This Week in Reading February 15 - 21

Literary Names of Note This Week

Nobel Prize in Literature: Toni Morrison (1993)

Novelists and Story Writers: Henry Adams, Nikos Kozantzakis, Anais Nin, Carson McCullers, Chaim Potok, Jean Auel, Wallace Stegner, Amy Tan, Chuck Palahniuk, David Foster Wallace, Richard Ford, Mo Yan.

Poets and Playwrights: Raymond Queneau, W. H. Auden, Andre Breton, Russell Crouse.

Thinkers, Spiritualists, Scientists, Historians: Jeremy Bentham, Alfred North Whitehead, John Rawls, Eckhart Tolle, Van Wyck Brooks,

Humorists, Essayists, Editors, Journalists, Biographers: Erma Bombeck.

Mystery / Crime / Suspense Writers: Sax Rohmer, Ruth Rendell, Margaret Truman, Len Deighton, Gregory McDonald.

Fantasy / Science Fiction Writers: Andre Norton, Laurell K. Hamilton, Iain Banks.

Graphic Novelists / Cartoonists / Illustrators: Warren Ellis, Gahan Wilson, Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening.

Literary Obituaries: Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih.

Events to read about: Both Corpenicus and Gallileo were born this week; the first magazine in America and later the New Yorker started up in the same week the Post Office was begun to deliver them; the US denied some Japanese Americans the right to citizenship during WWII and a president visited China to re-open it to the West; and we went from a computer the size of a room to You Tube appearing on handhelds.

This Week’s Question: One of this week’s authors said some of the best things ever about the process of writing for people who want to read. Who said the following?

"The language must be careful and must appear effortless. It must not sweat. It must suggest and be provocative at the same time."

"I wrote my first [x] because I wanted to read it."

"I never wanted to grow up to be a writer. I just wanted to grow up to be an adult."

Answer to Last Week’s Question: We showed you a site with pictures of beautiful libraries from around the world, called Curious Expeditions. We asked you which of these exquisite libraries have you visited. Some of our librarians in the course of their studies and travels have been to several reading rooms shown, including UC, Berkeley, the New York Public Library, our nearby neighbor, the Huntington Library (which has many rare first editions to see,) the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress, the British Museum, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Trinity College in Dublin (where you can see the Book of Kells on display.) The list is probably endless because some of us like also to visit other public libraries from small towns to big cities when we’re on vacation. It’s great to have themes for your vacations over your life, from all the libraries you can see to all the theaters you can see or all the ball parks or roller coasters you can visit. We have the books to show you where everything is.

This Week in Reading November 23 - 29

It's Thanksgiving week. Many of us are thankful for the end of hot, dry days and the enjoyment of cool evenings where we can sit indoors in a comfortable sweater with a cup of hot chocolate or hot cider next to us while we read.

This week is also a week to catch up on some of the mistakes we've made as we approach the end of the year. While we will edit out all those old Russian calendar mistakes after the year is done, we must correct a glaring one we made two weeks ago. One of the old literary books we relied upon has shown itself wrong on several occasions and we learned that French-Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco was born this week instead. Sorry.

With time off from work, in between family to dos, catch a little bit of classic reading with Louisa May Alcott, Laurence Sterne, C. S. Lewis, or Jin Ba. You can go literary modern with James Agee, Nancy Mitford, Arundhati Roy, or Alberto Moravia. Classic fantasists are on the menu with Madeleine L'Engle, Nelson Slade Bond, L. Sprague de Camp, and science fiction's Frederick Pohl and Poul Anderson. Top it off with the poetry and art of William Blake or the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza.

This Week's Question: One the authors born this week created illuminated books. Who was it? And what are illuminated books?

Answer to Last Week's Question: Mary Ann Evans, the woman who wrote as George Eliot, was a woman in Victorian England when women were considered to be "silly" novel writers. She had planned to publish as Marion Evans. Contemporaneous with her, however, was a famous woman who became the wife of the British Prime Minster, himself a novelist, Benjamin Disraeli, and her name was Mary Anne Evans. Somehow the name George Eliot was decided on for the novel Adam Bede which secured its author a reputation as a great writer. Because an imposter, a man, claimed to be the successful novelist, Mary Ann Evans came out as the real George Eliot and Victorian society accepted her as she published several more great novels, albeit under the male name. Besides this, Evans refused Victorian ideas of piety and in fact lived unmarried, though as married, for over twenty years to a man who could not divorce his wife, who had several children by other men in their open marriage. After he died Evans finally did marry, but to an unstable man twenty years her junior. The last years of her life which will make good screen fodder, her changing impact on the literary world for women, are depicted in the recent novel The World Before Her by Deborah Weisgall.

This Week in Reading Aug 31 - Sep 6

This week is filled with novelists, mostly. From literary great William Saroyan, who also wrote plays and stories to Alice Sebold who didn't. Other novelists of note are Sarah Orne Jewett, Richard Wright, Arthur Koestler, Frank Yerby, and Alison Lurie.

