Submitted by Jenna Schnuer on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 11:54am 
The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman
At $2, the 1.5 hour bus ride from Quito up to the mountain town of Otvalo, Ecuador sounded like one of the world's best travel bargains. The seats were comfortable enough. The bus was clean. But before the bus pulled out of the terminal, the driver turned on the trip's entertainment: Black Hawk Down (at top volume). First, a slow crawl through Quito—the heavy smell of emissions made a fine companion to the movie—and, then, we raced up the mountain roads. The bus driver swerved into the other lane to pass slower buses--those that were only going two times the speed limit. I got off the bus a stop early, badly in need of the headache-fighting powers of a Coke.
Read more »
Submitted by Vittles Vamp on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 9:25am 
"Paris Patisseries: History, Shops, Recipes" by Ghislaine Bavoillot & Christian Sarramon
My mouth waters at the image of an elegant eclair, its pate choux puffed up and golden brown, decadently glazed in shiny dark chocolate ganache. Do I dare turn the page? I do!
A vivid two-page spread of madeline cookies takes my breath away as the haunting aroma of butter tickles my nose. A figment of my imagination? I flip back to an earlier page.
A close-up photo of rainbow-hued macaroon cookies in bright raspberry pink, pistachio green, violet purple and almond cream makes me swoon.
Paris Patisseries: History, Shops, Recipes is no ordinary coffee table book. It is unadulterated pastry porn for which an accompanying cup of strong coffee is highly recommended – not to mention a Gauloise after you've shut the book's cover.
Read more »
Submitted by Kara Sirmans on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 9:44am 
"Devotion" by Dani Shapiro
The view from the top of life’s hill can be expansive yet daunting. While we can see where we came from, we also see the other side of the slope and it’s all downhill from here.
Dani Shapiro stands at the top of the hill with a lot on her mind. Has she been a good enough wife, daughter and mother? Is she Jewish enough? Has she practiced enough yoga? She is less interested in “Why are we here?” than in “What does it all mean for me?”
These aren’t the small questions, obviously, but they’re questions that we all face whether we confront them openly or hide from them. Shapiro decides to face them head-on as she adjusts to the view from the “afternoon” of her life in her memoir Devotion: A Memoir .
Read more »
Submitted by Sudip Bose on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 11:23am 
"A Good Talk" by Daniel Menaker
I'm not sure exactly why, but I find myself immersed in fewer and fewer conversations these days. I don’t mean the routine sorts of chats one has with workers, colleagues, or spouses, but rather the indulgent exchanges with perfect strangers that I once relished so much, filled with ideas, opinion, and argument, the sort of social encounter that can last ten minutes or an hour and a half, depending on the elegance of the give-and-take and how well the participants wish to know each other. You know, a conversation. Once, I had the most delightful and illuminating conversations--on airplanes and trains, in bars, at dinner parties. It’s possible that I just travel less, go out less, and get invited to fewer dinners.
Read more »
Submitted by Swapna Krishna on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 9:38am 
"The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn" by Alison Weir
There is “Tudor frenzy” everywhere you look. From the 2009 Man Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall (a historical novel about Henry VIII’s secretary, Thomas Cromwell) to the hit Showtime series The Tudors starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry VIII is once again back in style. Books, movies, TV – the notorious king is everywhere, and not far behind is his infamous second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Read more »
Submitted by Kara Sirmans on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:36am 
"The Unbearable Lightness of Scones" by Alexander McCall Smith
The transatlantic cousin to Armistead Maupin’s Tales of a City series returns with an airy update on the eclectic residents of the 44 Scotland Street series. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (44 Scotland Street) is an ideal book for a long flight, a busy schedule or the avid fan. Like a letter from a distant cousin, it can be consumed in one sitting or easily put down and picked back up again without really losing one’s place.
Read more »
Submitted by Anne Trubek on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 1:49pm 
"Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock" by Henry Adams
I always head straight to the American art section whenever I visit an art museum, and often I have the rooms to myself. I take an outsider’s pride in my enthusiasm for pre-1940s American art, since the art historical establishment has long discounted it. I especially love Thomas Hart Benton’s paintings, so full of hunger, color, movement and quirky left-wing patriotism. I even hung a poster of one of his paintings in my son’s nursery.
But those supposedly in the know, the art critics, scoff at Benton, deeming him a naïve realist, a patronizing racist or a Midwestern yahoo.
Read more »
Submitted by Michele Filgate on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 10:38am 
"The Girl With Glass Feet" by Ali Shaw
Love can be as fragile as a glass heart. Ali Shaw’s magical-realism infused novel, The Girl with Glass Feet: A Novel , is set on a strange archipelago, St. Hauda’s Land, and follows an unusual couple.
Midas Crook is a distant man and photographer who sees the world through his camera; so much so that it’s like an appendage of his body. He meets Ida Maclaird, a girl with a very strange ailment. Ida’s feet have turned into glass, and she fears that the rest of her body will gradually be transformed. She has returned to the islands to look for a man named Henry who may or may not have an answer to her problem.
Read more »
Submitted by Kara Sirmans on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 10:01am 
"Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession" by Julie Powell
Julie Powell is not Tiger Woods but one can’t be blamed if the golf star’s colossal implosion comes to mind while reading her new work. How juicy was that first bite about the golfer’s late night-early morning car crash and reports of another woman... then another woman … then another woman. But that tasty moment of gossip eventually gave way to a sense that we’ve seen too much -- the crying child and collapsed mother-in-law on the 911 call sealed it. If we must read on, it should be with real compassion for the wrecked lives involved.
Read more »
Submitted by Bethanne on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 1:01pm 
The Book Maven's Top 10 Books of 2009
Choosing my Top Ten books of the year has been agonizing. I wish I had an office full of colleagues to argue with, but for this year at least the list is all my responsibility.
You'll note that many of these books appeared on The Book Studio in one way or another. For some, I conducted interviews with the authors; for others, I wrote reviews. That is not deliberate deck-stacking; it's a function of the fact that I try very hard to choose books that I believe will be strong -- but also books that intrigue me and that I want to read.
Read more »