Books you can't wait for!

Kirkus Reviews just released their Fall/Winter 2006 preview issue online. Jonathan Franzen has a new non-fiction work coming out in September, humorist/travel writer Bill Bryson is releasing a new collection in October, and Neil Gaiman has a new collection of "hard-to-pin-down-in-any-genre" short stories arriving on bookshelves in September. For those crisp, cool fall days when all you want to do is curl up in front of a fire with a good book...

Epileptic, by David B

"Hailed by The Comics Journal as one of Europe's most important and innovative comics artists, David B. has created a masterpiece in Epileptic, his stunning and emotionally resonant autobiography about growing up with an epileptic brother. Epileptic gathers together and makes available in English for the first time all six volumes of the internationally acclaimed graphic work." Powell's Daily Dose reviews David B.'s Epileptic, an autobiographical graphic novel about the author's life growing up with his epileptic younger brother. Add this to the growing list of graphic novels on my "To Read" list before the fall semester starts...

Need to share the love?

Are you looking for yet another way to share your book love? I Love Books is a forum where you can share your book love with others. Topics recently posted include: Fictional Characters as Fictional Characters in Other Books, william faulkner wrote a book of mystery stories and i am surprised no one told me this. , and my personal favorite, Should I get rid of my books? (which my husband seems to think the answer is, Yes).

comics news

Here's some information you normally don't see when you are reading about comic book publishers:
"...But it’s a surprise to find that all this success has emerged as an interesting catalyst for Vertigo, which finds itself going through yet another evolution. Berger and her team of editors have recently begun expanding the brand’s literary reach with more stand-alone books far closer to novels than comics, developed by some of the best creators in the business..."
Its the second sentence that caught my eye, "..have recently begun expanding upon the brand's literary reach..." -- this seems at first glance to be a contradiction given comics' rave popularity as popular reading for the masses, not necessarily for those with a bent for literary fiction. I, for one, am glad for it, considering that most comics ARE literature, albeit a different way of telling a story.

New Poet Laureate

The Library of Congress has announced the new National Poet Laureate -- Donald Hall. Mr. Hall will read at the National Book Festival, to be held on the Mall in Washington, D.C., September 30th this year...

too long

Its been too long since I last posted! My only excuse is work -- too much of it...
Speaking of which, NPR has an audio broadcast of a story about Harper Lee's comeback to the literary world -- in O, the Oprah Magazine of all places!

judging these books by their covers

Penguin Classics has recently changed the look of some literature stalwarts with, "... cover designs {have been} executed by some of today’s most beloved and respected, dare I say “hip,” graphic artists...". These covers actually look more like comic books or graphic novels than dusty prose, but the attractive nature of the covers has the possibility of drawing in more readers to such timeless classics as Lady Chatterley's Lover or The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
Book cover art is itself a hobby, with collectors passionate as any other bibliophile.

dystopic graphic novels

V for Vendetta is next on my list of graphic novels to read by Alan Moore, but I'm not sure I'm going to rent the movie after reading this review...

Best Book of the past 25 years is...

Beloved? I just don't get it -- the BEST work of American fiction of the past 25 years is Beloved by Toni Morrison? Runner-ups include Underworld by Don DeLillo and the Rabbit books by John Updike. C'mon people! What about Tim O'Brien, Jane Smiley, Lee Smith, Richard Russo? Admittedly, Beloved is a much better book than Underworld or ANY novel by Cormac McCarthy (have YOU tried to get through All the Pretty Horses??). The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien would be my pick -- what would yours be?

a million little lies?

This guy has an addiction...
James Frey, the writer notorious for being busted as a liar by Oprah Winfrey, has admitted to fabricating sections of his most recent book, My Friend Leonard. His publisher has reportedly dropped him. Not a strong vote of confidence...

Short story master

Last night I read through notes from one of my creative writing classes I took while I lived in NYC. One of the suggested writers to emulate was Raymond Carver. I forgot how well Carver crafts short fiction -- arguably he is one of the masters of American short fiction. Minimalist, spare, clean -- just a few adjectives which describe his writing. "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" is his best-known story, but "Cathedral" is another brilliant short story taught in creative writing classes everywhere.

