The Bookshelf

Popular author John Updike, creator of the “Rabbit” books died yesterday. Considered to be one of the major American authors of the last half century, Mr. Updike won several major literary awards ranging from the National Book Award to a Pulitzer prize for those same Rabbit series of books. Fans may want to watch this in depth interview of him conducted by   C-Span in 2005.

The Academy Award nominees were announced this week and I was struck by the fact that save one, Milk, all those vying for Best Picture were based on books or plays.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a short story/novella by F. Scott Fitzgerald,

Frost/Nixon is based on a play written by Peter Morgan who also wrote the screenplay for the movie.

The Reader is based on a popular novel by Bernard Schlink

Slumdog Millionaire is based on the recent novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup

Novels and short stories are the backbone of films. Some moviegoers always read the book or play before seeing the film, others stream into the library looking for the book of a film they recently enjoyed…they seem to want to extend the experience or add to it.

The popular suspense and horror author Stephen King recently had his latest short story collection turned into an original web video series in conjunction with Marvel Comics. The prolific experimenter is himself considering making a You Tube video for his upcoming novel.  While acknowleding that such endeavors are fun, King said, ” But with all these multimedia things, the story is the story still, the book is the book, and that’s the source material. As J.R.R. Tolkien might say.’That’s the one ring.’ It rules the other one.”

So before or after viewing these Oscar nominees, come in and get the book.

And for more ideas check out some of our movie lists of films based on books such as :

Movies Based on Twentieth Century Fiction Books

or

Movies Based on Historical Novels

These and other wonderful movie lists can be found under “movie lists” on the Movies & Music page.

It’s awards season not only for movies, but for books, too. These finalists were announced on Saturday, January 24 and winners will be announced on March 12. The National Book Critics Circle organization has been in existence since 1974 and is committed to honoring quality writing. It’s a good place to get reading ideas.

Fiction

Roberto Bolaño, 2666, FSG
Marilynne Robinson, Home, FSG
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project, Riverhead
M. Glenn Talyor, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, West Virginia University Press
Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kittredge, Random House

Biography

Paula J. Giddings, Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, Amistad
Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in an American Century, Penguin Press
Patrick. French, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, Knopf
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, Norton
Brenda Wineapple, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Knopf

Autobiography

Rick Bass, Why I Came West, Houghton Mifflin
Helene Cooper, The House on Sugar Beach, Simon and Schuster
Honor Moore, The Bishop’s Daughter, W.W. Norton
Andrew X. Pham, The Eaves of Heaven, Harmony Books
Ariel Sabar, My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, Algonquin

Nonfiction

Dexter Filkins, The Forever War, Knopf
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the Civil War, Knopf
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Doubleday
Allan Lichtman, White Protestant Nation, Atlantic Monthly Press
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776, Oxford University Press

See complete list here.

The Mystery Writers of America have announced the nominees for the 2009 Edgar Awards, honoring the best mysteries of the past year. (The announcement came on the 200th anniversary of the birth of the award’s namesake, Edgar Allan Poe.) The winners won’t be announced until late April, so here’s your chance to check out some of the contenders and select your favorites.

2009 Edgar Award Nominees for Best Novel

Missing by Karin Alvtegen
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno
The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes
The Night Following by Morag Joss
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

A young woman came up to the desk seeking an audio-book copy of The Audacity of Hope read by Barack Obama.  She was on her way to the inauguration and thought it would be perfect as an introduction. Amazed to have found a copy on the shelf, I happily sent her on her way with cautions to dress warmly. I envy her the moment, but this interaction made me begin thinking about authors reading their own writing. With Obama, there is no problem. His ability to speak, his sense of timing as well as the timbre of his voice are hallmarks of a good narrator.  In fact, the narrator of an audio-book can be as important as the author. Most of them are actors with considerable training and experience speaking in public.

