Here’s a link to the latest “One for the Books” column on people kept separate from the rest of the world.
Separate from the world
May 18th, 2012Andrew Carnegie Medal finalists
May 18th, 2012From Publishers Lunch:
The new Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction announced the finalists for the two awards:
Nonfiction
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, by James Gleick
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable
Fiction
The Forgotten Waltz, by Anne Enright
Lost Memory of Skin, by Russell Banks
Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
The inaugural winners will be named at ALA in Anaheim on June 24. Karen Russell just won the Young Lions’ Award and was a Pulitzer finalist (and tied for 11th on the Publishers Lunch Best of the Best of 2012 Fiction list).
Marable won the Pulitzer for history, was nominated for a National Book Award and a NBCC, and tied for fifth on the Publishers Lunch Best of the Best of 2012 Nonfiction list. Massie was tied for seventh on the PL compilation list, and an Indie Choice nominee, and Gleick was an NBCC nominee. Enright is also in contention for the Orange Prize, and Banks was a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist.
Christopher Robin’s house for sale
May 17th, 2012
A.A. Milne’s house, where Christopher Robin grew up, site of the House at Pooh Corner and the 100-Acre Wood (below), is for sale.
Top 100 books, but revised
May 17th, 2012Modern Library released its editors’ choices for a list of the 100 best novels in 1998 (with a side list of readers’ choices and a similar set of lists for the 100 best nonfiction books).
Now, staff members at Publishers Weekly have come up with their ideas for “fixing” the list of novels by adding a few of their own favorites (and telling why) and deleting some of the books they despise, or that simply make them yawn.
This is REALLY good stuff!
Most read
May 16th, 2012
From Visual News: The Top 10 Most Read Books in the World
Southern authors
May 15th, 2012
From Flavorwire: “10 contemporary Southern authors you should be reading.” Shown: Jesmyn Ward
Reading hunger
May 14th, 2012
“Sometimes reading a book leads to another book. Did you not experience that? I am sure you did. I discovered that rather quickly. Monsieur Zamaretti let me roam about the rows in his shop. I even climbed up the ladder to reach up higher. You see, … there was a new hunger within me, and on some days I can assure you I felt fairly ravenous. The need to read took over me. A delicious and exhilarating hold. The more I read, the hungrier I became. Each book seemed promising, each page I turned offered an escapade, the allure of another world, other destinies, other dreams.”
— from “The House I Loved” by Tatiana de Rosnay
More beautiful bookstores
May 11th, 2012
From Flavorwire: More beautiful bookstores from around the world. Above: Baldwin’s Book Bark, West Chester, Pa.
Books inspire house designs
May 10th, 2012
From Flavorwire: 10 beautiful houses inspired by books.
Shown: The Hobbit Motel in New Zealand
Cook up some awards
May 9th, 2012The James Beard Foundation Book Awards have been announced.
Also, click here for a list of winners and finalists for the 2012 Children’s Choice Book Awards.
So many winners, so little time
May 9th, 2012The Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) for 2012 have been announced. And there are MANY.
Tired Troops
May 8th, 2012
This awesome photo was in a PPS sent to my e-mail address. I call it “Tired Troops.” If you know the originator, please let me know so that I can give the photographer credit. Just look at these faces.
Memoirs about moms
May 8th, 2012
Forest Songs — Spring
May 7th, 2012
1
New leaves like yellow lace
filter late-day sunlight gently,
letting through a fragile glow.
This is no sacrifice for them.
As they drink in
the light becomes them.
Our serendipity!
We drink it, too.
2
Tiny tender new leaves shimmer
when the breeze comes by —
their first experience at ecstasy?
And then as one they sigh,
content.
Some trees bow, bare still —
jealous? or just waiting.
The bluebird will come.
— Mary Louise Ruehr
Copyright 2002 Mary L. Playfair; Copyright 2012 Mary Louise Ruehr
A street of literary houses
May 4th, 2012
Here’s a link to the latest “One for the Books” column on A Street of Literary Houses.
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The House at Tyneford
The House I Loved
The House at Sea’s End
Medals to be bestowed
May 3rd, 2012Author Toni Morrison will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony in the White House in the late spring. She is among 13 people who will be so honored. Among the others are John Glenn, Madeleine Albright, Bob Dylan, Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low, and basketball coach Pat Summitt.
‘I’m rich. Tax me.’
May 2nd, 2012From The Daily Beast: Best-selling author Stephen King said the megarich have a “moral imperative” to pay higher taxes in America.
You mean that’s REAL?
May 1st, 2012
From Cracked.com: 18 images you won’t believe are photoshopped. Shown: Giant snow sculpture by Simon Beck via Gizmodo; click on image for more.