The "Blooker" Prize

"The Lulu Blooker Prize is the world's first literary prizedevoted to "blooks": books based on blogs or websites. Awarded in three categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Comics...". The 2006 Lulu Blooker Prizes went to Julie Powell for her book Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen in the Nonfiction category; Cherie Priest for her novel, Four and Twenty Blackbirds; and Zach Miller for his comic novelization, Totally Boned. Neat concept and about time awards were given to this form of writing!

Short Fiction prize

The Ontario Review has announced a Short Fiction Prize contest for 2006. Submissions are being accepted through September 1, 2006.

a universal library?

What is the concept of the universal library? Google thinks it knows...

lets all read the same book

Reading programs are hot again! "Tuesday at Carnegie Hall, the National Endowment for the Arts will announce a competition for grants, up to $20,000 each, to be awarded to 100 communities that select a novel and encourage everyone to read and discuss it."
The one community, one book movement has been catching on in cities across the country, but the Big Read program expands on this movement, giving communities the monetary incentive to start the program and making it easy to choose from a pre-selected list of novels.

And the Pulitzer goes to...

Bravo! For fans of Geraldine Brooks (author of The Year of Wonders), its no surprise that she is the winner of this year's Pulitzer in Literature for her Civil War era novel, March. Don't confuse it with The March, E.L. Doctorow's novel about the Civil which also won an award -- two in fact -- the PEN/Faulkner and the National Book Critics Circle awards.

Baltimore roots

Anne Tyler does not give interviews. But USA Today was able to ask her some questions by email about her most recent book, Digging to America. Read and enjoy!

Hershey, PA

Today I am in Hershey, PA with Jeff's family -- right now we are trying to decide what we are going to do (some people voting for the outlets, Hershey Park, Target). No one can decide :) How about a bookstore?

Bookworm

As I was doing searches for the "reading literature pyramid" today for my fall comics class syllabus, I came across Bookworm: a love of learning, a love of books, a site with everything a book lover could wish for. Lots of references to the Great Books of the Western World and to book groups and Great Books websites. So, even if you question what "great books" inherently mean, you can find lots of "great" resources that purportedly tell you why they think so! Mostly white, dead males...

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908-2006

John Kenneth Galbraith, writer and influential Harvard economist, died Saturday at age 97. Author of one of the most important books (arguably) of the 20th century, The Affluent Society, JKG was a political liberal and a strategist and advisor to several Presidents and Democratic politicians. In the aforementioned Affluent Society, JKG argued that America may be growing richer in private economic resources, but our public resources were being steadily eroded by an increasing reliance on consumer production and growth of capital. His book paved the way for a new societal discussion about infrastructure, schools, social services, and the allocation of money for the public good.

book heaven

Jeff & I were in Rochester on Saturday and stopped at Starbucks for a grande Americano (my fav). Next to the coffee place was a new store "BOOK OUTLET" -- imagine that! A bookstore next to a Starbucks -- hmmm, wonder if they will do any business?
I think it might be one of these chain remainder places; their prices were advertised as 70% off the price on the jacket. I got three paperbacks and a hardcover for $23.31 -- bless my lil bibliohungry heart!
Here's what I got:
Trash, short stories by Dorothy Allison (she of the Bastard out of Carolina fame, which is probably one of the more disturbing fictional takes on child sexual abuse)
The Overworked American, by Juliet Schor (geez, like we didn't know that already!)
American Dynasty, by Kevin Phillips (author of political-social-economic history, Wealth and Poverty)
Things you Should Know, short stories by A.M. Homes (wicked, ace writer!)

When I will have time to read all the above? Hmm...probably not this year unfortunately, but the deal was too good to pass up!

Fellow bloggers unite!

A list of authors who blog...
...and some others:
Laurie King (author of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery novels)
Jennifer Weiner (of Good in Bed fame)
S.J. Rozan (author of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery novels set in Chinatown)

An interview with...

