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May 24, 2012
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Now available in paperback, singer/songwriter/producer/political activist/actor/author Steve Earle’s debut novel, I’LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE, brings to life an obscure piece of music history.  Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williams. Literally. In 1963, ten years after he may have given Hank the morphine shot that killed him, Doc has lost his license. Living in the red-light district of San Antonio, he performs abortions and patches up the odd knife wound to feed his addiction. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighborhood in search of Doc’s services, miraculous things begin to happen. Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except, maybe, for Hank’s angry ghost—who isn’t at all pleased to see Doc doing well.  “Earle’s writing never lacks heart.” —New York Times Book Review  “As he does in his songs, Earle finds the tenuous points of emotional connection between characters who are living not only on the edges of their own ability to cope, but often on the very margins of society itself.” —Rolling Stone 

Now available in paperback, singer/songwriter/producer/political activist/actor/author Steve Earle’s debut novel, I’LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE, brings to life an obscure piece of music history. 

Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williams. Literally.

In 1963, ten years after he may have given Hank the morphine shot that killed him, Doc has lost his license. Living in the red-light district of San Antonio, he performs abortions and patches up the odd knife wound to feed his addiction. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighborhood in search of Doc’s services, miraculous things begin to happen. Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except, maybe, for Hank’s angry ghost—who isn’t at all pleased to see Doc doing well. 

“Earle’s writing never lacks heart.” —New York Times Book Review 
“As he does in his songs, Earle finds the tenuous points of emotional connection between characters who are living not only on the edges of their own ability to cope, but often on the very margins of society itself.” —Rolling Stone 

Tags: steve earle I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive may 22

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May 23, 2012
1 note
In today’s economy, it’s not necessarily what you do or who you know—it’s where you live. In THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF JOBS, Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti reveals a a new landscape that’s benefiting centers of innovation like San Francisco, Boston, Austin, and Durham. But the winners and losers aren’t necessarily who you’d expect. Moretti’s groundbreaking research shows that you don’t have to be a scientist or an engineer to thrive in one of these brain hubs. The main beneficiaries are the workers who support the “idea-creators”—the carpenters, hair stylists, personal trainers, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. In fact, Moretti has shown that for every new innovation job in a city, five additional non-innovation jobs are created, and those workers earn higher salaries than their counterparts in other urban areas. Live in one of these places and you will almost certainly be healthier and wealthier, even if you don’t own a start-up. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. As the global economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing to innovation, geography was supposed to matter less. But the pundits were wrong. A new map is being drawn and it’s not about red vs. blue or rich vs. poor. The rise of the hubs is causing huge geographic disparities in education, wealth, life expectancy, and political engagement. Dealing with this split—encouraging growth in the hubs while arresting the decline elsewhere—will be the challenge of the century, and  THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF JOBS lights the way. Read an excerpt. 

In today’s economy, it’s not necessarily what you do or who you know—it’s where you live.

In THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF JOBS, Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti reveals a a new landscape that’s benefiting centers of innovation like San Francisco, Boston, Austin, and Durham. But the winners and losers aren’t necessarily who you’d expect. Moretti’s groundbreaking research shows that you don’t have to be a scientist or an engineer to thrive in one of these brain hubs. The main beneficiaries are the workers who support the “idea-creators”—the carpenters, hair stylists, personal trainers, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. In fact, Moretti has shown that for every new innovation job in a city, five additional non-innovation jobs are created, and those workers earn higher salaries than their counterparts in other urban areas. Live in one of these places and you will almost certainly be healthier and wealthier, even if you don’t own a start-up.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. As the global economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing to innovation, geography was supposed to matter less. But the pundits were wrong. A new map is being drawn and it’s not about red vs. blue or rich vs. poor. The rise of the hubs is causing huge geographic disparities in education, wealth, life expectancy, and political engagement. Dealing with this split—encouraging growth in the hubs while arresting the decline elsewhere—will be the challenge of the century, and  THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF JOBS lights the way.
Read an excerpt. 

Tags: enrico moretti may 22 the new geography of jobs

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May 22, 2012
1 note
Available today from Paul Theroux, the master of travel writing, THE LOWER RIVER is a ”riveting” and “provocative” (New York Times Book Review) novel of Western illusions and African reality. Ellis Hock never believed that he would return to Africa. He runs an old-fashioned menswear store in a small town in Massachusetts but still dreams of his Eden, the four years he spent in Malawi with the Peace Corps, cut short when he had to return to take over the family business. When his wife leaves him, and he is on his own, he realizes that there is one place for him to go: back to his village in Malawi, on the remote Lower River, where he can be happy again. Arriving at the dusty village, he finds it transformed: the school he built is a ruin, the church and clinic are gone, and poverty and apathy have set in among the people. They remember him—the White Man with no fear of snakes—and welcome him. But is his new life, his journey back, an escape or a trap? Interweaving memory and desire, hope and despair, salvation and damnation, this is a hypnotic, compelling, and brilliant return to a terrain about which no one has ever written better than Theroux. Read an excerpt.

Available today from Paul Theroux, the master of travel writing, THE LOWER RIVER is a ”riveting” and “provocative” (New York Times Book Review) novel of Western illusions and African reality.

Ellis Hock never believed that he would return to Africa. He runs an old-fashioned menswear store in a small town in Massachusetts but still dreams of his Eden, the four years he spent in Malawi with the Peace Corps, cut short when he had to return to take over the family business. When his wife leaves him, and he is on his own, he realizes that there is one place for him to go: back to his village in Malawi, on the remote Lower River, where he can be happy again.

Arriving at the dusty village, he finds it transformed: the school he built is a ruin, the church and clinic are gone, and poverty and apathy have set in among the people. They remember him—the White Man with no fear of snakes—and welcome him. But is his new life, his journey back, an escape or a trap?

Interweaving memory and desire, hope and despair, salvation and damnation, this is a hypnotic, compelling, and brilliant return to a terrain about which no one has ever written better than Theroux.

Read an excerpt.

Tags: books lit paul theroux pub day the lower river may 22