Fimoculous is collecting the ‘best of’ lists, including best books. More than 20 lists linked so far. Some of the latest are Best Music Books, Best Biographies, Best Gardening Books, all from the Times of London; Top 10 Books from the NYT and Best Illustrated Children’s Books from the same source; Best Foreign Policy Books […]
Filed under: booklists, best of, year-end lists on November 30th, 2007 | No Comments »
From The Reader’s Advisory Online Blog yesterday:
“What To Say When Your Patrons Ask About E-Books Tomorrow (And They Will)
“In case you haven’t heard, Amazon unveiled their new E-Book reader — the ‘Kindle’ — today.
“Don’t just brush this off as more hype. This launch is huge. So here’s what you do: … “
Read on.
Filed under: readers advisory, publishing, ebooks on November 20th, 2007 | No Comments »
From an article in the LAT today, title Shades of Gray in Fiction, by Maria La Ganga:
“Since America’s 78 million baby boomers started turning 60 last year, dozens of novels with graying protagonists and late-life themes have hit the nation’s bookstores, adding a few new wrinkles to the face of contemporary fiction and underscoring a […]
Filed under: readers advisory, booklists, publishing, age on November 16th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
“According to the Associated Press, Oprah Winfrey has chosen Ken Follett’s 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth for her next bookclub pick. Follett’s newest book, World Without End, is a sequel. The Pillars of the Earth is a love story set in 12th-century England. Unlike Follett’s other books, this one is a big historical […]
Filed under: readers advisory, fiction, media, oprah, bookclub on November 14th, 2007 | No Comments »
Lectures, readings, and interviews with prominent Maine writers are available online now via the Maine Humanities Council. Listeners can download the Humanities on Demand podcasts, or subscribe to them via an iPod or similar device.
Humanities on Demand launched with seven recordings including Maine Writers Speak — featuring authors Cathie Pelletier, Monica Wood, and Richard Russo, […]
Filed under: author interviews, maine writers, interviews, audio on November 14th, 2007 | No Comments »
Camille DelVecchio compiles an annotated list of comfortable books, ones that evoke childhood, with ‘languid’ pacing, familiar situations, some predictability, and nothing ‘boring, sappy, or patronizing.’ Her list of 15 books includes Good Poems for Hard Times, Calvin & Hobbes cartoons, and books by Philip Gulley, Anne Tyler, Peter Mayle, Carrie Brown, Bill Richardson, […]
Filed under: readers advisory, booklists, fiction, gentle reads on November 6th, 2007 | No Comments »
Apparently best-selling writer Stephen King thinks short stories are alive, but barely, while short story writer Jack Livings in Newsweek is a bit more optimistic, though given the evidence and arguments he presents, I’m not sure why.
Among Livings’ faint-praise responses to King’s short story death-knell:
“There’s evidence that the size of the audience for literary short […]
Filed under: fiction, crime fiction, magazines, short stories on November 5th, 2007 | No Comments »
From the Reference Desk (Nashua Public Library, NH) offers lists (with webcat links) of feature films released during WWII, to coincide with Ken Burns’ latest video project (with Lynn Novick), The War, chronicling “the American experience of World War II through the eyes of those who endured it.” They also list some propaganda films, […]
Filed under: readers advisory, history, war, film, movies, video, movie lists on November 1st, 2007 | No Comments »