You Can’t Tell It All

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson is anticipating this month’s publication of The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, the final installment of his acclaimed Liberation Trilogy, partly because of the opportunity it’s sure to give him to resume valuable interactions with fans of his books, when he notes how often they–and in this case one gentleman from Texas in particular–actually aid in his writing.

“Governor Rick Perry, with whom I probably don’t have a whole lot in common, other than the fact that he is a reader of military history, called ...

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Human Collateral

It’s getting late in Belgium, and Stephen Dau, the critically acclaimed author of The Book of Jonas, has just tucked his young daughter into bed and is now settling in for some quiet reading before he, too, retires for the evening. There’s a fun family ski trip coming up in a couple of days, followed by a few book readings back in the States.

Dau’s real life is light years away from the fictional world of war and conflict he crafted so spectacularly in his debut novel (Kirkus called Jonas a “literary tour de force” in a ...

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Thomas Pryce's Entirely Natural Self-Selection

Indie novelist Thomas Pryce is deep into the plot of his latest short story–a brain-teasing thriller set inside a psych ward and somewhat ironically titled "Bad Trip"—when he pauses to reflect on a stellar year that finally saw the publication of his decades-in-the-making sci-fi saga Unnatural Selection and with it, critical acclaim and, now, Hollywood overtures.   

"Unnatural Selection is still selling," Pryce says of his debut book. "And it's more than I expected. I just wanted to get the name out there and establish a beachhead in the industry."

By any measure, Pryce, the former science teacher ...

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Re-Animating Frankenstein

Frankenstein is alive as an app: “a brand-new creature assembled from vintage parts,” as Kirkus described it in a starred review (see the other apps for adults that were among our Best Apps of 2012). We tapped Creative Director Jon Ingold to tell us all how the "mad scientists" at inkle Studios managed to successfully breathe new life into Mary Shelley's timeless antihero. Spoiler alert: The monster still has a tough time dealing with his creator.

What were some of the concerns you had in trying to introduce such beloved material to new audiences?

Our biggest concern was the ...

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'Unearthing' a Spectral Collaboration

In Unearthing, photographer Mitch Jenkins' sensationally spectral collaboration with comic book giant Alan Moore, the artist madly careens (as Kirkus found) from the poignant to the bizarre, in an inspired quest to capture the almost ethereal life of another fascinating compatriot named Steve Moore. When Kirkus caught up with him, Jenkins was deep in post-production on the latest installment of a multi-part film narrative (again created with Alan Moore) called Show Pieces. Jenkins was gnevertheless all too happy to talk about his provocative work, as well as his long and fruitful partnership with the father of the Watchmen. Here, Jenkins ...

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Jon Ronson Gets 'Lost at Sea'

Lost At Sea author Jon Ronson loves a good mystery, and there's hardly a place the Welsh-born journalist won't travel for a good story, as Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries, a collection of Ronson’s articles, attests. When Kirkus recently spoke with him, comfortably back home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he could barely contain his enthusiasm at having just met "a great, eccentric crazy person" while driving through Nashville on assignment for The Guardian newspaper. "A feeling overwhelmed me of just being so happy to be there," Ronson says. Here, the writer who ...

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Brett Patton and His Mecha Universe

In Mecha Rogue: A Novel of the Armor Wars, sci-fi writer Brett Patton has an entire universe populated with intriguing characters and astonishing entities to toy with. So, is it any wonder that the veteran scribe says he's never been having more fun at the writer's desk? Here, Patton talks with Kirkus about balancing "serious" science-fiction with all-out Mecha-action, as well as where today's scientists might be getting all their wonderful toys.

 Is the Mecha universe still evolving, or do you already know where it's all going to end?

Actually, it is evolving, rather than being ...

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Victoria Bassetti Weighs in on America's Dysfunctional Democracy

Beltway veteran Victoria Bassetti thinks an awful lot about voting. And so do her fellow Americans, if our preoccupation with all-things-presidential for the past year is anything to go by. But in between obsessing over the toeing of party lines, partisan bickering and campaign gaffes, Bassetti thinks that many Americans may be overlooking something far more important: the flaws in our voting process. 

Bassetti's Electoral Dysfunction: A Survival Manual for American Voters, a companion piece to PBS' feature-length documentary of the same name starring humorist Mo Rocca, investigates the ins and outs of the democratic process. Readers may be ...

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Turk Pipkin Builds Hope

Right now, in Kenya, there is a group of bright high school seniors getting ready to graduate from a school that, up until a couple of years ago, didn't even exist. Writer, director and actor Turk Pipkin is both the author and director of Building Hope, the inspirational book and film that tells their story. Both projects benefit The Nobelity Project, a nonprofit Pipkin founded to promote basic rights among children through education and action.  

Kirkus recently had the opportunity to sit down with the long-tall Texan following a screening of Building Hope in Pipkin's hometown of Austin ...

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Gina Keating on the Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs

Journalist and author Gina Keating often writes about media and the financial world, but she really loves people and "watching what they're going to do next." Not surprisingly, two rather intriguing individuals lie at the heart of Keating's first book Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs. Kirkus talked to the investigative journalist turned author on the South Texas coast where she's already deep into research for her next book.

Here, she touches on those two aforementioned individuals and how the company they launched has so profoundly impacted the movie- and TV-watching public. Says Keating, "They ...

