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Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Time magazine replaces logo on cover for 1st time in nearly 100 years
The cover of Time magazine’s double issue that hits newsstands Friday will bear an important message in lieu of its famed logo — marking its first absence from the cover in nearly 100 years. The giant letters at the top of the cover instead read: “VOTE.” Edward Felsenthal, Time’s editor...
Founded in Wilkinsburg, Scholastic magazine celebrates 100 years of educating children
The first issue of Scholastic was born in Wilkinsburg on Oct. 22, 1920. Maurice R. “Robbie” Robinson started the publication as a four-page magazine about high school sports called The Western Pennsylvania Scholastic. The Wilkinsburg resident had just graduated from Dartmouth College, after spending more than a year in the...
Review: Cary Grant bio a perceptive look at captivating star
Self-trained English actor Archie Leach pulled off the role of a lifetime: becoming Hollywood legend Cary Grant. Why the child of a broken family hid behind the silver screen’s definition of easy charm and handsome masculinity is another story entirely. In “Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise,” the most entertaining and...
Stephen King’s thriller ‘Mr. Mercedes’ gets another chance
NEW YORK — One of Stephen King’s most creepy and tense stories was hiding in plain sight. “Mr. Mercedes” started life in 2017 as a broadcast offering on the AT&T-owned, DirecTV-exclusive Audience Network, only to be left marooned with an uncertain future after the obscure channel was shut down. The...
Freshen up your fall reading list with 6 new paperbacks
The leaves are turning, the air is crisper, the bookstores are open … and you need a new paperback, don’t you? Here are six freshly minted ones for fall reading. “No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History” by Gail Collins (Little, Brown, $18.99). Collins, a...
Review: New thriller ‘Goodnight Beautiful’ tweaks the ‘unreliable female narrator’
Early on in the deliciously twisty “Goodnight Beautiful,” one of the main characters, a charismatic guy who we’re getting the sense is being stalked by a fan, is reading Stephen King’s “Misery.” His wife, meanwhile, is reading “that thriller everyone’s talking about” with an unreliable female narrator. (Think “Gone Girl”...
American poet Louise Glück wins Nobel literature prize
STOCKHOLM — The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to American poet Louise Glück on Thursday “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” The prize was announced in Stockholm by Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy. New York-born Glück (pronouced “Glick”),...
Wilkinsburg writer Deesha Philyaw a finalist for National Book Awards
A Wilkinsburg woman well known for her writing about race, gender, parenting and culture is now receiving national recognition for her fiction. Deesha Philyaw is among five finalists in the fiction category of the National Book Awards for her story collection “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies,” her first book...
Pleasant Hills councilwoman publishes 2nd children’s book
A Pleasant Hills parent has penned a new children’s book that may be a treat for families this fall. “It’s Halloween,” the story of a boy excited about October and planning costumes with his mother, was independently published and released Sept. 29. It is part of a series of stories...
Latest banned books list topped by works delving into gender identity, LGBTQ issues
Horror master Stephen King, Judy Blume of young readers’ fame and Kurt Vonnegut, he of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” are out. The three renowned authors — whose works were on the American Library Association’s list of 100 most frequently banned and challenged books from 1990 until 2009 — apparently are no longer so...
Bob Woodward’s ‘Rage’ sells 600,000 copies in first week
NEW YORK — Bob Woodward’s “Rage” sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week of publication, continuing a yearlong wave of blockbuster books about President Donald Trump. Simon & Schuster announced Wednesday that Woodward’s book will be going into its fourth printing, with total books in print to be...
Review: 2 love affairs fuel ‘The Book of Two Ways’
Jodi Picoult’s “The Book of Two Ways” follows Dawn Edelstein, a death doula with a physicist husband and a teenage daughter. Dawn’s job is to help terminally ill patients and their loved ones transition from life to death. But before she was a death doula, she was a graduate student...
Lower Burrell author inspired by ‘Hunger Games’ series
A Lower Burrell author read Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games,” and its vibe became the inspiration for his first novel. J.D. Kellner, 34, is a Kittanning native who lives in Lower Burrell, has written five books, but this is his first published novel. The book, “The Cranes of Blackwell,” will officially...
