Ages 18+.
Blog Post
Out of This World: Great Sci-Fi and Fantasy (Nancy Pearl's Picks)
by muffy
"I don't consider myself at all a science fiction/fantasy fanatic, I must say that selecting the books for this topic was harder than any of the others that I've done. There is simply so much excellent stuff out there — both new and old — that I know people would enjoy, that the list could have been at least four times as long.
Did she pick any of your favorites?
Blog Post
New Fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers List (11/11/07)
by Mazie
Last Sunday TBR looked back to November 12, 1972 in the "Inside the List" column. A quick comparison confirmed that there were just as many "popular" novels on the List 35 years ago as there are today with the same sprinkling of literary fiction. Remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Bach? It topped the List. But there was also Museums and Women by Updike. This week we have Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell entering at #1 but Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo is still holding on after five weeks.
The other new entries are A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton and Now and Then by Robert B. Parker.
For a look at the entire list, click here.
Blog Post
Don't Miss This One
by french_film_grl
Water is a controversial and thought provoking 2006 film directed by Deepa Mehta. The film's setting is 1930's India. The main characters are widows who are forced to live solitary existences. In traditional Hindu culture, when a husband dies, the wife is forced into living out the rest of her life away from society in an ashram. Although, this chaste and meager existence is better than the traditional alternative of being cremated along with the husband, it is similar to a life of imprisonment.
But what happens when 8 year old Chuyia becomes a widow, and is forced to live this way? Her spunk, questioning, and need to live the life of an 8 year old make the women contemplate why this tradition even exists. Kalyani takes Chuyia under her wing, and the story unfolds from there.
This is a film not to be missed because of its questioning of traditional religious beliefs, and the exploration of women's rights. The setting, actors, and cinematography all come together to make this a wonderful and beautiful film. The official FFG rating of this movie is 9.
Blog Post
Pet Pig - True Story
by ryanikoglu
The Good, Good Pig is the true story of Christopher Hogwood who came to live with Sy Montgomery. Just as Wilbur, the runt, moved into the house in Charlotte's Web ... Christopher Hogwood was a runt who was rescued. Since Sy was vegetarian, Christopher's life was destined to be longer than the average pig's. The story is hilarious and endearing. Good thing we can read the story and not actually LIVE with a 750 pound pig. Unhff!!
This book could easily be a fine family read-aloud, if you're into "farm" relationships.
Blog Post
Ira Levin, master of quiet mayhem, has died
by sernabad
Ira Levin, author of the oh-so-creepy Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, and The Boys from Brazil, died November 12, 2007, in Manhattan.
Among his seven novels, the first two mentioned above made for wildly popular, deeply unsettling movies. Mia Farrow was the perfect incubator for the Devil’s spawn in the 1968 version of Rosemary’s Baby. The 1975 film The Stepford Wives has become a classic of the lives of robotic housewives.
Levin’s Deathtrap was a long-running Broadway hit.
Levin was 78.
Blog Post
Norman Mailer, larger-than-life author, has died
by sernabad
Norman Mailer, the prolific, profane, and enormously controversial, author, died Saturday, November 10, 2007.
He first grabbed the headlines with his semi-autobiographical World War II novel, The Naked and the Dead (1948). Twenty years later, he won his first Pulitzer with The Armies of the Night (1958), his examination of Vietnam. The Executioner’s Song (1979), his fictionalized account of killer Gary Gilmore, was a double winner – his second Pulitzer and the National Book Award.
Given his enormous ego with appetites to match, it’s a wonder Mailer lived as long as he did. His excesses knew no bounds – alcohol, drugs, women, brawling – and provided plenty of fodder for his novels.
Mailer died of acute renal failure. He was 84.
Blog Post
The perils of being "gifted"
by Maxine
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani is a first novel about Rumi, who at the beginning of the story is a five year old math prodigy, daughter of Mahesh, a math professor at a university in Wales and Shreene, who futilely longs for a return to India. Mahesh is determined that his daughter will enter Oxford at 14 and institutes an arduous program of study at home in addition to school. As Rumi grows up, she feels more conflicted about the roles imposed on her and longs for the more normal life of a teenager. Her father's drive for her academic success eventually leads to tragedy.
Lalwani is adept at showing how stereotypes of Eastern Asian immigrants are played out by the characters in their ambitions for their children. But she also is critical of Western bias toward these immigrants who are trying to make a better life for themselves. Gifted, according to the Washington Post Book World, is "a tragic coming-of-age story full of the mingled love and anger that animates families of every culture."
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #89
by muffy
Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale* is the first complete English translation of Nagai Kafu's 1918 portrait of geisha life, and is based on an unexpurgated version of the Japanese text published in the 1950s.
Originally serialized, Udekurabe (translated as Rivalry) first appeared in a literary journal in August, 1916. The author, a respected novelist and university lecturer was married briefly to a celebrated dancer, the model for Komayo - the geisha central to the story.
Set in the entertainment district of Shimbashi, Tokyo, during Taisho-era Japan, it recounts the precarious fortunes of a talented and ambitious geisha, as she navigates among patrons rivaling for her favors and the envies of her peers. Modern readers will find it an authentic and beautifully realized portrait of a fascinating and significant Japanese subculture at a place in time.
* = Starred Review
Blog Post
In the Beginning...
by RiponGood
There was the Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It's hard to believe the entire Dragonlance series started over 20 years ago. Written by Margaret_Weis and Tracey_Hickman to support Advance Dungeons and Dragons, the Dragonlance series has grown to include over 90 novels and 16 adventures for the game. I remember as a teenage rpg junkie when I first read the book. I just had to get the corresponding modules, which I never did play. So, if you love the Dragonlance series or fantasy in general, be sure to read the first book and see where it all started.
Blog Post
The Life of Stile
by RiponGood
Stile is a serf on Proton and a player of the Game. His alternate self, the Blue Adept, on Phaze has been killed and now Stile can travel between the worlds. Can Stile find his enemy that kis trying to kill him on both worlds? You can follow Stiles adventures on both worlds in Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series, Split Infinity, Blue Adept, and Juxtaposition.