Blog Post
Author Birthdays: Giono, Cullen, Sharpe
by marshd
March 30th marks the birthday of authors Jean Giono, Countee Cullen, and Tom Sharpe.
Jean Giono was a French writer and veteran of WWI. One of his later novels, Le hussard sur le toit, was made into a French film, The Horseman On The Roof, starring Juliette Binoche (whom you may recognize from Chocolat or The English Patient).
Giono's other novels include The Man Who Planted Trees (which is about, oddly enough, a man who plants trees), and The Solitude of Compassion, which Library Journal called "a throwback to a simpler place and time, when through communion with nature Giono sought to evade the harsh realities of his time".
Countee Cullen was an American poet and a part of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as the husband to the only child of W. E. B. Du Bois. He won more literary prizes than any other African-American writer of the 1920s.
Cullen's poetry is collected in a few volumes here at AADL. One, Caroling Dusk, includes works by other Harlem Renaissance writers, like Cullen's father-in-law. Another collection (of only his poetry) is My Soul's High Song, which Booklist has described as "as concerned with beauty as it was with commenting on racial problems; and his espousal of the loveliness of the poetic line and the prose sentence with social critique results in a beguiling iron-fist-sheathed-in-velvet-glove effect".
Tom Sharpe is an English satirist. His novel Porterhouse Blue was made into a short TV series. Set in an all-male college, it makes fun of Cambridge and many of the people who might go there.
Sharpe's works have been criticized by many, including Publishers Weekly, which deems his novels to be unappealing to an American audience because of their harsh and biting contents. One novel, The Midden, while laughing at aristocrats and the well-to-do, contains "exuberant slapstick comedy, a ridiculously high body count, and a no-nonsense British matron to sort through the whole mess", according to Booklist.
Blog Post
Triangle Waist Factory Fire of 1911
by muffy
Today (March 25) marks the 100-year anniversary of the deadly Triangle Waist Factory Fire in New York City which claimed 146 lives, mostly of young immigrant workers; and to this day, ranks as one of the worst disasters in labor history.
Located in the Asch Building, at northern corner of Washington Square,The Triangle Waist Company was in many ways a typical sweatshop - low wages, excessively long hours, and unsanitary and dangerous working conditions. Check out the story at the Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations archival and research resources that include eyewitness accounts, victim list, and photo images.
Over the years, the fire has been the subject for documentary filmmakers, historians and novelists. Best among them is award-winning author Katharine Weber's Triangle* * (2007).
Esther Gottesfeld is the last living survivor of the fire where 150 workers died in the sweatshop inferno. Even though she has told her story countless time, her death at the age of 106 leaves unanswered many questions about what happened that fateful day - the day she lost her sister and her fiance, the day her life changed forever.
Esther's granddaughter, Rebecca, and George, her partner, a prizewinning composer, seek to unravel the facts of the matter, while at the same time Ruth Zion, a zealous Triangle fire historian, bores in on them with her own mole-like agenda.
"As in a symphony, the true story of what happened at the Triangle factory is declared in the first notes - yet it is fully revealed only when we've heard it all the way through to its find chords."
* * = Starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #250
by muffy
Writing "with the spirit of Barbara Kingsolver and the flinty wit of Richard Russo", Bathsheba Monk gives us a nuanced, thoughtful and timely love story in Nude Walker, her debut novel.
Kat Warren-Bineki didn't join the National Guard to see the world. She joined to escape the rusty tentacles of Warrenside (PA) , a depressed steel town, and to avoid her mother. As the daughter of old-guard industrialists, Kat has no business falling for Max Asad, the son of nouveau riche Lebanese immigrants who is buying up Downtown Warrenside at lightning speed. Afterall, she has a perfectly acceptable boyfriend in Duck Wolinsky.
Not only is Kat forfeiting her social standing by declaring love for a bitterly resented foreigner, Max is jeopardizing his father’s dreams. "As the families feud (sometimes comically, sometimes ferociously), Warrenside braces for an epic flood, and the city’s citizens try to keep busy—with love, lust, insurance fraud, hallucinations . . . any means of outrunning the past."
"Nude Walker has everything: war and conflict, sex and betrayal, old-money people and fresh-dollar newcomers, and always, men and women looking for the purest kind of love, even if it burns too hot.” ~ Susan Straight.
Blog Post
Author Birthdays: Trelease, Robinson, Cullin
by marshd
March 23rd marks the birthday of authors Jim Trelease, Kim Stanley Robinson, Mitch Cullin.
