The Buzz...About Books

Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced

This year, for the first time since 1977, there will be no Pulitzer Prize given for fiction.  The jurors have announced that they could not reach a concensus and will therefore not present this award.

The Pulitzer Prizes for books are awarded in several categories.

Biography or Autobiography

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
George F. Kennan: an American Life by John Lewis Gaddis

Finalists:
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel

Malcolm X: a Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
        Audiobook
        eBook
        Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Drama

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Finalists:
Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz

Sons of the Prophet by Stephen Karam

Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finalists:
The Pale King: an Unfinished Novel by David Foster Wallace
        Audiobook
        Large Print

Swamplandia by Karen Russell
        eAudiobook
        eBook       

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

General Non-Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
        eAudiobook

Finalists:
One Hundred Names for Love: a Stroke, a Marriage and the Language of Healing by Diane Ackerman
        Large Print
        eAudiobook

Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men by Mara Hvistendahl

History

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
Malcolm X: a Life of Reinvention by Manning Maracle
        Audiobook
        eBook
        Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Finalists:
Empires, Nations & Families: a History of the North American West, 1800-1860 by Anne F. Hyde

The Eleventh Day: the Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan

Railroaded: the Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America by Richard White

Poetry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

Finalists:
Core Samples from the World by Forrest Gander

How Long by Ron Padgett

Governor General's Literary Awards Announced

The fourteen winners of the Governor General's Literary Awards were announced earlier today.  The awards are presented for books in English and French and for both adult and juvenile literature.  Each winner will receive $25,000.  The presentation ceremony will take place on November 24 at Rideau Hall.

Fiction

    The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt

    L'homme blanc,  Perrine Leblanc

Poetry

    Killdeer, Phil Hall

    Plus haut que les flammes, Louise Dupré

Drama

    If We Were Birds, Erin Shields

    Ce qui meurt un dernier, Normand Chaurette

Non-Fiction

    Mordecai: The Life and Times, Charles Foran

    Wanderer: essai sur le Voyage d'hiver de Franz Schubert, Georges Leroux

Children's Literature--Text

    From Then to Now: a Short History of the World, Christopher Moore

    Les aventures de Radisson--1: L'enfer ne brûle pas, Martin Fournier

Children's Literature--Illustrations

    Ten Birds, Cybèle Young

    Lili et les poilus, Caroline Merola

Translation--French to English

    Partita for Glenn Gould, Donald Winkler, translation of Partita pour Glenn Gould by Georges Leroux

Translation--English to French

    Toxique ou l'incident dans l'autobus, Maryse Warda, translation of The Toxic Bus Incident by Greg MacArthur

 

 

Graveminder

Melissa Marr's new novel Graveminder, will captivate fantasy and horror fans alike. Rebekkah Barrow has tried to forget everything from her past, including the suicide of her sister. She left the small town of Claysville years ago and hoped to never return. However, with the sudden death of her grandmother, Maylene, Rebekkah must return to fulfill her duties at the funeral. Maylene taught her the many rituals, which must be followed at a funeral and Rebekkah is the only one who can perform these tasks.

Upon returning to serene Claysville, Rebekkah is greeted by her former boyfriend Byron, the undertaker, and is informed that her grandmother was actually murdered. Oddly, the police and town council do not seem concerned and the council simply explains that they will take care of everything. Rebekkah knew that Claysville was an eccentric small town, which follows strict burial customs, including not embalming the deceased, but she is now about to discover the many secrets that Claysville hides. "Death himself had made a bargain with Claysville, that the townsfolk knowingly accepted such a bargain in exchange for health and semisealed borders." After arriving in town, Rebekkah feels a strange pull to stay. The people of Claysville tend to live their whole lives there and if they do leave, they feel obliged to return.

Rebekkah will learn that following in Maylene's footsteps, she is now the Graveminder, who keeps the dead in their final place of rest. It is up to Rebekkah and Byron to hunt down the monster who killed Maylene.

State of Wonder Indeed!

Award winning, Ann Patchett's latest book entitled State of Wonder left me in exactly that state.

