The newest from Khaled Hosseini
USA Today has a brief interview with Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. His newest is A Thousand Splendid Suns. Get it now from Zooba!The blog of Zooba.com. A blog written by and for book lovers concerning pop culture, politics, news, and--of course--books!
May 03, 2007
USA Today has a brief interview with Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. His newest is A Thousand Splendid Suns. Get it now from Zooba!April 16, 2007
Book news roundup
-The London Book Fair begins! (via London Book Fair)
-Ray Carver's short story hits the big screen on April 27 (via New York Times)
-The New York Times Book review explores international lit (NYT Book Review via LitKicks)
-Big Brother watches George Orwell's flat (via Slush Pile)
April 12, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut dies at the age of 84
Sadly, one of our favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, died last night. (via Shelf Awareness)
Read more via The New York Times. Better yet, read Slaughterhouse-Five for a taste of his sheer brilliance.
March 30, 2007
It's never too early to celebrate July
Seattle-ists! Pencil in The Stranger's event with author/director/performance artist Miranda July at Neumo's on May 17 (via The Stranger).
In the meantime, check out the movie she wrote, directed, and starred in.
That's right--her name's July, her book comes out in May, and she's awesome all year round.
March 29, 2007
Slate.com explores the art of the memoir
This week, Slate pays homage to the most slippery of genres, the memoir. (I'm looking at you, James Frey!) Don't miss essays from Oh the Glory of it All author Sean Wilsey, Sweet and Low author Rich Cohen, and Teacher Man author Frank McCourt:
"The only way around all this nervousness is the novel—and that is what I'm trying now. Yes, yes, I still have to cover my tracks—and my ass—but I'll have greater freedom." (Frank McCourt via Slate)
March 28, 2007
Book review roundup
-Wish I Could Be There is a "vividly written combination of memoir and scientific inquiry." (via The New Yorker)
-T. Jefferson Parker's noir thriller Storm Runners is "a great read." (via Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
-Mississippi Sissy: Growing up gay in the South in the '60s (via Washington Post)
March 21, 2007
Book news roundup
-At HarperCollins, Lisa Sharkey replaces ousted editor Judith Regan (via GalleyCat)
-Author films are the new "author tour" (via Bookninja)
-But without author tours, how will book nerds meet and fall in love? (via GalleyCat)
-Bookforum interviews edgy author A.M. Homes (Bookforum via Bookninja)
-2007 Million Writers Award for best online fiction is now accepting nominations (via storySouth)March 15, 2007
Dean Koontz visits Second Life
Who knew thriller author Dean Koontz was such an early adopter?
Today, he visits Second Life "as the virtual stop on the promotion trail for his latest book, The Good Guy. (via 93 Colors)
March 12, 2007
Book news roundup
-PEN appoints author Francine Prose as president (via Boston Herald)
-A Long Way Down author Nick Hornby writes children's book (via Publisher's Weekly)
-Penguin Books UK blog discusses South by Southwests' Blogs to Books panel (via The Penguin Blog)
-Random House and Whole Foods team up to promote memoir (via Publisher's Weekly)
March 07, 2007
Book news roundup: Music edition
-Lance Bass pens memoir. The title? Out of Sync. No, I'm not making that up. (via People)
*Update: Get his ex's memoir from Zooba. I'm not making that up, either!
-The Decemberists frontman and former bookseller Colin Meloy will judge Tournament of Books. (via Pitchfork Media)
-Author Chuck Klosterman reveals what's on his playlist. (via The Onion's AV Club)
Reading list: French edition
Not to get all Matrix on you, but Jean Baudrillard died at the age of 77 at his home in Paris (via BBC News). Who else but a Frenchman could have masterminded such advances in the field of semiotics?
OK, nerdfest is over. (But, seriously, you should rewatch The Matrix.)
On with it, then. The French reading list!
-Julia Child, My Life in France
-Daniel Young, The Bistros, Brasseries, and Wine Bars of Paris
-Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette
February 28, 2007
Book news roundup
-Three Rivers Press (Random House) inks deal for biography of troubled indie rock artist Cat Power (via Publishers Marketplace)
-Hollywood glamorizes Jane Austen in the upcoming film Becoming Jane (via Bookninja)
-Columbia University's writing seminar spawns book deals (via NPR)
-Salon advises a novelist who fears getting published (Salon via Mediabistro)
February 27, 2007
Book news roundup
-For bestselling self help book The Secret, the secret is packaging (via MSN.com)
-Random House launches Browse & Search functionality on their website. Take that, HarperCollins! (via if:book)
-French literature professor: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read? (via The New York Times)
-Oprah will bring Mitch Albom's For One More Day to the small screen (via ReadersRead.com)
-Remembering author Philip K. Dick on the silver anniversary of his death (The Times via Bookninja)
February 22, 2007
The Plimpton Project
This link is all over the lit blogs, but I thought I'd share a little story first...
