Sedaris in the house

I knew there was a reason to go to ALA Annual Conference in June -- David Sedaris will keynote the conference and I am going to miss it! I guess I will just have to keep listening to him on NPR...

returning books

Apparently, its only appropriate at libraries -- why returning books to your local bookstore sucks...

advice from the Bookslut...

Jessa Crispin over at Bookslut has recommended Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. The review by Publisher's Weekly didn't make the book sound that exciting, but then I read the review at the Washington Post Book World and my reader radar started dinging...

fat french women

What a relief -- it turns out that French women do get fat after all! Here I was worried after the book French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure was published and became such a sensation...

nightstand

Here's what is on my nightstand to be read:
The Crisis of the Old Order, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed With our Families: stories from Rwanda, Phillip Gourevitch
"I" is for Innocent, Sue Grafton
Zen Attitude, Sujata Massey
The weblog handbook : practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog, Rebecca Blood
Blog On : the essential guide to building dynamic weblogs, Todd Stauffer
Becoming a Critical Thinker : a user friendly manual, Sherry Diestler
Keeping Current : advanced Internet strategies to meet librarian and patron needs, Steven Cohen

So much to read, so little time...

PUBLIB Best Books

PUBLIB, the discussion listserv for public librarians, just issued its list of recommended "Best Books for 2004", a compilation of librarians' favorites from around the country...

Franzen in the news...

Is Jonathan Franzen selling out to Hollywood? It appears that there will be a movie version of Franzen's award-winning novel The Corrections, but isn't this strange coming from the guy who didn't even want the book tainted with the Oprah sticker on the dust jacket?

recommendation

So now I've seen two recommendations for Sam Lipsyte's new book, Home Land in just one day. Any writer who is considered to be so funny a reviewer calls David Sedaris a lightweight in comparison has got to be checked out. Over at the blog Elegant Variation the book has gotten a highly enthusiastic review and reviewer Jim Ruland recommends that readers check out Sam Lipsyte's earlier work...

taping the prez

Gary Price of ResourceShelf has a great link to WhiteHouseTapes.org, which is a wonderful archive of presidential tapes collected by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia: "This site is designed as a service to the research community by making freely available all of the presidential recordings, along with relevant research materials, so that scholars, teachers, students, and the public can hear and use these remarkable tapes for themselves". Many of the recordings were originally recorded in secret, but are now available for the first time to the public...

literary weblogs

This blog thing is really catchin' on! USA Today has an article on the how literary weblogs are filling a niche on the Internet ...

hard-boiled detective...

Blood Shot by Sara Paretsky
After reading the fifth novel in Paretsky's indomitable V.I. Warshawski mystery series, you certainly can't say you don't know the author's political leanings. When Caroline Dijak, the daughter of a friend from Warshawski's old neighborhood asks V.I. for help locating her father, the private eye reluctantly agrees. What begins is an investigation involving murder, incest, insurance fraud, and a cover-up going back thirty years. The plot of Blood Shot involves Caroline's quest for the father she never knew. Her mother, Louisa, is dying, and will not tell her. Warshawski is called in and begins her investigation, but before she gets very far, Caroline calls it off, a friend is murdered and V.I. begins to investigate that death. This novel was rich in plot developments and revealed a layer of Warshawski's character that previous novels have only begun to peel. I'm intrigued and plan to keep on reading this series, because I can sense they will only get better as we learn more about the motivation behind Warshawski and her battle with inner demons. My only gripe is that it is taking a long time to get a reader hooked. I think most readers would probably have given up by now, but if they haven't, it is well worth the read! As a "hard-boiled" mystery series, the V.I. Warshawski novels are probably on the light side, although she gets into more than her share of battles and tussles with the bad guys. Its always a pleasure to read a good mystery novel with a feisty heroine, though, rather than a novel with a damsel in distress...

Booker award nominees

The International Booker Award nominees were announced Friday in the UK ...

gonzo obituary...

Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalist and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has killed himself at age 67...obituaries at The Washington Post, the Denver Post, The New York Times, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, Newsday, ABC News...

freshman summer reading...

I found it interesting that Lafayette College chose Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers as its freshman orientation reading for 2005. Here at my college, we discussed using this book as our summer reading for freshman, but voted against it because of the format (graphic novel) and size (way too big for a backpack!). It looks like Lafayette is more concerned about the social controversy it will create, which I think is why it is an ideal choice for provoking discussion among incoming freshman. Our choice for 2005 is Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, which itself will create enough controversy for one small liberal arts college (public, at that!)...

war is hell...

