Author Archives: Nathan

“Saturday Night Widows” joins inspiring books about Jackie Kennedy, Coretta Scott King and other women whose personal loss fueled later achievements. By Nathan Rostron When suffering from the loss of a loved one, the grief can seem so insurmountable that it … Continue reading →

There once was an ideal masculine hero, full of manly characteristics including strength, courage, forthrightness and loyalty. He strode purposefully, possibly carrying weapons, across the pages of Hemingway novels and nabbed the bad guys in books by Raymond Chandler, strong-jawed and resolute. That … Continue reading →

Few of us have led lives so interesting they’d make the local news, let alone inspire entire biographies. And yet the Churchills, Jeffersons and Dostoevskys of the world drive writers into a sort of biographical frenzy, producing reams of pages that fill … Continue reading →

For the wisecracker in the family, what’s a better stocking stuffer than a funny, filthy, ruthless tell-all from one of comedy’s greats? 2012 was a banner year for funny women: New memoirs from way-pavers including Joan Rivers and Nora Ephron … Continue reading →

Gillian Flynn’s thriller ”Gone Girl” was the book that everyone was reading this year (when they weren’t reading ”Fifty Shades of Grey”). What made it such a sensation? Was it the portrait of a happy marriage gone very, very bad? Or how it … Continue reading →

Scott Hutchins‘ debut novel, “A Working Theory of Love,” is a super-modern “Frankenstein“ story, or an “Oedipus Rex“-in-reverse: A young man in San Francisco resurrects his dead father–in the form an artificial intelligence machine that uses his father’s thousands of … Continue reading →

“The Kept Man” and “The Melting Season” author Jami Attenberg‘s new novel, “The Middlesteins,” is about a Jewish family in the Chicago suburbs with a complicated relationship to food and to each other. Bookish asked her about the books she … Continue reading →

Today marks Rolling Stone’s 45th anniversary. The iconic magazine debuted in 1967 with John Lennon on the cover of the first issue. In the decades since, that cover has held the faces of the music industry’s biggest talents, from the likes of … Continue reading →

Aaron Cooley, the author of a new Fleming-inspired novel, “Shaken, Not Stirred,” takes us through the myths and mysteries behind James Bond. The release of “Skyfall” marks the 50th anniversary of Sean Connery’s dashing turn as the world’s most famous spy in the first James … Continue reading →

The run-up to Halloween sees a horde of books and films aiming to terrify: “Sinister” and “Paranormal Activity 4″ are drawing moviegoers with promises of gore and suspense. Justin Cronin’s “The Twelve” and Patricia Cornwell’s “Bone Bed” are flying off bookshelves into the hands of … Continue reading →