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April 2012 Books

The Cove by Ron Rash

Christopher Moore is back to take on the Great French Masters, Jonathan Franzen delivers a collection of essays, and Ron Rash and Anne Tyler both emerge with new novels.

Books by and About Kurt Vonnegut
Contemporary Literature Spotlight10

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

Monday May 7, 2012

A clockmaker by the name of Joe Spork teams up with an octogenarian secret agent to do battle with a murderous Asian drug lord and a rogue sect of Ruskinite monks while a doomsday device ticks inexorably toward the world's end. In Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway has crafted an intricate and hilarious send-up of the British spy novel.

Review of Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

Photo: Knopf

These are your kids on books.

Thursday May 3, 2012

These are your kids on books.

Ridiculously awesome poster courtesy of the non-profit reading advocacy group Burning Through Pages. You can donate to them.

Autoportrait by Edouard Levé

Monday April 30, 2012

Edouard Levé's Autoportrait is a revelatory autobiography composed of thousands of simple statements, each of which reveals something about its author. Here's an example:

"I couldn't say whether I'd prefer to have my left arm amputated or my right leg. When I read psychiatric manuals, I often find I have one symptom of the illnesses they describe, sometimes more than one, sometimes every symptom. I do not write in order to give pleasure to those who read me, but I would not be displeased if that is what they felt ...Often I think I know nothing about myself."

Read the full review of Autoportrait.

Photo: Dalkey Archive

Happy World Book Night!

Tuesday April 24, 2012
This evening, my daughter was handed a book - The Hunger Games
"For free?" She asked in wonderment.

How great it is to grow up in a world where strangers press books on you for the cost of a smile. That's not to say that this is an everyday occurance in our world, but on World Book Night... well, it can happen.

World Book Night, which actually lasted all day today, is an international effort to encourage the love of reading by giving away books. This devious plot to make readers out of non readers was successful in Britain last year - the boost in book sales convinced publishers this year to join in the giveaway here in the U.S. And it's not just publishers who are contributing, but bookstores - both chains and independents - as well as libraries and individuals.

Just for the record, my daughter has read The Hunger Games series a couple of times already; she's read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books several times over also; and she's read the Harry Potter books more times than I can count. Handing her a book tonight is a bit of preaching to the choir. Still, she thought it was the best thing ever. So do I.

Here are the books being given away as part of World Book Night:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Ballantine)
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger (Da Capo)
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Beacon Press)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor)
Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
Blood Work by Michael Connelly (Grand Central)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Riverhead)
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick)
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (Vintage)
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (Grove Atlantic)
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin)
Q Is for Quarry by Sue Grafton (Berkley)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead)
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (Ballantine)
The Stand by Stephen King (Anchor)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Perennial)
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (W.W. Norton)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner)
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (Mariner)
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (Perennial)
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Atria)
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (Picador)
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Back Bay)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Broadway)
Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco)
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

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