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May 2008

Posted 05.20.08:  James Rosen's The Strong Man has made news in a story carried by The New York Times here
Posted 05.19.08:  Another terrific review of The Pixar Touch: "Successfully brings to life the band of animation enthusiasts behind Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. The book deserves a thumbs-up for its artful recounting of the studio's formative years.... Full of fascinating characters, all struggling—in classic Pixar film style—to overcome seemingly impossible odds.... Parts of The Pixar Touch are so richly told that I wished I'd written it myself."—BusinessWeek
Posted 05.14.08:  Today's Wall Street Journal on David A. Price's The Pixar Touch: "The conventional wisdom—not discouraged by the company itself—is that Pixar's genius flows from Steve Jobs.... The truth is much more complex and far more interesting.... Mr. Price, in addition to offering unprecedented detail about the notoriously press-shy company's workings, tells a story that abounds with lessons for business people and creative artists alike." And the current Entertainment Weekly says, "Price, a tough, unsentimental reporter, ferrets out lots of backstage drama from fresh sources, weaving a commendably unvarnished history."
Posted 05.06.08:  "In History Lesson, Lefkowitz painstakingly unravels what happens when an aggressive political agenda takes precedence over objective scholarship.... The book has all the hallmarks of a thriller, and is grippingly told. The terrible cost, however,...is incalculable."—Jenni Frazer, The Jewish Chronicle
Posted 05.02.08:  In a full-page review in today's Wall Street Journal of Arthur Herman's Gandhi & Churchill: The Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age, Andrew Roberts writes, "As one might expect from the author of To Rule the Waves, Mr. Herman has researched Gandhi & Churchill meticulously and written it fluently. He has also managed to triumph over a special narrative problem: Although the careers of his two subjects were intimately bound up with each other, their only actual meeting [took place briefly early in their lives]."
Posted 05.02.08:  Today's Wall Street Journal's editorial pages feature an op-ed from Elizabeth Wurtzel, "Obama's Other Radical Friends," which refers to our need for LSD, that is, "to Let the Sixties Die." She is at work on a new book, Creatocracy, about our "one nation under a groove...a collective of crazy dreamers.... Because of intellectual property we live in a democracy of ideas and not a plutocracy of provenance. Ingenuity here is the everything."

April 2008

Posted 04.23.08:  Reviewing Amy Chua's Day of Empire, Paul Kennedy writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine that "Three recent books...have taken up the challenge of Big History.... All are significant contributions and one, [Amy] Chua's, has a chance of becoming a classic.... The biggest of these Big Histories is Chua's Day of Empire. Indeed, it has an almost Toynbeean sweep.... The other great strength of Chua's book is that it has a distinctive thesis, a clear argument," written "with verve and aplomb."
Posted 04.22.08:  Daniel Mendelsohn in The New Yorker, April 28th issue: "[Herodotus'] popularity among ordinary readers will likely get a boost from the publication of perhaps the most densely annotated, richly illustrated, and user-friendly edition of his Histories ever to appear: The Landmark Herodotus, edited by Robert B. Strassler and bristling with appendices, by a phalanx of experts, on everything from the design of Athenian warships to ancient units of liquid measure.... The Landmark Herodotus is an ideal package for this multifaceted work. Much thought has been given to easing the reader's journey through the narrative: running heads along the top of each page provide the number of the book, the year and geographical location of the action described, and a brief description of that action. Particularly helpful are notes running down the side of each page, each one comprising a short gloss on the small 'chapters' into which Herodotus' text is traditionally divided. Just skimming these is a good way of getting a quick tour of the vast work.... And The Landmark Herodotus not only provides the most thorough array of maps of any edition but is also dense with illustrations ... a lovely thing to have in a work so rich in vivid descriptions of strange lands, objects, and customs." (Pantheon; $45.00)
Posted 04.22.08:  Three books by clients of Writers' Reps are on Foreign Affairs magazine's bestseller list: Amy Chua's Day of Empire; Michael Oren's Power, Faith, and Fantasy; and Norman Podhoretz's World War IV.
Posted 04.13.08:  Roy Spencer's Climate Confusion is #18 on the New York Times Best Seller list for April 13th. Rush Limbaugh says, "Folks, you have to get a book.... Roy W. Spencer, has written a book called Climate Confusion. I'm holding it right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. It's How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians, and Misguided Policies That Hurt the Poor. Dr. Spencer, formerly of NASA, is now at the University of Alabama Huntsville.... It's called Climate Confusion, and it's written by a scientist for laypeople to be easily understood."
Posted 04.07.08:  Arthur Herman's Gandhi & Churchill received a starred review in Library Journal: "The complex task of drawing comparison and contrast between two of the most chronicled lives of the 20th century is easily and compellingly handled by Herman. Spanning the globe and dozens of decades, Herman never sinks into the clichés of these two men's biographies but rather deconstructs some of the cherished myths surrounding them while maintaining a warm and lively tone.... Highly recommended." Bantam publishes on April 29th.
Posted 04.07.08:  Library Journal also hails David A. Price's The Pixar Touch as "a most fascinating and entertaining story of how a struggling little company overcame many odds to become a major Hollywood entity." Knopf will publish on May 13th.
Posted 04.07.08:  The Book-of-the-Month Club will offer The Millionaire in the Mirror by Gene Bedell as a featured alternate selection for the summer season. Collins will publish on August 8th.