Jim Trelease is an American artist, writer and educator. His The Read-Aloud Handbook, according to his website, "was the inspiration for PBS's 'Storytime' series". It emphasizes the importance of reading aloud to children, and has been used by both parents and educators.
Trelease also published a collection of stories which he thinks are perfect to read aloud. It includes many classics, as well as some inspirational stories, like "I have a dream: the story of Martin Luther King, Jr" by Margaret Davidson.
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. His Mars Trilogy has won Hugo and Nebula Awards. The trilogy focuses on a world in which Mars is a colony (by 2027, no less).
In 2009, Robinson published Galileo's Dream, in which Galileo travels to the future and finds himself caught up in political struggles on one of Jupiter's moons.
Mitch Cullin is an American writer of both novels and short stories. His collection of short stories is called From The Place In The Valley Deep In The Forest, and, as explained in a Booklist review, while the stories' topics are not fictional, "Cullin completely avoids making essays of his stories by focusing on vividly realized characters caught in the middle of those circumstances".
Cullin's A Slight Trick Of The Mind is a story of Sherlock Holmes in his old age, his memory failing. The cover is a tribute to Holmes' love of beekeeping in the novel.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #249
by muffy
High body count, fast-paced action, murder, conspiracy, secret society - if that's right up your alley, then you would like Scott Mariani's The Mozart Conspiracy : a thriller (due out early next week).
A centuries-old mystery. An “accidental” death. A conspiracy that may end in murder. Former British Special Air Service officer Ben Hope is running for his life. Enlisted by Leigh Llewellyn—the beautiful, world-famous opera star and Ben’s first love—to investigate her brother, Oliver’s, mysterious death, Ben finds himself caught up in a puzzle dating back to the 1700s and might somehow be connected to mysterious death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
British author Miriani makes his U.S. debut with the second in his series featuring ex-SAS warrior Ben Hope. For fans of Dan Brown, James Rollins, and Robert Ludlum.
Blog Post
March's Classics & FairyTale-Remakes plus a Family-Friendly Book to Film
by muffy
Beastly is an edgy romance based on teen author Alex Finn's novel - ultra-modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Seventeen-year-old Kyle is the spoiled, shallow and incredibly popular prince of his high school kingdom. Kyle foolishly chooses Kendra, a witch masquerading as a high school student, as his latest target for humiliation. Unfazed by his cruel behavior, Kendra decides to teach him a lesson --- she transforms him into someone as unattractive on the outside as he is on the inside. Now he has one year to find someone who can see past the surface and love him, or he will remain "Beastly" forever.
Red Riding Hood is based on the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, made famous by The Brothers Grimm.
In this modern version, Valerie is a beautiful young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a brooding outsider, Peter, but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry. Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they learn that Valerie's older sister has been killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village.
Hungry for revenge, the people call on famed werewolf hunter Father Solomon to help them kill the wolf. But Solomon's arrival brings unintended consequences as he warns that the wolf, who takes human form by day, could be any one of them. As panic grips the town, Valerie discovers that she has a unique connection to the beast --- one that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect and bait.
We have, yet another Hollywood remake of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. While the plot is well known, let's hope Mia Wasikowska, and Michael Fassbende bring something exciting to this period drama of Jane and her Mr. Rochester.
Now finally something for the whole family.... ( Rating: PG)
Mars Needs Moms! is based on the picture book by Berkeley Breathed.
Take out the trash, eat your broccoli --- who needs moms anyway? Nine-year-old Milo finds out just how much he needs his mom when she's nabbed by Martians who plan to steal her mom-ness for their own young. We go along on Milo's quest to save his mom - a wild adventure that involves stowing away on a spaceship, navigating an elaborate, multi-level planet, and taking on the alien nation and their leader
Blog Post
Author Birthdays: Rossen, Fleischman, Weis
by marshd
March 16th marks the birthday of authors Robert Rossen, Sid Fleischman, and Margaret Weis.
Robert Rossen was an American screenwriter and director. He wrote both Academy Award-winners The Hustler (starring Paul Newman) and All the King's Men, which was based upon a Robert Penn Warren book.
Rossen also co-wrote The Roaring Twenties, a noir film starring greats likes James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. The story focuses upon bootlegging and gangsters, and was based on the experiences of fellow writer Mark Hellinger.
Sid Fleischman was an American children's author and Newbery Award winner for his book The Whipping Boy. In his autobiography, Fleischman gave a few tips to aspiring writers, which can also be found on his official website.
According to Fleischman himself, he tended to "find story ideas in odd folk beliefs." This plays out in works like The 13th Floor: A Ghost Story for the triskaidekaphobiacs and The Ghost in the Noonday Sun. Fleischman passed away last year, the day after his birthday.
