Back in 1994, prompted by Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, James Wood presented Guardian readers with his own list of the best British and American writing since 1945
JG Farrell: The Siege of Krishnapur
Jane Bowles: Collected Works
LP Hartley: The Go-Between
Norman Mailer: The Naked and the Dead; Armies of the Night
Walter Abish: How German Is It
Harold Brodkey: Stories in an Almost Classical Mode
Cynthia Ozick: The Messiah of Stockholm; Art and Ardour
William Burroughs: The Naked Lunch
Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse 5
Elizabeth Bishop: The Complete Poems
John Cheever: Collected Stories; Falconer
Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
Angus Wilson: The Wrong Set; Hemlock and After; Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
Fred Exley: A Fan's Notes
Randall Jarrell: Poetry and the Age
Robert Lowell: Life Studies; For the Union Dead; Near the Ocean
Bernard Malamud: The Assistant; The Stories of Bernard Malamud
William Trevor: Collected Stories
James Baldwin: The Fire Next Time; Giovanni's Room
Toni Morrison: Sula; Beloved
Henry Green: Loving; Concluding; Nothing
Howard Nemerov: Collected Poems
AS Byatt: Still Life
VS Naipaul: A House for Mr. Biswas; In a Free State; The Enigma of Arrival
Tim O'Brien: If I Die In A Combat Zone
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
Flannery O'Connor: A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Frank O'Hara: Selected Poems
Sylvia Plath: Collected Poems
Ezra Pound: Pisan Cantos
John Barth: The Sotweed Factor
Saul Bellow: The Adventures of Augie March; Seize the Day; Herzog; Humboldt's Gift
John Berryman: The Dream Songs; The Freedom of the Poet and Other Essays
Thomas Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49; V
Philip Roth: Goodbye, Columbus; The Counterlife; Reading Myself and Others
JD Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
Donald Barthelme: Sixty Stories
Susan Sontag: Styles of Radical Will
Wallace Stevens: Collected Poems
Robert Penn Warren: All The King's Men
Eudora Welty: Collected Stories
William Carlos Williams: Paterson
Edmund White: A Boy's Own Story
Amy Clampitt: The Kingfisher
Don DeLillo: White Noise
WH Auden: The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays; Collected Poems
Paul Bailey: Gabriel's Lament
Angela Carter: The Magic Toyshop; Nights at the Circus
Bruce Chatwin: On The Black Hill
James Fenton: The Memory of War
William Golding: Lord of the Flies; The Spire
WS Graham: Collected Poems
Raymond Carver: The Stories of Raymond Carver
Martin Amis: Money; The Moronic Inferno
Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea
Graham Greene: The Heart of the Matter
Jonh Ashbery: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror; Selected Poems
Geoffrey Hill: Collected Poems
Doris Lessing: The Golden Notebook
Ivy Compton-Burnett: A Heritage and its History
Muriel Spark: Memento Mori; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Malcolm Lowry: Under the Volcano
Walker Percy: The Moviegoer
Phillip Larkin: Collected Poems
Ian McEwan: First Love Last Rites; The Cement Garden
Andrew Motion: Secret Narratives
Iris Murdoch: Under the Net; The Bell; The Nice and the Good
George Orwell: 1984; Collected Essay and Journalism (4 vols)
Carson McCullers: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
JG Ballard: Concrete Island
Anthony Powell: A Dance of the Music of Time
John Updike: Of the Farm; The Centaur; The Rabbit Quartet; Hugging the Shore
Jeanette Winterson: Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Ted Hughes: Selected Poems 1957-81
VS Pritchett: Complete Stories; Complete Essays
Craig Raine: A Martian Sends A Postcard Home
Marianne Moore: Complete Poems
Elizabeth Taylor: The Wedding Group
Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children; The Satanic Verses
Tom Paulin: Fivemiletown -- poetry
Joseph Heller: Catch 22
Christine Brook-Rose: The Christine Brook-Rose Reader
Anthony Burgess: Earthly Powers
Alan Sillitoe: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Graham Swift: Waterland
Iain Sinclair: Downriver
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited; The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold; Through a Cloud
Jack Kerouac: On the Road
Denton Welch: A Voice Through a Cloud
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunburst Award (2001-2009)
From wikipedia and Sunburst Award website accessed 9/29/09
The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is an annual award given for a speculative fiction novel or a book-length collection. The name of the award comes from the title of the first novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, Sunburst (1964).
The first award was given out in 2001. The award consists of a cash prize (C$1,000 in 2001-2005) and a medallion. The winner is selected by a jury; a new jury is struck each year. In 2008 a young-adult winner was added. The winners to date have been:
2001 Sean Stewart, Galveston
2002 Margaret Sweatman, When Alice Lay Down with Peter
2003 Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk --short stories
2004 Cory Doctorow, A Place So Foreign and 8 More
2005 Geoff Ryman, Air
2006 Holly Phillips, In the Palace of Repose (ISBN 1894815580)
2007 Fabrizio's Return by Mark Frutkin
2008 first young-adult award: Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet by Joanne Proulx
2008 adult: The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
2009 young-adult: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
2009 adult: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Eligibility
Sunburst Award administrator and jury use the broadest possible definition of speculative fiction for eligibility purposes: "science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, horror, surrealism, le fantastique, myth and legend, fantastical storytelling, and any other writing beyond the strictly realistic". To be eligible for the award, a work must be published between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year. Only Canadian citizens and landed immigrants are eligible, however there are no Canadian residency requirements, and three of the five awards presented to date have gone to expatriates (Stewart, Doctorow, Ryman).
2009 Winners
Toronto, September 28, 2009: The Sunburst Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of its 2009 adult award is The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson and the winner of its 2009 young adult award is Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
2009 ADULT SHORTLIST
Night Child by Jes Battis
The Sunburst jury says: "Occult Special Investigator Tess Corday is a terrifically appealing heroine—determined, charming, vulnerable and very human in a world of vampires, necromancers and other supernatural menace. Night Child takes what is becoming a hackneyed genre—romantic supernatural investigator—and injects it with a kind of manic, crazy, campy fun: a little bit Buffy, a little bit CSI and even a little bit hardboiled."
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
The Sunburst jury says: "An unquenchable thirst for story and a phenomenal command of his craft make Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle a reader's dream. This ferociously ambitious, incendiary (at times literally) story of one man's phoenix-like transformation at the hands of a woman, possibly mad, who claims to have known him for 700 years, is prepared to fall on its own highly charged imaginative sword at any time, but never does. Davidson manages to evoke squirm-inducing horror and abiding love with the same unblinking powers of observation and self-consciousness. As the relationship between narrator and Marianne deepens and her tale of their shared history unfolds, past and present converge in ways tragic and redemptive, and immensely satisfying."
The Alchemist's Code by Dave Duncan
The Sunburst jury says: "With The Alchemist's Code, Dave Duncan accomplishes something which seems to have become an increasing rarity in this or any other genre—the telling of an exciting, interesting and coherent story that has an actual beginning, middle and end—a skill surprisingly lacking in many writers. Set in an alternate 16th-century Venice filled with lush architecture, dashing gondoliers, sultry courtesans, political intrigue and magic, young Alfeo is apprenticed to doctor/prognosticator extraordinaire Nostradamus. When the corpse of an old friend, skewered by Alfeo's own rapier, is left, literally, on his doorstep, it's up to Alfeo and Nostradamus to solve the crime and restore order—whilst still trying to earn a living, capture a spy, and eat a decent meal, not to mention trying to avoid accusations of witchcraft and being burned at the stake. While technically a sequel to Duncan's earlier The Alchemist's Apprentice, readers can jump right into Code and feel right at home—again, a subtle skill on the writer's part that should be lauded. A charming book, full of wit, good humour, and some jolly good mental and physical fencing. Not to mention some delicious-sounding risotto." The Alchemist’s Code is the second book in Dave Duncan’s The Alchemist series.
Things Go Flying by Shari Lapeña
The Sunburst jury says: "Shari Lapeña’s disarmingly deadpan novel of domestic dysfunction nudges readers into the realm of the uncanny, wherein the oh-so-familiar is suddenly rendered strange, even frightening, but which, when faced, leads its characters back to the familiar, and the essential truths of who they are. As the Walker family begins to disintegrate in the usual ways of busy modern urban families, the unusual and extraordinary begin to happen. Eventually, the boundaries between normal and paranormal are blurred to the extent that everything—from a husband and father’s midlife crisis to a teenage boy’s exploration of sex and identity—is edged with strangeness, with magic and finally wonder. A gem."
Half a Crown by Jo Walton
The Sunburst jury says: Half a Crown "presents a striking contrast between the increasingly grim reality faced by one protagonist with the lighter observations of an initially naïve second major character, walking a difficult tightrope of growing suspense until both protagonists face consequences, and the stakes and tension rise grippingly. Although some readers will find the ending jarring, the book is an outstanding examination of both how evil can become 'normal' and of personal courage (of 'doing what is right' rather than two-fisted heroics). A heroine takes shape before the readers' eyes." Half a Crown is the third volume in Jo Walton's alternate-history Small Change series, preceded by Farthing (2006) and Ha'penny (2007).
Jury's Recommended Reading
The jury felt that the following merited Honourable Mention:
* Blackouts, by Craig Boyko
* The Frankenstein Murders, by Kathlyn Bradshaw
* Here After, by Sean Costello
* Toll the Hounds, by Steve Erikson
* The Seary Line, by Nicole Lundrigan
* After the Fires, by Ursula Pflug
* Blasted, by Kate Story
2009 YOUNG-ADULT SHORTLIST
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
The Sunburst jury says: "A necromancer just realizing her true self and the extent of her powers in a mysterious and potentially dangerous world, Chloe Saunders is also a typical teenage girl starting at a new high school in Toronto. After causing a stir at school when she sees some ghosts, she ends up at a group home for troubled teens. It is there that the world of the supernatural collides with the world of the adolescent. The Summoning combines those two worlds beautifully in a coming-of-age story that is exciting and suspenseful, tender and affecting. It captures teen angst with perfect pitch, and without a whiff of sentimentality." The Summoning is book one in her Darkest Powers YA urban-fantasy series; book two, The Awakening, came out in May 2009. Frostbitten, book 10 in the Otherworld paranormal fantasy series (which began with Bitten, 2001), will be published in October 2009.
Dingo by Charles de Lint
The Sunburst jury says: "Teenager Miguel discovers that his new Australian girlfriend, along with her twin sister, are shape-shifters, half human and half dingo. De Lint expertly weaves Australian folklore throughout and switches effortlessly from everyday settings such as Miguel's high school or his father's comic and music store to the mythical realm of the Dreamtime. Similarly, we think nothing of how otherworldly creatures appear in a contemporary North American setting. The characters are well drawn, in particular the two sisters with their contrasting personalities, and the way in which Miguel and his long-term nemesis, Johnny, have to put aside their differences to release the girls from a centuries-old curse is really well handled. Dingo is a well-written, highly imaginative and unusual fantasy novel that stands out from other current novels for the YA age group. This book demands to be read from cover to cover in one sitting, and fortunately that's very easy to do."