After her colleague is reported dead, pharmaceutical company researcher, Marina Singh is sent into the Amazon. Her boss, who is also her lover, wants her to check on the status of a fertility drug that a team has been developing for years, unregulated. Marina also agrees to go at the request of the dead man's wife, who begs her to locate his body and bring it home. So begins an adventure into the Amazon. Or so we think.

First, Marina is delayed in the city of Manaus, because the research team and the person-in-charge, Dr. Swenson, are in the jungle. The strange young couple, living at the doctor's house, refuse to contact Dr. Swenson, because Marina will be a "distraction" from the work that is taking place in the jungle. It is revealed that Marina has a dark past with Dr. Swenson and the doctor actually played a vital role in Marina's decision to give up medicine for research.

When Marina finally enters the Amazon, the story picks up and the reader suddenly feels that the story is actually going somewhere. There are fights with anacondas, run-ins with cannibals and the reveal of the fertility drug, which may have additional benefits for human health. However, the two twists at the conclusion of the novel feel like scenes from a soap opera and I was left feeling very unsatisfied.

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Have You Been Let Down By a Book?

Have you ever heard about a new book in a beloved series and gotten very excited? You wait and wait for it to finally be published, and then you wait and wait for it while it's on hold. Once you finally start reading it, you realize that you really don't like the book at all! I recently had that experience.

Long before Twilight, there was a series of books that all teenage girls read. Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley. There were many Sweet Valley (SV) series which followed the two main characters at different stages in their lives, including, SV Kids, SV Twins, SV High and SV University, to name a few.

The two blonde-haired, blue-eyed California girls might have been identical twins, but they had drastically different personalities. Elizabeth was academic and dreamed of becoming a journalist, while Jessica was flirty and travelled with the in crowd.

Sweet Valley Confidential is the recent adult book that visits the twins ten years after graduating from high school. The twins have had a falling out, over a guy. Elizabeth has fled to New York to write for a theatre magazine/blog, while Jessica surprisingly has remained in Sweet Valley. Right from the first chapter, I knew I was in trouble. Somehow the twins personalities have drastically changed, gone are the girls we once knew. Jessica is suddenly a valley girl, who throws "like" into a sentence for no reason at all. Elizabeth, who used to value and agonize over every relationship, now thinks nothing of one-night stands or "friends with benefits." I know the twins had to grow up and become adults, but I did not realize that they would become people that I would not care for.

Now the writing of these books was never of a very high standard, but the characters were what kept bringing readers back. The best part of the book was the Epilogue that provides a brief "where are they now" for some of the characters from the series. In the end, I felt that I should have left my fond memories of the series in the past. Have you read any books that you looked forward to only to be disappointed and let down?

A Modern Gothic

If you love the Brontës and the rugged English moors, this book is for you. Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale pays homage to gothic tales of the past.

Bookish biographer Margaret Lea, who lives above her father's antique bookstore, is invited by mysterious novelist, Vida Winter, to write her biography. Winter is very ill and wants to finally tell her story before she dies. Margaret at first is hesitant, since she has never even read any of Winter's novels. Considering the offer, Margaret begins reading a collection of Winter's short stories entitled, Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. As she finishes the book, she realizes that there are only twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale?

Her curiosity piqued, Margaret agrees to write Winter's life story; however, as the story unfolds she begins to doubt its validity and tries to verify the dying woman's tale. As family secrets begin to unravel, Margaret uncovers a haunting and suspenseful tale of ghosts, old English estates, twins, and abandoned and illegitimate children.

Suspend reality and curl up to relax with the tale, which can be forgiven its over the top excesses and few implausible twists and characters, since it is so enjoyable!

Also available in:

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Posted by Erin

2011 Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most prestigious and recognizable literary awards.  The award was established by journalist and newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer in his will and first awarded in 1917.  Prizes are presented in 21 categories related to American newspaper journalism, books and music.

Fiction: 
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

• eBook format

Drama:
Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris

History:
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner

Biography or Autobiography:
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

• eAudiobook format

Poetry:
The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan

General Non-Fiction:
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

• Audiobook format

 

 

Star-Crossed Lovers

After seeing the movie Bright Star I just had to read poet John Keats' letters to Fanny Brawne. Thankfully I found just the book!

