Best of the Blogs

Posted on 26 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

What posts on book blogs did you enjoy reading this week? A few of my picks are below…

John Warner Tells You What to Read Next
Posted by John Williams on The Second Pass’s blog

If you haven’t been following the Tournament of Books closely, this post is a good point at which to jump in. Over at online lit publication The Second Pass’s blog, John Williams highlights some commentary from the Quarterfinal round, in which Wolf Hall faced off against The Anthologist. The post will make you think about how and why we choose what we read:

The last two books I finished were Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask and Next by James Hynes. I read those because I loved their previous books. Their current ones delivered much the same pleasures as their last efforts. They were every bit as good as I hoped and expected, but I’d already tasted those flavors. Should I be forcing myself to be a bit more adventurous, to turn toward the unexplored territory, to occasionally pick pistachio over mint chocolate chip at Baskin-Robbins?

Play time with coloring books
Posted by Nosuch Book

Okay, so maybe it’s a little weird that I’m linking to a post about coloring books, but bear with me. The Taro Gomi coloring books (and books by other artists) that this blogger writes about on Nosuch Book are way more inventive and fun than the generic princess books I used when I was a kid. And even if you don’t know a little one who’d be entranced by these doodles, adults are getting in on the action, too: “Playfulness returns with the bright sun and warm breezes of spring. With lots of reminders everywhere to not forget how to be a kid. Want to color with me?“

Books Podcast #70: Books for the Plane Ride
Posted by Books on the Nightstand

Going on a trip any time soon? Michael and Ann at Books on the Nightstand chat about what makes a great airplane book, and agree that a thriller is the best way to pass time on a long flight. What is your favorite airplane book? Share your picks on their blog (and here, too!).

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Scarlett September

Posted on 26 March 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Our Tragic Universe

There are plenty of big-name author releases I’m looking forward to this fall (Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, to name one). But a lesser-known British writer, Scarlett Thomas, is also up near the top of that list. Her inventive The End of Mr. Y blended fiction, philosophy and physics to create a fascinating and memorable read. The novel was filled with ideas and had enough plot to carry you through them—I was thinking about it long after the last page was turned.

Our Tragic Universe (HMH), her next novel, seems to have a similar surrealist angle—and a similar, smart-but-down-and-out heroine in Meg Carpenter, a woman caught in a dead-end relationship who’s struggling to complete an overdue manuscript. When she takes on a writing assignment to review a book by an author who claims to have discovered a way to live forever, Meg has to wonder—would anyone really want to?

More details from the publisher’s description:
Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions. Does she believe in fairies? In magic? Is she a superbeing? Is she living a storyless story? And what’s the connection between her off-hand suggestion to push a car into a river, a ship in a bottle, a mysterious beast loose on the moor, and the controversial author of The Science of Living Forever?
Smart, entrancing, and boiling over with Thomas’s trademark big ideas, Our Tragic Universe is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, how we can rewrite our futures (if not our histories), and how stories just might save our lives.

If you like thought-provoking, slightly weird stories, Thomas is an author who shouldn’t be missed. Especially recommended for fans of Steven Hall, Lydia Millet or Sarah Hall. Just for kicks: watch an Italian trailer for PopCo after the jump.

Continue reading →

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Are WASP memoirs here to stay?

Posted on 26 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

There’s a new review on our website that will appeal to people who liked Running with Scissors. . . or who are intrigued by families that have 14-bathroom apartments. Or who put hamsters in frying pans.

When I first heard of Wendy Burden‘s memoir, Dead End Gene Pool, I was skeptical. I reviewed Tad Friend’s Cheerful Money in the October edition of BookPage, and I wondered. . . how much is there to say about fallen WASPs? (Friend’s ancestors came to America in the 17th century and his father was president of Swarthmore College. Burden’s great-great-great-great grandfather was Cornelius Vanderbilt. Both memoirs address the dysfunction in later generations of privileged families.)

