Grab a good one off your library shelf. Beat the drearies.
It’s cold and dreary, there’s still a week before Red Dirt Book Festival. So I was browsing the new book shelf at work and here’s what I came up with.
Dark Mirror: A Brock and Kolla Mystery by Barry Maitland. Gotten to page 6 so I best not comment, except to say it’s good so far.
Stalking the Dragon by Mike Resnick. On Page 25. This one is really different. There’s a life size office cat, a talking mirror, a lost Dragon that basically resembles a Paris Hilton pet and a demon suspected of kidnapping.
Now to clear off my desk, load those dishes in the dish washer and begin.
The PHANTOM: Generations #3
Finished The Phantom: Generations, #3 written by Mel Odom (Oklahoma’s well-known author) and illustrated by Michael Stribling. Published by Moonstone.
The comic is written in the narrative style, no balloon bubble dialog boxes. The story is about evil pirates, a damsel in distress and our hero The Phantom, coming to the rescue. Mel Odom always writes a good tale. This is 15th century Phantom, a student of Will S. himself. The art is a collage of realistic photos with artistic overlay. I’m sure that’s not a very clear description, but suffice to say, the art is terrific.
This was a good introduction to Moonstone comics, hope Mel will be doing some more for them.
Looking for a pirate tale, try this one on for size. My only complaint was the printing type, I kept thinking the periods were commas and wondering why the sentences were so long. I know I’m aging. The NewsOk Nerdage guys have a short video review on their podcast site.
OKWriters Blog
Marilyn Hudson has just reminded me of the OKWriter’s Blog. Thanks Marilyn. Just going there I found out that Blue Clark
and Diane Glancy are both signing at Full Circle Bookstore.
The University of Oklahoma Press has new titles out. The Red Dirt Book Festival is on everyone’s mind. (I’ll be there, probably sitting at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries booth on and off)
Lots of other Okie related book news and events, a great one stop shop for Oklahoma author information. Adding to my Blogroll.
Awards abound for literature
National Book Award Finalist are announced. Interesting choices.
Of course we know who won the Nobel Peace Prize, but who won for Literature? It goes to Herta Müller.
If you’re like me you think WHO?
And I love the Booker award being an anglophile at heart and here’s the winner (no suprise), Hilary Mantel. Just take a look at their long list. I have one of those.
Listmania has begun.
Midnight Ink publisher, and G. M. Malliet author
After Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet won the 2008 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, I noticed we had picked up several other titles from her relatively new publisher, Midnight Ink. I read the second in the series, Death and the Lit Chick,
and found it very enjoyable. Chief Inspector St. Just goes to a writer’s conference in the delightful Dalmorton Castle. His boss has assigned him to do a presentation on police procedures for PR purposes. Amid a backdrop of jealousy, flirtations, backstabbing and bad blood between writers, agents and publishers, our new star on the mystery circuit, Kimberlee Kalder, ends up at the bottom of the bottle dungeon. And the game is afoot…
Check out Midnight Ink books, they’re fast reads, clever plots with fun characters. Here’s what they have to say about themselves.
What is Midnight Ink?
Midnight Ink is a fresh new voice in mystery fiction. Aiming to satisfy readers of all tastes, we are committed to publishing suspenseful tales of all types: hard-boiled thrillers, cozies, historical mysteries, amateur sleuth novels, and more.
Moon blast and books
I stayed home for a little longer this morning to see the rocket blast into the moon’s surface. Well the news coverage was less than spectacular and ended up being mostly nasa folks high fiving themselves and clapping. But the freaky thing, it immediately reminded me of the Young Adult novel, Life as We Knew It. What a great book, and it was only an asteroid hitting the moon not some giant rocket. Hope those guys at NASA read it first.
Here’s a review from TeenReads, and speaking of teens reading, check out the information about Teen Read Month in Oklahoma. Thank you Young Bill for bringing it to our attention while I was away. http://blog.newsok.com/okiereads/2009/10/02/beyond-reality/
This would be a perfect book to start the reading fever. Scary in a reality sort of way, and very well written.
Tracy Letts does it again with “Superior Donuts”
Tracy Letts’ new play is getting great reviews! “Superior Donuts”
Check out Bloomberg.com
Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones interviews playwright Tracy Letts (“August: Osage County”) and lead actor Michael McKean
The Word
Young Bill Young here. Kitty should be rejoining you tomorrow.
It’s amazing the things you find on the Internet. Seeing news about this particular project, on the heels of Banned Books Week, is a little disorienting. Seems there is an effort to “conservatize” The Bible. Lord knows (pun intended) the good book has been through lots of translations, selective editing, and the purging/inclusion of particular books. And that was even before the King James version! Today, we even have a Green Bible.
Truth is, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read about this. I’ll lead you to some links, and then you can decide how to react: tears or guffaws:
The Conservative Bible Project at Conservapedia
Beliefnet: Conservatizing the Bible
Pharyngula: Conservapædia has a new project
Beyond Reality
Young Bill Young here, filling in for Kitty a few days.
I read lots of science fiction and speculative fiction. Because of that, I really wish I was a teenager right now. The Oklahoma Department of Libraries (ODL) is joining forces with Newspapers in Education at The Oklahoman to sponsor Read Beyond Reality this October, which is Teen Read Month in our great state.
Classroom teachers and school libraries can sign up to participate at Newspapers in Education. Public libraries are participating through ODL. The school and public library whose young participants log the most pages read during the month will each receive $250 worth of new books! Individual readers can win prizes ranging from premium tickets to an Oklahoma City Thunder basketball game to an iPod Nano. (See why I want to be a teenager right now?)
Even if you’re not a teen, you can have lots of fun and learn more about Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror by visiting this Teen Read Month site. What are you waiting for? There are whole worlds out there for you to discover.
Read a Banned Book
Young Bill Young, here. Kitty’s out of the office the next few days, so I will be happily blogging in her absence.
It’s Banned Books Week, so you know what to do. Find a title that someone doesn’t want you to read, and read it! Need help finding a book? Take a look at the American Library Association’s list of the ten most frequently challenged books of 2008. The link will also give you access to past years’ lists. And here’s a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books during the 1990s. That will give you lots and lots of great titles (some of them bona fide American classics) to choose from.
Of course Banned Books Week is a promotion to celebrate the diversity of literature and opinions in our great country, and the right of individuals to have access to those ideas. So who would we be if we didn’t present both sides of the issue? Many books are challenged by well-meaning concerned parents, so we googled “censorship of children’s materials” and came up with this results page. Lots of differing opinion here, including a Wall Street Journal editorial and a posting on Beliefnet.com.
Books are challenged all across the U.S. and this map details some of the recent attempts. This map will certainly make Okies feel a lot better, since it often seems our state is ground zero for intellectural freedom challenges.
Finally, the writer in this column from the Detroit Free Press agrees that Banned Books Week is a Good Time to Read One. So come on! You know you’ve just been dying to crack that copy of Lady Chatterly’s Lover for the longest time!
