Learning Victorian England through Dickens and Cartoons of the time:
History Trail - Victorian Britain
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
From the Read Ireland Newsletter:
Read Ireland Book News - Issue 238
----------------------------------
Shackleton: The Polar Journeys by Ernest Shackleton
(Hardback; 35.00 Euro / 42.50 USD / 26.50 UK; 660 pages, with photos and maps)
This book combines Heart of the Antarctic and South, Ernest Shackleton's personal accounts of his polar expeditions.
Heart of the Antarctic is the story of his polar expedition of 1907-1909, part of his never-ending quest to reach the South Pole. On this, his first expedition in sole charge, he came agonisingly close to achieving his dream. Appalling weather conditions, however, together with the necessity of reaching his shop before it had to flee the advancing pack-ice, forced him to abandon his goal in a breathtaking race against time. With photographs taken on the expedition by Douglas Mawson, and numerous maps and diagrams, this is a fascinating record of all time. The is the only complete edition available.
South is Shackleton's account of a journey that began in August 1914 with high hopes of a first exploration and ended two years later in a desperate struggle for survival, after the expedition's ship, the Endurance, was first trapped in sea-ice, then crushed. Shackleton, with a handful of his party, braved the fury of the South Atlantic as they made their desperate 800-mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia aboard the James Caird. This small boat - just over 20 feet long - was pitted against the fury of the southern ocean. The survival of the entire expedition was hinged on this last gamble.
Sir Ernest Shackleton was one of the greatest and most colourful explorers of his time. Born in County Kildare in 1874, he was educated in London and apprenticed in the Merchant Navy before becoming a junior officer under Captain Robert Scott, on Discovery, between 1901 and 1904. From this point on, his life was devoted to polar exploration, and raising funds for his projects. He died in South Georgia in 1922 while on his fourth Antarctic expedition.
My Life on the Road by Nan Joyce
(Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 12.50 USD / 7.00 UK; 120 pages)
Irish travellers have been on the road for hundreds of years, earning a living as tinsmiths, musicians, carpenters, and horse and scrap dealers. In this moving story of her life, Nan Joyce tells of idyllic days camped in the countryside, of fireside storytelling, happy days at school in England, horse fairs and marriage customs. But Nan's family, like so many other travellers, were often treated as outcasts without rights. She remembers evictions from traditional campsites in the middle of winter and having to beg to survive. After her father died her mother was imprisoned for a year for stealing scrap to provide for the family. Nan and her brothers and sisters were left to fend for themselves. This vivid memoir is laced with humour, charity and love of life. In an afterword, the author tells of her life since this classic autobiography was first published in 1985.
--------------------------------------------------
The Stolen Child: A Memoir by Joe Dunne
(Paperback; 12.95 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 220 pages)
The happiness of Joe Dunne's early life was blights when neighbours complained to the local Sisters of Charity that his young, widowed mother was misbehaving - allowing herself to be courted, and throwing parties in their North Strand home. The response of the Church and state was swift. In 1928, at the age of five, Joe was ordered to be detained in the care of the state until his sixteenth birthday. Separated from his mother and sister, he grew up in industrial schools in Kilkenny and Dublin - a fact that he kept secret from his colleagues in the Post Office for almost fifty years. In this book, he tells his story with honesty, humour, and courage, describing how he suffered the trauma of a lonely, institutionalised upbringing, learning to make the most of the few pleasures that came his way. This book is a moving, brave account of a childhood endured with grace and faith.
Read Ireland Book News - Issue 238
----------------------------------
Shackleton: The Polar Journeys by Ernest Shackleton
(Hardback; 35.00 Euro / 42.50 USD / 26.50 UK; 660 pages, with photos and maps)
This book combines Heart of the Antarctic and South, Ernest Shackleton's personal accounts of his polar expeditions.
Heart of the Antarctic is the story of his polar expedition of 1907-1909, part of his never-ending quest to reach the South Pole. On this, his first expedition in sole charge, he came agonisingly close to achieving his dream. Appalling weather conditions, however, together with the necessity of reaching his shop before it had to flee the advancing pack-ice, forced him to abandon his goal in a breathtaking race against time. With photographs taken on the expedition by Douglas Mawson, and numerous maps and diagrams, this is a fascinating record of all time. The is the only complete edition available.
South is Shackleton's account of a journey that began in August 1914 with high hopes of a first exploration and ended two years later in a desperate struggle for survival, after the expedition's ship, the Endurance, was first trapped in sea-ice, then crushed. Shackleton, with a handful of his party, braved the fury of the South Atlantic as they made their desperate 800-mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia aboard the James Caird. This small boat - just over 20 feet long - was pitted against the fury of the southern ocean. The survival of the entire expedition was hinged on this last gamble.
