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FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS

Name: FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS
Author: Ronald B. Shwartz
ISBN: 0-399-14466-8

115 CELEBRATED WRITERS ON THE BOOKS THEY LOVE MOST

by Ronald B. Shwartz ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 8, 1999

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Lifelong companions are remembered in variety and gratefulness in this collection of original essays. Boston lawyer and essayist Shwartz has assembled a fine coterie of more than 100 writers. There’s strong representation of esteemed writers known by surnames—Barth, Hawkes, Lessing, Mailer, Oates, Ozick, Paley, Updike—plus academics Witold Rybczynski and Robert Coles, journalists Anna Quindlen and Pete Hamill, and current biggies Frank McCourt and James McBride. Those wanting full multicultural spread will need to look elsewhere, as will readers troubled by the mere presence of firebrands Stanley Fish or P.J. O’Rourke. Better than complaining is to luxuriate in the memories of intellectual awakening and young endless hours to drink books in. Early choices for Jonathan Harr and others was Sherlock Holmes, for Tracy Kidder and others, Little Women. But for adolescent siren call to serious reading and writing, most cited is Dickens. “Great Expectations is the first novel I read that made me wish I had written it; it is the novel that made me want to be a writer,” says John Irving. Nabokov, Yeats, Joyce, Melville, Woolf, Tolstoy, and Conrad are often named as lifelong influences on language and thought, though many writers cite the odd title as important. The Uta (a collection of early Japanese poetry) captured Gretel Ehrlich’s feelings of exile; the children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon showed Rita Dove “the possibilities of traveling on the line of one’s imagination.” All these pieces enter a writer’s mind, but some are more welcoming than others. Not surprisingly, the most readable pieces are those by columnists and nonfiction mavens such as Roy Blount Jr., Justin Kaplan, and Dave Barry, who takes a funny trek from Archie comics to Calvin Trillin. For community with those who have loved Tarzan forever or inspiration to finally read Proust, this is a memory book of fond epiphanies.

Pub Date: March 8, 1999

ISBN: 0-399-14466-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.