MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

2 authors offer food for thought

The featured authors at Monday's book fair events delighted their listeners. 1257852133

ASPERGER'S SYNDROME

Why he was so absent-minded

``It's sort of like being the absent-minded professor times five,'' says Tim Page. After a lifetime of struggling to relate to fellow human beings, he received a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome at age 45. Seven years later, Page, then the music critic for The Washington Post, revealed his condition in an essay in the New Yorker, which he has expanded into a new memoir, Parallel Play: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's (Doubleday, $26).

FICTION

Review | Devil's Dream: A Novel About Nathan Bedford Forrest

The author is so smitten with his protagonist that he imbues him with qualities that offset his sins

STORIES

Review | The Collected Short Stories of Lydia Davis

Four moods on display from a master of storytelling

Author appearances

WEDNESDAY

Abdella Taïa and ``Salvation Army.'' 6:30 p.m. Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables.

What are you reading now? - Jill McCorkle

``I have just read Francine Prose's Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. This is an amazing book. It pulls together into one volume with great order and clarity much of what has been written about both Anne Frank and the publication of her diary over the years, but also (and most importantly, I think) focuses on Anne Frank as an accomplished writer who with great skill and talent edited herself in a way that makes clear her aspirations as someone who wanted her work to be published and read. As one of the many thousands upon millions of girls who was fixated on and obsessed with Anne Frank early in life -- finding in her work great inspiration as a writer and as a human, I was thrilled to find Prose's book. This is thorough, thoughtful, beautifully written.''

BOOK FAIR

Poet, novelist kick off annual Miami Book Fair International

Miami Book Fair International kicked off Sunday night at Miami Dade College with novelist Margaret Atwood, poet Elizabeth Alexander and a fingers-crossed hope that troublesome Topical Storm Ida keeps heading north.

Monday at the book fair

Here are Monday's events at Miami Book Fair International at Miami Dade College, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami. Tickets for ``Evenings With . . .'' events can be downloaded at www.miamibookfair.com

MARGARET ATWOOD

Leading ladies of the book fair: Novelist, poet kick off Book Fair

''God gave unto the Animals / A wisdom past our power to see,'' goes a hymn sung by God's Gardeners, the ecologically minded, deeply spiritual but eminently practical religious cult in Margaret Atwood's fire-breathing new novel, The Year of the Flood.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL 2009 | ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Al Gore: The former vice president issues a call to action

Al Gore's new work -- ``Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis'' (Rodale Books, $26.99) -- is a culmination of 30 ``solution summits'' that Gore convened around the world. Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his environmental advocacy. Beth Reinhard, political writer at The Miami Herald, spoke to him recently about this book.

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER

Inauguration opened a new world for poet

Elizabeth Alexander's Praise Song for the Day, the inauguration poem that helped deliver Barack Obama into office, was in the making for almost half a century, surely for three generations: The grandmother who sang lullabies, poetry set to music. The parents who took their 1-year-old daughter to the Lincoln Memorial to hear Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. The husband who emptied the house of the two boys, because, more than anything, Alexander needed hushed space to muster words and thoughts, then distill them into something beautiful, powerful, memorable.

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Joan Biskupic's 'American Original': What's inarguable is that Scalia remains a source of curiosity

Jay Weaver is The Herald's legal-affairs reporter. He asked these questions of Joan Biskupic, the author of ``American Original, The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia''. Biskupic, who obtained her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, has been USA Today's legal affairs correspondent since 2000.

BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

For independent booksellers, what's sold off shelf counts just as much

Small booksellers are filling niches and emphasizing service as they fight to stay in business.

SPANISH LANGUAGE

There's some bilingual mingling going on

Every year, Miami Book Fair International generates high expectations among Spanish-language readers who enthusiastically greet authors from throughout the Hispanic world. But the fair also gives writers from the United States, Canada and Miami the opportunity to present their books in Spanish and to mingle with their English-language colleagues.

TO OUR READERS

Covering book fair is a labor of love for Herald veteran

Wear comfortable shoes. Get a copy of the schedule beforehand. Sign up for tickets in advance. Bring a big bag for the books you'll buy, whether you plan to or not. Be sure to try some sessions utterly out of the blue.

BARBARA KINGSOLVER

Indulging her passions for artists and politics

Barbara Kingsolver jokes that whenever she publishes a novel she apparently turns into a railway station because, according to reviewers, ''I only do departures.''

JEANNETTE WALLS

Looking inside herself for a 'true-life' story

Journalists are never the story. They look instead to the world at large, interviewing, researching and seeking objective truth. Jeannette Walls knows this approach well, having worked for 20 years as a journalist in New York City -- including a stint as a gossip columnist -- before her first nonfiction book, The Glass Castle, was released in 2005.

ORHAN PAMUK

Laureate: Fiction's lessons will save us

Orhan Pamuk is a man in love. So is Kemal, the narrator of Pamuk's shimmering, brimming new novel The Museum of Innocence (Knopf, $28.95).

BRAD GOOCH

Admiration grew for his contradictory subject

If most biographers start out in love with their subjects and end up hating them, Brad Gooch did things backward as he researched his highly regarded biography of southern writer Flannery O'Connor.

NONFICTION

Review | On the record: 'The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President'

Interviews with Bill Clinton yield historical perspective as well as glimpses of behind-the-scenes Washington.