...A.M. Homes, author of The Safety of Objects and Jack. Dark and engrossing, Homes' novels are touched with a wicked and morbid sense of humor. Here's another interview...

degrees of separation

Everyone is supposed to be only six degrees separate from any other person in the world. Well, I've never been N degrees close to any writers or authors (except for that one time I got to meet Jill McCorkle at the NYPL), but recently I got a few degrees closer to a writer -- sort of! My sister-in-law Laura, has an ex-boyfriend, Brian, who has a sister, Cristina, who just published her first collection of short stories. Entitled Come Together, Fall Apart, Cristina's debut collection has been reviewed in Booklist and Publishers' Weekly and one of the stories was in The New Yorker last year. Ok, so I'm stretching it a bit -- I've never even met Cristina, but judging by the New Yorker story and the reviews, Ms. Henriquez will be a writer to watch.

Sound good to you?

Do...

Cancer
Dementia
Hospital visits
deaths
funerals
marital infidelity
sexual promiscuity

...all sound good to you? Well, if so -- then I've got a book for you! Antonya Nelson's latest story collection features all of the above. Nelson interests me because she is compared to writers like Lorrie Moore and Ann Beattie -- two of my favorite writers working today. Also, who can beat a collection of stories written about the most dysfunctional of families - the American white middle-class family?

PEN/Faulkner award goes to...

E.L. Doctorow has won the PEN/Faulkner award for his latest novel, The March. Published in 2005, Doctorow's novel is a fictionalized account of Sherman's tumultuous "March to the Sea" during the Civil War, when General William Tecumseh Sherman pillaged and plowed a destructive path through the south, destroying and cutting off the Confederate army's supplies. Doctorow is a celebrated master of historical fiction; his superb novel Ragtime is an account of America at the turn-of-the century that follows real-life historical characters who changed and impacted this country.

remote book signing?

Writer Margaret Atwood claims she is ignorant of technology. However, the Booker prize-winning author has invented a "remote pen" to sign fans' books virtually -- much like the electronic gizmos UPS or FedEx employs for package deliveries. Possibilities await...

Octavia Butler, science fiction writer

It seems as though I am only writing posts about writers dying. I just found out from a librarian friend today that Octavia Butler, science fiction writer extraordinaire, has died at age 58. Writer of novels such as Kindred, Parable of the Sower, and its sequel, Parable of the Talents, Butler was an amazing writer. Her novels have a social conscience, not just pure science fiction, but novels of social commentary, intelligence, spirituality, and meaning. Bob tells me that Wild Seed is on his Top Ten, so I will have to read it as soon as I can.

Reds

My latest foray into nonfiction is a huge, 614 page tome on American anti-communism and the roots of McCarthyism in 1950s America: Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America, by Ted Morgan. It is hefty and dense, but it is also a fascinating dissection of the history of the Communist party in America and the fallout from the Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet espionage before, during, and after World War II. One does get the feeling throughout the book that Morgan may be trying a bit too hard to convince the reader of how dangerous the Soviet threat was during the 1930s and 1940s -- his tone and language convey the idea that Soviet spies surrounded us everywhere. Still, since the release of the code-breaking Venona transcripts and the de-classified McCarthy hearings, it is an important examination of one of the most fearsome times in American history.

Larry Brown, writer, 1951-2004

I was looking for some information on one of my favorite authors recently and found out he passed away in November of 2004. Larry Brown wrote some of the best Southern gritty fiction around and was a self-taught writer who didn't start writing until he was well into his thirties. His novel, Fay, is on my top ten list of all-time favorite novels. Listen to an audio tribute from NPR...

Betty Friedan, 1921-2006

I've really been out of the loop...
Betty Friedan died on February 4th, on her 85th birthday. Such an important and influential woman. The Feminine Mystique radicalized so many women in the '60s and '70s, making it possible for women like me to have all the wonderful opportunities I take for granted. She left her indelible mark...

latest Sue Grafton I've read

I just finished reading "Q" is for Quarry this weekend and I have to admit, I am continually amazed by Grafton's ability to keep writing such engaging, deep and well-written mystery novels. "Q" is much longer than many of the previous alphabet series, and its interesting to note that this novel is rooted in an actual unsolved homicide which took place over thirty-five years ago. Kinsey Millhone is asked by two former Santa Teresa detectives to help with an unsolved investigation going back to 1969 -- a young woman was found stabbed, with her hands bound, and her body in a state of rapid decomposition. The case went nowhere, mostly due to lack of identification of the body and no leads. Eighteen years later and the two detectives are still curious about the girl and want to close the books on the case. Kinsey is asked to step in and help them solve the "cold case".
Coincidences aside, the seventeenth novel in the series is engrossing and revelatory -- the reader is slowly learning more and more of Kinsey's cloudy family history -- at much the same time as Kinsey herself. This novel is much like a jigsaw puzzle. Clues are introduced at the beginning, many of which don't seem like clues until later on in the story. Grafton is a superb storyteller, much of it due to the three-dimensional nature of her characters. Kinsey reveals more of herself in this book than ever before, giving us a glimpse of the soft inside.
Highly recommended and I would add, one of the best in the series so far.

