BALTIMORE (AP) ― Is the “Poe Toaster” nevermore?For decades, a mysterious man left three roses and cognac on Edgar Allan Poe’s grave to mark the anniversary of the writer’s birth. But after the visitor, dubbed the “Poe Toaster,” failed to appear two years in a row, Poe fans are planning one last vigil this week before calling an end to the annual Jan. 19 tradition.The gothic master’s tales of the macabre still connect with readers more than 200 years after his birth, including his most famous po

Thirty years ago, Sara Paretsky published a crime novel about a character that until then hadn‘t really existed: the tough, wise-cracking female private investigator. “In Indemnity Only” -- an anniversary edition is due to be published this year -- she introduced the world to V.I. Warshawski, the Polish-American detective in Chicago with a law degree, a way with a gun and a taste for a stiff drink and an attractive man.“It’s hard to believe it‘s been 30 years,” admits Paretsky, 64, whose latest

Connie Rice is known in Los Angeles as a brilliant civil rights advocate and agitator, but people farther afield have often confused her with Condi, the former secretary of State. Connie narrowly escaped being Condoleezza, a family name; the two Rices are second cousins (and hold disparate political beliefs). Connie Rice dispenses with any confusion in the first pages of her memoir “Power Concedes Nothing” so she can get down to the business of telling her story.That story begins with a family h

New BooksLast installment of ‘Child 44’ trilogy disappointsAgent 6By Tom Rob Smith(Hachette)There are two books fighting for attention in Tom Rob Smith‘s latest novel, and the fact that one of them is fairly compelling isn’t enough to prevent “Agent 6” from becoming something of a mess. The third and final work in what has been up to this point a bracing, original series, “Agent 6” turns out to be a disappointment. It‘s overcrowded with plotlines and stretches over too long of a timeline to sust

 

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun, the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard once said. It’s also the formula for a best-selling book of portraits of American women and the guns in their lives.Saucily titled but seriously presented, “Chicks with Guns” is going into its third printing, after selling about 12,000 copies since its October 1 release ― and no-one is more surprised than the photographer herself.“I’m absolutely astonished, and actually slightly perplexed,”

HONG KONG (AFP) - Indian writers have dominated the shortlist of authors competing for Asia‘s top literary prize, with a debut Pakistani novelist also among those vying for the $30,000 award.An unprecedented seven authors, including three from India and writers from Pakistan, South Korea, Japan and China, will compete for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize after judges expanded the shortlist from its usual five. BBC correspondent Razia Iqbal, who heads the judging panel, said in a statement Tuesd

WASHINGTON (AP) -- First lady Michelle Obama is a behind-the-scenes force in the White House whose opinions on policy and politics drew her into conflict with presidential advisers and who bristled at some of the demands and constraints of life as the president's wife, according to a detailed accoun