I think I’ll have to reconsider my position. Although Dead End Gene Pool doesn’t hit shelves until April 1, our review is available now online. Nonfiction editor Kate Pritchard called Burden’s memoir “darkly funny,” writing:

Burden herself is a delightfully strange character, especially as a child, when her fascination with all things morbid was at its peak. (In one episode, she attempts to drive off one of her mother’s suitors by dressing up like Wednesday Addams and trying to cook her pet hamster in a frying pan.)

Yikes!

Sounds like we’re not the only ones who’ve taken notice of this memoir. On Wednesday there was a lengthy write-up about Burden in the New York Times, which includes a slide show of her Portland home. (Note the camel skull on her coffee table.) Penguin also released a video interview with the author which features photos of family members in the book (watch the video after jump).

What do you think—is the WASP memoir a hot genre? Will you read Dead End Gene Pool? Continue reading →

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Romance all around

Posted on 25 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

The Romance Writers of America announced the 2010 RITA Award finalists today, and many of the titles are recommended in BookPage by our romance columnist, Christie Ridgway.

Before I get to that, though, we want to give a shout out to Christie for getting not one but two of her own nominations—for Dirty Sexy Knitting and I Still Do. Former BookPage romance columnist Barbara O’Neal is also a finalist for The Lost Recipe for Happiness. Congratulations, ladies!

Click here to view the complete list of finalists. Among the titles covered in BookPage are Fireside by Susan Wiggs (for Contemporary Series) and Laura Lee Guhrke’s With Seduction in Mind (Historical Romance). I was also happy to see that Ally Carter got a nomination for YA romance (I interviewed her in December), and Kristan Higgins got a nod for Too Good to Be True. (We ran an interview with her in February.)

The Awards will be announced on July 31 at the RWA’s National Conference in Nashville, and you can bet there will be BookPage bloggers in attendance to report back on all the fun.

What’s your favorite romance novel?

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Pat Conroy to publish ‘My Life in Books’

Posted on 25 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Pat Conroy

Less than a year after the publication of South of Broad, Pat Conroy has signed a deal to write My Life in Books, a nonfiction account of the “people, writers and books that made him into the reader and writer he is today, from Tolstoy to Thomas Wolfe and beyond,” according to an announcement yesterday in Publisher’s Marketplace.

This will not be the best-selling author’s first foray into nonfiction. The Water Is Wide (1972) is based on his experiences as a schoolteacher, and in 2002, Conroy published My Losing Season, a memoir inspired by his senior year season as starting point guard on The Citadel’s basketball team. In 2004, he published The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life, which includes personal stories in addition to recipes.

No doubt My Life in Books will be eagerly anticipated; Conroy is a favorite of BookPage readers—South of Broad was our cover story in August (read a review of this “lush, remarkable new novel”), and we interviewed him in 2002 about My Losing Season.

I wonder how the book will be organized—chronologically based on what he was reading when? By author that inspired him? When Gay Talese (the husband of Conroy’s editor, coincidentally) described some of the stories and inspiration behind his books in 2006’s A Writer’s Life, I thought the result was a bit disjointed; he bounced from anecdote to anecdote, with long digressions thrown in. I hope Conroy’s book has a clearer narrative structure.

Will you read My Life in Books?

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It is well with her soul

Posted on 25 March 2010 by Kate, Associate Editor

Two days ago, on March 22, Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson passed away, surrounded by her loved ones. She was 106 years old.

Ms. Johnson was the author of a memoir, It Is Well With My Soul: The Extraordinary Life of a 105-Year-Old Woman. Originally slated to be published on April 27, the book’s publication date has now been pushed up to March 31. It tells the story of her life, from her early days in Dallas, Texas, living through segregation and the Jim Crow era, to her education (she was the oldest living black graduate of Case Western Reserve University), to her marriage and family life, to her values as a Good Samaritan, and up through her attendance at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration in January 2009.