After a long silence...

What a crazy past couple of weeks! I'm hoping to start posting again with some regularity. My life has been pretty chaotic with my job interview, uncertainty about my position, and a whole lot of teaching and web work -- life should be a little more stable soon! Keep reading...

National Book Critics Circle finalists...

The National Book Critics Circle finalists were announced last week -- Andrea Levy is nominated for Small Island, Mary Gaitskill for Veronica, and William Vollmann for Europe Central are some of the authors included, so it should be an interesting awards competition...

love story?

Just finished reading The Pact: a love story, by Jodi Picoult. I usually love Picoult's books -- big, plot-driven novels usually appealing to women, with some good character development (see Plain Truth or Keeping Faith). So, understandably, I was extremely disappointed after finishing the novel. The novel is a story of two teenagers (Emily and Chris) who grow up next door to each other. Their parents are best friends and naturally, the two are encouraged in their growing romantic relationship. Until something goes horribly wrong and Emily is found dead, from a gunshot wound to the head, with Chris next to her, bleeding and unconscious, but still alive. Thus begins the novel of "what went wrong in Perfectville?". What bothers me are a couple of inconsistencies: one, the reason for the suicide is so vague and clouded in mystery and ultimately, never solved. Although I suppose you could make the argument that this is the case for so many suicides, it just didn't seem to ring true. Second, the mother of Emily reads her daughter's diary, then burns it. It never comes up again, which seems like a huge waste of an interesting plot twist. Third, the actual circumstances surrounding the actual suicide and Chris' attempts to save Emily from killing herself are seriously flawed. The scene and the characters' actions in it, felt false. All in all, it was an highly entertaining novel, but not one of her better ones, plot-wise. I did like the character of Jordan and his private investigator, Selena -- both were interesting and I wanted to find out more, but the parents of both teens seemed contrived. If you have not read Jodi Picoult before, try one of her other novels before this overly melodramatic work.

liar, liar, pants on fire...

James Frey has some explaining to do. Frey's bestseller A Million Little Pieces and an Oprah Book Club pick, is drawing attention for alleged lies he told in the book...

America's most literate cities

Imagine that -- Seattle, WA is considered America's Most Literate City. Well, it doesn't really surprise me considering that it is also the home of Starbucks, and as such, is probably coffee capital of America. 'Cause if you are reading a good book, you also need a good cup of joe...

New Year "books-to-read" resolution

So Alice and I discussed our New Year's resolutions and agreed to post them - mine are a few days late, but here goes...
The books I am determined to read and finish in 2006:

1. Empire Falls and Straight Man by Richard Russo
Richard Russo is one of my favorite authors -- his books are funny, intelligent, and poignant. The first book I read was Nobody's Fool -- the story of Sully was pure pathos, his whole life a failure and his attempts to make some peace with it darkly comical. Russo is a gifted writer.

2. I'm hoping to finish a few mystery novel series this year:
John Rebus novels by Ian Rankin
V.I. Warshawski novels by Sara Paretsky
Kinsey Millhone novels by Sue Grafton
Kathy Mallory novels by Carol O'Connell

3. Some classics on my to read list...
Anything by Thomas Hardy!
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

4. On Beauty by Zadie Smith

5. Godless by Pete Hautman

6. The Rabbit Factory by Larry Brown

7. The Right Nation: How Conservatism Won by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge
...because I don't want to believe its true :)

8. The New Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian

9. The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism by Haynes Johnson

10. Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich by Kevin Phillips
Published in 2002, but even more important today. Still at the top of my nonfiction reading list, as soon as I get through those information architecture texts for work...

