Nonfiction News

The Lemont-Bromberek Combined School District 113A Educational Foundation recently awarded 24 grants totalling more than $34,000 for the 2013-2014 school year.

Melanie Benjamin makes it clear - on her website and within The Aviator's Wife itself - that what she is presenting about Anne Morrow Lindbergh, aviatrix, explorer, and remarkably poetic writer, is fiction. She also reminds the reader that historical fiction can lead one to an interest in the history that lies behind the story she has chosen to tell.

Think of George Packer's new book, "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America" as the un-Internet take on the transformation this country has undergone in the past 35 years.

Last week I got a letter from the man I once thought of as my broker, who now calls himself my investment counselor and would probably call himself my wealth management adviser if I had any "wealth" for him to manage.

However, that's not enough to stay above water and Will tells the rest of the crew there's no more overtime.

Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. There, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements - fire, water, air and earth - to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.

From the moment he first appeared in "Devil in a Blue Dress" in 1990, Easy Rawlins, was an instant favorite of discerning readers and literary critics alike.

With the recent opening of the George W. Bush Library , we thought it would be a great opportunity to remind ourselves of former presidents' favorite reading.

The easy way to describe Stories We Tell is that it's a documentary, by the Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley, about her mother, her family and a secret that had a seismic effect on all their lives.

Reminder : New literary agents are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

The Washington Post said of the book: "A mature, levelheaded book, thick with emotion but not overwhelmed by it ... reading it is a genuine pleasure." Jane Brox has also written three other books, including "Here and Now," which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England award.

Barack Obama's meteoric rise from little-known state senator from Illinois to the first African-American president of the United States is one of the most amazing success stories in history.

Regardless of whether you plan to enjoy the summer's hottest reads through your iPod, iPad, e-reader, smartphone or - gasp - a plain old paper book, the selection in fiction and nonfiction promises to be plentiful.

The Friends of the Westland Library will hold their quarterly used book sale Friday-Sunday, May 17-19. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, which also will be $4 bag day.

After surviving an endlessly nasty, hope-killing adoption experience and writing many astonishing essays about it, Jennifer Gilmore wants to see whether this material works as a novel.

A nonfiction book that documents the lives of the mostly Native Hawaiian individuals who were sent to the leprosy settlement at Kalaupapa was named winner of the Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai'i Book of the Year at the 20th annual Ka Palapala Po'okela book awards.

Patrons who wander into Marissa's Books inside a strip mall at 5664 S. 900 East often look at owner Cindy Dumas and wonder whether she is crazy to open such a store in the digital era.

The idea that no story can be told except from one particular and limited point of view, that no two accounts of an event are ever the same, that our own memories can deceive and betray us has been at the center of many great documentaries.

By JEAN COWDEN MOORE - Students from kindergarten through high school will soon be reading more nonfiction -- biographies, speeches, even a government publication on insulation -- under new national standards that are changing what and how children learn.

A collection of essays by the humorist traces his offbeat travel experiences, which involve surreal encounters with everything from French dentistry and Australian kookaburras to Beijing squat toilets and a wilderness Costco in North Carolina.