From the mailbag

Posted on 23 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

This just in: our galley copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, which is being released in the U.S. on May 25.


I still think it was silly of Knopf to wait so long to release Hornet (why punish the first, and probably most loyal, fans of the series? not to mention, the below screen cap suggests there were more than a few sales lost to ebooks, the UK edition and illegal downloads) but it has made the release of the finale an anticipated event.

To do our part to fan the flames, here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:

The girl on the guerney could live with a piece of lead in her hip and a piece of lead in her shoulder. But a piece of lead inside her brain was a trauma of a whole different magnitude. He was suddenly aware of the nurse saying something.

“Sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

“It’s her.”

“What do you  mean?”

“It’s Lisbeth Salander. The girl they’ve been hunting for the past few weeks, for the triple murder in Stockholm.”

Jonasson looked again at the unconscious patient’s face. He realized at once that the nurse was right. He and the whole of Sweden had seen Salander’s passport photograph on billboards outside every newspaper kiosk for weeks. And now the murderer herself had been shot, which was surely poetic justice of a sort.

But that was not his concern. His job was to save his patient’s life, irrespective of whether she was a triple murderer or a Nobel Prize winner. Or both.

Though I haven’t read the series, this is an intriguing opening. And speaking of intriguing, the actress who plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish films is definitely that. Check out the trailer for The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest below. (We’ll get our own English-language version of the first Salander adventure in 2012.)

Are you counting the days until May 25?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fccRlpFuLo&feature=related]

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Bring on the bike (covers)

Posted on 22 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

There’s a new trend in covers these days: bicycles! Is it the environmental movement? The growing popularity of steampunk? Who knows; as someone who rides a bike more often than your average citizen (it’s fun, I promise!) I’m happy to see it.

Alexander McCall Smith’s La’s Orchestra Saves the World (December) was one of the first I noticed, followed by the paperback version of Jedediah Berry’s The Manual of Detection (January).

More are on the way this spring: Roddy Doyle’s The Dead Republic (April), the long-awaited final volume of the Henry Smart trilogy that began in 1999 with A Star Called Henry; and Emily Winslow’s The Whole World (June), an anticipated debut that is being compared to Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories.

Tell me about your favorite bicyclist hero/heroine—or, if you can’t think of one, your first bike—in the comments, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of The Manual of Detection. ETA: Contest closed.

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When reading is like eating Twinkies

Posted on 22 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

What book is your guilty pleasure?

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but last week was the first I’d heard of NPR’s “My Guilty Pleasure” series on All Things Considered, in which “writers talk about the books they love but are embarrassed to be seen reading.” The series has been airing since May 27, 2009, and you can listen to archives here.

A few highlights: Kate Christensen (author of Trouble) likens reading Janet Evanovich to eating Twinkies. Lizzie Skurnick (author of Shelf Discovery) loves Peter Benchley’s Jaws, which she calls “Peyton Place by the sea.” David Sax (author of Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen) can’t get enough of Eat, Pray, Love—also known as “a scented candle of new age wisdom.”

No surprise here, but “My Guilty Pleasure” has me thinking about my own guilty reading pleasure. My philosophy is that reading should never inspire guilt, but a particular series does come to mind: Anyone ever race through Jean M. Auel’s 1980 novel Clan of the Cave Bear? What about under your desk during chemistry class? Let’s just say that, in the words of my grandmother, this pre-historical novel includes a lot of “R.” And as a high-schooler, I loved it—although I’d blush if anyone asked what I was reading.

What book do you love, but you’re embarrassed to be seen reading? Spill all in the comments.

Related in BookPage: Read an interview with Evanovich, a hand-written Q&A with Benchley, an interview with Skurnick or an interview with Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert.

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Nebula news

Posted on 19 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. announced the Nebula Award Nominees today. The awards celebrate—you guessed it—the best in science fiction and fantasy writing. The Awards honor a short story, novelette, novel, YA book and movie. View the complete list of nominees here. Click the highlighted titles below to read reviews on BookPage.com.

Boneshaker is up for a Nebula Award recognizing the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel

Best Novel nominees:

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Nightshade)
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak (Bantam)
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman (Pocket)
The City & The City by China Mieville (Del Rey)
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor)
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer (Underland Press)

YA nominees:

Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker (Tachyon)
Ice by Sarah Beth Durst (Simon and Schuster)
Ash by Malinda Lo (Little, Brown and Company)
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev (Feiwel and Friends)
Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (Catherynne M. Valente)
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (Simon)

Any one else surprised that Newbery Medal winner When You Reach Me is on that list? Time travel is certainly an important element of the plot, but I never would have placed the book in the fantasy genre. (Although Stead does repeatedly refer to A Wrinkle in Time, which is probably one of the most beloved YA fantasy books of all time.)

Do any of our Sci-Fi fans have award predictions?

