John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot (Free subscription) | yesterday
I have zero interest in seeing 2012; the trailer was quite enough, thanks. That said, I was intrigued by this list of the best works of apocalyptic fiction, which includes writers as diverse as Cormac McCarthy and Nevil Shute and Margaret Atwood (for Oryx and Crake).
Fraggmented (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
OK, I still must be at least a tiny little bit sick, because my brain just stopped dead to consider how funny the word "Peeve" looked, and wonder if it was somehow etymologically related to "reeve", and now I'm trying to remember what the heck a "reeve" actually is, but I'm too lazy to wiki it... Anyhow, my pet irritation of the day: Science-fiction authors who insist...
Quillblog (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Bookish links from around the Web: Happy (belated) birthday, Margaret Atwood. The author turned 70 yesterday Colum McCann has won the fiction prize at the National Book Awards for his novel Let the Great World Spin. Also at last night’s gala in New York, Dave Eggers picked up the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American [...]
Fantasy Book Critic (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Inspired by this sffworld thread I decided to do a post with my choices considering that it is mid-November 09. As usual I separate the novels in categories, this time just three: mainstream, fantasy and sf. ********************************** Mainstream: 1. Les Bienveillantes/The Kindly Ones - Jonathan Littell (French 2006, Engl 2009) - memoirs of fictional SS officer Dr. Maxiliam Aue; evil that will...
A Book A Week (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Popular fiction is a genre that is distinct from literary fiction, though the boundaries are fluid. I like to think of these categories as either ends of a ruler, with most books falling somewhere between the two ends. A lot of the books I read fall right around the middle of the continuum between popular and literary fiction. For example I put authors like Kate Atkinson, Diane Johnson, and Elinor...
Baxojayz - Centricity (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
exegesis \ek-suh-JEE-sis\, noun; plural exegeses \-seez\: Exposition; explanation; especially, a critical explanation of a text. Exegesis comes from Greek, from exegeisthai, "to explain, to interpret," from ex-, "out of" + hegeisthai, "to lead, to guide." Thus an exegesis is, at root, "a leading or guiding out of" a complexity. darth breather Adj. a person who...
The Art of Fiction (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
The Times' list of best hundred books of the decade, is a journalists' list, a news list. There's quality in there; Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is the number one choice, but there's also the books that defined the decade, hang the quality; Harry Potter and the Da Vinci Code amongst them. When the Guardian does this sort of thing they tend to do a better presentation job of it (you'll have...
Iron Caisson (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
I am all for spreading the good word about Great Books by Women that Publisher's Weekly Missed in 2009 , but for some reason Guerrilla Girls on Tour (not to be confused with Guerrilla Girls ) published the open-edit WILLA wiki list as their own. And sans link, so readers don't know they can add their own titles. W-e-i-r-d. They tell us they'll give WILLA a shout out tomorrow, but in the meantime, I...
http://www.wisebread.com/feed (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
By Will Chen We've been invited to present our books, 10,001 Way to Live Large on a Small Budget and The Frugal Duchess: How to Live Well and Save Money , at the 26th Miami Book Fair International ! Wise Bread writers Myscha Theriault and Sharon Harvey Rosenberg will be on hand to sign books, answer questions, and share their favorite frugal tips. The fair is great fun for the whole family. It features...
Literary Thunder Bay (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
What a time for great new books! A quick trip to Chapters and I am writing my list and not even checking it twice. Here is an even dozen.Last Night at Twisted River by the great John IrvingToo Much Happiness by Alice Munro, best short story writer in the world.Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. A police procedural, Connelly sends his L.A. detective to AsiaThe Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Chicks Dig Poetry (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Thanks to Galley Cat for drawing my attention to the fact that if the Washington Post' s "Book World" can't pick up some more subscribers to its podcast series , the higher-ups will eliminate funding for the program. Editors Ron Charles and Rachel Hartigan Shea have voices that are easy on the ears, and they do a nice job mixing headlines from the publishing world in with authors interviews...
MediaBistro.com (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
In an email interview with Washington City Paper , Washington Post Book World fiction editor Ron Charles worried about the subscriber rate for the site's podcast series . Here's more from the post : "There's no concrete deadline for adding more subscribers, Charles says, or even a goal for how many it needs, just 'a general mandate to make sure we're concentrating our efforts on projects that...
Poetry & Poets in Rags (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
by Margaret Atwood It was my father taught my mother from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Dancing by Margaret Atwood ~~~~~~~~~~~ No Direction Home by Charles Wright After a certain age, there's no one left to turn to. from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: No Direction Home by Charles Wright ~~~~~~~~~~~ A Pair of Barn Owls, Hunting by David Wagoner Now slowly, smoothly flying over the...
The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
All this week, Miami is celebrating the world of literature with its annual Book Fair. Running from November 8 - 15 and open to the public for a small entrance fee, the fair is already going strong in its 26th year despite a significantly reduced budget , and is celebrating authors big and small. Says the Miami New Times : The afterparties are nil and the fashions are more along the lines of smoking...
fullcirclelit (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal called "How to Write a Great Novel " picked the brains of a collection of all-star, world-renown writers to share their tips for getting a story to the page. The authors interviewed include Margaret Atwood ( The Handmaid's Tale ), Junot Diaz ( The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ), Michael Ondaatje ( The English Patient ), and this year's Booker...
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