Sir Ernest Shackleton was one of the greatest and most colourful explorers of his time. Born in County Kildare in 1874, he was educated in London and apprenticed in the Merchant Navy before becoming a junior officer under Captain Robert Scott, on Discovery, between 1901 and 1904. From this point on, his life was devoted to polar exploration, and raising funds for his projects. He died in South Georgia in 1922 while on his fourth Antarctic expedition.
My Life on the Road by Nan Joyce
(Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 12.50 USD / 7.00 UK; 120 pages)
Irish travellers have been on the road for hundreds of years, earning a living as tinsmiths, musicians, carpenters, and horse and scrap dealers. In this moving story of her life, Nan Joyce tells of idyllic days camped in the countryside, of fireside storytelling, happy days at school in England, horse fairs and marriage customs. But Nan's family, like so many other travellers, were often treated as outcasts without rights. She remembers evictions from traditional campsites in the middle of winter and having to beg to survive. After her father died her mother was imprisoned for a year for stealing scrap to provide for the family. Nan and her brothers and sisters were left to fend for themselves. This vivid memoir is laced with humour, charity and love of life. In an afterword, the author tells of her life since this classic autobiography was first published in 1985.
--------------------------------------------------
The Stolen Child: A Memoir by Joe Dunne
(Paperback; 12.95 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 220 pages)
The happiness of Joe Dunne's early life was blights when neighbours complained to the local Sisters of Charity that his young, widowed mother was misbehaving - allowing herself to be courted, and throwing parties in their North Strand home. The response of the Church and state was swift. In 1928, at the age of five, Joe was ordered to be detained in the care of the state until his sixteenth birthday. Separated from his mother and sister, he grew up in industrial schools in Kilkenny and Dublin - a fact that he kept secret from his colleagues in the Post Office for almost fifty years. In this book, he tells his story with honesty, humour, and courage, describing how he suffered the trauma of a lonely, institutionalised upbringing, learning to make the most of the few pleasures that came his way. This book is a moving, brave account of a childhood endured with grace and faith.
Yum! Some Summer Books from the Houston Chronicle:
May 23, 2003, 3:59PM
Summer books
From Harry Potter to James Patterson to presidential politics, there's something for every reading taste
By FRITZ LANHAM
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
This summer one book will be the proverbial elephant in the parlor, impossible to ignore. We're talking, of course, about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth in J.K. Rowling's series of novels about the intrepid boy-wizard. It arrives in bookstores June 21.
[but] . . .
Harry Potter won't be the only book published this summer. It will only seem that way. A glance at the fiction lists turns up familiar names, especially in the mystery and thriller genres: James Patterson, Walter Mosley, Minette Walters, Dean Koontz, Lee Child, Janet Evanovich.
Larry McMurtry delivers the second installment of his proposed four-part saga of the Berrybender clan, an English family struggling to make its way in the wild and woolly American West of the 1830s. Tom Robbins, another writer with a loyal following, has a new novel.
Two prolific literary novelists, Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood, have books. The latter's is another futuristic novel that should appeal to fans of The Handmaid's Tale.
Among the odder offerings is a novel about the battle of Gettysburg penned by Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. "An action-packed and painstakingly researched masterwork," the publisher assures. For some reason, Gettysburg is a hot topic this summer. Newt's effort is one of at least five books on the battle — three nonfiction, the other a mystery.
Publishers tend to frontload their summer releases, so most of the titles below will have arrived by early July.
Now for the details, starting with fiction.
· · ·
James Patterson is one. If Lake House (Little, Brown, $26.95) doesn't top the New York Times chart at some point, I'll eat my Octavio Dotel T-shirt. A sequel to When the Wind Blows, the novel revisits the six children who escaped a nasty government experiment. They face a new peril that threatens the whole of humanity.
Dean Koontz is another. The title character of The Face (Bantam, $26.95) is a Hollywood star of dazzling good looks. Some twisted soul is out to get him. Facing down the baddie is ex-cop Ethan Truman.
Janet Evanovich has broken from the pack of female mystery writers. Her last one, Hard Eight, was a No. 1 best seller. To the Nines (St. Martin's, $25.95), which finds bounty hunter Stephanie Plum tangling with the mob in Las Vegas, may well duplicate. Evanovich's novels are funny, energetic escapism.
Count on harder-boiled fare from Lee Child, whose Persuader ($24.95) has ex-Army cop Jack Reacher going undercover to investigate the disappearance of a federal agent, and from John Sandford, whose Naked Prey (Putnam, $26.95) centers on the apparent lynching of an interracial couple in the woods of northern Minnesota.
