'Lantern-bearers and other essays'
By Robert Louis Stevenson, Edited by Jeremy Treglown;Cooper Square Press, $16.95
Robert Louis Stevenson, a famous 19th century writer, is best known for "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped," but he also wrote numerous essays that are often overlooked. This book is an anthology of nearly three dozen of his best essays and is the only anthology of its kind. Stevenson, who died when he was only 44, wrote tender essays, such as "Falling in Love"; funny ones, like "The Character of Dogs"; political attacks, like "The Day After Tomorrow"; as well as musings on human nature, like "An Apology for Idlers."
Other essays deal with his views on dreams, umbrellas, political activism, Victorian mores and the craft of writing. The editor, Jeremy Treglown, is an English professor at the University of Warwick, England, who served for eight years as editor of London's "The Times Literary Supplement," has selected these essays with the objective of showing just how timeless Stevenson's storytelling remains. -- Dennis Lythgoe
'Waiting'
By Ha Jin
Pantheon, $24
Whenever a new group of writing students enrolls in his class, Ha Jin tells them that being a writer "has nothing to do with glory or fame." He may want to reconsider those words. Two years after winning two prestigious literary prizes, the Emory University professor has been named a National Book Award finalist for his new novel, "Waiting," the story of a married doctor who falls in love with a nurse during China's Cultural Revolution.
"Waiting" takes place in 1960s China, where communism rules and where ancient tradition bears down on the conflicting passions of a man in love. Forced 20 years ago to marry an an illiterate peasant, Lin Kong longs for the freedom to marry his lover Manna Wu. Every summer he has returned to the tiny hamlet of Goose Village, where his wife and daughter live in a thatched shack, to request a divorce. And every summer his compliant wife, Shuyu, has agreed, but backed out at the last minute. -- Don O'Briant, Cox News Service
'Art for Dummies'
By Thomas Hoving
IDG Books, $24.95
You've used them to learn the difference between hard-driving (your boss) and a hard drive (your computer), and maybe to study up on a host of non-digital subjects from golf to aquariums. Now there's another of those easy-to-digest, yellow-jacketed " . . . For Dummies" books, this one aimed at those who feel just a bit lost when wandering through the rarefied realms of art.
What better person to do it than Thomas Hoving, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art who has been called flamboyant and controversial, but who's definitely no dummy.
So it's in a breezy, conversational style that Hoving gives the reader tips on such mysteries as how to recognize good art, how to spy a fake, how to start collecting and how to tell if Junior is possessed of artistic genius. He includes a brief history of art from Paleolithic times to today, a look at the "The Ten Most Interesting Artists" of all time, and a number of tips on how to enjoy a museum. One tip: Buy postcards at the museum gift shop rather than lugging around a heavy guide book. -- Karin Lipson, Newsday