Books & Literature
Out of tragic death of child comes hope for others
Many of us have watched friends or loved ones go through a parent’s worst nightmare — the loss of a young son or daughter. (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
A fascinating baseball tale
Would you believe that a nun from Buffalo was in the middle of one of the all-time great baseball mysteries? Stay tuned. (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
McCann’s New York City stories steeped in Irish blues
Consider the tightrope walker. See him up there, a tiny stick figure etched against the city skyline, treading a cable strung between the two unfinished towers of the World Trade Center. (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
Books in brief
FICTION (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
Best Sellers
Compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
Editor’s Choice
HOW THE BEATLES DESTROYED ROCK’N’ ROLL: An Alternative History of American Popular Music by Elijah Wald (Oxford University Press, 336 pages, $24.95). Now there’s a title guaranteed to inflame—fighting words, clearly. But Wald isn’t kidding when he says that this brilliant and provocative book presents “an alternative history of American popular music.” To Wald— who has been a performer as well as the author of books about Delta Blues and Mexican music—The Beatles’ hugely influential journey into recording studio art rock and away from public performance not only removed popular music from dancers and live performances but, in effect, resegregated what had been racially melding at a furious rate. (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
‘Nothing is entirely by itself’
An excerpt from “Let the Great World Spin,” in which Gloria, who lives in a Bronx housing project, is trying to walk home from Manhattan’s Upper East Side: (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
On The Beach at Tel Aviv
I am composing a Paddleball Concerto scored for marimba, wood blocks and chorus of men’s shouts (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
Tea Time
I. (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
Poetry and Literature Calendar
Eye and the Eye’s Mind,” a panel of artists, poets and prose writers reflecting on visual and verbal expression though readings and performances. Buffalo Society of Artists Gallery at Artpark, 450 S. Fourth St., Lewiston. (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
Fame and Father Baker
It’s been 73 years since he died. But in some ways, Nelson H. Baker is more popular than ever. If you visit Baker’s former parish, Our Lady of Victory in Lackawanna, you’ll mingle with some of the 20,000 tourists who tour the towering, ornate basilica each year, many seeking a glimpse of the granite crypt where Baker’s body lies entombed. (Updated: 06/29/09 8:40 AM )
Emotions run high in Sarah Ockler's first novel, 'Twenty Boy Summer'
Sarah Ockler spent her 15th summer competing with her best friend during a vacation trip to see who could kiss the most boys. (Updated: 06/23/09 9:14 AM )
Great reads for teens and tweens
Whether your teen is into “Twilight” or your tween loves “The Olympians” series, there are truckloads of other books out there to keep both age groups reading this summer. (Updated: 06/23/09 6:56 AM )
Multilayered ‘Waveland’ slowly reveals its charms
Angst and introspection bear uncommon fruit in Frederick Barthelme’s sophisticated, and wry, new novel, “Waveland.” Layered, like the waters lapping Waveland’s shores, it is a treasure of a book — that at first seems to go nowhere, then has much to say. (Updated: 06/21/09 7:24 AM )
Well-loved characters return in Elmore Leonard’s latest
For a half century, Elmore Leonard has surprised readers with characters that are hard to forget. (Updated: 06/21/09 7:24 AM )