Catherine Coulter's Blindside (Putnam, $25.95), featuring married FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich, should show up in the hands of poolside loungers. The pair investigates the kidnapping of a former FBI agent's 6-year-old son. A charismatic evangelist and his enigmatic wife figure in the plot.
· · ·
In literary fiction, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday, $26) is a "what-if" tale about a post-apocalyptic world. The main character, Snowman, who survives an appalling worldwide calamity, is surrounded by not-quite-humans and dangerous neoanimals created by genetic engineering. The publisher calls the novel "a cautionary tale for the 21st century." Two A-list British novelists, both winners of the Booker Prize, have offerings. In The Light of Day (Knopf, $24), Graham Swift makes a nod to the detective genre, exploring the life of an ex-policeman turned private investigator and his relationship with a former client. Penelope Lively's 13th novel, The Photography (Viking, $24.95), begins with a man opening an envelope and discovering a photo of his late wife hand-in-hand with another man.
Norman Rush, winner of the National Book Award for Mating, seems to favor one-word titles. Mortals (Knopf, $26.95), set in 1990s Botswana, details the misadventures of three expatriate Americans — a CIA agent posing as a teacher, his disaffected wife and a doctor on a personal mission to lift the yoke of Christian belief from Africa. From Christina Garcia, a National Book Award finalist (Dreaming in Cuban), comes Monkey Hunting (Knopf, $23), the saga of a Chinese-Cuban family. It's set partly in Havana, the locale also for King Bongo (Knopf, $25) by Thomas Sanchez (best-known for his Key West novel Mile Zero). A bomb destroys a Havana nightclub on New Year's Eve 1957, and the title character goes in search of the culprits and of his sister, Cuba's most exotic showgirl.
A trailer behind a gas station in West Texas is the starting point for Getting Mother's Body (Random House, $23.95) by Suzan-Lori Parks, winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for drama. A young African-American woman, unmarried and pregnant, embarks on a quest for the cache of jewels rumored to be buried with her mother in Arizona.
It's Parks' first novel. Other debuts this summer include Ellen Ullman's The Bug (Doubleday, $23.95), about a demonic computer software bug and the havoc it wreaks. The author has worked as a software engineer for 20 years and is the author of the memoir Close to the Machine
Perhaps the most improbable debut arrives from pro wrestler-turned-author Mick Foley (Foley Is Good). The main character in Tietam Brown (Knopf, $23.95) is a teen-ager who arrives at Conestoga High School after seven years in reform school and finds himself pursued by the homecoming queen, a born-again Christian. Zany and deeply moving is how the publisher describes the story.
Zany might also apply to Tim Sandlin's Honey Don't (Putnam, $24.95), set in the near future and dealing, among other things, with a goatish president dying in flagrante, a Mafia bagman, a coke-snorting vice president and a free-spirited Texas woman named Honey.
Sandlin's publisher links his name with those of Joseph Heller, J.D. Salinger and Tom Robbins, the last of whom has a new novel himself. Robbins' Villa Incognito (Bantam, $27.50) is already on the best-seller list. Three Americans missing in action after the Vietnam War launch the whirligig plot.
Ten Little Indians (Grove, $24) is Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories about contemporary Native American life. Alexie is known for his unsparing yet often comic treatment of his characters' plights.
Not only is Joyce Carol Oates the most prolific literary novelist in the country, but she also never seems to step in the same river twice. Her latest, The Tattooed Girl (Ecco, $25.95), has a reclusive writer known for his Holocaust novel hiring as an assistant a near-illiterate young woman, who turns out to be a violent anti-Semite.
At 448 pages, The Paris Review Book (Picador, $25) is among the heftier literary titles of the season. For 50 years the Paris Review has published the finest writers in the world — Philip Roth, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, to name just a few. To commemorate its arrival at the half-century mark, its editors have put together this anthology of fiction, poetry, essays and interviews.
· · ·
For frothier fun, turn to The Devil Wears Prada (Doubleday, $21.95), Lauren Weisberger's comic novel about a small-town product who lands the job a million girls would die for as assistant to the high-powered, high-maintenance editor of a Vogue-like fashion magazine. It's already a best seller.
Young women, big city -- a natural for fiction. Candace Bushnell is best-known for Sex and the City, her 1996 collection of newspaper columns that inspired the HBO series. Trading Up (Hyperion, $24.95) is her comedy of manners centered on lingerie model Janey Wilcox.
The award for most intriguing title of the season goes to Aliza Valdes-Rodriguez for The Dirty Girls Social Club (St. Martin's, $24.95), about the lives and loves of six ambitious Latina twentysomethings.
