Have You Tweeted Today?

Ah, Twitter, that online collection of the trivial musings, observations, and brainfarts of folks the world over, where would we be without you? How would we know what our favorite people are thinking and doing 24/7? And more importantly, would we even care? Now before you get your tweets all in a bunch, let me just state for the record that I use Twitter. Granted, my updates are few and far between, but they’re just as ridiculous as anyone else’s (I haven’t quite stooped to announcing what I ate for breakfast because that would just be lam—oh, wait, never mind). On the other hand, I think there’s a certain voyeuristic and vicarious satisfaction that comes from stalking, er, I mean following other folks on Twitter, particularly if they’re famous folks, and that’s probably what most people do. I’m a writer, so I like to follow my favorite authors to get a peek into their noggins and see what they’re up to, what they’re working on, where they’re signing, etc. Oh, and all that other, more trivial stuff too. Check these out:

Catherynne M. Valente’s (NorwichGrrl) not getting much sleep: "Awake. Don’t wanna be. What is up with books keeping me up all night? Thanks a lot, LITERATURE."

Here’s a rather ominous one from Peter Straub (Peterstraubnyc). Let’s hope he’s talking about his next novel: "The pot is stirring, stirring: as always, it’s all about blood, it’s all about roundness and circularity."

Neil Gaiman (neilhimself), whose updates are almost always witty and hilarious, had this to say: "If you are a librarian & I forget how to talk during the Newbery speech tonight, please pretend nothing’s wrong. Do not throw fruit or eggs."

Clive Barker (RealCliveBarker) reveals the dangers of the craft in this update: "Sundays are dangerous. If I’m going to lose my faith in my own little corner of creation, it’ll be on a Sunday. I destroyed the final draft of Abarat II on a Sunday. Began again, after 18 months."

And Caitlin R. Kiernan (greygirlbeast), God love her, is on the warpath here: "& I’m discovering that, as a reader, I live a sheltered life, & most of what passes for 'dark fantasy'/'paranorm. Romance' is, well…awful. I don’t mean little bitty awful. I mean BIG awful." I feel your pain.

There's lots more. Now don’t you want to be on Twitter too?

Thrillerfest 2009

The 2009 ITW Thriller Awards were presented July 11, 2009 in New York City. The ITW or International Thriller Writers, Inc. represents professional thriller authors from around the world. "The ITW's annual celebration of the thriller world is the largest event of its kind, and a meeting place for authors, readers, budding writers, and publishing industry professionals." The special guest or "ThrillerMaster" this year was David Morrell and the winner of the Silver Bullet Award was Brad Meltzer. This award "recognizes outstanding and meritorious achievement in the pursuit of literacy and the love of reading."

Try one of the following winners and nominees:

Best Thriller of the Year
Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver* (Winner)
The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver
The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross
The Last Patriot by Brad Thor

Best First Novel
Calumet City by Charlie Newton
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith* (Winner)
Criminal Paradise by Steven M. Thomas
Sacrifice by S. J. Bolton
The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd

For more information on Thrillerfest or the ITW: http://www.thrillerwriters.org/thrillerfest/current-and-past-thriller-awards.html

Try the libraries website for more thrilling books: http://www.wclibrary.info/goodreads/readinglists.asp

What Do I Read Next Class Set for Tuesday!

Join us from 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM at the Woodbourne Library for the What Do I Read Next class. This informative session will focus on some of the many resources you can use to find your next good read. We will explore print and electronic resources, ranging from sources offered through the Washington-Centerville Public Library and other free websites! We will help you find out what the next book is in a series, a new bestseller or an obscure author. We will even be giving away some free advance copies of upcoming books! No registration is required.

E. Lynn Harris R. I. P.

E. Lynn Harris, the best-selling author and a pioneer of gay black fiction, has died. He was only 54.
His novels inspired millions of readers and he specialized in writing about African-American gay culture, including the "down low" aspect in the black community.
Harris published 11 novels, 10 of which were on The New York Times best-seller list and was well-loved by fans around the world. He will be missed. Condolences to his family and friends.

Try one of his great books:

Abide with Me

And This Too Shall Pass

Any Way the Wind Blows

Basketball Jones

I Say a Little Prayer

If This World Were Mine

Just Too Good To Be True

A Love of My Own

Not a Day Goes By

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: a Memoir

Books on the Screen

As I sat in the theater waiting for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to begin, I noticed a theme. First came the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are followed by The Time Traveler's Wife. I watched both of these with a mixture of excitement and dread that I feel every time I hear that a book I love is being turned into a movie. I love that wonderful stories are brought to the big screen, but I cringe at how much is necessarily lost and, on occasion, unnecessarily ruined in the process (I might never forgive Jim Carrey and Ron Howard for their interpretation of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas).

I've come to a point, though, where I usually have more excitement than dread about most movie adaptations of books. I still like reading (or, occasionally, re-reading) the book first, but it is interesting to compare my vision with someone else's. Aside from the two I saw trailers for, both of which I'd really like to see, other movies this year that have been based on books include My Sister's Keeper, Angels and Demons, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Coraline. I'm most excited by the upcoming movie versions of Shantaram and On the Road.

...If they turn out to not live up to the books on which they were based, I can always go see the re-make of Fame.