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Vampires: the trend that won't die

Posted on 19 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Author Karen Essex

Readers these days have an insatiable desire for the undead. Luckily, authors seem to be equally fascinated. The latest to succumb: Karen Essex, a historical fiction author who made a name for herself telling the story of the Egyptian Queen in Kleopatra (read Essex’s behind the book story about Kleopatra) and had a bestseller in 2008 with Stealing Athena.

Essex’s August 2010 release, provocatively titled Dracula in Love, is the imagined diary of Mina Harker, the woman who escaped the vamp’s clutches—but not before he got a taste of her blood. Essex has been researching the book, and the Victorian Gothic sensibility, for the last few years—her blog has lots of details, including a post on a visit to Highgate Cemetery (where a particularly memorable scene in Dracula was set—as well as Audrey Niffenegger’s latest novel).

But Essex isn’t the only one to find this topic intriguing: Syrie James, who previously wrote The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte, is also publishing, you guessed it, The Secret Diaries of Mina Harker (Avon). In August!

And those are just the two books about Mina Harker and Dracula. May brings a new Sookie Stackhouse mystery from Charlaine Harris; June, the anticipated vampire/apocalyptic novel The Passage by Justin Cronin (see an earlier post on Cronin here) . . . shall I go on? Eternal life might come in handy if you want to read all of these!

ETA: just found a related post from NPR — if you want a comprehensive vampire reading list, this is it.

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Can Avatar work as a book?

Posted on 18 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Avatar is stunning because of its visuals. Can Cameron paint the same picture in words?

I have a confession that will probably embarrass my co-workers: I loved Avatar. Yes, there were holes in the plot. And yes, I thought it was predictably annoying that a white guy had to swoop in and save the natives on Pandora. (Haven’t seen the movie and need a summary?) 

Throughout the nearly-three-hour movie, though, I watched with my jaw dropped, enraptured by the vibrant colors and awesome plants and animals of Pandora. I completely bought the love story between Jake and Neytiri, and I liked the environmental parable of the story. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I’ve ever been so engrossed in a movie before, and I might even have suffered from some post-Avatar blues after I returned to regular ole’ Earth.

So, I read with great interest when the news broke that director/writer James Cameron is planning to write an Avatar prequel. The book will not be a “novelization” (a.k.a. summary) of the movie, but rather a “big, epic story that fills in a lot of things,” according to producer Jon Landau. The prequel will be Cameron’s first book.

Many reviewers have noted that Avatar’s weak link is the clunky/predictable dialogue (“we’ll fight terror with terror,” “you have a good heart,” etc.), and as the New York Times ArtsBeat blog points out, of the nine Academy Awards nominations Avatar has received, none is for best original screenplay. Are there enough fans out there who’ll overlook Cameron’s shortcomings as a writer, and focus on his ability to transport us to another world?

Since Avatar’s success rests largely on its incredible visuals, I wonder why Cameron’s not choosing to go the graphic novel route with the prequel. What do you think, Avatar fans? Will Cameron’s book be filled with cringe-worthy dialogue and a loose plot? Or will it be a welcome ticket back to Pandora?

If you’ve got a need for fantasy and waiting for Avatar just won’t cut it, check out our February Sci-Fi column on BookPage.com.

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Fiction that translates

Posted on 17 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Translated from Dutch, The Twin is up for a Best Translated Book Award

Last night the fiction finalists for the Best Translated Book Awards were announced at Idlewild Books in New York City. The awards are sponsored by Three Percent, a program at the University of Rochester (the name comes from the fact that only ~3% of books published in the United States are works in translation). Of the finalists, original languages range from Hebrew to Norwegian. View the complete list here.

The awards caught my attention because two of the most recent books I’ve read have been in translation. I loved the simple, lyrical language in The Solitude of Prime Numbers (originally written in Italian), and I hope future reviews note the work of English translator Shaun Whiteside. I’ve read Isabel Allende in Spanish and in English, and I’ve always been impressed by the English translations—Magda Bogin’s work in The House of the Spirits was especially notable, capturing the author’s flowing prose and mystical imagery. Island of the Sea (translated by Margaret Sayers Peden) is no exception.

If you’re unable to read a work in the original language, it’s hard to tell if a translation is great—although I think it’s clear if one is bad, based on clunky transitions, imagery and diction. What translated works would you recommend? Any you’d avoid?

One of our most popular titles on BookPage.com right now is a work in translation—Henning Mankell’s The Man from Beijing (translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson).

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What We’re Reading Wednesday

Posted on 17 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Harper, April 27, 2010

I wrote about Isabel Allende’s Island Beneath the Sea two months ago, and that post has consistently showed up on our most viewed list—proof that we’ve got a lot of Allende fans following The Book Case. Last week I got my hands on an advance copy of the book, and I’ve been racing through it ever since.