Summer brings new novels from Eric Jerome Dickey, whose The Other Woman (Dutton, $23.95) deals with a woman confronted with her husband's infidelity; Johanna Lindsey, whose A Man to Call My Own (Atria, $25) features twins sent to live on a sprawling Texas ranch after the death of their father; and Danielle Steel, whose Johnny Angel (Delacorte, $19.95) is about a family nearly shattered by the death of a teen-age son.
If historical fiction is to your taste, there's American Empire: The Victorious Opposition (Ballantine, $27.95), the third and final volume in Harry Turtledove's alternative history of the United States. The time is the 1930s; fascists control the Confederacy. War with the United States looms.
Also in the category of alternative history is Newt Gingrich's Gettysburg (St. Martin's, $24.95), which explores how the Civil War would have unfolded had Robert E. Lee won the pivotal battle.
Larry McMurtry's The Wandering Hill
For more selections: Houston Chronicle Summer Books
May 23, 2003, 3:59PM
Summer books
From Harry Potter to James Patterson to presidential politics, there's something for every reading taste
By FRITZ LANHAM
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
This summer one book will be the proverbial elephant in the parlor, impossible to ignore. We're talking, of course, about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth in J.K. Rowling's series of novels about the intrepid boy-wizard. It arrives in bookstores June 21.
[but] . . .
Harry Potter won't be the only book published this summer. It will only seem that way. A glance at the fiction lists turns up familiar names, especially in the mystery and thriller genres: James Patterson, Walter Mosley, Minette Walters, Dean Koontz, Lee Child, Janet Evanovich.
Larry McMurtry delivers the second installment of his proposed four-part saga of the Berrybender clan, an English family struggling to make its way in the wild and woolly American West of the 1830s. Tom Robbins, another writer with a loyal following, has a new novel.
Two prolific literary novelists, Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood, have books. The latter's is another futuristic novel that should appeal to fans of The Handmaid's Tale.
Among the odder offerings is a novel about the battle of Gettysburg penned by Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. "An action-packed and painstakingly researched masterwork," the publisher assures. For some reason, Gettysburg is a hot topic this summer. Newt's effort is one of at least five books on the battle — three nonfiction, the other a mystery.
Publishers tend to frontload their summer releases, so most of the titles below will have arrived by early July.
Now for the details, starting with fiction.
· · ·
James Patterson is one. If Lake House (Little, Brown, $26.95) doesn't top the New York Times chart at some point, I'll eat my Octavio Dotel T-shirt. A sequel to When the Wind Blows, the novel revisits the six children who escaped a nasty government experiment. They face a new peril that threatens the whole of humanity.
Dean Koontz is another. The title character of The Face (Bantam, $26.95) is a Hollywood star of dazzling good looks. Some twisted soul is out to get him. Facing down the baddie is ex-cop Ethan Truman.
Janet Evanovich has broken from the pack of female mystery writers. Her last one, Hard Eight, was a No. 1 best seller. To the Nines (St. Martin's, $25.95), which finds bounty hunter Stephanie Plum tangling with the mob in Las Vegas, may well duplicate. Evanovich's novels are funny, energetic escapism.
Count on harder-boiled fare from Lee Child, whose Persuader ($24.95) has ex-Army cop Jack Reacher going undercover to investigate the disappearance of a federal agent, and from John Sandford, whose Naked Prey (Putnam, $26.95) centers on the apparent lynching of an interracial couple in the woods of northern Minnesota.
Catherine Coulter's Blindside (Putnam, $25.95), featuring married FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich, should show up in the hands of poolside loungers. The pair investigates the kidnapping of a former FBI agent's 6-year-old son. A charismatic evangelist and his enigmatic wife figure in the plot.
· · ·
In literary fiction, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday, $26) is a "what-if" tale about a post-apocalyptic world. The main character, Snowman, who survives an appalling worldwide calamity, is surrounded by not-quite-humans and dangerous neoanimals created by genetic engineering. The publisher calls the novel "a cautionary tale for the 21st century." Two A-list British novelists, both winners of the Booker Prize, have offerings. In The Light of Day (Knopf, $24), Graham Swift makes a nod to the detective genre, exploring the life of an ex-policeman turned private investigator and his relationship with a former client. Penelope Lively's 13th novel, The Photography (Viking, $24.95), begins with a man opening an envelope and discovering a photo of his late wife hand-in-hand with another man.
