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Tag: Nonfiction

  • Martin Amis, British novelist who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his work, has died at 73

    Martin Amis, British novelist who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his work, has died at 73

    NEW YORK — British novelist Martin Amis, who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his stories and lifestyle, has died. He was 73.

    His death on Friday at his home in Florida, from cancer of the esophagus, was confirmed by his agent, Andrew Wylie, on Saturday.

    Amis was the son of another British writer, Kingsley Amis. Martin Amis was a leading voice among a generation of writers that included his good friend, the late Christopher Hitchens, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie.

    Among his best-known works were “Money,” a satire about consumerism in London, “The Information” and “London Fields,” along with his 2000 memoir, “Experience.”

    Jonathan Glazer’s adaption of Amis’ 2014 novel “The Zone of Interest” premiered Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, about a Nazi commandant who lives next to Auschwitz with his family, drew some of the best reviews of the festival.

    The Holocaust was the topic of Amis’ novel “Time’s Arrow” and Josef Stalin’s reign in Russia in “House of Meetings,” examples of how his writing explored the dark soul.

    “Violence is what I hate most, is what baffles me and disgusts me most,” Amis told The Associated Press in 2012. “Writing comes from silent anxiety, the stuff you don’t know you’re really brooding about and when you start to write you realize you have been brooding about it, but not consciously. It’s terribly mysterious.”

    Amis was a celebrity in his own right, his life often chronicled by London tabloids since his 1973 debut, “The Rachel Papers.” His love life, his change of agents, even his dental work were fodder for stories.

    “He was the king — a stylist extraordinaire, super cool, a brilliantly witty, erudite and fearless writer and a truly wonderful man,” said Michal Shavit, his editor in England. “He has been so important and formative for so many readers and writers over the last half century. Every time he published a new book it was an event.”

    Critic Michiko Kakutani wrote of Amis in The New York Times in 2000 that “he is a writer equipped with a daunting arsenal of literary gifts: a dazzling, chameleonesque command of language, a willingness to tackle large issues and larger social canvases and an unforgiving, heat-seeking eye for the unwholesome ferment of contemporary life.”

    “We are devastated at the death of our author and friend, Martin Amis,” Amis’ publisher, Penguin, tweeted. “He leaves a towering legacy and an indelible mark on the British cultural landscape, and will be missed enormously.”

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  • Martin Amis, British novelist who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his work, has died at 73

    Martin Amis, British novelist who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his work, has died at 73

    NEW YORK — British novelist Martin Amis, who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his stories and lifestyle, has died. He was 73.

    His death on Friday at his home in Florida, from cancer of the esophagus, was confirmed by his agent, Andrew Wylie, on Saturday.

    Amis was the son of another British writer, Kingsley Amis. Martin Amis was a leading voice among a generation of writers that included his good friend, the late Christopher Hitchens, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie.

    Among his best-known works were “Money,” a satire about consumerism in London, “The Information” and “London Fields,” along with his 2000 memoir, “Experience.”

    Jonathan Glazer’s adaption of Amis’ 2014 novel “The Zone of Interest” premiered Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, about a Nazi commandant who lives next to Auschwitz with his family, drew some of the best reviews of the festival.

    The Holocaust was the topic of Amis’ novel “Time’s Arrow” and Josef Stalin’s reign in Russia in “House of Meetings,” examples of how his writing explored the dark soul.

    “Violence is what I hate most, is what baffles me and disgusts me most,” Amis told The Associated Press in 2012. “Writing comes from silent anxiety, the stuff you don’t know you’re really brooding about and when you start to write you realize you have been brooding about it, but not consciously. It’s terribly mysterious.”

    Amis was a celebrity in his own right, his life often chronicled by London tabloids since his 1973 debut, “The Rachel Papers.” His love life, his change of agents, even his dental work were fodder for stories.

    “He was the king — a stylist extraordinaire, super cool, a brilliantly witty, erudite and fearless writer and a truly wonderful man,” said Michal Shavit, his editor in England. “He has been so important and formative for so many readers and writers over the last half century. Every time he published a new book it was an event.”

    Critic Michiko Kakutani wrote of Amis in The New York Times in 2000 that “he is a writer equipped with a daunting arsenal of literary gifts: a dazzling, chameleonesque command of language, a willingness to tackle large issues and larger social canvases and an unforgiving, heat-seeking eye for the unwholesome ferment of contemporary life.”

    “We are devastated at the death of our author and friend, Martin Amis,” Amis’ publisher, Penguin, tweeted. “He leaves a towering legacy and an indelible mark on the British cultural landscape, and will be missed enormously.”

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  • Woman testifies that she too was sexually attacked by Trump

    Woman testifies that she too was sexually attacked by Trump

    NEW YORK — A woman who says Donald Trump silently molested her on an airliner in the late 1970s testified Tuesday in support of the writer who alleges that a flirtatious 1996 encounter with the future president ended in a violent sexual attack.

    Jessica Leeds, 81, of Asheville, North Carolina, said Trump accosted her with what seemed like “40 zillion hands.” She joined other witnesses who supported the testimony of E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist who publicly aired her claims against Trump in 2019, when she published a memoir. Trump has repeatedly denied the claims, saying Carroll lied to sell books and disparage him.

