The House at Sugar Beach

In The House at Sugar Beach, Helene Cooper, a reporter for The New York Times, writes of her African childhood in the country of Liberia. Cooper is the descendant of two families who came to African from the United States as part of the shipload of freedmen under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. Her description of her life as the daughter of a wealthy family, her loss of innocence during the bloody civil war of the 1980s, and her urge to return to the land of her childhood searching for redemption from her foster sister result in a fascinating read.

2009 Nebula Award Nominees Announced

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) just announced the nominees for the 2009 Nebula Awards. The awards will be presented at the 2009 Nebula Awards® Weekend, April 24-26,2009 in Los Angeles, California. The nominees for best novel are:

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin

Cauldron by Jack McDevitt

Brasyl by Ian McDonald

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Superpowers by David J. Schwartz

For more information on the awards and the Nebulas Weekend, go to: www.nebulaawards.com/index.php/nebulaweekend

Oregon Writers

On February 14, 2009 the state of Oregon had its 150th birthday. It hosted all kinds of celebrations honoring famous people, historical events, and Oregon pride. While browsing the list of famous people, I wondered what authors were from Oregon. Voila! I came up with a list--and I do love lists--and discovered there are a lot good writers that are born in or live in Oregon. Some of the most beloved are Jean (Clan of the Cave Bear) Auel, Ken Kesey of One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest fame, and one of my personal favorites, SF/Fantasy queen Ursula K. Le Guin. I mean how can you not love the Earthsea books!

Try some of these great writers from the "Beaver State".

Diana Abu-Jaber

Jean M. Auel

Katherine Dunn

Molly Gloss

Ken Kesey

Ursula K. Le Guin

Patricia A. McKillip

Chuck Palahniuk

Kate Wilhelm

The Soloist

Yes, I realize that this is a fiction blog, but hey, I reserve the right to break the rules once in a while (meaning anytime I feel like it). So do yourself a favor and read this: The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez. In 2005, Lopez, a journalist for the L. A. Times, saw a homeless man playing a battered violin in downtown Los Angeles. This man turned out to be Nathaniel Ayers (above), a 55-year-old music virtuoso who during the early seventies was a promising young student at Juilliard (and who even shared student-orchestra duties with then-classmate Yo-Yo Ma). However, his musical dreams were shattered when he was forced to leave Juilliard after suffering a mental breakdown. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Ayers drifted in and out of treatment and took to wandering the streets of his hometown, Cleveland, Ohio. After the death of his mother in 2000, he made his way to Los Angeles hoping to find his father and wound up living on the streets instead, where five years later he would cross paths with Lopez. A series of widely popular newspaper columns, and more importantly, a friendship, was born out of their meeting, and Lopez took it upon himself to do whatever he could to help Ayers get off the streets and into treatment.

Want more? Read the book. Or if written words make your head hurt, go see the movie: The Soloist is coming to the big screen in April.

Legal Thrillers

John Grisham's newest tale, The Associate, was the subject of one of our posts a month ago. With that book being released, you may want to read some more legal thrillers. You're in luck! The genre has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade and there is no shortage of popular authors writing legal thrillers.

Steve Martini often centers his stories around a compassionate lawyer fighting for the common good. His Paul Madriani series is one such example. Lisa Scottoline offers stories that are similar in pace to many of Grisham's books. She often includes humor in her stories, but with similar, suspenseful situations. Brad Meltzer follows the pattern of many of these writers by centering his stories on young attorneys fighting powerful entities. The underdog overcoming a forceful opponent makes for satisfying story-telling. Also, try David Baldacci if you prefer legal thrillers that include several plot twists. David Ellis often writes from the perspective of the accused. Despite being the new kid on the block of this list, Ellis brings with him his vast knowledge from being a Chicago attorney.

Authors who died in 2008

The Oscars are coming on February 22nd. I always like to watch the "In Memoriam" short that celebrates the lives of the people in the business who passed away the year before--like Paul Newman and Heath Ledger for instance. So I thought we should celebrate the lives of a few of the authors who died in 2008.

The mystery world lost Gregory McDonald, Donald E. Westlake, Margaret Truman, and one of my favorites Tony Hillerman. Two old masters Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Sir Arthur C. Clarke will be sorely missed. Andrew Britton and David Foster Wallace died too young. Paula Gunn Allen was a Native American literature pioneer and Nuala O'Faolain an Irish storyteller. Robert Lynn Asprin because he made me laugh and Michael Crichton whose books, movies, and TV show ER were always entertaining and a little scary. To these and all the others who died in 2008, we will miss you.

Gregory McDonald
Donald E. Westlake
Margaret Truman
Tony Hillerman
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Arthur C. Clarke
Andrew Britton
David Foster Wallace
Paula Gunn Allen
Nuala O'Faolain
Robert Lynn Asprin
Michael Crichton

In the Queue

Heart and Soul
by Maeve Binchy
Dr. Clara Casey has been offered the thankless task of establishing an underfunded clinic. With her diverse staff, the clinic soon becomes an important part of the community.

Very Valentine
by Adriana Trigiani
Valentine Roncalli travels to Italy in hopes of finding the inspiration and elements she needs to win a design competition. However, she finds much more than her artistic voice!

What Was I Thinking: 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories
by Barbara Davilman & Liz Dubelman
We could each write our own story, but in this book women such as Carrie Fisher and Rachel Resnick describe the moment in their lives when they realized certain relationships were not going to work.

John Updike, 1932-2009

John Updike, well-known author, poet and critic, passed away earlier this week at the age of 76. Updike attended Harvard as well as the University of Oxford. He had a brief stint as a contributor at the New Yorker. Updike won a National Book Award and was admitted to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

His works are known the world over. A good example of this is The Witches of Eastwick, which was also made into a feature film. Updike wrote the sequel years later with The Widows of Eastwick, which was released last year. The Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom series is what Updike will be remembered for. The series consists of Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest. The fifth part of the story, Rabbit Remembered, is included within the book Licks of Love, which also contains several of Updike's short stories. Click here to see all of the works by John Updike that are available in the library!