When Larry McMurtry began writing his memoirs, the first volume of which was published in 2008, he saw it necessary to divide his life into three distinct sections: Books, Literary Life, and Hollywood. It is no coincidence that Books, the recounting of his life as a “rare bookman,” came first,…
Yes. It’s true. Next Friday, August 17, a group of Dallas women will sit proud in front of an audience and read passages from their favorite stories, completely in the nude. It’s a literary trend appropriately titled Naked Girls Reading, and now, after a two year hiatus, it’s returned to…
New York Times best-selling romance novelist Jodi Thomas sets a lot of her torrid historical tales in Fort Worth, and her latest release — set to drop on August 7 — is no exception. The multiple RITA Award winner’s 35th book and 6th in her “Whispering Mountain” series, Wild Texas…
This is not Lori Ann Stephens’ first rodeo. Well, it is in the sense that it is her debut novel that suddenly shot to No. 1 on the Amazon Bestseller List for Top Free Literary Fiction over the Fourth of July. But that novel — Song of the Orange Moons…
I won’t claim to understand much about the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, though not because I have moral or personal objections to the subject matter. In fact, I’d posit that the key to world peace lies not in economic policy or cultural diplomacy so much as a few good…
By now, most every paper that matters has thoroughly and appropriately eulogized feminist journalist and funny-woman, Nora Ephron, who died Tuesday evening at the age of 71. In fact, our even trying to characterize her life as beautifully or as intimately as The New York Times or The Atlantic –…
Nestled in a corner of Jackson Armory and adjacent to Snider Plaza, Rosedale Rare Books is as unassuming as, well, one would expect an independently-owned, antiquarian bookstore to be. Due to the nature of its surroundings – the armory specializes in antique weaponry, and its walls are lined with rifles,…
This little gem has been circulating the intertubes the last few days, repulsing even the most avid of book lovers. Hey you, do you have a home library with full walls of bookshelves? Oxblood red sofas with brass tacks and a ladder with which to scale your erudite collection? Keep…
Four years ago, Ray Bradbury was scheduled for a book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Los Angeles for his short story collection, We’ll Always Have Paris. I was in LA at the time working, and had seen Bradbury speak several times on the subject of how movies these…
We’ll hand it to anybody who puts “kick ass” in the title of his workshop. We are, after all, living in a world that would define marriage in a way exclusionary to a mutant and his adorbs long-term boyfriend, so it takes a fair bit of chutzpah to dive into…
Being an election year, you’d be right to expect that more than a few politicos will be crawling out of the woodwork to invigorate their respective bases and jostle the American public from its Twinkie coma to pull down some votes. And that’s exactly what we suspect MSNBC analyst Chris…
It’s hard not to hate a guy who gets a review this good in The New York Times, but when it comes to Ben Fountain, you’ve got to cheer him on. He’s down-to-earth and affable, and that’s not even to mention his undeniable talent. Fountain’s first novel, Billy Lynn’s Long…
The label “housewife” doesn’t really suit Kelly Killoren Bensimon. The word invokes images of tomato-stained aprons and constant scuttling, but those are unlikely components of Bensimon’s world. The Real Housewives, NYC star, former model and author of the new book I Can Make You Hot!: The 3-Day Supermodel Diet likely…
Last summer, we brought you news of NoViolet Bulawayo, an SMU alumna who was named 12th Caine Prize winner. Bulawayo received a master’s in literature here in Dallas before heading to Cornell for an MFA, where she honed her already remarkable talent and launched a career as one of the…
Ben Fountain wrote a novel. Here, you digest that for a moment. That Ben Fountain. O. Henry Award-winning, dual Pushcart Prize-snatching, Texas Institute of Letters award-swiping, McGinnis Richie Prize-fighting, Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award-conquering, Whiting Writers Award-seizing Ben Fountain. And, he’s reading from his yet-unreleased novel on Thursday night in Lakewood. “But,…
In the synopsis from the press release that just landed in our inbox for Kevin R. Given’s new comedic novel, Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vaslis, it’s importantly noted that ninjas (always hilarious) and immortals are recruited to ward off “Egyptian and Hebrew vampires.” Who else is helping in…
Ever want to hold up a love (or hate) note to that car crammed up next to you in traffic? Or geekily tell the girl sitting next to you at the bar that you think she’s cute? A new e-book by local artist and photographer Danny Hurley (full disclosure, he’s…
Well, not a chicken, so much as a “Chicken Boy,” the protagonist of Gregory G. Allen’s new kids’ book of the same name. When we last spoke to Allen, he was still living the champagne dreams and caviar wishes (well, emotionally, if not literally) of an independent author’s first big…
Few things are important enough to make me brave the DMA during prime Gaultier hours, but an Arts & Letters Live BooksmART appearance by Author Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events) and illustrator Maira Kalman made wading through the fashion faux pas well worth it…
We loved large Jennifer Hudson. Everyone did. The admiration wasn’t due to her weight, it was because of her vivacious spirit, unmarred from Hollywood and backed up with a “This is me. Deal.” attitude. Yeah, she was hanging on to an extra 80 pounds — so? It didn’t stop her…
The cozy little shop called The Shabby Sheep, an Uptown emporium of supplies for knitters and crocheters, is now the home of the Jane Austen Society, which will meet at 11 a.m. on the second Saturday of the month, beginning February 11. Encouraging “knitting, spinning, crocheting, snacking, chatting, movie watching…
Being new to a city brings with it certain challenges: Learning Dallas street names, only to have them turn on you moments later. Identifying the strange, elemental metal flavor in the tap water (current suspect: the rarely noted Ruthenium). And of course, the most pressing: meeting like-minded folks. Book clubs…
