Complete book coverage for July 5, 2009
Inside: David Treuer on the lack of antiheroes in post-9/11 American novels, American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone by D.D. Guttenplan, Camus: A Romance by Elizabeth Hawes, This Wicked World: A Novel by Richard Lange, Heroic Measures: A Novel by Jill Ciment, What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President? by Kevin Mattson, American Hybrid edited by David St. John and Cole Swenson, Twenty Minutes in Manhattan by Michael Sorkin, 'Drift by Victoria Patterson
July 5, 2009
DARK PASSAGES
The French detection
Lately, English-language publishers have developed an unfortunate habit with crime fiction in translation: Instead of starting at the very beginning of a series -- as Pantheon did in bringing out the 10-book "Story of Crime" opus by Swedes Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo in the proper sequence -- books appear out of order, in haphazard fashion.
July 5, 2009
THE SIREN'S CALL
Scary books: Read any good grimoires lately?
Thanks to their conspicuous use by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the girls of the TV show "Charmed," Elphaba in the Broadway musical "Wicked" and plenty of other prominent pop culture figures, grimoires have become far more familiar to the general public. In "Grimoires: A History of Magic Books" ( Oxford University Press: 368 pp., $29.95), Owen Davies traces their development and notes a democratic impulse in their spread helped by the creation of the printing press (thank you, Mr. Gutenberg).
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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