Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has written ten books, and is known for his ability to communicate the thrill of science to a general audience. His latest is about the future of space travel. Tyson is director of the Hayden Planetarium (attached to the Museum of Natural History in NYC), and host of PBS NOVA scienceNow. The Norton [...]
Deborah Feldman was born into the Satmar sect of a Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her memoir addresses her coming-of-age and eventual departure from that community. The book’s publication created a flurry of publicity. An author video, available on Feldman’s homepage, shares a bit of what she was hoping to achieve and how attending college, in secret, helped [...]
With the latest in her series of teen opinions, here is guest blogger, Jess deCourcy Hinds: For previous columns in this series (see posts from July 2011 and November 2011), I interviewed teens on their reading preferences. Although I learned a lot, I wanted to give teens even more of a chance to have their [...]
from graphic novel guest blogger Francisca Goldsmith: Those who recognize the name of Bryan Talbot as the creator of one of the first graphic novels to be permitted into 20th century teen collections (courtesy of being named to YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults list), may wonder if that story had its grounding in his [...]
Pure is the first in a new dystopian trilogy that seems made for teen readers; film rights have already been sold. Julianna Baggott has written a few books for young readers, but is best known for adult literary fiction and poetry. I had a chance to hear her speak at ALA Midwinter in January. She has [...]
Thomas Caplan’s romp has one thing that I’m not sure any other spy novel can claim — an introduction by Bill Clinton. Turns out they met as freshmen at Georgetown, were later roommates, and Clinton advised Caplan on this novel early in the editing process, since they have always been fellow devotees of the spy [...]
Today I am very happy to introduce a book that is, so far, mostly flying under the radar. This is a wonderfully written memoir by a woman who slowly, gradually convinced her grandmother to share her past. And part of that past, the part that changed everything, was spent in a Japanese internment camp. Obaachan [...]
The Winter Palace became a bestseller in Eve Stachniak’s native Canada during its first week of publication. Stachniak believes that is partly because, as far as she knows, it is the only historical novel about Catherine the Great in any language. How is that possible?! Stachniak has long been fascinated by Imperial Russia, has the [...]
Working through barriers of language, culture and gender, American Katherine Boo spent over three years in the Mumbai slum of Annawadi. Her extraordinary book reveals the truth of life in urban India. Again and again, reviews mention her novelistic writing, the uncovering of Dickensian depths of corruption, and the detail with which she brings to [...]
In this rather extraordinary memoir, Jamal Joseph recounts his journey from Black Panther to prison to professor at Columbia University. Joseph gave the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture at ALA Midwinter in Dallas last month, which was followed by this interview with American Libraries Associate Editor Pamela A. Goodes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzKLO2fdXiU Goodes begins by asking, “So many lessons [...]
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