The now traditional ‘Booker dozen’ (ie thirteen books) have been selected for this year’s longlist for one of the world’s most presitgious literary fiction awards, The Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Publishers submitted a total of 124 books for consideration and a further 14 titles were ‘called in’ by the Man Booker judges.

The longlist comprises the following titles:

■Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Faber and Faber)
■Room by Emma Donoghue (Pan MacMillan – Picador)
■The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore(Penguin – Fig Tree)
■In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Books)
■The Finkler ...

I featured a morning book discussion on the Sara Gruen book, Water For Elephants. I just heard it is being made into a movie. The young veterinarian will be played by Twilight star, James Pattison. His love interest will be older woman, Reese Witherspoon. I think that is terrible casting-maybe Reese will dye her hair brown!

The William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage 2010-2011 Series was announced by Sari Feldman, who runs the series. The series is held in conjuncture with Cuyahoga County Public Library and are held at the State Theatre Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114 on Tuesdays at 7pm.

 

September 21, 2010
Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, who writes about astronomy at a level the lay person can understand. He has a radio program and has appeared on PBS’ Nova. He was referred to by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show as the man who killed ...

Tuesday night the Ohio Theatre welcomed author, Jhumpa Lahiri. She was the last author featured in The William K. Skirball Writers Center Stage series, which is featured by Cuyahoga County Public Library System. Lahiri is an Indian American author. Her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies won the 1999 O. Henry Award for short story, the 1999 PEN/Hemingway Award Best Fiction Debut of the Year and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction .

She is also known for her 2003 novel The Namesake, which was made into a movie.

It was a fun week to be a reader in Cleveland this week. I attended two very interesting events. I saw Mary Oliver, the well-known poet, who was born in Maple Heights and now resides in Vermont. Oliver was in town as part of Cuyahoga County Public Library Writers Series and appeared at the Ohio Theatre on Tuesday night. She often writes about nature and also read several poems about her dog, Persey. She was charming and had the packed house captivated.

Then on Thursday night, I drove to the Brecksville County Library to see John Stark Bellamy. ...

May
Am May 3 Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Little Bee chronicles the aftermath of a brutal encounter on a beach and how the event intertwines the lives of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan, who calls herself Little Bee, and a well-off British couple.

Pm May 12 The Help by Kathyrn Stockett
What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi where black women were trusted to raise white children but were not trusted to polish the household silver.

June
Am June 7 Very Valentine: A Novel by Adriana Trigiani
Meet ...

There is a fun article in dailybeast.com (in the media gallery) about the best-read American presidents. It is a fun way to refresh your presidential knowledge. I didn’t know Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed an occasional detective novel!     Just go to dailybeast.com

Best-Read Presidents
19. James Buchanan
18. Richard Nixon
17. James Garfield
16. Bill Clinton
15. Jimmy Carter
14. John F. Kennedy
13. Herbert Hoover
12. Millard Fillmore
11. James Madison
10. James Monroe
9. George Washington
8. John Adams
7. Woodrow Wilson
6. John Quincy Adams
5. Rutherford Hayes
4. Abraham Lincoln
3. Thomas Jefferson
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1. Theodore ...

Dick Francis, the best-selling British author and former champion jockey, died in his home in the Cayman Islands at the age of 89. When Francis retired from his racing career in 1957, he began writing. He wrote 42 novels that revolved around horse racing. In 2000, Queen Elizabeth ll honored his by making him a Commander of the British Empire.

Francis won three Edgar Allen Poe awards given by The Mystery Writers of America for his novels Forfeit (1968), Whip Hand (1979) and Come to Grief (1995).

Recently Francis wrote with his son, Felix, including Silks (2008) and Even Money ...

We had a very nice group of people for the Monday morning discussion of Kathryn Stockett’s, The Help. This optimistic, uplifting debut novel set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver.

The story is told through the eyes of Skeeter, a 22-year-old recent graduate from Ole Miss. We had 16 people in attendance, and one woman shared personal experience of going to college in the South during 1960’s. Another woman talked about her close relationship with her family's housekeeper-the book resonated ...

J. D. Salinger died yesterday, January 27, 2010, he was best known for his 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye. He was also known as the hermit crab of American literature. His last original published work was in 1965, he gave his last interview in 1980. Salinger died of natural causes at age 91, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. The Catcher in the Rye has sold 65 million copies world wide.

 

Last week we lost another author last week with the death of Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser crime novels about a hard-boiled Boston private ...

I hope everyone had a wonderful and festive New Years! We had a good showing at the Monday morning book discussion on January 4th. Despite terrible road conditions we had eight people show up. We had a lively discussion about the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Suffice it to say people enjoyed different aspects of the book.