Children and YA Winners
For all you Children and Young Adult book readers, GalleyCat has the word on awards, beginning with Jack Gatos winning the Newbery Medal.
Dead End in Norvelt
Note in the lists that “Robopocalypse: A Novel,” by Oklahoma Author Daniel H. Wilson, published by Doubleday. is receiving an Alex Award. And Ready Player One is based in a futuristic, not entirely pleasant Oklahoma.
I’m reading Robopocalypse, and it starts out like a major motion picture. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a good robot read.
Barnes & Noble has a page full of winner dust jackets and award summaries. Susan Cooper won the Margaret A. Edwards award and that makes me very happy, I think I’ve read all her books.
The National Book Critics Circle has announced the 2011 Awards finalists (publishing year 2011, given out in 2012). The video on their website is just weird, who takes a video from the side instead of from the front. Sound quality is bad. So just go on to the actual written announcement.
Stopped short by Short stories
I always say I don’t like short stories, but maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, Wetzel’s stories took
my breath away. Marlene Reed Wetzel was the winner of the PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award for ‘A Map of Tripoli, 1967′. Fortunately this story is included in the anthology I’m reviewing, Strangers & Exiles. You can find quite a bit about her award winning story but very little else out on the Internet. It looks like the big bookstores don’t carry this book but you should be able to find it in a local book store or from the publisher.
Back to what I was going to say about the book. Strangers & Exiles tells the story of women inhabiting a world where they survive as strangers to their families, to their land, to their husbands and even to their bodies. Men come and go like desert mirages.
“There are only two kinds of men in the world,” Mantini says. “Men who pretend to love women before they marry, who actually love only themselves.” “The other,” he says, “never forgets from where he came.”
From childhood bullies, to abandonment abroad, the women survive, sifting through debris left by careless relationships and tragic circumstances. They are exiled to foreign countries and exiled at home. The stories provide an interesting introduction to the Middle East (Before Gadhafi) where the people are always on the verge of change, yet cling to an ancient way of life. I disagree with the quotes on the back cover. I don’t think of her women as “risk-takers” but rather women thrown into the quagmire and hanging on for dear life. Wetzel’s writing leaves you craving a new page, a new story. Images remain long after the final page.
Read this book by Oklahoma author Marlene Reed Wetzel, make yourself a believer in the power of short stories.
*Only negative, Out on a Limb Publishing allowed many careless publication errors. Wish publishers would do a final read before sending it to print.
Kittie photos & Overlooked Books for list lovers
GalleyCat is one of my favorite websites. They have all the best news from the Book Publishing Industry. Literary Kittie was so pleased to find their Annual Pet Parade. Send in your photos of your literary pets and next week they’ll start posting them.
Sticking with the GalleyCat theme. I just love a good reading list. The best of this, the best of that. But the notion of Favorite Overlooked Books of 2011 is a must have. Young Bill, please note Habibi is on their list. I would put Cheyenne Madonna by Eddie Chuculate on mine. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth got this conversation started. The link should start with QuickTime, give it a minute. Remember libraries also buy all those unsung gems and support authors.
I also think we forget to recommend and talk about books that are not current but we uncover in book piles, sale bins and library shelves throughout the year. Oldies but goodies.
This is your chance to tell what book you think was overlooked by all those reviewers, publishers, booksellers, and award givers.
Mumbo Gumbo, good eats
While Bill has been busy reading a horrific horror novel, I’ve had the enjoyable pleasure of a good solid mystery by author, Jerrilyn Farmer. Even though this book was written in 2003, it has all the fun of reality food shows. Who doesn’t love “Next Iron Chef”, “Chopped”, or “Next Food Network Star”, and of course there’s all those people driving around in their food trucks. 
Madeline Bean owns her own catering service, Mad Bean, and times are tough. She caters to the Hollywood crowd and is in the middle of planning the Food Freak’s wrap party. Food Freak is a television show that combines recipe cook-offs and food quizzes. Supposedly closing out their last show, Madeline finds they’ve been offered one more show and it’s going to be a doosey. Apparently the show’s head writer has taken a hike and Maddie’s offered a writing job to fill in until he can be found.
The fun and mystery begin, Maddie meets up with some crazy characters; including Chef Howie, and cougar wife Fate; Artie, TV production manager and sometime tyrant; sheep with very interesting names; Wednesday night murders (on schedule with the show) and also plenty of clues to uncover in a library of cookbooks. Farmer, who has written for game shows such as Jeopardy and Supermarket Sweep, does a great job with game show detail, and live audience productions.
