tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-303176762008-05-05T00:41:18.607-05:00Jason CooperBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-91336194338299231232008-05-05T06:28:00.001-05:002008-05-05T00:41:18.663-05:00

As a native of the Louisville area, this interview caught my attention. Veteran horse jockey Edgar Prado has written about his experiences with one of the more famous thoroughbreds in recent history. Prado appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday to talk about his new book, My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse. This story is

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-78170356802796112912008-03-26T16:46:00.003-05:002008-03-26T17:06:12.082-05:00

Here is one that I hope to check out in the near future. Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund has teamed up with journalist Miriam Horn to write Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming. Vital Stats Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton (March 12, 2008) ISBN-10: 0393066908 ISBN-13: 978-0393066906 From the Book Description How to harness

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-28803605644239006262008-02-10T21:00:00.000-06:002008-02-10T23:28:51.187-06:00

Author and New York Times contributing writer John Strausbaugh gave a short talk which aired on Book TV this weekend. Strausbaugh condemns America as overweight, overmedicated gadget geeks, who have lost all sense of community in his book Sissy Nation. Vital Stats Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Virgin Books (February 5, 2008) ISBN-10: 190526416X ISBN-13: 978-1905264162 From the Book

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-82308547228411188562008-02-02T19:25:00.001-06:002008-02-02T19:55:22.935-06:00

The latest review to pique my interest is Liesl Schillinger's report on a debut novel from Charles Bock. Schillinger expounds on Bock's Beautiful Children for tomorrow's edition of the New York Times Book Review. Vital Stats Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Random House (January 22, 2008) ISBN-10: 1400066506 ISBN-13: 978-1400066506 From the Book Description One Saturday night in Las Vegas,

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-40992297531142711412008-01-21T21:49:00.000-06:002008-01-21T22:10:59.881-06:00

Marie Phillips debut novel, Gods Behaving Badly, is a delightfully funny read that I highly recommend to adult readers. Vital Stats Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (December 10, 2007) ISBN-10: 0316067628 ISBN-13: 978-0316067621 From the Book Description Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-80213854327742128022008-01-19T12:29:00.000-06:002008-01-21T22:09:34.199-06:00

This review from the Christmas Science Monitor caught my eye. Monitor reviewer Marjorie Kehe asks, "How often does a detective story upend history? Probably about as often as a science and technology journalist pens a page-turner." That writer is Seth Shulman and his book is titled The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret Vital Stats Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: W. W.

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-42770212011945562302008-01-11T20:02:00.000-06:002008-01-21T22:07:44.891-06:00

In what I hope will be a regular feature - weekly, perhaps? - on Books @ LP Reviews, I will bring you short updates on new books that I've heard or read about. NPR's All Things Considered interviewed foreign policy experts Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen about their new book, The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise. Vital Stats Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher:

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-91933170492378182102008-01-05T20:10:00.000-06:002008-01-06T03:11:57.979-06:00

Bastard Out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison (1992) Allison’s debut novel follows the Boatwright family, a group of rural dwelling ne’er-do-wells. The protagonist of the story is Ruth Anne—nicknamed Bone by an uncle—who is the bastard child of Anney, a diner waitress. Allison’s characters work hard and live hard. The men of the Boatwright clan work dirty jobs in mills and factories by day. By

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-28924029054618257762007-12-22T20:12:00.001-06:002007-12-22T20:30:35.810-06:00

Jacquie and I have been talking about trying something new here at Books @ LP Reviews and we've found the perfect opportunity in a new reading challenge for 2008. Annie of words by Annie recently announced the launch of What's in a name? It's a new reading challenge that starts on New Year's Day and goes all year long. From Annie's blog, here are her instructions: Dates: January 1, 2008 through

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-64101970875264809562007-12-22T17:15:00.000-06:002007-12-22T18:31:26.315-06:00

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (2004) Originally published in French in 2000, Satrapi’s Persepolis draws from the author’s own story of growing up in Iran during the time of the Islamic revolution and the bloody war with Iraq. Born into a socially progressive family, Satrapi is ten years old when Islamic fundamentalists take over all aspects of Iranian society from schools to dress codes. The

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-10254619037268680382007-11-25T09:49:00.000-06:002007-11-25T09:50:33.077-06:00

Honky, by Dalton Conley (2000) Conley writes of his experiences growing up white in an overwhelmingly black and Hispanic housing complex. Much of this memoir reads more like the sociologist he would eventually become than the child who grew up as a minority in a poor neighborhood. From a young age, Conley relates that he was aware of the many advantages that his race gave him. Indeed, after he

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-18528650042958209132007-11-18T06:54:00.000-06:002007-11-18T07:32:45.624-06:00

Mississippi Sissy, by Kevin Sessums (2007) Sessums writes his extraordinary personal story of growing up in the Deep South in the 1960s and 1970s. The author loses both of his parents at an early age and ends up in the care of his grandparents, who struggle to raise a young man who seems to have so little in common with those around him. The author’s father is a star athlete, which puts greater

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-4195768115116070482007-11-04T20:46:00.000-06:002007-11-04T21:51:54.173-06:00

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter (2006) The former president, who has been engaged in Middle East politics for nearly 35 years, casts a spotlight on the ongoing conflict between Israel and her neighboring states. While Carter acknowledges that there has been tension in this region since the beginning of recorded history, he ties most of the current conflict to the 1967 Six-Days

