Dailies

Nan Goldberg, on the lasted Scott Turow.

Michael Kenney on Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy, by Malcolm Gaskill.

Sarah Tomlinson on Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir, by Lisa Crystal Carver.

Janet Maslin on The Truth (With Jokes), by Al Franken.

Tom Zeller, Jr. on Gary Benchley, Rock Star, by Paul Ford.

Orange County Register: “Ryan Gattis, 27, is a rising star in the literary world. He's that rare cultural mix-master who can both lecture on Victorian poets and write a novel about the "`gangbanger' Armageddon" that's a hot property in Hollywood.”

Ack, a book review all in bold.  I guess that means we should pay attention?

Yet another way to break into the publishing biz: “Starting in August, any author (established or self-published) who has a book for sale on Amazon.com can submit a previously unpublished fiction or non-fiction piece (2,000-10,000 words) for customers to download as a web page, PDF, or plain-text e-mail for $0.49 each.”

Dumbest. Headline. Ever.

Noam Chomsky: “The beauty of concision is that you can only repeat conventional thoughts."

Surfer fiction.

The cover of the new Amy Tan shocked the heck out of me when I first saw it this weekend.  Alas, don’t judge a book…

     

Dailies

Mike Wallace has written a second memoir.

An interesting premise for a second novel by Lori Lansens called, The Girls: “The Girls, Rose and Ruby Darlen, are on their way to becoming the world's oldest surviving craniopagus twins - they are attached at the head - if they live to their 30th birthday. Abandoned at birth, they are adopted by a no-nonsense middle-aged nurse and her Slovakian-Canadian husband who try to raise them in as normal an environment as possible on a farm in southwestern Ontario.”

The Canoe reviews “San Francisco Is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquakes and Fires”, by Jason Smith.  It will go in my ‘maybe’ pile.

John Roderickap on “Mao: The Unknown Story”.

The French translation of the latest Harry Pothead is 120 pages longer.  120 painful pages longer, I assume.

Picked up today from the library for the next two weeks of commuting:

1. Tooth and Claw, by T.C. Boyle


2. One Matchless Times: A Life of William Faulkner, by Jay Parini


3. Tori Amos: Piece by Piece, by Tori Amos and Ann Powers

Dailies

Bostonist reports that November is National Novel Writing Month.  Get those pens out.

Bill Clinton is keynoting the Texas Book Festival.  Irony noted.

Sports Illustrated online has started a monthly book club.  The selection for October is All the Stars Came Out That Night, by Kevin King.

Alan Alda on his new book: “Letting somebody else tell me what to think is a way of stuffing the dog," he says with a laugh. "My telling somebody else what to think is the same thing."

Kate Holden on Mom, Missing: “This novel, though accomplished and moving, runs too long. Given Oates' undoubted powers of imagination and her gift for fluent representations of quotidian suburban life under stress, it contains some poignant episodes. I wanted to like this book, and there was in fact a kind of soothing attraction in its stately pace through the grey waters of sorrow. But stately becomes indulgent; in the end, as I waded through Nikki's flappings and wailings in search of peace, I, too, missed Gwen.”  - (agreed.  This book seemed rushed.  I read it quickly on two flights across the country because I felt sorry for JCO.  This novel lacked character development which was desperately needed due to the comprehensive plot.)

Nelson Mandela has launched a comic book series to get kids in South Africa to read.  

UPI: “Northwestern University's library has turned down an offer of two books on Africa from Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, serving a life sentence in Colorado.”

Fernanda Ezabella on the forthcoming Jose Saramago novel:  “The story depicts Death as a woman who goes on strike because she is fed up with being hated by people.  Chaos follows. Hospitals fill up, people keep growing old without dying, and the pension system overloads. Soon the church campaigns for Death to return.”  Yet again, I’ll have to wait impatiently for the translation.

Is the solution to teens’ short attention spans not reading entire books?

Dailies

Steve Martin will be receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

William T. Vollmann is one of the featured writers in the 2005 Best American Travel Writing.  Other authors include: William Least-Heat Moon, Ian Frazier, John McPhee, Simon Winchester, Tom Bissell, Madison Smartt Bell, Timothy Bascom, and Pam Houston.  (Thanks Gadling).

Reuters: “German publishers, keen to defend their copyrights as Internet search engines seek to put the world's literature online, aim to set up their own Web-based database allowing readers to browse, borrow or buy books.”  - Let the electronic fighting over the printed word begin.

