September 21, 2007

SECRETARY-GENERAL DESIGNATES BRAZILIAN AUTHOR PAULO COELHO AS MESSENGERS OF PEACE

This is great news about our good friend Paulo Coelho.  Congratulations, Paulo!

From the official press release.

 "On Thursday, 21 September – the International Day of Peace – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will honour Brazilian author Paulo Coelho and Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan by designating them as United Nations Messengers of Peace. They will join four other Messengers of Peace, individuals who possess widely recognized talents in the fields of art, literature, music and sports, in helping to raise worldwide awareness of the ideals and activities of the United Nations.

 

            Paulo Coelho, world renowned author of “The Alchemist”, uses his universal appeal to help underprivileged members of Brazilian society through his Paulo Coelho Institute, which he founded with his wife, Christina Oiticica. He is also an advocate of multiculturalism through his work with UNESCO as a Special Counselor for Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences.

 

            A political activist since his youth, Mr. Coelho will continue to promote intercultural dialogue and focus on the needs of children around the world as a Messenger of Peace. The native of Rio de Janeiro has enchanted readers from around the world for years and gathered numerous international awards for his works, which have been translated into more than 65 languages.

 

            In selecting Mr. Coelho for this designation, the Secretary-General said, “Mr. Coelho’s “talent as a writer and his exceptional ability to touch the lives of men and women across boundaries and cultures would make him a powerful Messenger”.

 

            While previously scheduled commitments will preclude his attendance at the International Day of Peace Observance, Mr. Coelho said he was honoured by the designation. “I gladly accept this responsibility and am committed to do my best to work towards a better future for the current and next generations”.

 

            The other Messengers of Peace and their areas of focus are:  Ms. Jane Goodall, the environment; Michael Douglas, disarmament and peace and security; Yo-Yo Ma, youth; and Elie Wiesel, human rights and the Holocaust.  Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotii was a Messenger of Peace for nearly a decade before his death in Modena, Italy on 6 September 2007.  Mr. Douglas, Ms. Goodall and Mr. Wiesel also will attend the International Day of Peace Observance.

 

            For information regarding the Messengers of Peace programme, please contact Kimberly Mann, chief of the Advocacy Unit, at 212-963-6835 or mann@un.org, or Paula Green, at 212-963-0047 or greenp@un.org"

 

Posted by Gary Jansen at 08:38 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 19, 2007

Reflections on Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Company by Gary Jansen

Sylvia is my muse, my light, my inspiration.  A devote reader, a superb writer, an artist, a lover of books, Sylvia has changed my life!
        
Once upon a time Sylvia Beach, a native of New Jersey, traveled to Paris and opened a tiny American bookstore on the Left Bank. The year was 1919 and her shop was called Shakespeare and Company. In the decades that followed, it became a magnet that attracted new and established writers who flocked to the French capital in the tumultuous years following The Great War. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and D. H. Lawrence perused her stacks and debated and discussed the one thing that inflamed all their passions: the words found in books. Sylvia is also famously known for being the first person to publish a naughty little book by a fellow named James Joyce: Ulysses. When no one else would take a chance or put up the money, she was there for him and for all these struggling writers and artists who were wandering around post-war Europe like refugees. Her patrons may have been the voices of the Lost Generation, but Sylvia gave them a place to temporarily find themselves and each other.
        
This intimate memoir, originally published in 1956, is a revealing look at those years, maybe the most artistically exciting of the 20th century. A time in-between wars, when a stunned group of visionaries, and a tenacious and passionate young woman named Sylvia, came together to change the way we read today…and will forever.

Posted by Gary Jansen at 09:19 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 08, 2007

Giving The Alchemist by Gary Jansen

I first read Paulo Coelho’s novel, The Alchemist, about eight years ago, and it literally changed my life. I remember feeling so inspired by the story of Santiago, a young Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to follow his dream of seeing the pyramids of Egypt, that I quit my job and embarked on a journey of my own. Everyone thought I was crazy, but for the first time in my life I didn't listen to anyone except that voice inside my head that said, “Go.” So I set off—with very little money—and backpacked through Europe. It was a dream of mine—and I did it alone. Since that time, The Alchemist has been at the top of my list of recommendations; I must have given it as a gift it to over 50 people—family, friends, even strangers (strangers usually think I'm crazy, but I really do feel everyone should read this book).  This special gift edition is a beautifully designed hardcover, featuring an ornate slipcase, illustrations, a ribbon marker, deckled edges, and colored endpapers. If you’ve never read this book, here’s your chance; if you have and were moved like I was, then this is a great gift for yourself and anyone in your life.

