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Articles by James L Traylor
'Spillane' bio spotlights art & style of crime fiction icon Original
BOOK REVIEW “Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction” By Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor Mysterious Press, $26.95 Grade: A In fiction an “unreliable narrator” can’t be trusted as he or she spins the story at hand. In real life the term “fabulist” is used by those seeking a softer word than “liar.” Friends of the popular crime writer Mickey Spillane noted that Spillane could pile the tall tales pretty high when talking about his own life, a character trait they acknowledged with fondness.
The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China by James M Zimmerman
James M. Zimmerman. PublicAffairs, $30 (352p) ISBN 978-1-5417-0170-0 This gripping debut history from Beijing-based lawyer Zimmerman recounts the 1923 raid on a luxury train by Chinese bandits and the ensuing 37-day hostage standoff. Seeking to “fight back against the warlords and business interests that extracted local resources” from Shantung province, ex-soldier Sun Mei-yao and his bandit troops derailed the train just south of the town of Lincheng.
How Not to Kill Yourself
Clancy Martin. Pantheon, $30 (464p) ISBN 978-0-593-31705-1 Philosopher and novelist Martin (How to Sell) delivers a disturbing and transfixing dissection of suicide and its circumstances.
Tweakerworld by Jason Yamas
Jason Yamas. Unnamed Press, $28 (288p) ISBN 978-1-95121-370-1 Documentarian Yamas, a “boring middleclass white boy from the suburbs,” falls into a world of meth, the hedonistic “parTy n’ play” queer subculture, and drug dealing in this turbulent memoir. Thirty years old in 2016, newly addicted, and convinced his drug-addled descent will be worthy of film, Yamas defends his lifestyle even as his personal and professional relationships dissolve.
The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Valuable, Important Profession
Alexandra Robbins. Dutton, $29 (384p) ISBN 978-1-101-98675-2 Journalist and substitute teacher Robbins (The Nurses) offers a poignant, behind-the-scenes exploration of America’s public schools focused on three teachers in different regions of the country. Miguel, a middle-school special education teacher in the West, advocates for his students against a hostile school board.
The Windsors at War: The King, His Brother, and a Family Divided by Alexander Larman
Alexander Larman.
Countdown to Dallas: The Incredible Coincidences, Routines, and Blind “Luck” That Brought John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald Together on November 22, 1963 by Paul Brandus
Paul Brandus. Post Hill, $30 (256p) ISBN 978-1-63758-194-0 USA Today columnist Brandus (Under this Roof) debunks conspiracy theories surrounding JFK’s assassination in this persuasive if somewhat ponderous history. Drawing on recently declassified documents, Brandus characterizes Lee Harvey Oswald as a violent, politically extreme, and mentally disturbed man.
Out in L.A.: The Red Hot Chili Peppers 1983
Hamish Duncan. Chicago Review, $30 (336p) ISBN 978-1-64160-801-5 The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ scrappy, shirtless, and occasionally pantsless early days in Los Angeles are commemorated in this obsessive history. Duncan, editor of the band’s live archive website, tracks the Peppers from their first show in December of 1982 to their breakthrough a year later when bassist Flea and front man Anthony Kiedis signed with a label (and guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons quit).
Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It
Janina Ramirez. Hanover Square, $29.99 (464p) ISBN 978-1-335-49852-6 Historian Ramirez (Julian of Norwich) spotlights in this vibrant and accessible account remarkable medieval women including polymath Hildegard of Bingen and Margery Kempe, author of the first autobiography written in English.
The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit
Aja Raden. St Martin’s, $28.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-27202-7 “Why do people believe what they believe,” asks historian Raden (Stoned) in this entertaining survey of “famous swindles.” Each chapter is dedicated to an infamous trick—among them Orson Welles’s 1938 The War of the Worlds broadcast that led listeners to believe aliens had invaded Earth, and the way Rasputin convinced the Russian czar that he had magical healing powers—and illustrates why people fall for lies.
THE WOMAN WHO DEFIED KINGS: The Life and Times of Doa Gracia Nasi—a Jewish Leader During the Renaissance by Andree Aelion Brooks
Andree Aelion Brooks, . . Paragon House, $29.95 (614pp) ISBN 978-1-55778-805-4 In an assiduously researched biography of a 16th-century Jewish woman who managed a powerful business empire, Brooks, an associate fellow at Yale, has illuminated a mostly forgotten corner of history.
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