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-38816219327843236552007-10-29T06:49:00.000-05:002007-10-29T02:26:21.717-05:00

All Guts and No Glory: An Alabama Coach’s Memoir of Desegregating College Athletics, by Bill Elder (2007) Elder was born in Alabama but also grew up in Ohio, where his father moved his family to pursue business opportunities. He would later return to the south at the start of his career in college athletics. The author had a keen eye for racial segregation early on, often asking questions of

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-70532888822421549312007-10-22T20:20:00.000-05:002007-10-22T22:22:52.079-05:00

Up High in the Trees, by Kiara Brinkman (2007) Brinkman’s first book is a account of a family struggling to cope following the death of a mother. The story is told by the mother’s son, eight-year-old Sebastian Lane, who lives with an older brother and sister, and his professor father. According to some reviewers, Sebby exhibits signs of mild autism or Asperger’s syndrome, which may explain why

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-42912703011941719382007-10-08T06:56:00.000-05:002007-10-08T00:17:35.089-05:00

Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead, by Tamara Draut (2006) Draut, a fellow at Dēmos, a New York City-based think tank, describes the challenges facing the age group often referred as Generation X. Her book paints a dismal economic picture for today’s 20- and 30-somethings. The author describes a debt-for-diploma system that has not only required students to take out

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-29150431118589765402007-10-06T07:41:00.000-05:002007-10-07T18:56:02.324-05:00

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, by Anne Lamott (2007) Lamott’s latest book is a collection of essays, mostly republished from other sources. Her take on faith and spirituality was not what this reviewer expected, although it probably should have been: it is the first of her books I have read. Because the essays here were originally written to stand by themselves, the repeated themes—her

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-11656027540505335542007-09-24T21:29:00.000-05:002007-09-26T23:33:13.390-05:00

The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman (2007) Weisman sets out to examine what would happen to the earth and its natural systems if humans were suddenly gone from the planet. From the beginning, it is a fascinating proposition: what are the consequences of human activity and what vestiges of human existence will last far beyond our time on the planet? To answer the question of how the earth

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-56967652422171350132007-09-11T17:55:00.000-05:002007-09-11T21:21:15.013-05:00

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King (2000) King has written a short biographical tale of his life as a writer. The story begins with his first memories of growing up in a single parent household with his mother and brother David. He regales the reader with powerful stories of his childhood illness to hysterically funny accounts of his neglectful, if not psychotic, babysitter. As

Jacqueline Nazeritag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-87273798098062478332007-08-28T20:44:00.000-05:002007-08-29T11:43:36.047-05:00

The Memory of Running, by Ron McLarty (2004) When Smithson “Smithy” Ide loses his parents and his older sister during the same week, he knows that his life will never be the same. The protagonist, an obese, chain-smoking, hard-drinking veteran of the war in Vietnam, leaves his Rhode Island home and begins an improbable cross-country journey on his bicycle. As the long trek begins, McLarty takes

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-38899028292507809182007-08-23T20:28:00.000-05:002007-08-24T13:37:04.279-05:00

Jane Fonda's Words of Politics and Passion, ed. by Mary Hershberger (2006) This collection of Fonda’s writings and speeches spans over 30 years and includes transcripts of the actor/activist’s broadcasts for Radio Hanoi. Many readers past a certain age will know Fonda for her vocal opposition to the war in Vietnam, but far fewer will know of her work to curb teen pregnancy. She speaks often of

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-68561870489189906072007-08-07T21:06:00.000-05:002007-08-16T01:05:36.964-05:00

Christmas Jars, by Jason F. Wright (2005) Wright has written a tender, slim novel about the triumph of the spirit. The story begins with the discovery of an infant girl, who has been abandoned in a restaurant. The woman who finds the child winds up adopting her and in the face of unforeseeable events the new mother sees a fresh beginning for herself and for the infant child. The young girl

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-13982723130410015402007-07-29T21:06:00.000-05:002007-08-16T00:56:43.159-05:00

Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq, by Thura Al-Windawi (2004) Less than a week before the American invasion of Iraq, 19-year-old Thura Al-Windawi began writing her thoughts about what was happening to herself, her family, and her country. She somehow managed to write almost every day for next two months, at the same time coalition forces swiftly gained control of Baghdad and the rest of

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-87786423760392097432007-07-27T07:34:00.000-05:002007-08-16T00:55:44.902-05:00

Don't Tell Mom I Work on the Rigs: She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse, by Paul Carter (2005) Paul Carter's short biography primarily concerns his travels, often to remote corners of the earth, as a worker on oil rigs. The author and his co-workers work hard and live hard, and their stories are sometimes hard to believe and often laugh-out-loud funny. The author was born in England to

Jason Coopertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30317676.post-6719085104137120332007-07-22T19:38:00.000-05:002008-01-04T20:11:02.469-06:00

What Color is Your Jockstrap?: Funny Men and Women Write from the Road, ed. By Jennifer L. Leo (2006) Leo returns with another installment in the Travelers’ Tales series. The book provides laughs even in the short introduction, as the editor recalls another parody title from a previous volume, The Thong Also Rises. Other titles from the series include Whose Panties Are These?, and There’s No

Jason Cooper