Recent Reads...

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Set in 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi, The Help is told through the perspective of a white woman, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, and two black maids, Aibileen and Minny. Having just graduated from Ole Miss, Skeeter is determined, much to her mother’s dismay, to become a writer. She goes against her family and friends’ beliefs, and with the help of primarily Aibileen and Minny, she anonymously authors a book to represent the treatment of black help in the 1960’s. Although she is ostracized by those around her, she remains relentless.
Personally, I was shocked by the irony of this time; black help was entrusted to raise white children, but in all other regards they were oppressed and given limited rights. I also found Stockett’s afterword especially poignant. She tells of her own experience growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, during this same time period, in a family with hired help. I highly recommended this book to all! Check out Amazon’s review.

Older Podcasts You May Want to Share

Listen to Stephanie Meyer's 2006 National Book Fest podcast.

Stephenie Meyer's debut novel, "Twilight" (2005), was "released to critical acclaim and became a New York Times Editor's Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, one of American Library Association's Ten Best Books for Young Adults and Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers, and a Teen People Hot List pick. It has been translated into 20 languages". In the podcast she speaks about her unlikely rise as a best selling author and her new book is "New Moon" (2006), the sequel to "Twilight."

You may also have missed Neil Gaiman's podcast: 2008 National Book Festival

Neil Gaiman,top writer of modern comics and a best-selling novelist...."He was the creator-writer of the monthly cult DC Comics series Sandman, which won many awards, including a World Fantasy Award. He is the author of the critically acclaimed "American Gods," awarded the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX and Locus awards, and his novel "Stardust" was a winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award as one of 2000's top 10 adult novels for young adults."

In this podcast he speaks about his latest YA novel The Graveyard Book (2008)which took him the longest to write of any of his books.

Life imitating Art?

I read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother last year and would highly recommend it, as do authors Neil Gaiman and Scott Westerfeld. The main character, Marcus, is detained and questioned by Homeland Security mostly for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I was struck by parallels to the real life detention and recent questioning by Homeland Security of a Pomona College student -- prompted in part by his having some Arabic flash cards in his backpack at the airport. Here's the Wall Street Journal article. While plenty of references are being made to Orwell's 1984, this story will also make an interesting twist to my next book talk about Doctorow's excellent work.

"Best Book of the Year ... so far" from amazon.com

Follow the link to see short summaries of the 10 books which amazon.com identifies as "Best Books of the Year ... so far" I have read The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton and agree with the Booklist reviewer who describes it as "a sprawling, old-fashioned novel, .... just the thing for readers who like multigenerational sagas with a touch of mystery".

The main page also links to more fiction, non-fiction and "hidden gem" favorites.

Nominations for the Man Booker Prize

The British literary Man Booker Prize, first awarded in 1969, promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year. See complete information archive of the Man Booker Prize since inception in 1969.

Chair of judges, James Naughtie, comments:

"We're thrilled to be able to announce such a strong shortlist, so enticing that it will certainly give us a headache when we come to select the winner. The choice will be a difficult one. There is thundering narrative, great inventiveness, poetry and sharp human insight in abundance.

"These are six writers on the top of their form. They've given us great enjoyment already, and it's a measure of our confidence in their books that all of us are looking forward to reading them yet again before we decide on the prizewinner. What more could we ask?"

The list of six nominees includes:

A S Byatt The Children's Book (Random House, Chatto and Windus)

J M Coetzee Summertime (Random House, Harvill Secker)

Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Random House, Jonathan Cape)

Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)

Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown)

Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Little, Brown, Virago)

The Library of Congress Celebrates the Joy of Reading

The 2009 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public.

The first batch of podcast interviews with 2009 National Book Festival authors are now online here, on iTunes here (link opens in iTunes client). These podcasts are automatically loaded to your iTunes library; all you do is click save.

Included in the first round are Junot Diaz, Rickey Minor, James Patterson, George Pelecanos, Nicholas Sparks and David Wroblewski–with more to come. They’re all free!

View an alphabetical list of all featured authors.

List of the most downloaded audio ebooks

ResourceShelf has shared the vendor OverDrive's list the ‘Most Downloaded Books from the Library’ for August 2009. Click to see the complete lists.

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” was number one on the adult fiction list and “Julie and Julia” by Julie Powell topped the eBook adult nonfiction list no doubt a reflection of the recent movie releases.