The Buzz...About Books

Weekend Reading: Five Novels about Prohibition

A lot of my friends were worried this week about a potential LCBO strike. Now that a tentative deal has been reached, everyone can relax and read these books set in the Prohibition era. Between 1920 and 1933, a ban on the sale, transportation, and production of alcohol was in place in the United States.  During the era, organized crime, bootlegging and smuggling flourished.

By Starlight by Dorothy Garlock
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A young woman struggling to support her family is offered a chance to run an illegal speakeasy, unaware that the operation is being investigated by an agent from the Bureau of Prohibition.

Empire State by Adam Christopher
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Bootleggers, detectives, superheroes and robots battle against an unknown enemy in this alternate reality version of Prohibition era New York.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Fitzgerald's classic story of Jazz Age excess and decadence. The character of Jay Gatsby is based on real-life bootlegger Max Gerlach.

Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
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Although the son of a police captain, Joe Coughlin opts for a life as a gangster and run rummer during the height of the Prohibition era.

The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant
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The exploits of Bondurant's grandfather, a member of a notorious gang of bootleggers, are fictionalized in this novel.

Edgar Awards: 2013 Winners Announced

The Edgar Awards, named after Edgar Allan Poe, celebrate crime writing in a number of different categories.

Fiction

Best Novel

Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
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Best First Novel

The Expats by Chris Pavone
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Best Paperback Original

The Last Policeman by Ben E. Winters
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Mary Higgins Clark Award

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan
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Non-Fiction

Best Fact Crime

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
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Best Critical/Biographical

The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O'Brien

Related Posts:

• "The Edgar" Nominees: The Best in Mystery

The Publishing Triangle Awards

The Publishing Triangle is an association of lesbians and gay men in the publishing industry. Every year the organization presents awards in a variety of categories. 

Fiction Awards

The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
Monstress: Stories by Lysley Tenorio
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The Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction
A Horse Named Sorrow by Trebor Healey

Nonfiction Awards

The Judy Kahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Are You My Mother?: a Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

The Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction
Eminent Outlaws: the Gay Writers who Changed America by Christopher Bram

Poetry Awards

The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry
Song and Spectacle by Rachel Rose

The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry
Looking for the Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco

2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners

On April 15 winners of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Letters were announced in the following categories:

Biography or Autobiography

Winner:
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
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Finalists:

The Patriarch: the Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
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Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra

Fiction

Winner:
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
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Finalists:

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
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General Non-Fiction

Winner:
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

 

 

 

Finalists:

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
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The Forest Unseen: a Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell

History

Winner:
Embers of War: the Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall
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Finalists:

The Barbarous Years: the Peopling of British North America: the Conflict of Civilizations 1600-1975 by Bernard Bailyn
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Lincoln's Code: the Laws of War in American History by John Fabian Witt

Poetry

Winner:
Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds

 

 

 

 

Finalists:

The Abundance of Nothing by Bruce Weigl

Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert

Calling All Angels: Heavenly Creatures in Recent Fiction

Angel fiction is all the rage. Fans of Danielle Trussoni's best-selling Angelology, a tale of secret societies, ancient libraries, and fallen angels, eagerly await the upcoming release of Angelopolis. If you like books by Dan Brown, you must check this series out. Even more exciting, Will Smith has signed on to produce the film adaptation. Paul Bettany in Legion (above) is one of the many heavenly bodies to grace the big screen. The super-hot Mortal Instruments series is due to hit theatres in August.

Recent titles featuring angels (and a few hot demons) range from steamy romance (J.R. Ward), to mystery (Linda Poitven), to dark urban fantasy (Tad Williams, Nalini Singh). This sub-genre is a celestial mash-up of religious sources, literary traditions, and pure invention. Fallen angels make for less than angelic behaviour - which is part of the attraction. Angel fiction by Laini Taylor, Lauren Kate, Michelle Rowan, and Becca Fitzpatrick appeal to both teen and adult readers. In fact, Lauren Kate's fallen angel, Daniel Grigori, is arguably even more sparkly than Edward Cullen. Some angels are just working stiffs: Stephanie Chong's guardian angel, Serena St. Clair, has a day job as a yoga instructor. Simon Rich's What in God's Name? takes this to the next level: God is a cranky CEO who wants to liquidate his assets  - but not before he challenges two underpaid angels to save the Earth.

Read on:

Check out these seraphic graphics - fallen angels have long been a fixture in graphic fiction:           

Ben Foster's role as the mutant, Angel, in X-Men 3: The Last Stand is oft cited as a positive LGBT symbol.  

From a Spark to a Flame: Fire in Fahrenheit 451

Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean.

Destruction, comfort, rebirth. There is a lot of fire in Fahrenheit 451 and its meaning changes for different characters and in different situations.

Guy Montag, the book's protagonist is a fireman--a book burner. The fires he sets professionally used to threaten and control the citizens and Guy loves his work. He likes "to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed".