    The witnesses were meant to support Carroll’s testimony over three days ending Monday that Trump raped her in the dressing room of a luxury department store in midtown Manhattan.

    Lisa Birnbach, a longtime friend of Carroll, testified that an emotional and hyperventilating Carroll telephoned her minutes after her encounter with Trump to report what occurred. She said she told Carroll that Carroll had been raped and urged her to go to the police, but Carroll refused, leading them to argue before Birnbach agreed never to speak of it again.

    Leeds said she was in her late 30s and working in sales when she was invited by a flight attendant aboard a daytime flight from Dallas or Atlanta to New York to sit in the only empty aisle seat in the first-class cabin.

    “The gentleman sitting by the window introduced himself as Donald Trump,” she said.

    Conversation between the pair was mostly forgettable, Leeds recalled, as they ate a nice meal, before “all of a sudden Trump decided to kiss me and grope me.”

    “There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle. He was trying to kiss me, trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us,” she recalled.

    Leeds said the standoff ended when she realized no aircraft employees were coming to the rescue and Trump seemed to get more aggressive.

    “It was when he started putting his hand up my skirt that gave me strength. I managed to wriggle out of my seat and storm back to my seat in coach. I don’t think there was a word or a sound made by either one of us,” she recalled.

    Asked to describe how long the encounter took, Leeds said “it seemed like forever, but it probably was just a few seconds.”

    When the plane landed, Leeds recalled, she remained on the plane until everyone else had left to avoid running into Trump again.

    The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll and Leeds have done.

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  • Oprah Winfrey chooses new Verghese novel for her book club

    Oprah Winfrey chooses new Verghese novel for her book club

    The long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese is Oprah Winfrey’s latest book club pick

    ByHILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer

    NEW YORK — The long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, “The Covenant of Water,” is Oprah Winfrey’s latest book club pick.

    “The Covenant of Water,” published Tuesday, is Verghese’s first work of fiction since his million-selling “Cutting for Stone” came out in 2009. Verghese’s current book is a multigenerational saga set in India from 1900-1977.

    “This is one of the top five books I’ve read in my lifetime. And I’ve been reading since I was 3,” Winfrey said in a statement. “It’s epic. It’s transportive. Many moments during the read I had to stop and remember to breathe. I couldn’t put the book down until the very last page — it was unputdownable!”

    Verghese said in a statement that receiving the call from Winfrey, the dream of countless authors, felt like a “miracle.”

    “My thoughts were racing back through the decade-plus of writing ‘The Covenant of Water,’ during which time my mother died, and Covid had descended on us,” he said. “After we hung up I realized that I’d reflexively risen to my feet and stayed that way throughout our long chat.”

    Verghese, 67, is an Ethiopian-born physician who has also written two memoirs. He received a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2015, and was praised during the White House ceremony for a “range of proficiency” that extends from “his efforts to emphasize empathy in medicine, to his imaginative renderings of the human drama.”

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  • Serena Williams, Karlie Kloss reveal pregnancies at Met Gala

    Serena Williams, Karlie Kloss reveal pregnancies at Met Gala

    Move over Instagram (or Snapchat) — the Met Gala was the place to announce pregnancies, at least if you’re Serena Williams or Karlie Kloss

    NEW YORK — Move over Instagram (or Snapchat) — the Met Gala was the place to announce pregnancies Monday night, at least if you’re Serena Williams or Karlie Kloss.

    The tennis legend and supermodel each revealed their pregnancies in interviews on the Met Gala’s not-so-red carpet. Williams’ announcement had particular poignance given that she stepped away from tennis last year, saying she had to in order to have a second child.

    “Believe me,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion wrote in an August essay for Vogue magazine, “I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”

    Williams was also afforded more agency in announcing her pregnancy this time, sharing the news alongside her husband Alexis Ohanian in an interview with Vogue livestream host La La Anthony. The first time around, Williams publicly posted a picture in profile on Snapchat, captioned “20 weeks” — which she said was an accident.

    Williams, 41, also said in her Vogue essay that she wanted to focus more on her business interests. Their daughter, Olympia, is now 5.

    Kloss, 30, sporting black hair, shared her pregnancy earlier in the night in an interview with another Vogue livestream host, Emma Chamberlain, prompting squeals of delight and an offer to babysit from the influencer.

    Kloss and husband Josh Kushner also have a son, Levi, who was born in March 2021.

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  • BET co-founder, sports exec Sheila Johnson to publish memoir

    BET co-founder, sports exec Sheila Johnson to publish memoir

    The philanthropist, sports franchise executive and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television Sheila Johnson is writing a memoir

    NEW YORK — The philanthropist, sports franchise executive and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, Sheila Johnson, has a memoir scheduled for September. “Walk Through Fire” will document her rise from suburban Chicago to becoming a pioneering billionaire as a Black woman, and how she endured her troubled marriage to fellow BET founder Robert L. Johnson.