Charles de Lint is credited as having pioneered the contemporary fantasy genre with his 1984 urban fantasy novel Moonheart, which is still in print. His work includes 65 books published to date. He has been a finalist 17 times for the World Fantasy Award, and won in 2000 for his story collection Moonlight and Vines. These stories (and most of his recent novels) are set in his fictional city of Newford.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Sunburst jury says: "Many novels take a chapter or two to introduce the setting and protagonists and get the plot on the road. Not so Little Brother—it sings and zings from the first page, perhaps even the first line. Readers will immediately be swept up in the story of 17-year-old Marcus and his buddies, who, after a terrorist attack on not-so-far-future San Francisco, get caught in a government street-sweep simply because, well, they were there. So they must be guilty, right? After Marcus is finally let go, he decides that something needs to be done about this horrifying erosion of liberties and the scary world made scarier by the very people who are supposed to protect us. Besides, some of his friends are still, ominously, missing. Using his technogeek expertise, the Internet and every contact he has, Marcus takes on the school system, the government, Homeland Security, and anyone else standing in the way of freedoms both small and large. In anyone else's hands this material might so easily have come off as preachy or even trite, but Doctorow's superb handling of his protagonists and his plot turn the story into a nail-biting, heartbreaking, rollercoaster of a novel that will leave the reader anguished and sweating over the fate of its characters. Thankfully, the novel wasn't doled out in installments, like Dickens, or we would all have been waiting on the virtual pier, begging to know what became, not of Little Nell, but of Marcus and his friends. A gem of a book—topical, well written, and not to be missed."
Wild Talent: A Novel of the Supernatural by Eileen Kernaghan
The Sunburst jury says: "An absorbing, carefully crafted coming-of-age story and a vividly successful evocation of Victorian occult worlds, with real people and events skillfully interwoven with the author's fictional supernatural elements (and the false supernatural of charlatans), this book reads like a superb historical novel as well as a superior fantasy."
Night Runner by Max Turner
The Sunburst jury says: "Night Runner is an entertaining and well-crafted novel that offers a fresh take on the vampire genre. From the first paragraph, in which protagonist Zach Thomson tells us that 'this is the story of how I died, twice,' readers are completely pulled in. The story is action-packed right from the start, and it blasts off at a pace as quick and exciting as the chase scenes that appear throughout the novel. All the characters are vividly portrayed and the dialogue is extremely well crafted. Zack Thomson in particular is a highly original character with a distinctive voice. The reader believes in him, urging him on through page-turning plot twists in this story of an eternal war between good and evil. Once we started reading, we couldn’t put it down."
The jury felt that the following YA works merited Honourable Mention:
* Feather Brain, by Maureen Bush
* Watching July, by Christine Hart
* Starclimber, by Kenneth Oppel
* Far, by Carol Matas
* Jolted: Newton Starker’s Rules for Survival, by Arthur Slade
* Shadow Town, by Duncan Thornton
* The Incredibly Ordinary Danny Chandelier, by Laura Trunkey
The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is an annual award given for a speculative fiction novel or a book-length collection. The name of the award comes from the title of the first novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, Sunburst (1964).
The first award was given out in 2001. The award consists of a cash prize (C$1,000 in 2001-2005) and a medallion. The winner is selected by a jury; a new jury is struck each year. In 2008 a young-adult winner was added. The winners to date have been:
2001 Sean Stewart, Galveston
2002 Margaret Sweatman, When Alice Lay Down with Peter
2003 Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk --short stories
2004 Cory Doctorow, A Place So Foreign and 8 More
2005 Geoff Ryman, Air
2006 Holly Phillips, In the Palace of Repose (ISBN 1894815580)
2007 Fabrizio's Return by Mark Frutkin
2008 first young-adult award: Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet by Joanne Proulx
2008 adult: The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
2009 young-adult: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
2009 adult: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Eligibility
Sunburst Award administrator and jury use the broadest possible definition of speculative fiction for eligibility purposes: "science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, horror, surrealism, le fantastique, myth and legend, fantastical storytelling, and any other writing beyond the strictly realistic". To be eligible for the award, a work must be published between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year. Only Canadian citizens and landed immigrants are eligible, however there are no Canadian residency requirements, and three of the five awards presented to date have gone to expatriates (Stewart, Doctorow, Ryman).
2009 Winners
Toronto, September 28, 2009: The Sunburst Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of its 2009 adult award is The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson and the winner of its 2009 young adult award is Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
2009 ADULT SHORTLIST
Night Child by Jes Battis
The Sunburst jury says: "Occult Special Investigator Tess Corday is a terrifically appealing heroine—determined, charming, vulnerable and very human in a world of vampires, necromancers and other supernatural menace. Night Child takes what is becoming a hackneyed genre—romantic supernatural investigator—and injects it with a kind of manic, crazy, campy fun: a little bit Buffy, a little bit CSI and even a little bit hardboiled."
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
The Sunburst jury says: "An unquenchable thirst for story and a phenomenal command of his craft make Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle a reader's dream. This ferociously ambitious, incendiary (at times literally) story of one man's phoenix-like transformation at the hands of a woman, possibly mad, who claims to have known him for 700 years, is prepared to fall on its own highly charged imaginative sword at any time, but never does. Davidson manages to evoke squirm-inducing horror and abiding love with the same unblinking powers of observation and self-consciousness. As the relationship between narrator and Marianne deepens and her tale of their shared history unfolds, past and present converge in ways tragic and redemptive, and immensely satisfying."
The Alchemist's Code by Dave Duncan
The Sunburst jury says: "With The Alchemist's Code, Dave Duncan accomplishes something which seems to have become an increasing rarity in this or any other genre—the telling of an exciting, interesting and coherent story that has an actual beginning, middle and end—a skill surprisingly lacking in many writers. Set in an alternate 16th-century Venice filled with lush architecture, dashing gondoliers, sultry courtesans, political intrigue and magic, young Alfeo is apprenticed to doctor/prognosticator extraordinaire Nostradamus. When the corpse of an old friend, skewered by Alfeo's own rapier, is left, literally, on his doorstep, it's up to Alfeo and Nostradamus to solve the crime and restore order—whilst still trying to earn a living, capture a spy, and eat a decent meal, not to mention trying to avoid accusations of witchcraft and being burned at the stake. While technically a sequel to Duncan's earlier The Alchemist's Apprentice, readers can jump right into Code and feel right at home—again, a subtle skill on the writer's part that should be lauded. A charming book, full of wit, good humour, and some jolly good mental and physical fencing. Not to mention some delicious-sounding risotto." The Alchemist’s Code is the second book in Dave Duncan’s The Alchemist series.
Things Go Flying by Shari Lapeña
The Sunburst jury says: "Shari Lapeña’s disarmingly deadpan novel of domestic dysfunction nudges readers into the realm of the uncanny, wherein the oh-so-familiar is suddenly rendered strange, even frightening, but which, when faced, leads its characters back to the familiar, and the essential truths of who they are. As the Walker family begins to disintegrate in the usual ways of busy modern urban families, the unusual and extraordinary begin to happen. Eventually, the boundaries between normal and paranormal are blurred to the extent that everything—from a husband and father’s midlife crisis to a teenage boy’s exploration of sex and identity—is edged with strangeness, with magic and finally wonder. A gem."
Half a Crown by Jo Walton
The Sunburst jury says: Half a Crown "presents a striking contrast between the increasingly grim reality faced by one protagonist with the lighter observations of an initially naïve second major character, walking a difficult tightrope of growing suspense until both protagonists face consequences, and the stakes and tension rise grippingly. Although some readers will find the ending jarring, the book is an outstanding examination of both how evil can become 'normal' and of personal courage (of 'doing what is right' rather than two-fisted heroics). A heroine takes shape before the readers' eyes." Half a Crown is the third volume in Jo Walton's alternate-history Small Change series, preceded by Farthing (2006) and Ha'penny (2007).
Jury's Recommended Reading
The jury felt that the following merited Honourable Mention:
* Blackouts, by Craig Boyko
* The Frankenstein Murders, by Kathlyn Bradshaw
* Here After, by Sean Costello
* Toll the Hounds, by Steve Erikson
* The Seary Line, by Nicole Lundrigan
* After the Fires, by Ursula Pflug
* Blasted, by Kate Story
2009 YOUNG-ADULT SHORTLIST
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
The Sunburst jury says: "A necromancer just realizing her true self and the extent of her powers in a mysterious and potentially dangerous world, Chloe Saunders is also a typical teenage girl starting at a new high school in Toronto. After causing a stir at school when she sees some ghosts, she ends up at a group home for troubled teens. It is there that the world of the supernatural collides with the world of the adolescent. The Summoning combines those two worlds beautifully in a coming-of-age story that is exciting and suspenseful, tender and affecting. It captures teen angst with perfect pitch, and without a whiff of sentimentality." The Summoning is book one in her Darkest Powers YA urban-fantasy series; book two, The Awakening, came out in May 2009. Frostbitten, book 10 in the Otherworld paranormal fantasy series (which began with Bitten, 2001), will be published in October 2009.
Dingo by Charles de Lint
The Sunburst jury says: "Teenager Miguel discovers that his new Australian girlfriend, along with her twin sister, are shape-shifters, half human and half dingo. De Lint expertly weaves Australian folklore throughout and switches effortlessly from everyday settings such as Miguel's high school or his father's comic and music store to the mythical realm of the Dreamtime. Similarly, we think nothing of how otherworldly creatures appear in a contemporary North American setting. The characters are well drawn, in particular the two sisters with their contrasting personalities, and the way in which Miguel and his long-term nemesis, Johnny, have to put aside their differences to release the girls from a centuries-old curse is really well handled. Dingo is a well-written, highly imaginative and unusual fantasy novel that stands out from other current novels for the YA age group. This book demands to be read from cover to cover in one sitting, and fortunately that's very easy to do."
Charles de Lint is credited as having pioneered the contemporary fantasy genre with his 1984 urban fantasy novel Moonheart, which is still in print. His work includes 65 books published to date. He has been a finalist 17 times for the World Fantasy Award, and won in 2000 for his story collection Moonlight and Vines. These stories (and most of his recent novels) are set in his fictional city of Newford.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Sunburst jury says: "Many novels take a chapter or two to introduce the setting and protagonists and get the plot on the road. Not so Little Brother—it sings and zings from the first page, perhaps even the first line. Readers will immediately be swept up in the story of 17-year-old Marcus and his buddies, who, after a terrorist attack on not-so-far-future San Francisco, get caught in a government street-sweep simply because, well, they were there. So they must be guilty, right? After Marcus is finally let go, he decides that something needs to be done about this horrifying erosion of liberties and the scary world made scarier by the very people who are supposed to protect us. Besides, some of his friends are still, ominously, missing. Using his technogeek expertise, the Internet and every contact he has, Marcus takes on the school system, the government, Homeland Security, and anyone else standing in the way of freedoms both small and large. In anyone else's hands this material might so easily have come off as preachy or even trite, but Doctorow's superb handling of his protagonists and his plot turn the story into a nail-biting, heartbreaking, rollercoaster of a novel that will leave the reader anguished and sweating over the fate of its characters. Thankfully, the novel wasn't doled out in installments, like Dickens, or we would all have been waiting on the virtual pier, begging to know what became, not of Little Nell, but of Marcus and his friends. A gem of a book—topical, well written, and not to be missed."
Wild Talent: A Novel of the Supernatural by Eileen Kernaghan
The Sunburst jury says: "An absorbing, carefully crafted coming-of-age story and a vividly successful evocation of Victorian occult worlds, with real people and events skillfully interwoven with the author's fictional supernatural elements (and the false supernatural of charlatans), this book reads like a superb historical novel as well as a superior fantasy."
