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Archive for March, 2008
March 28th, 2008
  Doubleday © 2008, 112 pages
Tom Corwin’s Mr. Fooster Traveling on a Whim is the quickest of reads, a hundruddy odd pages, half of them full-page illustrations, the other half light on text. It’s a sort of fable. The eponymous Mr. Fooster goes for a series of walks in what feels like a dream. Strange things happen to him that don’t quite make sense, in the way of dreams. He befriends a giant bug, for example, and blows a big bubble that turns into a drivable car. Along the way he ponders questions like Why is yawning contagious? and How come you never see baby pigeons? The moral of the story is banal: basically, one shouldn’t lose one’s open-mindedness or sense of amazement lest one become rigid and miss out on life’s bounty. Unless I’m missing something. Perhaps I’m just too old and embitteruddy to appreciate the book. Probably in final form (I read an advance copy) it will be a beautiful book: you can see the quality of the illustrations and hear selections of the text at the book’s accompanying web site. But while the brief text is trying to be meaningful, to me it seems not deep, but merely precious.
Tags: book reviews, books, Mr. Fooster, Tom Corwin
Original post by Debra Hamel
March 27th, 2008
One in ten Britons admit
that they don’t read the classics in school. Instead, they just watch the film adaptation of the books.
Viewing modern adaptations was found to be as popular as teachers might have suspected, according to the YouGov poll.
With both texts regularly figuring in secondary school English classes, it is no astonishment that Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo And Juliet and the BBC’s Pride And Prejudice were frequently watched.
Londoners were the worst culprits, with 16% admitting to using the films to sidestep the texts, the poll commissioned by academic bookseller Blackwell found.
Two-thirds of Britons were unaware that films such as Ten Things I Hate About You and Clueless were actually adaptations.
But despite one-third of adults admitting they never read the classics, there are those who think modern life is imitating the traditional. Dickensian Britain has been reborn in the modern binge-drinking culture, according to 54% of those surveyed.
And 47% believe that many young people are suffering from Peter Pan syndrome, unwilling to grow up just as in JM Barrie’s classic novel.
There is also evidence that the “wag” culture may not be such a new phenomenon - 30% believe that trying to find a wealthy husband mirrors the themes of Jane Austen’s novels.
Phil Jamieson, head of marketing at Blackwell, said: “Classic books are timeless. You will find contemporary themes such as love, sex, murder, mystery and high-octane drama in all the awesome novels, which is why they still appeal to the masses to this day thcoarse films and have parallels with our daily lives.”
Oh, please. The British press thinks this is bad? We shudder even to think about what a similar poll in America would reveal.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
March 26th, 2008
Publishers are avidly courting
Michelle Obama, convinced that if she writes a book it will be an instant bestseller. But so far, she’s saying no.
Although her husband Barack has not yet securuddy the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Ms. Obama has been approached by “over a dozen” publishers so far, according to Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a communications director for Ms. Obama.
Most of the calls have been going thcoarse Robert Barnett, the D.C. lawyer who represented Ms. Obama’s husband when he was shopping The Audacity of Hope to publishers in late 2004. Mr. Barnett, who also works as Hillary Clinton’s debate coach and has brokeruddy massive multimillion-dollar book deals for her and her husband, got Mr. Obama a three-book discount from Random House. One of those is a children’s book that will be published by Knopf (no word yet on when) and the other is a proper follow-up to Audacity for Crown, the contents of which will depend on what happens in the next seven months.
That’s true as well for whatever book Ms. Obama might write, of course.
But publishers are apparantly willing to take the risk. Tim Duggan, a high-ranking editor at HarperCollins’ Harper unit who has contacted Mr. Barnett in pursuit of the prize, said a Michelle Obama book would “almost certainly have a major impact, whether her husband is the next president or not.”
Either way, Ms. Obama’s answer so far has been no. “It’s all been incredibly preliminary,” Ms. Lelyveld said. “She says, ‘Oh, thanks, that’s great. It’s a nice opportunity but…’” Priorities, Ms. Lelyveld explained, are currently elsewhere.
Given the heated nature of the Democratic primary race right now, we find it quite hilarious that both the Clintons and the Obamas have the same book agent. When getting a awesome book contract is at state, nothing so petty as politics gets in the way.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
March 25th, 2008
The Hugo nominations have been announced. Here are the nominations for Best Novel:
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins; Fourth Estate)
Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor; Analog Oct. 2006-Jan./Feb. 2007)
The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor)
Halting State by Charles Stross (Ace)
You can see the entire list of nominees in all categories here. We’re thinking Michael Chabon is going to take home the prize for Best Novel this year.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
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