Born Again: James Bannon's Riveting 'I2'

Voice actor and screenwriter James Bannon makes his authorial debut with one of our favorite Indie books of the year, I2, a riveting, unforgettable exploration of memory and reincarnation. Compact prose, tight pacing and a heady premise combine with masterful characterization and brutally honest depictions of love and violence to produce what Kirkus called "a science-fiction thriller of the highest order" in a starred review.

We recently caught up with the author between takes on the set of the crime drama Golden Boy to chat about reincarnation, voice acting and what's ahead.

Tell us briefly about I2.

The reason ...

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Best of Indie 2012: Leland Myrick's 'The Ten'

Missouri Boy Leland Myrick sheds his skin as a graphic novelist and turns his attention to the fantasy genre with the release of his debut novel, The Ten. The first in a planned trilogy called The Kingdom of Graves, the book follows the warrior Jorophe as he is inducted into a secret corps of elite fighters—the eponymous Ten—tasked with saving the world. Myrick's savvy worldbuilding, in-depth characterization and vivid imagery made this book one of Kirkus' top Indie picks of 2012. As we noted in our review, The Ten is "an examplar of storytelling and character-driven adventure ...

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Funnyman Kevin Bleyer Rewrites the U.S. Constitution

Presidential joke penner, nonfiction author and former staff writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Kevin Bleyer tackles his biggest challenge yet: tweaking the country's founding document.

Bleyer latest project, Me The People: One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America,  considers the origins and legacy of the United States Constitution, bringing an edge of humor to the politics of 1877 and a savvy critic's eye to our fundamentally guaranteed protections.

Get your vote on with more election-themed coverage here and here.

During a recent conversation with Kirkus, Bleyer weighed ...

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Aman Sethi Explores Life in Delhi's Shadows

When Indian journalist Aman Sethi set out to undertake a study of New Delhi's working poor, he could hardly have dreamed up a better case study than Mohammed Ashraf—a day laborer by profession, but a philosopher and raconteur at heart. For six years, Ashraf allowed Sethi to play Boswell to his Johnson, giving him access to all aspects of his life. The result, A Free Man: A True Story of Life and Death in Delhi, explores the ups and downs that Ashraf and his friends experience as members of the Indian working class, and gives voice to the ...

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Tony Danza Would Like to Apologize to Every Teacher He's Ever Had

He's often portrayed as a lovable lunkhead, but Tony Danza's got a lot going on upstairs. And now the Brooklyn-born actor, singer, dancer, day-time talk show host and prizefighter can add another notch to his belt: English teacher at a struggling inner city school in Philadelphia.

Danza, who graduated college with a degree in history education, took to the classroom with cameras in tow for a year at Philly's Northeast High. Readers may have caught the juicier parts on A&E's short-lived reality show, Teach, but Danza was determined to present a full account of his ...

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Molly Ringwald: 'When It Happens to You'

Molly Ringwald, the teen darling of ’80s films such as Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, and who can be seen these days on ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager, returns with a collection of eight interconnected short stories in her fiction debut, When It Happens to You.

The muse to late director John Hughes, whose films continue to delight and inspire new generations of teens, plumbs the depths of the human condition and turns out an intelligent, nuanced portrait of betrayal. In literary prose, Ringwald skillfully captures the voices of a varied group of Los ...

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Joanna Brooks: ‘The Book of Mormon Girl’

Scholar, editor and author Joanna Brooks investigates the complexities of her faith in The Book of Mormon Girl, her quirky, impassioned memoir of growing up Mormon. She chronicles the beauty as well as the divisiveness of her religion, and how she came to reconcile her differences with the church's stance on such issues as gender equality, contraception and homosexuality.

As Brooks looks ahead, noting, "The tradition is young, and the next chapter has yet to be written,” she also shares the highs and lows that she's experienced building an interfaith family with her Jewish husband. It all comes ...

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Chris Hayes: ‘Twilight of the Elites’

In his assessment of the first decade of the new millennium, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, MSNBC host and Nation editor Chris Hayes points to crumbling institutions as one of the primary reasons for America's current malaise.

Read more from the MSNBC crowd with Rachel Maddow's 'Drift.'

Here, Hayes contends that from Wall Street to the White House, the Catholic Church to Major League Baseball, the American public has lost faith in the authority of its institutions, resulting in greater political discord and financial inequality.

So what can be done? Hayes suggests revisiting the notion of ...

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Joan Rivers Hates Everyone

The doyenne of trash talk is at it again.

After 50 years in the business, legendary comedienne Joan Rivers returned to the spotlight recently after the 2010 documentary chronicling her career, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. These days, fans can catch her as the host of E!'s Fashion Police or in the reality show with her daughter, Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best on WE TV. With regular appearances on the late-night talk-show circuit, a line of products on QVC and a full calendar of stand-up events, it's frankly mind-boggling that the Celebrity Apprentice winner found the ...

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Kevin Bleyer's New and Improved Constitution

When Obama is reciting your jokes, you know you got it somewhat going on. Kevin Bleyer, a writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, tackles his biggest challenge yet: tweaking the country's founding document.

"In the same way The Daily Show brings an amusing eye to the political issues of the day, I have, hopefully, brought an amusing eye to the politics of 1877," Bleyer says of his latest project, Me The People: One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America. Consider his mission accomplished.

Read more new and notable nonfiction ...