Night Runner by Max Turner
The Sunburst jury says: "Night Runner is an entertaining and well-crafted novel that offers a fresh take on the vampire genre. From the first paragraph, in which protagonist Zach Thomson tells us that 'this is the story of how I died, twice,' readers are completely pulled in. The story is action-packed right from the start, and it blasts off at a pace as quick and exciting as the chase scenes that appear throughout the novel. All the characters are vividly portrayed and the dialogue is extremely well crafted. Zack Thomson in particular is a highly original character with a distinctive voice. The reader believes in him, urging him on through page-turning plot twists in this story of an eternal war between good and evil. Once we started reading, we couldn’t put it down."
The jury felt that the following YA works merited Honourable Mention:
* Feather Brain, by Maureen Bush
* Watching July, by Christine Hart
* Starclimber, by Kenneth Oppel
* Far, by Carol Matas
* Jolted: Newton Starker’s Rules for Survival, by Arthur Slade
* Shadow Town, by Duncan Thornton
* The Incredibly Ordinary Danny Chandelier, by Laura Trunkey
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Wasafiri List
As reported in Shelf Awareness 092809, taken from The Guardian
Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude topped a list of books that have most shaped world literature over the past 25 years, as chosen by "Indra Sinha, Blake Morrison, Amit Chaudhuri and 22 other authors . . . The survey was conducted by the international literary magazine Wasafiri--meaning 'cultural traveller' in Swahili," the Guardian reported.
The Wasafiri list:
Aminatta Forna--The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Amit Chaudhuri--Collected Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
Bernardine Evaristo--Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain by Peter Fryer
Beverley Naidoo--Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Blake Morrison--The Stories of Raymond Carver by Raymond Carver
Brian Chikwava--The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Chika Unigwe--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Daljit Nagra--North by Seamus Heaney
David Dabydeen--A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Elaine Feinstein--Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
Fred D'Aguiar--Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris
Hirsh Sawhney--River of Fire by Quarratulain Hyder
Indra Sinha--Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
John Haynes--Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Lesley Lokko--Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Maggie Gee--Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Marina Warner--Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Maya Jaggi--The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Michael Horovitz--Collected Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Minoli Salgado--Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
Nii Parkes--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Roger Robinson--Sula by Toni Morrison
Sujata Bhatt--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Sukhdev Sandhu--The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Li Zhisui
Tabish Khair--The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude topped a list of books that have most shaped world literature over the past 25 years, as chosen by "Indra Sinha, Blake Morrison, Amit Chaudhuri and 22 other authors . . . The survey was conducted by the international literary magazine Wasafiri--meaning 'cultural traveller' in Swahili," the Guardian reported.
The Wasafiri list:
Aminatta Forna--The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Amit Chaudhuri--Collected Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
Bernardine Evaristo--Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain by Peter Fryer
Beverley Naidoo--Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Blake Morrison--The Stories of Raymond Carver by Raymond Carver
Brian Chikwava--The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Chika Unigwe--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Daljit Nagra--North by Seamus Heaney
David Dabydeen--A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Elaine Feinstein--Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
Fred D'Aguiar--Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris
Hirsh Sawhney--River of Fire by Quarratulain Hyder
Indra Sinha--Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
John Haynes--Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Lesley Lokko--Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Maggie Gee--Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Marina Warner--Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Maya Jaggi--The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Michael Horovitz--Collected Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Minoli Salgado--Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
Nii Parkes--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Roger Robinson--Sula by Toni Morrison
Sujata Bhatt--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Sukhdev Sandhu--The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Li Zhisui
Tabish Khair--The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Sunday, September 27, 2009
funniest books they've ever read
An AbeBooks.com poll of British customers about the funniest books they've ever read yielded this laughable list:
1. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (1933)
2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1889)
5. Wilt by Tom Sharpe (1976)
6. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
7. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954)
8. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (1938)
9. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)
10. Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan (1971)
1. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (1933)
2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1889)
5. Wilt by Tom Sharpe (1976)
6. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
7. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954)
8. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (1938)
9. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)
10. Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan (1971)
101 Children's Books from Geranium Cat's Bookshelf
from Geranium Cat's Bookshelf blog post with the above title, posted 7/19/08, accessed 9/27/09.
As promised, here is my personal choice of children's books that you may have missed during childhood but might consider catching up on now. Since it is based on my own reading it has a definite UK bias, and I have ruthlessly limited myself to one book by each author (very difficult, which book by Edith Nesbit is really my favourite?) Nonetheless, you can reasonably assume that, where authors have written more than one book, I am confident in recommending their work, although I must add that Enid Blyton only got in by the skin of her teeth. My choice is largely aimed at the older child, so it doesn't include many the excellent books which children read with pleasure, but were not specifically written for them (for instance, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat) and picture books have been ignored, with one or two exceptions, most notably Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, which ought to be on everyone's reading list. It should be remembered that good illustrations play an important part in children's literature, and some of the books listed below have been illustrated by remarkable artists such as C. Walter Hodges, Charles Keeping and Pauline Baynes; for adult readers I would almost always recommend finding an edition with the original drawings. I've also mostly omitted short stories, choosing only to include a small selection of the most famous. I think the book it hurt most to leave out, because it's so very different from the one by Dodie Smith I chose to include, is The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which ought to be on any list of classic children's books, but if I started listing multiple titles by authors, it would go on for ever. The most notable omission is R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island which is, as far as I am concerned, unreadable, and I think few people now read G.A. Henty's Under Drake's Flag.
The titles below are listed in chronological order and, where a book is one of a series, I have either chosen the first or, occasionally, my own favourite. Readers are bound to find glaring omissions (which may represent authors I should have read, but can't remember, like K.M. Peyton), and I will be delighted to hear about them, and may even be persuaded to add them to the list! Remember that 1975 is the cut-off date, though, which was chosen as the beginning of a period when I was mostly required to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar many times a day! A classic, yes, but not much meat for the hungry adult reader.
Finally, there is information about almost all the authors listed below on Wikipedia and, frequently, information on individual books, so the only links I have included are to my own reviews. Another good site, with bibliographies and cover artwork, is Fantastic Fiction. Either site should offer advice about the order in which series should be read.
[s] denotes at least a sequel or, in many cases, a series; [ss] denotes short stories
First, the two collections I talked about in yesterday's post:
Brothers Grimm, Household Tales (1812) [ss]
Hans Christian Anderson, Fairy Tales (1835) [ss]
Captain Maryatt, Children of the New Forest (1847)
R.M. Ballantyne, Coral Island (1857)
Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies (1863)
Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women (1868) [s]
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) [s]
George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind (1871)
Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did (1872) [s]
Johanna Spyri, Heidi (1872) [s]
Anna Sewell, Black Beauty (1877)
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) [ss]
Andrew Lang, Prince Prigio (1889) [s]
E. Nesbit, Five Children and It (1902) [s]
Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) [s]
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908) [s]
Frances Hodgson-Burnett, The Secret Garden (1909)
Walter de la Mare, The Twelve Royal Monkeys (1910)
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan (1911)
Jean Webster, Daddy Long Legs (1912)
Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle (1920) [s]
Eleanor Farjeon, Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard (1921) [ss]
Richmal Crompton, Just William (1922) [s]
Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit (1922)
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh (1925) [s]
Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter (1927)
Erich Kästner, Emil and the Detectives (1929)
Gwynedd Rae, Mostly Mary (1930) [s]
Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons (1930) [s]
Alison Uttley, The Country Child (1931)
Norman Hunter, The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm (1933)
P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins (1934)
Enid Bagnold, National Velvet (1935)
John Masefield, The Box of Delights (1935) [s]
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie (1935) [s]
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1936)
Noel Streatfeild, Ballet Shoes (1936) [s]
Elinor Brent-Dyer, The Chalet School and Jo (1936) [s]
Mervyn Peake, Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (1939)
Maria Gleit, Child of China (1939)
Geoffrey Trease, Cue for Treason (1940)
Pamela Brown, The Swish of the Curtain (1941)
Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah (1941)
Margot Pardoe, Bunkle Began It (1942) [s]
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince (1943)
Violet Needham, The Woods of Windri (1944) [s]
Enid Blyton, The Island of Adventure (1944) [s]
James Thurber, The White Deer (1945)
Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse (1946)
T.H. White, Mistress Masham's Repose (1946)
Tove Jansson, Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) [s]
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)
A.F. Tschiffely, A Tale of Two Horses (1949)
Anthony Buckeridge, Jennings Goes to School (1950) [s]
C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56) [s]
E.B. White, Charlotte's Web (1952)
Mary Norton, The Borrowers (1952) [s]
Burgess Drake, The Book of Lyonne (1952)
Monica Edwards, Spirit of Punchbowl Farm (1952) [s]
Lucy M. Boston, The Children of Green Knowe (1954) [s]
Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) [s]
Edward Eager, Half Magic (1954)
William Mayne, A Swarm in May (1955) [s]
Gerald Durrell, The New Noah (1955)
Barbara Sleigh, Carbonel (1955) [s]
Diana Pullein-Thompson, Riding with the Lyntons (1956)
Ian Serraillier, The Silver Sword (1956)
Henry Treece, The Children's Crusade (1958)
Michael Bond, A Bear Called Paddington (1958)
Jean Craighead George, My Side of the Mountain (1959)
Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) [s]
Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth (1961)
Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach (1961)
Phillipa Pearce, A Dog So Small (1962)
Madeleine l'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (1962) [s]
Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1963)
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (1963)
Clive King, Stig of the Dump (1963)
John Rowe Townsend, Hell's Edge (1963)
Nicholas Stuart Gray, Grimbold's Other World (1963)
Ian Fleming, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964)
Susan Cooper, Over Sea, Under Stone (1965) [s]
John Christopher, Tripods (1967) [s]
Roger Lancelyn Green, The Luck of Troy (1967)
Emile Genest, Myths of Ancient Greece and Rome (1967)
Russell Hoban, The Mouse and His Child (1968)
Ted Hughes, The Iron Man (1968)
Victoria Walker, Winter of Enchantment (1969) [s]
Elisabeth Beresford, Vanishing Magic (1970) [s]
Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971)
Peter Dickinson, The Dancing Bear (1972)
Rumer Godden, The Diddakoi (1972)
Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)
Penelope Farmer, A Castle of Bone (1972)
Andre Norton, The Crystal Gryphon (1972)
Nina Bawden, Carrie's War (1973)
Helen Cresswell, Lizzie Dripping (1973)
Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (1973)
Diana Wynne Jones, The Ogre Downstairs (1974)
Jill Murphy, The Worst Witch (1974)
Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners (1975) [s]
[101]
As promised, here is my personal choice of children's books that you may have missed during childhood but might consider catching up on now. Since it is based on my own reading it has a definite UK bias, and I have ruthlessly limited myself to one book by each author (very difficult, which book by Edith Nesbit is really my favourite?) Nonetheless, you can reasonably assume that, where authors have written more than one book, I am confident in recommending their work, although I must add that Enid Blyton only got in by the skin of her teeth. My choice is largely aimed at the older child, so it doesn't include many the excellent books which children read with pleasure, but were not specifically written for them (for instance, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat) and picture books have been ignored, with one or two exceptions, most notably Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, which ought to be on everyone's reading list. It should be remembered that good illustrations play an important part in children's literature, and some of the books listed below have been illustrated by remarkable artists such as C. Walter Hodges, Charles Keeping and Pauline Baynes; for adult readers I would almost always recommend finding an edition with the original drawings. I've also mostly omitted short stories, choosing only to include a small selection of the most famous. I think the book it hurt most to leave out, because it's so very different from the one by Dodie Smith I chose to include, is The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which ought to be on any list of classic children's books, but if I started listing multiple titles by authors, it would go on for ever. The most notable omission is R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island which is, as far as I am concerned, unreadable, and I think few people now read G.A. Henty's Under Drake's Flag.
