Malcolm Jones

Genre-defying musicians have a tough road in a era obsessed with pigeonholing. Three great new albums that prove the rule.

Ralph Steadman, best known for his savage illustrations accompanying the writing of the late Hunter S. Thompson, is a man who thinks best with pen in hand.

America's literary lion was never derailed by his fame

I love maps. They're useful. They're pretty. And quite often, they're free. I love all kinds of maps—old, new, Mercator, treasure, you name it. And after poring over The Onion's latest parody, "Our Dumb World: Atlas of the Planet Earth," I've decided that I like funny maps best of all.The Onion's map of the United Kingdom, for example, shows the burial site of Mother Goose, a literature mine and the world's grayest building.

From Tbilisi to Toronto to Timbuktu, no target escapes unscathed

Forty years after his death, the jazz world still lives in the shadow of saxophone demigod John Coltrane.

'War and Peace' has been the Everest of literature for more than 150 years. Two new English versions remind us why Tolstoy's tome is still worth the climb.

A previously unknown 1964 recording surfaces to supply us with another dazzling look at one of the greatest jazz bands to ever take a stage.

Answer: He created "Jeopardy." Question: Who was Merv Griffin?Answer: He had a hit with "I've got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts" in 1950. Question: Who was Merv Griffin?Answer: He wrote the theme song for "Jeopardy," from which he claimed to have earned $70-80 million in royalties.

In 1943, U.S. servicemen stationed in Iraq were issued a pocket-size 41-page book entitled "A Short Guide to Iraq." In straightforward prose, the book gave American soldiers a primer to help them through the cultural snarls and byways of the country in which they were stationed.

There were times, while watching an Ingmar Bergman movie, when you'd think to yourself, it's like they invented black and white photography just so this man could make films.

What a lot of commotion over a book. Not since 19th century New Yorkers anxiously crowded the Manhattan docks to be the first to discover the serialized fate of Dickens's Little Nell have people gotten so excited about fiction.

Joe Boyd had one No. 1 single in his career as a record producer: Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis." But if Boyd was never one to crank out a lot of chart toppers, he had something more valuable in the long run: a nearly infallible ear for talent.

Let's begin with a few things that critic and novelist Wilfrid Sheed leaves out of his book about the American popular song circa mid-20th century: "Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia," "Miss the Mississippi and You," "Right or Wrong," "San Antonio Rose," "Stormy Monday," "Smokestack Lightning," "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again," "I Can't Help It if I'm Still in Love With You," "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Crazy" and "Stagger Lee." All of those songs were written or sung to wide acclaim in the period...

I was telling a friend the other day that I was nearly done with the Martin Cruz Smith novel "Stalin's Ghost" and that I was enjoying it. "Well, he's got a good character," my friend commented.

It is, in a way, a sort of split-level love affair. For the past decade, children have been staying up late to finish the latest installments concerning the fortunes of Harry Potter.

A few days ago, my daughter, who just graduated from high school, was bemoaning the fact that when college runs out she'll never have summer vacation to look forward to again (this is a young woman who thinks ahead).

If there is anyone who would not understand Philip K. Dick's inclusion in the Library of America—those uniform editions of what the Library calls the "best and most significant" American literature—it would be Dick himself.

If we're generous, we must allow for multiple Shreks. In order of popularity, there is the Shrek of the movies ("Shrek the Third" opens Friday). Then there is the original "Shrek!" the children's book with story and pictures by William Steig.

When the planes hit the World Trade Center, Don DeLillo was at home in suburban New York, just another man caught up in the event. But like so many other Americans, he had a personal connection to the madness of that day. "When the second tower went down, I punched the wall.

Centuries from now, when archeologists sift the rubble to understand our culture, they will be fortunate indeed to uncover the works of Donald E. Westlake.

Fifty years—no, not 50, not even 30 years ago, Robert Goolrick might well have not published his memoir, "The End of the World as We Know It." And he wouldn't have had to wait for someone to forbid it or talk him out of it.

Fifteen years after they were first published, Sally Mann's photographs of her children have lost none of their power.

I haven't kept strict count, but I'm pretty sure this is only the second time Jonathan Lethem has put a kangaroo in one of his novels. If so, maybe I should stick with the ones with the 'roos.

Baby boomers and their books—it's a love story where nobody ever said he was sorry. Except, perhaps, for 'Love Story' itself.

Michael Lesy's "Murder City" is a creepy book. Fascinating, but creepy. Lesy ("Wisconsin Death Trip") focuses on Windy City murders in the '20s, a time and place we all think we know: Capone, Leopold and Loeb, "Chicago"—merely drop the city's name and people start thinking Tommy guns and bathtub gin.

'When the Light Goes' by Larry McMurtryThis is the fourth novel McMurtry has written about Duane Moore. All right, "The Last Picture Show" wasn't just about Duane, and "Texasville" was also an ensemble piece of sorts, but "Duane's Depressed" and now "When the Light Fails" are all Duane all the time.

If you were to approach 10 people on the street and ask each one to recite from any narrative poem, the odds are that maybe one of them could get off a few lines of "Hiawatha" or "The Raven." But if you were to suggest that they could include the works of Theodore Geisel, a.k.a.

Michael Lesy's "Murder City" is a creepy book. Fascinating, but creepy. Lesy ("Wisconsin Death Trip") focuses on Windy City murders in the '20s, a time and place we all think we know: Capone, Leopold and Loeb, "Chicago"—merely drop the city's name and people start thinking Tommy guns and bathtub gin.

If you were to approach 100 people on the street and ask each one to recite from any narrative poem, the odds are that maybe one of them could get off a few lines of "Hiawatha" or "The Raven." But if you were to suggest that they could include the works of Theodore Geisel, a.k.a.