Wednesday, April 22, 2009

All the Latest...

Elizabeth Strout's novel Olive Kitteridge has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Annette Gordon-Reed's book The Hemingses of Monticello has won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

The America Booksellers Association has announced the winners of its Indies Choice Awards. For Best Indie Buzz Book (Fiction): The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. For Best Conversation Starter (Nonfiction): The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. For Best Author Discovery: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. For Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book (Fiction): The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

British novelist J. G. Ballard died this Sunday, April 19th. Ballard was probably best known for his novel Crash, an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, and his semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, about his childhood internment by the Japanese during World War II.

The American Library Association has released its list of most challenged books of 2008. Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner makes the list and Tango Makes Three tops the list again.

In publishing news...Dan Brown's long-awaited continuation of the Robert Langdon series will be released September 15th and is titled The Lost Symbol. The publisher will print 5 million copies in the first printing. Kate Jacobs' third novel in her Knitting Club series will be released in November and is titled Knit the Season. Stephen King's next novel will also be released in November. Under the Dome is a story about a small town in Maine that is mysteriously sealed off from the rest of the world by a dome. The novel comes in at about 1000 pages and took King 25 years to write. Hugo Award-winner Greg Bear will be writing a trilogy based on the popular video game Halo. Margaret Drabble claims she is retiring from writing.

In movie news...film rights for Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger have been sold. Nicole Kidman is said to be bidding on rights to Chris Cleave's Little Bee. Brad Pitt's production company is producing the adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts. Peter Jackson is directing the adaptation of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. He says that this is one of his most difficult movies to date. Really? More difficult than all the orcs, elves, hobbits, wizards and magical rings? Warner Brothers decided to give Harry Potter fans a break and release Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince two days early. The film will now open July 15th instead of the 17th. The Soloist, based on Steve Lopez's novel, will open this weekend, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx.

How dysfunctional is your reading? Take this quiz at the Guardian to find out. I'm borderline.

1 comment:

MissMcGyver said...

They say I'm borderline, but I just don't know!!! They gave the wrong answer... I answered the question about Oedipus Rex correctly, but they told me it was wrong.

See below

3. Which of these did Oedipus not do?

Correct answer: Poke out his own eyes

You answered: Answer the Riddle of the Sphinx

Oedipus DID poke out his own eyes.

So, perhaps I am more than borderline dysfunctional...but how will I know? I don't know if I can go on with this uncertainty...what if I'm flat out NUTS!