Back when Bookblogger was an intern at a hip little magazine, an editor announced to us that George Plimpton, editor-in-chief of The Paris Review, had died. Cool kids that we were, we couldn't quite hear the editor in our open loft office space over the sound of our iTunes blasting. One editorial assistant said, "George Clinton died? Man, that's too bad."
Another editorial assistant straggled in from lunch, a greasy paper bag in hand. "Did you guys hear? George Plimpton died!"
"George Plimpton died? Oh..." the first assistant said. "Hey, what a coincidence...George Clinton died!"
And here, my friends, is The Plimpton Project, an organization collecting funds toward creating a statue of Plimpton for Central Park. Enjoy.
February 21, 2007
Listen to Lemony Snicket's playlist
The Onion's AV club talks pop music with Adverbs author Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket. The undercover "accomplished accordionist" has great taste! Check out this Last.fm station based on one of his new fave artists, indie rock crooner José González.
February 15, 2007
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
This week's New York magazine profiles Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel. In case you're unfamiliar:
"She escaped to Holland from a forced marriage, eventually joined the Dutch Parliament as a Muslim criticizing her own culture, and made a provocative film with Theo van Gogh that got him killed and sent her into hiding."
Very Short List describes the book as Salman Rushdie meets Gloria Steinem meets Iman.
A recommended memoir.
February 14, 2007
News roundup
-Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy returns to fiction (via Galleycat)
-Salman Rushdie set to teach at Emory University (via The Literary Saloon)
-Heart-Shaped Box author is Steven King's son (via USA Today)
-Novelist Elif Shafak endangered by her book (via Galleycat)
-Asian chick lit offerings multiply (via SFGate.com)
Crichton on YouTube: Amateur vs. professional video
Check out a video book report on Michael Crichton's Prey created by, oh, say, a high school student. Then check out the professional video for Next created by a marketing team.
It seems the student has become the teacher.
Get the book State of Fear from Zooba.
February 12, 2007
The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery
Some people say that those who can't, teach. Well, sometimes writing professors move back to New York, write a novel, get a book deal with Riverhead (Penguin), and have their work compared to Memoirs of a Geisha. Take that!
My former creative writing instructor at UC Berkeley, Ellis Avery, has written an elegant novel called The Treehouse Fire. Check it out, and read an interview with her courtesy of KGB Bar Lit.
February 09, 2007
Ishmael Beah is everywhere, including here
Starbucks has tapped Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier as this month's book club pick. Get it here from Zooba, watch this moving clip of him via YouTube, and read why Time magazine thinks the author is a rock star.
Rhetorical questions
-Why wonder about Anna Nicole Smith's death when you can read about the demise of Kurt Cobain in Take a Walk on the Dark Side?
-Speaking of Kurt, thriller author Joe Hill titled his new book Heart-Shaped Box...Who knew grunge would have more literary gravitas than disco?
-How lucky is 24-year-old Beasts of No Nation author Uzodinma Iweala, who recently inked a two-book deal with HarperCollins? (via Juneau Empire)
-Sorry, Da Vinci Code fans, but is the Facebook group "Dan Brown is a literary genius" for real?
HarperCollins and BlogHer, BFF
This Sunday, HarperCollins and BlogHer team up to launch their Virtual Book Tour, "a three-month opportunity for you to chat intimately with nine prominent authors, get exclusive looks at their books and podcast interviews, and get free books!" Authors on (virtual) tour include Ms. No Good Deeds herself, Laura Lippman.
It's so refreshing to mention HarperCollins without Judith Regan appearing in the same sentence, no?
January 31, 2007
Author Sidney Sheldon dies at 89
"I love writing books. Movies are a collaborative medium, and everyone is second-guessing you. When you do a novel you're on your own. It's a freedom that doesn't exist in any other medium." -Sidney Sheldon
January 30, 2007
The Esquire Napkin Project
Check out the latest issue of Esquire for napkin-sized flash fiction by authors Daniel Alarcon (War by Candlelight), Rick Moody (The Ice Storm, The Diviners), T. Jefferson Parker (The Fallen), and more.
Writers scribbling on bar napkins. Yes, Esquire kicks it old school, just like Dylan Thomas at White Horse Tavern.
Harper Lee appears for Mockingbird award
Via NPR: "Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, lives a reclusive life. But this past week, she ventured out to the University of Alabama for the presentation of annual awards to high school students for a To Kill a Mockingbird essay contest."
So Harper Lee briefly emerged from her hermitage. Mr. Salinger, your move...
November 28, 2006
Moving Foerward
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, has penned a typically elegant and atypically-accessible piece in the NYT on...off-leash dog parks.
From explorations of post-Holocaust Europe and the nature of literature to dog parks. The jokes write themselves.
Still, it's a nice little read. I recommend.