2008 Nebula Award Winners Announced

Last weekend the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced the winners of the 2008 Nebula Awards for excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing. They are:

• Best Novel: Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Best Novella: "The Spacetime Pool" by Catherine Asaro
• Best Novelette: "Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel
• Best Short Story: "Trophy Wives" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Best Script: WALL-E Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
• Andre Norton Award: Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce

2009 Award Honorees

• A. J. Budrys — Solstice Award
• M.J. Engh — Author Emerita
• Marty Greenberg — Solstice Award
• Harry Harrison — Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master
• Joss Whedon — Ray Bradbury Award
• Kate Wilhelm — Solstice Award

Eudora Welty Centennial Celebration

2009 marks the centennial anniversary of the birth of Eudora Welty. The award-winning American author was born on April 13, 1909 and died on July 23, 2001. Throughout her illustrious career, Welty spent time as a photographer and writer of numerous short stories, novellas, nonfiction, and novels. She was awarded the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for The Optimist's Daughter. Welty was also awarded the O. Henry Award for Short Stories on six separate occasions. The library has a variety of her works, such as:

Losing Battles
Selected Stories of Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
Complete Novels

Check out the Eudora Welty Foundation's website for more information.

In defense of re-reads

Is it possible to read too much? This is not a problem I usually face. As a voracious reader with two young kids at home, I often sneak reading time in where I can -- while loading or unloading the dishwasher, while folding laundry, occasionally while drying my hair (although since a particularly engrossing scene led to a run-in with a round brush a few months ago, this has curtailed a bit).

But, this is a problem I had to confront this week. As a clutz lacking natural grace and balance, I often injure myself. After an unfortunate incident with an exercise DVD and a quick jaunt to the ER, I was recently told that I had to spend 2 days on bed rest and was not to move except in the most dire circumstances. I'm pretty sure when the doctor said, "bed rest" what he meant was, "uninterrupted reading."

I read chick lit, I read techno thrillers, I read post-modern, I even threw in a bit of non-fiction. It was great to have uninterrupted reading time, but I'll be honest: I had a bit of a dud batch. One in particular felt a bit too impressed with its own cleverness and left me uninspired to pick up another book. With almost a day left of bed-rest, I knew I couldn't give up altogether and decided to turn to a book I'd already read: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was a nice reminder that sometimes a re-read is more satisfying than wading into something new. I knew exactly what I was going to get, and that was simultaneously comforting and refreshing. I finished that book ready to dive back into the library basket and start again. I might get a dud occasionally, but a re-read is a nice reminder that there are always good things to read.

Unleash Your Inner Bard: Talk Like Shakespeare Today!

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

A hopeless romantic, my all time favorite love story is Romeo and Juliet. Everyone knows that the story takes place in Italy ~ in the historic city of Verona. Verona is in the Veneto, the northeastern region of Italy where we made our family home for many years.

While living in Italy, I spent a good deal of time in our city library in Vicenza doing research and it was there that I first learned that the true author of Romeo and Juliet was a Vicentino, a man by the name of Luigi Da Porto. In 1530, Da Porto wrote the transcript called Giulietta e Romeo. In the original version, he set the characters in Verona, created Romeo and Giulietta and even created Mercutio, Tybalt, Friar Laurence and Paris. It is a little known fact that Luigi was the original writer and that William Shakespeare only adapted it for stage in England through not much merit of his own. The village of Vicenza (or indeed the people in it) hardly forgave Shakespeare after he took all the credit for the literature of their native son. Da Porto wrote the novel in his villa in Montorso Vicentino near Vicenza. The title of the book was Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti ("Newly found story of two noble lovers").

There are several film versions of this greatest of love stories, and although there are aspects of the modernized version starring Leonardo di Caprio that are fascinating to me, I shall forever be enthralled with the classic sixties version of Italian film producer, Franco Zeffirelli.

We can be grateful to Mr. William Shakespeare for his momentous contributions to the English language. Shakespeare is a part of our everyday lives. He coined more than 1,700 words still in use in modern English and his plays influence the way we think about the world we live in. In recognition of Shakespeare’s 445th Birthday, this Thursday, April 23, 2009, has been designated Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Get in on the act and unleash your inner Bard!
http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org/

Katherine V. Forrest is 70!

Happy Birthday to Lambda Award-winning author Katherine V. Forrest who turned 70 on April 20th! She has written 15 novels, including the classics "Daughters of a Coral Dawn" and "Curious Wine." She is also the creator of the Kate Delafied series--a wonderful police procedural series featuring a Los Angeles lesbian, police officer. She is a pioneer in lesbian fiction and publishing, and is currently the supervising editor at Spinster's Ink.

Try one of her following books and enjoy!

Murder at the Nightwood Bar

Appartion Alley

Hancock Park


If you like Ms. Forrest's books try one of these authors too:

Jessica Casavant

Baxter Clare

Nicola Griffith

Val McDermid

Claire McNabb

J.G. Ballard, 1930-2008

From BBC News:

The author JG Ballard, famed for novels such as Crash and Empire of the Sun, has died aged 78 after a long illness.

His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill "for several years" and had died on Sunday morning.

Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Jim Ballard said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future".

His most acclaimed novel was Empire of the Sun, based on his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China.

Read the entire article here. See also Obituary: JG Ballard.

Click here for a list of J.G. Ballard titles at the Library.

In the Queue

Immortality Factor
by Ben Bova
Is stem-cell research mankind’s greatest scientific breakthrough, or is it an attempt to play God? Drs. Arthur and Jessie Marshak are on opposite sides of the issue.