Very often, however, an author writes a popular new book and their agent or publisher or the wicked witch under a neighboring rock convinces them to read it themselves for the audio-book version. Perhaps, they themselves envision driving across the miles listening to their own pearls of wisdom in their very own voice.

In the case of Barack Obama, it merely enhances the experience of the listener. David Sedaris is another author who must read his audiobook for the sheer enjoyment of listening for his emphasis and meaningful pauses.

Others are not so good. I distinctly remember checking out Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, eagerly awaiting lush descriptions of the Tuscan countryside and mellow wine and quaint characters met along the way, only to hear the twang of a deep southern accent literally mangling Italian names. Disaster! A complete disconnect from expectations. Thankfully the library also purchased another copy of the same title, this time read by Barbara Caruso, a professional narrator. We can’t always get an alternative version, and it is not apparent when ordering which author is a fine narrator of their own works and which are not…and professionalism is not always a good determiner..Another older title by E.M Delderfield, God is an Englishman, was read by a narrator with such an unintelligible British accent as to be impossible to understand. Normally I enjoy British or Scottish accents, but this was not a keeper. I snatched it out of my player in two minutes flat.   So we will continue to listen and hope for good readers.

The annual NCAA tournament is a perfect storm of two of my greatest loves – college basketball and chart-making. Actually, to be perfectly honest I don’t even need the basketball part. Give me a good bracket to fill out and I’m a happy camper.

What does this have to do with reading? For the past four years, literary blog The Morning News has dared to ask the question: can you create a NCAA-style tournament, but for books? The answer is a resounding yes. Every year, sixteen titles engage in head-to-head combat. Celebrity judges from all over the literary world weigh the merits of each. The winner receives The Rooster, an award (named for David Sedaris’ brother) that also functions as a real live rooster.  To date, no winner of The Rooster has accepted the award.

As befits a bracket-style tournament, the Tournament of Books begins in March. But the intrepid staff has released the list of contenders early, so you can prepare accordingly. You can view the full list (with links to the catalog) after the jump.

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As the title of this entry states it is a sad day for those who have enjoyed  the universal genius that is Rumpole.

I loved watching and reading Rumpole and his defense of the indefensible, his love of terrible food, his fear of his wife, and his extreme Britishness.

If you  think you might like hilarious stories about an English barrister give Sir John Mortimer’s Rumpole a try.

Readers often ask what determines whether a book is placed in the mystery category or in the general fiction category. As the selector of all fiction here at the library, this is one of  my most frequent dilemmas. A book will be categorized as a mystery if

a.  it was reviewed as a mystery but mostly

b. if the protagonist, be they policeman, private eye or amateur sleuth, is actively seeking who committed a crime. The crime can be murder (most prevalent) a con or a lesser crime. (think Mme Ramotswe solving her missing persons situations or straying husbands in the #1 Ladies Detective series by Alexander McCall Smith. Most important is that the crime be solved before the end of the book and the perpetrator given his just reward.

In other words someone actively seeking a solution to “Who Dunnit” or, in some cases “Why Dunnit” is the most common determining factor in whether a book is placed in the mystery section of the library.

A close genre to mysteries is the Suspense novel. The difference between the two is that in a suspense novel there is a pervading sense of menace. Most likely the protagonist is himself or herself in danger or someone close to them is at risk.  The reader often knows “Who Dunnit”  but is more concerned with when it will be done or how the protagonist can avoid it being done. Novels placed in this category include serial killer novels, legal thrillers or medical thrillers ala Robin Cook.

In mysteries the reader intellectually accompanies the sleuth and tries to figure out “Who Dunnit” before the sleuth. In suspense nvoels, the reader often shares in the sense of dread and fear along with the protagonist.

One time that these “rules”  breakdown is if a very popular mystery writer for ex. begins writing suspense thrillers. Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben come to mind. We often house all of their works together in mystery. Confusing? Yes, but that is what gives us librarians job security…we can find the book.

And then there are “thrillers”…