Boone Bridge Books Blog

Day @ the Vatican

2010-11-13T03:16:00.000-08:00

Lots of walking. Weather is great. We spent the entire day at the
Vatican Museum and finished up bt attending mass @ St Peters Basilica. Profoundly amazing day. Its difficult to describe. Here are some random pics.

Ciao!

Parrot and Olivier in America

2010-07-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

I've just recently finished Peter Carey's latest, a funny and intelligent ode to Toqueville and America's transformative and humble roots: Parrot and Olivier in America. This is one of the best books I've read in a while, and surprisingly light. I loved it!

I'll leave the reviews to the professionals, but this one is definitely worth the read!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/books/review/Mallon-t.html
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/04/11/parrot_and_olivier_in_america

The Pulitzer Prize List

2010-04-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

Letters, Drama, and Music

Fiction: Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)
Drama: Next to Normal, music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey
History: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (The Penguin Press)
Biography or Autobiography: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf)
Poetry: Versed by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press)
General Nonfiction: The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman (Doubleday)
Music: Violin Concerto by Jennifer Higdon (Lawdon Press)

2010 Pulitzer Winners Announced; Literary Indie Takes Top Honor in Fiction

2010-04-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 4/12/2010 4:41:09 PM

The 2010 Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded with Paul Harding taking top honors in the Fiction category for Tinkers (Bellevue Literary Press), a debut novel set in New England about a dying clock repairman who, on his deathbed, revisits his life. Bellevue is preparing to go back to press on Tinkers--one of PW's Best Books of 2009--but had not set the new print run as of late Monday afternoon. Bellevue's titles are distributed by Consortium.

Before the announcement, Bellevue had about 15,000 copies of the book in print, in a combination of hardcover and trade paper. Tinkers is also available as an e-book. Random House has signed Harding's next two novels with Susan Kamil, Random House editor-in-chief, taking U.S. rights to the books at auction from Ellen Levine at Trident. The first book to be released, Enon, is set in the same town as Tinkers.

of course Tinker's is sold out but will soon be available.....more about the pulitzer list tomorrow!

Celebrate Earth Day with a good book

2010-04-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

April 22, 2010 is the 40th anniversary of the first international observance of Earth Day and the beginning of the modern environmental movement. This month Boone Bridge Books participated in the Energy Trust Better Living Show in Portland Oregon. Our booth hosted book signings for the attending authors and it was a great opportunity to share new books and ideas for sparking interest in the classroom through literature.

Some fine examples for middle school readers have the teen characters fighting for what they believe in and standing up for the environment. Hoot and Scat by Carl Hiassen are among the most popular on our school lists but some other fine choices are Dolphin Song and White Giraffe of the "Animal Healer" series by Lauren St. John.

Another great offering, billed as fiction with a mission is the Gaia Girls Series. "Gaia Girls: Enter the Earth" by Lee Welles is a well-written supernatural adventure unabashedly seeking to convert young readers to an ecologically green philosophy. Ten-year-old Elizabeth lives on a thriving farm owned by her family since the 18th century. Remarkably attuned to nature, she learns why when she meets a talking otter that claims to be Gaia, the spirit of the Earth. Hidden clues and a companion website help extend the adventure. "Gaia Girls: Way of Water" is the second in the Gaia Girls series. While each book forms a single independent story, they are interconnected, as are the elements of the earth. This fabulous collection is ageless in its readership. Much like Harry Potter in it's ability to cross agegroups, it is a recommended addition for every bookshelf and library collection.

The Orange Prize Shortlist

2010-04-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

The shortlist for the 2010 Orange Prize for fiction written by women features two debut novelists as well as "the seemingly unstoppable might of Hilary Mantel and Wolf Hall," the Guardian reported. The winner will be honored June 9 in London.

Finalists are:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (winner of the Mann Booker this year)

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey.

Battle of the Books

2009-11-04T16:18:00.000-08:00

Oregon schools are in full gear for another year of "Battle of the Books". If you haven't heard of the program before, I suggest you do a little internet surfing. In Oregon, the OELA comes up with a yearly book list broken down into age groups. Those schools that do participate get kids so caught up in it that they don't have enough books to keep all of the teams reading. I always enjoy seeing what was chosen each year and this year in particular I think the lists are great because in the past there were not so many surprises. This year the OELA compiled a list of books that runs the gamut in interest and also includes some titles I've never heard of. Here's the list:

Books:

2010 OBOB 3‐5

Beauty by Bill Wallace

o Realistic Fiction

The BFG by Roald Dahl

o Fantasy

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

o Historical Fiction

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell

o Mystery/ Fantasy

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

o Historical Fiction

The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker

o Fantasy

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

o Fantasy

Honus and Me by Dan Gutman

o Science Fiction

Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke

o Fantasy

Iron Thunder by Avi

o Historical Fiction

Leonardo Da Vinci: A Nonfiction Companion to Monday with a Mad Genius by Mary Pope Osborne

o Non‐fiction

Marley: A Dog Like No Other by John Grogan

o Non‐fiction

Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

o Mystery

No Talking by Andrew Clements

o Realistic Fiction

Piper Reed, Navy Brat by Kimberly Willis Holt

o Realistic Fiction

Socks by Beverly Cleary

o Realistic Fiction

2010 OBOB 6-8 Division

Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip

o Mystery/Realistic Fiction

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

o Fantasy

Any Small Goodness by Tony Johnston

o Realistic Fiction

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

o Realistic Fiction

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

o Non-fiction/Autobiography

Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey

o Fantasy

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

o Science Fiction

Maximum Ride: the Angel Experiment by James Patterson

o Science Fiction

Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci

o Realistic Fiction/Graphic Novel

Ranger's Apprentice: Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan

o Fantasy

Schooled by Gordon Korman

o Realistic Fiction

So B. It by Sarah Weeks

o Realistic Fiction

Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun by Arvella Whitmore

o Historical Fiction

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

o Historical Fiction

The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy

o Historical Fiction

Zen And The Art Of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

o Realistic Fiction

2010 OBOB 9-12 Division

Acceleration by Graham McNamee

o Mystery/Thriller

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

o Fantasy/Classic

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

o Fantasy/Graphic Novel

The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi

o Realistic Fiction

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

o Historical Fiction

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon

o Mystery/Fantasy

Deathwatch by Robb White

o Adventure/Survival

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

o Realistic Fiction

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

o Science Fiction/Classic

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston &/or James D. Houston

o Non-fiction

The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjiian

o Realistic Fiction

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

o Science Fiction

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

o Science Fiction

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

o Non-fiction

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

o Realistic Fiction

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

o Fantasy

Young Readers: On your mark, get set.....go!

Flavor of the Year

2009-10-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

There's been lot's of buzz in the publishing business about what will replace the obsession with vampires that has hit young adult readers over the last few years. As a result (of course) there has been a near avalanche of books and series with one form of vampirism or another. It was fun for a while but odds are this fad is nearing satiety.

One of the interesting predictions I read about lately is that books with "apocolyptic visions" will replace vampires with the young adult readers. Interestingly enough, one of our school accounts here at Boone Bridge has a High School class that is called "apocolyptic visions". I thought I would share their reading list with you. You may recognize a few.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller

Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Childhood Ends by Arthur C Clarke

The Earth Abides by George Stewart

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocolypse by Various authors

King Lear by Shakespeare

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Endgame by Samuel Beckett

Gift Upon the Shore by M K Wren

A Good Read

2009-10-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

The Man Booker shortlist was announced this month and it reminded me why I like this award. Every year I rely on the nominee list to help me find my next good read. The nominees include, A. S. Byatt, author of The Children's Book, Hilary Montel, author of Wolf Hall and Sarah Waters, author of The Little Stranger. For the complete list, visit The Man Booker Prizes website. This years Man Booker was won by Hilary Montel for Wolf Hall. The award, which includes a nice cash price, guarantees world class and sized readership.

I highly recommend another from the shortlist that I just finished up. "Wish Her Safe At Home" by Stephen Benetar. (Not available here in the states until Christmas.) A perfect little book that would be a great book club choice. Talk about a crazy good read. This is exactly why I always pay attention to the Booker Man because man. they make a good list.

Halloween Books for the seasonal reader

2009-10-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Every year about this time I succumb to my childhood fantasies of halloween and yearn for a darn good scare. I thought it would be fun to make some suggestions from the plethora of yarns that are showing up on bookshelves this fall. "Monstrumologist" described as a "Terrifying Gothic Horror Adventure" by the publisher is turning out to be a creepy enough read. It's my current read and if it's any indication I only read this during daylight hours.

Perhaps learning what it must be like to be the only living resident of a graveyard will pique your interest. If so, Neil Gaiman's "Graveyard" has been a huge hit this year. Of course let's not forget "Where the Wild Things Are". It is such a classic and with the movie adaptation out, what better time to sail along with Max on his adventure in the wild.

The Big Rewind

2009-07-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

As a child and teenager, Nathan Rabin viewed pop culture as a life-affirming form of escape. Today, pop culture is his life. For more than a decade, he's served as head writer for "A.V. Club," the entertainment section of "The Onion." In "The Big Rewind," Rabin shares his too-strange-for-fiction life story. From a psilocybin-addled trip to the Anne Frank House to having focus groups for his movie-review panel show opine that all the male critics seemed "gay" and that the show as a whole was "too gay," Rabin discusses his personal evolution in prose as hilarious as it is unexpectedly poignant.

Using a specific song, album, book, film, or television show as a springboard to discuss a period in his life, Rabin recounts his heartwarming tale of triumph over adversity(R) with biting wit and unwise candor. The pop culture touchstones Rabin uses here reflect his broad frame of reference with comic dissertations on "The Simpsons," "The Catcher in the Rye," Dr. Dre, "Grey Gardens," "The Great Gatsby," the Magnetic Fields, the uncanny parallels between Ol' Dirty Bastard and John F. Kennedy, and how the stock market mirrors the pimp game.

Rabin writes movingly about how pop culture helped save him from suicidal despair, institutionalization, and parental abandonment -- throughout a childhood that sent him ricocheting from a mental hospital to a foster home to a group home for emotionally disturbed adolescents. "The Big Rewind" is also a touching narrative of a motherless child's search for family and acceptance and a darkly comic valentine to Rabin's lovable, hard-luck dad.

Featuring cameos by Billy Bob Thornton, a vomiting Topher Grace, and Barack Obama, "The Big Rewind" chronicles the surreal journey of Rabin's life and its intersection with the dizzying, maddening, wonderful world of entertainment.

-Publisher's Marketing

Shannon: a Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

2009-06-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

From the inimitable Campbell McGrath comes an epic poem of george shannon, the youngest member of the lewis and clark expedition, who wandered the prairie alone for sixteen days.

The last of the Maha will fade from the earth Vanquished utterly by the Pawnee & after the Pawnee the Sioux may perish & eventually the Kentuckians and Ohioans &c--I doubt not but my countrymen Will populate in numbers these fulsome plains But what untold count Of years & men, of decades & centuries What numberless generations will it require Life by life & skeleton by skeleton To claim this land from the buffalo?

With "Shannon," a testament to both natural splendor and human courage, Campbell McGrath has created a thrilling narrative that rises from those vast, lonely spaces that continue to haunt the American consciousness.

-Publisher's marketing

A Great Place to Live

2009-06-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

I remember my first library as a kid and it was by all intents and purposes the library you would conjure in your imagination. It had all the props, leaded glass windows, gothic architecture, the faint smell of old wood mixed with yellowing paper, positioned on a quant little main street of a small town. The one thing it did not have was the librarian of one's dreams. Skip the physical aspect of their appearance, and let's focus on that perfect librarian, the lover of books, the mentor of readers. I instead had the opposite experience which was the librarian of the desk and the stamps. It's the librarian of my dreams that would have led me to the great books. I stumbled into books and because of this it was only as an adult that I actually read "The Wind in the Willows" or other fine classics. What could have been had I read those as a child? So as a vendor and recommender of books, I particularly consider this as one of the most important parts of my job.

I stumbled across this wonderful video that made me contemplate this life of mine that is so essentially built around books and the reading of them. "A Great Place to Live" reminds me of that dream of a library, and

the art of fabrication, embellishment and piecing together of words that can result in a completely new world. I hope you enjoy it too.

On Writing

2009-06-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

Checking out quotes today I found some interesting and fun thoughts from some seasoned writers:

“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”

Mark Twain

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”

Samuel Johnson

“I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”

Brenda Ueland

For the love of Poetry

2009-05-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Red Wheel Barrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

william carlos williams

The Reformed Vampire Support Group

2009-05-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

Need a little twelve step action for an overactive obsession with Vampires? Our last blog listed some great series to keep one sated if you're casting around for the next great vampire series to get literally buried into. I just couldn't leave the topic without one more recommendation. "The Reformed Vampire Support Group" by Catherine Jinks, makes no bones about it....being a vampire is a pain. Nina, the main character and fanged at 15 attends a vampire support group where they all have a unique set of problem and need to be there. Jinks takes all of the hoopla and lore of vampires and writes it as it would be in real life. A 15 year old forever, doomed to live off blood but refusing to feed off humans or create another vampire, (guinea pigs watch out)...there are unusual solutions and problems unique to the 21st century teenager vampire living in the "real" world. This is a book that propels you forward as delighted as you are to see such an over wrought subject matter portrayed as never before. Now that's something to read.

Where Blood is Drawn

2009-05-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

What to read... what to read..... a trend we are seeing with our school and library orders this year is the frequency and variety of Vampire Novels being produced for and consumed by our fledgling teens. You won't find me complaining about it or worried there is some deep underside that spells doom for newest generation of readers, because I myself am a fan of the well written vampire book. Fantasy seems to be what we need right now and as I read the list of new releases bearing down on us this spring I am most ready, excited and even a bit fearful of "The Strain". Sounds practically too good to be true if you read all the promotional material. Director Del Toro (of the Oscar winning "Pan's Labyrinth") makes a dramatic splash in his fiction debut, the first volume in a vampires vs. humanity trilogy, coauthored with Hogan of "Prince of Thieves". Check out what he has to say about his life long passion with Vampires. The advance buzz has worked on me, and I've already got an order in for "The Strain"

My vampire reading buddy (a.k.a Julia) tells me there is an even better series out right now that all the "Twilight" fans may want to try called "The Vampire Academy". Four in the series so far and I've been selling it like hot-cakes to my libraries. Marketed to the young adult crowd.

If perhaps you want a more adult foray into the sexy vampire world, don't forget the Charlaine Harris "Southern Vampire" series featuring a really fun main character, Sookie Stackhouse. They're really irreverent, in your face, sexy and fun. Even if you like the HBO adaption of the novels "True Blood" which I happen to really like too, you will want to read them or you'll miss a lot of the story line.

Mary's Complaint

2009-05-08T09:15:00.001-07:00

While it is intriguing and "oh, so politically correct" to strive for a paperless society, a textbook free universe, a population that has shed itself of any possession that might weight one down, I propose that this "K" thing is just another thing, another gadget for consumers and really, in my own office and everyone else's office we have all proven that we can't go paperless because we don't want to! We want our lists, our printouts, our contact with information the way we want it and are most comfortable with. So the most intriguing aspect of "K" or "That Electronic Thing that Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World", doesn't really hold up, it too will fill our landfills, it too will always become dated as it already has with a newer bigger version.

So there, I've drawn my own personal line in the sand. Before anyone begins with a counter argument please note that I've done a little of my own self examination on this subject. I wonder if perhaps my protestations sound a bit like those stubborn writers who when introduced to the typewriter declared it as an interruption to the creative process, another hurdle interrupting the flow of words and crafting of story. Are we merely old codgers

embracing the past? Are we book trade skeptics just fearful of becoming obsolete parts of a dying industry?

I think it is enough and important to make an argument for the book, as I love the tactile feeling of the page, I yearn to read something that doesn't glow with that unnatural light. I want to connect with the universal experience that sitting quietly, head bent over page gives me. As I turn a page, I can connect with the past knowing not much has changed over this one

human experience. It is enough and okay to be fearful and despise "That Electronic Thing that Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World".

I rebel at yet another commercial entry into our fraying language. In this world of Post-its, Nike's, Coke's will Book be replaced by "That Electronic Thing That Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World?"

It wasn't that long ago that I had my first run-in with a T.E.T.T.A.H.F.O.T.B.L.W. owner. With sarcasm he quipped "Aren't you worried this will put you and everyone else out of business?". Well yes, frankly I was and still am. I take little comfort that this same person worked in the stock market and quickly corrected anyone discussing what was feeling at that time like an impending recession in our economy "this is a decline not a recession". Whether it is a depression, a recession or a decline it has been sustained bad news for this industry. Today Simon and Schuster reported losses this first quarter of 2.1 million. So I hope my stockbroker friend was wrong about "That Electronic Thing That Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World". The greater point is do we discard our great industries? Do we take glee in any American industry's decline or fall in a competitive marketplace? Do we really want to lose the publishing diversity that our shrinking population of independent publishers offer us and every aspiring writer out there? Do we care about the survival of the bookstore, the printer, the bookseller and "the book"?

My line in the sand stands redrawn. In writing this I realize this gadget is a symptom of a

a greater problem and I will rectify my own tiny corner of the world with a vote of my purchasing dollar. If I choose to buy a book, I will choose to buy it from someone that loves books as I do. Amazon is a big dog corporation now which revels in it's size, does the alpha dog thingee with everyone in the industry and shows no conscience. They've spawned what could be the virtual dagger, slaying an industry that their own fortunes were built on.

A Meaningful Life

2009-04-07T15:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a great article in the New York Times Book page about the resurrection of L.J. Davis' critically acclaimed but obscure novel, "A Meaningful Life." They've also included links to the full textof the first chapter and an introduction by Jonathan Lethem.

I find myself teatering on the edge of despair when I think of all the beautiful art that has passed out of popular knowledge and now sits neglected and forlorn in libraries and museums around the world. It's good to hear a story like this, a rescue.

Better Living Show

2009-03-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Boone Bridge Books officially but temporarily moved our offices to the Expo Center in North Portland for the Better Living show. Aside from the requisite schlepping of books--many, many boxes of books--we really enjoyed the show. We had several author signings at the event, including Jodi Helmer, Richard Seireeni and Matthew Stein; and, as always, there were a slew of innovative vendors at the show and it was a wonderful opportunity to get in touch with sohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifme of lesser known local vendors committed to developing and selling "green" products and services.

Across the walkway from us were the show's mascots--2 live chickens, blissfully clucking away as the crowds passed by--brought by a vendor to highlight their landscaping company. That's right, urban chickens and gardens that feed you are in style in a big way. We sold out completely of our "Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans" book and "The Joy of Keeping Chickens,"Chicken's in Your Back Yard" and "The Urban Homesteader" sold well. On the Literature front, the show favorites were "Wallace Stegner's West" and a collection of stories by John Muir.

My Abandonment

2009-03-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

For those of you living in Portland or the surrounding area, you might remember this story of a young girl and her father living in Forest Park. Local Novelist, Peter Rock, has taken the story up where the local news left off, and has written a thoughtful and unsettling novel that is getting great reviews, My Abandonment.
Here are a few reviews, and if you click on the authors link above, you'll find his thoughts on the continual struggle to put pen to paper.

Booklist (Sunday , February 01, 2009):
Rocks previous novels and stories have been imbued with a sense of unease and uncertainty (The Unsettling, 2006). So it is with this deeply unsettling and finely wrought tale. It's narrated matter-of-factly by 13-year-old Caroline, who lives furtively in Forest Park, a large nature reserve on the edge of Portland, Oregon, with her father, who has turned his back on society. Their lives revolve around remaining invisible to the larger world. Homeschooled in the woods and at a public library, Caroline appears fully at home with minimal possessions and without much human contact. At first the lives of father and daughter seem nearly idyllic, but Rock deftly ratchets up the uncertainties, and the idyllic edges past the unusual toward the unthinkable and the tragic. Based on a true story (think Krakauers Into the Wild), My Abandonment is a haunting novel, masterfully told.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

"Peter Rock's "My Abandonment "is an electrically charged, bone-deep and tender tale of loss and partial redemption. Surreal, haunting, elegiac." --James Ellroy "This beautiful, strange novel takes us into the foreign country where those called homeless are at home, the city is wilderness, and the greater wilderness lies beyond. Fascinating and moving, it tells with great tenderness how human love goes wrong."--Ursula K. Le Guin

Stealing Myspace

2009-03-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

There are many feel-good books about techi's hitting it big in the new economy, but apparently Julia Angwin's Stealing Myspace isn't one of them. If there's any truth to this review from the NY Times, this is more of an expose.

Here's what Publisher Weekly has to say about it:

Angwin, an award-winning journalist for the "Wall Street Journal", recounts the history of MySpace.com in this well-written, entertaining and drama-filled chronicle. From its founding by Chris DeWolfe to its surprising purchase for nearly $600 million by Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp., Angwin takes the reader through the companys tumultuous journey to the top. Readers will learn how Eliot Spitzers spyware lawsuit nearly devastated the company and how Richard Blumenthals investigation into the sites lack of protection of minors resulted in a blindsiding public assault. An array of personalities populate the book, including Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, Bill OReilly and Tila Tequila, who was one of the earliest to use her popularity on the site to generate a successful business. Angwin also describes the massive defection of MySpace users to Facebook and leaves the reader to wrestle with the issue of digital identity. Attesting to the depth of her research, Angwin also includes a lengthy notes section. This engrossing look at how MySpace became a media powerhouse will find a solid audience of business history, technology and entrepreneurship readers. "(Mar.)" Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Jerusalem File

2009-03-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Times has posted a great review of Joel Stone's "The Jerusalem File." Here's a what Publisher Weekly has to say about it:

Stone, who died in 2007, successfully grafts a classic hard-boiled detective plot line onto the complexities and dangers of life in modern Israel in his final novel. When Prof. Jacob Kaye suspects his attractive wife, Deborah, of infidelity, he hires Levin, a former Israeli security service officer turned PI, to shadow her around the streets of Jerusalem. Levin quickly confirms his client's fears. When Deborah's art professor lover is gunned down on the road to Jaffa, an apparent victim of a random Palestinian sniper attack, Levin wonders whether Kaye was behind the murder. While the gumshoe's growing attraction to the woman in the case is stock material, Stone (A Town Called Jericho) uses it to challenge his lead character's retreat from life and generally passive attitude. The book also nicely captures the inherently tenuous nature of life in the Holy City, where a door-to-door insurance salesman offers a small extra charge for terrorism coverage.

The Wild Muir

2009-03-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Our lives are too hectic, a struggle; and often, while juggling the responsibilities, burdens and joys of modern life, we forget the quiet, secret beauty that surrounds us. Everywhere in America, there are still open and wild places, rugged mountains and dark forests, deserts, plains, places that touch the deep atavistic corners of our selves.

John Muir was a man that was enraptured with the wild. He founded the Sierra Club and was instrumental in establishing the National Parks system. The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures, is a straight forward title. 22 adventures. What is unexpected is the extent of the adventures--walking across the country, charging a grizzly bear, climbing a frozen cone at the base of the still flowing Yosemite Falls--and the fact that he survived them!

But Muir wasn't just an adventurer. He wrote beautifully about his experiences in the journals he kept:

...all Nature's wildness tells the same story--the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort--each and all are the orderly beaty-making love-beats of Nature's heart.

As I read his descriptions I couldn't help but compare Muir's prose to Wordsworth's writing. Compare this quote with "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." On the surface, they couldn't be more different: Muir's prose is a far cry from Wordsworth's very formal lines. But they both express a sense of exhaltation, a devotion to the numinous as found in the mountains and sea and the small flora and fauna that populate these extravagant landscapes.

This is a great book that distills Muirs experiences and emotions, drawn from many of his works, into a digestible size (211 pages).

Google & Digital Books

2009-03-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

Here's an article in the New York Times regarding the extraordinary efforts that Google is going to in order to move forward with their plan to scan every book. It's very interesting and--in an odd, viceral sense--a little unnerving.

The Breaks of the Game

2009-03-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

Here's something for the locals. The Breaks of the Game, a classic book about basketball has been released. Why for the locals? The Breaks of the Game follows the Portland Trailblazers during the 1979 season, not long after their one and only Championship in 1977. For those of you looking to relive the glory days of the 1977 season or the golden years of "Rip City" with Drexler, Porter, Buck Williams and Duckworth, this might be worth a quick read. Here's a link to a review posted on the Oregonian.

Culture vs. Civilization

2009-02-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a great article--I found it interesting, anyway--on the place of "gratuitous" culture in our increasingly pragmatic society. Hope you enjoy!

Three Percent Translated Fiction Winners

2009-02-20T08:19:00.001-08:00

Three Percent recently announced the winners of their best translated book awards. Drum roll please....

For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut, by Takashi Hiraide

The radiant subway. The wall that clears up, endless. A thundering prayer of steel that fastens together the days, a brush of cloud hanging upon it, O beginning, it is there--your nest. Thus the keynotes of Hiraide's utterly original book-length poem unfold--a mix of narrative, autobiography, minute scientific observations, poetics, rhetorical experiments, hyper-realistic images, and playful linguistic subversions--all scored with the precision of a mathematical-musical structure--Publishers Marketing.

Even in translation, [Hiraide's] fine poetry really shines. At times I am reminded of T.S. Eliot." --Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Laureate

Tranquility, by Attila Bartis.

Tranquility is a living seismograph of the internal quakes and ruptures of a mother and son trapped within an Oedipal nightmare amidst the suffocating totalitarian embrace of Communist Hungary. Andor Weér, a thirty-six-year-old writer, lives in a small apartment with his shut-in mother, Rebeka, who was once among the most celebrated stage actresses in Budapest. Unable to withstand her maniacal tyranny but afraid to leave her alone, their bitter interdependence spirals into a Sartrian hell of hatred, lies, and appeasement. Then Andor meets the beautiful and nurturing Eszter, a woman who seems to have no past, and they fall wildly in love at first sight. With a fulfilling life seemingly within reach for the first time, Andor decides that he is ready to bring Eszter home to meet Mother. Though Bartis’s characters are unrepentantly neurotic and dressed in the blackest humor, his empathy for them is profound. A political farce of the highest ironic order, concluding that “freedom is a condition unsuited to humans,” Tranquility is ultimately, at its splanchnic core, a complex psychodrama turned inside out, revealing with visceral splendor the grotesque ideal that there’s nothing funnier than unhappiness.--Publisher's Marketing

"

Bartis at times puts one in mind of Joyce, at others of Kafka, at others of Roth, yet ultimately eludes all comparison by the strength of his originality.
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—Arturo Mantecón, ForeWord
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Oddly beautiful and unsettling, the novel boldly illustrates the lengths people go to in securing their own private hells.
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—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
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Reading like the bastard child of Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek, Tranquility is political and personal suffering distilled perfectly and transformed into dark, viscid beauty. It is among the most haunted, most honest, and most human novels I have ever read.
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—Brian Evenson
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Wit #2 takes exception

2009-02-19T16:24:00.001-08:00

Ah, very clever Wit #1. True, 3rd person narratives can be very rich. I'll acknowledge that. But it is also a mode in which the narrator is constantly present, feeding every statement, emotion and character to the hungry readers line by line. How can this strong narratorial presence result in a less obtrusive author? I liken 3rd person narratives--even the best of them--to something like being huddled around your grandfather as he tells stories about your parents--stories in which he plays no part. True, you may have heard the stories before, but if your grandfather knows his stuff, can really spin that yarn, you're still enthralled. He's always present, though. Even though he had no first person experience. He becomes a character, cannot restrain himself from manipulating the plot and characters. As the years pass, the story becomes his. It becomes about him. Third person stories aren't about reality or our experiences as individuals. You're right their about the reader donning the godlike mantle of the narrator, a disembodied head floating above the characters, taking brief moments to flit in and out of the minds of the players, less concerned with their qualities as persons than about his own ability to weave them into the fabric of an ironclad plot.

Third person narration is fun, a fantasy, a cartoonish sojourn into a nonexistent world. It does have its limitations, though.

Wit #1 Deals the first Blow.

2009-02-19T16:18:00.000-08:00

You state yourself, “Wit 2,” that a character, a character charged with the weight of an entire story has prejudices and “limitations”. It is the limitations that I bridle at. I don’t read fiction to get a dose of reality. I read fiction to be intoxicated by human existence, by the delicacies of character interraction. I want illumination, and it is greater through 3rd person. Take “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys. Here is a tale told in the first person through the twice. It is all about perception and we are caught in the whole first half of the novel with a narrator that we suspect is mad.
This also brings to mind a Faulkner experience I had with “The Sound and the Fury.” While technically not first person the first portion of the novel is told in first person and the narrator is mentally deficiant. I had to give up on the book from frustration and the claustrophobic affect of the narration.

Lastly, I just finished “Heretics Daughter” in first person and this too was so frustrating to me because the narrator had such a limited vision of what was going on that I was left completely frustrated by the feeling that my peripheral vision and senses were being stunted by a less than talented observer. The story ended very unsatisfyingly with no full understanding of all that had happened in her New England Village.

First person narration represents a drawn curtain behind which a myriad of actions take place unbeknownst to the reader. I like to feel like I’m being told a story, not being led blindfolded along, tapping my cane here and there at the recommendation of the one person who’s perspective I am imprisoned with.

Battle of the Wits

2009-02-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Here at Boone Bridge Books, it seems like we're always at eachothers throats about something--voice, structure, the thermostat (seriously, how could you be cold when it's 90 degrees outside?), who ate who's cup-o noodles, the content of this blog, etc. And it can get heated! So for safety's sake--we're surrounded by box knives, we need to remain calm--we've decided to move our heated office arguments about literature away from the watercooler and onto the web. We've agreed to eschew the impassioned, bloodshot arguments of the past for the more genteel form of the written word--organized thought, what an idea! We'd like to encourage any intrepid readers to roll up their sleeves and join the fray--but not the meek, the mild, the proper or the faint of heart. While this discussion aims to build community, foster ideas, so on and so forth, it also takes full advantage of the anonymity of the web. We're the ones that can be tracked down, emailed, called, what have you. Not you. So if you find one of our statements particularly small minded or bizarre, let us have it! We'll pull no punches when responding to your acerbic comments. If you like it or agree with us even better. Let's write from the heart, right from the start. For this week's discussion, we're talking about Modes of Narration. Without further ado, lets defer to our Wits, who are responding to the following questions:

Which mode of narration do you prefer, first or third person? Why?

Wit #1

I prefer third person because when I read a third person novel I am like a god. I know what most of the important characters are thinking, I can see beyond the immediate, I can predict behavior and feel the anticipation more keenly as characters interact with one another. I am the inveterate “fly on the wall” completely addicted to the richness of a landscape filled with characters for me to explore. I feel the author’s machinations are more hidden to me in third person, because I am so enthralled with my god like status that I fail to criticize or recognize the Authors presence in the story. I know all and can be all and in the end I can judge all, that is, in third person.

Seriously, when done well, a third person narrative such as Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” or Ian McEwan’s “Atonement”, can be as rich in time, place, and landscape as our own lives without the human limitation of one perspective.

Wit #2

While acknowledging that good authors write well in both 3rd and 1st person modes of narration, and that each has its charms, I enjoy well written fiction from a 1st person narrator much more than that written in the 3rd person. Invisible Man, I Claudius, Heart of Darkness (1st person with a twist)—all excellent examples of how first person narrative can reach out and grasp the reader by the collar, pulling him into the story despite his own prejudices and limitations. The sort of candid access that a reader has to the mind of a first person narrator is unparalleled in other modes of narration; and if we assume that the narrator is an interesting person, a complete person that dreams, doubts, and fantasizes their way through life, the possibilities opened up by the first person seem limitless. But now for the big one, what I find to be the most wonderful part of first person narrative: despite all the room for delusion, the imagined, or plain insanity to thrive in this particular mode, it is in the first person that fiction finds it’s deepest kinship with reality. With a first person narrator, we’re spared from the blatant intrusions that authors sometimes find it impossible to resist and the rigid control they exert over the lives of their characters. First person is the mode of experience, of our lives, and has a unique ability to capture the subtleties of character and existence.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a continuation of today's discussion. Tomorrow, Wits 1 and 2 will engage eachother in fierce literary combat, striving to capture the glory to be won in this first engagement.

Murakami

2009-02-17T10:05:00.000-08:00

Murakami, the author of Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, and the recently published What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, accepted the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual last week. Here's an interesting article summing up his speach. And here's an excerpt:

"We are all human beings, individuals, fragile eggs. We have no hope against the wall: it's too high, too dark, too cold. To fight the wall, we must join our souls together for warmth, strength. We must not let the system control us - create who we are. It is we who created the system."

Hottentot Venus

2009-02-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

There's an interesting review of the new book, Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography, at the LA Times Books Page. I also found a news article from 2002 reporting what may be the final chapter in Sara Baartman's story: she was finally returned to her home and interred.

Here's the Publisher's Marketing:

Displayed on European stages from 1810 to 1815 as the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of the most famous women of her day, and also one of the least known. As the Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerners as alluring and primitive, a reflection of their fears and suppressed desires. But who was Sara Baartman? Who was the woman who became the Hottentot Venus? Based on research and interviews that span three continents, "Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus" tells the entwined histories of an illusive life and a famous icon. In doing so, the book raises questions about the possibilities and limits of biography for understanding those who live between and among different cultures.

In reconstructing Baartman's life, the book traverses the South African frontier and its genocidal violence, cosmopolitan Cape Town, the ending of the slave trade, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, London and Parisian high society, and the rise of racial science. The authors discuss the ramifications of discovering that when Baartman went to London, she was older than originally assumed, and they explore the enduring impact of the Hottentot Venus on ideas about women, race, and sexuality. The book concludes with the politics involved in returning Baartman's remains to her home country, and connects Baartman's story to her descendants in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Africa.

Poetry Awards Announced

2009-02-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

Matthea Harvey, the author of "Modern Life," was recently announced as the winner of the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award from Claremont Graduate University.

Matthew Dickman, who was recently featured on our blog, has received the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award for his book "All-American Poem."

Make Room! Make Room!

2009-02-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

The Asylum just posted a great review of Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!, a dystopic sci-fi novel that served as the inspiration/basis for the movie Soylent Green. We haven't mentioned sci-fi much in the past. Hopefully this will help make up for that.

2008 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients

2009-02-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Matthew Dickman, a recipient of the 2008 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Poetry is featured at Paper Fort. They're running a series of postings on the recipients, which to me, an Oregon native, is fascinating. One other point of interest: they have a listing of Oregon authors with an online presence in the right hand column, a great resource for Oregon natives.

Andrew Davidson: The Gargoyle

2009-02-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

Today we're featuring Andrew Davidson, author of The Gargoyle. His debut novel starts out with a bang, or should I say an explosion, and doesn't let you go for the first 200 pages. The Gargoyle is quickly becoming one of the most talked about novels among book groups and out on the blogosphere. We were lucky enough to have had a conversation with him this week and wanted to share some of the insights that he's drawn from his experiences writing The Gargoyle.

“Five Questions with the Author”
Andrew Davidson, The Gargoyle

1. You wrote many unpublished works before The Gargoyle.... Can you talk a little bit about that?

Before beginning work on The Gargoyle I’d written poetry, stage plays, screenplays, short stories, and so forth. Other than three poems that were published in incredibly obscure literary magazines, none of these pieces wandered out into the public. Still, all this work was essential because it was my practice in the art of writing and allowed me to hone a number of necessary skills. Poetry was about the beauty of the line and the concentrated idea; stage plays were an education in dialogue; and screenplays forced me to work with visuals and action without resorting to describing what’s “inside the heads” of the characters. When I finally came around to writing a novel, I was ready to incorporate everything. Without doing all the preliminary work, I don’t think I would have been prepared.

2. You worked on The Gargoyle for seven years. Was there any moment when you wanted to give up?

People often comment that I must be very patient to work on one book for such a long time, but it doesn’t require patience to continue doing something that you love. I’m a happier and more complete person when I’m writing—and it doesn’t even matter so much what I’m working on, so long as I sit at my desk every day and scribble out what’s on my mind. While some people do this with dairies or personal journals, I’ve discovered that I prefer to sharpen my understanding of the world by writing fictional stories about it.

3. Can you describe The Gargoyle in one sentence?

Not to my satisfaction, but here goes:

The Gargoyle is the story of a severely burned man who meets a (possibly) schizophrenic sculptress who insists they were lovers in medieval Germany, when he was a mercenary and she was a nun.

4. If you could sit at a table with three other writers, living or dead, who would they be and why?

One: Thomas Hardy, though I’m sure I would feel horribly intimidated and inadequate. Still, the evening would be a success even if all I managed to do was thank him for writing Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

Two: Leonard Cohen. There is no other artist who so perfectly captures exactly what I feel and wish I could express. Plus, listening to that voice over a plate of pasta would be incredibly calming, don’t you think?

Three: Tom Robbins. If his dinner companionship is anything like his writing I’d be giggling my way through all the courses and leave the conversation with a new set of ideas.

5. Are you working on your next novel? What’s it about?

I’m working on my next book, but as of yet I have no real idea what it will be about yet. I hope the characters will tell me soon.

Here's a sample of what's being said about The Gargoyle:

“Andrew Davidson’s debut novel The Gargoyle, is the kind of book that gives me nextbookaphobia.
This is a condition marked by great fear of starting a new book because there is no way that it can possibly live up to the last book you read, because that last book was really f*#$&@! good. I’ve experienced this condition exactly twice this year. First with Ethan Canin’s America America and then again with Elizabeth McCracken’s An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination. It’s a little hard to write (or talk) about The Gargoyle without sounding like a cross between a really excited four-year-old or a complete stoner. ...

After I read this book I quickly dubbed it the new Time-Traveler’s Wife (which is a high compliment).
Like The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Gargoyle is a big, beautiful, goobery romance wrapped up in a wonderful, engaging concept.
This has become the new book that I am trying to push off on anyone who will listen, because it was that much fun and I can’t imagine a single literate person who would dislike the journey that Davidson takes the reader on.” ~JodiChromey

We're Chabon...Chabon...I hope you like Chabon too...

2009-02-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

Michael Chabon has been awarded the 2009 Scripter Literary Achievement Award.

Add Another to the List

2009-02-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

It seems like this time of year I'm always bombarded with things that I have never before heard of but long to read. We'll here's another I'll be adding to the list: The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution. It's not very often that I feel the need to indulge in aesthetics, psychology or philosophy, but the New York Time's review has me salivating. This book is a discussion of how our evolutionary history affects our artistic impulses and abilities, something this sometimes-anthropology major finds fascinating.

Author Interviews

2009-01-30T11:44:00.001-08:00

In the course of today's aimless cyber-wandering, I found a great site. I only had a moment to scan it, but the number of author interviews listed here is unbelievable.

Book World Abandons Print

2009-01-29T09:09:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post announced plans today to abandon the print version of Book World--a stand alone weekly. They'll be moving the reviews into other sections of the paper. For more info, follow this link.

Alternatives to Austen

2009-01-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Jane Austen is pervasive. Her style and wit have won her quite an audience, an audience that time and time again return to their favorites, rereading Emma, , Sense & Sensibility and Northanger Abbey. Here's an article at the Globe and Mail that suggests a few alternatives to those classics:

Eliza Haywood
Fortunate Foundlings
Love in Excess
The Adventures of Miss Betsy Thoughtless

Charlotte Lenox
The Female Quixote

Ann Radcliffe
The Romance of the Forest
Mysteries of Udolpho
The Italian

Frances Burney
Evelina
Cecilia
Camilla

John Updike is dead

2009-01-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

The 76 year old author died of lung cancer on Tuesday morning.

Children's and Young Adult Award Winners and Finalists

2009-01-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

Caldecott’s
Winner: The House in the Night
Honors: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever
How I Learned Geography
A River of Words

Newbery’s
Winner: The Graveyard Book
Honors: The Underneath
The Surrender Tree
Savvy
After Tupac & D Foster

Coretta Scott King Book Award’s
Winner (Author): We Are the Ship
Honors (Author): Keeping the Night Watch
The Blacker the Berry
Becoming Billie Holiday

Winner (Illustrator): The Blacker the Berry
Honors (Illustrator): We Are the Ship
Before John Was A Jazz Giant
The Moon Over Star

Best Translated Fiction Shortlist

2009-01-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

As a follow up, Three Percent just announced it’s shortlist for the best translated fiction of 2008. Here’s who made it. 2666 is everywhere!

Tranquility by Attila Bartis
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano
Voice Over by Celine Curiol
The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans
Yalo by Elias Khoury
Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya
Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge
Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra
The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

National Book Critics Circle announces Finalists for 2008 awards

2009-01-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

The National Book Critics Circle just released their pics for the 2008 NBCC awards. Here's a list of the finalists in each of the categories. Stay tuned tomorrow for children's and teen literary award lists. Tomorrow, too, we should have the results for the best translated fiction awards from Three Percent.

Fiction Finalists
Roberto Bolaño, 2666.
Marilynne Robinson, Home.
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project
M. Glenn Taylor, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart
Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kittredge

Poetry Finalists
August Kleinzahler, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City
Juan Felipe Herrera, Half the World in Light
Devin Johnston, Sources
Pierre Martory (trans. John Ashbery), The Landscapist
Brenda Shaughnessy, Human Dark with Sugar

Criticism Finalists
Richard Brody, Everything Is Cinema
Vivian Gornick, The Men in My Life
Joel L. Kraemer, Maimonides
Reginald Shepherd, Orpheus in the Bronx
Seth Lerer, Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History

Biography Finalists
Paula J. Giddings, Ida, A Sword Among Lions
Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens
Patrick. French, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello
Brenda Wineapple, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Autobiography Finalists
Rick Bass, Why I Came West
Helene Cooper, The House On Sugar Beach
Honor Moore, The Bishop’s Daughter
Andrew X. Pham, The Eaves Of Heaven
Ariel Sabar, My Father’s Paradise

Nonfiction Finalists
Dexter Filkins, The Forever War
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side
Allan Lichtman, White Protestant Nation
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower

Wildwood

2009-01-22T08:48:00.000-08:00

We are fascinated by home. It is the place we lay our heads when we sleep, the place we hang our pictures and prepare our meals; we raise our children there, watch them leave and strike out to build their own places; we love there, are comfortable; we breathe its familiar air and feel our home-earth under our feet. It is a place that is ours, and the claim is strong, not a contract declaring ownership but a deep vein that cuts through the strata of our selves. As is demonstrated by Roger Deakin in his book, Wildwood, This is human experience, international.

Wildwood is full of the meditative, beautiful prose for which Deakin is known. Of his home he writes:

On the web outside my window this morning, sixty concentric threads, just strong enough to catch a fly and entangle it. The morning sun catches the silk and backlights each thread in burning white. A spider's web follows the same pattern as a tree-trunk. Each concentric ring represents a patient circuit by the engineer, and the radial threads represent the medullary rays of wood, along which a trunk will sometimes split as it dries.

I can already hear your protests: "I thought we were talking about home." We are. This passage represents a sensitive observation of one's place. I can imagine Deakin in bed, just having opened his eyes to the bright morning, the gossamer threads glowing numinously. Home represents more than the 4 walls he's built around himself. It encompasses all that surrounds him, the hills and the moat that surround his ancient house, and the woods that he so lovingly writes of.

Deakin travels in this book, too, travels to Eastern Europe and Australia. While walking the forests and deserts of these unfamiliar territories, he often times finds himself reflecting on the geography of his own place: "Drawing a square of the etched desert in my notebook, I thought of the excitement of going out into the meadows in Suffolk after a fresh fall of snow." As I made my way through Wildwood, I found myself doing the same.

Deakin views his home as a natural space--albeit one that has supported farms for centuries and modern life for years. He doesn't deny the human presence or the footprint that it's left. My home, the Pacific Northwest, is unique in that there are still wild spaces. My home has farms and bucolic woods, but it also enjoys glaciated peaks, deserts and a rugged coastline--my home could kill. This rough landscape followed me as I read this book, was constantly juxtaposed against the more placid scenery Deakin so artfully evokes. This is a testament to Wildwood. Deakin pulls reflections out of the reader. Wildwood is one of the most interactive works I've read in years. Definitely worth a read

History in Lit.

2009-01-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

A teacher with Vancouver Public Schools recently posted an op-ed on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer arguing the removal of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Of Mice and Men from the high school curriculum. His argument is that now that we have an African-American president, books that repeatedly us the N-word are no longer acceptable to teach to the youths of America, no matter their historic or literary value.

My gut response: this guy is crazy!

American history is American history, and while we are not proud of all that that means--Japanese internments, the genocide committed against Native Americans, Slavery, Civil War, etc.--we should not shy away from it. No matter how uncomfortable this may make us, it is what makes us American.

In President Obama's Inauguration Address, he specifically addresses this issue: "Because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass." This statement presupposes the knowledge of those "hatreds."

We should not eschew our history because it makes us uncomfortable. We must remember that our willingness to address these very issues has been the occasion for some of our greatest triumphs. The hope that our President speaks of springs from our determination to do this very thing.

All three of these books are American masterpieces of literature, and none of them glorify behavior that in unacceptable for a teenage audience. They allow a young person to examine a more complex world and their own views of themselves. America becomes something different to our students that read these books. They themselves change. It is precisely because of this that it is so important that these texts be read!

Sure, we can infuse more contemporary literature into the curriculum. I particularly enjoy his suggested inclusion of Snow Falling on Cedars--a regional favorite--into the curriculum. But there are some works that should not be cut from a young persons education. In the 4 years a student spends in High School, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy contemporary novels and these classics.

Inauguration Speech

2009-01-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

A Reading President

2009-01-19T09:42:00.000-08:00

In honor of Obama's inauguration, the New York Times Book Review posted a great article about our next president's relationship with books and the written word. For those of us worried about falling literacy rates and the rise of young adult fiction as the reading of choice among adults, Obama stands as a role model. His political views, his governing style, his writing and speaking styles--all of these can be attributed, to varying degrees, to his habits as a reader.

Andrew Wyeth is Dead

2009-01-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

The iconic American artist, Andrew Wyeth, died today. I'm a little shocked at how little coverage this piece of news is getting. It wasn't mentioned on the front page of CNN.com, and it's not displayed prominently on abcnews.com. Too bad. Our cultural icons deserve better.

Child of Steens Mountain

2009-01-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

Harney County, encompassing a large area of the far southeastern corner of Oregon, is a dry and lonely place. Many regard the Northwest as an area typified by water--endless rains--and the constant deep green of Doug fir; but they are unaware of this other face of Oregon, the high desert. Harney county typifies this landscape: sagebrush, junipers and rattlesnakes. It's here in the mountains and among dry lakebeds that Child of Steens Mountain takes place.

Eileen O'Keeffe McVicker describes her childhood and her early years as an adult in very spare and simple prose, which was a bit of a stumbling block for me; but as I settled into the story, it began to make more sense. McVicker's youth was typified by hard work and time spent outdoors; her family lived in a simple home they made with their own hands and managed to scratch a happy life out of that harsh country. To pollute the story of her youth with affectation and literary fireworks would rob it of the honesty and love with which she wrote it.

As I think of her words now, reread a few of them and then pause, reflecting on their rhythms, I can feel their power:

I was an outside girl, a child of Steens Mountain; she had told me herself that I was the hardiest baby that ever lived. Money meant little to me because they taught me that it had nothing to do with happiness. They taught me that what you needed for a meaningful life...was freedom on the mountain, the beauty of nature, and the courage to face challenges together.

McVicker's voice was shaped by that landscape, and she does a tremendous job of evoking a way of life that no longer exists.

Let the Games Begin!

2009-01-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

The Morning News has announced this year’s competitors for the 2009 Tournament of Books. The tension is palpable! Which one of these seasoned competitors will make off with the coveted “live rooster” prize.

This years contenders…

The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
2666, Roberto Bolano
A Partisan's Daughter, Louis de Bernieres
The Northern Clemency, Philip Hensher
The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon
My Revolutions, Hari Kunzru
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
Shadow Country, Peter Matthiessen
The Dart League King, Keith Morris
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
Steer Towards Rock, Fae Myenne Ng
Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
City of Refuge, Tom Piazza
Home, Marilynne Robinson
Harry, Revised, Mark Sarvas

For anyone wanting to participate in the spirited discussion that is sure to ensue, try the Tournament's Facebook page.

2009 Cartier Diamond Dagger

2009-01-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

The Crime Writer's Association of the UK has just announced the winner of its annual Cartier Diamond Dagger award. This years honors go to Andrew Taylor, the author of Bleeding Heart Square and The American Boy. I've done some digging, and very little of his writing (correct me if I'm wrong) has been published in the US. Bleeding Heart Square won't be hitting the shelves until March of 09. Here are a few of the previous winners.

2007: Broken Shore by Peter Temple
2006: Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
2005: Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason
2004: Blacklist by Sara Paretsky

NY Times Announces Top 10 Books of 2008

2009-01-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

The New York Times recently announced it's list of the top 10 books of 2008. Notice that Bolano's 2666 makes the list. I haven't read it yet, but it must be very special.

Here's the list:

DANGEROUS LAUGHTER
Thirteen Stories
By Steven Millhauser.

A MERCY
By Toni Morrison.

NETHERLAND
By Joseph O’Neill.

2666
By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer.

UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
By Jhumpa Lahiri.

THE DARK SIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
By Jane Mayer.

THE FOREVER WAR
By Dexter Filkins.

NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF
By Julian Barnes.

THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING
Death and the American Civil War
By Drew Gilpin Faust.

THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS
The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul

What Were They Thinking?

2009-01-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

In another bit of news from the publishing world:

After 50 years of service, Houghton Mifflin recently laid off Drenka Willen, the editor of Grass and Eco, among others. Apparently this didn't sit well with Grass and the others: they wrote a letter to the CEO and she's been rehired. Seems that when times are tough, loyalty's thrown out the window. I'm sure their current arrangement makes for a few awkward moments here and there!

Plagiarism

2009-01-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the only thing more entertaining than the stories authors publish are the bizarre explanations they fabricate to explain why they dusted off another writer's work, made a few small changes--or maybe not--and tacked their own name to it. The literary world and, to a much greater degree, it's audience, still possess some sense of morality--just look at what happened to James Fry and the Rosenblats.

In my mind, the crime of plagiarism is the single most despicable and dishonest thing a writer can do, so you can understand my disbelief at the explanation: 'Oops. I thought I wrote it. It makes me angry that my mind [I can literally hear a 'swoosh' as Neale Donald Walsch frantically ducks responsibility] would do this to me. Sorry.'

Newsflash: for anyone thinking about apologizing for something, do not use the following: 'it wasn't me; my brain did it.' It will not work.

The End of the Moveable Feast?

2009-01-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

It's hard to imagine that any industry would be able to escape the present economic doldrums we're experiencing. Here's an article that speaks to the publishing world's response.

2008 Oregon Literary Fellowships Announced

2009-01-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

Literary Arts recently announced the recipients of the 2008 Oregon Literary Fellowships.

I did a little digging and found a few of them have published books and have websites. I've linked them below:

POETRY
Daneen Bergland of Portland
Matthew Dickman of Portland. Author of All-American Poem
Sophie Zaffina of Portland, The C Hamilton Bailey Fellowship

FICTION
Serena Crawford of Portland, The Walt Morey Fellowship
Mary Salisbury of Jacksonville
Jennifer Springsteen of Portland, Friends of the Lake Oswego Library William Stafford Fellowship
Lorettta Stinson of Portland

LITERARY NONFICTION
Laurie Drummond of Eugene. Author of Anything You Say Can and Will be Used Against You. Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship
Sabena Stark of Eugene

DRAMA
Rose Mary Harrington of Ashland

Banned Words

2009-01-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a funny article put out by Lake Superior State University: their 34th annual List of Banished words. Here's a an excerpt:

Presidential election years are always ripe for language abuse. This year, the electorate grew weary of 'mavericks' and 'super delegates.' As Michael W. Casby of Haslett, Mich. said, when he suggested banning all of the candidates' names, "Come on, it's been another too-long campaign season."

MAVERICK – "The constant repetition of this word for months before the US election diluted whatever meaning it previously had. Even the comic offshoot 'mavericky' was terribly overused. A minimum five-year banishment of both words is suggested so they will not be available during the next federal election." Matthew Mattila, Green Bay, Wisc.

"You know it's time to banish this word when even the Maverick family, who descended from the rancher who inspired the term, says it's being mis-used." Scott Urbanowski, Kentwood, Mich.

"I'm a maverick, he's a maverick, wouldn't you like to be a maverick, too?" Michael Burke, Silver Spring, Md.

FIRST DUDE – "Skateboard English is not an appropriate way to refer to the spouse of a high-ranking public official."

How refreshing and cathartic!

Best Translated Fiction of 2008

2009-01-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

In honor of this past year--a year that will be remembered for recessions, campaigns, and inflated gas prices--Three Percent, a review focusing on international literature, recently compiled a list of the best translated Fiction published in 2008. The panel of judges, a collection of editors and booksellers, will be culling the list down to their top ten on January 27th. I'll be posting the results on our blog.

The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa
What Can I Do When Everything’s On Fire? by António Lobo Antunes
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Tranquility by Attila Bartis
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano
Voice Over by Celine Curiol
The Waitress was New by Dominique Fabre
The Taker and Other Stories by Rubem Fonseca
The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans
Homage to Czerny: Studies in Virtuoso Technique by Gert Jonke
Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy
Yalo by Elias Khoury
The Great Weaver from Kashmir by Halladr Laxness
I'd Like by Amanda Michalopoulou
The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzo
Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya
The Lemoine Affair by Marcel Proust
Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge
Camera by Jean-Phillippe Toussaint
Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra
The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
Death with Interruptions by José Saramago
Detective Story By Imre Kertesz

Harold Pinter is Dead

2008-12-31T09:22:00.000-08:00

Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize winning playwright, has died.

Best Books from the Northwest

2008-12-30T08:25:00.000-08:00

As 2008 comes to a close, I thought it would be fitting to pay hommage to the literature of Boone Bridge's home, the Northwest. Jeff Baker at the Oregonian, our local paper, recently compiled a list of the top 10 books hailing from the Northwest in 2008:

Wild Beauty by Terry Toedtemeier and John Laursen
Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
Northline by Willy Vlautin
Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager
While They Slept by Kathryn Harrison
The Wink of Zenith by Floyd Skloot
Guernica by Dave Boling
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
A Country Called Home by Kim Barnes
Beauty of the City by Philip Niles

On a recent trip to New York, I was struck with just how different that state is from ours--the architecture, the people, the food, the geology, etc. I began thinkingof books that resonated for me, and why. Nearly all of them had some sort of a link to the Northwest. Here's an older list compiled by John Marshall at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that, while not complete, I think did a pretty good job covering the Watershed moments in NW Lit:

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
The Good Rain by Timothy Egan
Skid Road by Murray Morgan
Making Certain it Goes On by Richard Hugo
Fools Crow by James Welch
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
This House of Sky by Ivan Doig
Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver
Winterkill by Craig Lesley

Angel at the Fence

2008-12-29T13:18:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting tidbit:

Angel at the Fence, a soon to be released Holocaust Memoir that came with glowing recommendations from The Panjandrum (notice the capitals), Oprah, has been canceled by its publisher. Another piece of nonfiction that wasn't quite as factual as the genre of memoir required, or we required of it. It must have some redeeming qualities, though. I wonder if it will be reworked and published as a piece of fiction.

Debating the Newbery

2008-12-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting link from the Washington Post. It seems that the relative difficutly of some of the recent Newbery picks has sparked a debate about the value of the award. I'm inclined to agree that children should be given books that they are equipped to read; but they need to be stretched, too--they need to be given material that leads them down the path of literacy.

One striking note:

"Of the 25 winners and runners-up chosen from 2000 to 2005, four of the books deal with death, six with the absence of one or both parents and four with such mental challenges as autism. Most of the rest deal with tough social issues."

Children's reading should be challenging, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be fun. My 4 year old son's favorite books are not those that present him with life situations that he finds absolutely opaque or frightening, but those that he can recognize as a sort of play. Although he's much younger than the Newbery's targeted age-group, the same principle applies. It's a struggle to find titles that both improve literacy and stretch a child's mind, but sometimes it's ok to choose one or the other. If a child is being introduced to life's challenges, it should be presented in as clear a way as possible--clear to the child!

Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2008

2008-12-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

Here's something a little more expansive than the last post. If you're like me, you don't have too much knowledge or experience regarding graphic novels. They are beautiful, though, and a great way to expose those that are intimidated by 400 pages of arcane prose to literature and reading.The Young Adult Library Services Association has put together a great list of the highest quality pics from 2008:

"The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), today announced its 2008 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. The list of 43 titles, drawn from 138 official nominations, is presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The books, recommended for those ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens.

In addition, the Great Graphic Novels for Teens Committee created a Top Ten list of titles that exemplify the quality and range of graphic novels appropriate for teen audiences..."

Top 10:
Laika by Nick Abdzis
Re-Gifters by Mike Carey
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Marie Fleming
Blue Beetle: Shell-shocked/Blue Beetle: Road Trip by Keith Griffen
King of Thorn, vol. 1 & vol. 2 by Yuji Iwahara
Sidescrollers by Matthew Loux
After School Nightmare vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 by Setona Mizushiro
Emma, vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 by Kaoru Mori
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis
The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Great Graphic Novels

2008-12-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

Journey Into Mohawk Country

In 1634, an employee of the Dutch West India Company volunteered to find out the reason beaver-pelt trade at Fort Orange (present-day Albany) was taking a nose-dive. Bogaert and two companions, Willem and Jeromus, took a six-week journey to meet with their former Indian suppliers and learn the truth behind rumors of the new trading alliance that seemed to be undercutting business. O'Connor takes Bogaert's terse record of the journey and creates not only a literal pictorial rendering of their adventures in graphic novel format but fleshes it out with credible, if speculative, subplots that play out only in the full-color sequential art. Graphic novel format is, admittedly, an unusual choice for reproducing a colonial document, but O'Connor brings it off with panache. Working within the comic book idiom, star-of-his-own-story Bogaert is the bright-eyed, Doonesbury-esque sharp guy, his sidekicks are tall-and-lean and short-and-round, and most of the workaday Indians encountered are heavy-browed and solemn, except when they're snickering or forehead-slapping over the white guys' ineptitude on the trail. Arenias, the Sinneken leader who ultimately saves their financial bacon and guides them back to Fort Orange, gets the role of superhero with his pumped-up muscles, brilliant-toothed smile, unshakable benevolence, and possession of the beautiful, loving wife whom Bogaert has been lusting after. O'Connor's particular skill lies in taking a snippet of the translated historical journal (e.g., "We came at one hour into the evening to a cabin one half mile from the first castle. No one was there but women") and, while remaining true to the known course of events, launching a visual back story (e.g., in which Willem gets himself a girlfriend) rife with humor or tension. The 1634 encounter captures a moment in early Indian/white contact when, although disease had insinuated itself into native communities, the two races still met as equals at the pelt bargaining table, confused and skeptical of each other¹s customs, but knowing a good deal when they saw one. Notes on geography and sources are included, as is a glossary of terms.

A.L.I.E.E.E.N.

The first extraterrestial comic book in print on planet Earth!

At last we have an answer to the question: What do alien kids read?

Who knows how many light-years this beaten up, weatherworn volume has traveled to land up in the hands of an earthling like you? This rare artifact from another planet is written in an entirely alien language and alphabet, which you may be the first human to decipher.

Whichever galaxy they're from, these interwoven talesprove that some stories are indeed universal — and that others are, well ... weird, bizarre, and clearly not of this world. But no matter how many eyes, legas or tentacles they have, it's nice to knowthat aliens too can smile, cry, poop, make friends, be kind or be cruel, fall prey to peer pressure, and sometimes make a total mess of things whilst trying to do good.

Thanks to this extraordinary discovery from a world far, far away, serious ufologists everywhere are now rethinking their profession, whilst asking themselves: Do aliens really let their kids read this stuff?

art © George O'Connor & Lewis Trondheim, used with permission of First Second Books'

From Some of our Favorite Authors...

2008-12-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

Find out which books your favorite writer
is giving to family and friends this holiday!

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

Give:

My absolute favorite book of recent memory: The Principles of Uncertainty, by Maira Kalman -- an exquisite and delightful and peculiarly illustrated memoir about...well, the search for the meaning of life. I will be giving this book to everyone I love.

A similarly wonderful, quirky gift book is Learning to Love You More - by Harrell Fletcher and the extraordinarily multi-talented Miranda July. The book is a collection of photos and documentation of a project the authors undertook together, wherein they would give little assignments to strangers, such as, "Write your life story in less than a day," or "Recreate a poster you had as a child," or "Make an encouraging banner" -- and then they would document the sometimes beautiful, sometimes bizarre results.

Another memoir I've loved of late is called Three Dog Life, by Abigail Thomas -- a surprisingly non-depressing story of a woman coping with her husband's brain injury after a serious accident. It's a book that fills me a sense of wonder and awe, and I have a lot of friends who will be getting it in their stockings this year.

Receive:

What I wish for this year, more than anything are books about the golden age of exploration -- the writings and biographies of great adventurers like Captain Cook and Ernest Shackleton. With travel as expensive as it is these days, I'm looking forward to spending much of 2009 at home, reading about other people's magnificent journeys!

Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

Give:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz: Hilarious, engaging, and profoundly moving and sad. A feast of language.

What is the What by Dave Eggers: A chronicling of the hardships, disillusions, and hopes of the long suffering people of southern Sudan. It is impossible to read this book and not be humbled, enlightened, transformed.

City of Thieves by David Benioff: A riveting war novel and an engaging coming of age story. City of Thieves is tender, illuminating, and, be warned, often shocking.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri: Gorgeous, effortless prose; characters haunted by regret, isolation, loss, and tragedies big and small. A quiet, emerging sense of humanity.

Get

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb: I loved his first two books and am anxious to read his follow-up.

Drown by Junot Díaz: Loved Oscar Wao. This older selection, which I shamefully have not as yet read, will be my Díaz fix until the next one.

The Boat by Nam Le. I have read nothing about this book that has been less than glowing.

Watching the Watchmen: The Definitive Companion to the Ultimate Graphic Novel: This is a must have for any fan of the groundbreaking graphic novel. I read it when it was first released, read it again this year. It’s just as good.

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, among others

Give:

A Platter of Figs by David Tanis
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
The Death of Sigmund Freud by Mark Edmundson
Burdock by Janet Malcolm
The Slow Food Story by Geoff Andrews

Get:

Remix by Lawrence Lessig
The Limits of Power by Andrew Bacevich
The Bagel by Maria Balinska
George, Being George edited by Nelson Aldrich

Geraldine Brooks, author of People of the Book and March

Give:

For my dog loving friends I will make an ensemble gift of one novel and one non fiction book: The Life of Edgar Sawtelle is a best seller for good reason--this "Hamlet with dogs" is engrossing from mysterious beginning to tragic end. And I would pair it with Dog Man, by Martha Sherrill, a non fiction book that reads like a novel and tells the extraordinary story of the Japanese mountain man who saved the Akita breed during World War II.

Get:

I would like to receive Home, Marilynne Robinson's latest novel, because Gilead is on my list of all time greatest books.

And though I mostly get my recipes on line these days, the gorgeous cookbook New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies by Najmieh Batmanghji is high on my wish list because it explores the whys of this delicious cuisine as well as the hows of its making and presentation.

And I'd like 1,000 Recordings to hear Before You Die, by Tom Moon, because it would give me some ideas to enrich my MP3 playlist and nudge me out of my musical rut.

Joy to Bleed...I mean read.

2008-11-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

After reading a long string of emotionally and intellectually heavy books, I recently found myself in need of respite, a break from it all. I needed something a little...heady. I took a few weeks, rediscovered television and caught up on a few movies I hadn't seen yet; and then, while flipping between new episodes of Nanny 911 and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, I discovered I was ready again for the joys of reading. But I wasn't ready for anything too dark and heavy just yet. Instead, I passed over the beautiful books that are proudly displayed on my bookshelf in clear view of anyone who happens to pass by and furtively made a grab for some of the little mass markets I have hidden away for just such an occassion. In 2 weeks I plowed through 3 books: Bangkok Tattoo, Dead Until Dawn, and No Human Involved. While none of these compete with the complexities of Joyce of aural beauty of Wallace Stevens, but they do offer pleasures of their own. Namely, they're fun, suspensful, and just witty enough to hold your interest. I really enjoyed their quixotic devotion to the cause of moving the plot forward, not to mention all of the blood and lurid details. They were simply a joy to read, and I've now promised myself that interspersed with other, more literary selections, there will always be room for for a good old fashioned mystery.

MADNESS

2008-09-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

Road bikes on trails, through mud and gravel and sand; rain, obstacles, and more mud! Portland is a very special place for the vehicularly challenged--buses, max, and the streetcar shuttle thousands through the city daily; but what really sets Portland apart in this regard is the thousands of bikes that silently make their way back and forth between work and shops and homes. And while I'm just now becoming familiar with the vicissitudes of a cycling commute, the first time I saw a clip of cyclocross on Youtube my Jaw dropped to the floor. This was new (to me) and bold and...fun!

I'd like to take a moment to explain the attraction. As children, we were all acquainted with the pleasures of mud. We've all spent time in our mother's flower beds, furtively looking over our shoulders while assiduously developing the most beautiful mudholes that our child's attention span, coupled with a lack of parental supervision, could allow. We've all ruined shirts and pants, been encased in the gritty carapace of filth--the remnants of the hardest play. But somewhere along the way we lost the freedom and, to be honest, desire to get dirty. In fact, we've come to fear it.

Cyclocross is a celebration of those lost moments. Of the child. It's as if some wild, slightly unstable individual, a nostalgic soul, asked himself a question: what would be fun? What do I like? And immediately fell deep into the memories that lay hidden in the tenebrous corners of their soul. And what do we have? Mud and bicycles.

Wordsworth

2008-09-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars
that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

This weekend, we're all piling in the car and heading to the coast. We'll hike the rough trail--I hope it's not so muddy this time!--through the forest and salal and then emerge out on the tip of the cape. The wind blows out there, and your eyes water as you look out at the vast, blue Pacific; it surrounds you on 3 sides. Then we'll double back and stop at the little beach there, Short Sands. It's hard to describe such a simple pleasure as running barefoot through the cool shallows after a long hike; although Wordsworth, I'm sure, wouldn't have had much of a problem. Speaking of Wordsworth, I'm sure that some of you are asking why I chose to post this poem here: There are no daffodils there, Wordsworth had no connection to the Oregon coast. No, but he loves nature, glorifies in it, and there is no place like the Oregon coast.

The Joys of Mass Transit

2008-08-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ah, the joys of midsummer mass transit. The odors, the uncomfortable and colorful conversations with lunatics of various sorts, the long waits and unforeseen delays. Despite what you'd think, over the past year or so I've become quite attached to the vicissitudes of mass transit: I know which drivers to expect when my I see my bus come careening down the road at 6:16 am, and I have developed a friendship of sorts--a mute, eyes down and face forward friendship--with the other riders; but I have come to savor the unexpected.

Recently, I've been forced from the light rail line, MAX, that runs through the center of Portland and along the I-84 corridor, extending to the cities easterly purlieus. The line is under repairs and I have to bypass the heart of the city via bus. The max line, by far, was the line where I encountered the wildest and most outrageous of the many unexpected moments that Portland has to offer. From two homeless men comparing notes on which plasma centers have the most relaxed donor requirements, to the entrepeneureal spirit of the young man who daily offers me, for a modest price, an assortment of candy bars, trail mixes, etc. for the ride home--I miss MAX! I miss careening down the tracks, stuffed like sardines in an enormous can of steel and plastic; I miss the inane chatter of coworkers unwilling to accept an uncomfortable moment's silence; I miss the families with children and all of their appurtanences laughing and talking with one another; I miss the belligerent drunks and their bizarre conversations with whomever is on the other end of their cellphones. I can't wait until the repairs are completed!

Le Tour

2008-07-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

I am not a rabid cycling fan. In fact, until recently I hadn't been on a bicycle in years. But every summer, without fail, I am drawn to television coverage of the Tour de France. The bright, flashing colors--canary yellow, red Polka dots, and forest green--the undulating slither of the peleton as it winds its way through small French hamlets; the enthusiastic fans that cheer each of the riders as they make their grueling ascent up the alps: it is a beautiful thing.

I started watching Le Tour in 2001 or 2002, and I followed the remainder of Lance's incredible winning streak with gusto. Even now, several doping scandals later, I am in awe of the rider's endurance, both physical and mental. They are tremendous athletes. But as my knowledge of the sport has grown--even now it's abysmal; I admit I'm a dilettante, no more--I've begun to find pleasure in some of the intangible aspects of this race. I recently made the maddeningly august statement that Le Tour de France "sounds the depths of the rider's souls." Now that I see it here in black in white, I'm almost embarrassed that I said it; and to answer your question, no, I was not wearing a smoking jacket and silk scarf at the time. Although the statement's meaning elusive, it does make sense.

The Tour de France is one of the world's last epic sporting events; and when I use the word epic, I'm using it as Homer would have: it is an event of superhuman, heroic proportions. The riders must endure 21 days of riding with only 2 rest days. They face the searing heat of Province; rain; savage peaks that attack them with all the force of gravity; the ever-present threat of high-speed crashes that leave them battered and torn. Through all of this they must persevere, and yet all of this, the physical, is only a small part of what makes it epic. In my view the emotional aspect of the Tour is what lends it the epic label. In a world where convenience and comfort are paramount, these men must steel themselves against all that the Tour throws at them. They must continue, quitting is not an option. I can imagine the statement that sneaks its way into their minds, whisperings at their ears as they ride: "you can't do it. Quit!" In training they’ve heard the voice before, and in training they’ve proven it wrong; so they push on.

The Tour is a wonderful spectacle and a wonderful race. There are so many things to attract spectators. This year, as I watch, I take joy in seeing veterans of past tours, such as George Hincapie, continue their careers with new teams. Columbia Sportswear, a local company, has sponsored their first team to compete in the race, and they’ve been doing very well. Mark Cavendish, in particular, has won 4 stages, and still looks very strong. I look forward to watching the final 8 stages!

No Human Involved

2008-07-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled across this gem when searching the New York Times’ "Best Novels You Haven't Read" list for a new read. I have to admit that it seemed a little incongruous there amongst the likes of Chamoiseau's "Texaco" or McGahern's "By the Lake." But despite the fact that it was a mystery, a genre that I am not too fond of, and in spite of the book's garish cover art, I found myself intrigued. I took the plunge.

Upon first glance, I wasn't impressed with No Human Involved. The prose was ordinary, and the setting and characterization seemed commonplace. As I progressed, though, I found myself charmed by Munch, the main character--her struggles seemed very, very real. Saranella's attempts at conjuring up the soiled--soiled by drugs and crime--urban landscape of Southern Californian also began to grow on me. By the time I finished the book, I found myself deeply involved in the text. I was really rooting for Munch.

So, upon final analysis, I have to recommend this book. It's perfect summer reading for the reader who's looking to be entertained. It requires little work from the reader, and, although it provides little meat for the literati, it is a quick and fun read.

Ecstacy

2008-06-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful book! I’ve just finished Mariette in Ecstasy, and I loved it. The book opens with Hansen’s unique descriptions of the place (if you’ve read it, you know what I mean; if not, you’ll encounter it immediately—and love it), and then unfolds with a tenderness and erudition that makes his treatment of the subject seem…well, real. In my mind, the most outstanding aspect of this book is the gentle rhythms of his sentences and phrases (a rhythm that subtly mirrors the emotive and blissful exhalations of plainchant), not to mention his consistent choice of words that reveals an uncommon devotion to the characters and their surroundings.

This is a story that is built of words. It is beautiful and thought provoking. Even now I am thinking of Marriette, closely examining her choices, gently carrying her words and motions back to mind, trying not to damage these fragile memories in the motion. Again, what a fantastic read!

Aristophanes, The Birds

2008-05-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I've just finished Aristophanes' The Birds, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The epics get all the attention. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful and deserve the attention, but there's a whole world of literature that is ignored because of them. The first thing that struck me was the humor--Achilles wasn't into jokes and Aeneis was not a jocular man; on the other hand, I can't imagine that a man as amorous and cagey as Odysseus wouldn't have a sense of humor. The birds is full the sort of witty satire that you wouldn't expect to survive the verdigris of time; but there it is in black and white, the sort of witty one liners that you'd expect to see on the Daily Show.

It's amazing how fresh a text written several millennia ago can be!

Please! Anything but that!

2008-05-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

We all have our dirty little secrets. I'm generally very adept at keeping mine well out of view, but lately life has conspired against me. Now this particular secret is nothing special, nothing extravagant or deviant, I mean, but I am surrounded by people who think it a capital sin: I hate Hemmingway! My wife is in a book club, a very casual, loosely knit club. What do they pick as their first selection but The Sun Also Rises! I recently met a man who holds Hemmingway as the acme of literary achievement, who regards those clipped and outrageously masculine sentences with religious awe. It goes on and on and on. There is no escape.

What is it about Hemmingway that holds so many captive, pulls so many readers, or would be readers, in like moths to the flame? Perhaps it's the mystique he exudes, the myth of the man. Who knows? I certainly don't get it. I can say this. I know and have read his stories, and I find them only mildly interesting. I'm enamored with literature that is more, for lack of a better word, sensitive, language that is more colorful. Lowry, Aiken, Stevens--these are the vanguard representing the literature I love. True, are not as popular as Hemingway. But they have something else, an esoteric appeal that I cannot deny.

Ascesis

2008-04-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

One of the marked characteristics of Frost's poetry is his voice and perspective. I've always approached (and perhaps this is a sign of my own shortcomings as a reader) Frost as a tired old man doling out his pieces of wisdom in a rambling, magnanimous sort of way. Birches, one of the poems that I've been reading recently, is emblematic of this. At this point Frost is a poet already formed, complete, slowly passing the golden years of his life in quiet meditation on his cherished memories and works.
But try as I might to shake this approach, I just can't seem to do it. I seldom read Frost: I'm too young to need all his advice. The thought of him as one of those unlucky, perpetually old souls is a little too depressing and frightening.

On the other hand, you have Yeats, a man with a mind for movement, an intellect set to wander the world, to change, to don the vestments of kings, peasants, and musicians. In stark contrast to Frost's solidly ancient self, Yeats' development is as lively as his use of sounds and rhythms.

Although I may prefer Yeats to Frost and, at times, Frost to Yeats, they are both tremendous poets. Being able to follow Yeats through his poetic ascesis is a joy. It's too bad that so few poets have a large enough oeuvre, to draw up similar conclusions.

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Joy to Bleed...I mean read.

MADNESS

Wordsworth

The Joys of Mass Transit

Le Tour

No Human Involved

Ecstacy