The Gift of Holiday Reading

Books are always a good holiday gift. The smell of a brand new book - the anticipation when opening a book cover for the first time – books are truly the gift that keeps on giving. Here are some recommendations for new books to give this holiday season that are truly in the holiday spirit.

Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs. This novel is a heart-warming sequel to the Friday Night Knitting Club and offers more information about Georgia, founder of the Walker and Daughter Knitting Shop. If you want a book about friendship, love and the holiday season this is a good choice. If you are giving it to a knitter, this is a perfect choice

Tinsel: A Search for America’s Christmas Present by Hank Stuever takes a look at what Christmas has become in several selected American communities. On his way to describing what is now a “half-trillion-dollar holiday” and how this compares to the ancient rituals where it started, Stuever finds warmth, incredible excess, commerciality and humor. A very seasonal read.

Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off as we follow Mr. Mortenson in his continuing quest to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan. Surely Mortensen’s goal to spread education and peace on earth is in the spirit of the holidays.

And finally, two books on a similar theme….gratitude. Whether Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book Simple Abundance or Oprah Winfrey on her TV show originated the gratitude journal, it is a tool that has become popular. And now the whole concept of gratitude and what an appreciation of life’s blessings can bring is capturing the attention of even more authors.

The Gift of Thanks: Roots and Rituals of Gratitude by Margaret Visser presents an in depth study of what it means for humanity to be truly thankful. Publisher’s Weekly calls Vissner’s title a “delightful and graceful gift of a book, for which any fortunate recipient will be thankful.”

Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons have written Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude. Living as if each day is a thank-you can help transform fear into courage, anger into forgiveness, isolation into belonging. There is even a chapter entitled “Ways to Stay Thankful in Difficult Times” – certainly a timely thought. Meg

And the Winners Are....

On Tuesday November 17th at a black-tie dinner at Cipriani Wall Street (New York City) Andy Borowitz, writer and comic, announced the winners of this year’s National Book Awards.

This year’s winner for fiction is Colum McGann, author of Let the Great World Spin, a novel created around Phillippe Petit’s intrepid tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers, but focusing on life in New York City in the 1970s. McCann’s work has been called “dazzling and hauntingly rich.”

The non-fiction winner is T. J. Stiles for his biograpy of Cornelius Vanderbilt entitled The First Tycoon.

Poetry winner was Keith Waldrop for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy. For those of you who do not know, Mr. Waldrop is from Providence, RI. He has written over 15 books of poetry. He is also an actor, director and publisher. The young people’s literature award went to Phillip Hoose for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.

For a list of all the finalists and winners plus links to interviews check out the National Book Foundation site. Meg

Library Loot

Many book bloggers do a regular post called “library loot” wherein they list all the stuff they have recently got out from their local library. Here’s my list, as of today:

Fiction –
Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith. Smith is the author who wrote Gorky Park, one of my all time favorite mysteries and Wolves Eat Dogs was recommended to me as a title that was just as good. Smith has the ability to craft a respectable story and place it in squarely and masterfully in the dark and unstable context of modern Russia. This story is partially set in Chernobyl – a truly surreal but real and tragic backdrop.

Kindred in Death by J. D. Robb. Robb (aka Nora Roberts) is one of the author’s I pick up whenever she writes anything. Her Lt. Dallas series is always a fascinating read and a pleasant and often exciting visit with characters she has created over the series’ 35 or so titles.

Non-Fiction –
After the Prophet by Leslie Hazelton. After the Prophet is sub-titled “the epic story of the Shia-Sunni split in Islam” and is a very well written telling of the story of the death of Mohammed and the struggle for his succession – a struggle the whole world is still embroiled in today.

A Church of Her Own by Sarah Sentilles – Sentilles tells the tale of women priests and their efforts to be recognized, valued and successful in their chosen profession. Sentilles can be a bit strident at times, but she is at her best when recounting the personal journeys of the many women ministers she met and interviewed.

AudioCD –

Empire Falls by Richard Russo, read by Ron McLarty – Another recommendation from a friend, I have not begun this book yet, but Richard Russo is a very popular and talented author and I love hearing to Ron McLarty narrate an audiobook. I am looking forward to listening.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale – Even if you have read all the Harry Potter books, you deserve giving yourself the treat of listening to Jim Dale become the characters in Rowling’s books. She was very lucky to have him narrate all her Harry Potter books, and if you have not listened in, you have a treat in store. Meg

World War I Classics

November 11, 2009 , the 11th day of the 11th month, is the 91st anniversary of the armistice that ended The Great War (World War I). Referred to often as “the war to end all wars,” (unfortunately we now know this to be a bit optimistic) the books written to help men and women come to grips with and attempt to understand the horror – trenches, barbed wire, mud – loss and death that were a part of that (and all) wars are still classics and worthy to be read. Here are four recommended titles.

All Quiet on the Western Front , a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, was published in 1929, and was the author’s way of coming to terms with the war and his participation in it. The war in the trenches as described from the German viewpoint vividly demonstrates that the tragedy and horror of war has no nationality.