NONFICTION

Review | 'Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife': Writer behind the diary

Finally, someone takes Anne Frank seriously as an author. [R](241.5)(.0)(199.5)(71.1)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)

RELIGION

Review | 'Reading Jesus': A fresh and clarifying take on the Gospels

A believer takes a calm approach to the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Gourmet magazine's editor considers the next course

Nearly three weeks after food-world royalty Ruth Reichl got the staggering news that Gourmet, the venerated culinary magazine she ushered into the 21st century, was shutting down after a 68-year run, she was still at a loss as to what she might do next.

BIOGRAPHIES

Sultry song inspired Benny Moré bio

John Radanovich is obsessive about jazz, so much so that he moved from one great jazz town to another, just to immerse himself in it. Chicago. New York. New Orleans.

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Tracy Kidder: A Burundian student's experience

Trenton Daniel is a staff writer for The Miami Herald. He asked this of Tracy Kidder, whose most recent book is ``Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness'' (Random House, $26).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Jack E. Davis: On Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Curtis Morgan, the Herald's environmental affairs writer, asked this question of Jack E. Davis, author of ``An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century'' (University of Georgia Press, $34.95).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Sadia Shepard: On memoirs

Sue Mullin is manager-editor of the Calendar department for The Miami Herald. She asked this of Sadia Shepard, who has written ``The Girl From Foreign: A Memoir'' (Penguin Books, $25.95 hardcover and $16 paperback).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Lyah Beth LeFlore: African American mothers and daughters

Andrea Robinson, editor of The Miami Herald's Neighbors sections that appear in North-Central Miami-Dade and Northwest Miami-Dade, asked this of Lyah Beth LeFlore, the author of ``Wildflowers'' (Broadway Books, $13.99), a gripping tale about the strong black women in the Davis family that explores natural and spiritual bonds between mothers and daughters and the lengths they go to protect their name.

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Jaime Bayly: A conservative antibourgeois

Olga Connor, who writes often for El Nuevo Herald about Cuban culture, interviewed Jaime Bayly, the well-known Peruvian writer and journalist whose latest book is ``El Cojo y el Loco'' (``The Mad and the Cripple'') (Alfaguara, $16.99).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Stuart E. Weisberg: On Rep. Barney Frank

Steve Rothaus covers gay issues for The Miami Herald. He asked these questions of Stuart E. Weisberg, who has written ``Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman'' (University of Massachusetts Press, $30 hardback).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Joyce Purnick: On Michael Bloomberg

Terence Shepherd is multimedia business editor for The Miami Herald. He asked this of Joyce Purnick, who has written ``Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics'' (PublicAffairs, $26.95).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Roxanna Elden: Joys, perils of teaching

Nirvi Shah is consumer affairs and personal finance reporter for The Miami Herald who previously covered education. She asked this of Roxanna Elden, who wrote See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers (2009; Kaplan, $19.95). Elden has been teaching for eight years, including the past six at Hialeah High.

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés: Marielitos, balseros and other exiles

Luisa Yanez is a higher-education reporter for The Miami Herald and a co-author of ``Miami's Criminal Past Uncovered'' (The History Press, 2007). She asked this of Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés, who has written ``Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles'' (IG Publishing, $14.95):

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Ana Menendez: Writing novels

Sergio Bustos is The Herald's deputy city editor and a co-author of ``Miami's Criminal Past Uncovered'' (The History Press, 2007). He asked this of Ana Menendez, a former Herald columnist and the author of ``The Last War'' (Harper/HarperCollins, $24.99).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Liz Balmaseda: True life inspires fiction

Tere Figueras Negrete is a an editor for the Miami Herald Neighbor's section. She asked this of Pulitzer Prize winner Liz Balmaseda, formerly of The Miami Herald and currently a columnist for The Palm Beach Post, whose new book is ``Sweet Mary'' (Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, $24.95).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Francine Prose: On Anne Frank

Elinor Brecher, who writes obituaries for The Miami Herald, is the author of ``Schindler's Legacy: True Stories of the List Survivors (Penguin Group, 1994). She asked this of Francine Prose, author of ``Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife'' (Harper, $24.99).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Sid Jacobson: Lessons from Vlad the Impaler

Glenn Garvin, The Miami Herald's television critic, has also been a foreign correspondent for the paper. His books include ``Everybody Had His Own Gringo: The CIA and the Contras'' (Brassey's, 1992). He asked this of Sid Jacobson, co-author (with Ernie Colón) of the graphic novel ``Vlad The Impaler: The Man Who Was Dracula'' (Hudson Street Press, $25.95).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Andrés Neuman: A musical childhood in Argentina

Sarah Moreno is a reporter for the Galería section of El Nuevo Herald. She asked this question of Andrés Neuman, the Spanish-Argentine novelist and poet whose most recent work is ``El viajero del siglo'' (Traveler of the Century) (Santillana U.S.A., $19.99), which has won the prestigious Alfaguara Award. At present he has a column in the literary supplement of the daily national newspapers ABC (Spain) and Clarín (Argentina).

ASKING AUTHORS

Q & A | Meg Cabot: Advice for girls

Judi Smith, assistant to Dave Barry and Leonard Pitts Jr. at The Miami Herald, asked this of Meg Cabot whose books this year are ``Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Stage Fright'' ($15.99, Scholastic Press) and ``Being Nikki: An Airhead Novel'' ($16.99, Point).