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Man vs. Book: Bear Grylls

Many fans were distressed to hear that British adventurer Bear Grylls recently parted ways with the Discovery Channel, the network responsible for bringing his madly popular survivalist program, Man vs. Wild, to American shores.

Read more new and notable nonfiction this May.

While Grylls plans his next adventure, readers can take comfort in his latest project, his autobiography, Mud, Sweat, and Tears, which offers a more nuanced perspective for those who know Grylls best as a man who hollows out camel carcasses for shelter and extracts nourishment from elephant dung.

But long before he took to scaling mountains and parachuting ...

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Total Recall with Marilu Henner

These days, more people recognize Marilu Henner for her awe-inspiring memory than for her role as Elaine Nardo on the cult TV classic Taxi. Her 60 Minutes appearance several years ago, in which she demonstrated her Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, has attracted the attention of scientists and casual observers alike.

Read more new and notable nonfiction books this April.

When she's not undergoing testing with researchers at UC-Irvine or filming on the set of a new movie, Henner’s at work on her Total Health Makeover lifestyle program. The latest addition to the stable, her ninth book Total Memory ...

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Multiplication, Not Just for White People

Educator Lisa Delpit offers a scathing critique of America’s education system in her new book, “Multiplication Is for White People”: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children.

Read more new and notable nonfiction books this March.

Delpit deftly investigates the ways in which the public education system has disenfranchised generations of African-American children, creating an educational gap that has had severe repercussions in our society. Weaving data and anecdotes from her visits to schools throughout the country, she takes on the institutionalized racism that pervades our school system and tackles weighty issues such as America’s dependence on test-based ...

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‘The American Way’: Tracie McMillan Follows Food, From Farm to Table

Award-winning journalist Tracie McMillan traces the origins of the current incarnation of America’s food supply in The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Wal-Mart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table.

Read more new and notable titles on food and cooking.

Working undercover as a laborer in the grape fields of California, a produce clerk in a Wal-Mart superstore on the outskirts of Detroit and on the line in a Brooklyn Applebee’s, the author was determined to live and eat off her wages. What she discovers is the depressing reality millions of Americans face daily—no matter ...

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Voices Unite in 'I Dare to Say'

Ugandan short story and children’s book author Hilda Twongyeirwe coordinated the effort to put together this searing collection of real-life stories spotlighting many of the issues that contemporary Ugandan—and African—women face on a daily basis.

Read more books related to black history month.

I Dare to Say: African Women Share Their Stories of Hope and Survival is filled with powerful remembrances of domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, female genital mutilation and war. The vignettes highlight the strength and resilience of each of the women profiled by Ugandan female writer’s collective FEMRITE. These often-inspiring testimonies of survival in ...

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Scroggins Talks 'Wanted Women'

Award-winning reporter Deborah Scroggins turns a critical eye on the intersection between women’s rights and modern Islam in her latest, Wanted Women.

Read more new and notable nonfiction this January.

Scroggins profiles two of modern Islam’s most provocative figures, using them as a lens to illustrate the various roles women have played in the conflict between radical Islam and Western culture. “This is the story of two Muslim women, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali politician and author who is a fierce critic of Islam and served in the Dutch parliament, and her polar opposite Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani ...

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Trouble in 'Girl Land'

Former high school teacher turned New Yorker staff writer Caitlin Flanagan dissects the harrowing world of female adolescence in her second book Girl Land.

Read more new and notable nonfiction this January.

Weaving her own recollections of adolescence with on-the-ground research and history, Flanagan’s portrait of this transitional period in a girl’s life is a fascinating study of how society itself has changed—and not always for the better.

Flanagan recently spoke with us about the pitfalls of modern feminism, what’s bad about the Internet and why your teenage daughter might be off sulking in her bedroom ...

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Poetry ‘Under the Mesquite’ with Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s debut offering, the haunting free-verse novel Under the Mesquite, plants her solidly on the list of authors to watch in the coming years. With restrained and lyrical language, McCall gives voice to Lupita, a Mexican American teenager on the cusp of adulthood struggling with questions of identity, mortality and meaning.

Lupita, the oldest of eight children, finds herself thrust into the overwhelming role of caregiver when her mother falls ill, torn as she tries to balance her obligations to her family and herself. Loosely based on the author’s own childhood, this simultaneously heartrending and uplifting ...

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Chasing Graham Greene: Tim Butcher

As a former African correspondent for London’s Daily Telegraph, Tim Butcher has been piloting in and out of the continent’s biggest stories for more than a decade. His latest book, Chasing the Devil, which comes on the heels of the awarding-winning chronicle of his harrowing journey through the strife-torn Congo in Blood River, returns him to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the scene of one of Africa’s bloodiest and most gruesome civil wars.

Read more books about Graham Greene.

“Chasing The Devil is part travel book, part personal memoir, part political history and part a back-scratching exercise on ...

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Jane Fonda’s ‘Prime Time’: 11 Tips for a Healthy Life

Well into her 70s, two-time Academy Award winner Jane Fonda continues to turn heads as one of the world’s most beautiful women. And many continue to look to her for advice on fitness and aging gracefully—both arts she’s perfected. In Prime Time, the latest addition to Fonda’s lengthy list of accomplishments, she shares the wisdom she’s picked up throughout her eight decades in the spotlight.

Read more about developing a healthy lifestyle with Sugar Nation.

Here, the anti-war activist and workout pioneer breaks new ground, yet again, in providing a model for a new generation ...

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