Another remarkable African-American woman’s life is celebrated in a memoir by Ann Nixon Cooper, whom Obama mentioned in his Election Day speech. Ms. Cooper’s book, A Century and Some Change: My Life Before the President Called My Name, was also released mere weeks after her death. She passed away on Dec. 21, 2009, at 107 years old.

It’s inspiring to read about these women and the incredible change they witnessed over the course of their lifetimes. If you’re looking for a similar book, check out Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years, published in 1993. Although the Delany sisters, born in the 19th century, have also now passed away, we are lucky that all of these women have shared their stories with us.

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Casting call for ‘The Help’

Posted on 25 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

In recent weeks there have been tidbits of information about the movie version of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help—the BookPage reader favorite book of 2009. Stockett herself mentioned the movie in an interview with Katie Couric, and yesterday the Huffington Post gave some background information on director Tate Taylor, who optioned the story before the book was even published, and has been friends with Stockett since they were five:

“She didn’t even have a publisher yet and I said, ‘You’ve got to let me option this,’” Taylor said in an interview from New York, where he was having casting interviews. “And she said, ‘I’m going to hold you to this. It’s going to be so much fun.’ And then, of course, she got her agent and I was the last person in the world they wanted.”

And now People magazine is making casting suggestions for the movie, with is being produced by DreamWorks Studios: Claire Danes as Skeeter? Oprah as Aibileen? Anne Hathaway as Hilly? Mo’Nique as Minny?

On The Root, media and culture critic Natalie Hopkinson is skeptical of a Hollywood adaptation, writing that she doesn’t have “particularly high hopes for what will happen to this sweet book when Hollywood gets its grubby hands on it. If the recent piece in People magazine speculating on who the cast would be is any indication, we need to brace ourselves.”

What are your thoughts on casting for The Help?

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Age 10 and divorced?

Posted on 24 March 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Between a whirlwind trip to NYC and her departure for PLA (if you’re there, check out BookPage at booth #1100), our associate publisher Julia Steele passed along a book recommendation for Book Case readers: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. “It made me cry. On the plane!” Is there a higher recommendation? (Maybe books that make me cry in the office . . .)

Written with Delphine Munoui, and first published in France, Nujood Ali’s story is almost too incredible to be true. With no support from her family, this little girl from Yemen took the money her parents had given her to buy bread and went to to the courthouse to petition for a divorce from her abusive husband, who was more than three times her age. Given the subtitle, it’s obvious that Nujood gets her wish, but the convoluted system she must fight to reach her goal makes this a fascinating read. Nujood was, until recently, the youngest divorced person ever, but she has now inspired a handful of girls in similar circumstances to make a bid for freedom. Her story has been told by major news outlets like Time and The New York Times.

Julia’s passing the book on to her college-aged daughter next—it would definitely be a great selection for a mother-daughter book club.

Posted in nonfiction | Tagged , , , 1 Comment

Author and elephant activist in the news

Posted on 24 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Carol Buckley, co-founder and past President/CEO of The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, was fired last week after a five-month leave of absence imposed by the organization’s board of directors. Since Buckley’s unexplained termination, a “Supporters of Carol Buckley and The Elephant Sanctuary” Facebook group has been formed—and now it has nearly 3,000 members. Local media has reported that some donors are furious and withholding funds from the Sanctuary, which provides a natural-habitat refuge in the Tennessee hills for endangered African and Asian elephants.

In the midst of this turmoil, we wanted to draw attention to another role Buckley has filled: children’s author. Although many of you are probably familiar with Buckley’s work through the Tarra & Bella video on CBS (and YouTube)—in which Tarra the elephant and Bella the dog eat, play and sleep together—you should also share Just for Elephants, a beautiful picture book released in 2006, with any animal-loving kids.

