Joanna Poncavage

Longmire Lives: Continuing Craig Johnson’s Saga

Never underestimate the power of a long, tall cowboy with a big hat and a big heart. Depth of Winter (Viking Books), the 14th book in Craig Johnson’s Longmire series debuted at No. 5 on the New York Times Bestseller list, attesting to the popularity of crime novels set in remote, fictional…

Joanna PoncavageSeptember 28, 2018

BooksToScreen Fiction Miscellany Pop Culture

Two New Movies Prove Appeal of “Little Women”

What can a 150-year-old novel still offer up to readers in the digitally enhanced 21st century? As proof of the timeless appeal of Little Women (Bantam Classics), the new movie in theaters Sept. 28 is the 7th film version of the classic. It’s a modern retelling: Newbie director Clare Niederpruem brings Meg,…

Joanna PoncavageSeptember 27, 2018

BooksToScreen Fiction Miscellany Pop Culture

Book-to-Screen on Trials of Bookshop Ownership

If you have read The Bookshop (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Penelope Fitzgerald, you will want to see the movie to answer some questions: How can a movie portray a book’s delicately described inner states? How can subtle emotions and flitting feelings be shown on the screen? And if you have seen…

Joanna PoncavageSeptember 14, 2018

BooksToScreen Fiction Miscellany Pop Culture Thrillers

Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto” Now an Operatic Movie

In Italian, “bel canto” means “beautiful singing.” Readers of Ann Patchett’s 2001 novel, Bel Canto (Harper Perennial) could only imagine the music that is so crucial to its plot. No longer. The romantic thriller now has an operatic soundtrack of classic arias. The new movie version, in wide release Sept. 14,…

Joanna PoncavageSeptember 12, 2018

Miscellany Pop Culture

Colette’s Rules: Her 10 Tips for Success as Movie Debuts

“Colette,” the movie starring Keira Knightley as the tradition-smashing French writer, comes to theaters Sept. 21. It’s a well-done period biopic with a great pedigree: Director Wash Westmoreland and his late husband Richard Glatzer, who worked together on “Still Alice,” wrote the screenplay. After its premiere earlier this year at…

Joanna PoncavageSeptember 10, 2018

Fiction

“There There” Offers Visceral Vision of Urban Indian Life

There There (Knopf) by Tommy Orange tells the stories of 12 people of Native American descent in Oakland, California, Deep East Oakland, that is, where crime is so rampant a failing mall has been turned into a police station. Like more than half of all Native Americans today, they are urban…

Joanna PoncavageAugust 23, 2018

Nonfiction

How Oxenberg Saved Her Daughter from Cult Clutches

Sometimes a book is ripped from the headlines. Sometimes it’s the other way around. Captive (Gallery Books), a blow-by-blow account of actress Catherine Oxenberg’s determination to save her daughter and bring down the Nxivm sex cult, reads like fiction. But you can’t make a story like this up. Oxenberg says Nxivm brainwashed…

Joanna PoncavageAugust 20, 2018

Nonfiction

“Just The Funny Parts:” One Woman’s Mark on TV Comedy

A woman walks into a room. She’s the only female comedy writer there. She leans in, writes a funny book, and has the last laugh. Lots of laughs. Just the Funny Parts (Dey Street Books) is Nell Scovell’s story of how she went from wise-cracking kid to writing for David Letterman to…

Joanna PoncavageAugust 16, 2018

Miscellany

Nick Drasno’s “Sabrina” Makes Graphic Novel History

It’s the story of a young woman’s murder, and how the crime and its aftermath rock the fragile lives of those who knew her. Not necessarily an unusually rare storyline. Yet for Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina (Drawn and Quarterly), there is something totally unique: it takes its place as the first graphic…