    “After so many years, I’m thrilled to finally tell my story,” Johnson said in a statement issued Monday by her publisher, Simon & Schuster. “I hope that by sharing my own experiences, I can help others going through the kinds of obstacles I faced in my life and career.”

    In 1980, Johnson and her former husband started BET, the groundbreaking cable channel sold 20 years later to Viacom. Among numerous other achievements, she has had partial ownership of three sports teams — the NHL’s Washington Capitals, the NBA’s Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics — and is a global ambassador for the humanitarian agency CARE.

    Her 33-year marriage to Robert L. Johnson ended in 2002, and their divorce helped lead to her current marriage. The judge presiding over their case, William T. Newman, turned out to be an old acquaintance who, years earlier, had appeared in a play with her. Johnson and Newman have been married since 2005.

    Simon & Schuster is calling the book a “deeply personal portrait of how one woman, despite heartache and obstacles, finally found herself and her place in the world.”

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  • Ling Ma, Beverly Gage among authors honored by book critics

    Ling Ma, Beverly Gage among authors honored by book critics

    Ling Ma’s sharp and surreal “Bliss Montage” and Beverly Gage’s sweeping biography of the late FBI Director J

    ByHILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer

    NEW YORK — Ling Ma’s sharp and surreal “Bliss Montage” and Beverly Gage’s sweeping biography of the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, “G-Man,” were among the winners Thursday night of the National Book Critics Circle awards.

    Ma’s story collection won the prize for fiction, with the judges praising her “sometimes startling” portraits of racism and xenophobia, and her gift for pulling readers “into a world where everything has been called into question.” Last week, “Bliss Montage” received the Story Prize for outstanding short fiction.

    Gage, whose book earlier in the day was honored by the New-York Historical Society, won Thursday night for best biography. “G-Man” has been widely praised as a thorough and nuanced take on one of the country’s most polarizing figures, and was cited by the critics circle for weaving together Hoover’s life and the “paradoxical national story involving American anxieties over security, masculinity, and race.”

    Other works awarded by the NBCC included Isaac Butler’s “The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act” for nonfiction, Hua Hsu’s “Stay True” for memoir, Cynthia Cruz’s “Hotel Oblivion” for poetry and Timothy Bewes’ “Free Indirect” for criticism. Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov’s “Grey Bees,” translated by Boris Dralyuk, won for best translated book, and Morgan Talty’s “Night of the Living Rez” was named best debut work.

    Honorary awards were presented to former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo for lifetime achievement, and Jennifer Wilson for excellence in reviewing. The Toni Morrison Achievement Award, for “institutions that have made lasting and meaningful contributions to book culture,” was given to San Francisco’s City Lights bookstore. Barbara Hoffert, an editor at Library Journal and former NBCC president and board member, received the critics circle’s Service Award.

    The NBCC was founded in 1974 and has hundreds of members around the country. Past winners of book critic prizes have included Alice Munro, Robert A. Caro, Isabel Wilkerson and the current U.S. poet laureate, Ada Limón.

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  • Sly Stone book to be released through new Questlove imprint

    Sly Stone book to be released through new Questlove imprint

    Questlove has own book imprint and is launching it with a memoir by one of the world’s most influential and enigmatic musicians, Sly Stone, leader of Sly and the Family Stone

    NEW YORK — Questlove has his own book imprint and is launching it with a memoir by one of the world’s most influential and enigmatic musicians, Sly Stone, leader of Sly and the Family Stone.

    “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” named for the Sly and the Family Stone hit, will be released Oct. 17 through Questlove’s AUWA Books imprint, part of Macmillan Publishers. The memoir is co-written by Ben Greenman and will track Stone’s rise to the heights of stardom in the late 1960s to his long decline and virtual disappearance from the music scene.

    “For as long as I can remember folks have been asking me to tell my story,” the 80-year-old Stone, who was born Sylvester Stewart, said in a statement Wednesday. “I wasn’t ready. I had to be in a new frame of mind to become Sylvester Stewart again to tell the true story of Sly Stone. It’s been a wild ride and hopefully my fans enjoy it too.”

    Other books planned for the AUWA imprint include “Handbook for the Revolution: The Essential Guide for Workplace Organizing,” by Amazon Labor Union activist Derrick Palmer and “Hip-Hop Is History,” a chronology of hip-hop’s first 50 years co-written by Questlove and Greenman.

    “I have been writing books for over a decade, so it seemed like a natural step to publish them too,” Questlove said in a statement. A Grammy-winning musician and creator of the Oscar-winning documentary “Summer of Soul,” Questlove is also planning a film about Stone, whose other hits include “Dance to the Music” and “Everyday People.”

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  • 6 books compete for nonfiction ‘winner of winners’ prize

    6 books compete for nonfiction ‘winner of winners’ prize

    LONDON (AP) — Books that explore subjects from William Shakespeare and The Beatles to the lure of Mount Everest and life inside one of the world’s most secretive states are competing to be named the best-ever winner of Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize.

    The Baillie Gifford Prize is marking its 25th year with a Winner of Winners prize. Three American writers, two from Canada and one from Britain are on the shortlist announced Thursday for the 25,000 pound ($30,000) trophy.

