Austenphile

I just finished reading The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. Engaging read, but best understood if you already have some familiarity with the novels of Jane Austen. I first read Austen in college, starting with Sense and Sensibility and loved her, but some people get extremely worked up about her writing. TJABC is about a book club of five women and one man who get together monthly to read all the novels of Jane Austen. In the process, we discover the remarkable similarities between Austen's novels and the book club members' lives. It was convincing in its portrayal of readers' love of Austen's works, but the ending fell flat and kind of slapped together; too contrived. Austen is so beloved, her fans will love this book, no matter the content...

boys and books...

Boys can read! The author of the The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Jon Scieszka, has created (with the help of publisher Penguin Putnam) a new literacy initiative aimed at getting boys to read. Simply called Guys Read, it is a webpage full of interesting information for librarians, teachers, and parents, but not much of interest to their target demographic, the actual boys...

long time...

Whew...Jeff and I just got back from Hawaii on Tuesday afternoon and were exhausted! With the wedding and honeymoon, I haven't posted in two weeks so I will try and make up for it in the next few days.

Austen as art...

Jane Austen has always been popular, but is seeing an impressive resurgence in recent years, most notably in film and updates of her novels. Professor Deborah Kaplan writes an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the cultural hierarchy of "Austenmania" and studying Austen's works in the very different light of the 20th century. I like this essay by a Geneseo professor which discusses how to read Jane Austen for students new to Austen and her works.

double trouble...

Andrea Levy, one of the best writers in Britain today, has just been shortlisted for awards in two different categories of the British Book Awards. Levy is the author of Small Island, Fruit of the Lemon and Every Light in the House Burnin' and won the Whitbread and Orange Prizes for fiction, both in the same year. Phenomenally gifted, she writes of the Caribbean identity in Britain and being a black female in a white male dominated society.

new novel by Brooks...

Year of Wonders was one of the best books I have read in a while and now the author, Geraldine Brooks, has a new novel being published. This book is set in America during the Civil War and is actually the story of Louisa May Alcott's absent patriarch, Mr. March, from the Little Women books. Brooks' husband is Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic, a nonfiction examination of those crazy Civil War re-enactors. Maybe she used it as a source?

B&N Discover New Writers...

The Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers awards have been announced. First prize in Nonfiction goes to a Rochester, NY native, Alison Smith, for her memoir, Name All the Animals.
First prize in Fiction goes to John Dalton for his novel, Heaven Lake.
I'm currently listening to Name All the Animals on CD and it is a wonderful memoir, although the author reads the novel herself and does not use much inflection. Its still worth listening to...

another special day...

Today is World Book Day and the BBC has asked readers to vote for their favorite books...

special day to read

Not only is March 2nd my friend Kim's birthday, but it is also Dr. Seuss'! The NEA's Read Across America event was, "...initially created as a one-day event to celebrate reading on Dr. Seuss' birthday, March 2...has grown into a nationwide initiative that promotes reading every day"...

books as furniture

What do you do with old books? Someone had a great idea of making furniture with them...

Pacific book prize

The Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize has released their nominees for this year's awards in fiction and nonfiction titles which "...contribute to greater understanding and cooperation among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia...".

first-time

There is always a first time. The Observer interviews six spankin' new authors on their literary debuts...

...and the nominee is?

The National Book Critics Circle recently announced their nominees for the poetry prize...

a prose novelist...

Francine Prose wrote a wonderful novel a few years back called Blue Angel, which dealt with the fallout from a professor's indiscretion with a young student and the eventual collapse of his career. At the time I also read Tim O'Brien's novel, A Tomcat in Love, which involved very similar themes about an older professor's libido problems with the young co-eds on campus and although a huge fan of O'Brien's work, I believe Prose's novel was better written. Now, Prose has a new novel coming out -- A Changed Man, which may be even better than her previous novel...