Clik here to view.
Joness Bones it was just a name anyway
Well, for those of you expecting to read Joness Bones: The Search for an American Hero in the spring, it aint going to happen. Oh, the book is still being published, but after some back-and-forth and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The shutdown, and some other bits
I know, I know, the blog's been quiet for too long. But I have the usual excuse firmly in grasp: I've been busy. Today I could be busier, but a certain faction of political loons (yes, I mean you, Tea...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Norman Mailer, gone but still relevant
Was there a more pugnacious figure in modern literature than Normal Mailer? And not just because he was a fan, and occasional chronicler of, boxing? Six years after his death, Random House is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering the war some of them never fought
There's an odd phenomenon here in America - and it could be happening elsewhere - in which people who never served in the military still claim the service, lying on their resumes to be seen as the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The cover: The Admiral and the Ambassador
Well, I've been keeping this under wraps for a few weeks as we go through the production part of publishing my forthcoming book, The Admiral and the Ambassador: One Man's Obsessive Search for the Body...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Doris Kearns Goodwin and The Bully Pulpit
The Los Angeles Times this weekend carries my review of Doris Kearns Goodwin's new history, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism It's Goodwin's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On page proofs, and unbridled excitement
There are many stages in the book writing process that carry twinges of excitement, but only a few that really make the heart race. The biggest moment for me is when I open up that box from the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks ....
Thank you. That's about as succinct as I can get. Over the past six years I've published three books - the fourth will be out in the Spring and I'm working on a fifth - and there isn't a day that goes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
A review, and a new gig
This weekend's Los Angeles Times carries my review of Greg Grandin's very good new book, The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World, which builds off the story of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On John Hay's peculiar history, and a book review
In writing The Admiral and the Ambassador: One Man's Obsessive Search for the Body of John Paul Jones, I got to spend some research time on the life of John Hay, who was the U.S. secretary of state...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Detroit: A Biography out in paperback with a new Afterword
So I arrived home yesterday after the long slog on the train from Los Angeles and found a box delivered to the house. Part of the contents is pictured at left. Yes, thats the paperback edition of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Bob Mould's 25-year-old "Workbook"
The Post Office was good to me twice this week (I already posted about the box of paperbacks): The 25th anniversary remaster of Bob Moulds Workbook album, with a second disk of a live recording of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My favorite day to open the mail
When the newest book comes in from my publisher. Copies of The Admiral and the Ambassador: One Man's Obsessive Search for the Body of John Paul Jones should start shipping to stores and online...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On labor rights, civil liberties, and violence
Im midway through a week of speaking engagements in Colorado, and as is usual with such things, Im probably getting more out of the audiences than they are getting from me. In two talks so far (one...
View Article