Margaret Weis is an American fantasy writer and co-creator (along with fellow author Tracy Hickman) of the game world DragonLance. While she has many, many series, I will only mention one other, which she also co-wrote with Hickman: The Death Gate Cycle, which is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy world.
Weis also owns Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd., a company that "publishes a wealth of original and licensed game and book products", with a strong focus on fantasy TV series.
Blog Post
Tales of the City
by pkooger
An incredibly colorful cast of characters and a funny, witty, irreverent style has made the Tales of the City series a modern classic. First published in serial form in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1972, Armistead Maupin’s outrageous stories of love and lust in the City by the Bay have been charming readers for more than 30 years.
In Mary Ann in Autumn, the eighth book of the series, Mary Ann Singleton returns to San Francisco, the site of all her youthful indiscretions. She moves in with her old friend Michael and his husband, and begins to confront the consequences of her past. Fans of the series will be happy to see most of the old favorites from 28 Barbary Lane, like Mrs. Madrigal and Mouse. Added to the mix are Shawna, a sex blogger, and her boyfriend Otto, a professional clown. Maupin is back to his sassy best with this novel. I just hope we don’t have to wait another decade for the next one.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #248
by muffy
In the smart and insightful Enough About Love, debut novelist Hervé Le Tellier warns in the prologue that "Any man - or woman - who wants to hear nothing - or no more - about love should put this book down". How fabulously inviting.
And where else would we set such a novel but in Paris?
Successful, elegant Dr. Anna Stein is about to turn 40 and finds herself unsuspectingly struck by an "erotic thunderbolt " when she meets Yves, a writer. Thomas Le Gall, Anna's middle-aged psychoanalyst is equally unprepared when he too, was struck by a similar thunderbolt when meeting Louise Blum, a beguiling married woman at a party.
For the next three months, these two affairs paralleling one another - Louise and Thomas, Anna and Yves as they weather the turmoil and passion of clandestine trysts, deception and guilt that threatens the stability of their families.
"Le Tellier examines the possibilities of love after 40, and he deals with this issue with patience, understanding and bemusement". "Middle-aged romance has rarely seemed so intriguing".
Francophiles, and anyone eager for a Paris fix without the price of a cross-Atlantic flight, could try A Garden in Paris by Stephanie Grace Whitson , and Foreign Tongue:: A Novel of Life and Love in Paris by Vanina Marsot.
Reading Enough makes me long to revisit my favorite romantic French cinema classics such as The Lovers: Les Amants (1958), and A Man and a Woman: Un homme et une femme - the 1966 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film, and immediately brings to mind that lovely soundtrack.
Blog Post
Author Birthdays: Sackville-West, Spillane, Tharoor
by marshd
March 9th marks the birthday of authors Vita Sackville-West, Mickey Spillane, and Shashi Tharoor.
Vita Sackville-West was an English writer and aristocrat who won the British Hawthornden Prize twice. Born to a Baron, she had lived in the famous Sissinghurst Castle during her lifetime. Among her most well-known books are The Edwardians, which is about two aristocratic siblings in the early 20th century, and All Passion Spent, about an octogenarian woman who spurns the Victorian ideals.
Sackville-West, a bisexual, was lovers with fellow authors Violet Trefusis and Virginia Woolf; some of her letters to Woolf have been compiled into a book, and a book on Trefusis also contains correspondence between lovers.
Mickey Spillane was an American crime novelist, best known for his detective character Mike Hammer. Spillane was also into film; his novel Kiss Me Deadly was made into a movie, and the author himself actually played a detective in Ring of Fear.
Spillane's work in the hardboiled fiction genre is a bit different than many others. A writer for the Washington Post said in 2001 that "Spillane never really wrote sex scenes; he wrote about sexuality in a way that was unapologetically sensual and often seemed more provocative than the act itself". A good example is his first novel, I, the Jury.
Shashi Tharoor is an Indian writer and advocate, as well as a member of Indian Parliament and former Under-Secretary General of the UN. He has written both fiction and non-fiction, and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in 1991. His novels include the award-winning The Great Indian Novel, and Show Business, called by Booklist "an animated and deliciously satirical critique of the Bombay film industry".
Among Tharoor's non-fiction works are The Elephant, The Tiger, And The Cell Phone: Reflections On India, The Emerging 21st-century Power, which discusses India's highs and lows, and Bookless In Baghdad: Reflections On Writing And Writers, a collection of essays which Library Journal described as resonating "with readers of any nationality, helping them understand the global purpose of literature, feel the inherent responsibility, and hear a call to action".