New Fiction Titles on the New York Times Best Sellers List (4/30/06)

Fri, 05/05/2006 - 9:43am by Mazie

Fifty years after Irene Nemirovsky died in the Holocaust, her daughters finally released two novellas they had discovered in her papers. This unique and poignant legacy was first published last year in France and was a huge bestseller. Nemirovsky had emigrated as a child to Paris after the Russian Revolution and was living there with her own family when the Germans invaded in 1940. In the novellas she captures both the immediate moment and reflects on the historical truth of the terrible chaos that ended in her transportation to Auschwitz and death. For more on this new American bestseller check out this news article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

At #2 is Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods: Stone Barrington returns to investigate the death of his cousin.

At #3 is Oakdale Confidential by Anonymous: the author is blogging discontent about lack of credit for this bestselling novelization of a TV soap mystery.

At #4 is Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson: And caterer Goldy Schulz is back investigating the death of a paralegal.

At #8 is Chasing Destiny by Eric Jerome Dickey: another romantic entanglement runs into trouble when the woman becomes pregnant and the man is married.

At #11 is Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky: this week's literary bestseller.

Hip Knits

Wed, 05/03/2006 - 7:06pm by muffy

Knitgrrl: Learn to Knit With 15 Fun and Funky Patterns, (starred review in School Library Journal), and the new Knitgrrl 2 are decidedly not your grandmother's knitting books. They are designed for teens and tweens, but is appropriate for beginning knitters of all ages.

The author, Shannon Okey's blog and website are chatty and loads of fun. Check them out.

She will join fellow knitter Jillian Moreno at the Ann Arbor Book Festival, May 13, at 11:00 a.m. for a program, followed by signing.

Stick around the Festival and come cheer for Shannon at 4 p.m. at the Library Pavilion for the 3rd Annual Celebrity Spelling Bee. We expect great things from this past district champ.

Knitting for Real Women with Real Curves

Wed, 05/03/2006 - 7:02pm by muffy

O.k. Don't trust me. However, listen to what Sally Melville has to say about Big Girl Knits by Ann Arbor author Jillian Moreno.

"I love this book! It brought tears to my eyes—both with its delicious humor and its loving attention to the subject. The technical stuff is handled wonderfully—with intelligence and clarity and a big heart. The variety in the patterns that follow is a delight."

Debbie Stoller, author of the Stitch ’n Bitch series "...guarantee(s) that (with Big Girl Knit) you’ll never again knit a sweater that makes your big top look like The Big Top."

Jillian will join another hip knitter, Shannon Okey at the Lifestyle Pavilion on May 13th, 11:00 a.m. at the Ann Arbor Book Festival. You can check out Jillian's blog in the meantime.

Ann Pearlman, therapist, to discuss gang memoir

Wed, 05/03/2006 - 11:02am by ulrich

Local psychotherapist and writer Ann Pearlman will discuss her experiences in co-writing Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang, the autobiography of Colton Simpson, a former gang member and convicted felon, at the library's 'Sunday Edition' program on Sunday, May 7 at the Mallet's Creek branch library. Pearlman, also the author of Infidelity: A Memoir undertook the project, after initially turning it down, to help raise awareness of the dangers of gangs and the effect of gang culture on teens and young people.

Jonathan Rowe speaks on his 'thriller'

Mon, 05/01/2006 - 3:29pm by ulrich

In case you missed local novelist and attorney Jonathan Rowe's talk at the library's 'Sunday Edition' program in January you can view his talk this week on local Community Access Cable Channel 17. Rowe discusses his Ann Arbor-based thriller A Question Of Identity, which recounts the tale of an overeducated, underachieving tabloid reporter on the trail of a fugitive 1960's radical. The program is also available from the library on DVD. The Cable TV broadcasts can be viewed on Tuesday, May 2 at 3:40 p.m.; Thursday, May 4 at 1:30 p.m.; Friday May 5 at 5:00 p.m. and Saturday, May 6 at 1:30 p.m.

Literary prize updates

Mon, 05/01/2006 - 2:33pm by sernabad

Literary prizes are popping up this spring faster than the season's tulips.

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes, awarded by Scotland's University of Edinburgh, has shortlisted Ian McEwan (Saturday), Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go), Joyce Carol Oates (Missing Mom), Andre Brink (Praying Mantis -- not yet available in the US), and Ali Smith (Accidental) for their 2005 awards in Biography and Fiction. The prizes, the UK's oldest literary awards, will be announced in June of this year.

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The Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award, given to a young novelist of attention-getting talent, has been awarded to a Michigan author.

Nick Arvin received the $5000 for his debut novel, Articles of War. Arvin graduated in 1991 from Clio High School. Clio is northeast of Flint.

Death claims two noted authors

Mon, 05/01/2006 - 2:07pm by sernabad

Noted authors John Kenneth Galbraith and Pramoedya Ananta Toer, have died.

Galbraith, 97, gave economic advice to four Democratic presidents (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson), cautioning against the run-away power of giant corporations. And still he found time to pen an extraordinarily rich body of work, including The Affluent Society (1958) and The Good Society (1996). Galbraith died Saturday, April 29.

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Pramoedya Ananta Toer, whose quartet of powerful novels about Indonesia's struggle for independence captured the literary world, died April 30 at the age of 81.

His Buru Quartet, This Earth of Mankind, Child of all Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass were banned in his own country. Toer knew of what he wrote. He was arrested in 1965 and jailed for 14 years with no charges, and then placed under house arrest until 1992.

Michigan Notable Books, 2006

Mon, 05/01/2006 - 1:45pm by sernabad

The Library of Michigan announced its list of 20 Michigan Notable Books. To be considered for this distinguished list Michigan must be "...the inspiration, the setting or the source..."

This year's list includes:

Youth novel Harry Sue, by Sue Stauffacher; The Summer He Didn't Die, by long-time great Michigan storyteller, Jim Harrison; Ann Arbor author Steve Amick's The Lake, the River, and the Other Lake; and Paul Clemens' outstanding Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir.

For the full list, go to the Library of Michigan website.

2006 Pulitzer Winners

Sun, 04/30/2006 - 5:48pm by sernabad

Columbia University announced the winners of the 2006 Pulitzer Prizes on April 17, 2006.

Winners in the Letters & Drama categories are:

Fiction
Geraldine Brooks, for March

History
David Oshinsky for Polio: An American Story

Biography
Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Poetry
Claudia Emerson for Late Wife

General Non-Fiction
Caroline Elkins for Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya

For a complete list of categories and winners, go to the Pulitzer website.

Didn't know much about mythology...and so much more...

Sat, 04/29/2006 - 6:32pm by thrakazog

When I picked up Kenneth C. Davis's Don't Know Much About Mythology, I was expecting a humorous and informative read answering some of my questions about mythology and religion, such as whether Nirvana is a Hindu or Buddhist concept (there's a good reason for my confusion) or what people used to do on Christmas before the common era (think much less gift-giving and many more spiked drinks). What I wasn't expecting was the deluge of information Davis packs into these 400 or so pages, such as when the oldest civilizations began, which of them started writing first, why Tara is the perfect name for Scarlet O'Hara's homestead in Gone with the Wind (see p. 289), why Ganesh is a great choice for Apu's favorite god in The Simpsons, or how much the early books of the Bible were influenced by Mesopotamian myths.

If you're at all curious about religions beyond Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, grab Davis's book. It's a great flip-through or straight-through read covering Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Celtic (Norse and Irish), Japanese, Chinese, Sub-Saharan, Native American, Roman, and, of course, Greek mythology.