[LAST] This Week in Reading Dec 27 - Jan. 2

Happy Holidays, readers! TWIR bids a fond adieu.

It's done now. This is the last appearance of This Week in Reading, our blog blurb for authors' birthdays. After two years it's pretty much complete. If we still have errors or omissions, (and we expect we might,) please leave a comment on the blog and let us know what we need to fix.

If you want to know which authors were born on your birthday, or someone else's, it will be still available through the Books and Reading page. Just drop down the menu to the desired week.

We'll try to get more varied content up on Book Talk. Thanks for following and keep reading.

Authors born this week -

Nobel Prize in Literature
Novelist, storywriter, poet Rudyard Kipling (1907)

Novelists and story writers
Theodor Fontane, Mariano Azuela, Horacio Quiroga, E. M. Forster, Louis Bromfield, Robert Ruark, Paul Bowles, William Gaddis, Elyne Mitchell, J. D. Salinger, Wilfred Sheed, Manuel Puig, Michael Nesmith, Douglas Coupland, Chandle Burr, Nicholas Sparks, Wendy Coakley-Thompson

Poets and Playwrights
Poets: Danil Kharms, Arthur Hugh Clough, Robert Nathan, Charles Olson, Patti Smith, Joshua Clover Playwrights: Carl Zuckmayer, Christopher Durang, Paul Rudnick

Thinkers, Believers, Scientists, Historians, Biographers
Thinkers: Mortimer Adler Scientists: William Masters, Jack Hanna, Bjarne Stroussstrup Biographers: Oscar Levant, John Denver, Stanley Tookie Williams

Humorists, Essayists, Editors and Critics, Journalists, Officials, Media and Others
Humorists: Stephen Leacock, Don Novello, Paula Poundstone, Sarah Vowell Essayists: James Frazer, Gilbert Murray, Simon Wisenthal, Ermest Tidyman, Ian Buruma Editors and Critics: Ellen Datlow Journalists: Sebastian Hafner, Brian Redhead, Lawrence Schiller, Cokie Roberts Officials: Woodrow Wilson Media and Others: Cliff Arquette, Joe Bologna, Diane von Furstenberg, Barbara Olson, Tracey Ullman, Sean Hannity, Gerina Dunwich

Mystery / Crime / Suspense Writers
Crime: Edward Bunker

Fantasy / Science Fiction Writers
Fantasy: Susan Shwartz, Lewis Shiner Science Fiction: Isaac Asimov, Bob Shaw, Connie Willis

Visual Artists
Graphic Novelists: Steve Rude, Christopher Ware, Ariel Schrag Manga: Noake Urasawa Cartoonists and Cartoon Writers: Stan Lee, B Kliban, Lynda Barry, Julie Doucet

Events to read about this week:

New Year’s Day with its Rose Parade and Rose Bowl, the birth of J. Edgar Hoover, Benazir Bhutto, first paying audience for a movie, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Endangered Species Act, Thomas a Becket's murder in a cathedral, the first freeway, Henri Matisse.

Obituaries
Film Critic Robin Wood (78); Novelist Loren Singer (86); New York Review of Books illustrator David Levine (83).

This Week’s Questions:

Can you tell us what you would like to see and read about in our Glendale Public Library Book Talk blog? Please leave a comment so we can make this blog more useful and interesting to you.

Would you send in a few lines about a book you've recently read from the Glendale Public Library and think other readers would like? (All submissions will be assessed for appropriateness and edited for size and readability as well as content restrictions but will be considered by blog editors. Please include the name of your branch library. Only a first name and last name initial will be used to identify the submitter.)

Answer to Last Week’s Questions:

"If I would have realized that the stories in my head would be as intriguing to others as they were to me, I would probably have started writing sooner. Believe in your own taste." - Twilight series creator Stephenie Meyer

"There was never a question in my mind. Ever since I could hold a pencil, I wrote poems, skits, plays. We put a velvet curtain up in the garage and the garage was our stage and people sat in the driveway." - Romantic suspense mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark

Social Networking for Ghouls

Book Review - The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Oscar-winning director Del Toro and mystery writer Hogan are working on a vampire trilogy more in keeping with the creepiest of zombie stories than the vampires of the recent Twilight series.

Book one, The Strain, follows a group of characters as they either defy or succumb to a vampire plague. The "virus" hits hard and fast, incubating overnight, with victims returning to their homes to attack loved ones in a perverse form of social networking. Friends attack their own families, who in turn attack more loved ones along with the usual random folks who get in the way.

The authors invent a world where New York City would succumb in just a week, the USA in three months and the world in six. There are also hints of a number of vampire conspiracies working at cross purposes that we'll learn about in the next two volumes. It's a great read if you like vampire/zombie stories with grit.

Mortified: real words, real people, real pathetic / edited by David Nadelberg

Did you ever want to snoop in your sister’s bedroom and read her diary? If so, this is your chance (well, sort of)! Mortified is a compilation of embarrassing, emotional, humorous and immature excerpts from real diaries, letters and notes and they’re guaranteed to get you reminiscing about your adolescent years.

Oh, and most likely if you kept a diary you’ll want to dig it out and read it all over again.

