Books

Erin Hooley/Standard-Examiner 
Davis High School basketball players Nate Pollard (right) and Zac Fuller high-five first-graders Tuesday at Windridge Elementary School in Kaysville. The team read books then them to the first-grade classrooms.

Tall tale tellers: Davis High basketball team takes reading talents to elementary school

KAYSVILLE -- Members of the Davis High School boys basketball team made the chairs in teacher Shelley Street's first-grade classroom look like dollhouse furniture.

WSU to host talk on slavery, Constitution

OGDEN — Weber State University will host a talk, “Weber Reads: Slavery and the Constitution,” at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room.

This free presentation will feature Adrienne Gillespie, WSU’s Center for Diversity & Unity coordinator.

Call 801-626-7613 for information.

Weber State is at 3848 Harrison Blvd.

William Howard Taft back on political stage in a big way

"TAFT 2012: A NOVEL." By Jason Keller. Quirk Books. $14.95.

WASHINGTON -- William Howard Taft was a supersized man who many contend left a puny legacy, but the nation's 27th president changes the shape of things to come in the world imagined by Jason Heller in "Taft 2012: A Novel."

'Chopsticks' a 21st-century novel

"CHOPSTICKS." By Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral. Razorbill. $19.99. 12 and older.

The first indication that "Chopsticks" is significantly more than just a novel is its trailer, which encourages readers to watch, listen, feel, look, discover, view and imagine. All of those activities are not only encouraged but enabled in this ambitious and hefty tome that works as a sort of interactive scrapbook. An exercise in multimedia storytelling, "Chopsticks" is a book, but it's also an iPhone and iPad app peppered with videos, songs and instant messages that bring the story to life in a way that isn't possible with words alone.

Bookmarks

* Weber Reads the Founders and Their Documents continues at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday with "Slavery and the Constitution," a lecture presented by Adrienne Gillespie, coordinator for Center for Diversity & Unity at Weber State University. The event is free in the Hetzel-Hoellein Room of the Stewart Library, WSU, 3848 Harrison Blvd., Ogden.

Best-sellers

The Mountains and Plains Indie Bestseller List, provided by IndieBound and MPIBA, for the week ended Sunday, Jan. 29. Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the MPIBA and IndieBound.

Black history told in images, essays

"LIFE UPON THESE SHORES: LOOKING AT AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY 1513-2008." By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Knopf. $50.

222The great strength of "Life Upon These Shores" is the "abundance of images" that Gates, the editor-curator, and his team of associates have woven into this book. with more than 700 photos, maps, illustrations, posters and cartoons.

'Pineapple Grenade' a slap-happy romp

"PINEAPPLE GRENADE." By Tim Dorsey. Morrow. $24.99.

At this point in Tim Dorsey's comic series about a serial killer who wreaks havoc on those who don't respect Florida or its history, the Tampa, Fla., author could easily give up any pretense of a plot.

Bookmarks

* It is difficult to disconnect in today's world with smartphones, tablets, e-readers and laptops demanding our attention. William Powers, author of the New York Times bestseller "Hamlet's Blackberry," will offer the audience advice on how to balance their digital lives during a presentation this week at Weber State University.

Rebuilding a life amid a stunning landscape

"THE ROPE." by Nevada Barr. Minotaur. $25.99.

Since 1993, Nevada Barr has given readers solid, intriguing tours of America's national parks from Texas to Michigan to the Florida Keys, including an urban national park in New Orleans, via her series heroine, park ranger Anna Pigeon. In this series, readers have been swept up by the vistas, the breathtaking beauty of nature and by the ruthlessness of man. The petite Anna -- fearless, resilient, insightful -- has proven to be an exceptional guide.

'The Odds' explores a broken marriage and desperate choice

"THE ODDS." By Stewart O'Nan. Viking. $25.95.

Stewart O'Nan doesn't write sweeping epics, doesn't delve into places far away or times long past. Instead, he peers deeply into the personal -- the real lives of real people, their dreams and fears, their triumphs, however small, and their failings, however petty. In these lives, he teases out larger truths, the truths we can all relate to, even if we haven't shared the experience.

Teen struggles in space in action-packed sequel

"A MILLION SUNS." By Beth Revis. Razorbill. $18.99. 12 and older.

More than 80 years ago, Aldous Huxley imagined a genetically engineered society whose inhabitants were willfully drugged into submission. In the "Across the Universe" trilogy, Beth Revis takes that pioneering concept and sets it afloat in space with a cast of cloned and cryogenically frozen characters who, in the second installment of this bestselling sci-fi series, become increasingly mutinous.

'Lunatics' a mystery romp with lots of laughs

"LUNATICS." By Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel. Putnam. $25.95.

The aptly named "Lunatics" delivers exactly what one would expect from two award-winning humorists: an outrageously funny, irreverent, over-the-top comic mystery that has no boundaries.

How funny is "Lunatics?"

'Running the Rift' finds hope amid horrors of war

"RUNNING THE RIFT." By Naomi Benaron. Algonquin Books. $24.95.

When a book wins an award for promoting social justice -- in this case, the Bellwether Prize, established by writer Barbara Kingsolver -- one might expect it to be heavy-handed or preachy.

Book offers behind-the-scenes view of 'Downton Abbey'

"THE WORLD OF DOWNTON ABBEY." By Jessica Fellowes. St. Martin's. $29.99.

The wise Lord Grantham suggests that we all have "chapters we would rather keep unpublished." So true. But what we're happy to see published is "The World of Downton Abbey," a fascinating companion to the hit PBS series about an aristocratic family and their army of servants.

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