    The prize was launched in 1999 to reward English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

    Judges have chosen six of the 24 past winners of the award — known until 2015 as the Samuel Johnson Prize — as finalists for the one-off accolade. The winner will be announced April 27 at a ceremony in Edinburgh, Scotland.

    The eclectic shortlist includes cultural kaleidoscope “One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time” by Craig Brown, the only U.K. writer on the list. Books by Canadians are Wade Davis’ mountaineering odyssey “Into the Silence” and Margaret MacMillan’s history of the post-World War I peace talks, “Paris 1919.”

    The U.S. finalists are Barbara Demick’s “Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea”; Patrick Radden Keefe’s “Empire of Pain,” about the Sackler family and its links to the opioid crisis; and James Shapiro’s “1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.”

    Just two of the six books are by women, reflecting a historic imbalance in nonfiction publishing that prize organizers say is being rectified. In the past decade, 40% of the prize winners have been women.

    Editor Jason Cowley, chair of the judging panel said that despite their disparate topics, “there is a family resemblance” among the six books.

    He said the works combine literary distinction with “a kind of formal innovation.”

    “All the books are very good at conveying what Hilary Mantel called the atmospheric pressure of the times,” he said.

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  • Harry, Meghan asked to leave UK home in further royal rift

    Harry, Meghan asked to leave UK home in further royal rift

    Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been asked to vacate their home in Britain

    ByDANICA KIRKA Associated Press

    LONDON — LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been asked to vacate their home in Britain, suggesting a further fraying of ties with the royal family amid preparations for the coronation of his father, King Charles III.

    Frogmore Cottage, on the grounds of Windsor Castle west of London, had been intended as the couple’s main residence before they gave up royal duties and moved to Southern California. The Sun newspaper reported that Charles started the eviction process on Jan. 11, the day after the publication of Harry’s explosive memoir “Spare.”

    “We can confirm The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage,” a spokesperson for the couple said in statement.

    Disclosures Harry made in “Spare” deepened the rift between him and his family. The book included his account of private conversations with his father, and his brother, Prince William.

    After they left Britain, Harry and Meghan had said Frogmore Cottage would remain their base when they visited the U.K.

    In September 2020, a spokesman announced the couple had repaid 2.4 million pounds ($3.2 million) in British taxpayers’ money that was used to renovate the home when they were working members of the royal family.

    The money “fully covered” the cost of the renovation, the spokesman said.

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  • California-based freelance journalists win $100,000 prizes

    California-based freelance journalists win $100,000 prizes

    Two California-based journalists won $100,000 in the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, announced on Wednesday

    NEW YORK — Two California-based freelance journalists were awarded the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, giving them $100,000 each for their work, it was announced on Wednesday.

    The Heising-Simons Foundation gives the annual prize for excellence in long-form journalism about underrepresented groups in the United States. The foundation said it is the largest dollar prize given annually for journalism in the U.S.

    Cerise Castle, a journalist from Los Angeles, won for her investigative piece, “A Tradition of Violence,” which looked at gangs within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the foundation said.

    Her story first appeared in Knock LA, a nonprofit community journalism project, and quickly spread, including an article on NPR. The story last year received the American Journalism Online Award for best use of public records.

    The other award went to Carvell Wallace, a writer and podcaster based in Oakland. He was honored for a piece that appeared on Medium, “What if My Mother Had An Abortion,” exploring how her life would have been different if she hadn’t had him. Judges also cited his story on Black cyclist Justin Williams that appeared in Bicycling magazine.

    “I’ve long thought that the only thing that really matters is how we treat each other,” Wallace said. “I view everything through this lens, whether it’s sports, culture, politics, art or film.”

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  • Prince Harry says he wants his father and brother back

    Prince Harry says he wants his father and brother back

    Prince Harry has said he wants to have his father and brother back and that he wants “a family, not an institution,” during a TV interview ahead of the publication of his memoir

    LONDON — Prince Harry has said he wants to have his father and brother back and that he wants “a family, not an institution,” during a TV interview ahead of the publication of his memoir.

    The interview with Britain’s ITV channel is due to be released this Sunday. In clips released Monday, Harry was shown saying that “they feel as though it is better to keep us somehow as the villains” and that “they have shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile” — though it was not clear who he was referring to.

    Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan have aired their grievances against the British monarchy since the couple stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and moved to California, where they now live with their two young children.

    Harry, 38, has previously spoken about his estrangement from his father, King Charles III, and elder brother Prince William since his departure from the U.K.

    Last month Netflix released “Harry & Meghan,” a six-part series that detailed the couple’s experiences leading to their decision to make a new start in the U.S.

    In that documentary, Harry was scathing about how the royal press team worked, and spoke about how his relationship with William and the rest of the royal household broke down. Meghan described wanting to end her life as she struggled to cope with toxic U.K. press coverage.

    Harry’s autobiography, titled “Spare” — recalling the saying “the heir and the spare” — is being released on Jan. 10.

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  • Danish screenwriter Lise Nørgaard dies at age 105

    Danish screenwriter Lise Nørgaard dies at age 105

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Lise Nørgaard, a screenwriter who penned the popular epic television drama “Matador” about the lives of ordinary Danish families in a fictitious provincial town during the recession of the 1930s and the hard times of World War II, has died. She was 105.