The titles below are listed in chronological order and, where a book is one of a series, I have either chosen the first or, occasionally, my own favourite. Readers are bound to find glaring omissions (which may represent authors I should have read, but can't remember, like K.M. Peyton), and I will be delighted to hear about them, and may even be persuaded to add them to the list! Remember that 1975 is the cut-off date, though, which was chosen as the beginning of a period when I was mostly required to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar many times a day! A classic, yes, but not much meat for the hungry adult reader.
Finally, there is information about almost all the authors listed below on Wikipedia and, frequently, information on individual books, so the only links I have included are to my own reviews. Another good site, with bibliographies and cover artwork, is Fantastic Fiction. Either site should offer advice about the order in which series should be read.
[s] denotes at least a sequel or, in many cases, a series; [ss] denotes short stories
First, the two collections I talked about in yesterday's post:
Brothers Grimm, Household Tales (1812) [ss]
Hans Christian Anderson, Fairy Tales (1835) [ss]
Captain Maryatt, Children of the New Forest (1847)
R.M. Ballantyne, Coral Island (1857)
Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies (1863)
Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women (1868) [s]
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) [s]
George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind (1871)
Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did (1872) [s]
Johanna Spyri, Heidi (1872) [s]
Anna Sewell, Black Beauty (1877)
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) [ss]
Andrew Lang, Prince Prigio (1889) [s]
E. Nesbit, Five Children and It (1902) [s]
Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) [s]
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908) [s]
Frances Hodgson-Burnett, The Secret Garden (1909)
Walter de la Mare, The Twelve Royal Monkeys (1910)
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan (1911)
Jean Webster, Daddy Long Legs (1912)
Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle (1920) [s]
Eleanor Farjeon, Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard (1921) [ss]
Richmal Crompton, Just William (1922) [s]
Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit (1922)
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh (1925) [s]
Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter (1927)
Erich Kästner, Emil and the Detectives (1929)
Gwynedd Rae, Mostly Mary (1930) [s]
Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons (1930) [s]
Alison Uttley, The Country Child (1931)
Norman Hunter, The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm (1933)
P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins (1934)
Enid Bagnold, National Velvet (1935)
John Masefield, The Box of Delights (1935) [s]
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie (1935) [s]
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1936)
Noel Streatfeild, Ballet Shoes (1936) [s]
Elinor Brent-Dyer, The Chalet School and Jo (1936) [s]
Mervyn Peake, Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (1939)
Maria Gleit, Child of China (1939)
Geoffrey Trease, Cue for Treason (1940)
Pamela Brown, The Swish of the Curtain (1941)
Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah (1941)
Margot Pardoe, Bunkle Began It (1942) [s]
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince (1943)
Violet Needham, The Woods of Windri (1944) [s]
Enid Blyton, The Island of Adventure (1944) [s]
James Thurber, The White Deer (1945)
Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse (1946)
T.H. White, Mistress Masham's Repose (1946)
Tove Jansson, Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) [s]
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)
A.F. Tschiffely, A Tale of Two Horses (1949)
Anthony Buckeridge, Jennings Goes to School (1950) [s]
C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56) [s]
E.B. White, Charlotte's Web (1952)
Mary Norton, The Borrowers (1952) [s]
Burgess Drake, The Book of Lyonne (1952)
Monica Edwards, Spirit of Punchbowl Farm (1952) [s]
Lucy M. Boston, The Children of Green Knowe (1954) [s]
Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) [s]
Edward Eager, Half Magic (1954)
William Mayne, A Swarm in May (1955) [s]
Gerald Durrell, The New Noah (1955)
Barbara Sleigh, Carbonel (1955) [s]
Diana Pullein-Thompson, Riding with the Lyntons (1956)
Ian Serraillier, The Silver Sword (1956)
Henry Treece, The Children's Crusade (1958)
Michael Bond, A Bear Called Paddington (1958)
Jean Craighead George, My Side of the Mountain (1959)
Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) [s]
Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth (1961)
Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach (1961)
Phillipa Pearce, A Dog So Small (1962)
Madeleine l'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (1962) [s]
Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1963)
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (1963)
Clive King, Stig of the Dump (1963)
John Rowe Townsend, Hell's Edge (1963)
Nicholas Stuart Gray, Grimbold's Other World (1963)
Ian Fleming, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964)
Susan Cooper, Over Sea, Under Stone (1965) [s]
John Christopher, Tripods (1967) [s]
Roger Lancelyn Green, The Luck of Troy (1967)
Emile Genest, Myths of Ancient Greece and Rome (1967)
Russell Hoban, The Mouse and His Child (1968)
Ted Hughes, The Iron Man (1968)
Victoria Walker, Winter of Enchantment (1969) [s]
Elisabeth Beresford, Vanishing Magic (1970) [s]
Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971)
Peter Dickinson, The Dancing Bear (1972)
Rumer Godden, The Diddakoi (1972)
Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)
Penelope Farmer, A Castle of Bone (1972)
Andre Norton, The Crystal Gryphon (1972)
Nina Bawden, Carrie's War (1973)
Helen Cresswell, Lizzie Dripping (1973)
Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (1973)
Diana Wynne Jones, The Ogre Downstairs (1974)
Jill Murphy, The Worst Witch (1974)
Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners (1975) [s]
[101]
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Nonfiction Celebrating the West
From SA 07/01/05
The following are the 25 nonfiction titles from and about the West published during the first 25 years of the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, that the store has judged its favorites on the subject. This is just one of the many intriguing book lists that appear in co-owner Betsy Burton's new memoir, The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller (Gibbs Smith, $24.95).
1. This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind by Ivan Doig (Harvest, $14)
2. Basin and Range by John McPhee (FSG, $13)
3. The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country by Gary Paul Nabhan )
4. The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich (Penguin, $12.95)
5. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
6. Wild to the Heart by Rick Bass (Norton, $12)
7. Desert Solitaire by Ed Abbey (Ballantine, $6.99)
8. The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin by Steve Trimble
9. Desert Notes, River Notes by Barry Lopez (HarperCollins/Quill)
10. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams (Vintage, $13)
11. Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West by Wallace Stegner
12. Hole in the Sky: A Memoir by William Kittredge (Vintage, $19)
13. The Eagle Bird: Mapping a New West by Charles Wilkinson (Johnson Books, $14)
14. Riding the White Horse Home: A Western Family Album by Teresa Jordan (Vintage, $12)
15. Temporary Homelands by Alison Hawthorne Deming (Mercury House, $18)
16. Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon by Ann Zwinger
17. A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds by Gary Snyder (Counterpoint, $17)
18. Homestead by Annick Smith (Milkweed, $13.95)
19. Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg (Riverhead, $14)
20. Canaries on the Rim: Living Downwind in the West by Chip Ward (Verso, $16)
21. The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams by Nasdijj (Mariner, $13)
22. Eye of the Blackbird: A Story of Gold in the American West by Holly Skinner (Johnson Books, $17.50)
23. The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert by Craig Childs (Back Bay, $13.95)
24. Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier (Counterpoint, $14)
25. The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflecting on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky by Ellen Meloy
The following are the 25 nonfiction titles from and about the West published during the first 25 years of the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, that the store has judged its favorites on the subject. This is just one of the many intriguing book lists that appear in co-owner Betsy Burton's new memoir, The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller (Gibbs Smith, $24.95).
1. This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind by Ivan Doig (Harvest, $14)
2. Basin and Range by John McPhee (FSG, $13)
3. The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country by Gary Paul Nabhan )
4. The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich (Penguin, $12.95)
5. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
6. Wild to the Heart by Rick Bass (Norton, $12)
7. Desert Solitaire by Ed Abbey (Ballantine, $6.99)
8. The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin by Steve Trimble
9. Desert Notes, River Notes by Barry Lopez (HarperCollins/Quill)
10. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams (Vintage, $13)
11. Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West by Wallace Stegner
12. Hole in the Sky: A Memoir by William Kittredge (Vintage, $19)
13. The Eagle Bird: Mapping a New West by Charles Wilkinson (Johnson Books, $14)
14. Riding the White Horse Home: A Western Family Album by Teresa Jordan (Vintage, $12)
15. Temporary Homelands by Alison Hawthorne Deming (Mercury House, $18)
16. Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon by Ann Zwinger
17. A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds by Gary Snyder (Counterpoint, $17)
18. Homestead by Annick Smith (Milkweed, $13.95)
19. Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg (Riverhead, $14)
20. Canaries on the Rim: Living Downwind in the West by Chip Ward (Verso, $16)
21. The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams by Nasdijj (Mariner, $13)
22. Eye of the Blackbird: A Story of Gold in the American West by Holly Skinner (Johnson Books, $17.50)
23. The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert by Craig Childs (Back Bay, $13.95)
24. Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier (Counterpoint, $14)
25. The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflecting on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky by Ellen Meloy
Friday, September 25, 2009
Audie Award Winners (2005-2006)
Audie Award Winners
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter Audiobooks ('06Hall of Fame)
Adams, Douglas. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy: tertiary phase (AudioOfYear'06)
Cullin, Mitch. Slight trick of the mind(Fiction06)
Peters, Elizabeth. Serpent on the crown(Mystery06)
Robb, J.D. Origin in death (Romance06)
Verne, Jules. Around the world in 80 days (Classic06)
Friedman, Thomas. World is flat (NF06)
Chapman, Gary. Five love languages (Motivational06)
Reichl, Ruth. Garlic and sapphires (Bio06)
Collins, Jim. Good to great (Educ06)
Morgan, Richard K. Market forces (SF06)
Keller, Laurie. Arnie the donut (kids<8,'06)
Ibbotson, Eva. Star of Kazan. (kids8+'06)
Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate (LitFic06)
Franken, Al. Truth (with jokes) (Humor06)
Clinton, Bill. My Life ('05BookOfYear)
Banks, Russell. The Darling ('05fiction)
Wolfe, Tom. I am Charlotte Simmon ('05ficlist)
Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell ('05ficlist)
Drewe, Robert. Our sunshine ('05ficlist)
