Back to blogging about books!
I'm back!! WOO HOOO!
However, I wanted to take a few moments to tell you all why I've not been around the last few of months, because I want you to know that I have not abandoned book blogging OR books. Nope, never!
The real world in my life has been upside down for the last few months with the devastating illness of a dear, elderly friend. Things are better now for her!! YIPPEE! And so my time spent behind the cover of a book, in front of an e-reader and then here in front of the computer screen has returned!! I will start posting reviews that I've promised and will get caught up and to date within the next couple of weeks!
So, let's get back to talking about books...and YIKES...it's CHRISTMAS!!!! YAY!!!
Tim Powers wins 2012 World Fantasy Award for THE BIBLE REPAIRMAN
Huge congrats to Tim Powers who was awarded the 2012 World Fantasy Award for writing, for his collection of stories in The Bible Repairman and Other Stories, (Tachyon)
YAY!!!
Other nominees were:
• Bluegrass Symphony, Lisa L. Hannett (Ticonderoga)
• Two Worlds and In Between, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press)
• After the Apocalypse, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer)
• Mrs Midnight and Other Stories, Reggie Oliver (Tartarus)
BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel wins 2012 Man Booker Prize
Congratulations to Hilary Mantel!
For the second time, she's the winner of the
Man Booker Prize.
For the second time, she's the winner of the
Man Booker Prize.
WTG Hilary!
HOUSE OF EARTH - Johnny Depp launches new imprint with HarperCollins
As reported yesterday, book lover, actor, musician, painter and writer Johnny Depp, will launch his own imprint: Infinitum Nihil, (also the same of his film production company) with HarperCollins.
"I pledge, on behalf of Infinitum Nihil, that we will do our best to deliver publications worthy of peoples' time, of peoples' concern, publications that might ordinarily never have breached the parapet," Depp said. "For this dream realized, we would like to salute HarperCollins for their faith in us and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship together."
One of Infinitum Nihil's inaugural projects is The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan by Douglas Brinkley, scheduled for a 2015 release. In addition, Dylan and Brinkley are collaborating on the editing and publication of Woody Guthrie's novel "House of Earth", which was completed by the legendary musician in 1947 but only recently discovered, the AP wrote. That book will be published early next year.
Source: From Associated Press through USAToday.com
More info here.
Photo image found here.
2012 National Book Awards Finalists announced
2012 National Book Awards Finalists announced today.
Fiction
Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her(Riverhead)
Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King (McSweeney’s)
Louise Erdrich, The Round House (Harper)
Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Ecco)
Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds (Little, Brown)
Nonfiction
Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 (Doubleday)
Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House)
Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 (Knopf)
Domingo Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas (Lyons Press)
Anthony Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Poetry
David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations (University of Chicago Press)
Cynthia Huntington, Heavenly Bodies (Southern Illinois University Press)
Tim Seibles, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press)
Alan Shapiro, Night of the Republic (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Susan Wheeler, Meme (University of Iowa Press)
Young People’s Literature
William Alexander, Goblin Secrets (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach (Simon Pulse)
Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)
Eliot Schrefer, Endangered (Scholastic)
Steve Sheinkin; Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon(Roaring Brook/Flash Point)
The National Book Awards will be presented in New York on November 14, 2012, they National were established in 1950.
To be eligible for this year’s awards, the works must be written by an American and published by an American publisher between Dec. 1, 2011, and Nov. 30, 2012.
Self-published books are eligible if the writer also publishes works by other authors.
Fore more info found here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/54283-diaz-eggers-erdrich-among-2012-national-book-awards-finalists.html
Book image found here.
