History of movie academy favors facts over melodrama

Film historians and others digging for a deeper vein of Oscar knowledge than mere trivia will turn up many nuggets in “The Academy and the Award,” which

‘Proving Ground’ profiles first women programmers

When the world’s first general-purpose, programmable, electronic computer, known as ENIAC, debuted in 1946, great fanfare was given to the men who created it, John Mauchly

Bourland autopsies the princess myth with precision

It's about time someone took the princess story that’s normalized to girls and autopsy it with absolute precision.  “The Force of Such Beauty” opens

‘Mermaid of Black Conch’ melds history and magic

David is a fisherman and Aycayia is a mermaid. It’s pretty obvious where the story goes from here: David falls for Aycayia. But author Monique Roffey

An Irish hitman juggles murder with parenthood

Patrick Callen, a Dublin, Ireland hitman with a mild case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, stays organized by making lists. On his first day in Keith Bruton’s debut

Birdsong offers three powerful portraits of womanhood

Destiny O. Birdsong’s “Nobody’s Magic” tells three separate stories, each centering on a Black albino woman living in Shreveport, Louisiana.  First, we meet 20-year-old Suzette,

Book It | Allende’s ‘Violeta,’ an epic South American tale

Chilean writer Isabel Allende’s latest novel is “Violeta,” an epic tale that transports readers across a century of South American history, through economic collapse, dictatorship and

Book It Memoir: Leaving the Children of God ‘sex cult’ and her Macau childhood

Faith Jones’ vivid memoir “Sex Cult Nun” chronicles her 23 years in the infamous Children of God cult and her slow journey to leave. Born into the

Book It | For such a small place, Iceland has a big influence

How has small Iceland been able to play such a big role in the world? The confluence of geology, fish and rugged explorers seems to have infused Icelanders with their

Book It | Jhumpa Lahiri’s new novel is very novel

Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri is back with what is sure to be one of the more unique “novels” of the year. Readers can debate in book clubs whether it’s a

Book It | ‘Missionaries’ sees our forever wars as vocation

Phil Klay’s “Redeployment” was a masterwork in mostly spare prose, its tonal range from laugh-out-loud, Joseph Heller-esque absurdity to soul-crushing bleakness. It may be our best literary window into the

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