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LATEST Feature Articles
Long List Man Booker Prize Announced
by - Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The judges for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction today, Tuesday 27 July, announced the longlist for the prize. It is the leading literary award in the English speaking world. A total of 138 books, 14 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the Man Booker Dozen longlist of 13 books. The chair of judges, Andrew Motion, commented:"Here are thirteen exceptional novels - books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality, without reference to the past work of their authors. Wide-ranging in their geography and their concern, they tell powerful stories which make the familiar strange and cover an enormous range of history and feeling. We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain." A glance over the list you will see some familiar authors who've won literary prizes, or nominations for the Man Booker in previous years. I'm always a little disappointed there aren't more fresh names in literary contests, however it is always a pleasure to read an author you know and can compare the progression of their work. Order one or three from the list and take your chances picking the winner. This will be announced on Tuesday 12 October at a dinner at London's Guildhall and will be broadcast on the BBC Ten O'Clock News. The prize is worth £50,000 and brings the author increased sales and worldwide recognition. The list is:
...More >>
LATEST Author Interviews
When Are Literary Guys Funny?
by - Tuesday, July 27, 2010
OK, you guessed it. I'm back at the farm slacking off (working my fingers to the BONE) and so this week's author podcast does not derive from moi. It is a hilarious riff from Russian born American writer, Gary Shteyngart. Who is Gary Shteyngart you ask? Well if you crossed Woody Allen with Pushkin, I think you'd be close. To prove my point, just watch this "serious video" from Random House introducing Gary's new book, Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel (Random House, July 27th 2010). It's fiction. It's a whopping 352 pages, and the video has real authors going with the schtick [including Edmond White, Mary Gaitskill, Jeffrey Eugenides.} Gary lives on the Lower East side of Manhattan and teaches at Columbia University, Princeton University and Hunter College. Check out his new book, but don't take MY word for it! Wikipedia (the source of all good journalist's information) wrote this: "Absurdistan: A Novel was chosen as one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review and Time Magazine, as well as a book of the year by the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications. The Russian Debutante's Handbook won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, the Book-of-the-Month Club First Fiction Award and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. It was named a New York Times Notable Book and one of the best debuts of the year by The Guardian (UK).
Feature Articles >>
Jeffery Eugenides Has A New Book
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
"One of the most anticipated new books around the Farrar, Straus & Giroux offices (and out in the Real World, I daresay) is Jeffrey Eugenides' follow-up to Middlesex. That 2003 novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize and was later selected for Oprah's Book Club, has sold over 2,000,000 copies and is on many readers' lists of their favorite contemporary novels." writes Jonathan Galassi, president of FSG. Jonathan caught up (virtually) with Jeff in his studio in Princeton, New Jersey, where he is rounding the turn on his new novel.—Work In Progress Blog
Galassi: Please tell us everything you can about your new book, starting with the title.
Eugenides: I hate to begin by withholding information, but I'd rather not divulge the title of the new book at the moment. I remember when my wife was pregnant and we were trying out different names for the baby. Anytime we told someone a prospective name, they would find something wrong with it. It rhymed with something not-nice. It was just begging to be deformed into a schoolyard epithet. The result was that we never named our child and refer to her now only by her SS#. So I'm not going to make that mistake again and tell you the title of my book.
Curious to read more of the interview? Click this link."I don't quite know how to describe it. A college love story? Maybe." ....More >>
Book Reviews >>
Song Over Quiet Lake by Sarah Felix Burns
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Song Over Quiet Lake is the second novel by Canadian author, Sarah Felix Burns. Her first novel Jackfish the Vanishing Village, 2007 (reviewed here) won the 2009 Northern Lit Award. This built anticipation for her next book. What shines through in her writing again is Burns' understanding of the human condition and the degree of empathy she evokes in readers for her characters. It is not surprising that she holds a degree in Women’s Studies and History from the University of British Columbia, with a masters degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto.