So far (I’m about two-thirds finished), the major event in the novel has been the Haitian slave rebellion led by Toussaint Louverture at the turn of the 18th century. The narrative is alternately told from a third-person point of view and from the perspective of Zarité, known as Tété, a mulatto girl who works as a house slave on a sugarcane plantation. Tété wants nothing more than to be free with her children and with Gambo, a slave-turned-rebel. After a rebel mob burns the plantation and takes over Le Cap, the remarkable Tété saves her master and her children’s lives and flees with them to Cuba, then New Orleans.

You’ll have to read the book for yourself to learn why Tété—brave and dignified in the face of cruelty—saves her insufferable master. And as I continue reading, I can only hope that she escapes from slavery and finds her lover.

Note that this cover is for the Spanish version of the novel, published in August by Vintage.

Music is a wind that blows away the years, memories, and fear, that crouching animal I carry inside me. With the drums the everyday Zarité disappears, and I am again the little girl who danced when she barely knew how to walk. I strike the ground with the soles of my feet and life rises up my legs, spreads up my skeleton, takes possession of me, drives away distress and sweetens my memory. The world trembles. Rhythm is born on the island beneath the sea; it shakes the earth, it cuts through me like a lightning bolt and rises toward the sky, carrying with it my sorrows so that Papa Bondye can chew them, swallow them, and leave me clean and happy. The drums conquer fear. The drums are the heritage of my mother, the strength of Guinea that is in my blood. No one can harm me when I am with the drums, I become as overpowering as Erzulie, loa of love, and swifter than the bullwhip. The shells on my wrists and ankles click in time, the gourds ask questions, the djembe drums answer in the voice of the jungle and the timbales, with their tin tones. The djun djuns that know how to speak make the invitation, and the big maman roars when they beat her to summon the loas. The drums are sacred, the loas speak through them.

Related in BookPage: Read an interview with Allende or browse her other titles.

What are you reading today?

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Music to my ears

Posted on 16 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Josh Ritter

This morning brought news that one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Josh Ritter, had sold his debut novel to the Dial Press. According to the always informative Pub Marketplace, Bright Passages is

set in rural West Virginia in the aftermath of WWI, about a veteran who has lost his wife and is caring for their newborn, and finds himself steered in unlikely ways by an angel who has followed him home from the trenches of France

Ritter is an amazing singer-songwriter and exuberant live performer whose music is strongly influenced by the folk tradition. Many of his songs tell stories through poetic lyrics that reward repeat listens (like “The Temptation of Adam,” from his most recent album). Can he achieve the same level of storytelling in 50,000 words that he does in 500? We’ll see in the summer of 2011. Until then, fans like me can look forward to the release of a new album in May.

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The Patterson empire expands

Posted on 16 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

USA Today reported yesterday that James Patterson—the creator of Alex Cross who outsells Stephen King, John Grisham and Dan Brown—is venturing into new territory: the graphic novel.

Due first is a five-part graphic series based on Witch & Wizard, Patterson’s YA novel. (“For those who have been waiting for a series as mouthwatering and addictive as Harry Potter, this’ll do it,” said Patterson of the book in a January interview with BookPage.) In June, Patterson’s The Murder of King Tut, a “deft blend of antiquity and whodunit,” will come out as a four-part series. (Both series will be primarily written by coauthors.) We wonder if Patterson will have to re-work the ending of King Tut. According to a report from today’s New York Times, the boy pharaoh died from malaria—not murder.

Patterson claims he wants to expand to the graphic novel market so his stories can “reach as many people as possible.” Ted Adams, CEO of IDW Publishing, the company producing the books, wanted to work with the prolific author because he sells a ton of books and he’s a “creative genius.” What do you think, Patterson fans? Will the books translate well to the graphic novel medium?

Also look out for a straight-to-graphic-series from Patterson: Beer Belly and the Fat Boy. (Can’t wait until we get a review copy of that one!)

Related in BookPage: Read an interview with Patterson about Witch & Wizard or a review of The Murder of King Tut.

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Uma and Robert Pattinson: a match made in Paris

Posted on 16 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Uma as Medusa

Actress Uma Thurman is in the news for her roles in two upcoming book-to-film adaptations. First up, she plays Medusa in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which hits theaters next month (director Chris Columbus says of the “seductive” star, “you’ll look into her eyes and forget that she has 75 snakes on her head.”).

But the role that’s making waves this week is the one Thurman is taking on in the 2011 adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s Bel Ami: an older love interest of up-and-coming journalist Georges Duroy–who will be played by Twilight star Robert Pattinson. Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas are also on board to play two more women seduced by Duroy during his rise to the top in this adaptation of the 1885 classic, which is a fresh and vivid read even today. Over at iVillage, they’re wondering if Uma is too old to play the love interest of 23-year-old RPattz, but I think it’s more likely that this role fulfills some teen fantasies of his. How about you?