    Nørgaard died Sunday after a brief illness, her family said Monday. She is also known for having written her 1992 Memoirs “Kun en pige,” recounting her struggle to become a female reporter.

    She worked at major Danish newspapers, including Politiken and Berlingske. She started her career at local newspaper Roskilde Dagblad in her hometown of Roskilde, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Copenhagen.

    “We say goodbye to a national treasure,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Instagram. “A strong and people-loving woman who was never afraid to take the lead. She gave us Matador. A piece of Danish history.”

    Danish lawmakers tweeted Monday in honor of Nørgaard, who was little known outside Scandinavia and Germany.

    Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said that “culture has lost a piece of life. And Denmark an important witness and contributor to its contemporaries.”

    German Ambassador Pascal Hector tweeted that her television show “Matador,” which he called a “masterpiece” was “my first encounter with the Danish language and the country’s history.”

    The setting for 24-episode “Matador,” which was first broadcast in 1978 and shown as repeats over the years, was a fictitious Danish town named Korsbaek. Several Danish actors got their breakthroughs in the four-season show, which ended in 1982, and part of the make-believe town was recreated in a Danish amusement park.

    Nørgaard retired as a writer and a lecturer in 2018. Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately announced.

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    US-Best-Sellers-Books-PW for week ending 12/10/2022

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  • Review: ‘The Last Campaign’ straightforward but dramatic

    Review: ‘The Last Campaign’ straightforward but dramatic

    “The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo and the War for America,” by H.W. Brands (Doubleday)

    Though they’re mentioned in the subtitle, William Tecumseh Sherman and Geronimo often feel more like supporting players in H.W. Brands’ latest book “The Last Campaign.”

    That’s more a compliment than a complaint, because it illustrates just how much history is packed into Brands’ latest book. The Army general and Apache leader are the pillars for Brands’ straightforward yet dramatic retelling of the nation’s westward expansion and battles with American Indians in the years following the Civil War.

    Brands, a prolific historian who has tackled many figures and eras of American history, provides an account that’s accessible to any casual reader of history and not just academics.

    The book does serve as a dual biography of Sherman and Geronimo, showing how these two figures shaped a tumultuous era. But its most gripping parts rely on firsthand accounts of American Indians’ loss of their land and way of life, and the violence that ensued during these years.

    The book introduces readers to the wide cast of players during this period, and not just the familiar names like Sitting Bull or George Custer. Brands also doesn’t lose sight of the larger picture of the nation’s politics, avoiding a book that could have easily turned into a simple recitation of every battle and conflict without context.

    Brands’ writing style and his mastery of history make the book an excellent introduction to the time period for newcomers, and a fresh perspective for those already familiar with this chapter in the nation’s history.

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  • Bono opens book tour before adoring fans at Beacon Theatre

    Bono opens book tour before adoring fans at Beacon Theatre

    NEW YORK — Bono opened his book tour Wednesday night in what he called a “transgressive” mood, a little bit guilty for appearing on stage with three musicians who were not his fellow members of U2 and otherwise singing, joking and shouting out his life story to thousands of adoring fans at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre.

    He even performed one song in Italian, a flawlessly operatic take of “Torna a Surriento.”

    “This is all a little surreal,” he noted at one point. “But it seems to be going well.”

    The 62-year-old singer, songwriter and humanitarian described himself as an eternal boy (born Paul David Hewson) with his fists “in the air,” a “grandstanding” rock star and a baritone trying to be a tenor. He is now a published and best-selling author, his “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story” out this week and already in the top 10 on Amazon.com.

    Through “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Where the Streets Have No Name” and other U2 classics, he traces his biography from his stifling childhood home in Dublin and the grief over the early death of his mother Iris Hewson to the formation of the band that made him a global celebrity and his enduring marriage to Alison Stewart.

    Former President Bill Clinton, Tom Hanks and U2 guitarist The Edge were among his famous admirers in the audience, which often stood and cheered and sang along. For the 90-minute plus “Stories of Surrender” show, billed as “an evening of words, music, and some mischief,” Bono wore a plain black blazer, matching pants and added color with his orange-tinted glasses. He opened with an account from his book of his heart surgery in 2016, but otherwise pranced and leapt like a man who had never seen the inside of a hospital and belted out songs written decades ago without any sense he had forgotten what inspired them.

    Ticket prices were rock star levels: thousands of dollars for the best seats and well into the hundreds even for obstructed views. Compared to a U2 show, the setting was relatively intimate — handwritten illustrations on screens hanging toward the back of the stage and a few tables and chairs that Bono used as props to climb on or to simulate conversations. With warm and comic mimicry, he recalled phone calls with Luciano Pavarotti and his pleas of “Bono, Bono, Bono” as the opera star recruited him to perform at a benefit show in Modena, Italy, and once turned up at U2’s studio on short notice — with a film crew.

