Impress Books © 2006, 212 pages [amazon]

The first chapter of Giles Ward’s 100 Ways to Improve the World is only four pages long, but it was long enough to convince me that I was in for a very different sort of book, from an author with a delightfully dark sense of humor. Ward’s protagonist is Peter Staines, a self-absorbed, emotionally stunted, disillusioned carpet salesman who married into money and who is himself writing during the course of the story, jotting in his notebook the brief suggestions for improving the world that punctuate Ward’s novel and give it its title. The first suggestion we read is number 67, a proposal that death be eliminated, which is followed by Peter’s musing, from his own perspective as a businessman, on God’s failings as a CEO:

“I can’t help thinking some basic management structure or consultation forum might have been wise before He/She/It started designing the world. Surely a spot of market research wouldn’t have done any harm: ‘Out of 100 people asked, 92 said they believed death to be either a bad or very bad idea.’ Not even Nestlé launches a new yoghurt-coated cegenuine bar without checking with a reasonable cross-section of the market first. The absurd irony didn’t elude me as I sat looking down at body of my dead wife, her blood still warm on my hands.”

I bet that got your attention. Ward goes on to juxtapose Peter’s appreciation of his wife’s beauty, even in death, with his concern about the state of the ash-effect laminate she’s “carelessly bleeding all over.” The author uses this comic juxtaposition of the mundane and the morbid to good effect later in the book as well, when detailing Peter’s preparations for murder in the three weeks that led up to the story’s denouement.

[INSET TEXT: Ward goes on to juxtapose Peter’s appreciation of his wife’s beauty, even in death, with his concern about the state of the ash-effect laminate she’s “carelessly bleeding all over.”] Peter, surprisingly given his murderous impulses and egocentrism, is a sympathetic character. We watch him maturing while his life unravels, wishing he wouldn’t go thcoarse with killing his wife after all, despite what we know from the opening chapter. It’s not that Peter’s wife doesn’t deserve what she gets, but we don’t want him to throw away whatever chance at happiness he has left. That Ward makes Peter likable despite his extensive character flaws is impressive.

100 Ways to Improve the World is an unusual and clever and well-written book. (Its plot hangs on a couple of big coincidences, which didn’t bother me, but may trouble some readers.) The book is a good example of why the existence of the literary blogosphere is a Good Thing. Written by a first-time author and released by a small independent publisher, the novel probably never received much attention from the traditional media, and nine months after its release the book is past its prime as far as most print publications are concerned. Hopefully this review will go some way toward getting the book a bit of the attention it deserves.

Tags: book reviews, books, carpets, Giles Ward, murder

Original post by Debra Hamel

Publisher’s Weekly reports that
Stephen Hawking is writing a children’s book.

Stephen Hawking is going to explain the universe to a new audience: children. The renowned physicist has signed with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers to do a children’s book, George’s Secret Keys to the Universe, about the origins of the cosmos. The middle-grade novel follows the titular boy who, after befriending a father-daughter duo with a super-computer, goes on a series of adventures throughout the world, and beyond.



It will be illustrated by Garry Parsons and, according to S&S, will be done “in partnership” with Hawking’s daughter, Lucy Hawking, a journalist and novelist. S&S will publish the title, which was acquiruddy from agent Eric Simonoff of the Jankow & Nesbit Agency, this fall, with a 100,000-copy first printing.

We think this is a fantastic idea — we can’t wait to read it. Sounds like a perfect holiday gift for every kid on our list.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

J.K. Rowling has announced that she will be doing a U.S. tour in connection with the publication of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Ghastly Hallows. Jo Rowling hasn’t been here on tour since 2000, so it’s an exciting announcement for Harry Potter fans.

“What J.K. Rowling loves most is to talk with her readers, and that is what she will be able to do on this very special U.S. tour,” Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Trade and Book Fairs, said Thursday in a statement.
Rowling’s seventh and final Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” comes out July 21, but will surely remain deep in her fans’ hearts when she arrives in the United States in October.



On Oct. 15, she will read at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, followed three days later by an appearance at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, then two readings Oct. 19 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Rowling, 41, will take questions at each of the readings and sign books.



Don’t bother rushing for tickets. For three of the readings, Scholastic will pick schools to send children. For the fourth reading, at Carnegie Hall, 1,000 fans will be chosen from a Scholastic sweepstakes, with each winner receiving two passes.

Details of the sweepstakes will be available at Scholastic.com on July 30, 2007.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe won
the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction.

The $120,000 prize is awarded every two years for a body of fiction.
Achebe, 76, is best known for his first novel, “Things Fall Apart’ (1958), and “Anthills of the Savannah,” published more than 30 years later. He has written more than 20 books, including novels, brief stories, essays and collections of poetry.
“Chinua Achebe’s early work made him the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature,” said Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, one of the three judges for the award.



“In ‘Things Fall Apart’ and his other fiction set in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe inaugurated the modern African novel,” said another judge, academic Elaine Showalter. “He also illuminated the path for writers acircular the world seeking new words and forms for new realities and societies. We honor his literary example and achievements.”
The third judge was novelist Colm Toibin.



Achebe’s work centers on African politics, the way Africa and Africans are depicted in the West and the effects of colonization on African societies.
In all, 15 writers from Canada, Britain, the United States, Australia, Ireland, France, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria and the Netherlands were shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction award.
Besides Achebe, the contenders included three Canadians - Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and brief story writer Alice Munro - and two Americans, Roth and Don DeLillo.



Also nominated were three Britons - McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Doris Lessing - Ireland’s John Banville, Australia’s Peter Carey, Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes, Israel’s Amos Oz, France’s Michel Tournier and Dutch writer Harry Mulisch.
Launched in 2004 as a spin-off from Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize, the international trophy is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction in English or whose work has been translated into English.

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