BookPage reviewer Jennifer Robinson raved about the story, writing:

Upon opening the book, readers will be enchanted by images of elephant skin adorning the endpapers and an oversized eye peering out from the title page. . . There is a genuine sense of setting in Buckley’s detailed descriptions of redtail hawks screeching overhead and the herd grazing on river cane and china grass that grows all around.

Buckley has also written Travels with Tarra and Tarra and Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends. Who knows what Buckley will go on to do after her 15 years at The Elephant Sanctuary. I certainly hope she continues to write.

Do you have a favorite nonfiction book about animals?

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Good news for debuts

Posted on 24 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

From Special Topics in Calamity Physics, to The Time Travelers Wife (and of course, The Help!), many of my favorite novels from recent years are debuts. It’s so exciting to pick up a book from a fresh voice… and I always think—will this one become a hit?

It seems that this week has been good to new authors, as two debut novels will make a very exciting debut—on the New York Times’ best-selling Hardcover Fiction list. Danielle Trussoni’s Angelology, which we blogged about a few weeks ago, comes in at #7. Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is #14. (The list will be published in print on March 28.)

In BookPage, Linda White described the reaction readers will have to Simonson’s novel, set in an English village: “You’ll laugh, you’ll wipe away a tear or two and you certainly will enjoy time spent with Major Pettigrew.”

In her behind-the-book essay on Angelology, Trussoni described what readers can expect in her debut:

You will enter a secluded convent nestled next to a wide, mirror-dark river; you will climb into a narrow gorge cut deep into the granite of an Eastern European mountain; and you will sit in a shadowy lecture hall filled with students during the Second World War. You will meet a young woman named Evangeline, whose family history has drawn her into a centuries-old hidden society of scholars who practice the ancient discipline of angelology, the theological study of angels. You will become acquainted with nuns; a handsome art historian named Verlaine who rushes into Evangeline’s quiet world and changes her life; and a nefarious group of angels called Nephilim.

If you had to choose between nefarious angels or the  “hazards of English country life,” what would it be?

Have you read a good debut lately?

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The wacky world of competitive puzzling

Posted on 24 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

We’re running a Bananagrams contest this week on The Book Case, and the author’s name—Joe Edley—sounded familiar.

Then I remembered: Joe Edley is none other than the three-time National Scrabble Champion memorably depicted in Stefan Fatsis’ Word Freak, a delightful memoir and history of Scrabble published in 2001. If you read Word Freak, you might remember that Edley is the guy who memorized the entire Scrabble dictionary. Edley was one of my favorite characters in Word Freak, and it’s nice to know what he’s up to these days—in addition to writing Bananagrams books, he’s also written several books about Scrabble, including The Official Scrabble Puzzle Book. Click here for a review of Word Freak—a must-read for any Scrabble player.

If you’re interested in the wacky subculture of competitive puzzles and games, I think you’ll also enjoy Louis Sachar’s forthcoming The Cardturner, about a teen who assists his blind uncle in playing bridge. In addition to hilarious insider info on bridge tournaments (Sachar himself is a competitive player), there are also plenty of details on solving the puzzle of specific hands. In May, keep your eye on BookPage.com for an interview with the author.

Do you have a favorite book about games or puzzles?

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What we’re reading Wednesday: Between Friends

Posted on 24 March 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Between Friends by Kristy Kiernan
Berkley, April 2010

Kristy Kiernan’s third novel follows a contemporary family through some major turmoil. Sixteen years ago, Cora donated an egg to help Ali and Benny conceive a daughter, Letty. Now Ali wants to have a second child—but Benny isn’t so sure. And neither is Cora, who has a secret she’s not sharing with her very best friend. Kiernan is an insightful writer with a gift for dialogue—especially teen dialogue—that lifts Between Friends above the rest of the crowded women’s fiction field.

“I’m not going to discuss having another baby when we can’t control the one we already have!”