    Bono also re-enacted his many tense bar room meetings with his father, who seemed to regard his son’s career as some kind of failed business venture. Brendan Robert Hewson’s rough facade did once collapse unexpectedly — when he met Princess Diana, an encounter Bono described as like watching centuries of Irish loathing of the royals “gone in eight seconds.”

    “One princess, and we’re even,” Bono added.

    He spoke often of loss, of his mother when he was a teenager and of his father in 2001. But he also described his life as a story of presence, whether of his religious faith, his wife and children, or of his bandmates. After what he called the characteristic Irish response to a child’s outsized ambitions — to pretend they don’t exist — he called himself “blessed,” and added that “what was silence has been filled, mostly, with music.”

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  • Randolph E. Schmid, AP science writer with light touch, dies

    Randolph E. Schmid, AP science writer with light touch, dies

    WASHINGTON — Randolph E. Schmid, a retired Associated Press science writer who seldom missed a chance to add a whimsical touch to his authoritative stories, has died.

    Schmid, 78, died at a nursing home in Falls Church, Virginia, on Sunday, said Mike Bobal, whose late wife was Schmid’s cousin. Nursing home workers said he was watching TV and joking with staff the night before.

    His AP colleagues recalled Schmid — friends called him Randy — as a skilled reporter who could find a simple way to present complicated subjects.

    “A hallmark of a Schmid story is the light touch, brevity, a pun if possible, and above all speed,” Seth Borenstein, another AP science writer, wrote for Schmid’s retirement in 2011. “A public relations official at the Smithsonian said his competitors used to complain that he must have gotten tipped off about stories or press conferences. He didn’t.”

    Schmid’s playful use of language was noted by a former boss in Washington.

    “Randy was a dedicated science writer but he never skipped an opportunity to try to work a pun into a headline or lede. He was a classic AP newsman through and through,” said Sandy K. Johnson, who was AP bureau chief in Washington from 1998-2008.

    One of his last AP stories showcased Schmid’s light approach.

    “They may not be Sonny and Cher, but certain South American birds sing duets, taking turns as the tune goes along,” the story began.

    “Colleagues stuck on leads often went to Randy for help, so much that we often enlisted him as ghost writer. It was a phrase he hated but a role he cherished,” Washington news editor Carole Feldman said.

    Bob Furlow, an AP copy editor, described Schmid as “a solid reporter while still a champion of the offbeat. He could find nuggets others overlooked in a Census Bureau or other government report that turned into gold on his keyboard.”

    Furlow added: “We’ll give him a special salute on Sunday for the switch from Daylight Saving Time — one of his favorite topics for spinning a few hundred words of fun around the semiannual reminders.”

    Schmid, from West Carthage, New York, started with AP as a newsperson in the Albany bureau in 1968 and was correspondent in Memphis from 1969 to 1973 where he periodically had to shoot down rumors that Elvis Presley had died, Mike Bobal said.

    He moved to AP’s Washington bureau in 1973 and worked his way up from newsman to science writer, and he earned a master’s in meteorology.

    “He loved working for the AP,” Bobal said. “He enjoyed trying to get the public to understand things, whether it was the weather or climate change.”

    Schmid loved to travel with his wife, Marcia, who died in 2004. Bobal said Schmid “was never quite the same after that” but stayed close to Bobal’s family and remained gregarious and a voracious reader.

    “Randy took absolute glee in finding just the right piece of pop culture to make science news fun and accessible,” said Lauran Neergaard, an AP medical writer. “Transformation optics? To Randy, it was like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Bacteria in showerheads? He dubbed it the scariest shower news since ‘Psycho.’ He was unfailingly kind — and the king of puns.

    “Even after retirement, a few times a month Randy would email some new bit of science humor as he checked in with friends and colleagues,” Neergaard said. “And when Randy moved to the nursing home, he had a photo collage the AP presented at his retirement — pictures of some of his favorite stories — hung directly in front of his bed, ready to reminisce with visitors.”

    And many of those stories were memorable.

    “Many of the most interesting, fun and important science stories people have read in the last generation,” Borenstein said, “were from Randy Schmid.”

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  • Review: How Meacham’s Lincoln defeated ‘Big Lie’ of his day

    Review: How Meacham’s Lincoln defeated ‘Big Lie’ of his day

    “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle” by Jon Meacham (Random House)

    Fun fact: Feb. 12, 1809, is the birthdate for both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. While we tend to contemplate “The Great Emancipator” as fully formed well before he became the 16th president, his moral perspectives and political goals developed in a gradual process more akin to Darwin’s theories.

    Jon Meacham’s excellent new biography, “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,” illuminates how Lincoln’s personal growth and travails enabled him to lead a nation along a fitful evolution toward freedom despite a catastrophic rebellion that denied it. Fueling the national disaster was the “Big Lie” of Lincoln’s day — that slavery was a justifiable institution.

    Meacham does not portray Lincoln’s backstory as mere iconography — the log cabin, the backwoods education, the rail splitting. Rather, this account of his hardscrabble youth is less an any-boy-can-be-president morality tale than a foundation of Lincoln’s personal values and empathy informed by crushing poverty and loss. It is little wonder that Lincoln sought to deliver more fairness in an unfair world.

