Entertainer David Newell — better known to audiences as "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" resident deliveryman Mr. McFeely — talks with Speaking Volumes about biographies, his own literary future and the reading habits of his lifelong friend Fred Rogers.
Lee Child, “Killing Floor”
Welcome to Margrave, Georgia—but don’t get too attached to the townsfolk, who are either in on a giant conspiracy, or hurtling toward violent deaths, or both.
There’s not much of a welcome for Jack Reacher, a casualty of the Army’s peace dividend who’s drifted into town idly looking for traces of a long dead black jazzman. Not only do the local cops arrest him for murder, but the chief of police turns eyewitness to place him on the scene, even though Reacher was getting on a bus in Tampa at the time. Two surprises follow: The murdered man wasn’t the only victim, and he was Reacher’s brother whom he hadn’t seen in seven years. So Reacher, who so far hasn’t had anything personal against the crooks who set him up for a weekend in the state pen at Warburton, clicks into overdrive.
Despite the crude, tough-naïf narration, debut novelist Child serves up a big, rangy plot, menace as palpable as a ticking bomb, and enough battered corpses to make an undertaker grin.
~LeeChild.com
Agatha Christie, “And Then There Were None”
Agatha Christie, the acknowledged mistress of suspense—creator of indomitable sleuth Miss Marple, meticulous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and so many other unforgettable characters—brings her entire oeuvre of ingenious whodunits, locked room mysteries, and perplexing puzzles to Harper Paperbacks…including And Then There Were None, the world’s bestselling mystery, in which ten strangers, each with a dark secret, are lured to a mansion on an uninhabited island and killed off one by one.
~HarperCollins
"This is a riotous story which is reasonably mad and as accurate as a Marx brother can make it. Despite only a year and a half of schooling, Harpo, or perhaps his collaborator, is the best writer of the Marx Brother. Highly recommended." (Library Journal) "A funny, affectionate and unpretentious autobiography done with a sharply professional assist from Rowland Barber." (New York Times Book Review)
~Amazon
Gloria Swanson, “Swanson on Swanson”
Once the most famous woman in the world, she still found time to be a loving mother. Worshipped by the world's most dynamic men on screen, and off, and adored by no less than six husbands, directed by such powerhouses as Chaplin, DeMille, Stroheim, Billy Wilder, she surrendered her will to no man. Offered a million-plus tax free dollars by Paramount, she defied the studio to become her own boss. Surviving scandal, disaster, near-death and the collapse of that wonderland called Hollywood - alive, extraordinary, triumphant - this is Gloria Swanson!
~Amazon
William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing”
Set in a courtly world of masked revels and dances, this play turns on the archetypal story if a lady falsely accused of unfaithfulness, spurned by her bridegroom, and finally vindicated and reunited with him. Villainy, schemes, and deceit threatens to darken the brilliant humor and sparkling wordplay—but the hilarious counterplot of a warring couple, Beatrice and Benedick, steals the scene as the two are finally tricked into admitting their love for each other in Shakespeare's superb comedy of manners.
~Random House
Eugene O’Neill “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”
Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as his finest work. First published by Yale University Press in 1956, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and has since sold more than one million copies. This edition, which includes a new foreword by Harold Bloom, coincides with a new production of the play starring Brian Dennehy, which opens in Chicago in January 2002 and in New York in April.
~Amazon