I thought it was a delightful read, with plenty of substance to keep me from being annoyed at fellow airplane travellers (maybe Alec Baldwin could use a better book on his next flight). Look forward to reading more by Jerrilyn Farmer about Maddie Bean and her catering company.
BookSmack devotees
Library Journal’s BookSmack has issued the beginning of their Book Blitz lists. It looks like the Reviews site has been updated. Nice look. These are the folks who know what people like to read. They look for titles that satisfy. How do they decide? Eight different library journal editors get together and hash out the top ten lists. Apparently they’ve learned how to build a consensus (something other folks might want to work on). First lists out are the all important fiction lists, then Dec. 1st we’ll get the Core Nonfiction, How-To, Graphic Novels and YA lit for Adults lists.
Look to see what you’ve already read, what you missed, or what might make that perfect want on your Christmas list.
I just checked out from my library. Anderton, Jo. Debris. Angry Robot. (Veiled Worlds Trilogy, Bk. 1). ISBN 9780857661548. pap. $7.99.
Set in a world where mental powers construct fabulous works of engineering and architecture, this series opener revolves around a young woman who can use her abilities to destroy and build. An accomplished debut reminiscent of the visionary works of China Miéville. (LJ 10/15/11)
….from the Best 2011 SF-Fantasy. 
Looking forward to angry robots.
Happy Holiday reading.
The other NBA Crisis:
National Book Awards, can they get it right?
OK, so the National Book Award folks (the National Book Foundation) have short-listed the finalists. Here’s a link from my favorite GalleyCat to give you a free sampling of the titles. And of course, there’s controversy, I love controversy over a subject that very few people know about or ever give a second thought.
First, Laura Miller at Salon.com calls the entire list irrelevant. Go Laura! Here’s a good quote from the piece, “Although the judges for the NBAs change every year, the sense that the fiction jury is locked in a frustrating impasse with the press and the public is eternal.” And for the sports fans reading this blog, no we don’t mean the National Basketball Association. It seems to be the National Book Award folks aren’t interested in anything popular. So if it’s smart and literary and has a large group of reader fans then it looks like you can just forget the big prize.
Said very well by Ms. Miller, “If you categorically rule out books that a lot of people like, you shouldn’t be surprised when a lot of people don’t like the books you end up with.” Why is the literary community and the reading public so different? Don’t authors want to have readers? and does it say something negative about a book when a lot of people enjoy it.
Controversy, number two. If having a list of titles that people aren’t exactly cheering about isn’t bad enough, they announced the wrong young adult writer as a finalist! Graciously Lauren Myracle and her book Shine, took her name off the list after being mistaken for Franny Billingsley‘s Chime.
NBF is blaming it on a communication problem. Judges say Chime and it sounds like Shine. What? No doubt they handled it badly, first putting her on by mistake, then saying she can stay and then taking her off for good.
What do you think about this NBA debacle?
Conference for Writers and Readers in Tulsa
Sharing this email from Nimrod International Journal (Tulsa)
Dear Writer,
Greetings from Nimrod International Journal! This is a reminder that there’s still time to sign up for Nimrod’s Conference for Readers and Writers, this year on October 22nd at the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you haven’t signed up already, we hope that you will!
This year’s workshop will feature sessions on fiction, poetry, YA fantasy, memoir, finding a literary agent, and starting a school literary journal, as well as panel discussions and readings. You can also sign up to have a one-on-one editing workshop with a member of the Nimrod board of editors. Key guests include National Book Award finalists and novelists Amy Bloom and Ron Hansen, celebrated poets Linda Pastan, Nikky Finney, and Cheryl Pallant, YA fantasy writer Patricia C. Wrede, memoirist, poet and fiction writer Jennifer Clement, and over thirty others.
The cost is $50.00, but scholarships are available. To register to receive a scholarship, please send in your completed registration form, 2-3 sample pages of your writing, a note requesting a scholarship, and $10 for lunch, which includes a reading by David Amy Bloom and Linda Pastan.
If you have any questions, or for registration forms, please contact nimrod at utulsa.edu. You can also visit our website for a printable registration form at www.utulsa.edu/nimrod
We also hope that you’ll join us for a special pre-workshop event on Tuesday, October 11th. In honor of Ron Hansen’s appearance at the conference, we’ll be showing The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford at Gilcrease museum at 6 p.m. A panel discussion on “The Timely Romance of the American West” will precede the screening. The entire event is free and open to the public.
