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From the April 21, 1961 issue of Life, page 61: Roman Holiday for a Bashful Bear Named Winnie: Latin Version of Children's Classic Is the Surprise Best-Seller of 1961.

I have learned that the prominent science fiction author best known for his dystopic overpopulation novel Make Room! Make Room! has posthumously published an autobiography.

I am pleased to inform you that the title of this new book is Harry Harrison! Harry Harrison!

There appears to be a picture of a stainless-steel rat on the cover.
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So after the countdown to New Year's, and after the champagne, and after I'd played the usual New Year songs with Professor Andy Anda, we were talking to our host Tullio Proni about the new book he's got ( Read more... )

I remember studies by Valdis Krebs a few years back on what we can learn from Amazon's "customers-who-bought-this-also-bought" network of political books. I wonder if this network would be any less polarized, or any less depressing to contemplate, in 2014.

For some reason I recently looked up Hillary Clinton's new book, Hard Choices, on Amazon. ( Read more... )

In browsing the Aurora bookmobile recently, Candace Fleming's 2009 biography for young readers, The Great and Only Barnum, caught my eye. I took it home. The legendary showman Phineas Taylor Barnum is an intriguing figure.

It's a pretty good read so far. But the very best page is the first one.


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For no good reason-- other than that I was looking up "gimcrack" for no good reason-- I have found Lexicon Balatronicum: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence by the antiquarian, draughtsman, and lexicographer Francis Grose (1731-1791). The link is to the 1811 edtion updated by "A Member of the Whip Club."The ( Read more... )

According to http://www.amazon.com/Star-Bright-Martin-Caidin/dp/0553126210, famed author Martin Caidin, who wrote the novels Marooned (which led to the eponymous movie) and Cyborg (thus engendering The Six Million Dollar Man and all his bionic kin), turns out to be a pseudonym for Vanessa Williams, singer and actress. Is there no end to her ( Read more... )

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