movie date

Alice and I went to see The Squid and the Whale at the Little Theatre in Rochester last night. Fantastic movie! Who knew writers could be such self-absorbed jerks? Jeff Daniels was terrific in a superbly understated performance as a washed up writer struggling with his wife's own literary success. It was funny and sad at the same time...

new bio

Happy New Year! Today I read an interesting book review for a new biography of Joseph Smith -- founder of the Mormon religion. A few months ago I linked to a blog posting about Jon Krakauer, the author of Under the Banner of Heaven, (a book I listened to on tape) which is about the violence of the fundamentalist Mormon sects. Mormonism has roots in the Rochester area, with Palmyra, NY (Joseph Smith's childhood home) within driving distance of the city. What peaks my interest is the adulation and respect heaped on him -- a man who "found" golden plates and proclaimed he spoke to God and Jesus and was the new Prophet to lead the fallen to the true church. Of course, what is more amazing is the lasting power of his words and deeds -- 200 years later and the church is still thriving with 12 million members worldwide. I'm a skeptic, so I tend to fall on the disbelief side of the fence when it comes to Mormonism...

Summer Reading

Its that time of year again! Geneseo is getting geared up to select a book for the freshman Summer Reading program. Here are the recommended selections so far....
It is also the year SUNY Geneseo marks the centennial of Susan B. Anthony's death, with a college-year celebration, "Susan B. Anthony: Women's Rights, Women's Power" (2006-07). We are looking at reading a book which will integrate with the celebration. Any suggestions?

End-of-year list of books...

What do your end-of-year-book lists say about you? According to blog of a bookslut, quite a lot!

Berenstein Bears author

Stan Berenstain, co-creator of the beloved "Berenstain Bears" series for children, has passed away at 82. Read his obituary in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, LA Times, The Washington Post, AP, The Seattle Times, The Miami Herald...

looking for a series book?

Finding a book in series order is always a pain in the neck. The Nebraska Library Commission solves this problem! For major authors, they have produced a Books in Series database, which can be searched by author, book title, or series title. My search was using Peter Danielson, author of the Children of the Lion series, which, by the way is a pseudonym for multiple authors who wrote the books in this series.

historical fiction

If you are a fan of historical fiction, you may want to check out the Historical Novel Society website. Their aim is to " ... review every new work of adult historical fiction released in the USA or the UK. Selected titles from Canada and Australia are also reviewed, as are selected children's/young adult titles, for a grand total of over 800 reviews per year" Ambitious, but they publish the Historical Novels Review which does just that.

2005 Notable books

Read about the The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year here...
(Note: registration to the NY Times may be required)

NBA winner -- Poetry

W. S. Merwin, author of Migration: New and Selected Poems, is the winner of the 2005 National Book Award for poetry. Merwin is a poet's poet -- he lives and writes in Hawaii and is not affiliated with any college or university -- just writes! When I worked at the downtown public library I stumbled onto a collection of his poems, Finding the Islands; a collection of three stanza poems like the following excerpt from the poem "At Home":

As the ants know
where the honey is
I know the way to you
____

where we live
we look far out to sea
and our clothes are behind us in the bedroom

His poetry is beautiful and evocative.

NBA Winner -- Fiction

The National Book Awards were finally announced this past week. William Vollman won the Fiction award for his novel, Europe Central...

classic

Just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird -- about time! I still don't understand why this book wasn't required reading when I attended school. Perhaps too controversial? Although this doesn't seem right, considering the book's themes could be just as applicable today. Racism, bigotry, violence -- all still relevant topics which need to be addressed and discussed in public schools.

Anarchist in the Library

Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan is coming to Geneseo! An NYU Professor of Culture and Communication, Dr. Vaidhyanathan is going to be the keynote speaker at our annual SUNYLA (SUNY Librarians' Association) Conference. Author of The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System, Dr. Vaidhyanathan is a former journalist and cultural historian and media scholar. His previous book was on copyright and intellectual property. He will be speaking at SUNY Geneseo on June 15, 2006. Can't wait!

Sleuths unite!

How many of you were Nancy Drew fans when you were kids? I was a HUGE fan and thought what better way to celebrate my book-lovin' youth than to host a a Nancy Drew sleuth party !Wouldn't this be loads of fun?

2005 Booker winner

John Banville was awarded the Booker Prize last month for his novel The Sea. Read why he finally feels his critics have been silenced...

