Speed Reads
Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasure of a Handmade Life By Jenna Woginrich, Out Dec. 1 A city girl documents her journey from a desk job to a life of self-reliance on a small homestead in Northern Idaho where she trades in consumer culture for raising chickens, growing vegetables and churning her own butter. There are bound to be fantastic hints in here for the budget-tightening going on these fantastic economic timesmaybe even some Meghan Daum hasnt already written. To Sound in the Know:Woginrich has been blogging about her experiences for a while now at the Huffington Post.We hear Arianna makes her churn the butter.
------
Hooking Up with Tila Tequila By Tila Tequila, Out Dec. 2 The Internet sensation opens up about celebrity and how to get what you want out of life. She also includes never-before-seen photographs for all of her fans who want to see even more of her in even less clothing.To Sound in the Know:Tequila (whose real name is Tila Nguyen) claims her stage name came from middle school when she experimented with tequila and had a severe allergic reaction.
------
The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch By Michael Wolff, Out Dec. 2 The Vanity Fair columnist uses access to Murdoch, his associates and family to explore the growth of News Corp.Wolff explores both the business battles and the family drama in this exclusive biography. To Sound in the Know: Pre-release protests about the book by Murdoch have been questioned as being a way to either drum up publicity or to firewall himself against any negative portrayals.
------
Wishful Drinking By Carrie Fisher, Out Dec. 2 This child of Hollywood (and of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) dives headlong into her past in this new memoir. Fisher comes clean about everything from becoming a Star Wars icon at 19 years old to waking up one morning and finding a friend dead next to her. To Sound in the Know: Its based on Fishers one-woman show of the same name.
------
The Tales of Beedle the Bard By J.K. Rowling, Out Dec. 4 This spin-off from the world of Harry Potter is a collection of five fables that young wizards have been reading for years to learn lessons about friendship, love and strength now released to educate the muggles of the world. To Sound in the Know: The stories include commentary from Professor Albus Dumbledorethough no revelation is included about the great scholars sexual preference.
------
Yes We Can: Obamas History-Making Presidency By Scout Tufankjian, Out Dec. 8 Photojournalist Tufankjian was the only photographer to cover the full campaign of Barack Obama as he rose from long-shot candidate to president, um, president-elect, of the United States.The book contains over 200 original photographs and excerpts from Obamas speeches over the 26-year campaign.To Sound in the Know: Tufankjian was on assignment for only about 15-20 percent of the two years, while the rest of the time she paid for her travels out of her own pockets.Yes, she did.
------
Bad Traffic By Simon Lewis, Out Dec. 9 This crime novel, already a hit in the U.K., follows Chinese inspector Ma Jian as he goes to England to search for his daughter who has disappeared while attending Leeds University. His journey takes him into a world of human traffickers and illegal immigrants. To Sound in the Know: Scotland reared Lewis wrote his first book, a frenetic, international tale of backpackers called Go, in a village in the Himalayas.
------
Reborn: Journal and Notebooks, 1947-1964 By Susan Sontag, Out Dec. 9 Follow the writer and intellectual, who died in 2004, through her development from the age of 14 through her years as a college and graduate student. This is the first of three volumes of journals to be released.To Sound in the Know:These journals cover the years before the literary lesbian became famous with the publication of her essays Against Interpretation in 1966.
------
Soldiers and Citizens: An Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Battlefield to Pentagon By Carl Mirra, Out Dec. 9 Mirra presents differing views of the war in Iraq by letting soldiers, policy makers and family members tell their stories about why they either support or dont support the actions of the United States starting in 2003. To Sound in the Know: Mirra fought in the first Gulf War as a Marine and now teaches at Adelphi