under the covers

Nonfiction

Gatsby Cocktails: Classic Cocktails from The Jazz Age

“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” —The Great Gatsby Read More | Comment »

12:30PM Sat. May. 11, Gracie Salem

Happy Bard Day!

If you don't already know, Shakespeare is a chronic condition. Once the Bard is in the blood, he's there for life, and the afflicted simply has to learn to deal with the cravings for iambic pentameter and profoundly human characters. Fortunately, books such as the newly published Living With Shakespeare can help manage the disease. Read More | Comment »

4:00PM Tue. Apr. 23, Robert Faires

The Q&A Hole: What Extinct Animal Would You Bring Back To Life?

Ah, yeah, we should've realized that some form of dinosaur would be far and away the most popular creature here … Read More | Comment »

11:31AM Mon. Feb. 11, Wayne Alan Brenner

How Literature Saved David Shields' Life

David Shields, because he didn't kill himself before he finished writing his latest book, has a lot to say about human mortality and loneliness and literature. Read More | Comment »

2:41PM Mon. Feb. 4, Wayne Alan Brenner

Lather, Repeat: British Sudser 'Downton Abbey' Returns

It’s probably impossible to have avoided at least a casual acquaintance with Downton Abbey, the howlingly popular British period television series: The press loves it, and pop culture has embraced it, too. There’s no escaping this deluxe soap opera –  and you shouldn't want to. Read More | Comment »

1:35PM Fri. Jan. 4, Anne Harris

David Foster Wallace: The Last Interview

Melville House has a habit of publishing volumes like this. Read More | Comment »

1:55PM Wed. Dec. 26, 2012, Wayne Alan Brenner

Fran Lebowitz in Town Tonight

In Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese's 2010 portrait of the social commentator Fran Lebowitz, Nino Rota's 8 1/2 score is sprinkled throughout. You can't help but wonder if it's an affectionate goosing: The movie, after all, is about a crippling creative block, and Lebowitz famously shut down somewhere in the early Eighties. Read More | Comment »

9:25AM Wed. Nov. 14, 2012, Kimberley Jones

A Son Comes Out, and a Family Comes Together

I am my subconscious's bitch. Those were the open-wound words 13-year-old Joseph Schwartz shared with his dad, New York Times science reporter John Schwartz, two weeks before his failed suicide attempt. Read More | Comment »

11:40AM Thu. Oct. 25, 2012, Kimberley Jones

Cracks in the Ceiling

Last week the Chronicle sat down for a conversation with Jan Reid, author of the new biography, Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards. Read More | Comment »

9:00AM Thu. Oct. 25, 2012, Michael King

Do Not Miss This Deeply Inspiring Documentary

Earlier this year in a blog post about my piles of bedside books, I wrote of the profound experience and inspiration I gained from reading journalists and human rights activists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Read More | Comment »

10:09AM Tue. Oct. 2, 2012, Jessi Cape

'DKR: The Royal Scrapbook'

What does one buy for the grandpa that has 40 years worth of socks from grandma? How about a little reading material to go with his morning Folgers? Say, a handsome volume festooned with timeworn Longhorn football artifacts from the old timer’s day. Suck it, socks. Read More | Comment »

9:40AM Tue. Oct. 2, 2012, Russ Espinoza

Rockin' Rolls

It's awfully hard to screw up cinnamon rolls. But in her latest book, I Love Cinnamon Rolls!, BBQ Queen Judith Fertig proves that while there may not be a single way to do cinnamon rolls wrong, there's a helluva lot more ways to do them right than you might have thought. Read More | Comment »

1:11PM Wed. Sep. 12, 2012, Monica Riese

10 Ways To Recycle a Corpse

A lot of the books that come over the transom here at – Read More | Comment »

10:39AM Thu. Aug. 30, 2012, Wayne Alan Brenner

Damselflies on the Ceiling of Your Mind

Who is John Abbott? Read More | Comment »

10:14AM Mon. Aug. 13, 2012, Wayne Alan Brenner

'Texas Baseball' Marred by Errors

“In Texas, a lot of the first baseball games were played in pastures where sheep or cattle kept the grass at a playable level.” What a sound and evocative starting point in author Clay Coppedge’s swift account of America’s Pastime in the People’s Republic. Read More | Comment »

12:52PM Fri. Jun. 15, 2012, Russ Espinoza

The Kitchen Diva’s Diabetic Cookbook by Angela Shelf Medearis

I've long admired syndicated columnist/cookbook author/cooking teacher Angela Shelf Medearis for the multitude of her accomplishments, not to mention the fun and sassy attitude with which she invites readers and television viewers into the kitchen. Read More | Comment »

3:33PM Thu. Jun. 7, 2012, Virginia B. Wood

Summer Reading for Tiny Chefs

With school out and summer in full swing, the heat is on for new, fun kids’ activities. Books, gardening, and snacks are always a hit, and several new releases will help parents and caretakers entertain the littles this summer. Read More | Comment »

11:45AM Thu. May. 31, 2012, Jessi Cape

Fresh & Easy

What to Cook & How to Cook it: Fresh & Easy by Jane Hornby (Phaidon, $45, ppg. 351) Home cooked meals are always in season but there is something special about creating a meal using vibrant farmer’s market produce available in late spring and summer here in Austin. Read More | Comment »

11:00AM Thu. May. 31, 2012, Jessi Cape

From Baby Beef to Beyond

This year marked 75 years for Rodeo Austin – that shined-up chutes and scuffed-up boots other festival that happens every year during the same month as South by Southwest. To commemorate their place in the pantheon of Texas state/county fair culture, the group has released a book. Here's what it is, what it isn't, and what it could have been. Read More | Comment »

9:21AM Thu. Apr. 19, 2012, Kate X Messer

Jim Lahey's 'My Pizza'

My Pizza (by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste Clarkson Potter, 191 pp., $27.50) presents the “glorious peasant food” as a means for exploration of fine ingredients and world class technique, not at all the image of a hot greasy mess many legions of adoring pizza fans conjure. Read More | Comment »

10:19PM Wed. Mar. 28, 2012, Jessi Cape

« BACK
Page 1 of 3
NEXT »