Norman Rush, winner of the National Book Award for Mating, seems to favor one-word titles. Mortals (Knopf, $26.95), set in 1990s Botswana, details the misadventures of three expatriate Americans — a CIA agent posing as a teacher, his disaffected wife and a doctor on a personal mission to lift the yoke of Christian belief from Africa. From Christina Garcia, a National Book Award finalist (Dreaming in Cuban), comes Monkey Hunting (Knopf, $23), the saga of a Chinese-Cuban family. It's set partly in Havana, the locale also for King Bongo (Knopf, $25) by Thomas Sanchez (best-known for his Key West novel Mile Zero). A bomb destroys a Havana nightclub on New Year's Eve 1957, and the title character goes in search of the culprits and of his sister, Cuba's most exotic showgirl.
A trailer behind a gas station in West Texas is the starting point for Getting Mother's Body (Random House, $23.95) by Suzan-Lori Parks, winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for drama. A young African-American woman, unmarried and pregnant, embarks on a quest for the cache of jewels rumored to be buried with her mother in Arizona.
It's Parks' first novel. Other debuts this summer include Ellen Ullman's The Bug (Doubleday, $23.95), about a demonic computer software bug and the havoc it wreaks. The author has worked as a software engineer for 20 years and is the author of the memoir Close to the Machine
Perhaps the most improbable debut arrives from pro wrestler-turned-author Mick Foley (Foley Is Good). The main character in Tietam Brown (Knopf, $23.95) is a teen-ager who arrives at Conestoga High School after seven years in reform school and finds himself pursued by the homecoming queen, a born-again Christian. Zany and deeply moving is how the publisher describes the story.
Zany might also apply to Tim Sandlin's Honey Don't (Putnam, $24.95), set in the near future and dealing, among other things, with a goatish president dying in flagrante, a Mafia bagman, a coke-snorting vice president and a free-spirited Texas woman named Honey.
Sandlin's publisher links his name with those of Joseph Heller, J.D. Salinger and Tom Robbins, the last of whom has a new novel himself. Robbins' Villa Incognito (Bantam, $27.50) is already on the best-seller list. Three Americans missing in action after the Vietnam War launch the whirligig plot.
Ten Little Indians (Grove, $24) is Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories about contemporary Native American life. Alexie is known for his unsparing yet often comic treatment of his characters' plights.
Not only is Joyce Carol Oates the most prolific literary novelist in the country, but she also never seems to step in the same river twice. Her latest, The Tattooed Girl (Ecco, $25.95), has a reclusive writer known for his Holocaust novel hiring as an assistant a near-illiterate young woman, who turns out to be a violent anti-Semite.
At 448 pages, The Paris Review Book (Picador, $25) is among the heftier literary titles of the season. For 50 years the Paris Review has published the finest writers in the world — Philip Roth, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, to name just a few. To commemorate its arrival at the half-century mark, its editors have put together this anthology of fiction, poetry, essays and interviews.
· · ·
For frothier fun, turn to The Devil Wears Prada (Doubleday, $21.95), Lauren Weisberger's comic novel about a small-town product who lands the job a million girls would die for as assistant to the high-powered, high-maintenance editor of a Vogue-like fashion magazine. It's already a best seller.
Young women, big city -- a natural for fiction. Candace Bushnell is best-known for Sex and the City, her 1996 collection of newspaper columns that inspired the HBO series. Trading Up (Hyperion, $24.95) is her comedy of manners centered on lingerie model Janey Wilcox.
The award for most intriguing title of the season goes to Aliza Valdes-Rodriguez for The Dirty Girls Social Club (St. Martin's, $24.95), about the lives and loves of six ambitious Latina twentysomethings.
Summer brings new novels from Eric Jerome Dickey, whose The Other Woman (Dutton, $23.95) deals with a woman confronted with her husband's infidelity; Johanna Lindsey, whose A Man to Call My Own (Atria, $25) features twins sent to live on a sprawling Texas ranch after the death of their father; and Danielle Steel, whose Johnny Angel (Delacorte, $19.95) is about a family nearly shattered by the death of a teen-age son.
If historical fiction is to your taste, there's American Empire: The Victorious Opposition (Ballantine, $27.95), the third and final volume in Harry Turtledove's alternative history of the United States. The time is the 1930s; fascists control the Confederacy. War with the United States looms.
Also in the category of alternative history is Newt Gingrich's Gettysburg (St. Martin's, $24.95), which explores how the Civil War would have unfolded had Robert E. Lee won the pivotal battle.
Larry McMurtry's The Wandering Hill
For more selections: Houston Chronicle Summer Books
Friday, May 23, 2003
Thursday, May 22, 2003
I have just ordered the following books from the library:
East Lynne /, Wood, Henry, 1814-1887.