Bella Fortuna by Rosanna Chiofalo
Bella Fortuna
by
Rosanna Chiofalo
Synopsis:
In this warm, enchanting debut novel, Rosanna Chiofalo evokes the extraordinary beauty of Venice, the charm of a close-knit New York neighborhood, and the joys of friendship, family, and surprising second chances...Valentina DeLuca has made hundreds of brides' dreams come true. At Sposa Rosa, the Astoria, New York, boutique where she, her sisters, and their mother design and sew couture knock-off gowns, she can find the perfect style for even the most demanding customer. Now, it's her turn. Valentina has loved Michael Carello ever since he rescued her from a cranky shopkeeper when she was ten years old. He's handsome, chivalrous, and loyal. And in a few weeks, she's going to marry him--in Venice.
But just when she thinks everything is falling into place, Valentina is forced to re-examine her life to see what truly makes her happy. And as she soon learns, in a place as magical as Venice, what seems like misfortune can turn out to be anything but, although who knows what may be waiting around the next corner? The chance to enjoy a moonlit gondola ride, to sip Prosecco in St. Mark's Square, to eat mouthwatering gelato, to put aside "sensible" for once and see where the warm Italian breezes guide her as she visits all the sights she's dreamed of: The Doge's Palace, Il Rialto, the little islands of Murano and Burano. And maybe, along the way, to discover that bella fortuna--good luck--isn't what you're given, but what you make.
My thoughts up next ---
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Arrrrrr!
so I couldn't help meself, it be
yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!
Image found on Disney's FB page.
Man Booker Prize short list announced
All info and image found here: www.themanbookerprize.com
Man Booker Prize 2012 shortlist announced
11 September 2012
The six books were chosen by a panel of judges chaired by Sir Peter Stothard, Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. The shortlisted books were selected from the longlist of 12 announced in July.
The shortlist is:
Author, Title (Publisher)
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
Peter Stothard, Chair of judges, comments: “After re-reading an extraordinary longlist of twelve, it was the pure power of prose that settled most debates. We loved the shock of language shown in so many different ways and were exhilarated by the vigour and vividly defined values in the six books that we chose – and in the visible confidence of the novel's place in forming our words and ideas.”
The 2012 shortlist includes two debut novels, three small independent publishers, two former shortlisted authors and one previous winner. Of the six writers, three are men and three are women; four are British, one Indian and one Malaysian.
The winner of the 2012 prize will be announced at a dinner at London’s Guildhall on Tuesday 16 October, in a ceremony covered by the BBC. Each of the six shortlisted writers is awarded £2,500 and a specially commissioned beautifully handbound edition of his/her book. The winner receives a further £50,000.
Peter Stothard is joined on the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction judging panel by: Dinah Birch, academic and literary critic;Amanda Foreman, historian, writer and broadcaster; Dan Stevens, actor and Bharat Tandon, academic, writer and reviewer.
2012 marks the 44th year of the prize, which began in 1969. A full history of the prize, including an interactive timeline, can be found on the Man Booker Prize website – www.themanbookerprize.com– which has just been re-launched, allowing visitors to experience the prize across a variety of new platforms and formats.
News about the prize can also be found on Twitter@ManBookerPrize, which now boasts over 17,000 followers.
For further information about the prize please visitwww.themanbookerprize.com
9-11 God bless America, and all of our fallen heros!
We will never forget 9-11.
We are the land of the free and home of the brave.
MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Life After Death by Damien Echols
I'm only half way through this ARC (provided to me, at my request, by the publishers) and I have to say that if the second half is as moving as the first half??? WOW!