Deaver, Jeffery. Twisted: selected unabridged stories of JD ('05mystery)
Preston, Douglas. Brimstone ('05mystlist)
Kellerman, Jonathan. Double homicide ('05mystlist)
McBain, Ed. Hark! ('05mystlist)
Mosley, Walter. Man in my basement ('05mystlist)
Howard, Linda. Kiss me while I sleep ('05romance)
Adler, Elizabeth. Invitation to Provence ('05romlist)
Patterson, James. Sam's letters to Jennifer ('05romlist)
Laurens, Stephanie. Perfect lover ('05romlist)
Delinsky, Barbara. Summer I dared ('05romlist)
Gregory, Philippa. Virgin's lover ('05romlist)
Dickens, Charles. Christmas Carol (05Classic)
Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless me Ultima. ('05Classiclist)
Waltari, Mika. Egyptian ('05Classiclist)
McCullers, Carson. Heart is a lonely hunter ('05Classiclist)
Joyce, James. Ulysses ('05Classiclist)
Shorto, Russell. Island at the center of the world: Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Colony that Shaped America (05NF)
Bergreen, Laurence. Over the edge of the world (05NFlist)
Wood, Gordon. Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (05NFlist)
Karp, Harvey. Happiest toddler on the block (05Motivational)
Tracy, Brian. Goals! (05MotivationalList)
Lelas, Lisa. Simple steps: 10 weeks to getting control of your life (05MotivationalList)
Williamson, Marianne. Gift of change (05MotivationalList)
Maxwell, John C. Today matters (05MotivationalList)
Dylan, Bob. Bob Dylan Chronicles: Vol.1 (05Bio)
Russert, Tim. Big Russ and me (05BioList)
Dumas, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi (05BioList)
MacDonald, Sarah. Holy Cow: an Indian adventure (05BioList)
McCullough, David. Mornings on Horseback (05BioList)
Cohen, Elizabeth. House on Beartown Road (05BioList)
Suetonius. Twelve Caesars (05BioList)
Lencioni, Patrick. Death by Meeting (05Edu)
Blanchard, Ken. Customer Mania (05EduList)
Morgenstern, Julie. Making work work (05EduList)
Kiyosaki, Robert T. Rich Dad's who took my money? (05EduList)
Card, Orson Scott. Lost boys (05SF)
Preston, Douglas. Brimstone (05SF-list)
Anderson, Kevin. Horizon storms (05SF-List)
Levinson, Paul. Consciousness plague (05SF-List)
Asaro, Catherine. Quantum Rose (05SF-List)
Funke, Cornelia. Dragon Rider (05-8+list)
Frost, Helen. Keesha's house (05-8+list)
Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia (05-8+list)
Taylor, Andrew. Unpardonable crime (05LitFic)
Flanagan, Richard. Gould's book of fish (05LitFicList)
Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (05LitFicList)
Faber, Michael. Crimson petal and the white (05LitFicList)
Waltari, Mika. Egyptian (05LitFicList)
Huston, Nancy. Mark of the Angel (05LitFicList)
Toibin, Colm. Master. (05LitFicList)
Rogers, Fred. World according to Mr. Rogers (05Inspire)
Sedaris, David. Dress your family in corduroy and denim (05Humor)
Cartwright, Nancy. My life as a 10-year-old boy! (05HumorList)
Stewart, Jon. Daily Show with Jon Stewart presents America (05HumorList)
Hyman, Peter. Reluctant Metrosexual (05HumorList)
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter Audiobooks ('06Hall of Fame)
Adams, Douglas. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy: tertiary phase (AudioOfYear'06)
Cullin, Mitch. Slight trick of the mind(Fiction06)
Peters, Elizabeth. Serpent on the crown(Mystery06)
Robb, J.D. Origin in death (Romance06)
Verne, Jules. Around the world in 80 days (Classic06)
Friedman, Thomas. World is flat (NF06)
Chapman, Gary. Five love languages (Motivational06)
Reichl, Ruth. Garlic and sapphires (Bio06)
Collins, Jim. Good to great (Educ06)
Morgan, Richard K. Market forces (SF06)
Keller, Laurie. Arnie the donut (kids<8,'06)
Ibbotson, Eva. Star of Kazan. (kids8+'06)
Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate (LitFic06)
Franken, Al. Truth (with jokes) (Humor06)
Clinton, Bill. My Life ('05BookOfYear)
Banks, Russell. The Darling ('05fiction)
Wolfe, Tom. I am Charlotte Simmon ('05ficlist)
Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell ('05ficlist)
Drewe, Robert. Our sunshine ('05ficlist)
Deaver, Jeffery. Twisted: selected unabridged stories of JD ('05mystery)
Preston, Douglas. Brimstone ('05mystlist)
Kellerman, Jonathan. Double homicide ('05mystlist)
McBain, Ed. Hark! ('05mystlist)
Mosley, Walter. Man in my basement ('05mystlist)
Howard, Linda. Kiss me while I sleep ('05romance)
Adler, Elizabeth. Invitation to Provence ('05romlist)
Patterson, James. Sam's letters to Jennifer ('05romlist)
Laurens, Stephanie. Perfect lover ('05romlist)
Delinsky, Barbara. Summer I dared ('05romlist)
Gregory, Philippa. Virgin's lover ('05romlist)
Dickens, Charles. Christmas Carol (05Classic)
Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless me Ultima. ('05Classiclist)
Waltari, Mika. Egyptian ('05Classiclist)
McCullers, Carson. Heart is a lonely hunter ('05Classiclist)
Joyce, James. Ulysses ('05Classiclist)
Shorto, Russell. Island at the center of the world: Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Colony that Shaped America (05NF)
Bergreen, Laurence. Over the edge of the world (05NFlist)
Wood, Gordon. Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (05NFlist)
Karp, Harvey. Happiest toddler on the block (05Motivational)
Tracy, Brian. Goals! (05MotivationalList)
Lelas, Lisa. Simple steps: 10 weeks to getting control of your life (05MotivationalList)
Williamson, Marianne. Gift of change (05MotivationalList)
Maxwell, John C. Today matters (05MotivationalList)
Dylan, Bob. Bob Dylan Chronicles: Vol.1 (05Bio)
Russert, Tim. Big Russ and me (05BioList)
Dumas, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi (05BioList)
MacDonald, Sarah. Holy Cow: an Indian adventure (05BioList)
McCullough, David. Mornings on Horseback (05BioList)
Cohen, Elizabeth. House on Beartown Road (05BioList)
Suetonius. Twelve Caesars (05BioList)
Lencioni, Patrick. Death by Meeting (05Edu)
Blanchard, Ken. Customer Mania (05EduList)
Morgenstern, Julie. Making work work (05EduList)
Kiyosaki, Robert T. Rich Dad's who took my money? (05EduList)
Card, Orson Scott. Lost boys (05SF)
Preston, Douglas. Brimstone (05SF-list)
Anderson, Kevin. Horizon storms (05SF-List)
Levinson, Paul. Consciousness plague (05SF-List)
Asaro, Catherine. Quantum Rose (05SF-List)
Funke, Cornelia. Dragon Rider (05-8+list)
Frost, Helen. Keesha's house (05-8+list)
Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia (05-8+list)
Taylor, Andrew. Unpardonable crime (05LitFic)
Flanagan, Richard. Gould's book of fish (05LitFicList)
Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (05LitFicList)
Faber, Michael. Crimson petal and the white (05LitFicList)
Waltari, Mika. Egyptian (05LitFicList)
Huston, Nancy. Mark of the Angel (05LitFicList)
Toibin, Colm. Master. (05LitFicList)
Rogers, Fred. World according to Mr. Rogers (05Inspire)
Sedaris, David. Dress your family in corduroy and denim (05Humor)
Cartwright, Nancy. My life as a 10-year-old boy! (05HumorList)
Stewart, Jon. Daily Show with Jon Stewart presents America (05HumorList)
Hyman, Peter. Reluctant Metrosexual (05HumorList)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Books with cd's
Books with CDs
bullet Chevalier, Tracy. Burning Bright book & cd at GPL
bullet Danticat, Edwidge. Dew breaker 2004 GPL-book&cd
bullet Danticat, Edwidge. Krik! Krak? (pre-college list) GPL cd only, both at PPL
bullet Davidson, Andrew. Gargoyle (book&cd@gpl)
bullet DeMille, Nelson. Gold coast (IngRec 090408) book@gpl,cd@ppl
bullet Downham, Jenny. Before I Die (book&cd at GPL) Guardian Children's Fiction Prize shortlist08
bullet Dunnett, Dorothy. The Game of Kings (#1 Lymond Chronicles)book@gpl,cd@PPL
bullet Eggers, Dave. What is the what: the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng GPL book only, PPL book&cd (BLEC06)
bullet Dunnett, Dorothy. The Disorderly Knights (#3 Lymond Chronicles)bookNA,cd@PP
bullet Dunnett, Dorothy. Queen's Play (#2 Lymond Chronicles)book@gpl,cd@PPL
bullet Follett, Ken. World without end
bullet Frayn, Michael. Headlong (cd@gpl, book@ppl)
bullet Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides (GPLbook&cd)
bullet Funke, Cornelia. Igraine the brave (Outstanding International Book) book &cd atGPL
bullet Follett, Ken. Pillars of the Earth (1989) will enjoy sequel, World Without End(07).
bullet French, Tana. In the woods (Edgar winner08) book&cd@gpl
bullet Grayson, Emily. Gazebo (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Haynes, Melinda. Chalktown (Recby Joyce Drury) boo@gpl,cd@ppl
bullet Ghosh, Amitav. Hungry Tide (1995) Book&cd@gpl
bullet Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World (IngRec0520) (book@gpl,cd@ppl)GeogTrav092808
bullet Kimmel, Haven. Iodine (IngRec090208) book&cd@gpl
bullet Jordan, Hillary. Mudbound (IngRec081508) book&cd @GPL
bullet Kessler, Lauren. Dancing With Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's PNBA award GPL book & cd
bullet Kneale, Matthew. English Passengers (Tazmania) (2000) Book &cd at GPL
bullet Marsh, Katherine. Night tourist (EdgarNom) book &cd GPL
bullet O'Carroll, Brendan. Mammy (IngRec101408) Humorous (book&cd@gpl)
bullet O'Carroll, Brendan. Chisellers #2 Agnes Browne Trilogy (IngRec101408) Humorous (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Lester, Julius. Cupid: A Tale of Love and Desire TEEN (ShelfAwareness3/05/07)
bullet Petterson, Per. Out stealing horses. winner of '06 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize cd & book GPL&PPL
bullet McCarthy, Cormac. The road (Pulitzer fiction07)
bullet Patchett, Ann. Run (2007) book & cd at GPL
bullet Pollan, Michael. Omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals (NYT Best of '06)GPL book ony, PPL book &CD 1207 ANF06
bullet Pérez-Reverte, Arturo. Nautical chart (2001) Spanish (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Pinkwater, Daniel. Neddiad. GPL book only, PPL book&cd
bullet Pratchett, Terry. Nation (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Riordan, Rick, The Sea of Monsters (#2 Percy Jackson & the Olympians) book&cd at GPL
bullet Rushdie, Salman. The Enchantress of Florence (Man Booker Longlist) book & cd at GPL
bullet Sedaris, David. When you are engulfed in flames. book&cd@gpl Hudson book of '08
bullet Pullman. Golden Compass #1 (kids books of note)
bullet Pullman. Subtle knife #2 (kids books of note)
bullet Pullman. Amber spyglass #3 (kids books of note)
bullet Reinhardt, Dana. Brief chapter in my impossible life (Sydney Taylor honor teen)
bullet Shorto, Russell. Descartes Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason (Ing112408)cd@gpl book@ppl
bullet Shaara, Jeff. Rising Tide (#1in trilogy about WW2) book&cd@gpl
bullet Stein, Garth. Art of running in the rain (IngRec110708)book&cd@gpl
bullet St. James, James. Freak show. TEEN (WPbest) GPL book & cd
bullet Sanderson, Brandon. Alcatraz vs the evil librarians. GPL book & cd
bullet Shaara, Jeff. Steel Wave (#2in trilogy about WW2) (cd at PPL)
bullet Smith, Tom Rob. Child 44 (Man Booker Longlist) GPL book only, book &cd at PPL
bullet Springer, Nancy. Case of the Missing Marquess: an Enola Holmes Mystery book only at GPL, cd @PPL(Edgar Nom)
bullet Springer, Nancy. Case of the left-handed lady (Enola Holmes) not at GPL, book & cd @PPL
bullet Chevalier, Tracy. Burning Bright book & cd at GPL
bullet Danticat, Edwidge. Dew breaker 2004 GPL-book&cd
bullet Danticat, Edwidge. Krik! Krak? (pre-college list) GPL cd only, both at PPL
bullet Davidson, Andrew. Gargoyle (book&cd@gpl)
bullet DeMille, Nelson. Gold coast (IngRec 090408) book@gpl,cd@ppl
bullet Downham, Jenny. Before I Die (book&cd at GPL) Guardian Children's Fiction Prize shortlist08
bullet Dunnett, Dorothy. The Game of Kings (#1 Lymond Chronicles)book@gpl,cd@PPL
bullet Eggers, Dave. What is the what: the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng GPL book only, PPL book&cd (BLEC06)
bullet Dunnett, Dorothy. The Disorderly Knights (#3 Lymond Chronicles)bookNA,cd@PP
bullet Dunnett, Dorothy. Queen's Play (#2 Lymond Chronicles)book@gpl,cd@PPL
bullet Follett, Ken. World without end
bullet Frayn, Michael. Headlong (cd@gpl, book@ppl)
bullet Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides (GPLbook&cd)
bullet Funke, Cornelia. Igraine the brave (Outstanding International Book) book &cd atGPL
bullet Follett, Ken. Pillars of the Earth (1989) will enjoy sequel, World Without End(07).