Wikibooks

The Creators of Wikipedia have introduced Wikibooks which is an editable, open content source of textbooks. "This site is a wiki, meaning that anyone, including you, can edit any book module right now by clicking on the edit this page link that appears in every Wikibooks module...".

Nobel Prize

British playwright Harold Pinter has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Read more at ... Washington Post, The New York Times, LA Times ...

way cool

Note: from the Web4Lib discussion list...
"In a celebration of the Public Domain, the Internet Archive's Bookmobile will be coming to a town near you, bringing with it the ability to access, download, and print one of the almost 20,000 public domain books currently available online..."

Forward Prize

The 2005 Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection has gone to Helen Farish, a Brit and debut author of Intimates...

Open WorldCat

Attention all you non-librarians out there:
There is a new search function through OCLC WorldCAT which allows you to search for a book title and locate it at your closest library or bookseller. It is called Find in a Library and it works with Yahoo, Google or on a Firefox browser toolbar. Type in the name of the book and the word "worldcat" afterwards and..voila! Look for the tab marked "Reviews" -- you can post reader reviews and have another chance to interact with readers interested in the same books...

Man Booker shortlist

Ok, so they will be announcing the Man Booker Prize winner tomorrow, but I wish to try and at least stay one step ahead at some point in the game! Zadie Smith made the 2005 shortlist, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be her novel, On Beauty, announced tomorrow...

Rea Award

Ann Beattie, fabulous short story writer and social novelist, has won the $30, 000 Rea Award for the Short Story ... there must be something about Charlottesville, Virginia -- Beattie calls it home, as do John Grisham, Rita Dove, and Jan Karon just to name a few ...

hangin' out in D.C.

Jeff & I just got back from Washington, D.C. LATE last night. The National Book Festival was a success from all the signs we saw -- long lines, sold out books, sore feet....I was the last person to get a book signed by Diana Gabaldon...she signed books for two hours -- and there were STILL people waiting in line!

Once more...

Cornell University has an online exhibition honoring Vladimir Nabokov and the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Lolita. I know, I know -- I sound obsessed, but the site is pretty impressive.

Library of Congress tomfoolery...

Imagine! The Library of Congress stuffed into the size of a sugar cube -- oh, the possibilities!

Man Booker finalists announced

The finalists for the Man Booker Prize were announced today....

National Book Festival

If only I were closer....The National Book Festival will be held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, September 24, 2005, sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush. My favorite author, Diana Gabaldon is going to be there signing her new book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes! Hmmm....my birthday is the following week...maybe somebody will surprise me with a ticket??

NYC

Some days I miss NYC...like today when I open up the Times and see a two-page ad for the 2005 Fall Season for the 92nd Street Y, "At once a lecture hall, a performance space, a school, a health center and a community organization, the Y remains focused on its mission of enriching the lives of the people who pass through its doors...". The 92nd Street Y Reading Series will feature authors like Salman Rushdie, Louise Erdrich, Joan Didion, Bobbie Ann Mason and more...

The Man Booker Prize 2005

Ok -- so they announced the Man Booker Prize Longlist a month ago -- so sue me! I've been a little busy this summer. This prestigious British Commonwealth award always has some surefire good reads in contemporary fiction -- take a look...

a global warming reading list...

I saw an especially interesting Meet the Press with Tim Russert this past Sunday. Mr. Russert's several interviews included people in Bush's cabinet, local & state officials from Louisiana & Mississippi, as well as a few scientific experts talking about global climate change and the impact this has had on the low-lying coastal areas of the U.S. I thought it would be relevant to put together a reading list for those interested in how a hurricane of Katrina's magnitude can have such a devastating affect on the region...

