Harry Potter Prequel

I love the Internet. For a few weeks I have been hearing about this 800-word handwritten story by J.K. Rowling which sold at a charity auction for almost $50,000. The story is about James Potter and Sirius Black, and at the end, Rowling writes "From the prequel I am not working on-but that was fun!" I was disappointed that the rest of us wouldn't have the opportunity to read it, but in the age of the Internet, everything eventually ends up online. You can read the story at MuggleNet. A link is provided that shows an actual picture of the handwritten story, but I had trouble accessing it.

Paddington Gets a Passport

The 50th anniversary of the beloved childrens' story of Paddington Bear is approaching. In honor of the upcoming anniversary, the author, Michael Bond, has written a new adventure for Paddington called Paddington, Here and Now. I had heard several months ago that Paddington would have a run-in with immigration in this adventure. If you recall, Paddington was a stowaway on a ship from Peru. Sure enough, Paddington will be interviewed by police about his lack of travel documents. Fortunately, the Peruvian embassy in London actually issued Paddington a passport, so he will not have to worry about future problems with the authorities.

Love Letters

For those of you that have seen the movie Sex and the City, you'll recall that early in the movie, Carrie reads love letters to Big from a book she checked out from the New York Public Library. It turns out that the book, Love Letters From Great Men, does not exist. AbeBooks.com has reported hundreds of inquiries about the book, but the closest title would be Love Letters From Great Men and Women From the 18th Century to Present Day, edited by C.H. Charles, originally published in 1924 and reprinted in paperback last year. When I looked the title up on Amazon, it shows that people who bought this item bought it with the Sex and the City soundtrack. Unfortunately we don't have Love Letters From Great Men and Women, but we do have The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time. Not only does this book have that great old library book smell that Carrie professes to love, but it also contains the letter from Ludwig van Beethoven that Big quotes to Carrie:

"ever yours

ever mine

ever ours"

Pretty Birds

Scott Simon's captivating novel, Pretty Birds, depicts a period in history I knew very little about: the Serbian siege of Sarajevo. In 1992, Bosnian Serbs began their campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against the Muslims. Irena, a 17-year-old half-Muslim, and her family are forced to flee their home on the Serb side of Sarajevo. They seek refuge at Irena's grandmother's apartment on the other side of the river. They survive with no electricity and very little food and water, while constantly crouching below the windows to avoid sniper fire. Irena eventually takes a job in a brewery with "duties as assigned," and ends up working as a sniper for a group of Muslim resistors. Although the story is quite grim, Simon has captured the bleak streets of Sarajevo and the feelings of uncertainty and fear as the characters venture out of their homes, hoping to avoid sniper fire. Although I didn't feel strongly about Irena, the story was strong enough to keep me involved. I have a feeling that I am not alone in my ignorance of this period in history, and while I wouldn't say that Pretty Birds is one of my favorite reads, I do feel like I have an idea of what life was like during this time.

And the Winners Are...

The winner of the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is Rose Tremain, for her novel The Road Home. The Orange Broadband prize is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, awarded annually for the best original full-length novel by a female author of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK in the preceding year. The winner of the prize receives £30,000.

Each year the Audio Publisher's Association presents the Audie Awards for best audiobooks of the year. The 2008 awards were recently announced. Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas won for best fiction. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson won for best literary fiction. Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke won for best mystery. Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips won for best romance. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill won for best thriller. Garrison Keillor's Pontoon won for best narration by an author. Walter Isaacson's Einstein won best biography. Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!) won the humor award.

Summertime Summertime Sum-Sum Summertime

I think I am finally safe in saying that winter is officially over. We finally have consistent warm weather and it looks like it's here to stay. Yay!!! And so begin the glorious days of lounging in the sunshine while reading a great book. Back in January, I made some reading resolutions. One of those resolutions was to read a challenging book-something I've been meaning to get around to. And what better time to do it than summer! Now, what to read? I was thinking Pillars of the Earth, or maybe something by Rushdie, Dickens or Thackery. A few summers ago Oprah chose Anna Karenina for her book club and I trudged through it and absolutely hated it! I do not want a repeat of that. Any suggestions on what I should tackle?

Author Visits!!

Marlena De Blasi will be visiting the Book Stall at Chestnut Court in Winnetka on June 3 at 7:30pm to sign her latest book, That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story. Marlena De Blasi is the author of the bestselling A Thousand Days in Venice, and A Thousand Days in Tuscany.

John Connolly will be at Borders in Oak Brook on June 3 at 7:30pm to read from his latest novel The Reapers.

Robert Olmstead will be at the Book Stall in Winnetka on June 4 at 7:00pm to sign Coal Black Horse, his critically acclaimed novel about a 14-year-old boy sent out by his mother to find his father on Civil War battlefield.

Ed Park will be at the Book Cellar in Chicago on June 5 at 7:00pm to sign Personal Days.

Joseph Arpaia will be at Borders in Deerfield on June 6 at 7:30pm to read from Real Meditation in Minutes a Day: Enhancing Your Performance, Relationships, Spirituality, and Health.

My friends at the Warren Newport Public Library will be having two exciting author events this month. Jonathan Santlofer will be visiting on June 7th at 2pm to sign his newest book, The Murder Notebook. Lee Child will be visiting on June 11th at 1pm to discuss his latest book, Nothing to Loose.

Katie Hickman will be at the Book Stall in Winnetka on June 9 at 12:00pm to sign her novel The Aviary Gate, about a researcher who discovers a story locked away for four centuries of a British sea captain’s daughter held captive in a sultan’s harem.

David Sedaris will be at Borders in Evanston on June 11 at 7:00pm to promote his latest book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

Alan Furst will be at the Book Stall in Winnetka on June 11 at 7:00pm to sign his novel The Spies of Warsaw, an intrigue set in pre-World War II Warsaw and featuring French, Polish, and German intelligence officers.

Rebecca Stott will be at the Book Stall in Winnetka on June 16 at 7:00pm to sign Ghostwalk, a novel centered on a real historical mystery filled with evocative descriptions of Cambridge, past and present, of 17-century glass making, alchemy, the Great Plague, and Isaac Newton’s scientific theories.

Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America's Soul, will be discussing and signing her book at 57th Street Books in Chicago on June 18th at 6pm and at the Book Cellar on June 19th at 7pm.

Robert Kurson reads from Crashing Through: A Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared To See at the Book Cellar on June 25 at 7:00pm.

Booker Prize winner and international bestselling author Salman Rushdie will read from and discuss his new work, The Enchantress of Florence on Thursday, July 10th at 6pm at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. This reading is free of charge and open to the public. Mr. Rushdie will personalize the new book and sign copies of his backlist (please, no more than 2 books per person).