LIFE AFTER DEATH from Penquin/ Blue Rider Press
in stores and available for download Sept. 18
From Penquin/ Blue Rider Press, the publisher:
| QUOTE |
| The definitive memoir by Damien Echols of the “West Memphis Three,” who was falsely convicted of comitting three murders, and an unforgettable account of his eighteen years on death row. In 1993, three teenagers—Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who have come to be known as the West Memphis Three—were arrested for the murders of three young boys in Arkansas. The ensuing trial was rife with inconsistencies, false testimony, and public hysteria. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison. Echols, deemed the “ringleader,” was sentenced to death at age eighteen. In a shocking reversal of events, all three were suddenly released in August 2011, and now Echols shares his story in full: from abuses by prison guards and wardens, to descriptions of inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane for nearly two decades. Like The Glass Castle, Damien Echols tells a complicated, painful childhood story, and like Dead Man Walking, it is destined to be a classic of riveting, explosive prison literature. Echols reveals himself to be a brilliant writer, infusing his narrative with tragedy and irony in equal measure; he describes the terrors he experienced every day, his anger and outrage toward the American justice system, and he provides a window into life on death row in heartbreaking, agonizing detail. |
| QUOTE |
| "Damien Echols suffered a shocking miscarriage of justice. A nightmare few could endure. An innocent man on death row for more than eighteen years, abused by the very system we all fund. His story will appall, fascinate, and render you feeble with tears and laughter. A brilliant memoir to battle with literary giants of the calibre of Jean Genet, Gregory David Roberts, and Dostoevsky." —Johnny Depp |
| QUOTE |
| “I immediately related to Damien. . . . I can remember kind of being looked upon as a freak, if you will, different, because I didn't dress like everybody else. . . I can empathize with being judged for how you look rather than being who you are.”—Johnny Depp |
Fall Reads
As we are finishing our "summer book blitz" I thought I'd give you a sneak peek of some of the fall releases that I'm super pumped about.
This is...just the beginning...
SO many books, so little time!
and for the YA group
Now...back to our regularly scheduled
summer reads....
The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner
The summer blitz book for today is:
THE NEXT BEST THING
by
Jennifer Weiner
Atria Books, $26.95
Synopsis:
At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to be hired as a television writer. Four years later, she’s hit the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, The Next Best Thing, has gotten the green light, and Ruthie’s going to be the show-runner. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, number-crunching executives, an unrequited crush on a boss, and her grandmother’s impending nuptials.
Set against the fascinating backdrop of Los Angeles show business culture, with an insider’s ear and eye for writer’s rooms, bad behavior backstage and set politics, Jennifer Weiner’s new novel is a rollicking ride on the Hollywood rollercoaster and a heartfelt story about what it’s like for a young woman to love, and lose, in the land where dreams come true.
My thoughts...and boy do I have thoughts about this one...up next!
Thy Neighbor by Norah Vincent
The mid-summer blitz book for today is:
Thy Neighbor
by Norah Vincent
Viking, $25.95
Synopsis from the publisher:
At thirty-four, Nick Walsh is a broken, deeply cynical man. Since the violent deaths of his parents thirteen years earlier, he has been living alone in his childhood home in the suburban Midwest, drinking, drugging, and debauching himself into oblivion. A measure of solace is provided by his newly found relationship with Monica, a mysterious woman who seems to harbor as many secrets as he does.Obsessed with understanding the circumstances surrounding his parents' deaths and deranged by his relentless sorrow, Nick begins a campaign of spying on his neighbors via hidden cameras and microphones he has covertly installed in their houses. As he observes with amusement and disbelief all the strange, sad, and terrifying things that his neighbors do to themselves and to one another, and as he, in turn, learns that he is being stalked, he begins to slowly unravel the shocking truth about how and why his parents died.At once unsettling and moving, humorous and horrifying, Thy Neighbor explores the nature of grief, the potential isolation of suburban life, and who we really are when we think no one is watching. What readers and critics have admired in Norah Vincent's nonfiction is completely unleashed in this vivid and provocative novel.
This book was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley.
Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway
The mid-summer blitz book for today is:
The Girls to Watch
by Charity Shumway
Washington Square Press, $15.00
Publisher's synopsis:
A funny and uplifting debut novel about stumbling through the early years of adulthood while taking (or not taking) the advice of the women who've gone before you.Dawn West is trying to make her way in New York City. She’s got an ex-boyfriend she can’t quite stop seeing, a writing career that’s gotten about as far as penning an online lawn care advice column, and a small hometown in Oregon that’s her last recourse if she can’t make next month’s rent. So when Dawn lands a job tracking down the past winners of Charm Magazine’s “Ten Girls to Watch” contest, she’s thrilled. Not only is she being paid to interview hundreds of fascinating women, but she’s also sharing office space with “Secret Agent Romance,” Charm’s resident dating columnist, and he just happens to be giving her butterflies.