Some websites...
EPA Global Warming Site
Global Warming Primer (from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network)
Global Warming: Early Warning Signs
Global Warming (from the The Cooler Heads Coalition, a subgroup of the National Consumer Coalition)

Some books...
Bayou Farewell : The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast, by Mike Tidwell
Climate Change : Impact on Coastal Habitation, edited by Doeke Eisma (this title has chapters such as "Impact of climatic change on coastal cities" and "River flux to the sea: impact of human intervention on river systems and adjacent coastal areas")
The Discovery of Global Warming, by Spencer R. Weart
Firefly Guide to Global Hazards, by Robert L. Kovach and Bill McGuire (Abstract states, "A compelling, richly illustrated guide to the many large-scale natural disasters that affect life on Earth, both globally and locally. The guide is vital reading for those interested in the environment, geophysics and current affairs. It provides clear descriptions of all types of hazards and the threats they pose")
Holding Back the Sea: The Struggle for America's Natural Legacy on the Gulf Coast, by Christopher Hallowell

disaster relief

The Louisiana Library Association is accepting monetary donations to help schools, public, and academic libraries cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina...

Lolita -- again...

First thing I do in the mornings (after coffee and breakfast, of course) is read Arts & Letters Daily ... this morning I was treated to an article on Lolita, which dear readers may remember I read back in July . It amazes me that this novel still captivates people after 5o years -- not just because of its topic, too, but the reactions to the novel are still controversial after so many years.

disappearance

I'm baaaaaack! This past month has been crazy -- moving to a new house, work going crazy... now back to your regularly scheduled program...

getting lost

The art of getting lost...seems like I am always in a hurry to get somewhere, be somewhere else, do something else. Who has time to get lost anymore? Rebecca Solnit wanders through the urban and suburban cultural landscape in her new collection of essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which appears to be a treatise on taking the time to roam and wander and just get ... well, lost.

Hitchfest

Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily for the New Statesman review of Christopher Hitchens' latest book, Love, Poverty & War. Now I know that I should NEVER call him "Chris" if I meet him...

best characters in fiction

Who is your favorite character from fiction? NPR reproduced a list of the 100 Best Fictional Characters since 1900 and I must ask -- Hana from Ondaatje's The English Patient???? I'm not sure she would make my top 100 if I was asked to choose...

lovin' Lolita

Ok, I've got to admit, I felt some sympathy for poor 'ol Humbert Humbert. I'm almost done with reading Nabokov's Lolita, (two pages left for crying out loud!) and the novel is hysterically sad -- you may ask, "is there such a thing?" -- but try reading a novel about a delusional pedophile who goes to extraordinary lengths to get the girl of his dreams (albeit a 12-year old) and you, too, may want to laugh and cry. The obvious problem with this is that Humbert is a pedophile, so why would you feel sympathy for him? But he narrates the story with such obvious desire and this crazy sense of self-importance, not even realizing Lolita's a person, not in any conscious way, that you only feel sorry for him. Must find a copy of the movie and see how someone else visualizes the story.

do you know the most harmful books of 19th & 20 C.?

Apparently, reading Democracy and Education by John Dewey and The Feminine Mystique are harmful to you...

writer bio

Interesting article about writer Mark Helprin I found through Arts & Letters Daily today...

Shelby Foote obituary

Shelby Foote, noted Southern writer and Civil War historian, has passed away at age 88.
Read obituaries here: NY Times, The Washington Post, LA Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, International Herald-Tribune, Boston Globe, StarTribune.com, CNN ...

Oprah's baaaaack...

Yes, its true -- Oprah's Book Club is back and better than ever! Bookninja rhapsodizes about why those in the literary community are obsessed with this woman and her book club ...

free books

Well...sorta...
More like free in the sense that these are books in the public domain and available for anyone to read or download...

beach reading

Books you need to bring to the beach this summer...
{Note: thanks to LII!}

consumption

What I bought at Borders last night (because I couldn't help myself...)

Small Island by Andrea Levy (recently won the Whitbread Award)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
War Trash by Ha Jin
Trying Again by Ann Douglas and John Sussman
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin

Author of the Day: cranky writers

There is something loveable about Christopher Hitchens, which I have stated before, but now I have proof others love him!
Here are selected articles & interviews: The Atlantic Monthly (must be a subscriber to read), The Guardian Unlimited: Books, History News Network, Identity Theory: the narrative thread, Stop Smiling Magazine, The Village Voice, The Weekly Standard

Gabaldon update...

I am so excited -- it looks like the next book in Diana Gabaldon's wonderful Claire and Jamie Fraser series will be published in September 2005...just in time for my birthday!

Orange Prize winner

The 2005 Orange Prize winner for Fiction is Lionel Shriver's novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin...