    The light that powered this desire was the gift of literacy acquired in what Lincoln called “A.B.C. schools” and any books he could hungrily consume thereafter. The darkness of early 19th century America was vividly embodied by enslaved Blacks herded in chains down his native Kentucky roads.

    At 23, Lincoln formally entered the political arena running for office in Illinois to feed his great ambition “of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.” Meacham expertly peels back the historic to reveal the familiar in his coverage of the swirl of politics, largely unchanged to this day.

    The author girds his analysis with a comprehensive survey of the variety of social, political and theological writings that influenced Lincoln and resonate across his career. Keenly attuned to public opinion, Lincoln recognized both in himself and the entire nation two realities — anti-Black prejudice and a passionate desire in the North to abolish slavery. It was the same empathy that recoiled from the brutal practice of slavery that also connected him to the humanity of those who supported it.

    This led to Lincoln’s finely calibrated debates with Stephen A. Douglas in which he called for the status quo limiting slavery unto its eventual end, yet hewed to the stance of abolitionist supporters who otherwise resisted a multiracial, egalitarian society. Lincoln added that slave owners’ unearned wealth created a decidedly un-American class system that disadvantaged poor whites. Douglas was eventually sent to the U.S. Senate to advocate slavery’s expansion and the continuation of unfettered white supremacy.

    The stage set for his White House candidacy under the Republican Party banner, Lincoln won in 1860 with only a plurality of the vote. Before taking office, he grew his trademark whiskers, watched as the South seceded, then took command committed to his official duty to restore the Union, not his personal wish that all men everywhere be made free.

    Buffeted by Confederate victories, impatient abolitionists and South-sympathizing Democrats, all while fearing the loss of the border states, Lincoln’s first term was the American presidency’s greatest tightrope act: incremental policy advances balanced by principle. The victory at Antietam in September 1862 steadied the North, and Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation to add explicitly the cause of freedom to the preservation of the Union.

    Meacham details the messy political caveats that necessarily riddle the more convenient, more heroic Northern narrative. Emancipation was limited. Some states in the northwest sued for peace allowing for the expansion of slavery or even the expulsion of the New England states. A draft to enlarge the army led to rioting. By 1864, fellow Republicans were advising Lincoln to moderate his abolitionist views to get reelected. He convinced them that abandoning emancipation would be worse than losing the presidency.

    Ultimately, it was not virtue but victory — the fall of Atlanta in September 1864 turned Northern skeptics into hawks — that delivered Lincoln a second term. Meacham reveals in his examination of the second inaugural address how Lincoln repurposed the Psalms and the Gospels to capture the moral essence of “this mighty scourge” in which “the prayers of both (sides) could not be answered.” The war, and slavery with it, finally ended only to be tragically punctuated by his assassination.

    An admirer across the Atlantic wrote before the 1864 election that supporters in England observed in Lincoln’s career “a grand simplicity of purpose and patriotism which knows no change and which does not falter.” Meacham’s fine account of America’s greatest president delivers a close-up that captures — wart and all — why Lincoln’s political sensibilities and moral vision were, like the Union itself, indivisible.

    ———

    Douglass K. Daniel is the author of “Anne Bancroft: A Life” (University Press of Kentucky).

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  • Books on empire, migrant crisis up for Baillie Gifford prize

    Books on empire, migrant crisis up for Baillie Gifford prize

    LONDON — Books about Britain’s imperial past and the human face of the present-day refugee crisis are among the finalists for Britain’s leading nonfiction book award, the Baillie Gifford Prize.

    The shortlist announced Monday includes Harvard professor Caroline Elkins’ hard-hitting “Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire” and Irish journalist Sally Hayden’s “My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route.”

    Four books by British writers are also among the finalists for the 50,000 pound ($55,000) prize.

    They are Jonathan Freedland’s true Holocaust story “The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World;” Anna Keay’s “The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown,” which charts Britain’s brief period as a republic in the 17th century; Polly Morland’s “A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story;” and Katherine Rundell’s poetic biography “Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne.”

    Journalist Caroline Sanderson, who is chairing the judging panel, said the six books “are marvelously wide-ranging, in terms of setting, era, and the creative approaches on display. But however different the canvas, all have enthralling human stories at their heart.”

    The Baillie Gifford Prize recognizes English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

    Last year’s winner was Patrick Radden Keefe’s “Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty,” an expose of the family that helped unleash the United States’ opioid epidemic.

    The winner of the 2022 prize will be announced on Nov. 17 at a ceremony in London.

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  • Loretta Lynn, coal miner’s daughter and country queen, dies

    Loretta Lynn, coal miner’s daughter and country queen, dies

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Loretta Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter whose frank songs about life and love as a woman in Appalachia pulled her out of poverty and made her a pillar of country music, has died. She was 90.

    In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Lynn’s family said she died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.

    “Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the family said in a statement. They asked for privacy as they grieve and said a memorial will be announced later.

    Lynn already had four children before launching her career in the early 1960s, and her songs reflected her pride in her rural Kentucky background.

    As a songwriter, she crafted a persona of a defiantly tough woman, a contrast to the stereotypical image of most female country singers. The Country Music Hall of Famer wrote fearlessly about sex and love, cheating husbands, divorce and birth control and sometimes got in trouble with radio programmers for material from which even rock performers once shied away.