bullet French, Tana. In the woods (Edgar winner08) book&cd@gpl
bullet Grayson, Emily. Gazebo (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Haynes, Melinda. Chalktown (Recby Joyce Drury) boo@gpl,cd@ppl
bullet Ghosh, Amitav. Hungry Tide (1995) Book&cd@gpl
bullet Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World (IngRec0520) (book@gpl,cd@ppl)GeogTrav092808
bullet Kimmel, Haven. Iodine (IngRec090208) book&cd@gpl
bullet Jordan, Hillary. Mudbound (IngRec081508) book&cd @GPL
bullet Kessler, Lauren. Dancing With Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's PNBA award GPL book & cd
bullet Kneale, Matthew. English Passengers (Tazmania) (2000) Book &cd at GPL
bullet Marsh, Katherine. Night tourist (EdgarNom) book &cd GPL
bullet O'Carroll, Brendan. Mammy (IngRec101408) Humorous (book&cd@gpl)
bullet O'Carroll, Brendan. Chisellers #2 Agnes Browne Trilogy (IngRec101408) Humorous (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Lester, Julius. Cupid: A Tale of Love and Desire TEEN (ShelfAwareness3/05/07)
bullet Petterson, Per. Out stealing horses. winner of '06 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize cd & book GPL&PPL
bullet McCarthy, Cormac. The road (Pulitzer fiction07)
bullet Patchett, Ann. Run (2007) book & cd at GPL
bullet Pollan, Michael. Omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals (NYT Best of '06)GPL book ony, PPL book &CD 1207 ANF06
bullet Pérez-Reverte, Arturo. Nautical chart (2001) Spanish (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Pinkwater, Daniel. Neddiad. GPL book only, PPL book&cd
bullet Pratchett, Terry. Nation (book&cd@gpl)
bullet Riordan, Rick, The Sea of Monsters (#2 Percy Jackson & the Olympians) book&cd at GPL
bullet Rushdie, Salman. The Enchantress of Florence (Man Booker Longlist) book & cd at GPL
bullet Sedaris, David. When you are engulfed in flames. book&cd@gpl Hudson book of '08
bullet Pullman. Golden Compass #1 (kids books of note)
bullet Pullman. Subtle knife #2 (kids books of note)
bullet Pullman. Amber spyglass #3 (kids books of note)
bullet Reinhardt, Dana. Brief chapter in my impossible life (Sydney Taylor honor teen)
bullet Shorto, Russell. Descartes Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason (Ing112408)cd@gpl book@ppl
bullet Shaara, Jeff. Rising Tide (#1in trilogy about WW2) book&cd@gpl
bullet Stein, Garth. Art of running in the rain (IngRec110708)book&cd@gpl
bullet St. James, James. Freak show. TEEN (WPbest) GPL book & cd
bullet Sanderson, Brandon. Alcatraz vs the evil librarians. GPL book & cd
bullet Shaara, Jeff. Steel Wave (#2in trilogy about WW2) (cd at PPL)
bullet Smith, Tom Rob. Child 44 (Man Booker Longlist) GPL book only, book &cd at PPL
bullet Springer, Nancy. Case of the Missing Marquess: an Enola Holmes Mystery book only at GPL, cd @PPL(Edgar Nom)
bullet Springer, Nancy. Case of the left-handed lady (Enola Holmes) not at GPL, book & cd @PPL
New WPA books
On its 75th anniversary, there are at least four new marvelous books on the Works Progress Administration, FDR's New Deal program that put millions of unemployed Americans back on the job during the Great Depression. The titles unintentionally foreshadow the current economic meltdown. (Be warned: you might find yourself wondering if a "new" WPA could be in our future.)
Nick Taylor's exhaustive study, American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA (Bantam), tackles the program's many achievements and challenges with enough insight and enthusiasm to please history buffs and dabblers alike. You'll be shocked to learn how much of the WPA's handiwork still exists coast to coast, from airports and dams to community parks and post office murals.
Kathryn Flynn and Richard Polese's handsomely illustrated The New Deal (Gibbs Smith) delves into the eclectic deeds of the WPA as well as Social Security, the short-lived Civilian Conservation Corps and Civil Works Administration--the latter two of which together preserved wilderness areas and created countless roads, bridges and public buildings.
One of the WPA's most controversial ventures, the Federal Theatre Project, gets a fresh look in Susan Quinn's Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times (Walker). The FTP, along with the Federal Arts, Music and Writers' Projects (known collectively as "Federal One"), made up 1% of the WPA's enormous budget but, according to Quinn's lively and entertaining account, received the most Congressional scrutiny--and scorn--due to allegations of Communist infiltration (a subject of Tim Robbins's film The Cradle Will Rock).
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America compiled by Paris Review deputy editor Matt Weiland and McSweeney's editor-at-large Sean Wilsey (Ecco) recreates the spirit of the WPA's famous "American Guide" series. While the Federal Writers' Project assigned thousands of out-of-work scribes to create a written portrait of the U.S., State by State employs some of today's best authors--including Dave Eggers (Illinois), Barry Hannah (Mississippi), Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island) and Rick Moody (Connecticut)--to create a more quirky armchair road trip. (Don't miss the Out of the Book movie based on this from Powell's Books.)
More books on the WPA are on their way. Arriving later this month is Posters for the People: The Art of the WPA by Ennis Carter and Christopher DeNoon (Quirk Books), which documents the colorful achievements and far-reaching influence of the Federal Art Project's Poster Division. Historians consider the WPA's posters among the most noteworthy examples of public art in the U.S. They advertised exhibits and performances by the other arts programs, encouraged travel, warned against disease and helped to promote the nation's economic recovery.
And this February, David A. Taylor's Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America (Wiley) will chronicle the work of future literary stars like John Cheever, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Studs Terkel and Richard Wright as they toiled to create the WPA's popular state and regional guidebooks.--Larry Portzline is a writer and college instructor in Pennsylvania and founded Bookstore Tourism.
Nick Taylor's exhaustive study, American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA (Bantam), tackles the program's many achievements and challenges with enough insight and enthusiasm to please history buffs and dabblers alike. You'll be shocked to learn how much of the WPA's handiwork still exists coast to coast, from airports and dams to community parks and post office murals.
Kathryn Flynn and Richard Polese's handsomely illustrated The New Deal (Gibbs Smith) delves into the eclectic deeds of the WPA as well as Social Security, the short-lived Civilian Conservation Corps and Civil Works Administration--the latter two of which together preserved wilderness areas and created countless roads, bridges and public buildings.
One of the WPA's most controversial ventures, the Federal Theatre Project, gets a fresh look in Susan Quinn's Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times (Walker). The FTP, along with the Federal Arts, Music and Writers' Projects (known collectively as "Federal One"), made up 1% of the WPA's enormous budget but, according to Quinn's lively and entertaining account, received the most Congressional scrutiny--and scorn--due to allegations of Communist infiltration (a subject of Tim Robbins's film The Cradle Will Rock).
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America compiled by Paris Review deputy editor Matt Weiland and McSweeney's editor-at-large Sean Wilsey (Ecco) recreates the spirit of the WPA's famous "American Guide" series. While the Federal Writers' Project assigned thousands of out-of-work scribes to create a written portrait of the U.S., State by State employs some of today's best authors--including Dave Eggers (Illinois), Barry Hannah (Mississippi), Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island) and Rick Moody (Connecticut)--to create a more quirky armchair road trip. (Don't miss the Out of the Book movie
More books on the WPA are on their way. Arriving later this month is Posters for the People: The Art of the WPA by Ennis Carter and Christopher DeNoon (Quirk Books), which documents the colorful achievements and far-reaching influence of the Federal Art Project's Poster Division. Historians consider the WPA's posters among the most noteworthy examples of public art in the U.S. They advertised exhibits and performances by the other arts programs, encouraged travel, warned against disease and helped to promote the nation's economic recovery.
And this February, David A. Taylor's Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America (Wiley) will chronicle the work of future literary stars like John Cheever, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Studs Terkel and Richard Wright as they toiled to create the WPA's popular state and regional guidebooks.--Larry Portzline
Monday, September 21, 2009
Contemporary English-Language Authors
The List of Contemporary English-Language Authors to Read
from Conversational Reading by Scott Esposito
With a big assist from the commenters on this post, here's what I think I need to read. Point out everything I missed in the comments. And please let me know of anyone overrated that I shouldn't waste my time with.
Lorrie Moore. People were pretty clear that I should avoid her latest novel and give the stories a try. So I suppose I'll start with her first collection, Self-Help.
Brian Evenson. Seems like the place to start with Brian Evenson is Last Days (an endorsement that seems to be echoed in Matt Bell's excellent essay), although I already have a copy of Fugue State, so I might just start there.
A.M. Homes. I'm not really sure where to start with her, but I found Music for Torching at a garage sale yesterday for a buck, so that's probably going to be it.
Curtis White. At that same garage sale (actually, it was a "block sale," I found Requiem by Curtis White, one of the American postmodernists I haven't yet gotten to.
David Markson. Speaking of White, David Markson is a known quantity, but he should definitely be on this list.
Chris Adrian. I have yet to find anyone who doesn't absolutely love this guy's work. I myself was amazed by The Children's Hospital. Looks like next I'll go with A Better Angel, the latest story collection.
Percival Everett. This guy has been in the back of my mind for a while now. Definitely someone to try out. I was recommended to start with American Desert . . . any ideas?
Kevin Wilson. Was told to give this guy a shot in the company of George Saunders (someone I should read a little more systematically). So is Tunneling to the Center of the Earth the place to start?
Margaret Atwood. Reading the coverage of her most recent novel, I am reminded again of what a strong body of work she has put together. I should really at least get started with her. The Handmaid's Tale is the obvious place to start, but from there where to?
Steven Millhauser. He definitely seems like someone doing good work. Is Dangerous Laughter the one to start with?
Aleksandar Hemon. Seems pretty clearly worth keeping an eye on.
Tom McCarthy. His body of work is only three books deep at this point, but Tom Mccarthy definitely seems like someone to watch.
Joe Meno. His latest has been getting good reviews, and he has a lot out there. Worth it?
Ron Currie, Jr. Although he has just a short story collection and a first novel to his name, we've given each very strong reviews, and he seems like an extremely promising author.
from Conversational Reading by Scott Esposito
With a big assist from the commenters on this post, here's what I think I need to read. Point out everything I missed in the comments. And please let me know of anyone overrated that I shouldn't waste my time with.
Lorrie Moore. People were pretty clear that I should avoid her latest novel and give the stories a try. So I suppose I'll start with her first collection, Self-Help.
Brian Evenson. Seems like the place to start with Brian Evenson is Last Days (an endorsement that seems to be echoed in Matt Bell's excellent essay), although I already have a copy of Fugue State, so I might just start there.
