Books News

One novel follows a grieving woman in Africa and Switzerland; another offers alienation in experimental tales; a third covers a life; and a fourth dissects a marriage.

Denver’s Lakeside Amusement Park By David Forsyth University Press of Colorado For more than a century, Lakeside has been one of Denver’s premier attractions.  (Well, technically, it was built in the town of Lakeside, not Denver, but that’s beside the point.)  Its rides and big-name bands, its train and fun house with the laughing lady have appealed to generations. Perhaps most remarkable of all, Lakeside has survived.  Of some 5,000 amusement parks built between 1895 and 1920, only 100 were still around in 2008.  Lakeside’s success is due in large part to its management. The park was built by a group of Denver businessmen, including the scion of the Zang brewing family.  The design was part of the City Beautiful movement that also gave Denver Civic Center.  To keep Lakeside from being surrounded by tawdry Coney Island-type businesses, Lakeside’s owners purchased a huge quantity of land and incorporated it as the town of Lakeside.

Mark Thompson explains the long, sad corrosion of political language

A new study finds that higher salaries for legislators in the U. S. are associated with more time fundraising for themselves.

An aristocrat under house arrest witnesses the rise of the Soviet empire in Amor Towles’s “A Gentleman in Moscow.”

In “Perfume River,” Butler traces the lasting effects of the Vietnam conflict on a New Orleans family.

The actor who played Ron Swanson on ‘Parks and Recreation’ contends with fearsome chickens, shoots an indie film and stars in a video with Michelle Obama.

'Killing the Rising Sun,' latest in franchise, is an instant best seller.        

Indulge in Fall for the Book, the PEN/Faulkner Celebration and Life of a Poet.

Amy Stewart’s novel captures the sometimes sordid job of a pioneering female officer.

Peter Ho Davies’s four-part novel “The Fortunes” summons key faces and events in the Chinese-American story.

The place where the great American novelist wrote ‘This Side of Paradise’ is up for sale.

Colson Whitehead, Adam Haslett and Jacqueline Woodson make the initial cut.        

The 10 books in the running for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction were announced by the National Book Foundation Thursday. The longlists for young people’s literature, poetry and nonfiction have already been announced. All the longlists will be narrowed to five finalists in October, and

Steve Jobs may have earned huge profits from his innovations, but they pale in comparison with the value of the iPhone to its users. Richard Epstein reviews “The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class” by Edward Conard.