Reading Copy

More drinks inspired by literature from The Guardian

Popularity: 20% [?]

BookChase plublished a list of authors who passed on in 2007. It’s always sad to see a list like this but as one of the blogs readers put it “At least they leave a legacy of their work behind among other things.”

January:

Robert Anton Wilson, 74 - co-author of “The Illuminatus Trilogy”
Art Buchwald, 81 - author and humorist
Sidney Sheldon, 89 - author
Molly Ivins, 62 - political writer and humorist
Peter Tompkins, 87 - author of “The Secret Life of Plants”

February:

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 89 - historian
Marianne Fredriksson, 79 - much-admired Swedish author
Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, 89 - German author of “Das Boot”

March:

Henri Troyat, 95 - prolific French author
Robert E. Petersen, 80 - magazine publisher
Michael Dibdin, 60 - author most famous for his “Aurelio Zen” mysteries

April:

Kurt Vonnegut, 84 - author
David Halberstam, 73 - historian and journalist famous for baseball writing

May:

Lloyd Alexander, 83 - author of children’s books
Mark Harris, 84 - most famous for his baseball books like “Bang the Drum Slowly”

June:

William Meredith, 88 - prize-winning poet
Richard Rorty - American philosopher
Nazek al-Malaika, 85 - Iraqi poet
Fred T. Saberhagen, 77 - science fiction author

July:

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 68 - writer of historical romances
John Graham, 80 - author of children’s books

August:

Grace Paley, 84 - short story writer and poet
Edward Seidensticker, 86 - translator of Japanese literature

September:

Madeleine L’Engle, 88 - author most famous for “A Wrinkle in Time”
Robert Jordan, 58 - fantasy author

October:

Peg Bracken, 89 - author of the “I Hate to Cook Book”

November:

Norman Mailer, 84 - author and celebrity
Ira Levin, 78 - author most famous for “Rosemary’s Baby”

December:

Elizabeth Hardwick, 91 - author and critic, co-founder of The New York Review of Books

Popularity: 10% [?]

Miffed at the lack of science books in most of year end reviews - Edge posts their list of science books of 2007.

Popularity: 15% [?]

The Guardian Unlimited lists their 10 most read book stories of 2007

Popularity: 15% [?]

The Guardian posted a set of cocktails inspired by Dickens. That should help spread the Christmas cheer out until the New Year.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Sydney Morning Herald lists their picks for best books of 2007

Popularity: 9% [?]

The Times (of London) has the best and worst quotes from the literary world in 2007.

“Oh, Christ. You can’t go on getting excited every year about this. I’ve won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one.” Doris Lessing’s response on being told she had won the Nobel prize for literature

Popularity: 16% [?]

Some fun and games for Christmas…..The Guardian has a book quiz about 2007 (I got 20 out of 32).

Popularity: 9% [?]

Prospect looks at the year in culture (books, theatre, art, movies etc) and gathers those that were overrated and underrated.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Wow. A 1962 Saul Bass illustrated children’s book.

Popularity: 26% [?]

NFL kicker Jason Elam, who plays for the Denver Broncos, has published a spy thriller - Monday Night Jihad (football, terrorism and spying).

Popularity: 15% [?]

Entertainment Weekly has named their five worst books of the year. Here is what they wrote…..

1. IF I DID IT (The Goldman Family)
   According to O.J. Simpson, whose name was purged from the cover of his ”confession,” it was all her fault. Nicole Brown Simpson was manipulative, whiny, and confused. She wore ”ridiculous” short skirts, partied with druggies and hookers, and kept O.J. from seeing his kids. And so if he did it — if he slashed her throat and slaughtered her friend Ronald Goldman one balmy night in 1994 — the exasperating lady had it coming. A bloody glove could have written a more tasteful book.
2. THE ALMOST MOON by Alice Sebold
   The narrator of Alice Sebold’s queasy second novel smothers her elderly mom, then calmly reflects: ”When I was a teenager, I thought every kid spent sweaty summer afternoons in their bedrooms, daydreaming of cutting their mother up into little pieces and mailing them to parts unknown.” Actually, they don’t. The few who do may be the only readers who relish this unsavory melodrama.
3. 7: THE MICKEY MANTLE NOVEL by Peter Golenbock
   With this trashy fictionalization of Mickey’s miserable life, Peter Golenbock manages to strike out, pop up, hit into a double play, and foul a ball into the stands, beaning a little kid.
4. CELEBRITY DETOX by Rosie O’Donnell
   Here’s what you learn from Rosie’s sloppy, score-settling memoir: She hates Donald Trump with such a fury she can’t see straight; she worships Barbra Streisand more than seems healthy; she can’t ”poop” in public restrooms. Thanks for sharing, Ro.
5. BOOK OF THE DEAD by Patricia Cornwell
   Like a putrefying corpse left too long on forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta’s table, Patricia Cornwell’s thrillers just get stinkier and stinkier. Her latest gory specimen is in such bad shape it’s virtually unrecognizable as a novel.

Popularity: 14% [?]

I have absolutely no idea where Three Cups of Tea came from but it suddenly started appearing on our bestseller lists a couple of months ago. Now the author gets a big write up in USA Today as he explains about building schools in Pakistan.

Popularity: 10% [?]

A very fancy pop up book from Neiman Marcus.

Popularity: 19% [?]

One of my favourite counties back home in the UK is Dorset. It’s a beautiful place with an incredible coastline - hey, even Ian McEwan sets novels there. Of course, Dorset is also famous for Thomas Hardy but I have to admit that I struggled to like his writing when I studied Return of the Native in school. I just couldn’t get my head around Hardy’s ability to write eight straight pages about the beauty of Egdon Heath.

My family would often take holidays in Dorset and we would visit Dorchester (aka Casterbridge in The Mayor of Casterbridge). The Kings Arms Hotel, which is a key location in the book, is up for sale for around £3 million (a little more than a handwritten JK Rowling book). Built in 1720, the hotel is a very memorable place to visit - the quintessential English hotel in many ways. I can remember going for tea at the hotel as a child and thinking how old everything seemed.

Popularity: 10% [?]