Skinny Chicks Don’t Eat Salad
by Christine Avanti
Can’t pass up a snack of chips and salsa? According to the author, you don’t have to! Stabilizing your blood sugar is the best way to lose weight and keep it off.

April National Poetry Month

“Women as Water”

I discovered a wonderful poetry blog recently: http://www.poetryevolution.com/
In one posting the author, Hari Bhajan, reviews the Hindi film, “Water” (which we have at our library). The blog includes a truly poetic comparison of water and women along with a selection of beautiful poems written by women.

WATER: The liquid that descends from the clouds as rain, forms streams, lakes, and seas, and is a major constituent of all living matter and that when pure is an odorless, tasteless, very slightly compressible liquid oxide of hydrogen H2O which appears bluish in thick layers, freezes at 0° C and boils at 100° C, has a maximum density at 4° C and a high specific heat, is feebly ionized to hydrogen and hydroxyl ions, and is a poor conductor of electricity and a good solvent (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).

Speaking of the women portrayed in the film, Hari Bhajan says:

I saw these women, as all women are — as water; fluid, ever-changing form, mercurial, emotional, powerful when provoked and as generous as the clouds that pour forth their bounty upon the earth. As everything is a teacher, so water is an endless source of wisdom, its lessons of compassion and of destruction always there to open us to the perfect rhythms of this world, as well as the vastness of its mysteries. Take a hot bath. Swim in the ocean. Drink long and slow from a pure mountain stream. View the movie WATER. Invite your loved one under the quilt with you. Let the tears roll. It’s so, so good for the soul.

Peaks and Valleys

Reading a great book is sort of like finding a great recipe or a great deal on a pair of fabulous shoes – you just feel compelled to tell your friends! Well, friends, I am reading a really great book by bestselling author Spencer Johnson, MD, called “Peaks and Valleys: Making Good and Bad Times Work for You – at Work and in Life.” If the author sounds familiar, it’s because he is the same gent who wrote the wildly popular “Who Moved My Cheese?”

The book is a parable about a man who lives his entire life in a valley and decides one day to climb to a peak. At the peak, he meets a wise old man (who if this were a movie would most certainly be played by someone like Morgan Freeman), who sheds new perspective on the importance of both peaks and valleys in our lives.

As I am reading “Peaks and Valleys”, I’m reminded how pivotal books can be. Not only do they provide relaxation and respite, they can also provide comfort, inspiration, solutions and often outright joy. This is certainly one of those books that makes you ponder how you might employ these lessons in your own life. And, given unemployment is at an all-time high and the economy is in the drink, it provides some positive tips for how to make the best of bad times.

The value of a short story

I recently told a friend, “I don’t really like short stories." I've always thought of them as not satisfying simply because they're over so quickly. It seemed like there wasn't enough there to get much from them. Of course, as we talked about how I don't like short stories, I proceeded to suggest (okay, it might have been more of a demand) that she read two short stories because they were incredibly powerful and moving. I then wouldn't let her leave until I had pulled the books off shelves and gently placed (or forcibly shoved...whatever) them into her hands. Even I could see this wasn't really the behavior of someone who hates short stories. The more I thought about it, the more short stories came to mind that have stayed with me and had a big impact. Perhaps, yet again, I was wrong about what I don't read.

While some try to define a short story by the number of words, a classic definition is a story that can be read in one sitting. Short stories are usually less complex in structure than a full novel, but have no less emotional punch. While there isn’t as much there to get completely wrapped up in a character’s life, well-written short stories can still draw me into the characters’ situations. I recently saw an article that talked about the “emotional value” of a short story – you get more emotional bang for your reading buck.

So, if you're looking for a good value in your reading, if you don't have a lot of free time, or if you're just interested in some really good stories, check out a few of these collections for great stories that you can read in one sitting (and, if you’re curious, I’ve pointed out the two I suggested to my friend):

Jhumpa Lahiri – Interpreter of Maladies (especially “A Temporary Matter”)
Kate Chopin – A Vocation and a Voice (especially “The Story of an Hour”)
Steven King – Skeleton Crew
Dan Chaon – Among the Missing
Jennifer Weiner – The Guy Not Taken

Umberto Eco

I have been working my way through the five fiction works of Umberto Eco, who is a professor of semiotics at Bologna University, Italy. His works are a unique blend of mystery, suspense, literary theory, humor, and history. Eco found great success with his first work of fiction, The Name of the Rose, which was published in the early eighties. This is Eco's most well-known work. It is the 14th century and William, an English monk, visits an Italian abbey to solve a murder. He is aided by Adso, who also serves as the story's narrator. One may notice some similarities to the classic Sherlock Holmes tales.

This is not Eco's only work of fiction. His next work is Foucault's Pendulum. After reading so many poor manuscripts, three editors decide to concoct their own conspiracy based on a tall tale told to them by one writer. Their creation begins to take over and they find themselves in the middle of a deadly game. You can quickly tell that this work influenced The Da Vinci Code. The Island of the Day Before tells the story of a nobleman who survives a shipwreck, only to deal with flashbacks to his previous life. Baudolino is the subject of Eco's fourth work. The story is set in the 12th century and tells of Baudolino's great adventures, some true and some of the title character's own mind. Eco's last work of fiction is The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. Yambo, a rare book dealer, loses much of his memory after an accident and cannot even remember the people he loves. However, he can remember every line to every poem and book that he has ever read. Yambo uses this ability to attempt to regain his life. Each book tells a great story, so give Umberto Eco a try!