The long-anticipated biography Steve Jobs is based on over 40 interviews that Walter Isaacson carried out with the CEO of Apple over the span of 2 years and includes interviews with over 100 relatives, friends, competitors, and contemporaries. Isaacson has created a fascinating account of one of the most intriguing characters of our time, and has captured the powerful personality of the entrepreneur who dragged society into the new ages of tablet and personal computing, music, telecommunications, animated films, and digital publication virtually single-handedly.
There is probably no one as recognizable as Steve Jobs is, and many hold the man
Wicked, the Novel
by Kaitlin August 26th, 2011 | Fiction
Nearly everyone has seen the classic 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz. Perhaps some have also read the novel version by L. Frank Baum, and the subsequent sequels. The story of Dorothy, her dog Toto, and their adventures in the magical land of Oz is famous. Perhaps one of the most resonating characters is the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy's nemesis throughout the story. The Wicked Witch is just as she is named - wicked. Evil. Or so everyone thinks.
In Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire gives the witch a proper name -
In Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire gives the witch a proper name -
Classic: Moby-Dick
by Louise August 25th, 2011 | Classics, Fiction
When Herman Melville was 21, he committed himself to a whaling voyage of indefinite duration and destination. Eighteen months into the journey, he and a fellow shipmate abandoned ship on the Marquesas Islands. Because of an injured leg, Melville spent a month with the local natives, a tribe of cannibals. Now if that experience isn't the makings of a story, I don't know what is. And indeed, Melville published his first novel in 1846, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, a combination of fiction and facts based on his experience.
Though you wouldn't have guessed it today, during Melville's lifetime,
Though you wouldn't have guessed it today, during Melville's lifetime,
Raising a Child Who Loves Reading
by Angela Yorke August 22nd, 2011 | Children's
Everybody knows that reading is one of the best ways to develop a vocabulary, improve communication skills, and develop critical thinking. Yet, despite the best efforts of children’s literacy advocates, there are fewer children actually reading on their own. Understandably, it’s hard to develop the habit if grownups hardly practice it themselves, but that’s easy to remedy compared to, say, global warming.
For one, the ready availability of reading materials is an encouragement for the young ones to pick up reading. My father would leave his books around the house when I was a kid. It didn’t please my mother,
For one, the ready availability of reading materials is an encouragement for the young ones to pick up reading. My father would leave his books around the house when I was a kid. It didn’t please my mother,
1 Dead in Attic
by Mackenzie M. August 19th, 2011 | New Releases
Given my return home to New Orleans this past week, I was motivated to review one of my favorite books of all time, which just happens to be one of the most celebrated works regarding Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath: 1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose. 1 Dead in Attic combines a series of Rose’s newspaper columns in the Times-Picayune in the four months following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. With unimaginable detail, depth, and clarity, Rose manages to combine the "Katrina story" of every New Orleanian into this book. To give you a taste, here is one