Sixpence House : lost in a town of books /, Collins, Paul, 1969-
Death of a village : a Hamish Macbeth mystery /, Beaton, M. C.
Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts : using the power of pleasure to have your way with the world /, Thomashauer, Regena.
The dive from Clausen's pier /, Packer, Ann, 1959
The golden compass /, Pullman, Philip, 1946-
The jester : a novel /, Patterson, James, 1947-
Just a little light reading!
East Lynne /, Wood, Henry, 1814-1887.
Sixpence House : lost in a town of books /, Collins, Paul, 1969-
Death of a village : a Hamish Macbeth mystery /, Beaton, M. C.
Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts : using the power of pleasure to have your way with the world /, Thomashauer, Regena.
The dive from Clausen's pier /, Packer, Ann, 1959
The golden compass /, Pullman, Philip, 1946-
The jester : a novel /, Patterson, James, 1947-
Just a little light reading!
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Literature - What Makes a Good Story?
Great site on the short story with working example:
Exhibits Collection -- Literature
Great site on the short story with working example:
Exhibits Collection -- Literature
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Bestsellers The January Magazine Online Bestseller List is reflective of book sales of international online booksellers.
This list was compiled for the week of May 12, 2003.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
The South Beach Diet
by Arthur Agatston
The Sinister Pig
by Tony Hillerman
Dreaming War
by Gore Vidal
Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution
by Robert C. Atkins
The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd
No Second Chance
by Harlan Coben
Leap of Faith
by Queen Noor Al-Hussein of Jordan
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (adult edition)
by J.K. Rowling
Holy Fools
by Joanne Harris
River Cafe Cookbook Easy
by Rose Gray & Ruth Rogers
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
by Eoin Colfer
Black Dahlia Avenger
by Lauren Weisberger Steve Hodel
Reefer Madness
by Eric Schlosser
Naked Prey
by John Sandford
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith
The Purpose-Driven Life
by Rick Warren
Krakatoa
by Simon Winchester
This list was compiled for the week of May 12, 2003.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
The South Beach Diet
by Arthur Agatston
The Sinister Pig
by Tony Hillerman
Dreaming War
by Gore Vidal
Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution
by Robert C. Atkins
The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd
No Second Chance
by Harlan Coben
Leap of Faith
by Queen Noor Al-Hussein of Jordan
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (adult edition)
by J.K. Rowling
Holy Fools
by Joanne Harris
River Cafe Cookbook Easy
by Rose Gray & Ruth Rogers
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
by Eoin Colfer
Black Dahlia Avenger
by Lauren Weisberger Steve Hodel
Reefer Madness
by Eric Schlosser
Naked Prey
by John Sandford
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith
The Purpose-Driven Life
by Rick Warren
Krakatoa
by Simon Winchester
New Book - The Teammates by David Halberstam.
Sounds great! But then I like baseball.
They had, the four of them -- Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, and Johnny Pesky -- played together on the Red Sox teams of the 1940s; Williams and Doerr went back even further: They were teenagers together on the San Diego Padres, a minor league team in the mid-'30s, and played with Boston in the late '30s. All four were men of a certain generation, born right at the end of World War One within 31 months of each other -- DiMaggio in 1917, Doerr and Williams in 1918, and Pesky in 1919. Doerr's middle name, in fact, was Pershing, after John "Black Jack" Pershing, the American general who had led the American troops in Europe in the Great War. On occasion, Doerr had been called Pershing by his teammates in the old days.
Sounds great! But then I like baseball.
They had, the four of them -- Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, and Johnny Pesky -- played together on the Red Sox teams of the 1940s; Williams and Doerr went back even further: They were teenagers together on the San Diego Padres, a minor league team in the mid-'30s, and played with Boston in the late '30s. All four were men of a certain generation, born right at the end of World War One within 31 months of each other -- DiMaggio in 1917, Doerr and Williams in 1918, and Pesky in 1919. Doerr's middle name, in fact, was Pershing, after John "Black Jack" Pershing, the American general who had led the American troops in Europe in the Great War. On occasion, Doerr had been called Pershing by his teammates in the old days.
Monday, May 12, 2003
Lulu : Marketplace for a World of Digital Content Professor? Trainer? Photographer? Musician?
If you're a budding author, musician, freelance photographer or illustrator, upload and sell your work on Lulu without paying a cent. Offering customizable storefronts, ISBNs for books, quarterly royalty payments, and free photo and file storage, Lulu gives content creators complete control over their own work
If you're a budding author, musician, freelance photographer or illustrator, upload and sell your work on Lulu without paying a cent. Offering customizable storefronts, ISBNs for books, quarterly royalty payments, and free photo and file storage, Lulu gives content creators complete control over their own work
May 10 Today in Literature:
TODAY: "Have you heard about the Toad?"
