Results tagged “michikokakutani”

, his first novel in five years, was described by Times critic Michiko Kakutani as “a visceral, heart-thumping portrait of New York City... no one writes better dialogue than Richard Price.”

Only 2 weeks after his 89th birthday, Swedish film and theater director Ingmar Bergman passed away at his home on Fårö Island this morning, the Associated Press reports. "Astrid Soderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, confirmed the death, and Swedish journalist Marie Nyreröd said the director died peacefully during his sleep. Bergman never fully recovered after a hip surgery in October last year, Nyreröd told Swedish broadcaster SVT."

The clock is ticking and the new Harry Potter book will be released at 12:01am, less than twelve hours from now! The scene will surely be crazy and something that this city hasn't seen since...well, Wednesday when people lined up for a canvas grocery sack.

What do we make of the fact that the NY Times book critic Michiko Kakutani purchased a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a NYC bookstore yesterday and was able to sift through its 1.8 pounds to write a review in today's paper? There are no true spoilers, just confirmation that there is a fitting ending (but if you are worried about spoilers of any kind, don't read the blockquote):

J. K. Rowling’s monumental, spellbinding epic, 10 years in the making, is deeply rooted in traditional literature and Hollywood sagas — from the Greek myths to Dickens and Tolkien to “Star Wars.” And true to its roots, it ends not with modernist, “Soprano”-esque equivocation, but with good old-fashioned closure: a big-screen, heart-racing, bone-chilling confrontation and an epilogue that clearly lays out people’s fates.

Frank McCourt, beloved storyteller of early Irish upbringing to immigrant dreams in America, has a new book out about his experiences as a teacher at public high school, including Stuyvesant, called Teacher Man. McCourt, who retired from teaching in 1987, cast a spell on his Stuyvesant students and even some of the less-priveleged ones at other school, and there even seems to have been a Frank McCourt Fan/Stalker Club back at the East 15th Street School. But a day before the sweet NY Times feature about McCourt and his adoring students, Michiko Kakutani reviewed the book, calling it "tepid" and rehashed stuff he's written about before, basically implying that McCourt should stick to writing depressing yet charming things about drunken Irish fathers and put-upon mothers. However, what's cool about Frank McCourt is that he ate the sandwich that was thrown at him from a rowdy student.

- Fernando Ferrer wants monitors at election sites next Tuesday

voice. Gothamist can’t remember such a wacky review since she favored us with her thoughts on Candace Bushnell’s Trading Up, said thoughts taking the form of a memo from Elle Woods to Bushnell’s protagonist. (Seriously, read it. It’s crazy.) While it’s hard to say that Michi’s grasp of voice is absolutely secure—however many tokens of authenticity are included to assure you that yes, like you, Michiko Kakutani has totally seen Legally Blonde and knows her Catcher in the Rye—we do like seeing things mixed up a bit. Especially since this treatment seems to be reserved for drubbings, it’s less dreary than a full-on dismembering of the book (though probably no more pleasant for the author).

Spigelman will be joined by a number of other authors - Nicholas Basbanes, Richard Brookhiser, Adam Bellow, Harold Evans, John Fund, Amy Goodman, Nat Hentoff, Peter Osnos - at the Strand (826 Broadway at 12th) from 12PM-4PM; C-SPAN will also be broadcasting the readings and Q&A's! Here's Michiko Kakutani's NY Times review of In The Shadows of No Towers A Comics Journal interview with Spiegelman, some Maus resources. And for other things to do this Labor Day Weekend: Coolfer's Music Picks
.

My Life is #1 on Amazon. More on William J. Clinton Jr. at his official site, where you can see video of his remarks at the Chicago Book Expo. And Clinton was on 60 Minutes last night and is on the cover of Time magazine.

Michiko Kakutani looks at various celebrity chidren's book authors (some Madonna, some Lynne Cheney, even Keith Hernandez) and finds many of them, with their "very special messages," uninspiring. However, the one she takes to task is Jerry Seinfeld for his book, Halloween:

Author Jonathan Lethem gets the work up: A profile AND Michiko review in the Times today. The reason? His new book, Fortress of Solitude, his first since his National Book Critics Circle-winning, Motherless Brooklyn. Ah, the Doubleday publicists are earning their keep.

Gothamist was too tired from the Gothamist-601AM Happy Hour to face scads of screaming children at various Harry Potter parties around town (though we were tempted to go - believe us - it would have been a lesson in seeing who could be bigger babies). We had stopped by City Bakery on 18th Street, and learned it was staying open late because the Book of Wonder across the street had its midnight Harry Potter party. (PS, the Books of Wonder staff was pretty nasty when we went inside to take a picture of the boxes, but we suppose they were stressed out.) Anyway, Gothamist thought it'd need a good night of sleep, to prepare for reading the 870 page book, but we were concerned about book status:

Hellfire and damnation, Michiko Kakutani reviews Candace Bushnell's new book, Trading Up. As Elle "Legally Blonde" Woods. No joke. Kakutani, as Elle, writes a memo to the book's main character, Janey Wilcox: