Community college assignment evovles into exhaustively researched book

Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" reaches No. 4 on Amazon Books Bestsellers List

Feature profile for The Commercial Appeal

February 21, 2010

For Rebecca Skloot, creative nonfiction professor at the University of Memphis, immortality is at hand with her new book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" (Crown, $26).

Born in Springfield, Ill., Skloot moved to Portland, Ore., early with her father, author Floyd Skloot, and mother, Betsy McCarthy, a hospital administrator and "professional knitter" who has published a book on the subject.

A self-proclaimed "derelict kid," Skloot failed her first year of high school and didn't excel academically until forced to attend community college at the age of 16 to make up high school credits.

"I had some issues with the traditional school system and eventually ended up at this alternative high school. ... It was like a hippie school, like a holdover from Oregon in the '60s, where we had dream studies instead of science," she said ... (read more)

Hornby hits another musical note with "Juliet, Naked"

Book review of Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby for The Commercial Appeal blog, "The Shelf Life."

October 6, 2009

When Nick Hornby first hit big with his novel High Fidelity, it was an instant classic among young men whose affinity for pop culture and music trivia are worn on the sleeves of their black CBGB t-shirts.

With Juliet, Naked (Riverhead Books, $26), his fifth novel, it becomes apparent that his target audience is a group of men in their mid-to-late 30s who were once young men who wore their affinity for pop culture and music trivia on the sleeves of their black CBGB t-shirts. They are now, in their age of reason, able to see the folly in a life where an entire evening's conversation might center around the importance of the track order of Nirvana's seminal grunge album, Nevermind. The view taken of their own past selves, however, is not theirs alone, but is filtered through the eyes of their wives, girlfriends, children and ex-girlfriends.

Perhaps Hornby has aged with his audience. Perhaps he has grown just as those of us who devoured High Fidelity and laughed at (with) anyone who might plan a mix tape around a day of the week or an acquaintance's death. Or those of us who might be obsessive over a particular artist. Say, Elvis Costello, for instance. Listening to that man's work day in and day out until his wife pleads to "please, for the love of all that is holy, can we listen to anything else? Anything. Put on Chaka Khan for all I care." ... (read more)

Russo's latest brings back the magic

Book review for That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo for The Commercial Appeal blog, "The Shelf Life."

August 25, 2009

Richard Russo is a man obsessed with bridges. In his novels, these bridges are largely symbolic, spanning the chasm of emotions and responsibility that men feel, bridges they must cross on the road to coming to terms with divorce, death, estranged children, age and loss.

In his previous novel, Bridge of Sighs, and his latest, That Old Cape Magic (Alfred A. Knopf, $26), those bridges, while still metaphoric, have become quite real ... (read more)

Tale of a lonely storyteller

Book review for Man in the Dark by Paul Auster for The Commercial Appeal blog, "The Shelf Life." September 9, 2008.

The writer spends his life in a solitary landscape of desk, typewriter and window through which he gazes out at the world to recharge his creative battery.

At least he used to.

Now, it’s probably more Mac, Starbucks and iPod. Nevertheless, writing is a solo and, mostly, lonesome pursuit. Paul Auster pours this feeling of seclusion out onto paper and into novels populated by rich, though solitary, characters ... (read more)