Readers might be most familiar with de Maupassant for his short story, “The Necklace,” which also deals with intrigue in Parisian society.

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Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter makes YA debut

Posted on 15 February 2010 by Eliza, Associate Editor

I’ve made my love for the late Madeleine L’Engle known around the office, so I wasn’t surprised when Lynn showed me a notice from the spring 2010 Farrar, Straus & Giroux catalog: On April 27, L’Engle’s 1949 novel And Both Were Young will be reissued in hardcover with a new jacket (see left). L’Engle’s graddaughter, Léna Roy, will write an introduction.

My battered copy of And Both Were Young features the jacket to the right. Which do you like better?

The novel tells the story of Flip, an American girl away at boarding school in Switzerland, and her unexpected love for Paul, a French boy. Whether you prefer the retro jacket or the new one, the novel’s themes of love, alienation and growing up will no doubt still resonate with contemporary readers.

After learning of the book reissue, I was curious about L’Engle’s graddaughter. Turns out that on Dec. 7, 2010, FSG will publish Roy’s debut YA novel, Edges.

Roy blogs at Léna’s Lit Life, and a couple weeks ago she posted a summary of her novel: 

It is a story of love and grief, addiction and redemption, set in both NYC’s Upper West Side and in the red rock desert of Moab, Utah. Seventeen-year-old Luke lives and works at the Moonflower Motel in Moab, having fled New York City where his father Frank drowns his sorrows after the death of Luke’s mother. Back in New York, 18-year-old Ava meets Frank at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. When these lost souls converge in Moab, what happens transforms them all.

Many readers will surely attempt to draw comparisons between Roy’s writing and her grandmother’s. The book that immediately reminds me of Edges is L’Engle’s A House Like a Lotus, in which a teen girl must face an unusual relationship with (and the alcoholism of) an adult. I’ll stop making further comparisons until I read Roy’s book, though. I’m excited about this one—especially since Roy had Sandra Jordan (L’Engle’s editor) as a mentor. (Read about that here.)

Will you pick up Edges?

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President's Day reading

Posted on 15 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Happy President’s Day! Has the holiday (whether observed with a day off of work or not) influenced your reading choices?

If you’re looking for a presidential read, we have some suggestions. His Excellency, by Joseph J. Ellis, just might be the definitive look at George Washington, as BookPage contributor Alden Mudge said in an interview with Ellis about the book. For kids, What Presidents Are Made Of by Hanoch Piven is pure fun. And last year, in honor of Lincoln’s 200th birthday, BookPage published a great roundup of Lincoln books that should be out in paperback right about now, including Ronald C. White’s A. Lincoln, as well as a feature on Lincoln books for the younger set.

But the Lincoln story that stands out in my mind isn’t actually about the president at all–it’s a fictionalized account of the life of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, that was published in 2006. As I said in my review of Janis Cooke Newman’s Mary, it’s a sympathetic account that paints Mary as “a deeply passionate, intelligent woman in a time when these qualities in women were discouraged and feared.”

Do you have a favorite book with a presidential link?

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Dick Francis, 1920-2010

Posted on 15 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

Dick Francis

The popular Welsh novelist and former RAF pilot and jockey died yesterday at his home in the Grand Cayman islands. His son, Felix, who collaborated with his father on four recent novels, says: “My brother, Merrick, and I are, of course devastated by the loss of our father, but we rejoice in having been the sons of such an extraordinary man. We share in the joy that he brought to so many over such a long life. It is an honour for me to be able to continue his remarkable legacy through the new novels.” Sounds like Felix may continue to write, or at least publish any incomplete manuscripts the two may have been working on?

Dick Francis’ long string of mysteries set in the world of horse-racing have been solid sellers since the 1960s. Many were written with the collaboration and support of his wife, Mary, whose death in 2000 caused Francis to temporarily retire from writing. Perhaps his fascination with trackside mystery was spurred by his own involvement in one of the sport’s most memorable moments: Francis was riding the Queen Mother’s horse, Devan Loch, in the 1956 Grand National. In the lead, and just yards from the finish line, the horse inexplicably collapsed. But whatever his inspiration, it’s clear that Francis’ writing brought hours of enjoyment to millions over the past 50 years.

Related in BookPage: our review of Dick Francis’ Under Orders.

Obituaries
The BBC
The New York Times
The LA Times

For five more days, you can listen to a dramatized version of Dick Francis’ Enquiry on the BBC’s website.

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Love story contest winner

Posted on 15 February 2010 by Trisha, Managing Editor

The Random Number Generator has chosen a very suitable number for our love story giveaway: 14. Congratulations to commentator Angelo Crapanzano, who suggested we add Irene Hannon’s Rainbow’s End to our list of love stories we can’t forget.

Keep an eye out for more contests later this month.

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