Every time I think about the soldiers fighting in Iraq, I get this anxious feeling in my gut and my heart goes out to anyone over there. War is never fought by those in power. It is always the powerless and those at a disadvantage who fight wars for the rest of us. Nick Arvin has recently published a novel about a young boy sent off to war, although his soldier fights in France during World War II. The novel approaches the character differently than most; his soldier is a coward, and it examines what is at the heart of all of us -- the desire to flee and run, "...but at its existential best, Articles of War makes you wonder how you would handle yourself in a ditch, surrounded by snipers, and under orders to kill..." I do wonder how most of us would handle it, including those in power -- how would they handle those conflicting desires; on the one hand to run, and on the other, the desire to kill?

read all about it!

For those of us who were in diapers or not even born yet, Watergate remains a fuzzy story we learned in school. However, this was a a major scandal which brought down a President and damaged countless careers, as well as many Americans' faith in government. Now papers from Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein's investigation have been donated to the University of Texas at Austin, where we can read all about it.

brooding detectives...

One of my favorite detectives in mystery fiction is Inspector John Rebus, or, as I like to call him -- The Brooding Detective. One of the most recent additions to this series, Resurrection Men earned Rankin the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel of 2004. This moody series of novels by author Ian Rankin has a new addition, Fleshmarket Alley, which promises to be just as dark and disturbing.

book awards

National Book Critics Circle finalists for nonfiction have been announced...

day after...

So, its the day after Valentine's Day and my sweetie has left for a two day school conference. Tonight I plan to curl up with a good Sara Paretsky novel to ease the pain. If you love P.I. mystery novels and are a Sue Grafton fan, you will LOVE Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski mystery series. The characters are extremely similar, except that Warshawski is much classier and feminine than Kinsey Millhone. They both kick butt, though...

Wal-Mart ditty...

I laughed out loud when I read the list of shitty Wal-Mart bookshelves ditties. Its the second list, so scroll down! Don't be surprised if you laugh out loud and wake your neighbor...

bollywood and Jane Austen...

Its official! Bride & Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha's (Bend it Like Beckham) newest film, is about to be released. Ok, so the Washington Post's review is not glowing, but as the reviewer notes, "...you're not watching "Bride" for narrative structure and precise plot development, are you? No, you're watching it so you can snicker along as Lalita and her sisters decry boorish beaus in "No Wife, No Life" or watch an entire village burst into song as a young bride-to-be dances through a marketplace. Just look at the pretty pictures, and nod your head to the beat..." Jane Austen, eat your heart out! I, for one, think that Jane would love it if she were alive today. She's probably one of literature's finest writers of social satire, and I think she would appreciate Chadha's clever adaptation. Hmmm...methinks maybe Jane Eyre might be next...

a sad day for the Theatre....

I just got word that Arthur Miller has died at age 89. The New York Times and the Associated Press (via MSNBC) both have obituaries up already.

complete contrarian...

I have to admit it -- I love Christopher Hitchens. I mean, the guy is ornery as all get out, but he is just so passionate about what he hates! Love, Poverty, and War is the latest collection of his contrariness and is full of passion and vitriol ---and, ooh, what I wouldn't do for one-tenth of his feeling!

delicious library...

Wow! As if I didn't have enough to do at home already...now there is an at-home library system where you can scan, catalog and store information about your books, music, and movies right in your own home!! Now all of you librarian wanna-bees can finally catalog your holdings for the whole world to see...

food as journalism...

Several years ago I was visiting my sister in Atlanta and we went to a reading and book signing at a Chapter 11 Books store. The author was Michael Pollan and the reading was from his book, The Botany of Desire. It was an interesting talk about the history of four different plants in America: the potato, the apple, marijuana, and the tulip. Now, it looks like he is working on another book which examines "...three principal food chains: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer...". His book Second Nature explores his deepening obsession with gardening, which I can relate to! Pollan is a definite 'must-read' for budding gardeners and anyone interested in the history of the food supply...

bush as bibliophile?

Ok, I'm shocked and awed...President Bush is a Tom Wolfe fan?? Here is one of my favorite quotes from the story, "...Mr. Bush added that "in this job, there are some simple pleasures in life that really help you cope. One is Barney the dog, and the other is books. I mean, books are a great escape. Books are a way to get your mind on something else." Aaaah, words of wisdom we should all live by...

goin' a wandering...

Who doesn't want to travel to far-flung places and meet exotic locals in mysterious places? Read this review of The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman. This debut novel sounds twisty and turny enough to merit a look -- the description reminds me of Iain Pears' novel An Instance of the Fingerpost -- published in 1998 and set in the 17th century involving a murder, narrated by four different people. One of the best mystery novels I've ever read...

addendum to 50s fascination...