A.M. Homes. I'm not really sure where to start with her, but I found Music for Torching at a garage sale yesterday for a buck, so that's probably going to be it.
Curtis White. At that same garage sale (actually, it was a "block sale," I found Requiem by Curtis White, one of the American postmodernists I haven't yet gotten to.
David Markson. Speaking of White, David Markson is a known quantity, but he should definitely be on this list.
Chris Adrian. I have yet to find anyone who doesn't absolutely love this guy's work. I myself was amazed by The Children's Hospital. Looks like next I'll go with A Better Angel, the latest story collection.
Percival Everett. This guy has been in the back of my mind for a while now. Definitely someone to try out. I was recommended to start with American Desert . . . any ideas?
Kevin Wilson. Was told to give this guy a shot in the company of George Saunders (someone I should read a little more systematically). So is Tunneling to the Center of the Earth the place to start?
Margaret Atwood. Reading the coverage of her most recent novel, I am reminded again of what a strong body of work she has put together. I should really at least get started with her. The Handmaid's Tale is the obvious place to start, but from there where to?
Steven Millhauser. He definitely seems like someone doing good work. Is Dangerous Laughter the one to start with?
Aleksandar Hemon. Seems pretty clearly worth keeping an eye on.
Tom McCarthy. His body of work is only three books deep at this point, but Tom Mccarthy definitely seems like someone to watch.
Joe Meno. His latest has been getting good reviews, and he has a lot out there. Worth it?
Ron Currie, Jr. Although he has just a short story collection and a first novel to his name, we've given each very strong reviews, and he seems like an extremely promising author.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The RBA International Thriller Prize
Philip Kerr's novel, If the Dead Rise Not, won the €125,000 (US$179,156) RBA International Prize for Crime Writing, (did the name change from Thriller to Crime Writing?) "the world's most lucrative crime fiction prize," according to the Guardian, which reported that Kerr said he was pleasantly surprised by the size of the award: "I recently got a prize in France which was a few bottles of wine."
The first Thursday of September has been thriller day ever since the RBA established this prize, which offers the world's largest monetary prize money for the genre.
A prize of €125,000 for the best unpublished work in the genre. This project is the result of the confidence RBA has in its authors — both the well-known and those waiting to be discovered.
Jury decision announcement: on the first Thursday of September.
The competition is open to works written in: any language with a translation into Spanish or English.
Prize money: €125,000
Winners from previous years:
2009 - Kerr, Philip. Dead Rise Not
2008 - Andrea Camilleri, La muerte de Amalia Sacerdote
2007 - Francisco González Ledesma, Una novela de barrio
Multi-channel, independent and with 100% Spanish capital. This is the calling card of RBA, a leading communications group in the business areas of magazines, collectables and promotions that has secured a prominent position in book publishing and is now venturing into a new area: audiovisuals.
The first Thursday of September has been thriller day ever since the RBA established this prize, which offers the world's largest monetary prize money for the genre.
A prize of €125,000 for the best unpublished work in the genre. This project is the result of the confidence RBA has in its authors — both the well-known and those waiting to be discovered.
Jury decision announcement: on the first Thursday of September.
The competition is open to works written in: any language with a translation into Spanish or English.
Prize money: €125,000
Winners from previous years:
2009 - Kerr, Philip. Dead Rise Not
2008 - Andrea Camilleri, La muerte de Amalia Sacerdote
2007 - Francisco González Ledesma, Una novela de barrio
Multi-channel, independent and with 100% Spanish capital. This is the calling card of RBA, a leading communications group in the business areas of magazines, collectables and promotions that has secured a prominent position in book publishing and is now venturing into a new area: audiovisuals.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Great Lakes Book Awards (2009)
Finalists for the 2009 Great Lakes Book Awards, honoring books with "a Great Lakes theme or setting or . . . written by an author living in the region," are:
Fiction
Dark Places: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
General
Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry (HarperCollins)
The Foie Gras Wars by Mark Caro (Simon & Schuster) -- Winner!
Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton (Simon & Schuster)
Ripped by Greg Kot (Simon & Schuster)
A Splintered History of Wood by Spike Carlsen (HarperCollins)
Children's Chapter Books
I Put a Spell on You: From the Files of Chrissie Woodward, Spelling Bee Detective by Adam Selzer
Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming
My Brother Abe by Harry Mazer
Children's Picture Books
Baby Dragon by Amy Ehrlich, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand (Candlewick Press)
Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek (Harper Collins)
Old Bear by Kevin Henkes (Harper Collins)
That Book Woman by Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small -- Winner!
The Underwear Salesman by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Serge Bloch (Simon & Schuster)
Winners will be announced in late August and be honored Friday, October 2, at GLIBA's fall trade show in Cleveland, Ohio.
Fiction
Dark Places: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
The Great Perhaps: A Novel by Joe Meno -- Winner!
A Reliable Wife by Robert GoolrickStarvation Lake: A Mystery by Bryan Gruley
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David WroblewskiGeneral
Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry (HarperCollins)
The Foie Gras Wars by Mark Caro (Simon & Schuster) -- Winner!
Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton (Simon & Schuster)
Ripped by Greg Kot (Simon & Schuster)
A Splintered History of Wood by Spike Carlsen (HarperCollins)
Children's Chapter Books
After the Train by Gloria Whelan
The Blind Faith Hotel by Pamela Todd -- Winner!I Put a Spell on You: From the Files of Chrissie Woodward, Spelling Bee Detective by Adam Selzer
Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming
My Brother Abe by Harry Mazer
Children's Picture Books
Baby Dragon by Amy Ehrlich, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand (Candlewick Press)
Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek (Harper Collins)
Old Bear by Kevin Henkes (Harper Collins)
That Book Woman by Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small -- Winner!
The Underwear Salesman by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Serge Bloch (Simon & Schuster)
Winners will be announced in late August and be honored Friday, October 2, at GLIBA's fall trade show in Cleveland, Ohio.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
St. Francis College Literary Prize (2009)
from St. Francis College accessed 09/17/09
ALEKSANDER HEMON WINS INAUGURAL LITERARY PRIZE
From nearly 40 submissions down to one, the jury for the first ever St. Francis College Literary Prize has selected Aleksandar Hemon for his book, Love and Obstacles (Riverhead Books) as the winner of the $50,000 award, one of the richest Literary Prizes in the United States. Hemon, raised in Sarajevo and now residing in Chicago wrote his first work in English in 1995. He was awarded the prize at the Gala Opening Night Party of the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 12. Hemon was selected over the other short list authors: Chris Abani, Song For Night (Akashic Books); Jim Krusoe, Girl Factory (Tin House Books) and Arthur Phillips, The Song Is You (Random House).
“I was going to quit after this book now it turns out I'm mid-career,” said Hemon in his short, modest and humorous acceptance speech. “Thank you all for coming tonight and exposing me to this embarrassing pleasure. I will keep writing, I guess I have no other choice.”
ALEKSANDER HEMON WINS INAUGURAL LITERARY PRIZE
From nearly 40 submissions down to one, the jury for the first ever St. Francis College Literary Prize has selected Aleksandar Hemon for his book, Love and Obstacles (Riverhead Books) as the winner of the $50,000 award, one of the richest Literary Prizes in the United States. Hemon, raised in Sarajevo and now residing in Chicago wrote his first work in English in 1995. He was awarded the prize at the Gala Opening Night Party of the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 12. Hemon was selected over the other short list authors: Chris Abani, Song For Night (Akashic Books); Jim Krusoe, Girl Factory (Tin House Books) and Arthur Phillips, The Song Is You (Random House).
“I was going to quit after this book now it turns out I'm mid-career,” said Hemon in his short, modest and humorous acceptance speech. “Thank you all for coming tonight and exposing me to this embarrassing pleasure. I will keep writing, I guess I have no other choice.”
Mother/Daughter books suggested by Sue Monk Kidd & Daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor
Mother Picks from Sue Monk Kidd
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
"I took this novel on vacation a few summers ago. I can still remember the beach chair I sat in day after day as I read about the conflicted, loving, and enduring bond between a mother and a daughter. I remember nothing else about the vacation but this sumptuous book."
Paula by Isabel Allende
"At first, I didn't know if I could bear to read this heart-rending memoir, which tells the incandescent story of Allende's journey through her grown daughter's coma and death. But I ended it filled with hope and feeling like I'd been returned to what matters most in life."
One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
"I love this utterly gripping novel about a daughter on a career fast track, who returns home to care for her mother and discovers her as a real person before it's too late."
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
"One of my all-time favorite books about a wise and funny young woman who has managed to escape her poor life in Kentucky without getting pregnant (this being her main goal growing up), and the three-year-old Native American girl she 'inherits' on her road trip. The novel's beauty and brilliance are the deepening way this unlikely pair become mother and daughter."
The Mermaids Singing by Lisa Carey
"This novel is as magical as the title. Narrated in the voices of three generations of women—mother, daughter, and grandmother—it crisscrosses between America and Ireland, awash in islands, Celtic mythology, and the rich exploration of motherhood."
Daughter Picks from Ann Kidd Taylor
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
"No matter how often I read this 1868 classic, I find myself enthralled. Marmee, a wise and loving mother, encourages her daughters' ambitions during a time when such notions are not fashionable. You couldn't ask for a better mom in any historical period."
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
"When magical Vianne and her imaginative daughter, Anouk, open a decadent chocolate shop in a small French town during Lent, secrets are revealed and love is tested in the village, but not as much as between Vianne and Anouk themselves. Impossible to read without eating chocolate."
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl
"After her mother's death, Reichl goes through her mother's letters and stumbles upon one that is written to her. What unfolds is a compelling story about a mother's choices and the lessons they teach her daughter. Sometimes her best lesson is what not to do."
Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson
"Adele and Ann are one of the more unique mother-daughter duos in literature. Adele could have taken a lesson from Marmee in Little Women about the finer points of motherhood, not to mention the basic ones. I found myself rooting for Ann and absorbed in the messy bond she has with her mother."
Sense and Sensibiilty
by Jane Austen
"Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters support each other during dreary times. When Mrs. Dashwood comes to ailing Marianne's bedside, it is vividly clear why you never outgrow wanting your mother when you're sick."
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
"I took this novel on vacation a few summers ago. I can still remember the beach chair I sat in day after day as I read about the conflicted, loving, and enduring bond between a mother and a daughter. I remember nothing else about the vacation but this sumptuous book."
Paula by Isabel Allende
"At first, I didn't know if I could bear to read this heart-rending memoir, which tells the incandescent story of Allende's journey through her grown daughter's coma and death. But I ended it filled with hope and feeling like I'd been returned to what matters most in life."
One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
"I love this utterly gripping novel about a daughter on a career fast track, who returns home to care for her mother and discovers her as a real person before it's too late."
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
"One of my all-time favorite books about a wise and funny young woman who has managed to escape her poor life in Kentucky without getting pregnant (this being her main goal growing up), and the three-year-old Native American girl she 'inherits' on her road trip. The novel's beauty and brilliance are the deepening way this unlikely pair become mother and daughter."
The Mermaids Singing by Lisa Carey
"This novel is as magical as the title. Narrated in the voices of three generations of women—mother, daughter, and grandmother—it crisscrosses between America and Ireland, awash in islands, Celtic mythology, and the rich exploration of motherhood."
Daughter Picks from Ann Kidd Taylor
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
"No matter how often I read this 1868 classic, I find myself enthralled. Marmee, a wise and loving mother, encourages her daughters' ambitions during a time when such notions are not fashionable. You couldn't ask for a better mom in any historical period."