Uninvited Pigeon invades author Mo Willems’ TV special
LOS ANGELES — Mo Willems is very serious about the importance of being silly. That’s apparent to the children and adults tickled by “There Is a Bird on Your Head!” or “We Are in a Book!” or any of the author and illustrator’s other much-loved works. But the former “Sesame...
Bob Woodward book: Trump said of coronavirus, ‘I wanted to always play it down’ 
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump talked privately about the severity of the coronavirus threat even as he was telling the nation that the virus was no worse than the seasonal flu and insisting that the U.S. government had it totally under control, according to a new book by journalist Bob...
Michael Cohen’s memoir casts him as ‘star witness’ against Trump
NEW YORK — Michael Cohen’s tell-all memoir makes the case that President Donald Trump is “guilty of the same crimes” that landed his former fixer in federal prison, offering a blow-by-blow account of Trump’s alleged role in a hush money scandal that once overshadowed his presidency. Of all the crises...
‘Superman’s Not Coming’: Erin Brockovich’s new book is about saving our drinking water
Erin Brockovich would be the first to acknowledge that her new book, “Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It” (Pantheon, $28.95), isn’t light reading. And not just because the chemistry involved goes well beyond H2O. “You have to like read a...
Chef and writer J. Kenji López-Alt cooks up a kid’s book
NEW YORK — Pipo is a young girl in a new book for kids who insists that pizza is the best food on Earth. Prompted by her mom to prove it, Pipo goes across her neighborhood testing alternatives: tagine, red beans and rice, bibimbap and dumplings. Her new conclusion: Pizza...
‘Hoax’ book reveals extent of internal unease at Fox News
Brian Stelter knows critics accuse Fox News of bending the truth in order to maintain its staunch support of and closeness to President Donald Trump. As CNN media reporter and host of “Reliable Sources,” he’s often one of them. He wasn’t prepared to hear the extent of concerns about the...
Family-owned book retailer to close 8 stores, including 1 in Pittsburgh Mills mall 
The Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer is losing yet another tenant. Bradley’s Book Outlet, a discount book retailer based in Blawnox, announced this week it is closing all eight of its brick-and-mortar stores, including the one in the Mills mall, because of the coronavirus pandemic and the viability of the...
Sharon Stone writes memoir that doesn’t ‘pull any punches’
Sharon Stone has taken on a new, real-life role — memoir writer. “I have learned to forgive the unforgivable,” says Stone, whose “The Beauty of Living Twice” comes out in March. “My hope is that as I share my journey, you too will learn to do the same.” Alfred A....
Pandemic parody of ‘Goodnight Moon’ to be released in fall
A popular online spoof of the children’s favorite “Goodnight Moon,” reworked for the coronavirus, will be published by Penguin Random House this fall. The Penguin imprint Philomel Books announced Monday that “Good Morning Zoom,” written by Lindsay Rechler and illustrated by June Park, is scheduled for Oct. 6. Currently self-published,...
Book Review: Hank Phillippi Ryan teeters on the improbable
The first liar we meet in Hank Phillippi Ryan’s “First to Lie” is Nora, a pharmaceutical representative whose job is to push Monifan, a drug that can increase fertility in women who have difficulty conceiving. But Nora is secretly pursuing her own agenda. Next come Ellie, an investigative reporter, and...
Rescued Sewickley dog who inspires children’s books to ‘pawtagraph’ latest work in McCandless 
Tyrion Pittister — a rescued pit bull who inspired two children’s books — will be on hand at the McCandless Crossing shopping center Aug. 8 to “pawtagraph” copies of his latest publication, “Tyrion’s Town.” The pet-friendly event is one of several planned this summer and fall to celebrate the opening...
Rift between royal brothers laid bare in new book extract
LONDON — Prince William infuriated Prince Harry when he told his younger brother he should move slowly in his relationship with the former Meghan Markle, fearing that he was being “blindsided by lust,” a new book on the Windsors says. The second installment of a serialized version of the book...


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