Syracuse New Times - BOOKS

A Sense of Place Within the Pages -

Tue, 23 Apr 13 00:00:00 -0600

It’s commonly said that reading has the power to take you anywhere, but books with a strong sense of place take that to a whole new level. Part of Baldwinsville librarian Holly Nichols’ rea

Jackie Unchained - A new book sheds a different light on an All-American hero

Thu, 18 Apr 13 00:00:00 -0600

Syracuse University Press Jackie Robinson is a true American hero. No one can honestly argue otherwise. In Syracuse, we might even call him a local hero, if we were willing to stretch the meaning

The Write Stuff -

Wed, 27 Feb 13 00:00:00 -0700

Hamilton College is currently hosting an International Writers Week through Saturday, March 2, with an international book fair, panel discussions and...

Melting Pot - Bill Rezak's new book profiles his European family's immigration to America

Wed, 27 Feb 13 00:00:00 -0700

Rezak, retired president of Alfred State College, shares his family’s journey in The Arab and the Brit: The Last of...

Cold Creature Comforts - Reading a good book helps make the season bright

Wed, 12 Dec 12 00:00:00 -0700

Snuggle up for some winter reading

Spread the Words - The Downtown Writer's Center gears up for another Visiting Author Series

Wed, 10 Oct 12 00:00:00 -0600

Rochester-based poet Thom Ward delivers a line from his most recent poetry collection, Etcetera’s Mistress (Accents Publishing, 2011), in a deep, crisp deadpan baritone that gives weight to e

sanity fair -

Fri, 22 Jul 11 00:00:00 -0600

Summertime reading is always different than any other time. Through the cooler and harder working months we get to read in snatches, read while we fall asleep, while we wait for an appointment, and we read mostly what we have to read. In summer there are, if we are lucky, some days given up mostly to absorbing a book.

Fungus Among Us -

Wed, 30 Mar 11 00:00:00 -0600

Cornell physics professor Paul McEuen’s debut novel Spiral receives critical praise

She Shoots, She Scores! -

Wed, 15 Dec 10 00:00:00 -0700

Since hockey parents are generally awake at 4 a.m. to drive their kids to practice, they have plenty of time in the stands to read, pay bills and chat. “When I became a hockey mom I had a lot of free time in the stands,” says WSYR- Channel 9 morning news anchor Christie Casciano.

String of Pearls -

Wed, 26 May 10 00:00:00 -0600

Melville Clark’s multifaceted musical legacy to Syracuse gets star treatment in a new book

Harpist Linda Pembroke Kaiser didn’t intend to write a book when she began two decades of research on Syracuse musician Melville A. Clark (1883-1953). But this man of many hats (and many harps)—former head of the 150-year-old family-owned Clark Music Company, inventor of the Clark Irish harp, and the first president of Syracuse’s first symphony orchestra—inspired Kaiser to don a new hat of her own.

Marvin the Martian -

Wed, 26 May 10 00:00:00 -0600

A word of warning to those who plan on attending the upcoming book signings by Marvin Druger: Don’t ask him an open-ended question, or the sessions may run long. Make that very long. A telephone conversation with Druger, the wildly popular but now retired professor of biology at Syracuse University, with wife Pat commenting in the background, sounds like a version of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.

Scenes from a Divorce -

Wed, 21 Jan 09 00:00:00 -0700

Alec Baldwin chronicles his experiences traversing

the family court system

By Lorraine Smorol

Alec Baldwin is one angry dude. You can almost see the steam rising from the pages of his book A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce (St. Martin’s Press, New York City; 224 pages; $24.95/hardcover), a documentation of his nasty divorce from actress Kim Basinger, with all the resulting fallout and backlash.

State of the State -

Wed, 10 Dec 08 00:00:00 -0700

A publisher seeking a writer is unusual in the book world, but that’s just what happened to Cleveland, N.Y., resident Meg Schneider. “Voyageur had put out two other similar books, ones about Minnesota and Pennsylvania,” she says. “They wanted to do New York next. The editor asked my agent if she had any writers who could do this. That’s a rare thing when they come to me.”

That was last fall, and after an intense, six-week, full-time blitz, which included a five-day trip to New York City (nice work if you can get it!), Schneider turned over her manuscript for New York: Yesterday & Today. This is a perfect coffee-table book: You can easily get through a chapter that focuses on a geographic region of the state, or a city, in one sitting.

Pictures Perfect -

Wed, 10 Dec 08 00:00:00 -0700

Two new coffee-table photo books

will put readers in an Empire State of mind

By Molly English-Bowers

Memory Lane -

Thu, 20 Nov 08 00:00:00 -0700

Longtime Syracuse radio host Phil Markert used to joke when stuck in traffic on Erie Boulevard East that the road was such a bad idea, “they ought to rip it up and build a canal.” Anyone holding on to that type of nostalgia when the Erie Canal bisected Syracuse might want to take a look at a new photo book compiled by Dennis Connors, curator of the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA).

Screen Gems -

Wed, 06 Aug 08 00:00:00 -0600

Central New York’s bygone cinemas are recalled in

Norm Keim’s new book Our Movie Houses
By James MacKillop

Anyone in town who’s paid attention to the movies over the last two generations knows Norm Keim. Actually, that’s the Rev. Norman O. Keim, a one-time Syracuse University chaplain who ran the Film Forum program there from 1968 to 1980. On three days midweek at SU’s Gifford Auditorium, Film Forum was the city’s premier art house venue, when movies were hot and you could impress a date with words like auteur and mise-en-scène.

Who Dunn It? -

Wed, 23 Jul 08 00:00:00 -0600

It’s no secret that Central New York has produced several successful authors such as L. Frank Baum, Laurie Halse Anderson, Bruce Coville and most recently, Matthew Dunn, whose accomplishments continue to grow. Dunn’s latest novel, Erased (Onondaga Hill Publishing, Syracuse; 304 pages; $15/softcover), about a man’s trouble with identity, was recently awarded a bronze medal from the 12th annual Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards.

The awards honor “the best in independently published novels.” Since the IPPYs received more than 3,000 entries from multiple countries and 65 categories, Dunn’s honor is no small feat. Winning third in the Thriller category was a big confidence boost, Dunn admits, although he’s not sure how the voting process worked.

Book Stop -

Wed, 26 Mar 08 00:00:00 -0600

Do something shockingly old school: Read a book

Syracuse's John Grisham -

Wed, 26 Mar 08 00:00:00 -0600

He might be a promising mystery writer now, but DeWitt resident Mike Langan didn’t start off penning taut legal thrillers. “I wrote the world’s worst romance novel, but it never sold,” he confessed. “It was horrible.”

The Women's Room -

Wed, 26 Mar 08 00:00:00 -0600

March is celebrated as women’s history month. Laura Ponticello, along with Creekside Books & Coffee in Skaneateles, has found an innovative way to keep the sisterhood alive with books.