March 2008

Posted 03.28.08:  Two nice pre-publication reviews of Allan J. Lichtman's White Protestant Nation, forthcoming from Grove Atlantic: "This comprehensive study of conservative politics from the post-WWI era to the present is replete with clear analysis and good nuggets of information.... As a structural blueprint of conservative political power... this book is without peer, giving readers a wonderful historical survey of the last 80 years of conservative politics."— Publishers Weekly "Comprehensive overview of the history and future of American conservatism.... Impressive.... An important examination of the political, moral and economic forces that continue to shape the movement."—Kirkus Reviews

February 2008

Posted 02.20.08:  A starred Kirkus Review for David A. Price's The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf in May: "Brisk history of an entertainment juggernaut that is also the history of computer animation.... Pixar's relationship with corporate parent Disney provides much of the book's drama.... But the heart of the story is the animators, gentle revolutionaries and oddball alchemists who never faltered in their quest to wed hard science to creative visions and bring animation into a new era of artistic accomplishment. A heck of a yarn, full of vivid characters, reversals of fortune and stubborn determination: Pixar should make a movie out of it."
Posted 02.16.08:  Kirkus Reviews praises Arthur Herman's forthcoming Gandhi and Churchill: The Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age: "Veteran historian Arthur Herman offers an ambitious, reasoned joint biography of two great men. Each was a late-Victorian political figure who continued to lead into the mid-20th century. Each held an exemplary vision for his country that initially and spectacularly prevailed, but ultimately collided with new modern realities.... Herman's measured portrait of each man conveys his entire worldview, shaped by class, history and education. Each proved great and flawed in different ways. A well-wrought historical narrative that adds significantly to our understanding of both figures." Gandhi and Churchill will be published by Bantam Books on April 29th.
Posted 02.15.08:  A. N. Wilson on John Cowper Powys in the Feb. 13th Spectator: "The Wessex novels of John Cowper Powys—Wolf Solent (1929), A Glastonbury Romance (1933), Jobber Skald (also published as Weymouth Sands, 1935) and Maiden Castle (1937)—must rank as four of the greatest ever to be written in our language. Even those who do not feel ready for the 1,000-page novel based on Arthurian Britain, Porius (1951) which some consider to be the master work, it should be clear that here we have a truly major figure. Every now and again there is an attempt at a revival. A brave publisher will reissue one of the novels and print on the jacket the plaudits which Powys has received: 'The only novels produced by an English writer that can fairly be compared with the fictions of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky', wrote George Steiner. 'To encounter Powys' (Henry Miller this time) 'is to arrive at the very fount of creation'. Angus Wilson, Margaret Drabble, Iris Murdoch and Simon Heffer are among the faithful. But many university students taking a course in the English literature of the 20th century could achieve their degree without so much as hearing Powys's name. And yet he is an author whom, once you have discovered him, you will go on reading for the rest of your life. He has lowered his bucket deeper than most into the mystery of things. He is able to write not only about the experience of memory, love, obsession, sex and childhood experience. More than that, he has his ear cocked to the life of the universe itself.... Central to Powys's writings, fictional and non-fictional, is that we all have what he calls a life-illusion, which, if we can cultivate it aright, will enable us to overcome all our psychological inadequacies, all our fears and angers and look upon life in a healthy, cheerful, defiant mood. Powys was bold enough to write a book called The Art of Happiness and he seems to his admirers to be someone who has mastered that art and passed it on to others. For that, and for the books he wrote, we shall always be grateful."
Posted 02.08.08:  David Frum writes in his National Review online blog that Bruce Bartlett's Wrong on Race contains "a message deeper and more important than any partisan history—and distinguishes [itself] as a book of political immediacy and moral depth." Read the rest of his review here

January 2008

Posted 01.22.08:  National Journal writer Jonathan Rauch on Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation, edited by Peter H. Schuck and James Q. Wilson, "This book is thick, but it does the work of about a dozen, maybe more. With its gold standard contributors and well chosen, authoritative essays, Understanding America captures more facets of our complicated country than I ever thought a single book could." In a starred review, Kirkus calls it "a nuanced, warts-and-all portrait that offers much to ponder in this election year and beyond." Public Affairs will publish in April.