Keillor fans

Any Garrison Keillor fans out there? If you are, then you probably will be interested in The Writer's Almanac, "a daily program of poetry and history hosted by Garrison Keillor" usually found on public radio stations across the country. Today's entries include a poem, literary trivia and a short essay by Keillor...

mocking me

To Kill a Mockingbird is that one great American novel I have never read, but always meant to. Maybe I'll try to dig into it this summer while sitting by my brand new pool...
In the meantime, I should check out this resource guide to start thinking about the larger themes of the novel.

Potter parties

Can't wait until the new Harry Potter book comes out? Check out this site which keeps track of "Potter Parties" happening all over the world... {Note: thanks to ResearchBuzz}

literary maps

What a neat idea ... The New York Times created a literary map of Manhattan, designating all the great literary landmarks. Thanks to Susan who let me read her copy of the Book Review!

tricky evolution topic

Apparently children are not supposed to know about evolution...picture book author Lisa Westberg Peters has written a book about evolution for children and was told not to talk about the book at an elementary school in Stillwater, Minnesota, where she was invited to speak. She refused to visit the school...

sex scenes worth mentioning

Nerve.com has a monthly award for the best literary sex scene, called the Henry Miller award. Sue Miller won for May, with her novel Lost in the Forest...

summer adventures

Librarian Nancy Pearl recommended some adventure novels for summer reading on NPR...

pop-ups

Remember those cute pop-up books from when you were a kid? Well, the University of North Texas Libraries has a wonderful site which takes you on a tour through the history of pop-up and moveable picture books...
{Note: found on LII.org}

Book Sense winner

Book Sense, the online commercial venture of independent booksellers across the U.S., announced their 2005 Book Sense Book of the Year award for fiction: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke...

books to remember

The New York Public Library has an annual 25 Books to Remember -- a list of the 25 best books from the previous year's publications, both fiction and nonfiction. The list is compiled by a committee of librarians who read TONS of reviews to narrow down the list to 25 -- I should know! I served on the committee selecting the books for the 1998 list...

Austen adapted

Finished another retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice over the weekend. This book is entitled Vanity and Vexation: a novel of pride and prejudice by Kate Fenton. The new twist in this story involves a middle-aged reporter-turned-novelist, who moves to the country and stumbles into a real-life Pride and Prejudice plot. The Mr. Darcy character in this new P&P is a dark, arrogant, & headstrong female director named Mary. The Elizabeth Bennet character is reversed, and is now Nick Bevan, the novelist. Misunderstandings and mix-ups ensue, with much hilarity. One particularly neat device involves a "novel-within-a-novel" plot twist which surprises the reader halfway through the novel.

freaky economics

Book of the Day goes to...
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen Dubner, which has been getting all kinds of crazy press in the past few weeks. Yesterday, the two authors were interviewed on the TODAY show with Matt Lauer about their controversial new book. The two authors come to some startling conclusions about ideas, using rigorous statistical analysis. Examples include: "Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?"
Read some reviews here: About.com, BookBrowse, English Rules, Powell's Books, SocioWeb, The Weekly Standard...

foreign fiction prize

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, given out by Arts Council England, was announced. The winner is Windows on the World by Frédéric Beigbeder -- a novel about September 11th.

one wild and crazy guy...

I'm in the midst of listening to Steve Martin narrate his novella, Shopgirl -- its fantastic by the way -- and found out that the movie version is to be released in October 2005, starring Claire Danes, and (of course!) Steve Martin as two of the main characters. His most recent novel, The Pleasure of My Company recently won Martin a Grammy for Best Spoken Word album of 2004...

fast-food reading

Want to learn how to read more -- faster? Steve Leveen shows us how... (p.s. this guy happens to know his stuff -- he is CEO of Levenger)

fragmentary white noise

From the "wow, what do people do with all their free time?" category via Bookslut today...
Here's the hook -- "White Noise on White Noise is a collection of 36 randomly selected fragments of text from Don DeLillo's novel White Noise. The identifying details of each fragment - the page number it appears on, the line number to begin quoting from and the number of lines to quote - were selected using a random number generator. The fragments appear in page number order, to provide an experience akin to quickly browsing through the novel in a bookstore..."
The novel was interesting, but come on, is this really necessary?