This Week in Reading October 5 - 11, 2008

There are three Nobel prizewinners this week yet it is unlikely that many of us have heard of more than one of them. Francois Mauriac, who is known for writing about the life of Jesus, is only one of two French novelists born this week to win the Literature prize; the other is Claude Simon. Serbo-Croation novelist Ivo Andric is the third.

Otherwise there are writers from around the world with a few bestseller names among them, hugely successful romance writer Nora Roberts, who also writes mysteries as J. D. Robb, fiction, mystery and western author Elmore Leonard, who also gives writers advice, adventure novelist James Clavell, horror novelist Clive Barker, and historian-novelist Thomas Keneally.

This Week's Question: Significantly, this week is when the Nobel prizes are given out. Last year's prize went to England's Doris Lessing. The one for literature this year will be announced Thursday, October 9. Will it be someone you have read? Or will it not be given out this year?

Answer to Last Week's Question: The two authors from last week that most appeared on lists of books banned in America were Truman Capote and Ann Rice. Capote's novel In Cold Blood was on the list of Top 100 Novels and was banned for its violence, profanity, and sex. Ann Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure had the 53rd most frequently challenged book between 1990 - 2000 for her erotic Sleeping Beauty trilogy. The first novel in the series sold more copies than Rice's Interview with the Vampire and many of our nation's library copies of her books from this era are now missing or lost. Rice has recently returned to her religious roots, and after being "called out of darkness" writes bestsellers about the life of Jesus now.