AFP: “Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who risks a jail sentence for his remarks about the massacre of Armenians during the Ottoman empire, defended his political outspokenness as he received the German book trade's prestigious peace prize.”

Courtney Brummer on the growing popularity of bookclubs.

How Sue Monk Kidd dropped nursing and started writing: “I remember making an announcement to my husband that I was no longer going to be a nurse and I was going to begin to write,”

The Daily

AFP:  “Scottish author A.L. Kennedy said that she was writing a new novel set in World War II in part inspired by the war in Iraq, which she bitterly opposes.”

Daily Wrap-Up

Randy Myers of the Wichita Eagle on a movie about the life of Truman Capote.

Joe Eskenazi of the Jewish News Weekly on the 17th annual Contra Costa Jewish Book Festival, November 5th through 14th.

AFP: “In a broad swipe at conservative politicians, best-selling British author Nick Hornby advised Germans to emigrate before Angela Merkel becomes their next chancellor.”

Asaf Carmel of Haaretz on a book by Menashe Darash being fought by the Hasidic who don’t want it published.

Reuters: “Major book publishers have quietly begun selling directly to customers over the Internet, in a move that could transform the trade by putting them in competition with online retailers like Amazon.com.”

Tayari Jones visited an independent book store in Maryland, and found that they thrive because of good customer service and the passion of the users that frequent the place.

Loooooong Books

Why are long books such a big issue? Sure, they might be hard to sell, but who cares? As long as they make for interesting reading...

Miami Write Machine

Gloria Estefan has penned a childrens book:

"I'm a writer and this is what I love to do. There's no reason that just because you're a celebrity you can't write," Estefan, known for hits like "Conga" and "Rhythm is Gonna Get You," told Reuters in a recent interview."

"I've been offered a lot of things that celebrities do that I wouldn't do, like perfumes, lines of clothing and this, that and the other," she said. "But this is right up my alley."

Readers, not critics make lists

An editorial on why Canadian authors didn't fair well in a "favorite books" list:

"Well it almost certainly means only that Canadian readers have eclectic tastes, as varied and various as one might hope they would be. Some people read some books simply because they like them. This explains a great deal about best-seller lists. Some people read some books because they believe they are supposed to like them. This explains a lot about literary critics. And some people read books just because they like reading books. This explains how book stores stay in business and why libraries still matter."

"As for Can-Lit, despite its poor showing on this list -- on another list on another day different writers will shine -- it is in better shape than it has ever been, with Canadian writers enjoying the kind of acclaim at home and abroad that previous generations could only imagine."

And We Have A Winner

The Sea by John Banville wins the Man Booker Prize for literature:

"Banville's offering trumped Julian Barnes, former winner Kazuo Ishiguro and Zadie Smith to take the prize, worth the equivalent of $88,000 US, at an awards ceremony Monday night in London."

Nancy Drew - Graphic Novelist

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 75 year old Nancy Drew is now writing graphic novels, with the help of a Catalonian born Japanese artist:

"On a recent bright and sunny afternoon, Murase sat deep inside her dark office -- wearing an acid-green Pop Art halter top, a wide grommet belt, low- rise cargo pants and fawn suede platform boots -- drawing directly on her computer screen with an interactive pen."

"With a few bold strokes, her sure hand sketched the face of the new Nancy Drew. Her brand-new Cintiq monitor, with a 21-inch flat screen, is state of the art for computer animators."

Booker Prize Fiinalists Named

It's book award season. The Booker Finalists were named. More on the Booker Award site.

New Harry Potter Book Sales Hit 11 Million

The craziness continues. The latest Harry Pothead has sold over 11 million copies. Sad. The day will come when some books are read not because everyone else does, but due to the ability to think for oneself and actually browse shelves and read summaries.

Don't let your friends become a Harry Pothead. More importantly, don't become one yourself. Be your own reader.

Building a Mystery

The NYTBR on the latest $5.99 Stephen King:

"[I]t's a mystery that isn't a mystery so much as a book that comments on mysteries, designed to look like a midcentury pulp novel. And you thought 'Misery' was postmodern."

Nobel Split Delays Book Prize

The rumors continue to swirl of the delay in awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature. According to the Guardian, there is some internal debate as to whether Orhan Pamuk should win:

"Pamuk's latest novel, Snow, has been widely acclaimed for addressing Turkey's internal clash of cultures. His earlier work, My Name is Red, established his literary prowess. But the author is controversial for an assertion he made in a newspaper interview earlier this year that the Turkish state was guilty of a 20th century genocide against Armenians and Kurds. He faces trial for the comments in his country on 16 December."

