Book

A wag of my acquaintance once said that word processors are ruining the art of biography. He explained that it's so easy to type on them (no carriage return, no worries of hyphenation, etc.), that "if Moses had one, there'd be 17 commandments rather than 10." In some ways it's true....

As I've mentioned before, I love to read books that embrace a specific locale. In fact I got started reading when I was in high school and someone told me about Sinclair Lewis, a writer who grew up in a small town, like me.

'They roused him with muffins -- they roused him with ice -- They roused him with mustard and cress -- They roused him with jam and judicious advice -- They set him conundrums to guess. When at length he sat up and was able to speak His sad story he offered to tell: And the...

After graduating from Harvard, Sara Houghteling studied for her master's degree in fine arts at the University of Michigan, where she received a Fulbright Scholarship to Paris and one of Michigan's highest honors, the Avery Hopwood Award for novels. This bodes well for the young...

Sports, restaurants and graphic novels make a variety of good reads. Baseball is getting underway, so for a behind-the-scenes look could I suggest "Under the March Sun: The Story of Spring Training," by Charles Fountain (Oxford University Press, $24.95)? Northeastern University...

Award-winning Minnesota poet Larry Schug just sent me his new book, a gem called "Arrogant Bones,"(North Star Press, $12.95). Schug works at the College of St. Benedict, by St. John's University, where Sen. and poet Eugene McCarthy went to schools. Schug's down-to-earth, sardonic...

A new book sheds new light on a well-known historical educator. "Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington," by Robert J. Norell (Harvard University Press, $35) is a fine new look at a historical figure who has suffered a bad rap for too long. Booker T. Washington has taken...

I'm proud and happy to work for newspaper organizations who still believe it's important to publish news about books and the folks who write them. In the past few years I've gotten the impression that other newspapers consider books as little more than competition for their own...

"Your Heart Belongs to Me," is not a sappy Tin Pan Alley lyric, but the title of a new thriller by Dean Koontz (Bantam, $27).

Several years ago, my friend novelist Carolyn See wrote a tell-all book about her family's century-long love affair with alcohol addiction, written with her usual literary flair. See is a fine California novelist ("Rhine Maidens," "Making History") who doesn't get enough attention...

Years ago, I saw a wonderful Twilight Zone episode in which a small time newspaper editor sold his soul to the devil in order to save his newspaper. The devil was played by Burgess Meredith, who arrives at the newspaper and tells the hero he is a linotype operator and would like to...

Two talented upper Midwestern writers with ethnic interests headline today's book report. The first is by University of Wiscosnin-Superior poet and fiction writer Anthony Bukoski. It's a collection of short stories, Bukoski's fifth book, entitled "North of the Port" (Southern...

Merry Christmas! James Merrill (1926-95) grew up in the lap of luxury, the son of Charles Merrill, the founder of Merrill, Lynch. He went to all the right schools and taught at others, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And he grew to become one of the most respected...