Bright Star is a movie that starts slowly and pulls you in. By the end, you find yourself hoping against all odds that things will work out, despite already knowing how it will end. Director Jane Campion and stars Ben Whishaw (Keats) and Abbie Cornish (Fanny) do a lovely job with this movie wonderfully portraying the true love story.

Keats and Fanny are complete opposites, he a poor poet and she a flirty seamstress, interested in fashion. Despite their differences they fall deeply in love, which is a shock to friends and family, who at first try to dissuade the couple. Just when things are looking up for our lovers, Keats falls ill. Due to his worsening health, he must move to Italy and the lovers are kept apart. This separation causes Keats to write some of the most moving and celebrated poetry and love letters of the English language. However, upon his death at the age of 25, Keats was still separated from his love and considered himself a failure. After his death, Fanny went into mourning and secluded herself from the world. She wore his ring for the rest of her life.

So Bright and Delicate: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne is a collection of Keats' letters and poetry, inspired by his love for Fanny. This edition also includes and introduction by Jane Campion. Andrew Motion's biography of the poet, simply entitled Keats, inspired Jane Campion to create the film. It is the first major biography of Keats in thirty years and examines how his works still resonate today.

 

Posted by Erin

Worst. Play. Ever.

Jazz Hands!

Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark could be one of the most expensive Broadway flops of all time. Budget woes, delays, cast changes and spectacular injuries plagued this 65 million dollar production from the start. A Spider-Man stuntman (apparently unable to do whatever a spider can) plunged into the orchestra pit after his safety harness detached. The critics were merciless. Charles Spencer of the Telegraph wrote "I spent much of this dreadful new musical muttering Please, Lord, make it stop."

This recent cover of the New Yorker says it all.

Theatrical flops have a long and venerable history - and make for fun reading.  Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum chronicles the worst of the worst including the infamous Carrie, a musical based on the Steven King novel (how could that go wrong?). 

I loved Diana Rigg's No Turn Unstoned: the Worst Ever Theatrical Reviews - it also has some of the funniest anecdotes.  Bad Press: the Worst Critical Reviews Ever! by Laura Ward collects the wittiest (and nastiest) reviews across the arts. At the Toronto Reference Library, you can read Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs. 

Another legendary disaster was Arthur Bicknell's Moose Murders which closed on opening night. Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote "Those of us who have witnessed the play that opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theater last night will undoubtedly hold periodic reunions, in the noble tradition of survivors of the Titanic." You can check out Broadway Musicals by Ken Bloom, who collects the good with the bad in this recently updated guide.

Mel Brooks 1968 film, The Producers, is about two men (Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) who plot to engineer a Broadway flop in order to abscond with investors' money. They believe they have a sure-fire bomb with a jaw-droppingly tasteless musical, Springtime for Hitler, written by a lunatic (played by Kenneth Mars, who passed away last week at the age of 75). This Academy Award-winning film eventually became a successful Broadway musical starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. 

Click here to watch a musical round-up of reviews for Turn off the Dark. Enjoy!

 
 

Love and Other Moral Dilemmas

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson is a novel comprising murder, mystery, love, loss, history and courtroom drama. This novel is set in the winter of 1954 on San Piedro Island, Washington, during a murder trial that affects everyone on the island.

Carl Heine Jr., a prominent fisherman, is found drowned. No one can believe that such an experienced fisherman would simply drown, it must have been murder. Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese resident, is arrested and soon put on trial. This trial brings out the prejudice and bitterness remaining in the small-town residents, after World War II.

During the war, Kabuo was sent to a Japanese internment camp, along with the other Japanese islanders. While in the camp, Kabuo married Hatsue, who was the childhood sweetheart of Ishmael Chambers.

Ishmael however, has never recovered from losing Hatsue and is still dealing with his own tragic experiences from the war. The trial brings forth many emotions that Ishmael thought he had left behind. Ishmael now runs the town newspaper and his investigation of the drowning begins to reveal the truth. Suddenly he holds the happiness of Kabuo and Hatsue in his hands. Will he choose to do the right thing of act upon his selfish desires?

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