Books: The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch, Tucson Weekly

Entry for Kore Press Fiction Contest Ends Tonight

Irene Messina — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:27:33 -0700

Send Kore Press your poetry! Your prose!…

Local Author Michael Frissore's Short Story Collection is "Absurdism At Its Best"

Stephanie Casanova — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:15:55 -0700

Local author Michael Frissore, from Oro Valley, has published a collection of strange short stories dating back to the '90s.

Puppet Shows is a collection of thirteen short stories which Frissore called his "babies," which he has written throughout his writing career.…

Tucson Author Explores 1930s Film Industry With 'Take Her For A Ride'

Kyle Mittan — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:18:00 -0700

Tucson author Steven Painter is an expert in film studies, and he’s sharing his expertise with his latest book, Take Her For A Ride.

The book, which follows a film producer in 1930s Hollywood as he tries to save his studio from demise during the Great Depression, calls on a number of actual events that Painter said he researched during the course of his writing.…

Antigone Books Participates in World Book Night

Irene Messina — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:00:00 -0700

On Tuesday, April 23, volunteers will give away half a million free books in more than 6,000 locations across the country. Tucson's Antigone Books (411 N. Fourth Ave.) is a partner in World Book Night U.S.

The goal of World Book Night U.S. is to seek out people without the means or access to printed books and give them free, specially printed paperbacks.…

'Perks of Being a Wallflower' Author to Make Bookman's Appearance

Kyle Mittan — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:30:42 -0700

Stephen Chbosky, author and director of Perks of Being a Wallflower, will host a reading, signing and Q&A from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at the Bookmans at Grant and Campbell.

After releasing the novel in 1999, Chbosky went on to write the screenplay and direct the film adaptation, which was released last October.…

"Love Poems for Cannibals" Blends Poetry and History

Kate Newton — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:46:00 -0700

It may have been over 40 years in the making, but Raymond Keen’s first volume of poetry hardly fails to resound in the here and now.

Love Poems for Cannibals, which Keen self-published using the Amazon company CreateSpace, is the result of decades of accumulated inspiration.…

Olympic Gold-Medalist Amanda Beard Discusses Her Success and Struggles in New Book

Megan Merrimac — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:26:58 -0700

Model, Olympic gold-medalist, wife, and mother Amanda Beard has had her share of success and happiness through her career and her family, but as well as many hardships.

"In The Water They Can’t See You Cry", a memoir written by Beard with Rebecca Paley, is an honest and raw account of her life in the spotlight as a swimmer and her battle with clinical depression.…

'Santana and Saul' Tells the Story Of An Unlikely Friendship

Stephanie Casanova — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:00:44 -0700

Santana and Saul tells the story of a long-time friendship between two men who lived completely different lives and hold different religious beliefs.

The "dual memoir," as the author Saul Diskin calls it, tells the story of Santana, a guy who spent 30 years in and out of prison, was addicted to heroin and influenced by the the gangs, drugs and violence on the streets of southern California.…

Tucson Author Get First Taste of Self-Publishing With 'Tea Leaves'

Kyle Mittan — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:02:32 -0700

Tea Leaves, which was self-published earlier this year by Tucson author Andrew Sandner, features 50 life lessons, each accompanied by short prose and an illustration, drawn by Victoria Hollins. After finding its way to the Weekly's booth at this year's festival of books, we caught up with Sandner to find out how Tea Leaves came to be.…

Benjamin Alire Sáenz Wins 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award

Megan Merrimac — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:39:40 -0700

Out of five finalists for the 33rd PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Benjamin Alire Sáenz won the award for his short fiction collection titled Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, published by Cinco Puntos Press.

The winner for America's largest peer-juried prize for fiction was announced March 19.…

'Paths of Promise' Looks at Less-Portrayed Aspect of American History

Kyle Mittan — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:00:02 -0700

Tucson author Donna Grisanti’s experience as an up-and-coming novelist isn’t as rooted in a creative writing background as many typically are.

Grisanti, a Chicago native who attended college at Arizona State University, studied nursing, psychology and sociology (and eventually went on to business administration) — not your average precursor for a career as an author.…

Local Author Brings Science Fiction Back Down to Earth

Kate Newton — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:13:22 -0700

To local author Nicholas Campanella, sacrificing any trace of realism to tell a fantastical story is the first way to lose your audience - and your voice as a writer.

“I want people to smell the air in my book.…

Cinematic Book Club Set to Debut at the Loft

Kate Newton — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:30:56 -0700

Film adaptations of popular novels all too often crash and burn, but some manage to be held in a higher esteem than their literary counterparts. This century-old debate will be tested over the course of this year as the Loft Cinema Book Club screens seven classic films, followed by moderated discussions of the books they’re based on.…

Romantic Fiction Gets a Sweet Revival Just in Time for Valentine's

Kate Newton — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:30:27 -0700

If there’s truth to the sentimentality that “good things come in small packages,” a concept like The Chocolate Storybox brings much needed simplicity to one of the most commercialized holidays of the year.

