Literature

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin tries out a new identity with Allie Larkin’s Why Can’t I Be You.

Title: Why Can’t I Be You

Author: Allie Larkin

Pages: 304

Publisher: Plume

ISBN: 978-0452298378

And read Kristin’s full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin reunites with a troubled secret agent in Black Sheep by C. J. Lyons.

Title: Black Sheep

Author: C. J. Lyons

Pages: 341

Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks

ISBN: 978-1250015341

And read Kristin’s full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

Nicole J. Georges' latest book is Calling Dr. Laura.

My mother picked me up from school in early April 1994. I was barely a teenager, lips stretched over braces as I focused my attention on the radio dial, seeking an alternative station when my mom delivered some news: "Oh, your buddy died."

"Who is 'my buddy?' "

"Uhhh ... whatshisname ... the screaming, you know, the blonde. ..."

She was talking about Kurt Cobain.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin indulges in Jessica Beck’s latest Donut Shop Mystery, Illegally Iced.

Title: Illegally Iced

Author: Jessica Beck

Pages: 277

Publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN: 978-1250001078

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

In January 2011, writer Emily Rapp was a happy new mother when she and her husband found themselves in a pediatric ophthalmologist's office with their 9-month-old son, Ronan. They were worried about Ronan's development and had gone to the eye doctor to rule out vision problems as the culprit. Checking Ronan's retinas, the doctor saw "cherry-red spots on the backs of his retinas," Rapp writes in her new memoir, The Still Point of the Turning World. Ronan's diagnosis that day was Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic and degenerative condition that is always fatal. There is no cure.

In 2011, Irish milliner Philip Treacy made waves across the world when he designed 36 different hats for the royal wedding. Remember Princess Beatrice's unforgettable hat? Treacy made that.

There's nothing particularly dynamic about Livia Manera and William Karel's documentary Philip Roth: Unmasked. For some 90 minutes, it's pretty much just one guy talking. But what a guy!

Roth is one of the greatest living novelists, possibly even the greatest. He can also be an inflammatory presence, eliciting outrage almost as much as admiration, particularly among women who see him as a misogynist.

At a hearing in Washington on March 6, Attorney General Eric Holder admitted to senators why it has been hard to go after big bank executives:

"It does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."

"I am so stressed out" is a common refrain these days, but if you think of stress as a pervasive fact of life, consider this: Before 1976, The New York Times had never published an article about stress as we understand it today. Our idea of stress — as a personal, internal problem — is a recent invention.