As Dawn gets to know the life stories of these former winners, she’ll discover that success, love, and friendship can be found in the most unexpected of places. And even more importantly, she’ll find that though those who have gone before us can be role models, ultimately, we each have to carve our own way. Both an insightful look at the trajectory of female experience over the past fifty years and a witty coming of age story, Ten Girls to Watch introduces an unforgettable new voice in women’s fiction.
This book was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley
.
Mission to Paris by Alan Furst
The mid-summer blitz book for today is:
By Alan Furst
Random House, $27.00
What the publisher tells us:
It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France. The Nazis know he’s coming—a secret bureau within the Reich Foreign Ministry has for years been waging political warfare against France, using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale and degrade France’s will to defend herself. For their purposes, Fredric Stahl is a perfect agent of influence, and they attack him. What they don’t know is that Stahl, horrified by the Nazi war on Jews and intellectuals, has become part of an informal spy service being run out of the American embassy in Paris. From Alan Furst, the bestselling author, often praised as the best spy novelist ever, comes a novel that’s truly hard to put down. Mission to Paris includes beautifully drawn scenes of romance and intimacy, and the novel is alive with extraordinary characters: the German Baroness von Reschke, a famous hostess deeply involved in Nazi clandestine operations; the assassins Herbert and Lothar; the Russian film actress and spy Olga Orlova; the Hungarian diplomat and spy, Count Janos Polanyi; along with the French cast of Stahl’s movie, German film producers, and the magnetic women in Stahl’s life, the socialite Kiki de Saint-Ange and the émigré Renate Steiner. But always at the center of the novel is the city of Paris, the heart and soul of Europe—its alleys and bistros, hotels grand and anonymous, and the Parisians, living every night as though it was their last. As always, Alan Furst brings to life both a dark time in history and the passion of the human hearts that fought to survive it.
This book was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley
2012 Man Booker Prize Longlist Announced
Nicola Barker, The Yips (Fourth Estate)
Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident (Sceptre)
André Brink, Philida (Harvill Secker)
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Michael Frayn, Skios (Faber & Faber)
Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Doubleday)
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories)
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
Sam Thompson, Communion Town (Fourth Estate)
We can look for the short list to be announced September 11, 2012.
For more information please watch the official site: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/2012-longlist-announced
.
On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves
The mid-summer blitz book for today is:
By Tracey Garvis Graves
Plume, $15.00
What the publisher tells us:
When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day. T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.
Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island.
Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter. Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.
This book was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley
Between You and Me by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The mid-summer blitz book for today is:
Between You and Me
by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Atria Books, $25.00
What the publisher wants you to know about it:
This book was provided to me by the publisher.
From the authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Nanny Diaries comes a new novel that takes readers behind the scenes of stratospheric celebrity—what it means to be worshipped by millions and still feel loved by none.
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus have proven again and again that they are masters at exploring the nuances of family relationships—as they intersect with the current trends in the culture at large.
In Between You and Me, twenty-seven-year-old Logan Wade has built a life for herself in New York City, far from her unhappy childhood in Oklahoma. But when she gets the call that her famous cousin needs a new assistant, it’s an offer she can’t refuse. Logan hasn’t seen Kelsey since they were separated as kids; in the meantime, Kelsey Wade has become one of Fortune Magazine’s most powerful celebrities and carrion for the paparazzi. But the joy at their reunion is overshadowed by the toxic dynamic between Kelsey and her controlling parents. As Kelsey grasps desperately at a “real” life, Logan risks everything to try and give her cousin the one thing she has never known—happiness. As Kelsey unravels in the most horribly public way Logan finds that she will ultimately have to choose between saving her cousin and saving herself.
This book was provided to me by the publisher.
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