Gotta love subtitles...

So admittedly, it was the picture of actor Ed Norton holding a pink bar of soap with Pajiba written on it (a la Fight Club), but the subtitle of this blog did me in: "...scathing reviews for bitchy people..." Thats me!

The Generation's Best Books - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People

Jane Smiley and women writers

Here is the Jane Smiley post about women and national book awards that precipitated Erica Jong's "open letter"...

What's Erica Jong's problem with Jane Smiley?

Erica Jong has a problem with Jane Smiley -- read about it here...

Lloyd Alexander dies at 83

Author Lloyd Alexander died at age 83; listen to the NPR audio obituary. Author of such classics as The Black Cauldron and The Chronicles of Prydain series, Alexander was a beloved children's fantasy writer who won a Newberry Medal in 1969.

British bookshop lists 25 up-and-coming writers

British bookstore chain Waterstone's lists 25 up-and-coming young writers from such varied genres as cooking and science fiction.

Ian Rankin's writing space

Neat photo of writer Ian Rankin's workspace. The environment where Detective Inspector Rebus was conceived and lives...

Cartoonist ponders Mother's Day

Berke Breathed, cartoonist, ponders the ultimate sacrifice of parenthood -- would he die for his child? In Breathed's new children's book, Mars Needs Moms!, a little boy wonders why anyone needs a mom, but discovers that moms are pretty special when Martians come to Earth and want to take his mom away to their planet.

Now that he's a parent, a cartoonist ponders the ultimate sacrifice

Mothers' fiction

Since I am a first-time mother, it is only fitting that I want to read novels or non-fiction accounts of motherhood. I just finished The Stone Diaries and the novel's account of one woman's journey through a life unfulfilled really affected me. I'm also working on Rachel's Cusk's memoir of her experiences as a first-time mother, A Life's Work: On becoming a mother, which is both funny and sad in turn. Controversial too, since Cusk doesn't mince words and is honest about her conflicting feelings of being a mother, woman and writer at the same time.
I'm thinking about some other titles that might go into a "mother fiction" category on my bookshelf -- some funny, some sad, some downright disturbing (Re: Loverboy by Victoria Redel and her mother character's desperate obsession with her own son). Motherkind by Jayne Anne Phillips is a great novel about the mother-child relationships, both mother-daughter and the daughter's relationship with her newborn son. What other titles would YOU recommend?

The Stone Diaries

What's up with the Canadian literature kick I've been on? First, The Blind Assassin and now Carol Shields. This novel was deeply affecting and is probably one of the best I've read so far this year. Winning the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Shields' novel is an exploration of one woman's life -- from witnessing her own birth in 1905 through her death sometime in the 1990s. What is so affecting about the story is the telling of a life that did not seem to make an impression on others, how women can be marginalized and how one woman didn't take her life and live it to the fullest. Amazing...

The Blind Assassin

Just finished Margaret Atwood's Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin . Phenomenal book -- I was not expecting it to be so good. In fact, I was surprised I even attempted to read this book with a two-month old baby in the house to distract me (it did take almost a month to finish it, natch!).
The last Atwood book I attempted was Cat's Eye and I hated it. I believe I only got through the first few pages. I read The Handmaid's Tale in college and love it. In fact, it is one of my favorite novels.

Case Histories

Kate Atkinson is decidedly humorous...British-"y" humorous. Meaning that many Americans may not like her humor. Her mothers are very unsentimental and often unlikeable. One of the mothers in this novel is a murderer, for crying out loud. Case Histories is a detective novel/thriller and is a departure from Atkinson's more literary previous endeavors, like Emotionally Weird or her Whitbread Award-winning novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

I love book lists!

Wow -- someone with a lot of time on their hands compiled this list:
Listology: "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die"

Time on my hands...

So getting prepared for the birth of your first child should make you anxiously clean house, straighten cupboards, organize shelves, right? Well...sort of.

I've done some of that, but mostly I've been reading! My due date having come and gone, I'm hoping to get through at least another one or two novels before baby arrives. I just finished reading Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin: another superb outing in the Inspector John Rebus novels. This novel takes Rebus back to school, reform school that is. Rebus is sent to Tuliallan College, where the force sends their rough cops to straighten out and is mixed in with the resurrection men of the novel's title. What ensues is a police procedural of old cases, old enemies, new murders and new characters. Rankin is superior at describing the rank and decay of old Edinburgh alleys and dusky pubs while giving the reader a rousing good police story, with crusty DI's thrown in (thats "Detective Inspector" to you British procedural newbies!). This was one of the better stories and part of this comes from the time that has been investing in reading each entry in this series. It really does help to read the Rebus novels in order, many old characters do pop up in the newer entries.

British public not "clever or lofty" readers...

According to an article in today's British paper, The Guardian, latest figures show that the popular reading tastes of Britain's library-going public lends itself to the likes of Danielle Steel, Catherine Cookson and Josephine Cox: a certifiable triumvirate of romance and suspense. Is this really a surprise? Read the Guardian article here...

Opinions on the Caldecott & Newberry winners

Some commentary this week on the recent award winners of the prestigious Caldecott & Newberry Awards, given annually to the best illustrated and written (respectively) books for children over at the blog, Book Blog | BlogCentral.TheReporter.com

Go the ALA website for more information on the Caldecott & Newberry Award winners...

New Mystery Hardcover Titles for January 2007

Just in time to beat those winter blues -- new mystery novels! Included is the 13th installment of Janet Evanovich' hilarious Stephanie Plum series: Plum Lovin' ...

Mystery Books: Mystery Books: New Hardcover Titles for January 2007

Need something to do in April?

Look no further than The Library of Congress' listings of book fairs, literary festivals and other "readable moments" across the US and the world...
BOOK FAIRS AND OTHER LITERARY EVENTS (Center for the Book: Library of Congress)

The Dawkins Illusion

In the midst of reading Richard Dawkins' latest non-fiction bestseller, The God Delusion, I came across the following article: The Dawkins Illusion - New English Review

I must disagree with one particular aspect of the reviewer's article. The author, Colin Bower, states that Dawkins is covering the same ground as other academics such as Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett and shouldn't be bothered. Unfortunately, atheism is not a well-received lifestyle choice and this book by Dawkins goes a long way to making the ideas and "memes" of atheism palatable to a wider audience. The book is so accessible! And it is not intended to be a scholarly discourse on the history of atheism -- Dawkins even states in his first chapters that he is trying to create a "consciousness-raising" for those who may not know much about evolution or atheism. In this regard, he succeeds admirably.

Mystery Books from 2006

A look at some of the best mystery books from 2006...
Mystery Books: Mysterious Reviews: A Look Back at 2006

A Year in Reading: Recap

Great compilation of reviews and blog posts on the best of 2006 from around the blogosphere...


The Millions (A Blog About Books): A Year in Reading: Recap