The site, based in the United Kingdom, is making its official launch on Valentine’s Day with a unique product that speak volumes about the limitless nature of “the virtual world”: that is, for chocolate fans and bookworms.…

Novel Provides Unconventional Start for Tucson's Darryl Robert Schoon

Kyle Mittan — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:00:02 -0700

When Darryl Robert Schoon finished writing his first and only novel to date, he didn’t have any plans to distribute it to the masses. And, at least for a few years, it wasn’t distributed anywhere.…

Author, Teacher, Lecturer, and Realtor Miriam Ruth Black Emphasizes There is More to Life, Even in Old Age

Megan Merrimac — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:00:00 -0700

For Miriam Ruth Black, her writing career came after her retirement, as a way to express an issue she felt was not focused on enough in novels these days.

Most popular novels highlight the lives of the young and glamorous, showing off their youth and the lifestyles that go along with that.…

Local Author Frank Babb Recounts his Wartime Experiences in New Book

Megan Merrimac — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:00:09 -0700

Local author Frank Babb used his experiences serving his country to create a fiction novel titled, “Hot Times in Panamá.”

The book follows the main character, Frank Blake, who is drafted and posted in the counterintelligence program in Panamá, because he had taken a year of high school Spanish.

As Babb states, the book is also “about personal relations of people.”

The novel also follows Blake’s love for a woman named Julia that he met at a party.…

We've Got Books To Give Away—Who Wants 'Em? (UPDATE: They're All Gone!)

David Mendez — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:18:00 -0700

Often, our dear Assistant Editor Irene Messina has the problem of having far too many books sent to her than our writers can review. Typically, we at the Weekly make an effort to do something constructive with them for the community (donations to charity, leaving them in bookstores to confuse the employees, etc.[note: only one of those is true],) but we've decided that we're going to be sharing the latest batch with our lovely readers.…

Graphic Novel Opens Portal to Southwest for East Coast Author

Kate Newton — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:48:25 -0700

Pictures can serve as portals into worlds we’ve never been to, and the artistically-inclined need only draw those worlds before they step inside.

When New-York based writer and illustrator Steve Sheinkin first collaborated with academic and fellow author Ilan Stavans on an online comic, the unconventionality of sharing a story was surprisingly enjoyable for the pair.…

Author Bobby Wilson Faces His Life Challenges Through Writing and Law

Megan Merrimac — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:39:31 -0700

Writing has become a way for author, lawyer, and teacher Bobby Wilson to express his personal challenges and triumphs, as well as the corrupt issues of the country.

In his fiction novel, State of Mind, he used characters based on real Americans to describe the issues surrounding the nation’s financial crisis in a way that not many people knew was occurring until after it had unfolded.…

For Local Author Kelly Frederick, 'Self-Publishing' Is Synonymous With 'Self-Discovery'

Kate Newton — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:35:49 -0700

In the novel-writing business it pays to be persistent, but local author Kelly Frederick knows it also pays to know when to take matters into your own hands.

Frederick self-published her first novel, Umbrellas in the Sun, last year after turning a seemingly unrealistic goal into a reality.…

You Should Read This Excerpt From a New Book on Scientology

Dan Gibson — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:00:52 -0700

In 2011, Lawrence Wright profiled former-Scientologist Paul Haggis for the New Yorker and now he's taken that research a step further, looking into the celebrity culture and inner workings of the Church of Scientology in his new book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief. The Hollywood Reporter is running two excerpts in the next issue, one from the section on John Travolta and one, from which the passage below can be found, regarding Tom Cruise:

Cruise poured millions of dollars into the Church — $3 million in 2004.…
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George Takei Does a Reading of 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' Somehow Makes Book Seem Less Ridiculous

David Mendez — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:15:44 -0700

If there are better ways to spend a minute and a half on YouTube than listening to George Takei reading smutty literature, I'd like to hear them. But until then, I'll keep alternating between this and Gilbert Gottfried's enlightening narration of E.L. James's ode to rough sex.…

"Da Great Gatsby": Terrible, Kinda Racist College Project, or Interesting Look at Remix Culture?

David Mendez — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:28:07 -0700

It turns out that there's a course at Brown University, entitled "Open Source Culture," that studies "the line between sampling and stealing," examining the idea of open source works and how today's Internet-centric culture has taken the idea of using "found footage," expanded upon it, and transformed it (for example: Danger Mouse's "Grey Album," a mash-up of Jay-Z's "Black Album" and the Beatles' self-titled "White Album").

As a final project, student Katherine Lee created "Da Great Gatsby," a reinterpretation (remix?)…

Pima County Librarians Have Posted a 'List of Lists' for 2012's Best Books

David Mendez — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:11:50 -0700

If you're among those good, kind, literary folks that are still interested in reading books in both paper and electronic formats, the good folks at the Pima County Public Library have a treat for you. They've put together a list of the best books published this year, sourcing 32 separate lists that's sure to stir something within the hearts of Southern Arizona's book loving community.…