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Publisher News >>
TOR Books: 30 Years of Fantasy Can't Be That Bad For You
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Thursday, April 01, 2010
To celebrate its 30th anniversary—and have a little April Fool's Day fun—Tor Books recently took a tongue-in-cheek staff picture in front of its offices in the Flatiron Building, NYC. President and publisher Tom Doherty is in the center of the shot. We assume the flying saucer and serpent demon are photoshopped in. Are you surprised by the number of staff required to be a publisher? Those people are the reason why Tor has won the Locus Magazine poll for best science fiction publisher every year since 1988, and as of early 2009, they have produced 157 prize-winning novels. BookBuffet went online to learn more about this successful niche publisher. Fantasy and Science fiction are not just the reading fodder of teenaged boys. With a stable of over 100 authors they represent such notable writers as Cory Doctorow, Steven Erikson and Kathleen Ann Goonan. There are 15 editors on staff to keep up with the job of reviewing manuscript submissions, selecting and working up properties suitable to the house. Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, based in New York City. They also publish mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint.
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Whistler Reads >>
Whistler Reads: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and the biography of Harper Lee, UP CLOSE
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010
It has been 50 years since Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" came out and rocked our world. The reclusive author almost never gave interviews or speeches to accept her awards, including the Pulitzer Prize she was given in 1960. She did form a lasting relationship with actor Gregory Peck who played the lead figure, Atticus Finch in the film version of her book, a character modeled on Lee's own father who was a newspaperman and former lawyer of the highest moral standard. (Gregory Peck's grandchild is named Harper Peck Voll, in tribute to Harper Lee.) A new biography has come out on Harper Lee, written by Kerry Madden, a Professor at the University of Alabama, titled Harper Lee: Up Close. This biography and Mockingbird itself, will be the Whistler Reads September picks for discussion. Look for event details to include: screenings of the film, discussions with Kerry Madden as well as 2 writing workshops with Kerry; one for youth and one for adults.
Harper Lee, now 86, declined to be interviewed for her biography. She feels biographies are for dead people. As Madden discovered from her ample research of Lee, who despite her age, remains incredibly active; she golfs every golfs every week claiming the walk gives her time to think, and her 90-plus year-old sister till works as an attorney in town.
"Madden draws on extensive research—including trips to Monroeville, Ala., and interviews with classmates, colleagues and town residents—to explore how Lee’s life and times inspired her masterpiece. To Kill a Mockingbird has sold 30 million copies in 40 languages and continues to sell 10,000 copies per year, and Lee is 'one of the authors most read by [North]American students.' ...This biography will appeal to fans of the novel and to newcomers. Readers will find a fascinating portrait of an independent young woman stubbornly going her own way to become the one thing she wanted to be: a writer. Extensive source notes and an excellent bibliography round out this superb biography, one of the best in the Up Close series." Get your copy of Harper Lee: Up Close by Kerry Madden—Kirkus Reviews
Purchase both the novel and biography and re-visit this classic novel while learning about the author whose story shaped our views of racism and injustice. If you are in Whistler, get your copy from Armchair Books. WR members receive a 10% discount. ....More >>
WGBH Boston >>
Masterpiece Mystery: Agatha Christie turns 120
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
BookBuffet is helping to spread the word about this July’s premiere of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which headlines a trio of new Poirot mysteries on PBS MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! This long-awaited adaptation is preceded by a one–hour special taking viewers on a present-day journey aboard the iconic train. (The documentary, David Suchet on the Orient Express, airs Wednesday, July 7, 2010 on PBS.)
2010 actually marks Agatha Christie’s 120th birthday! Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 45 foreign languages. She is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.
MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! is celebrating Christie and her suave Belgian detective with activities of interest to fans: a Q&A with David Suchet at pbs.org/masterpiece/poirot a live Twitter event during the July 11 broadcast of Murder on the Orient Express. Experts from Mystery Readers International, Mystery Scene and The Strand magazines will be tweeting. Join them and tag your posts with the hashtag, and then visit us on TweetGrid at TweetGrid, or use your own favorite aggregator.
