Blog Post
Author and Psychoanalyst Hans Keilson dies at 101
by DaudiExperience
Hans Keilson, before he became a renowned author last year, was better known as a psychoanalyst and an expert in childhood trauma.
A German-born Jewish doctor, Keilson's medical career was halted with Hitler coming to power. Keilson fled to the Netherlands and joined the Dutch Resistance as counselor for children orphaned by the Holocaust.
His two books gained critical acclaim worldwide after author Francine Prose gave praise to Keilson's books in the New York Times. His first book, Comedy in a Minor Key, was first published in 1947 and re-released in 2010 was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
His second book, The Death of the Adversary, was published in 1959 and became an instant best seller. It gained a brief moment of attention in 1962 after being translated into English and was considered by New Times Magazine as one of the ten best books of the year.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #267
by muffy
S.J. Watson's Before I Go to Sleep : a novel * * * is definitely the buzz of the summer, the book everyone is waiting to get their hands on.
Young and single Christine Lucas awakes each morning appalled with the 47 year-old woman looking back at her in the mirror. A man named Ben reminds her each day he is her husband. Each night as she sleeps, her near-term memory is wiped clean. With the help of her memory coach Dr. Nash, Christine keeps a secret journal which contains key details from her past, details that don't quite match the story Ben has been telling her.
With a taut and well-constructed plot, the immediacy of the first-person narrative, and the pulse-pounding suspense, British debut novelist Watson gives us one of the season's very best psychological thriller. Rights sold to 34 countries. Film rights to Ridley Scott. Early blurbs by Dennis Lehane and Tess Gerritsen.
* * * = Starred reviews
Blog Post
Author Birthdays: Chesterton, White, Ehrlich
by marshd
May 29th marks the birthday of authors G. K. Chesterton, T. H. White, and Paul R. Ehrlich.
G. K. Chesterton was an English author. He wrote mysteries, essays, biographies, and general fiction. His works on Father Brown, a Catholic priest and detective, were even adapted for television in the 70s.
Chesterton also wrote a biography of his friend and "rival" George Bernard Shaw, and the novel The Man Who Was Thursday, which involves seven anarchists in London who give themselves the names of the days of the week.
T. H. White was an English author best known for his Arthurian works The Once and Future King and The Sword in the Stone. The musical Camelot and the Disney film The Sword in the Stone were based on his works.
White also wrote the children's story Mistress Masham's Repose, about an English orphan and her interactions with Lilliputians, a race of people described by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels.
Paul R. Ehrlich is an American writer and biologist, as well as a professor at Stanford University. His works focus on the environment and population growth. His latest book, The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution And The Environment, published in 2008, examines the relationship between the two.
Ehrlich's first big work was The Population Bomb, which discussed overpopulation and its effects on society. His later book, The Population Explosion, considers the topic further, more than 20 years afterward.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #266, and other essential summer reading
by muffy
Summer Reading is just around the corner. It is time to seriously map out your game plan. Here are just a couple of suggestions for you.
Bibliophiles and librarians far and wide are waiting with baited breath for Rebecca Makkai's debut - The Borrower. 26 year-old accidental children's librarian (Hannibal, MO) Lucy Hull (English Literature, Mount Holyoke) finds herself hijacked by 10 year-old Ian Drake (with possible gender identity issues - an important plot element), a voracious reader who is precocious and persuasive as he is vulnerable and manipulative. The pair zigzag their way across the country, Thelma and Louise-styled, just ahead of the law (Lucy is sure) and the dangerous-looking man on their tail (KGB?)
I ask that you check your critical self and anxiety at the door and give our Lucy some rope. All will be revealed in good time and will affirm once and for all, that books save lives. Enough said. Just hand me the box of tissues, please.
On the subject of tissues... there was not one dry eye in the audience when Alice Ozma spoke of her deeply affecting memoir The Reading Promise : my father and the books we shared * , back in January and it has stayed with me all this time. (Watch Alice on YouTube).
In 4th grade, Alice and her single father (a beloved elementary school librarian) made a promise to read aloud together for 100 consecutive nights. From L. Frank Baum to Dickens, from J.K. Rowling to Shakespeare, the "streak" continued for eight years through the night before Alice left for college. Each chapter highlights a significant event, a book they particularly treasured, and the life lessons learned along the way. Poignant and beautifully written.
The Reading Promise would make a perfect graduation gift for the readers in your life. And if you are lucky to have youngsters still in your care, this might inspire you to make a promise of your own.
* = Starred review
Blog Post
Nebula Award Winner
by lucroe
The brilliant writer, Connie Willis, has achieved another award to add to her auspicious collection. Having won a previous 6 Nebulas and 10 Hugos, she recently won another Nebula for her 2 volume novels, Blackout and All Clear (released separately in 2010). These novels were also nominated for the 2011 Hugo. These two books further the time-travel storyline started in a 1982 short story, "Fire Watch" (included in her short story collection Fire Watch), and the books Doomsday Book and , all multiple award winners too.
They all revolve around time traveling history students and their professors at Oxford University circa mid-21st. In these latest award winning books, the students' field work assignments involve time-travel to various points during WWII England. The assignments involve reporting on the events while taking on roles like a shopgirl during the Blitz, an American reporter at Dunkirk, and a servant helping to evacuate children to England's countryside. But time-travel is never without some hiccups along the way. If you like adventure, historical fiction, and don't mind a bit of time-travel, dive into these right away! Great summer reading awaits!