FROM THE BEACH BAG

With summer almost here it’s time to get serious about gathering together enough books to help wile away the hours at the beach, pool or while stuck in the airport or on a plane. I call these, though this title isn’t original to me, “Beach Books.” The following titles are perfect examples of what a good beach book should be as their stories are compelling and they require little more of the reader than to sit back and enjoy a great story.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is the story of the enduring relationships between parent and child. Told mostly by the very precocious nine year old Oskar Schell, this is the tale of his quest to find the lock that fits a key that belonged to his father who died in the 9/11 Trade Center bombing. From this work of interconnected stories the reader gets a good sense of New York and its inhabitants as well as new perspectives on life when you join along on this journey.

When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton is a prime example of a great beach book. It is as literary as the former selection but is also the perfect potboiler to keep your mind off the heat. In this family story with a very unusual twist, a man's first wife suffers brain damage as the result of an accident and for all intents has the intellect of a six or seven year old child. The husband remarries and his second wife cares for Madeline and raises her along with the children of that marriage.

Happy vacation.

Tempting Titles: Fresh Fiction - May

FICTION:

God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

Kyle's novel begins as adolescent narrator Alice Winston recounts the almost simultaneous departure of her sister, Nona, who elopes with a rodeo cowboy, and the drowning of Polly Cain, one of Alice's classmates. These events loom like specters over the rest of the novel, which brims with a confidence and assuredness atypical of a debut. In light of Nona's exodus, Alice becomes her father's primary assistant in tending the family's barn and her bedridden mother's intermediary to the outside world. Alice's penchant for prevarication—she makes a pretense of having been Polly Cain's best friend—helps her repel this harsh reality. In Alice, Kyle has created an adolescent voice that is charming and authentic but that also has its irksome tics: surprising events always inspire such hyperbolic responses as "the air around me sucked to the rims of the earth" and "Everything was coming undone…the entire world breaking into pieces beneath me." In the long run, though, this is a carp, as the voice exerts an irresistible pull. The prospect of other people leaving—Alice's father with a woman he trains—and the revelation of characters' secrets keep the reader glued to the story. Highly recommended for all public libraries. (Library Journal 2006)


MYSTERY:

Died in the Wool by Rett MacPherson

Torie O'Shea, genealogist and president of the New Kassel, Mo., historical society, unearths long-buried family secrets when she puzzles out the strange 1920s suicides of siblings Glory, Whalen and Rupert Kendall in MacPherson's homespun 10th Torie O'Shea mystery (after 2006's Dead Man Running). The old Kendall house is put up for sale, and Torie hopes to buy and reinvent the home as a textile museum, honoring Glory Kendall, a skilled quilter. But Torie's interest broadens beyond historic fabric and needlework when she begins researching the odd circumstances surrounding the deaths of the Kendalls, who were survived by their father, Sanders. The ominous intrigue touches the present day when a friend of Torie's is poisoned with the same substance found long ago in Glory's body. Torie's determined historical detective work will absorb cozy readers. (Publisher's Weekly Review, March 2007)


SCIENCE FICTION:

For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison

Harrison's (A Fistful of Charms) "Hollows" series moves to hardcover with this fifth volume, which once again finds witch/independent bounty hunter Rachel Morgan in trouble with werewolves, vampires, and demons. A rash of werewolf suicides brings Rachel into another mystery, and when it becomes clear that the obvious suspects aren't behind the murders, Rachel discovers a motive rooted in an ancient curse. Meanwhile, Rachel's relationships with vampires Ivy (her roommate) and Kisten (her boyfriend) continue to evolve in different directions, resulting in a little jealousy and a lot of tension. Other familiar characters, including recovering demon Ceri and perennial villain Trent Kalamack, make appearances that will satisfy and entertain readers of Harrison's earlier books. The well-crafted world of the Hollows continues to grow more complex, and this book relies so much on the setup from the previous book that readers new to the series may find themselves lost. Harrison's following has grown as readers continue to discover her work, and fans of the early books in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series will enjoy Rachel Morgan's supernatural adventures. Recommended for public libraries. (Library Journal 11/15/06)

Literary Blogs Need Reviews to Stay Alive

There is a recent article in the New York Times about the loss of book reviewers and the shortening of book review sections in American newspapers. It concludes with a discussion of 'literary blogs." Book Talk is a "literary blog." Don't let it go the way of newspapers. Share your comments, add your reviews. Give us choices for Summer Reading.

Also, take a look at the latest entry in CNN's blog, Marquee. In the post dated Thursday, May 3, 2007 the author, Todd Leopold, discusses this same idea:
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/blogs/marquee/index.html

This Week in Reading April 29 - May 5

What kind of society is it to be, not just this one, but any one? And how are we all going to get along as we figure that out? Are the answers sometimes absurd, reasonable, or poltically necessary? Those questions were on a few minds of this week's authors and event participants, from social philosophy to personal behavior, but at least there is some foolery, follies, and food, too.

Also occurring this week is an article in Huffington Post about the lessening number of stand alone book review sections in American newspapers. Be thankful you can read reviews here.

This week's question: Who wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas?

Answer to last week's question: Harper Lee grew up to next door neighbor, Truman Capote. She accompanied him in his research and interviews with the killers of In Cold Blood.