“We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war.” Chapter 5 – AQotWF

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, was also published in 1929. It is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his love for a beautiful English nurse. The love affair between Lt. Henry and Catherine Barkley is set amidst the inexorable sweep of war and battle.

Three Soldiers (1921) by John Dos Passos is one of the key American war novels of the First World War, and remains a classic of the realist war novel genre. In a letter to a friend written in 1918, Dos Passos says “[War], no matter where, consisted of boredom, slavery to all sorts of military stupidities.…It was no more than an enormous, tragic digression in people’s lives which brought death to the intellect, to art, to everything that mattered.” These are the themes that run through Three Soldiers, a book that still stands as a testament to the dehumanizing effects of war.

A Son at the Front by Edith Wharton (1922) conveys the initial excitement of war and the subsequent disillusionment, boredom and manipulation occuring away from the front lines. Wharton explores the effect of war on those left behind with her customary powerful prose. Meg

Horror Classics Reworked - Readings for the Season

Halloween has been growing in popularity and extravagance for quite a while now. Costume parties are held; homes are strewn with orange lights and scary creatures; everyone looks forward to a fine and scary time. Maybe it’s because we all like a good scare? Whatever the reason, and just in time for this creepy season, three different authors have produced re-worked versions of some truly unsettling horror classics.

Professor Charles Robinson (professor of English at the University of Delaware), has gone back to the earliest surviving manuscript of Mary Shelley’s work and produced two “new” versions of Frankenstein, the story of a created monster gone horribly wrong. In this new edition, you get to “hear” Mary Shelley’s young voice and can even see what additions and changes were suggested by her husband, Percy Shelley.

Peter Ackroyd is also dealing with Frankenstein’s monster in his new book The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein. This brilliantly imagined novel is written (purportedly) by Dr. Frankenstein himself and Mary Shelley and Percy B. Shelley are characters in the novel. Publisher’s Weekly calls Ackroyd’s novel a “brilliant riff on ideas that have informed literary, horror and science fiction for nearly two centuries.”

The Vampire Archives, edited by Otto Penzler, is the biggest, “undeadliest” collection of vampire stories ever (weighing in at 1056 pages!), with an accompanying comprehensive bibliography of vampire fiction. As the blurb on the cover says, The Vampire Archives is “dark, stormy, and delicious. Once it sinks its teeth into you there’s no escape.” Meg

[This post is based on an article in BookPage by Michael Alec Rose.]

National Book Awards 2009

The National Book Award finalists for 2009 were just announced last week. The NBA is an award given yearly to writers by writers. Awards are given in 4 categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and young people’s literature. The first award was presented in 1950.

Works are submitted for consideration by publishers: judges are selected (five in each category): finalists are annouced. This year over 193 publishers submitted 1,129 books for consideration. There were 236 fiction titles, 481 nonfiction titles, 161 works of poetry and 251 titles of literature for young people.

Fiction finalists are: American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell; Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann; In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin; Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips and Far North by Marcel Theroux. (For a list of finalists in all four catergories and a list of the judges, check out the National Book Awards website.)

The winners will be announced at the 60th annual National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony, which will take place at Cipriani on Wall Street in New York City on November 18th. Cipriani’s is a famous New York landmark and venue for events. The Master of Ceremonies for the awards banquet will be Andy Borowitz, author, comedian, satirist and film actor. Meg

Harlequin turns 60!

Let me tell you a story…or, how a small Canadian publishing company became one of the world’s most renowned publisher of romance novels.

Harlequin Enterprises was founded in Toronto, Canada in 1949 and began publishing reprints of British novels for Americans, including detective stories by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Mills and Boon was a British company founded in 1908 by Charles Boon and Gerald Mills. They began by publishing British authors, such as P. F. Wodehouse, but soon discovered there was a need for books written “for women, by women, from a woman’s perspective.” These types of books (or genre) were to become incredibly popular during the Great Depression when women needed something to make their lives a bit more bearable.

In 1957 Harlequin took over the rights to publish romance novels originally published by Mills and Boon. Harlequin would re-edit these romances for the American market, making them a bit more “racy” than their British counterparts. And Harlequin continued to re-issue British titles until in 1975 they published their first American author who wrote “about American characters for an American audience.” This author was Janet Dailey.

Today Harlequin, one of the largest publishers of romance novels and series, encompasses many divisions including Silhouette, Spice, Mira, Steeple Hill, Red Dress Ink and Luna. All of these divisions publish different flavors of romance for a total publishing record of over 500 titles per month.

The library has a large paperback Romance novel collection and many of these titles are published by Harlequin or one of its divisions. Some titles include:

Moonstruck by Susan Grant (a HQN paranormal romance)
An Accidental Hero by Loree Lough (a Steeple Hill inspirational romance)
Dying for You by Beverly Barton (a HQN romantic suspense title)
The Italian by Elaine Coffman (a Mira historical romance). Meg