Popular genre writers abound this week as well. Most notably, Edgar Rice Burroughs who created the Tarzan adventure novel series and movies and lived on a ranch he called Tarzana and later subdivided to become a district in Los Angeles. Also well known are Mary Renault and Joan Aiken who wrote historical novels that sold millions. Aiken also wrote fantasy, along with science fiction's CJ Cherryh, and China Mieville.

This Week's Question: You can get quality of life advice from other authors born this week, "Dr. Phil" McGraw, and Robert M. Pirsig. In a way, perhaps both of them suggest an effective marriage of the rational and the romantic but one of them is a psychologist and the other is a philosopher. Which one rode motorcycles?

Answer to Last week's Question: C. S. Forester began his highly successful series of books about naval hero Horatio Hornblower after he discovered a three volume set of old books about the British Navy, Naval Chronicles, in a used bookstore. Forrester also wrote the book The African Queen, which was made into a classic movie as well.

This Week in Reading August 17 -23

This week offers a fairly recent Nobel prizewinner, V. S. Naipaul who won in 2001 while the world was feeling the effects of 9/11. Though he lives in England and calls himself a "Trinidadian" he has written mostly about the country of his ethnic roots, India and of the problems faced by Third Worlders both back home and in the First World. His works are well worth the reading because what he writes is both elegaic and universal. The other Nobel laureate is little known today and shares an unfortunate name with a classic character, the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo who won the Nobel in 1959.

It is also the week of H. P. Lovecraft, M. M. Kaye, and Ray Bradbury for dark, light, and sociallly speculative fantasy fans. There's Annie Proulx, Alain Robbe-Grillet for sophisticated writing, Nelson DeMille for suspense, Brian Aldiss for science fiction, with Jacqueline Susann for wild romance. We find poets Ted Hughes, Edgar Guest, and Edgar Lee Masters. Humorous light versers abound as well from Dorothy Parker and Ogden Nash from the first half of the twentieth century to Mark Russell and X. J. Kennedy in the second. And, as always, many more names and events to fill many more interests.

This Week's Question: At least two authors born this week wrote stories for the New Yorker. Who were they? Who wrote the very first 7,000 word story for that magazine?

Answer to Last Week's Question: The person known as "The Poet Laureate of Skid Row" was Los Angeles' own Charles Bukowski who has achieved cult-like status among aficionados and was immortalized in the movie, Barfly. He lived what he wrote and said once, "The difference between Art and Life is that Art is more bearable."

New Supernatural Novels for Teens

Sink your teeth into one of these fantastic new teen books featuring vampires, werewolves, the faerie realm, and other paranormal happenings ...

Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

"A warrior queen gives birth to a child who links the world to the monsters of a young man's dreams. A nobleman chooses a beautiful commoner for his bride, and the boy who loved her discovers her darkest secret dangling in the forest. In ten sharp tales, Lanagan pushes the short story form and the genre of fantasy to their limits....These stories are turgid with love, loss, hope, despair, and the sense that there must be more to the world than that which can be touched with hands....The result is stories that unsettle and explore. They are a pleasure at every level." (Voice Of Youth Associates)

Repossessed by A. M. Jenkins

"Seventeen-year-old slacker Shaun steps off the curb and is smacked by a cement-mixer truck. Just before he goes under, a curiously sneaky 'fallen angel' named Kiriel steps into Shaun's body. Thus begins Kiriel's near doe-eyed exploration of all the weird, whacked-out wonders of teenage boyhood.... The infusion of Kiriel's inquisitively dogged personality into Shaun's teenaged body humorously amplifies all of Shaun's usual boy instincts: Lust, hunger and love all spring to the center, most affecting when Kiriel's educated near-Shakespearean words spout forth from Shaun's usually blunt and blasé lips....Kiriel's own search for meaning and direction from his own realm in this new life packs an intriguingly deep wallop." (Kirkus Reviews)

The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural edited by Deborah Noyes

"A companion volume to the collection Gothic (2004), this impressive anthology presents original short stories spotlighting the work of ten masters of dark fantasy. Fantasy readers will recognize some authors—Libba Bray, Holly Black, Chris Wooding—while others' stories will introduce whole new bodies of work.... Kelly Link's funny "The Wrong Grave" takes a punk/gothic view of a teen poet's reaction to his girlfriend's death; M. T. Anderson's "The Gray Boy's Work" depicts the aftermath of a man's participation in the American Revolution; and Holly Black's "The Poison Eaters" depicts a venomous family in a kingdom that never was...this potent mix of horror stories, with its literary touches that range from the humorous to the horrific, will attract readers with its promising title and keep them riveted to these splendid tales." (Kirkus Reviews)

