Malcolm Gladwell's next big theory: the secret of success
By Henry Jackson Associated Press
Outliers: The Story of Success.By Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown and Co. 320 pp. $27.99.Readers: I need help to chase the book blahs
Cheryl Truman Herald-Leader books editor
I'm in a reading drought. Can you help?John Updike wins special Bad Sex in fiction prize
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Writer
It's not quite the Nobel Prize, but John Updike has a new literary accolade: laureate of bad sex.
Web contest authorized young writer of thrillers
By Josh Kegley jkegley@herald-leader.com
The Internet is rife with potential to make savvy users rich or well-known, but with so many trying at once to push their services, skills and scams, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. Finding success often takes as much luck as skill. Just ask Lexington stay-at-home mom and newly published author Amanda Crum.
Obama's mention of book about FDR sparks a flurry of interest
By Motoko Rich New York Times News Service
When President-elect Barack Obama appeared on 60 Minutes on CBS last Sunday in his first interview since winning the election, he mentioned having read "a new book out about FDR's first 100 days," without specifying a title or author.
Pet Milk: a new type of collaborative art project
By Amy Wilson awilson1@herald-leader.com
Kelli Burton's Pet Milk: A Collaborative Creative Exchange has a chance to be the fiercest piece of performance art conceived in these parts in a long time.
Read about placesto avoid or to put on your must-see list
By Beth J. Harpaz Associated Press
NEW YORK — Feeling bad that you can't afford a vacation? The travel books Don't Go There! and I Should Have Stayed Home might make you feel better. For $15 or so, you'll get a laugh out of vacation horrors that you'll be happy to miss.
Kentucky Book Fair author writes about down-home Kentucky
By Cheryl Truman ctruman@herald-leader.com
Now that she has lived in South Carolina for 21 years, Janna McMahan is closer to Kentucky than ever — in her fiction.
Writers see Obama as one of their own
By Hillel Italie Associated Press
NEW YORK — Last winter, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison received a phone call from Sen. Barack Obama, then the underdog to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.Acclaimed author's struggles with drugs continue
By J. Peder Zane McClatchy News Service
RALEIGH, N.C. — Kaye Gibbons became a writer by turning her pain into art. Her troubled childhood near Rocky Mount — her father was an alcoholic, her mother committed suicide with sleeping pills when Gibbons was 10 — became the inspiration for her acclaimed first novel, Ellen Foster, published in 1987, which featured a plucky, resilient heroine.
Susan Orleanis targeting her readers' children
By Colette Bancroft St. Petersburg Times
Fans of Susan Orlean's writing have come to expect the unexpected from her.
Dual narrative, sentimentality get in way of good read
By Chauncey Mabe Orlando Sun-Sentinel
I See You EverywhereBy Julia Glass. Pantheon. 304 pp. $24.95.
Lehane misses private eye but has found a different genre
By Chris Talbott Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — Private investigator Patrick Kenzie is missing and presumed dead.