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Book Soup Blog (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Here are some lovely offerings.... There are some beautiful new editions of some old favorites, with some snappy new illustrations! PIPPI LONGSTOCKING BY ASTRID LINDGREN ILLUSTRATED BY LAUREN CHILD! DON QUIXOTE BY MIGUEL DE CERVANTES ILLUSTRATED BY CHRIS RIDDELL TREASURE ISLAND BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN LAWRENCE
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Recently Banned Literature (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
On my way home from an errand downtown, I was absorbing the fall colors when I was suddenly struck through by the desire to see the portion of California’s Sierra Nevada foothills that lay just east of where I was born. I’ve taken many a slow drive through those hills, in every season, borne along by silence, thought, and emotion that seemed part of the rocks and dry grass themselves, under...
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Recently Banned Literature (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
California Classics The Creative Literature of the Golden State by Lawrence Clark Powell The Ward Ritchie Press Los Angeles (1971) [click to enlarge] Works and authors discussed: Anza’s California Expeditions , by Herbert E. Bolton; The Journey of the Flame , by Walter Nordhoff; Death Valley in ’49 , by William L. Manly; The Land of Little Rain , by Mary Austin; The Wonders of the Colorado...
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Alternative-Read.com (Free subscription) | 10/24/2009
I have to make the family some lunch (quick sandwiches -- LOL) so, I am to start by listening to I Am Legend (S.F. Masterworks) by Richard Matheson on my iPod as I busy myself in the kitchen. Hope that counts! (Check out the fantastic vampire cover!) After that, the family are going out, and I am going to be left to my own devices until they return later this evening. Which is nice! I've loaded up...
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Dewey's Treehouse (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
We did go back to the library sale, and brought home another boxful. The Apprentice also filled up a bag with CDs, audio books and books of her own (including some Biochemistry software). Still it was kind of sad leaving all the rest of those boxes behind to be euthanized recycled. Books we didn't have: Give the Dog a Bone , by Steven Kellogg April's Kittens , by Clare Turlay Newberry (I got this to...
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Montag ... (Free subscription) | 10/16/2009
Getting a degree in English can be tedious at times. The classics of literature do not always make the most compelling reading. But every so often you'll come across a terrific bit of writing that is still a page-turner after a century or two. For the scary season, the vast staff of Richardson & Bluhm print-on-demand books has compiled a half-dozen of the best page-turners in literature, from names...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 09/27/2009
William Somerset Maugham was at various times the most famous, successful and wealthiest living writer of the first half of the 20th century. His books outsold stellar contemporaries such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad, his plays were performed all over the world and his stories were a never-ending resource for the new moving pictures. Garlanded and gonged, in Britain he was made a Companion...
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'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?' (Free subscription) | 09/23/2009
Another book I picked up at Hay-on-Wye was Victorian Villainies , a book I first read not long after it came out in 1984. It’s an omnibus volume of four books, selected by Graham Greene and his brother Hugh, and with an introduction by Hugh. The brothers were very keen collectors of Victorian mysteries, and produced a rather rare bibliography of key titles. This omnibus was the product of their...
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Nin Andrews (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
In today's excerpt - famous writers and their odd ways of writing: "Dame Edith Sitwell used to lie in an open coffin for a while before she began her day's writing. When I mentioned this macabre bit of gossip to a poet friend, he said acidly, 'If only someone had thought to shut it.' ... "Sitwell's coffin trick may sound like a prank, unless you look at how other writers have gone about courting...
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A Book Blogger's Diary (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
In Susan Shapiro’s debut comedic novel, Speed Shrinking, Julia, the book’s main character, is a self-help author about to come out with her new book on sugar addiction when she gains her cupcake weight. Now, the goal is to find a new therapist to help her “speed shrink” her body in time for the pub date. • When and why did you begin writing? Reading and writing were the...
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Rafe McGregor (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
My post from The Rap Sheet last week: I first came to Dave Zeltserman’s self-styled ‘dark crime fiction’ through Small Crimes , his 2008 breakthrough novel. I initially thought that the ‘dark’ was a reference to the kind of noir crime fiction of Thompson, Caine, and many others, but Zeltserman has a penchant for going beyond crime fiction and introducing a supernatural...
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SF Safari (Free subscription) | 09/09/2009
Over at my crime fiction blog, I reviewed Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. It's Part 2 of Adventure Week, my reviews of some classic adventure tales I read for the first time this year. Yeah, it's not exactly science fiction and that's why I'm posting it on my crime fiction blog . Check it out. I consider it my favorite classic novel of the year. Not sure what can top it. Up next: King Solomon's...
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Scott D Parker (Free subscription) | 09/09/2009
Johnny Depp owes Robert Louis Stevenson big time. Were it not for Stevenson, Depp’s resurgence into the popular eye might not have happened. Well, it might have happened but it would not have been because of his portrayal of pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. Come to think of it, Walt Disney himself might not have even had the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. So, add Disney to the list...