Blog Post
Author Birthdays: Doyle, Hergé, Peck
by marshd
May 22nd marks the birthday of authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Hergé, and M. Scott Peck.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer, most known for his stories of Sherlock Holmes. According to Wikipedia, there were 56 short stories and 4 novels about the detective written by Doyle.
Doyle's other works include those that focus on the character of Professor Challenger, and quite a few historical novels such as The White Company, which was set during the Hundred Years' War.
Hergé was a Belgian comic writer. His real name was Georges Prosper Remi, and you may know him if you've ever read a Tintin comic. We even have Tintin in the original French.
While Hergé also wrote a few other comics (Quick and Flupke, The Amiable Mr. Mops), copies of them are quite hard to find.
M. Scott Peck was an American author and psychiatrist. His most well-known book is The Road Less Traveled, about human fulfillment.
Peck's others works include Glimpses Of The Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts Of Possession, Exorcism, And Redemption and Denial Of The Soul: Spiritual And Medical Perspectives On Euthanasia And Mortality, two of his more spiritual works.
Blog Post
Moondogs
by pkooger
Benicio heads to the Philippines to reconnect with his estranged father, a rich American businessman working overseas, in Alex Yates’ debut novel, Moondogs. Little does he know that his father has been kidnapped by a group of inept criminals who hope to sell the man to Moro terrorists. Benicio enlists the help of Reynato Ocampo, a legendary Filipino cop who has had several blockbuster films based on his real-life exploits. Ocampo is also the leader of a secret squad of super-soldiers with paranormal powers. As Benicio follows the trail of his missing father, he begins to piece together an understanding of the man his father really is.
The fast pace of the story and the outrageous shoot-’em-up action cleverly disguise the true heart of Moondogs, which is the reconciliation of a father and his son. Alex Yates takes a jumble of characters and settings and expertly forms them into one cohesive whole. With a first novel as good as this, we have a lot to look forward to from Yates.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #265
by muffy
In Sarah Winman's debut When God was a Rabbit * , God is a large Belgian hare which Joe gives to his little sister Elly for comfort, when he learns the secrets between the 5 year-old and the 80-year-old man next door.
Over the span of next 30 years, the story follows Elly and Joe as they weather triumph and tragedy; friendship formed and innocence lost; from their childhood home in Essex to 9/11 New York. They draw strength from the unbreakable bond between them to rise above traumas and secrets that could have defined them.
"With its wit and humor, engaging characters whose eccentricities are adroitly and sometimes darkly drawn, and its themes of memory and identity, When God Was a Rabbit is a love letter to true friendship and fraternal love." A delightful (at times laugh-out-loud funny), affecting and poignant coming-of-age story from a new writer to watch. You won't be able to put it down.
Here is a link to British actress Sarah Winman as she discusses her book on YouTube.
If you enjoy this, try London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave; Jayne Anne Phillips' Lark and Termite and The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig for other titles about fraternal devotion.
* = starred review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #264
by muffy
It's not just another love story and I bet you would enjoy it.
Haley Tanner's wondrous debut Vaclav and Lena * speaks eloquently about the tenacity of young love.
Set in the Russian immigrant community at Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Vaclav and Lena seem destined for each other since they met on a play date as children. Apart from the shared émigré subculture, the struggle to fit in and to get ahead, they also share a consuming secret - a magic act that they would perform at Coney Island's Boardwalk as "Vaclav the Magnificent and Lena, his lovely assistant".
One day, Lena disappears as if by a cruel magic trick. Angry and brokenhearted, Vaclav steadfastly says goodnight to Lena every night without fail for the next seven years. Then on her 17th birthday, Lena simply reappears, and with an unusual request for Vaclav.
"Haley Tanner (check out her website) has the originality and verve of a born storyteller, and the boldness to imagine a world in which love can overcome the most difficult circumstances. In Vaclav & Lena she has created two unforgettable young protagonists who evoke the joy, the confusion, and the passion of having a profound, everlasting connection with someone else."
Bittersweet and captivating. An upbeat readalike for Nicole Krauss' The History of Love.
* = Starred Review
Blog Post
Author Birthdays: Baum, Porter, Bulgakov
by marshd
May 15th marks the birthday of authors L. Frank Baum, Katherine Anne Porter, and Mikhail Bulgakov.
L. Frank Baum was an American children's author most well known for his story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; there were at least 17 total Oz books that Baum wrote.
Baum also wrote short stories about the magical land of Mo. You may be interested in looking up other books by Baum which were actually published under the pseudonyms Edith Van Dyne, Floyd Akers, Schuyler Staunton, John Estes Cooke, Suzanne Metcalf, and Laura Bancroft.
Katherine Anne Porter was an American writer and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner (for The Collected Stories). She was also nominated numerous times for the Nobel Prize.
Porter's novel Ship of Fools was a best-seller and was made into a film starring Gone with the Wind's Vivien Leigh.
Mikhail Bulgakov was a Russian playwright and novelist. His most well known work was The Master and Margarita, a novel about the Devil visiting Soviet Russia. The book is something of a cult favorite now.
In addition, we have a collection of six of Bulgakov's plays. There is also another of Bulgakov's novels at AADL, Heart of a Dog, which is a strange story about a dog-turned-kind-of-man.