In addition to reviews on A Consumers' Republic, here is a multimedia presentation of Dr. Cohen's lectures, her biography and background on the book...

50s fascination...

The 1950s are a fascinating time period -- post WWII, America was a booming industrialized powerhouse, just bursting from the repressed, lean years of the 1940s. Beyond the Gray Flannel Suit Books from the 1950s that Made American Culture explores the books of this period which had an impact on the culture and society at large. Far from being bland or conforming, I think the 1950s had an enormous impact on American culture, and not all of it bad. America was at its height of consumerism and you saw technology and innovation reach a high level of sophistication, especially when it came to outfitting the average suburban home. Another book, A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America by Lizabeth Cohen is a fascinating look at the political underpinnings to consumption and how it changed America, and I think it is one of the best books you can read to achieve an understanding as to how American political power really works in our modern age...

right to die...

The right-to-die issue has been politicized by both the left and right, and the Supreme Court's recent refusal to hear the Florida case of Terri Schiavo has fueled the flames of the religious right and added political ramifications with Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature's intercession in the case. Last year I read a controversial book by Peter Singer called Rethinking Life and Death: the collapse of our traditional ethics, which discussed the ethics of animal rights, abortion, the brain dead, as well as poverty and the crime of "speciesism". What interests me about this book in relation to the Schiavo case is this desire to regulate the moral decisions of individuals by the religous right, especially this issue of "right-to-life". In the Schiavo case, it appears that the husband wants to let his wife die naturally, but the parents claim she is "alive" and "responds". Is it ethically valid to keep someone (who is in a persistent vegetative state and has no brain function whatsoever) "alive" on a feeding tube at the same time when there are countless people around the world starving and dying of curable diseases? Many criticize Singer for his views, but more importantly, I think he tries to make valid arguments for issues we need to discuss openly in society. Along the same lines, Harper's Magazine has an essay this month by Garret Keizer which is worth reading. The author gives a rational argument for why PAS (physician assisted suicide) must be a personal decision between a person and his or her doctor, and is currently being thwarted by the religious right and moral relativism. Fascinating...

How FOX Broke the Rules...

Read Powells.com review of Kimmel's book on FOX Television and decided to chime in with the review I wrote last year:
"Kimmel, a Boston correspondent for the entertainment industry newspaper Variety, chronicles the turbulent growing pains of FOX television in this new history of FOX’s struggle to become the fourth television network. Although unauthorized by the network, this narrative of the birth of FOX Television is laden with first person accounts and Kimmel relies on several former Fox executives and staff members for behind-the-scenes information. The book is full of quotes and anecdotes from key meetings and events at FOX since 1985, and is best read as an updated companion piece to Alex Ben Bock’s 1990 history of the network, Outfoxed. From Married…with Children to Malcolm in the Middle, FOX has radically changed the face of broadcast television and Kimmel emphasizes this point throughout his book. However, it works more as a social history than a critique of FOX, and Kimmel ably details the history of a broadcaster once called “the coat-hanger network”."
I still think the book works as a social and cultural analyis of how FOX re-energized television in the early nineties. It didn't necessarily make television better, but the book does make a good point of showing FOX's development into an American pop culture powerhouse, for good or bad.

plagiarism problem

Copying from someone else's work isn't just a problem in academia, as evidenced by the discovery of plagiarism in the books of popular historians Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin. A recent article in WQ talks about the rash of plagiarism affecting some noted historians and academics who should have known better...

open access...

"Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions... ". The OA initiative is becoming popular in academic libraries and higher education because of the rising costs of journal subscriptions, budget cuts and copyright barriers. OA offers a whole new system of scholarly communication in academia...

The librarian who came in from the cold...

As I was driving to work today, I listened to NPR and heard Steve Inskeep interview Nancy Pearl, the librarian from Seattle who is the muse for the Librarian Action Figure -- that ghastly little stereotypical librarian who shushes loud children with one powerful motion of her finger to her lips! Pearl is also the author of Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason and was talking about overlooked spy novels everyone should read.

Librarian saves the world...

"Jeanette Winter has created a book about a librarian who saved 70 percent of an Iraqi town's books during the U.S. invasion. The book is called The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq." Listen to the transcript of her interview with reporter Michele Norris on NPR...

Bush has a book club?

Reading this article on W's newest favorite book is a bit troubling, since I wasn't aware he even read. So, it shouldn't surprise me that the book is entitled, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror. Ooh, scary...