Posted by Gary Jansen at 03:07 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 24, 2007

Celebrating Paulo Coelho's The Witch of Portobello

One of the world's most influential writers has just released his latest novel, The Witch of Portobello.  For more information on the book and the author, check out Mr. Coelho's website.  It's one of the best author websites around.  Paulo Coelho

Congratulations, Paulo!

Kind regards,

Gary Jansen, Executive Editor QPB

 

 

Posted by Gary Jansen at 01:04 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Notes on Matthew Lewis's The Monk by QPB Editor Gary Jansen

Dear Reader,

One night, not too long ago, I was in an old book store doing research for a project on the supernatural when I accidentally knocked over a small stack of books. Embarrassed, I bent down to pick them up when my eyes fell upon one the spines: The Monk. I was instantly intrigued—maybe because of the simplicity of its title, maybe because I had never heard of it before. I quickly returned the other books to their proper places and, having disturbed the quiet of the night, sheepishly went off into a corner to read a few pages.

I must have lost track of time because the store began to close. Realizing that I didn’t have enough money to buy the book, I had to leave The Monk behind, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it that night. The next day I bought a copy and locked myself in a room to read it. After a few chapters, I devoured it.

Written in 1796 and set in Madrid during the Inquisition, The Monk has been called “one of the most extravagantly dark works of Gothic fiction ever written in English” and tells the tale of Ambrosio, a monk of seemingly impeccable nature. What many don’t know is that this man is privately tormented with a lustful obsession that will eventually lead to murder in a dark crypt in Saint Clare. What follows is a phantasmagorical adventure, filled with what some have called a bubbling cauldron of horror characters including ghosts, a gypsy fortune teller, the Wandering Jew, the Bleeding Nun, and Old Scratch himself.  Oh, we also witness premature burial, torture and demonic temptation.

I am very excited that QPB is now offering this rediscovered classic—a very special paperback edition that contains an insightful introduction by the Master of the Macabre, Stephen King.  

Happy Reading,

Gary Jansen, Executive Editor QPB


Posted by Gary Jansen at 12:41 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 23, 2007

Part Rock Star, Part Magician, All Mindfreak

When I was eleven, my parents used to drive me nearly 20 miles to the Magic Shop in Hicksville, New York. I dreamt of becoming a magician then, and about once a month we’d make a suburban pilgrimage (in a beat-up van with no back seat) to this dark, little store—its wall covered in sinister latex masks. There, my parents would buy me a trick and I’d take it home and practice until I could do it perfectly. Then I became a teenager and I gave up it all up. Mostly out of frustration, convinced that my hands were too small to perform the feats of dexterity that every great magician should master.

Fast forward nearly twenty years. It’s October 2006, and I catch magician-rocker Criss Angel’s show Mindfreak on TV. There, in the background, was a familiar little store. Turns out the four-time Magician of the Year was a native Long Islander like myself and spent his early days at the Magic Shop in Hicksville, learning the skills that make him one of the most popular mystifiers alive today. That show was like some inspirational bug bite, and I’ve been scratching that itch ever since. Not only have I become a huge fan of the performer, I am now on the road to realizing my young dream of becoming a magician: I’ve started taking classes and practice every day (I think I’m driving my poor wife and son crazy).

Criss Angel’s first book, a biography and companion piece to his Mindfreak show, is a rousing revelation that will appeal to fans and newcomers alike. In addition, the book contains forty very cool magic tricks or “Mindfreaks” that you can learn yourself (including the famous “Ashes to Ashes” trick he demonstrated on his show). They’re easy to perform—and this is the best part—they’re not cheesy at all.

Happy Reading,
Gary Jansen
QPB Executive Editor

P.S. I want to send a special thanks to Criss for inspiring me to follow a dream. Thanks, dude!  

Posted by Gary Jansen at 02:55 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 16, 2007

QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB ANNOUNCES THE 2006 NEW VOICES AND NEW VISIONS AWARDS

Special Topics in Calamity Physics Author Marisha Pessl and The Year of Magical Thinking Author Joan Didion Recognized by Quality Paperback Book Club (QPB) for Outstanding Literary Works


 

May 16, 2007 (New York, NY):  Quality Paperback Book Club (QPB) has announced the winners of this year’s New Voices and New Vision Awards.  Marisha Pessl’s mesmerizing novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics was selected to receive QPB’s New Voices award for an outstanding work of fiction by a debut author.  In the non-fiction category, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking received QPB’s New Visions Award for her deeply personal portrayal of loss, grief and hope.  Annually, the New Voices and New Visions Award winners each receive a $5000 prize.
“We realize that the vitality of the Club is dependent on nurturing new authors as well as vigorously supporting the achievements of those authors with established careers, “  said Gary Jansen, Executive Editor of QPB. “These awards are QPB’s way of celebrating outstanding literary achievements that have deeply affected both our editors and our readers.”
QPB established the New Voices Award in 1984 as a way to honor debut works of fiction by talented new authors.  The award has been given to such literary talents as Yann Martel, Richard Russo, Colson Whitehead and Clare Clark. 