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Talking ‘Dangerous Animals’ with Stephen Tobolowsky

You might not immediately know the name Stephen Tobolowsky when you hear it, but if you’ve turned on the TV or gone to the movies in the last 25 years, you probably know the face. Yeah, he’s that guy. 

Higher profile gigs on HBO’s Californication, the hit film Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party (2005) and his latest book The Dangerous Animals Club might threaten Tobolowsky’s sublime anonymity, but he hopes not. In a starred review, we called his book of essays, “a copiously examined life rendered with humor and heart.”

Check out other celebrity titles worth ...

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Tough Talks ‘How Children Succeed’

In his latest, How Children Succeed, critically acclaimed journalist and New York Times Magazine editor Paul Tough effectively argues that policymakers are putting entirely too much emphasis on exams.

Despite that, parents are as frustrated as ever, teachers are tired of “teaching the test” and too many students are still failing. So why does this culture of hyper-testing persist? Well, for one thing it’s easier—at least for those administering the exams.

Here, Tough talks more about that surprising phenomena, the significance of noncognitive learning and from which direction the fomenting backlash against excessive testing might finally come.   

What ...

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Getting Ahead in ‘A Year Up’

Financial services veteran Gerald Chertavian has already made a fortune with the sale of his multimillion-dollar Internet consulting company, but he’s still a man on a mission. For the past decade, he’s headed an organization called Year Up, which seeks to groom inner-city kids for the corporate world.

His book, A Year Up: How a Pioneering Program Teaches Young Adults Real Skills for Real Jobs with Real Success, profiles some of the youngsters enrolled in the training program. When we talked with him recently in Boston, Chertavian was dreaming about thousands of business-attired youngsters one day striding purposely ...

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Monkeys on the Brain

In Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety, Daniel Smith writes that despite outward appearances of contentment, “a sense of impending catastrophe colored every waking moment” of his life.

Yet Smith sounded perfectly at ease and willing to share his thoughts when we caught up with him following an aborted camping trip along the Appalachian Trail. “I never in my adult life have gone camping—how I avoided it, I don’t know,” he says. “But we got rained out. We couldn’t even stop for lunch without getting soaked. So we cut it short.”

Read more of the best new ...

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Behind the Story of ‘Barack Obama’

In seeking to probe the very essence of Barack Obama, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss has easily managed to upset the entire White House. Now, with the publication of Barack Obama: The Story, and the 2012 election looming just on the horizon, Maraniss is hoping that his careful exploration of the forces that have helped shape the nation’s first black president will have readers everywhere snapping up copies of his voluminous new tome.

We talked with the author about what makes Obama tick, the nature of his “cool” and who might be sitting in the Oval Office come January ...

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Joel Stein’s Quest to Become a Man’s Man

He’s been punched, kicked and shot at, but TIME Magazine columnist and admittedly unmanly man Joel Stein may finally be ready to conduct a convincing game of catch with his 3-year-old son Laszlo when the time comes.

At least that’s the hope. Until Laszlo, the comfortably urbane writer was quite happy not fixing things around the house, racing fast cars or engaging in any other macho activity normally associated with red-blooded American males. Stein has since done all these things and more in solid preparation for future father/son outings, as well as his forthcoming first book, Man ...

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Kirkus Indie: Survival of the Self-Published Author

The post-apocalyptic world Thomas Pryce so effectively renders in his debut novel Unnatural Selection may be rife with sun-seared cannibals and other assorted perils, but the former science teacher from Yonkers, N.Y., says, “There’s no more comfortable place for me to be than building a world in my own little room behind a computer.”

We caught up with the author in southwest Florida, where he runs a company that builds and manages high-end custom aquariums. Here, he talks about finally making the decision to self-publish his book, the evolution of the self-publishing industry and how rejection made him ...

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The Beast Behind a Good Story

After a successful string of books largely aimed at academia, Jonathan Gottschall is hoping for something new—a popular hit.

His latest, The Storytelling Animal, is a lively exploration into the very nature of stories and why they seem so central to the human psyche. We recently found the Washington and Jefferson College educator operating even further outside his comfort zone while assembling a book trailer for The Storytelling Animal on his desktop computer. “I’m just kind of screwing around here with absolutely no technical skills,” he says. “I’ve never done a trade book before.” Here, an excited ...

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High Times in ‘Pot Farm’

It’s almost dinnertime and Matthew Gavin Frank, author of Pot Farm, his alternatively manic and moving account of working on a medicinal marijuana farm for three months at the tail-end of 2006—is busy preparing the venison one of his writing student’s at Northern Michigan University has agreed to share.

Read more new and notable nonfiction in March.

“I’m not a big hunter myself…I can’t really pull the trigger,” he laughs. “But I love the meat.” Frank’s days on the marijuana farm, located somewhere in the wilds of northern California, may be over, but ...

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Christianity for All?

Former president of the Italian Senate Marcello Pera makes no bones about it—Western culture is in danger of collapsing if it denies its Christian heritage. And he’s not even a true believer in the religion. 

We talked with Pera at his home in Italy about the debut of Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: The Religious Roots of Free Societies. Here, he talks about Christianity’s role in the formation of modern liberal cultures and how Europe—and the United States—would do well to heed his dire warnings. 

Read more about following Mother Teresa in 'An Unquenchable ...

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