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
"When magical Vianne and her imaginative daughter, Anouk, open a decadent chocolate shop in a small French town during Lent, secrets are revealed and love is tested in the village, but not as much as between Vianne and Anouk themselves. Impossible to read without eating chocolate."
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl
"After her mother's death, Reichl goes through her mother's letters and stumbles upon one that is written to her. What unfolds is a compelling story about a mother's choices and the lessons they teach her daughter. Sometimes her best lesson is what not to do."
Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson
"Adele and Ann are one of the more unique mother-daughter duos in literature. Adele could have taken a lesson from Marmee in Little Women about the finer points of motherhood, not to mention the basic ones. I found myself rooting for Ann and absorbed in the messy bond she has with her mother."
Sense and Sensibiilty
by Jane Austen
"Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters support each other during dreary times. When Mrs. Dashwood comes to ailing Marianne's bedside, it is vividly clear why you never outgrow wanting your mother when you're sick."
Monday, September 7, 2009
Falcon Award (1982-2008)
from Wikipedia accessed 09/07/09
The Falcon Award is awarded by the members of the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan for the best hardboiled novel published in Japan. The winning author receives a certificate of merit and a falcon sculpture crafted in wood.
* 1983 Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker (Spencer Book 7)
* 1984 The Old Dick by L.A. Morse
* 1985 The Wrong Case by James Crumley
* 1986 Hammett by Joe Gores
* 1987 When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block
* 1988 Hard Line by Michael Z. Lewin
* 1989 Strega by Andrew Vachss
* 1990 A Girl Who I Killed by Ryo Hara
* 1991 'F' Is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton
* 1992 A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block
* 1993 Book Case by Stephen Greenleaf
* 1994 A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow
* 1995 Black Ice by Michael Connelly
* 1996 no winner
* 1997 White Jazz by James Ellroy
* 1998 no winner
* 1999 The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos
* 2000-2004 no winner
* 2005 The Wrong Goodbye by Toshihiko Yahagi
* 2006 Lost Light by Michael Connelly
* 2007 Under the Skin by James Carlos Blake
* 2008 No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The Falcon Award is awarded by the members of the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan for the best hardboiled novel published in Japan. The winning author receives a certificate of merit and a falcon sculpture crafted in wood.
* 1983 Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker (Spencer Book 7)
* 1984 The Old Dick by L.A. Morse
* 1985 The Wrong Case by James Crumley
* 1986 Hammett by Joe Gores
* 1987 When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block
* 1988 Hard Line by Michael Z. Lewin
* 1989 Strega by Andrew Vachss
* 1990 A Girl Who I Killed by Ryo Hara
* 1991 'F' Is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton
* 1992 A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block
* 1993 Book Case by Stephen Greenleaf
* 1994 A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow
* 1995 Black Ice by Michael Connelly
* 1996 no winner
* 1997 White Jazz by James Ellroy
* 1998 no winner
* 1999 The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos
* 2000-2004 no winner
* 2005 The Wrong Goodbye by Toshihiko Yahagi
* 2006 Lost Light by Michael Connelly
* 2007 Under the Skin by James Carlos Blake
* 2008 No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Top 40 books of all time chosen by Lee Child
from Telegraph.co.uk accessed 090509
The top-selling thriller writer chooses his best books of all time for Waterstone’s Writer’s Table.
1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
“The greatest legal thriller ever written.”
2 Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald
“If you were there, you can’t remember – so read this.”
3 Roots by Alex Haley
“A tragic story we should all know.”
4 Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
“If you read only 10 novels in your life, make this one.”
5 Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
“Started a brief but glorious period of dissent in the United States.”
6 The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
“The best what-if sci-fi ever.”
7 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
“An elegant saga and a double love story.”
8 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
“A novel that described and defined an era.”
9 Nice Work by David Lodge
“Social realism from a recent but almost forgotten era.”
10 Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
“Iconic, for a reason.”
11 Ragtime by EL Doctorow
“What great novels used to be – and could be again.”
12 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
“The best of the US golden age of crime writing.”
13 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
“The finest writing EVER.”
14 The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
“How we used to live, think and write.”
15 Churchill by Roy Jenkins
“The best one-volume biography ever.”
16 The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill
“Guys my age grew up on stuff like this.”
17 Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
“A Californian writing about Russia in a Scandinavian way.”
18 Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon
“My current favourite writer’s debut – excellent.”
19 Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
“There’s a reason she became so popular – and this is it.”
20 Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
“An amazing debut with an early ‘reveal’ that will shock you.”
21 The Glittering Prizes by Frederic Raphael
“A time, a place – how we used to live, who we used to be.”
22 Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
“The first in an amazing new series.”
23 The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
“The unfairly neglected jewel in le Carré’s crown.”
24 City of Thieves by David Benioff
“Powerful, entrancing, tough, wonderfully imagined.”
25 Have His Carcase by Dorothy L Sayers
“The best of ‘golden age’ mystery fiction.”
26 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
“An example of King’s genius – he can make a story out of the simplest premise.”
27 A Place of Execution by Val McDermid
“Everything plus that vital x-factor that makes you cross when you have to stop.”
28 The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn
“A heartbreaking work of personal history that reads like a thriller.”
29 Debt of Honour by Tom Clancy
“The best from the man who dominated the genre for a decade.”
30 The Golden Rendezvous by Alistair MacLean
“His first dozen books are all great – why not start here?”
31 The Female Eunoch by Germaine Greer
“That rare thing – a book that changed the world.”
32 Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
“I read this 7 years ago and wanted him for president right then.”
33 The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
“A huge multi-generational crime saga – a book of the decade.”
34 The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
“ ‘Book Zero’ in terms of recent thriller evolution.”
35 Green River Rising by Tim Willocks
“Maybe the best-ever prison novel – terrific suspense.”
36 The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
“Much more than it seems – a masterclass in narrative drive.”
37 Brilliant Orange by David Winner
“My favourite sport explains one of my favourite cultures.”
38 Night Sky by Clare Francis
“The multitalented Ms Francis unleashes terrific suspense and a great ‘OMG’ moment.”
39 On the Beach by Nevil Shute
“The best of 1950s style – with 1950s concerns.”
40 The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
“A big meaty epic, sprawling and inclusive – like novels use to be.”
The top-selling thriller writer chooses his best books of all time for Waterstone’s Writer’s Table.
1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
“The greatest legal thriller ever written.”
2 Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald
“If you were there, you can’t remember – so read this.”
3 Roots by Alex Haley
“A tragic story we should all know.”
4 Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
“If you read only 10 novels in your life, make this one.”
5 Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
“Started a brief but glorious period of dissent in the United States.”
6 The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
“The best what-if sci-fi ever.”
7 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
“An elegant saga and a double love story.”
8 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
“A novel that described and defined an era.”
9 Nice Work by David Lodge
“Social realism from a recent but almost forgotten era.”
10 Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
“Iconic, for a reason.”
11 Ragtime by EL Doctorow
“What great novels used to be – and could be again.”
12 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
“The best of the US golden age of crime writing.”
13 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
“The finest writing EVER.”
14 The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
“How we used to live, think and write.”
15 Churchill by Roy Jenkins
“The best one-volume biography ever.”
16 The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill
“Guys my age grew up on stuff like this.”
17 Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
“A Californian writing about Russia in a Scandinavian way.”
18 Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon
“My current favourite writer’s debut – excellent.”
19 Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
“There’s a reason she became so popular – and this is it.”
20 Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
“An amazing debut with an early ‘reveal’ that will shock you.”
21 The Glittering Prizes by Frederic Raphael
“A time, a place – how we used to live, who we used to be.”
22 Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
“The first in an amazing new series.”
23 The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
“The unfairly neglected jewel in le Carré’s crown.”
24 City of Thieves by David Benioff
“Powerful, entrancing, tough, wonderfully imagined.”
25 Have His Carcase by Dorothy L Sayers
“The best of ‘golden age’ mystery fiction.”
26 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
“An example of King’s genius – he can make a story out of the simplest premise.”
27 A Place of Execution by Val McDermid
“Everything plus that vital x-factor that makes you cross when you have to stop.”
28 The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn
“A heartbreaking work of personal history that reads like a thriller.”
29 Debt of Honour by Tom Clancy
“The best from the man who dominated the genre for a decade.”
30 The Golden Rendezvous by Alistair MacLean
“His first dozen books are all great – why not start here?”
31 The Female Eunoch by Germaine Greer
“That rare thing – a book that changed the world.”
32 Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
“I read this 7 years ago and wanted him for president right then.”
33 The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
“A huge multi-generational crime saga – a book of the decade.”
34 The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
“ ‘Book Zero’ in terms of recent thriller evolution.”
35 Green River Rising by Tim Willocks
“Maybe the best-ever prison novel – terrific suspense.”
36 The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
“Much more than it seems – a masterclass in narrative drive.”
37 Brilliant Orange by David Winner
“My favourite sport explains one of my favourite cultures.”
38 Night Sky by Clare Francis
“The multitalented Ms Francis unleashes terrific suspense and a great ‘OMG’ moment.”
39 On the Beach by Nevil Shute
“The best of 1950s style – with 1950s concerns.”
40 The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
“A big meaty epic, sprawling and inclusive – like novels use to be.”
Ridley Award
From 2005 Idaho Governor's Proclamation regarding the Award (accessed 09/05/09)
WHEREAS, Popular Fiction Association of Idaho, Inc. is a volunteer, non-profit, community based organization that promotes education and literacy in the community; and
WHEREAS, children need to be encouraged to read and write and be rewarded for their efforts to expand their knowledge and imagination; and
WHEREAS, it is good for the community to have authors, editors, and agents speak to and advise society about mystery writing; and
WHEREAS, Popular Fiction Association of Idaho, Inc. has volunteered to organize the giving of an annual award by the State of Idaho to an author who has significantly contributed to the mystery field; and
WHEREAS, such award shall be named after Idaho’s best selling suspense author, Ridley Pearson and Ridley Pearson has agreed that such an award be named after him; and
WHEREAS, Carolyn Hart is the author of more than thirty-five novels, is a widely acclaimed author of mystery and general fiction, and she has been chosen to be the fifth recipient of The Ridley;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Governor of the State of Idaho, do hereby proclaim that THE RIDLEY be given annually to a writer who has significantly contributed to the mystery field and that the fifth recipient of "The Ridley" be Carolyn Hart on June 11th, 2005, at Boise's annual mystery conference, Murder in the Grove.
WHEREAS, Popular Fiction Association of Idaho, Inc. is a volunteer, non-profit, community based organization that promotes education and literacy in the community; and
WHEREAS, children need to be encouraged to read and write and be rewarded for their efforts to expand their knowledge and imagination; and
WHEREAS, it is good for the community to have authors, editors, and agents speak to and advise society about mystery writing; and
WHEREAS, Popular Fiction Association of Idaho, Inc. has volunteered to organize the giving of an annual award by the State of Idaho to an author who has significantly contributed to the mystery field; and
WHEREAS, such award shall be named after Idaho’s best selling suspense author, Ridley Pearson and Ridley Pearson has agreed that such an award be named after him; and
WHEREAS, Carolyn Hart is the author of more than thirty-five novels, is a widely acclaimed author of mystery and general fiction, and she has been chosen to be the fifth recipient of The Ridley;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Governor of the State of Idaho, do hereby proclaim that THE RIDLEY be given annually to a writer who has significantly contributed to the mystery field and that the fifth recipient of "The Ridley" be Carolyn Hart on June 11th, 2005, at Boise's annual mystery conference, Murder in the Grove.
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