This award should be based on works, not what authors say or do outside of the job. If this was the case, half of the players in the baseball hall of fame shouldn't have been inducted.

I'm still pulling for Joyce Carol Oates...then again, my vote doesn't count. This is isn't the Quills.

Missing Mom (US) - Mother, Missing (UK)

The postal worker supplied me with my second copy of JCO's new novel (her 44th) this afternoon (not sure why I ordered two, this one is returning to sender). 400+ pages of JCO bliss is waiting for me on my nightstand. But first, what do critics think:

+ Guardian - "Mother, Missing is Joyce Carol Oates's 44th novel. Like her previous book, Rape: A Love Story, a powerful novella about the unpredictable after-effects of a violent rape, it is inspired by real events, in this case her mother's death. The book is being published in the US under the title Missing Mom, which is much more apt - despite the criminal element of Gwen's death, the novel is mainly about a daughter's grief for her mother, and Oates writes addressing a reader who will one day, inevitably, identify with Nikki's bereavement."

+ CSM - "This is not to say that "Missing Mom" doesn't have its pleasures. But the plot and characters are so relentlessly conventional, it's almost as if Oates decided to try her hand at a chick-lit novel. This is certainly her right, but the result feels a bit like hiring chef Ming Tsai to grill hot dogs."

+ NYT - "Oates's grip on crime, violence and the long-buried is sure, but "Missing Mom" is actually more disturbing in its relentless, dead-on accretion of small-time, small-town, middle-class details. Oates piles them on with pitiless virtuosity. The dishes like Hawaiian Chicken Supreme, Gwen's "wash-and-wear" perm, Nikki's "gold-spangled high-heeled sandals" and magenta lipstick, the afghans and ranch houses and cocktail sausages and coveted gift certificates to Restoration Hardware compose a cosmology of despair. Only a chalk outline can make them seem important in the world, and even then, not for very long. The brutality of blunt-force trauma might be easier to endure, ultimately, than the brutality of never mattering. At least the former is over quickly."

+ Independent - "Perhaps Oates is simply less disillusioned with the world than she was. Not so much that she will erase the violence from the heart of her books, as it is not erased from the heart of the world, but enough to offer a happier ending. Then again, perhaps in offering us a story-book ending she is simply playing up the fictional aspect of it all. No, she tells us sombrely, the world is a bad place and there is no comfort to be had. The only comfort is to be found in the pages of a book."

People's Book Awards?

I've always been apprehensive of book awards. Some authors that win big national awards probably shouldn't, and those that should, don't. I thought Stephen King deserved the American Letters Award and many literary writers panned it. I think William T. Vollmann should win the National Book Award and he hasn't (yet). So, I'm not surprised that the Quills haven't been as much play as their creators thought they would. Do people really care about voting for book awards? This isn't American Idol or any other Vote-The-Idiot-Off-The-Show diatribe. These are books. Let the readers enjoy and the metamorphosis occur.

Stephen King might disagree:

"The people who speak out, speak out because they are passionate about the book, about the word, about the page and, in that sense, we're all brothers and sisters. Give yourself a hand."

Audio Book Reader Passes On

One of the most popular voices in audiobooks has passed on:

"David Case, a British actor who used his gift of mimicry to become one of the "golden voices" of the recorded book industry, died last Saturday at his home in El Sobrante. He was 73."

On the Road

A new book has been released documenting literary landmarks around the United States. From Amazon:

"Readers and travelers are guided to more than 200 homes and historic sites of America’s greatest writers—from the Jack London Ranch in northern California to William Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Mississippi. Clear driving directions and visitor instructions are combined with unique tidbits about each site and author, such as the story of Jack London’s custom-made furniture and the roll top desk and Dictaphone on display in his study. Literary enthusiasts are guided to the site of Thoreau’s bean field, where they can poke around an exact replica of his cabin. They can drop in on Margaret Mitchell’s recently restored Atlanta apartment or visit John Steinbeck’s haunts in the cozy California seaside town of Pacific Grove. This family-oriented, user-friendly guide teaches literary folk about writers' work, their philosophies, and the forces that compelled them to write. All 50 states are represented, and the literary sites are divided by geographic regions."

544 pages of reading about places where people wrote and the places they wrote about.