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Book review: Alice Hoffman’s ‘Dovekeepers’ builds on lives of Jewish heroines

Book review: Alice Hoffman’s ‘Dovekeepers’ builds on lives of Jewish heroines

Alice Hoffman may be the most uneven writer in America. A trip through her enormous body of work — for adults and young people — is a jarring ride, from the loveliness of “Illumination Night” to the schlockiness of “The River King.” Hang on tight and you’ll swerve from the quiet power of her short stories in “Local Girls” to the groaning hokiness of “The Ice Queen.” In bestseller after bestseller, she explores women’s subjects and feminist themes, especially ancient and modern expressions of witchcraft. Sometimes, the results are practically magic; sometimes, they’re practically laughable.

 

Books of The Times: ‘Life Itself’ by Roger Ebert - Review

Books of The Times: ‘Life Itself’ by Roger Ebert - Review

In “Life Itself” the film critic Roger Ebert covers much career and personal ground, including the challenge of coping with cancer and disfiguring surgery.

 

Books of The Times: ‘The Quest’ by Daniel Yergin - Review

Books of The Times: ‘The Quest’ by Daniel Yergin - Review

In “The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World,” Daniel Yergin returns to the topic of how energy policy is driving global change.

 

Book review: ‘Remember Ben Clayton’ by Stephen Harrigan

This earnest, well-meaning novel begins with two magnificently compelling depictions of violence: the battle for a small French village during World War I and, shortly after, the racist hysteria of a lynch mob in Nebraska. Stephen Harrigan handles these scenes with immaculate detail, an acute ear for fear and cruelty, and an eye for the unpredictability of human behavior in moments of passion.

 

Book review: Chris Cleave reviews “The Submission,” by Amy Waldman

Book review: Chris Cleave reviews “The Submission,” by Amy Waldman

In 1981, Maya Lin, a 21-year-old architecture student at Yale, won the competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The starkness of her design, as well as her ethnicity as an Asian American, fueled controversy over her victory. Politicians, art critics and veterans excoriated her, and she was forced to defend her work before Congress. A little more than two decades later, when a jury convened in New York City to decide which of more than 5,000 submissions would become the winning design for the 9/11 Memorial, Lin’s presence on the panel served as a reminder of the difficulties of aligning public art, private grief and main street opinion in the wake of a national tragedy.

 

Book review: Louisa Young’s ‘My Dear I Wanted to Tell You’

Book review: Louisa Young’s ‘My Dear I Wanted to Tell You’

Known to children around the world for the best-selling Lionboy series (written with her daughter under the name Zizou Cor­der), Louisa Young makes use of her abundant storytelling gifts in her first novel for adults: “My Dear I Wanted to Tell You,” a moving tale of men and women tested to their limits by World War I.

 

"Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin" paints a scathing portrait

A biography of Sarah Palin by a former staffer depicts Palin as ill-prepared, immature, vindictive, and unethical. Palin's supporters say the tell-all biography by Frank Bailey is "fiction" created by a disgruntled former employee.

 

Book Review: Harold Bloom: An Uncommon Reader

At the age of 80, with almost 40 books behind him and nearly as many accumulated honors, Harold Bloom has written a kind of summing-up of his monumental career as a critic and scholar.

 

Book review: 'Dick Van Dyke: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business'

Book review: 'Dick Van Dyke: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business'

The personable performer has written an engaging memoir that stresses the personal over the professional.The personable performer has written an engaging memoir that stresses the personal over the professional.

 

Book review: 'A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother'

Book review: 'A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother'

Janny Scott's "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother" is driven by an unspoken tension — or maybe "question" is a better word. Reading it, we can't help but wonder: How does one approach a biography about a private life?

 

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