Finally, we have a free supply of paperback copies of Murder on the Orient Express for distribution to readers. Contact us at paulas [at] bookbuffet.com ....More >>
Wine & Book Club >>
Wine and Book Club Pick For Aug-Sept
by
Friday, July 30, 2010
My girlfriend was excoriating me the other day for not having read any novels by blockbuster Swedish crime writer, Karl Stig-Erland Larsson. On and on she went about the gripping plot, the insights into Swedish history and politics and culture, the sordid scandals and speculation over his sudden death at age 50 (was it a heart attack or murder; had he been offed by Swedish right-sided extremist groups?) and the fact that the first book in the trilogy had been made into a NorthAmerican blockbuster feature film, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo starring a cast of people with an impossible number of consonants in their names. I admitted my guilt. I begged off with vague references to... something I refer to as "the Dan Brown phenomenon"; as soon as I see a blockbuster novel/movie, I run the other way. I do anything I can to avoid exposing myself to mass culture and hysteria. I'm still receiving therapy over Da Vinci Code, truth be told. Then I looked up Larson's book sale statistics: He was the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, who admittedly I enjoyed. His Millennium trilogy, Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, has sold 27 million copies in more than 40 countries. So, in deference to my dear friend who is trying to save me from turtling into an elitist literary shell, I thought I'd place the last of Larsson's trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest up for our Wine & Book Club pick over the summer. After all, don't we all love a good hornet's nest during our picnic? I bought the 3-pack.
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Author Interviews >>
Author Podcast: Matthew Hooton
by
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Matthew Hooton was named one of Canada's new literary talents to watch. His first novel is titled, Deloume Road published by Knopf Canada. Matthew's prose captures the Pacific Northwest in a style reminiscent of other favorite regional authors whose work shows a reverence for and understanding of the natural physical world; I'm thinking John Vaillant (The Golden Spruce), Steve Gutterson (Snow Falling on Cedars), with a bit of W.O. Mitchell thrown in for good measure. What these authors' writing share is an understanding of place and character all wrapped up in compelling suspenseful stories with intersecting characters from immigrant, native and First Nations backgrounds whose respective lives connect in touching and sometimes violent ways with each other and to nature. You will recall Vaillant's book dealt with the eco-terrorism of the giant golden spruce destroyed on the Queen Charlottes Island while Gutterson's novel was set on the small American San Juan Island community of Nordic and Japanese immigrants at conflict over a murder trial. Matthew's novel takes place on Vancouver Island on the titular rural road and it involves several families whose lives intersect with escalating levels of suspense and mystery one hot summer.
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Technology Corner >>
Technology Corner: Jailbreaking Your iPhone, iPad
by
Thursday, July 29, 2010
People "Jailbreak" their iphone when they want to buy or use applications not sold via Apple's App store. They can also use their phone as a "tether" to their home computer and access it remotely, access files on their home computer remotely using their phone, etc. What's wrong with that? Well, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 says it's illegal. But aspects of the DMCA changed today. Need a little background? Wikipedia describes it thus:Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users to run third-party unsigned code on their devices by unlocking the operating system and allowing the user root access. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many extensions and themes previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia. A jailbroken iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch is still able to use the App Store and iTunes. Jailbreaking is different from SIM unlocking,
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Events >>
Pecha-Kucha Is Japanese for Chit Chat
by
Saturday, July 31, 2010
You've heard of TED talks. Now there's Pecha-Kucha Night. Pecha Kucha is the Japanese translation for the sound of the words "chit chat". It's a simple principle. Get speakers to gather 20 slides encapsulating their creative work or process and speak to each slide for 20 seconds. In the space of one evening you can learn a whole lot about the creative people around you. The presentation format was devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture. The first PechaKucha Night was held in Tokyo in their gallery-lounge-bar-club or creative kitchen called the SuperDeluxe in February 2003. It has now become a global organization with events held worldwide. Klein Dytham architecture still organize and support the global PechaKucha Night network and organise PechaKucha Night Tokyo. For the second year now, it comes to Whistler BC to be held during the now famous bike festival called "Crankworx. Aug 7-15th 2010". Presenters include:
- Tyler Schramm, Schramm Vodka
- Rick Harry, Aboriginal Artist
- Keith Reynolds, Playground Builders
- Robin O'Neill - Photographer
- Peter Alder, Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners
- Leslie Anthony, Writer
- Paula Shackleton, Bookbuffet
- Carla Gutierrez, Fitness Model
Here is an example of one talk. ....More >>
MASH UP >>
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Some Member Book Selections
 
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