Posts made in March, 2009
Obama with new post-presidency book deal
There are very few things that can top the accolade of being a critically lauded author of a book that also happens to be a best-seller (actually, that depends on who you ask. There are those of the opinion that that statement is an oxymoron). Well, how about being a critically lauded author of a book that also happens to be a best-seller, oh, and he’s the President of the United States?
Obama has agreed with Crown Publishing Group to deliver a new nonfiction book after he leaves office. Already the best-selling author of Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope received $2.5 million last year in book royalties
There’s something about being a world leader with an acknowledged intellect and a couple of critically lauded books that lends him a sort of street cred. I know I’d at least pay more attention to my national leaders if they could muster a book good worth reading.
Story here (of Obama’s book deal, not my national leaders).
Read MoreBookbabble Episode 29: You’ve got me feeling emotions!
Bookbabble Episode 29: You’ve got me feeling emotions!
Recorded 22 March 2009
Babblers: Gem, Renee, Donny
Synopsis:
After Gem begins with a terribly tragic story of her beloved Dalek doll, the babblers launch into a discussion on books that elicit strong emotions from its readers. Find out which books still emotionally affect Renee since she was 6 till this very day (which I understand is not a very long time at all), and Gem’s as well (it goes without saying that Donny doesn’t cry from reading). Besides sadness, the babblers also talked a little about books that elicit anger, horror. Finally, Renee closes with a heart-warming story of a long-lost textbook.
Show Length: 65:10 mins
Books mentioned in show:
- Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams
- The Amityville Horror, Jay Anson
- Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
- The BFG, Roald Dahl
- A Christmas Memory, Truman Capote
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
- The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
- Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Homeward Bounders, Diana Wynne Jones
- The Yellow Wallpaper & Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Interview with A Vampire, Anne Rice
- The Shining, Stephen King
- Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner
- War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
- Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
- Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories (The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Vol. 1), M.R. James
- Ulysses, James Joyce
- Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx
- Audrey Rose, Frank De Felitta
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Download episode here.
Read MoreMan Booker International Prize 2009 list of contenders announced
While we’re on a roll here with literary prize nominee announcements, we might as well carry it on!
This is not the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, the coveted annual giveaway from Man Group plc. The International Prize, in contrast, is given once bi-yearly, and,
highlights one writer’s continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage.
The contenders are:
- Peter Carey (Australia)
- Evan S. Connell (USA)
- Mahasweta Devi (India)
- E.L. Doctorow (USA)
- James Kelman (UK)
- Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
- Arnošt Lustig (Czechoslovakia)
- Alice Munro (Canada)
- V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad/India)
- Joyce Carol Oates (USA)
- Antonio Tabucchi (Italy)
- Ngugi Wa Thiong’O (Kenya)
- Dubravka Ugresic (Croatia)
- Ludmila Ulitskaya (Russia)
Fantastic spread of authors from around the world, I must say.
Check out the announcement in the Man Booker Prize site here.
Read MoreOver 50? Writing speculative fiction? Here’s $750!
The Speculative Fiction Foundation is offering the SLF Older Writers Grant, which, as it says in the website:
The SLF Older Writers Grant is awarded annually to a writer who is fifty years of age or older at the time of grant application, and is intended to assist such writers who are just starting to work at a professional level. We are currently offering one $750 grant annually, to be used as the writer determines will best assist his or her work.
(Thanks Boingboing!)
Read MoreOrange Prize For Fiction 2009 Longlist released
The Hugos were not the only Awards citing excellence in Fiction. The Orange Prize for Fiction also recently released their longlist, and they are:
- Debra Adelaide The Household Guide to Dying
- Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress
- Lissa Evans Their Finest Hour and a Half
- Bernardine Evaristo Blonde Roots
- Ellen Feldman Scottsboro
- Laura Fish Strange Music
- V.V. Ganeshananthan Love Marriage
- Allegra Goodman Intuition
- Samantha Harvey The Wilderness
- Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else
- Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog
- Deirdre Madden Molly Fox’s Birthday
- Toni Morrison A Mercy
- Gina Ochsner The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight
- Marilynne Robinson Home
- Preeta Samarasan Evening is the Whole Day
- Kamila Shamsie Burnt Shadows
- Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife
- Miriam Toews The Flying Troutmans
- Ann Weisgarber The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
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