    Her biggest hits came in the 1960s and ’70s, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “The Pill,” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Rated X” and “You’re Looking at Country.” She was known for appearing in floor-length, wide gowns with elaborate embroidery or rhinestones, many created by her longtime personal assistant and designer Tim Cobb.

    Her honesty and unique place in country music was rewarded. She was the first woman ever named entertainer of the year at the genre’s two major awards shows, first by the Country Music Association in 1972 and then by the Academy of Country Music three years later.

    “It was what I wanted to hear and what I knew other women wanted to hear, too,” Lynn told the AP in 2016. “I didn’t write for the men; I wrote for us women. And the men loved it, too.”

    In 1969, she released her autobiographical “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which helped her reach her widest audience yet.

    “We were poor but we had love/That’s the one thing Daddy made sure of/He shoveled coal to make a poor man’s dollar,” she sang.

    “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” also the title of her 1976 book, was made into a 1980 movie of the same name. Sissy Spacek’s portrayal of Lynn won her an Academy Award and the film was also nominated for best picture.

    Long after her commercial peak, Lynn won two Grammys in 2005 for her album “Van Lear Rose,” which featured 13 songs she wrote, including “Portland, Oregon” about a drunken one-night stand. “Van Lear Rose” was a collaboration with rocker Jack White, who produced the album and played the guitar parts.

    Reba McEntire was among the stars who reacted to Lynn’s death, posting online about how the singer reminded her of her late mother. “Strong women, who loved their children and were fiercely loyal. Now they’re both in Heaven getting to visit and talk about how they were raised, how different country music is now from what it was when they were young. Sure makes me feel good that Mama went first so she could welcome Loretta into the hollers of heaven!”

    Born Loretta Webb, the second of eight children, she claimed her birthplace was Butcher Holler, near the coal mining company town of Van Lear in the mountains of east Kentucky. There really wasn’t a Butcher Holler, however. She later told a reporter that she made up the name for the purposes of the song based on the names of the families that lived there.

    Her daddy played the banjo, her mama played the guitar and she grew up on the songs of the Carter Family. Her younger sister, Crystal Gayle, is also a Grammy-winning country singer, scoring crossover hits with songs like “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” and “Half the Way.” Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell also was a songwriter and producer of some of her albums.

    “I was singing when I was born, I think,” she told the AP in 2016. “Daddy used to come out on the porch where I would be singing and rocking the babies to sleep. He’d say, ‘Loretta, shut that big mouth. People all over this holler can hear you.’ And I said, ‘Daddy, what difference does it make? They are all my cousins.’”

    She wrote in her autobiography that she was 13 when she got married to Oliver “Mooney” Lynn, but the AP later discovered state records that showed she was 15. Tommy Lee Jones played Mooney Lynn in the biopic.

    Her husband, whom she called “Doo” or “Doolittle,” urged her to sing professionally and helped promote her early career. With his help, she earned a recording contract with Decca Records, later MCA, and performed on the Grand Ole Opry stage. Lynn wrote her first hit single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” released in 1960.

    She also teamed up with singer Conway Twitty to form one of the most popular duos in country music with hits such as “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” and “After the Fire is Gone,” which earned them a Grammy Award. Their duets, and her single records, were always mainstream country and not crossover or pop-tinged.

    And when she first started singing at the Grand Ole Opry, country star Patsy Cline took Lynn under her wing and mentored her during her early career.

    The Academy of Country Music chose her as the artist of the decade for the 1970s, and she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988. She won four Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

    In “Fist City,” Lynn threatens a hair-pulling fistfight if another woman won’t stay away from her man: “I’m here to tell you, gal, to lay off of my man/If you don’t want to go to Fist City.” That strong-willed but traditional country woman reappears in other Lynn songs. In “The Pill,” a song about sex and birth control, Lynn sings about how she’s sick of being trapped at home to take care of babies: “The feelin’ good comes easy now/Since I’ve got the pill,” she sang.

    She moved to Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, outside of Nashville, in the 1990s, where she set up a ranch complete with a replica of her childhood home and a museum that is a popular roadside tourist stop. The dresses she was known for wearing are there, too.

    Lynn knew that her songs were trailblazing, especially for country music, but she was just writing the truth that so many rural women like her experienced.

    “I could see that other women was goin’ through the same thing, ‘cause I worked the clubs. I wasn’t the only one that was livin’ that life and I’m not the only one that’s gonna be livin’ today what I’m writin’,” she told The AP in 1995.

    Even into her later years, Lynn never seemed to stop writing, scoring a multi-album deal in 2014 with Legacy Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. In 2017, she suffered a stroke that forced her to stop touring, but she released her 50th solo studio album, “Still Woman Enough” in 2021.

    She and her husband were married nearly 50 years before he died in 1996. They had six children: Betty, Jack, Ernest and Clara, and then twins Patsy and Peggy. She had 17 grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.

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    Online: https://lorettalynn.com/

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    Follow Kristin M. Hall at https://twitter.com/kmhall

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