I hope to see you in October!
Best,
Eilis O’Neal
Nimrod’s Managing Editor
I have always heard good things about this workshop, so you wannabe writers, and literary readers, get going and sign up. I go to writers panels and workshops, even though I’ll probably never write anything, just to hear authors discuss their craft. It’s great fun, you find out all kinds of information about those folks you read, and it leads to new folks to read. Nice way to dip your toes in the writing pool without leaving Oklahoma.
Oklahoma all about SPORTS
As we celebrate game day tomorrow, take a look around at the history of Oklahoma sports. First, make a quick stop at the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture’s entry on Sports. My favorite story about Oklahoma sports is our rejection of Steinbeck’s Okie portrayal in Grapes of Wrath resulting in the great OU football programs.
The Great Depression, along with the out-migration of many Oklahomans to California, an episode brought to national attention by John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, created an image that many Oklahomans felt was undeserved. In 1945 the University of Oklahoma’s board of regents discussed the state’s morale and felt hiring a good football coach and enticing returning World War II soldiers could instill a sense of pride in the state.
Recent quote from CBS news:
“Men,” OU regent Erl Deacon, is quoted as saying in Jim Dent’s fine book, The Undefeated, “There is only one way to get this state back on track and that’s football, football, football.” 
Growing up Okie, I know my grandmother was none too pleased with Steinbeck or the name Okie for many years. She finally accepted Okie but never Mr. Steinbeck.
And of course, there was Mr. Iba, at Oklahoma State University. And Oklahoma City University’s Abe Lemons.
But it’s fall so we’re back to football, and so that Okie Reads remains impartial (but not in her real 
life) I need to highlight Pat Jones’ Tales from Oklahoma State football, written with Tulsa World sports editor, Jimmie Tramel. Who doesn’t love Barry Sanders?
And our sports legend that remains non-bedlam, would be Jim Thorpe. We’re very fortunate to have Kate Buford’s Native American Son: the Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe.
Hope these examples take you away from the television for a few minutes, lots of great books on Oklahoma sports greats, and the game (whichever game that would be).
Today, however, it’s Football, Football, Football.
What the Snow Blew Inn by Dian Curtis Regan
Dian Curtis Regan’s latest childrens book is The Snow Blew Inn.
This is a great little story about the value of generosity and inclusion. It’s a cold winter night and folks are flocking to the Snow Blew Inn, so many folks that it becomes full, full, full. Little kittie Emma is waiting and watching for her cousin Abby to get there for a sleepover. Can she make room for one more guest? It’s a lesson for us all, and would be particularly nice for a Christmas gift for a young one. Either as a read-aloud or for 6-8 year olds to enjoy on their own.
Doug Cushman does a great job with the illustrations, cute, cute.
If you want to know about Dian’s other book, Cam’s Quest for the young adult crowd, check out this interview with B.J. Williams. And more interesting information about the author from Author Turf
Mashed Potatoes, fun airfare
Flew to Washington D.C. last week, the trials of flying we all know too well. I always try to take an easy, enjoyable read, usually a fun little mystery. So before I left I hunted through my books, located a Margaret Moseley, purchased at a Full Circle bookstore sale. Margaret was born in Oklahoma and you’ve probably know her for Bonita Faye, which was a finalist for the Edgar Award, in 1996.
This time my read was Margaret Moseley’s Grinning in His Mashed Potatoes, starring Honey Huckleberry (not so strange I have cousins with the same last name). Honey is a representative for several book publishers. She markets and promotes their titles to locally run bookstores. She and her best friend Janie are at a fund-raising event when best selling author and guest of honor, Twyman Towerie takes a bite of his dessert and falls face first into his mashed potatoes. Honey, of course, is seated next to him. He has a lot of ex-wives, four to be exact, who would gladly put a little something in his lemon meringue. One is on her way to revealing a ”tell-all” memoir and even the large diamond Twyman tried to bribe her with isn’t working. And the plot thickens….
Since the book was written in 1999 it’s interesting to observe the emergence of computers, and smile at our reluctant acceptance of technology that we can no longer even imagine doing without. Great plane fare, clever and fun, take an Okie on the road with you next time.