Edgars
April 30th, 2012
The winners of the 2012 Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America are as follows:
Best Novel: Gone by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
Best First Novel: Bent Road by Lori Roy (Penguin Group USA – Dutton)
Best Paperback Original: The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Hachette Book Group – Orbit Books)
Best Fact Crime: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (Random House – Doubleday)
Best Critical Biographical: On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda (Princeton University Press)
Best Short Story: “The Man Who Took His Hat Off to the Driver of the Train” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Peter Turnbull (Dell Magazines)
Best Juvenile: Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby (Scholastic Press)
Young Adult: The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall (Random House Children’s Books – Knopf BFYR)
Where’s Waldo?
April 27th, 2012
A programmer claims to have written an algorithm for finding Waldo.
Cloudy with a chance of awe
April 26th, 2012
From TopTenz.net: 10 unusual but fascinating cloud formations. Shown: Anvil clouds. Click on image for more.
The Church vs. women?
April 25th, 2012From the National Catholic Reporter comes a new blog, “Sisters Under Scrutiny.” The interesting entry from Robert McClory discusses the attitude of the Church toward women:
“The attitude toward women that prompted the Vatican crackdown on the LCWR was there in the beginning and it’s never been exorcised from Catholicism. It even got into the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians, for example, where the writer declares that women “should keep silence in the churches for they are not permitted to speak but should be subordinate. … If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husband.”
Today, we are assured by every credible Scripture scholar that this was inserted by some scribe after Paul’s death; it totally contradicts his attitude toward women and his acceptance of women as co-workers. In Romans, he commends an entire list of women, including Junia, whom he calls “prominent among the apostles.” Nevertheless, several putdowns of women got placed in the texts and have remained as stumbling blocks for the unwary. …” More
(LCWR = Leadership Conference of Women Religious)
What’s in a name?
April 25th, 2012
From Flavorwire: Odd stories behind the nom-de-plumes of famous authors (Shown: the Bronte sisters)
James A. Garfield in NE Ohio
April 24th, 2012
James A. Garfield and his wife and six children lived in a farmhouse Mentor, 20 miles from his father’s log cabin. He was a great book-lover.
“For the past three years, Garfield had worked on his farm every chance he got. He built a barn, moved a large shed, planted an orchard, and even shopped for curtains for the house. To the house itself, … he added an entire story, a front porch, and a library. Even with the new library, Garfield’s books filled every room. ‘You can go nowhere in the general’s home without coming face to face with books,’ one reporter marveled. ‘They confront you in the hall when you enter, in the parlor and the sitting room, in the dining-room and even in the bath-room, where documents and speeches are corded up like firewood.’ ”
— from “Destiny of the Republic” by Candice Millard
Big delight in miniature
April 23rd, 2012
How fun is this? A tiny toy book made specifically for Queen Mary is about to be published in life size. From WeLoveThisBook.com –
“The book is barely bigger than a postage stamp, measuring 4cm (1.6in) by 3.5cm (1.4in). The full-sized version will be out in hardback in May. A fairy called Joe Smith is the hero of the story, which is written in verse. Joe tries to persuade sceptical Londoners that he is a fairy, leading to many escapades, such as a performance on the London stage. …”
Most Influential, 2012
April 20th, 2012Time has released its 2012 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Past presidents
April 20th, 2012
Here’s a link to the latest “One for the Books” column on Past Presidents.
Celebrating poets in April
April 19th, 2012
From Flavorwire: 10 of the “most badass contemporary American poets.” Shown: Nick Flynn
OMG, classics
April 18th, 2012From Flavorwire: Excerpts of slang parody makeovers of literary classics
Prize news
April 17th, 2012News from Shelf Awareness:
For the first time since 1977, there was no fiction winner among the Pulitzer Prizes awarded yesterday in the letters and drama category. Fiction finalists were Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and The Pale King by the late David Foster Wallace. The fiction jurors were chair Susan Larson, former book editor for the Times-Picayune; Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air; and author Michael Cunningham. A majority of votes is required from the board–consisting of 18 voting members–but they could not agree on a winner.
Jordan Pavlin, the editor of Swamplandia! for Knopf, told the New York Times that when she first heard the novel was a finalist, “I was so thrilled for Karen. Then my second response was, what a shame, because the committee had it within their power to do something so wonderful for any one of those novelists. And they, for whatever reason, chose not to.” Farrar, Straus & Giroux publisher Jonathan Galassi said he was “shellshocked” by the news, but also delighted that Johnson had been recognized as a finalist: “You can tantalize yourself with thinking, what if he had won?” Sig Gissler, the Pulitzer administrator, commented: “Whenever they make a decision, it’s not meant to be a statement about fiction in general. It’s just a statement that none was able to receive a majority…. Whenever you do not give a prize, you have disappointment, so we understand that. We’re sorry for the disappointment. The three books were carefully considered and the process was what it was.”
This year’s Pulitzers went to:
Fiction: No award
General nonfiction: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (Norton)
History: Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by the late Manning Marable (Viking)
Biography: George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis (Penguin)
Drama: Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Poetry: Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf)
—
Finalists for the £30,000 (US$47,687) Orange Prize for Fiction, which “celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world,” were named earlier today. The winner will be honored May 30 in London. This year’s shortlist:
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett