Wednesday, October 1, 2008

What did I miss?

My apologies for the lack of posts, but I was living it up in Key West. I managed to get some reading in during my busy schedule of relaxing, so I will have a few new reviews coming up. The first stop on my trip was the Ernest Hemingway house, so stay tuned for some thoughts on Hemingway, pictures of his house, and of course, the six-toed cats!

While I was away, the big financial crisis hit, and unless you've been living in a cave, you've surely been hearing about it too. Shelf Awareness compiled a list of books to help consumers understand how things could get so bad and how the mess might be cleaned up. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means by George Soros, and Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips are just a few on the list. You can see the entire list here.

Another American is in danger of loosing his home. The home that Mark Twain built in 1874 in Hartford, Connecticut may soon be forced to close due to lack of money. Donations can be made to the home's website.

I've written a few posts about the controversy surrounding the publication of Sherry Jones' historical fiction novel, The Jewel of Medina. Over the weekend, "a group of three Islamic extremists put a firebomb in the North London home of Gibson Square publisher Martin Rynja. The police believe Rynja was under attack for his company's decision to publish Sherry Jones's The Jewel of Medina." Rynja has suspended publication of the novel "while he reflects and takes advice on what the best foot forward is." Plans for the American publication by Beaufort Books remain in place.

Banned Books Week began on September 27th and runs through October 4th. I've put together a short quiz about banned books, which is available in the library. Participants will be included in a drawing for a fabulous prize! The Haphazard Gourmet has created a series of recipes inspired by banned books. Their first recipe is the Ambushed Trifle, inspired by Joyce's Ulysses. Lots of fun.

Frankfort Public Library is doing away with the Dewey Decimal system in their library. I would be interested in seeing what they've come up with instead. I love Barnes & Noble, but every time I go in there, I always wonder how anyone is ever able to find anything. I see no rhyme or reason to their organization of nonfiction materials, and always find myself wishing for Dewey numbers.

The MacArthur "Genius" grants were recently announced. Of the 25 recipients, two are writers. Alex Ross, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Rest is Noise and novelist Chimamanda Adichie, will each receive $500,000 in "no strings attached" support over the next five years.

Forbes has released a list of the 10 highest paid novelists from June 2007 through June 2008. I'll give you 1 guess to name the top paid....J.K. Rowling, of course. Followed by James Patterson, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steel, Nicholas Sparks, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, Dean Koontz and Ken Follett.

Alexander McCall Smith is writing his first ever online novel, Corduroy Mansions, exclusively for the Telegraph. A new chapter will appear each weekday for the next 20 weeks. Corduroy Mansions is an unassuming large house in London's Pimlico, inhabited by an assortment of characters and one dog. You can receive each chapter by email or feed. You can also download an audio version as well.

John Banville has published the first chapter of his new novel, The Sinking City, in the Manchester Review.

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