On this day in 1907 Kenneth Grahame wrote the first of a series
of letters to his son, Alastair, describing the Toad, Rat, Mole
and Badger adventures which became "The Wind in the Willows."
Grahame had been inventing such bedtime stories for several
years; putting them on paper at this point was occasioned by his
being separated from Alastair on his seventh birthday.
When Grahame offered "The Wind in the Willows" to his
publisher he described it as a book "of life, sunshine,
running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides,
free of problems, clear of the clash of sex, of life as
it might fairly be supposed to be regarded by some of the
wise, small things 'that glide in grasses and rubble of
woody wreck.'"
TODAY: "Have you heard about the Toad?"
On this day in 1907 Kenneth Grahame wrote the first of a series
of letters to his son, Alastair, describing the Toad, Rat, Mole
and Badger adventures which became "The Wind in the Willows."
Grahame had been inventing such bedtime stories for several
years; putting them on paper at this point was occasioned by his
being separated from Alastair on his seventh birthday.
When Grahame offered "The Wind in the Willows" to his
publisher he described it as a book "of life, sunshine,
running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides,
free of problems, clear of the clash of sex, of life as
it might fairly be supposed to be regarded by some of the
wise, small things 'that glide in grasses and rubble of
woody wreck.'"
From Today in Literature:
TODAY: Twain's "Life on the Mississippi"
On this day in 1883 Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" was
published. Much of the book had first appeared as a popular
magazine series years earlier; Twain saw an opportunity not only
for a profitable book but, after twenty-one years away, to
revisit the world of his youth - to do research, and "to see the
river again, and the steamboats, and such of the boys as might be
left." Twain's autobiography describes the misadventure by which
his career as a river-boat pilot began in the mid-1850s.
TODAY: Twain's "Life on the Mississippi"
On this day in 1883 Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" was
published. Much of the book had first appeared as a popular
magazine series years earlier; Twain saw an opportunity not only
for a profitable book but, after twenty-one years away, to
revisit the world of his youth - to do research, and "to see the
river again, and the steamboats, and such of the boys as might be
left." Twain's autobiography describes the misadventure by which
his career as a river-boat pilot began in the mid-1850s.
Thursday, May 08, 2003
Penguin Classics UK
They have a poll for who is the sexiest hero in classic literature:
Who is the sexiest hero in classic literature?
Heathcliff
Wuthering Heights
Mr Darcy
Pride and Prejudice
Mr Rochester
Jane Eyre
Prince Andrei
War and Peace
Hamlet
Eugene Onegin
So far, Mr. Darcy is winning. Eugene Onegin with the least - but I cannot imagine him as being the most sexiest at all.
They have a poll for who is the sexiest hero in classic literature:
Who is the sexiest hero in classic literature?
Heathcliff
Wuthering Heights
Mr Darcy
Pride and Prejudice
Mr Rochester
Jane Eyre
Prince Andrei
War and Peace
Hamlet
Eugene Onegin
So far, Mr. Darcy is winning. Eugene Onegin with the least - but I cannot imagine him as being the most sexiest at all.
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
This or that Tuesay - Media today
1. TV or radio? TV
2. On the radio: talk or music station? Music - 99.5 the Wolf
3. Actual books or books-on-tape (or e-books)? Actual books - must have paper.
4. Actual newspaper, or web version? actual - Dallas News; Web - NY Times
5. Wall Street Journal or National Enquirer? Neither
6. TV news...news channel such as CNN, or your local broadcast news? CNN; after 10 - local for weather
7. A movie you've been looking forward to seeing gets bad reviews all around. See it anyway, or pass? See it anyway - e.g. Gods and Generals
8. See movies when they first come out, or wait a few weeks for the lines at the theater to get shorter? Wait
9. TV: cable, satellite dish, or just plain old antenna? Satellite
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: If you had to choose only one form of media to come into your home, which would you choose...print (newspapers, magazines) or electronic (TV, internet)? Why? Print
1. TV or radio? TV
2. On the radio: talk or music station? Music - 99.5 the Wolf
3. Actual books or books-on-tape (or e-books)? Actual books - must have paper.
4. Actual newspaper, or web version? actual - Dallas News; Web - NY Times
5. Wall Street Journal or National Enquirer? Neither
6. TV news...news channel such as CNN, or your local broadcast news? CNN; after 10 - local for weather
7. A movie you've been looking forward to seeing gets bad reviews all around. See it anyway, or pass? See it anyway - e.g. Gods and Generals
8. See movies when they first come out, or wait a few weeks for the lines at the theater to get shorter? Wait
9. TV: cable, satellite dish, or just plain old antenna? Satellite
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: If you had to choose only one form of media to come into your home, which would you choose...print (newspapers, magazines) or electronic (TV, internet)? Why? Print
Sunday, May 04, 2003
Subject: support Victorian London
From the owner: I will keep very brief. Basically www.victorianlondon.org is, in a small way, not
really paying for itself. It doesn't cost much, having said that, maybe £200
pa, (excluding my time and buying books for scanning etc!), and I will be
maintaining and adding to it regardless - so no worries on that score.
