When Judy Laddon first considered writing a book about her longtime friend Sally Pierone, her intent was to make it a memoir. But the book that resulted, "Sally: The Older Woman's Illustrated Guide to Self-Improvement," is less memoir than love story. Which is to say that Laddon makes her affection for Pierone obvious on virtually every page.
Bill Hayes shares at least one thing with your average doctor: a fascination with the human body. The latest object of that fascination is a blend of memoir and nonfiction titled "The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy," from which Hayes will read at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Auntie's Bookstore.
No one is a bigger fan of Christianity than Whitworth University theology/philosophy professor Gerald Sittser. If that fact wasn't clear in his 1996 best-seller "A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss" or his 2004 treatise "When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer: Insights to Keep You Praying with Greater Faith and Deeper Hope," then it definitely is in his newest book, "Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries" (IVP Books, 364 pages, $22).
There will be … Oscar. Yes, the time of year is again upon us in which we celebrate all things Hollywood. And no matter what happens between now and then regarding the writers' strike, there indeed will be Oscars to hand out.
Spend a half-hour on the phone with Indian-born novelist Bharati Mukherjee, and the experience is likely to smash a few of your prejudices. For example, Mukherjee – who was born 67 years ago in Calcutta – speaks a refined kind of British English. You know, the "Masterpiece Theatre" kind where the word "marginalization" is pronounced as "marginal-eye-zation," the kind that speaks of afternoon tea and – when put in a sports context – white-clad men carrying cricket bats.
Our readers have spoken. And so by popular demand, we will hold a 2008 Spokesman-Review Limericks Contest. We'll see how things go before we commit to anything past that.
If I were a Shakespearean scholar, I might begin this column by writing something such as, "Now is the winter of our discontent." This is, after all, the dregs of the winter season. It's that time of year when, even though the days are getting longer, the darkness seems as oppressive as Darth Vader's underwear. And the temperature, on occasion, dips south of single digits.
When coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003, Kathy Kelly was waiting for them. She and other peace protesters carried a banner that read "Courage for peace, not war."
Even in a literal sense, what you see depends largely on how you see. Look at something from different angles and the object of your gaze is going to change. Or at least it will seem to. A kitty seen at close range can resemble a lion. A lion seen through binoculars might look like something as playful, and harmless, as a Disney cartoon.
You have to love a writer like Denis Johnson. For one thing, he's talented. The fact that he just won a National Book Award for his epic novel "Tree of Smoke" (all 624 pages of it) is only the latest argument underscoring that opinion.
As part of The Big Read – the reading project co-sponsored by Spokane Public Library, Spokane Country Library District and the Fairchild Air Force Base Library – area residents are being encouraged to spend the month of February reading Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel "The Maltese Falcon." Now movie fans are being invited to join in. Spokane County film fans between the ages of 14 and 25 are encouraged to read the novel and then interpret it as well as possible in a three- to five-minute short film.
Though he now lives in Ohio, the prolific science fiction writer John Dalmas spent the better part of two decades living on Spokane's North Side. It was in the basement of his duplex apartment that he wrote a number of his 27 novels, which include such titles as "The Regiment," "The Helverti Invasion" and "Fanglith."
Steve Oliver is looking for a few good stories. Oliver, owner of the late, lamented Dark City Mystery Bookstore, knows a bit about writing. He's the author of the Spokane-based "Moody" series ("Moody Gets the Blues," "Moody in Winter," "Moody Forever"), and the author/publisher of the crime compilation "Spokane Crime Stories 1907."
If you read The Spokesman-Review Book Club story on page D3, you know that the reading selection for December is Spokane-based author Jack Nisbet's 1994 book "Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America." The book, which won the Murray Morgan Prize, a Washington Governor's Writers Award and was named Idaho Library Book of the Year, was republished in May by Seattle's Sasquatch Books with a new introduction by Canadian historian Ian MacLaren.
His reading at Auntie's Bookstore won't take place until Nov. 30, but when he does show, Colorado-based author Brian Mandabach ("Or Not") will be presenting more than a critically acclaimed young-adult novel to Spokane readers. He has a local connection to offer.
We all have dreams. Many of them remain merely that. Melvin Barnes' goal seemed more like a fantasy. Inspired by his fourth-grade teacher, the Oklahoma-born carpenter fantasized about living in Alaska.
Spokane resident Lisa Nystuen thinks about the war in Iraq several times a day. In fact, she says, "There's not a moment when I'm not thinking about it."
It's no secret that more Artist Trust grants go to artists on the west side of the state than waft over to this side of the Cascades. So it behooves all writers and painters and sculptors and photographers, etc., who live in the more rural parts of central and Eastern Washington to pay attention when Artist Trust comes calling with advice.
It was five years ago in October that we began The Spokesman-Review Book Club. We read Kent Haruf's novel "Plainsong," the only book to date that hasn't had some sort of tie with the Pacific Northwest.
"When we dance/ The air softens/ And I feel like I am floating on/ A cloud/ And the hospital disappears"/ John Fox knows all about the therapeutic nature of the written word.
With the Spokane Jewish Film Festival continuing tonight and Monday at Gonzaga Law School, it would seem a natural fit to continue with the Spokane Public Library's Jewish Literature Reading and Discussion Series, which resumes Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the South Hill Branch, 3324 S. Perry St. The ongoing reading series, which continues through January, focuses this time on Polish-born memoirist Anzia Yezierska and her book "Bread Givers."