“She’s not a baby!” I yelled back, matching his volume, tired of being on the receiving end. “They grow up, Benny, they grow up and they lie and they test you and they do things that make you crazy. That’s what they do. That’s not a reason to turn into a dictator, and it’s not a reason not to have another one.”

“Well, I think it is.” He clenched his hands, looking for something to do with them, his face red and mottled.

I should have been terrified for him. He looked like someone about to have a heart attack, or a stroke. But instead, I was terrified of him.

“I’m not going to stay here when you’re this angry, and I’m not going to expose Letty to it, either.” I said, my voice trembling.

“If you walk out that door, Ali, don’t be so sure that it’s going to be open when you come back.”

I shook all the way to Cora’s.

Related content: Kiernan’s guest post about meeting the kids that inspired a character from her last novel. BookPage review of Catching Genius.

(In the interest of full disclosure: Kristy Kiernan is among the authors who have occasionally written reviews for BookPage.)

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Black Heels to Tractor Wheels to Hollywood

Posted on 23 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Ree Drummond/The Pioneer Woman

In December, I braved the crowd to see Ree Drummond—a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman—speak at Davis Kidd Booksellers in Nashville. When I posted about it on this blog, commenters shared stories of driving hours to see Ree on her book tour for The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. One reader even said that reading Ree’s blog has changed her life.

Today I heard some news that will thrill PW fans—not only has Ree signed a deal to publish her romantic memoir Black Heels to Tractor Wheels on Valentine’s Day 2011. (William Morrow is the publisher, but if you can’t wait a year for the love story, you can read it Ree’s site now.) Columbia Pictures has made a deal to develop a romantic comedy based on the book, and rumor has it that Reese Witherspoon will star as The Pioneer Woman. When Ree mentioned this news on her blog, she received 3,000+ comments.

Will you read this blog-to-book… or see this blog-to-book-to-movie?

Posted in Book to film, News | Tagged , , , 4 Comments

A big day for awards announcements

Posted on 23 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

David Almond

This morning, we received word of two major literature awards: Author David Almond (UK) and Illustrator Jutta Bauer (Germany) have won the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award. The International Board on Books for Young People gives the award every two years to a living author and illustrator whose “complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature.”

BookPage has reviewed several of Almond’s books, most recently Raven Summer, which Dean Schneider wrote has undertones of Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness. I’m not surprised Almond was honored with this prestigious award, as he’s been called “one of the finest writers in the world of children’s literature, a writer of uncommon vision and elegant prose” in our own pages.

Sherman Alexie

Also today, Sherman Alexie was named the winner of the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Although I was rooting for local writer (and surprise nominee) Lorraine M. López, it’s still a thrill to see Alexie take home the prize for War Dances (Grove Press). In BookPage, reviewer Harvey Freedenberg called the book—short stories—an “edgy and frequently surprising collection.” The PEN/Faulkner judges described War Dances as “a collection of structurally inventive pieces on the themes of love, betrayal, familial relationships, race, and class.” To learn more about Alexie, read an interview here.

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Trailer Tuesday: Dawn of the Dreadfuls & The House of Tomorrow

Posted on 23 March 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the best-selling mashup from Quirk Books, hit shelves today. Author Steve Hockensmith has written a hilarious behind-the-book essay for BookPage, in which he confesses to his life-long dream of writing a “prequel to a best-selling book about English girls who kill zombies with kung-fu.” (Okay, maybe it wasn’t a life-long dream.)

This is one of the more elaborately staged book trailers I’ve seen, complete with blood spewing zombies and fight scenes in the English countryside. What would Jane Austen think? What do you think?

And since zombies aren’t for everyone, I also want to share the trailer for Peter Bognanni‘s punk-rock-fueled debut novel The House of Tomorrow, which went on sale a couple weeks ago. As the trailer shows, the book’s about music… it’s about a geodesic dome… it’s about growing up… it’s about Iowa… it’s about sex! Check it out—and don’t miss Sarah E. White’s review of the novel.


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