Joanna PoncavageAugust 13, 2018

Fiction Miscellany Pop Culture Thrillers

An Obama/Biden Caper You Could Not Have Imagined

Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer (Quirk Books), a work of fiction, may bring tears to your eyes. Yes, it’s that good of a whodunit, with its plot tied up neatly with no loose ends. You may laugh until you cry because this book is that funny. But mostly, you…

Joanna PoncavageJuly 2, 2018

Thrillers

4 Indie Bookstores Offer Their Top Suspense Reads

Sunscreen? Check. Swim suit? Check. Summer suspense? Grab some of these. There’s nothing like a good, gripping tale to help you unwind. We randomly polled four independent bookstores that specialize in murder and mayhem about new bestsellers in the suspense category. Surprisingly, there were no overlaps as each store named…

Joanna PoncavageJune 28, 2018

Miscellany Nonfiction Pop Culture

Strange Stars: A Must-Read For Sci-Fi and Pop Music Fans

At the time, Bowie was just a skinny singer with a dream, and a penchant for science fiction. After identifying with Robert Heinlein’s novel Starman Jones, about an Ozark farm boy who wants to go to space, Bowie devoured Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov and all that the Golden…

Joanna PoncavageJune 21, 2018

Fiction

“Ohio” by Stephen Markley Introduces New Voice(s) in American Fiction

Ohio by Stephen Markley (Simon & Schuster) deserves to be only the first of a series because its characters are worth more than one book, and the story of their America is worth more than one look. This sprawling, spiraling novel begins one summer night in 2013, as four former…

Joanna PoncavageJune 13, 2018

Fiction

Comic Thriller “Death and Taxes” Pits an IRS Repo Squad Against the Mongolian Mob, Radioactive Cows and a Murderous Eunuch

Mark Douglas is an IRS accountant, a former Marine content to hide out in his cubicle and audit suspicious tax returns. His latent thirst for action is satisfied by occasional forays into the field, armed with tear gas, a bull horn, and a rental truck to haul in whatever pays…

Joanna PoncavageMay 30, 2018

Fiction

Annihilation: Sci-Fi Thriller Starring Natalie Portman Has Scary Monsters, But Maybe Not the Kind You Expect

With apologies to Natalie Portman, the star of Alex Garland’s upcoming Paramount movie, Annihilation, has to be the primal forces of nature itself. The film is an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's Nebula Award-winning book, Annihilation, which is about a strange coastal locale known as Area X, enclosed by a guarded…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 27, 2018

Fiction

The Daughter Who Slipped Away: Thomas Jefferson, Race, Class and the Search for a President’s Lost Family

Now to the family archives comes a new book, Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison, a professor of American history at Villanova University. “Their lives provide a unique vantage point by which to study the complicated American Revolution itself,” said Kerrison at the…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 27, 2018

Joanna Poncavage

Longmire Lives: Continuing Craig Johnson’s Saga

Two New Movies Prove Appeal of “Little Women”

Book-to-Screen on Trials of Bookshop Ownership

Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto” Now an Operatic Movie

Colette’s Rules: Her 10 Tips for Success as Movie Debuts

“There There” Offers Visceral Vision of Urban Indian Life

How Oxenberg Saved Her Daughter from Cult Clutches

“Just The Funny Parts:” One Woman’s Mark on TV Comedy

Nick Drasno’s “Sabrina” Makes Graphic Novel History

An Obama/Biden Caper You Could Not Have Imagined

4 Indie Bookstores Offer Their Top Suspense Reads

Strange Stars: A Must-Read For Sci-Fi and Pop Music Fans

“Ohio” by Stephen Markley Introduces New Voice(s) in American Fiction

Comic Thriller “Death and Taxes” Pits an IRS Repo Squad Against the Mongolian Mob, Radioactive Cows and a Murderous Eunuch

Annihilation: Sci-Fi Thriller Starring Natalie Portman Has Scary Monsters, But Maybe Not the Kind You Expect

The Daughter Who Slipped Away: Thomas Jefferson, Race, Class and the Search for a President’s Lost Family

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