As the book progresses, Montag finds himself being changed. The spark of imagination spreads like a wildfire from Clarisse to Guy. His curiosity grows, fuelled by encounters with Professor Faber and an old woman who refuses to leave her burning house.

Fire is a destructive force in the novel, but it also provides Guy with a way to escape. He uses a flame thrower to destroy the Mechanical Hound that is hunting him and also to murder Captain Beatty. On the run, he meets the Book People who welcome him with a campfire and they watch a bomb destroy the city. Granger, the leader of the Book People views this as an opportunity for rebirth, believing that civilization will rise from the ashes.

More about Fahrenheit 451:

A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories by Ray Bradbury
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Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 edited by Harold Bloom

Readings on Fahrenheit 451 edited by Katie de Koster

Love is a Burning Thing: Fire Fighters in Romance Novels

Poor tormented Guy Montag, the fireman protagonist of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 doesn't have a lot of romance in his life.

The firefighters featured in these romance novels are a different story, however.

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts
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Will the relationship between two smoke jumpers sizzle or just burn out?

The Hot Line by Cathryn Fox
Three friends can't resist the temptation to call a hotline that dispatches firemen to lonely women.

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs
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Sarah Moon finds her romantic life heating up when she returns to her hometown and discovers the high school heartthrob is now a fireman.

Men on Fire
This compilation contains three steamy firefighter romances: The Firefighter Wears Prada by Rachelle Chase, Playing with Fire by Jodi Lynn Copeland and Too Hot to Handle by Susan Lyons.

The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans
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Two smoke jumpers fall in love with the same woman.

eBooks

The Fireman who Loved Me by Jennifer Bernard
Sparks fly when news producer Melissa wins a date with Fire Chief Harry.

Seducing Simon by Maya Banks
A secret pregnancy heats up the relationship between Toni and her best friend Simon.

A Quick Read With Charlie D

Looking for a fast, enjoyable read? Don't have time for the new trend of 800 page books? The Rapid Reads series might just be what you are looking for. These books are usually no longer than 100 pages. Stories include anything from mysteries, gang life to romance. If you prefer to read non-fiction, there are also books on a variety of subjects including the World Wars, finance and global warming.

Through this series, I discovered Gail Bowen's interesting character, Charlie D, who hosts a late-night radio program. His listeners are very involved in the call-in portion of the show and his regular callers tend to be outcasts, who feel deeply connected to Charlie. But Charlie also hears from listeners whose personal relationships with him go too far and can result in murder.

   

Love You to Death
Charlie discovers that his callers are being killed on by one. The police suspect that one of Charlie's fans is obsessed and are now depending on Charlie to bring the killer out of hiding before another murder occurs. Also available in eBook.

One Fine Day You're Gonna Die
An expert on death and dying is a guest on Charlie D's radio show. Things take a very dark turn when a caller threatens to kill himself, as well as the daughter of Charlie's guest. Also available in eBook.

The Shadow Killer
It's Father's Day and Charlie D is wrestling with memories of his estranged father, when a young caller shares his plan to murder his own father and the rest of his family. Can Charlie find the location of the caller? Time is running out, and surprisingly Charlie's father may be able to help.

To learn more about Rapid Reads visit their website.

Prometheus Award Nominations

The Prometheus Award shortlist was announced earlier this month. This literary award honours science fiction and fantasy works "that stress the importance of liberty as the foundation for civilization, peace, prosperity, progress and justice".

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Toronto Public Library's One Book selection for 2013, was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1984 as an example of classic libertarian science fiction.

Best Novel Nominees:

Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell

Darkship Renegades by Sarah Hoyt

Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez
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Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

The Unincorporated Future by Dani and Eytan Kollin

The winner will be announced at LoneStarCon3, the World Science Fiction Convention held from August 29 to September 3 in San Antonio, Texas.

Putting on the Fitz: Books about F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald ruled the Jazz Age. Rich, talented, beautiful, and outrageous - Scott and Zelda partied like it was 1925.  Both continue to fascinate the public and inspire novelists, filmmakers and artists. Director Baz Luhrmann's upcoming The Great Gatsby and the recently published Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler will renew interest in this beautiful but damned couple.

Fun fact: video game designer Shigeru Miyamo named his pixel princess "Zelda" after Zelda Fitzgerald.

Scott, one of the greatest modern writers, wrote The Great Gatsby.  Zelda was a glamorous southern belle who smoked, drank, played with boys - and got away with it. 

Together they ruled as the celebrity couple of the 1920s, the king and queen of the Lost Generation with Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Josephine Baker, Jon Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and Isadora Duncan.

But it wasn't all golden. Zelda was Scott's muse - but she was also a rival and struggled with her artistic ambitions. Hemingway viewed her as Scott's Yoko Ono; Zelda thought Hemingway was a jerk. Alcoholism and mental illness were the dark passengers that dogged their so-called charmed life. Scott died at 44 from a heart attack; Zelda died in a fire at a mental institution.

 Rare glimpes of the Fitzgeralds:

Fictionalized works with the Fitzgeralds:

  The Beautiful and the Damned