However, if you think its a worthwhile resource, you can actually support it
at no cost to yourself, if you use Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, as I am on
Amazon's referrals scheme. This means, in effect, that you can buy any book
on Amazon and I get 15% of the price, if you use a particular hyperlink
code.
I'll say no more. As I say, the site will continue regardless - but if
anyone uses Amazon and would like to do this, let me know.
This is a very good site. Look into it.
From the owner: I will keep very brief. Basically www.victorianlondon.org is, in a small way, not
really paying for itself. It doesn't cost much, having said that, maybe £200
pa, (excluding my time and buying books for scanning etc!), and I will be
maintaining and adding to it regardless - so no worries on that score.
However, if you think its a worthwhile resource, you can actually support it
at no cost to yourself, if you use Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, as I am on
Amazon's referrals scheme. This means, in effect, that you can buy any book
on Amazon and I get 15% of the price, if you use a particular hyperlink
code.
I'll say no more. As I say, the site will continue regardless - but if
anyone uses Amazon and would like to do this, let me know.
This is a very good site. Look into it.
Friday, May 02, 2003
Also from Wicked Company:
For those interested in monthly newsletter on writing tips feel free
to subscribe at URL: Virtual Writing Coach
For those interested in monthly newsletter on writing tips feel free
to subscribe at URL: Virtual Writing Coach
From the Yahoo Groups Wicked Mystery:
The following books were reviewed during the month of April for Murder and
Mayhem Bookclub, visit our site on Murder and Mayhem Bookclub.
Please visit the reviews page:
Capital Offense by Kathleen Antrim - Reviewed by Roberta Austen
Seeds of Evil by Carlton Smith - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
The Deadly Space Between by Patricia Duncker - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
A Season for the Dead by David Hewson - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
Manhattan Conspiracy: Blood on the Apple - Reviewed by Barbara Wright
Dead Aim by Iris Johansen - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
Beware the Solitary Drinker by Cornelius Lehane - Reviewed by Luke Croll
See the Monkey : A Tale of Two Evils by John F Nienstedt - Reviewed by Roberta
Austen
A Penny for Your Thoughts by Mindy Starns Clark – Reviewed by Kathy Thomason
Murder.com by Betty Sullivan La Pierre – Reviewed by Kathy Thomason
Eyes of Betrayal by Patricia A Rasey - Reviewed by Barbara Wright
Dissolution by C.J.Sansom - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
Killer Instinct by Zoe Sharp – Reviewed by Luke Croll
Last Step by Kathleen Walls – Reviewed by Kathy Thomason
The following books were reviewed during the month of April for Murder and
Mayhem Bookclub, visit our site on Murder and Mayhem Bookclub.
Please visit the reviews page:
Capital Offense by Kathleen Antrim - Reviewed by Roberta Austen
Seeds of Evil by Carlton Smith - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
The Deadly Space Between by Patricia Duncker - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
A Season for the Dead by David Hewson - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
Manhattan Conspiracy: Blood on the Apple - Reviewed by Barbara Wright
Dead Aim by Iris Johansen - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
Beware the Solitary Drinker by Cornelius Lehane - Reviewed by Luke Croll
See the Monkey : A Tale of Two Evils by John F Nienstedt - Reviewed by Roberta
Austen
A Penny for Your Thoughts by Mindy Starns Clark – Reviewed by Kathy Thomason
Murder.com by Betty Sullivan La Pierre – Reviewed by Kathy Thomason
Eyes of Betrayal by Patricia A Rasey - Reviewed by Barbara Wright
Dissolution by C.J.Sansom - Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
Killer Instinct by Zoe Sharp – Reviewed by Luke Croll
Last Step by Kathleen Walls – Reviewed by Kathy Thomason
New Mystery Website:
Noir Originals
It includes an ezine featuring reviews, author interviews, articles, essays, etc., and an author showcase area for writers of noir(ish) fiction.
Noir Originals
It includes an ezine featuring reviews, author interviews, articles, essays, etc., and an author showcase area for writers of noir(ish) fiction.
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