Blog Post
The Goose is Golden
by Debbie G.
Goose Gossage entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame today, joining 285 other greatest of the great in America's pastime. Gossage joins the Pride of the Yankees and the Bambino and way too many others from the team we all love to hate.
Blog Post
The Education of Little Tree
by muffy
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey has pulled a discredited children's book, Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree, from a list of recommended titles on her Web site, blaming an archival "error" for including a work considered to be the literary hoax of a white supremacist, according to the International Herald Tribune. Carter, who died in 1979, was identified as Asa Earl Carter, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and speechwriter for former Alabama governor George Wallace.
First published in 1976, Little Tree was supposedly the real-life story of an orphaned boy raised by his Cherokee Indian grandparents; the book became a million seller and sentimental favorite. In 1991, the American Booksellers Association gave "Little Tree" its first ever ABBY award, established to honor the 'hidden treasures' that ABA bookstore members most enjoyed recommending.
According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of industry sales, Little Tree" has sold about 11,000 copies in 2007.
Blog Post
Library Lions
by muffy
Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese was honored Monday, along with historian John Hope Franklin, author Jhumpa Lahiri, and playwright Tom Stoppard by the New York Public Library as this year's Library Lions.
"Library Lions honorees were chosen for their exceptional contributions to scholarship, literature, science, history and the visual and performing arts," library president Paul LeClerc said.
The Library Lions award was first given out in 1997.
Blog Post
Not scary movies, scary books!
by manz
Looking to get spooked with some horror books? Looking for the cream of the deadly crop? In 1988 The Horror Writers Association began presenting the Bram Stoker Awards each year for works they felt were a “superior achievement” in horror writing in a number of categories. Recent Stoker winners for novels include Lisey’s Story by Stephen King, Creepers by David Morrell, The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King, and The Hour Before Dark by Douglas Clegg. For more on past winner visit The Horror Writers Association.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #87
by muffy
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Chinese author Xiaolu Guo’s first novel written in English, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is at once sexy, sad and funny .
Zhuang ("Z"), a 23-year-old Chinese woman from rural China is in London enrolled in English classes. Loneliness and her attraction to a much older man at an artsy film soon make them live-in lovers. His bisexuality bothers her less than his vegetarian diet. It becomes clear to the readers that her ever-improving English does not help her understanding of western culture and gets her in some dangerous situations.
“Guo's U.S. debut ...(is)a compelling and moving tale of first love. An often-charming exploration of learning, love and loss.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
Xiaolu Guo was born in 1973. After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy, she published a number of books in China. Since 2002, she has been dividing her time between London and Beijing. She has written and directed award-winning documentaries including The Concrete Revolution; her first feature film, How Is Your Fish Today?, was screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 International Women’s Film Festival.
Blog Post
Fantastic Fiction Firsts #84
by muffy
Emergency room physician Vincent Lam’s debut collection of linked stories - Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures* is the 2006 winner of The Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s premier literary prize for fiction. It revolves around four young multicultural Toronto medical students. (Think Grey’s Anatomy!)
Along with the requisite sex, death and sleep deprivation crucial to any hospital drama, it's action-packed and insightful. "The stories' quiet strength lies in Lam's portrayal of the flawed humans behind the surgical masks". ~Publishers Weekly
For a clear-eyed look at what it is like to be a doctor-in-training, try The Soul of a Doctor: Harvard Medical Students Face Life and Death, and Audrey Young's What Patients Taught Me: A Medical Student's Journey.
*= Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #81
by muffy
If you don’t read another mystery this summer, you must read The Tenderness of Wolves* by Stef Penney
The winner of the 2006 Costa Book of the Year (formerly known as the Whitbread Awards), this debut novel by a former filmmaker is set in Dove River, an isolated settlement in the Canadian tundra of 1876. Mrs. Ross, our primary narrator, stumbled onto the brutal murder of her neighbor Laurent Jammett, a reclusive fur trapper, the same night her teenaged son Francis, went missing, along with a mysterious ancient bone tablet of great value.
Penney seamlessly weaves multiple plotlines, (including the disappearance of two young girls 17 years ago) as the search parties trek northward on the trail of the killer, bracing brutal elements and the threat of predatory wolves, towards an explosive conclusion.
Tenderness is much more than a mystery - it is a psychological thriller, an adventure tale, a well-research period piece that captures the cultural and social history of the Canadian north, and most of all, a probing exploration of the unfathomable topography of the human heart.
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
2006 Mitten Award Announced
by kidlit
Last week the Children's Services Division of the Michigan Library Association announced the winner of the 2006 Mitten Award.
The Award goes to Cynthia Lord for her first novel Rules. This is the story of how twelve-year-old Catherine deals with her autistic younger brother. This title also won a Newbery Honor Medal, the Schneider Family Book Award and is an American Library Association Notable Children's Book. I think this title deserves all these accolades.
There were three Mitten Honor books announced.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop
The Mitten Award honors one children's book every year as the best published in the calendar year.
Blog Post
Rash wins 2007 Thumbs Up!
by K.C.
The Thumbs Up! Award committee has voted Rash by Pete Hautman as the 2007 winner. Rash is a chilling satire that tells the story of Bo, a struggling teen. It's 2076. Anyone who litters or verbally assaults another person in the Safer States of America goes to prison. Bo has five family members in jail, and due to his temper he is sent to a remote work camp where he has to make fast food pizzas, play the dangerous and illegal game of football, and battle the bears that live in the cold north. It’s a great read or listen on audio CD.
The committee also chose four Honor books. They are An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, and Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick.
Blog Post
Museum Design
by muffy
Curious about the big hole at the corner of State and South University (across from the Michigan Union)?
It’s a much anticipated addition and restoration of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Expected to reopen early 2009, here is what we know about the project.
Not coincidentally, the selection of the architect, Brad Cloepfil for this project has generated much enthusiasm among the museum community, and has already won a major national architectural award for its design. Just yesterday, the New York Times published an extensive article on Mr. Cloepfil and his controversial and brilliant restoration of yet another major museum -- the “Lollipop” building at 2, Columbus Circle (in Manhattan), new home for the Museum of Arts and Design.