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

"On the night of each full moon, the five Transylvanian sisters who reside in the castle Piscul Dracului don their finest gowns. They raise their hands to create shadows against the wall, opening a portal to the Other Kingdom, where they will dance the night away with all manner of fantastical creatures. After nine years of full moons spent in delightful revelry, dark forces, both human and otherworldly, arise to encroach upon the sisters' happiness. Told by Jena, the second oldest sister, this detailed and mood-rich story covers much territory, both mundane and magical. Adult fantasy writer Marillier has uniquely reimagined and blended an assortment of well-known tales and characters--including fairies, dwarves, witches, vampires, and a frog who is more than he seems--into a compelling whole in her first book for teens." (Booklist)

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

"Aislinn knows that fairies are real and that they aren't the small, cute, winged beings that most people imagine. She has inherited the gift of Sight from her mother's family, allowing her to see them. She lives by rules that have kept her safe from their notice. All of that changes when Keenan, the Summer King, chooses her as his queen, involving Aislinn in a 900-year power struggle between him and his mother, the Winter Queen. If Aislinn refuses him, summer will cease to exist, killing both mortals and fairies alike. If she accepts, she loses her humanity and ties to the mortal world—as if life as a teenager isn't hard enough when you're 'normal.'" (School Library Journal)

Find these and more suggestions at Glendale Public Library's Teen Central.

This Week in Reading November 11 - 17

Among the authors born this week are more who became literary institutions, but the reputation of each this week was founded upon seeing the world differently then the mainstream around them. Or, perhaps some might say, this group saw more clearly within the multiplicity of worlds that exist around the mainstream and more accurately portrayed reality through seeming unreality.

Kurt Vonnegut's other worlds sharply delineated this one populated by fools and often run by bigger fools. The novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and poet Aleksandr Blok were both symbolists of sorts going deep into psychological realities. Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, while called theatre of the absurd, shows how person after person in a society can be swept into the fascist thundering herd. Mexico's Carlos Fuentes experimented with unusual prose styles and characters. Portugal's Jose Saramago won a Nobel prize for his works of sociopolitical fantasy. In a sense though every writer is an outsider, this group wrote differently about what was around them and because of that the literary world changed around them. It is worth noting, however, that other writers born this week also pushed boundaries and others worked extremely well within them. It's a strong week all around.

This Week's Question: Also born this week was another kind of institution, Robert Lewis Stevenson of Scotland, who traveled the world and created some of the western world's most loved adventure books. Among them Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Stevenson's own life would make a fine movie as his travels and romances led him from Paris to northern California, back to the United Kingdom, and then to the Adirondacks in New York State. He and his wife later returned to England where he wrote some of his best known work, but where did Robert Louis Stevenson end up in the last few years of his life?

Answer to Last Week's Question: Eugene V. Debs was the Socialist party candidate for president several times and like comedians Pat Paulsen, Stephen Colbert, and Stephanie Miller after him, Will Rogers ran for president in 1928 as the nominee of the Anti-Bunk Party arranged by Life magazine. His quotes on politics are still as fresh as when he said them "There is one rule that works in every calamity. Be it pestilence, war, or famine, the rich get richer and poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it. "

Tempting Titles: Fresh Fiction - April

FICTION:

Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

"When a new highway threatens to bypass the town of Rossmore and cut through Whitethorn Woods, everyone has a passionate opinion about whether the town will benefit or suffer. But young Father Flynn is most concerned with the fate of St. Ann's Well, which is set at the edge of the woods and slated for destruction. People have been coming to St. Ann's for generations to share their dreams and fears, and to speak their prayers. Some believe it to be a place of true spiritual power, demanding protection; others think it's a mere magnet for superstitions, easily sacrificed. Not knowing which faction to favor, Father Flynn listens to all those caught up in the conflict, and these are the voices we hear in the stories of Whitethorn Woods - men and women deciding between the traditions of the past and the promises of the future, ordinary people brought vividly to life by Binchy."--BOOK JACKET.

MYSTERY:

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

Starred Review. A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery—the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall—after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman. (Publisher Weekly Review)

FANTASY:

Odalisque by Fiona McIntosh

"Captured by slave traders in the inhospitable desert, Lazar fought his way to freedom, earning the coveted position of Spur of Percheron. Charged with protecting his adopted city from enemies on both sides of its walls, he has led a charmed life as confidant to and protector of Zar Joreb for many years. But now Joreb is dead. Though Joreb's well-intentioned fifteen-year-old heir, Boaz, will take the title of Zar, the balance of power lies in the hands of his beautiful and cruelly ambitious mother, a former harem slave who rose to power by the Zar's favor. Aside from Lazar, whom Boaz trusts and respects, the young Zar's only friend is Pez, the court jester, a misshapen dwarf whose tricks and diversions are accepted only because he is know to be mad. When a stunning young girl is brought to the palace to fill a space in Boaz's harem, both Boaz and Lazar are surprised by their unexpectedly strong reactions to her. But Ana, the odalisque, finds the closeted world of the harem stifling and unbearable. And unbeknownst to all, the gods themselves are beginning to rise in a cyclical battle that is just the beginning, and will enmesh everyone in the palace in a struggle for the very soul of Percheron."--BOOK JACKET.