“Not Dead Yet” (Crown Archetype, $28)Phil Collins is arching an eyebrow on the cover of his new memoir, as if to let you know he’s in on the joke. The book is called “Not Dead Yet,” a rather wry declaration from one of pop music’s most buoyant hitmakers, who’s not exactly wizened at 65.“Well, my health seems to have been the subject of much speculation in certain parts of the press,” Collins told the Times, alluding to his hearing loss and the chronic upper-body pain that has left him walking wi

 “The Girl Who Escaped ISIS” by Farida Khalaf and Andrea Hoffmann, translated from German by Jamie BullochAtria Books (240 pages, $24)Amid the endless war news streaming out of Syria, the need for moral clarity in the conflict is running high.Farida Khalaf’s story offers it explicitly. Khalaf was a math whiz and a soldier‘s daughter who was 19 years old when she was captured and sold into sexual slavery by the Islamic State extremist group in 2014.Her first-person account, narrated in “The Girl

“Words on the Move: Why English Won’t -- and Can’t -- Sit Still (Like, Literally)” By John McWhorter Henry Holt and Co. (272 pages, $28)John McWhorter’s breezy “Words on the Move” is the umpteenth attempt to put to death the stubborn misconception that language change is a sign of intellectual laziness and cultural rot.It’s not even McWhorter’s first attempt -- his “Myths, Lies and Half-Truths of Language Usage” remains a go-to reference -- but this time the Columbia University linguist alights

Exuding youthful exuberance and expectations, American cartoonist Jeff Kinney decided to make a living sketching comics while in college. Majoring in computer science at the University of Maryland, Kinney’s inner soul was tilted toward the stuff of children, the wondrous imagination of a kid growing up in a small town in Maryland.He started drawing comic strips for a college newspaper, and after graduation, sent submission packets to cartoon syndicates. Jeff Kinney, author of children’s classic

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shirley Hazzard, an award-winning novelist who wrote of love affairs disrupted and intensified by age, distance and war, has died at age 85.　Hazzard had been in failing health and died Monday at her home in Manhattan, according to her friend Frances Alston. The Australian-born Hazzard had lived in New York City for decades, but also had spent time in Hong Kong, Britain, New Zealand and Italy, an international perspective shared by her characters.　She was a writer of predigital t

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea has announced the winners of translation awards that recognize their role in the promotion of Korean literature worldwide. The awards, which will be given out during a ceremony Thursday, include the LTI Korea Translation Awards, the LTI Award for Aspiring Translators and the LTI Korea Outstanding Service Awards.The translation awards went to Deborah Smith, an English translator and joint winner of this year’s Man Booker International Prize, for her w

TOKYO (AP) -- Haruki Murakami’s new novel is set for release in Japan in February -- and that’s about as much as his fans are being told.Publisher Shinchosha Publishing Co. made the announcement Wednesday. The book’s title, theme and exact date of release remain a mystery.The publisher showed two blank white books on its website with the message, “Haruki Murakami’s new novel coming soon in February 2017.”Murakami’s longer novels have been released in multiple short volumes in Japanese.A very str

MADRID (AP) -- Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza has won the 2016 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor, for bringing a “new narrative style to Spanish fiction.”Education and Culture Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo announced the prize Wednesday, saying that beginning with Mendoza’s 1975 novel, “La Verdad Sobre el Caso Savolta (The Truth about the Savolta Case),” the author had reinvented Spanish fiction. He said Mendoza’s books are “full of subtlety and irony.”Several

“Napoleon's Last Island” By Thomas KeneallyAtria Books (423 pages, $30) Australian Thomas Keneally, author of “Schindler’s List” and 2013’s brilliant “The Daughters of Mars,” is one of the finest living English-language writers. His sprawling new novel tries to do what he has done well so many times -- set real and fictional characters in a real time and place and use their story to illuminate the era. This time, he has chosen a titan -- Napoleon -- and set him in a miniature world, the remote A

“Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack” By Steve TwomeySimon & Schuster (416 pages, $30) As Hollywood regularly reminds us, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, was an act of duplicity so monstrous that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it a “day which will live in infamy.”Japanese warplanes appeared without warning early that Sunday, sinking or disabling 16 US battleships, cruisers and other warships. The sneak attack killed more than 2,400 Amer

“The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World”By Abigail TuckerSimon & Schuster (237 pages, $26)I read much of Abigail Tucker's “The Lion in the Living Room,” appropriately, with a cat on my lap. And though I sat quietly, she did not: sometimes perching on the arm of my chair, staring vaguely but fixedly into space while her tail blocked the pages; sometimes jumping out of my lap and noisily racing around the room for no apparent reason; sometimes launching into a

“Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire” By Coll ThrushYale University Press (328 pages, $38)Vancouver-based scholar and author Coll Thrush cleverly spins history's lens with “Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire.”Thrush, author of the 2008 volume “Native Seattle,” is clear about his aim for both books.By showing us how Inuit, Ojibwe, Maori, Salish and other peoples interacted with and viewed the seat of the former British Empire, Thrush hopes to “indige

“Settle for More” By Megyn KellyHarper (352 pages, $18) This was supposed to be the Year of the Woman. Instead, 2016 has shaped up to be the Year of Powerful Men and the Women They Demeaned, Harassed or Worse. The charges against Bill Cosby, the fall of Fox’s Roger Ailes and the rise of President-elect Donald Trump all contributed to that distinction.It's no surprise, then, that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s new book, “Settle for More,” gives a behind-the-scenes look at her dealings with two of

“Faithful” By Alice HoffmanSimon & Schuster (272 pages, $26) Shelby is that girl in high school -- the smart one who seems popular and happy when basking in the reflected glow of her best friend, with whom she has glided through life without a care.It all changes in their senior year, when Shelby’s beautiful, bossy friend Helene bullies Shelby into driving to a boy’s house one cold winter night. He wants to break up with Helene, and she wants to get revenge by throwing a brick through his window