Carole DeSanti, Vice President and Editor at Large at Viking Penguin which publishes Pessl’s book said “A huge thank you to QPB and the judges for including SPECIAL TOPICS in their distinguished roster of past New Voices winners. We are proud to be in such excellent company and I believe QPB readers will find everything they are looking for (and a few surprises as well) in Pessl's exuberant debut novel. “

The New Visions Award, first given in 1990, recognizes distinguished works of non-fiction from both new and established authors.  Recipients of this award have included David Hadju, Nicole LeBlanc and Julia Scheeres.

“I want to thank QPB for this very special award,” said Joan Didion.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS  features Blue Van Meer, a smart, eccentric teenager who—after the mysterious death of her mother—wanders from one college town to another with her father, Gareth, an academic. After settling in to her senior year at St. Gallway School in Stockton, North Carolina, Blue falls in with the Bluebloods, an elite clique of hyper-intelligent students obsessed with the film studies teacher Hannah Schneider. But after the drowning of Hannah's young male suitor at a costume party, Blue gets caught up in a disturbing nexus of events with only her deadpan wit and cultural wiles to keep her afloat. Structured like a syllabus, with nods to Nabokov, Hitchcock, and the Great Works, Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a literate, distinctively voiced coming-of-age story wrapped around an electrifying whodunit.”
 

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING is Didion’s powerful, intelligent and brutally honest story about the nature of grief and love. On December 30, 2003, Joan Didion and her husband, novelist and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne, visited their daughter in the hospital, where she lay in a coma. At home that night, Didion was mixing salad when Dunne suffered a massive, fatal heart attack. This award-winning memoir is her attempt to find meaning in the devastating year that followed.
Over the years, New Voices and New Visions Awards have recognized and discovered many noteworthy authors.  A full list of winners, past and present, is listed here.
 

NEW VOICES AND NEW VISIONS AWARD WINNERS
New Voices Winners
2006 SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS by Marisha Pessl
2005 The Great Stink by Clare Clark
2004 Brick Lane by Monica Ali
2003 Timoleon Vieta Come Home by Dan Rhodes
2002 The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2001 The Miracle Life of Edgar White by Brady Udall
2000 House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
1999 The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead
1998 Don’t Erase Me, Carolyn Ferrell
1997 Hotel Sarajevo, Jack Kersh
1996 Raising Holy Hell, Bruce Olds
1995 Native Speaker, Chang-rae Lee
1994 Understand This, Jervey Tervalon
1993 Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, Randall Keenan
1992 Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros
1991 Licorice, Abby Frucht
1990 Girl with the Curious Hair, David Foster Wallace
1989 The Risk Pool, Richard Russo
1988 The Woman Who Was Not All There, Paula Sharp
1987 The Elizabeth Stories, Isabel Huggan
1986 The Golden Gate, Vikram Seth
1985 Montgomery’s Children, Richard Perry
1984 In Another Country, Susan Kenney
 

New Visions Winners
2006 THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion
2005 Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres
2004 Sex, Time and Power by Leonard Shaolin
2003 Random Family by Adrian Nicole Leblanc
2002 Brown: The Last Discovery of America by Richard Rodriguez
2001 Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
2000 Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham
1999 After Silence, Nancy Venable Raine
1998 Our Guys, Bernard Lefkowitz
1997 Lush Life, David Hajdu
1996 Wild Ride, Bia Lowe
1995 My Own Country, Abraham Vergese
1994 Red Azalea, Anchee Min
1993 Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Kathleen Norris
1992 Praying For Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene
1991 Second Nature, Michael Pollan
1990 My Traitor’s Heart, Rian Malan
 

About Quality Paperback Book Club
Founded in 1974, the Quality Paperback Book Club® is a book club for well-educated, adventurous, independent readers who enjoy discovering books. The club’s first Main Selection was Kenneth Clark’s The Nude. QPB offers an eclectic, edgy mix of intelligent, intriguing and informative reads in fiction and nonfiction, and specializes in affordable exclusive quality paperback editions six months before they are available anywhere else. At QPB, there is a connection to cutting-edge ideas and continual learning for its intellectually questing members, who thrill in the process of discovering new books, authors and subjects through membership in the club.

Posted by Gary Jansen at 04:29 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)