Caribbean Authors

As I was driving home yesterday, I heard the song "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys and I thought, "What a great summer song!" Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahamas, Montego, Martinique, Monserrat, and Port au Prince all made me think of white, sandy beaches, palm trees, and a good book to read. So, being the curious librarian that I am, I of course looked up all of the place names in the song and found a fascinating bunch of information. Most of the places in the song are in the West Indies--whether it be the British, French, or Dutch West Indies--and the West Indies is chock full of great literature and fantastic authors. West Indian writers share a special concern with questions of identity, ethnicity, and language that comes from the Caribbean historical experience. Two West Indian authors have won the Nobel Prize for literature: Derek Walcott, who was born in St. Lucia, and V. S. Naipaul, who was born in Trinidad--they won in 1992 and 2001 respectively. So, enjoy your summer and try one of these wonderful and talented Caribbean authors:

Antigua

Marie-Elena John

Jamaica Kincaid

Barbados

Paule Marshall

Cuba

Cristina Garcia

Achy Obejas

Zoe Valdes

Dominica

Jean Rhys

Dominican Republic

Junot Diaz

Guadaloupe

Maryse Conde

Haiti

Edwidge Danticat

Jamaica

Michelle Cliff

Nalo Hopkinson

Marlon James

St. Kitts

Caryl Phillips

Trinidad and Tobago

Ian McDonald

Shani Mootoo

National Book Awards Celebrating 60 Years

The National Book Foundation is celebrating 60 years of the National Book Award. To do this, the foundation has set up a blog highlighting the 77 fiction winners. One book will be highlighted each day for 77 days. Visit this site for more information. The highlighted books on the page are active links that take you to the blog post associated with the book. So far, seven books have been highlighted and discussed. Some of the books that have been highlighted thus far include:

The Collected Works of William Faulkner

From Here to Eternity- James Jones

The Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison

The Adventures of Augie March- Saul Bellow

Ten North Frederick- John O'Hara

The finalists for the 2009 National Book Awards are set to be announced on October 14, 2009.

Shantaram

A few days ago, I was notified that I had a hold to pick up. This in and of itself was not unusual -- I admit I can be a little hold-happy. What was unusual about this particular book is that I had absolutely no idea why I had put it on hold. It was huge (944 pages), it looked remarkably serious, and I had no connection to the author's name (Gregory David Roberts). It was in definite violation of my summer book pledge to (mostly) stick to light, fun beach reads. I let it sit on the hold shelf for several days, debating whether to even bother.


A few days after I confusedly checked out the book (I must've put it on hold for a reason, after all), I finally read the inside flap and instantly remembered a conversation with a patron. We were discussing our shared love of books about India and by Indian or Indian-American authors. I must, she told me, read Shantaram. I was so intrigued by the roman a clef, that I felt compelled to recount the author's bio (and, therefore, basic plot summary) aloud to my husband. In brief: divorce, loss of custody, heroin addiction, armed robbery, escape from Australian prison to Bombay, involvement with the Indian mafia, creation of medical clinics for the slum-dwellers, recapture, more prison, and release back to India. Yeah, there's a reason it's over 900 pages.

What enthralled me once I started the book was not so much the story, which is obviously interesting, but the writing. Roberts' style is beautiful, rich, and fairly unique. I was captivated by the first sentence: "It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured." To be honest, I think I read the whole first paragraph aloud a few times before my husband asked if I was going to feel compelled to recite the entire 944 pages. In the interest of my marriage, I've managed to keep my recitations down to only a few minutes a day.

While it wasn't what I was looking for, I wasn't sure why I had found it, and I almost didn't bother opening it once I had it, I'm quite glad I took the time to read it.

In the Queue

Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie
by Richard Hack
Hack offers up an in-depth look at one of the most popular and most private writers in history.
Christie’s life was as full of romance, travel, wealth, and scandal as any mystery she crafted.

Burn
by Linda Howard
After winning the lottery, Jenner finds out money does change everything. Her father rips her off, her boyfriend dumps her, and her friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder when she stops paying for everything.

Twenties Girl
by Sophie Kinsella
Lara Lington knows she has an overactive imagination, but now she thinks she may be losing her mind. She’s getting ghostly visits from her great-aunt Sadie who wants Lara to track down a missing necklace.

A way to make cleaning fun (really!)

I know, I know...this post would've been more appropriate a decade or two ago. But, I'm a little slow on the uptake, so bear with me. I've finally discovered the joy of audiobooks! To be fair, I had tried this once before. A couple of years ago, I downloaded an e-audiobook of Jane Eyre. I was so excited: I would get to discover a classic I'd not yet read while being productive. I took my MP3 player to the gym and proceeded to not be able to pay attention to a word of the book. Let me tell you, the Stairmaster is not the place to try to listen to Jane Eyre. But rather than thinking that perhaps it was unfair to pair a fairly heavy literary classic with the fast-pased monotony of working out indoors, I wrote off audio books altogether.

Recently, I decided to try again. I went for much lighter fare this time (Bridget Jones's Diary author Helen Fielding's Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination). While I still can't quite remember to pay attention if I'm on a machine at the gym (I stick with the traditional format of books for that), I have found it's great for other activities where I want to be reading but can't hold a book. I've discovered a new joy in cleaning, ironing, and weeding. So, to everyone who has told me I should give audiobooks another try, I heard you. And now, I hear my books, too!

2009 Locus Awards

Locus, the magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy field, announced its 2009 book award winners on June 27, 2009 at a ceremony and banquet in Seattle. Locus has been publishing news, reviews, and lists of new books & magazines since 1968.
Try one of the following winners:
Science Fiction Novel: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Fantasy Novel: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
First Novel: Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko
Young Adult Book: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Collection: Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi

For more on Locus Magazine visit their website.

And for more great books, visit our Science Fiction/Fantasy booklist in the Good Reads section of the libraries website.