master, his recent novels have shown that he defies genre. Hither's NPR critic Michael Schaub'southward verdict: "Although 11/22/63 combines the page-turning suspense of Dolores Claiborne with the history-obsessed literary fiction of Hearts in Atlantis, information technology is really unlike anything King has written before. ... [He] has managed to arts and crafts an exciting, plot-driven novel that's also a smart, sometimes heartbreaking reflection on what'south left of the American dream."

News and Reviews

At that place But For The

Ali Smith'south novel There But For The was selected by NPR critic Heller McAlpin as one of five books that made a lasting impression on her final year. Here'due south why: "Ali Smith's clever, past turns whimsical and subtly wrenching fifth novel ... sends you back to the beginning once y'all've reached the end, both to connect the dots of her intricately structured story and to curiosity at what she has pulled off. It'south about a dinner party guest who locks himself into his host'southward spare bedroom between the main grade and dessert and refuses to come out for months, stoking an absurd media frenzy. With her penchant for wordplay on full display, the author of The Accidental switches betwixt the perspectives of four people whose lives have been peripherally touched by her gentle shut-in."

News and Reviews

1493

Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

When Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492, his journey prompted the exchange of not just information but besides food, animals, insects, plants and viruses between the continents. Charles C. Isle of man writes about the changed world after Columbus' voyage in 1493. "It was a tremendous ecological convulsion — the greatest event in the history of life since the decease of the dinosaurs," Isle of man tells Fresh Air'southward Terry Gross. "All of the great diseases from smallpox to measles to influenza ... [did not] exist in the Americas because they didn't have any domesticated animals. When the Europeans came over ... the consequence was to wipe out betwixt two-thirds and xc percent of the people in the Americas. It was the worst demographic disaster in history."

News and Reviews

Demon Fish

Travels Through the Hidden Globe of Sharks

Every child jumping into the bounding main or the deep end of the puddle for the first time learns to fright Great Whites, even without seeing Jaws. But it has been years since nosotros've had a serious investigative research into the species. In Demon Fish, Juliet Eilperin, a seasoned announcer who has written previously about national politics, dives — literally — into the world of sharks, examining the means unlike cultures have responded to and treated the fish over the centuries. She traveled the world to study the book, spending plenty of time underwater, in shut contact with the near mortiferous predators. What emerges is a detailed and thorough glimpse into the story behind the feared (and oft misunderstood) creatures.

News and Reviews

Hemingway'south Boat

Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961

In 1934, Ernest Hemingway was the reigning rex of American letters. He was just dorsum from safari in Africa and the outset affair he did after returning was head to the Wheeler shipyard in Brooklyn, Due north.Y., and buy a 38-foot line-fishing boat he named Pilar. Pilar would exist Hemingway's refuge for the rest of his life, a place to escape from bad reviews and broken relationships. It'southward also the inspiration for a new book nearly the author, Hemingway'due south Boat. Author Paul Hendrickson says he discovered another side to the man on board Pilar. "He could be everything on that boat, he could be a boor and a bully and an overly competitive jerk, and he could save somebody who was in the water swimming from shark attack on that boat, and he could treat people with uncommon kindness on that gunkhole," Hendrickson tells NPR's Rachel Martin.

News and Reviews

Charlotte Abbott edits "New in Paperback." A contributing editor for Publishers Weekly, she too leads a weekly chat on books and reading in the digital historic period every Friday from iv-5 p.m. ET on Twitter. Follow her at @charabbott or cheque out the #followreader hashtag.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2012/07/25/157303832/new-in-paperback-july-23-29

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