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.

Tracy Kidder's new book: "Strength in What Remains"

The summer read for New Trier's new Integrated Global Studies School (IGSS) is Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, a non-fiction selection about Dr. Paul Farmer, infectious disease specialist, who has made a difference in Haiti by greatly improving public health for those afflicted with tuberculosis. Kidder's latest book focuses on an immigrant from Burundi who has made a difference in Burundi by establishing a health clinic there.


Watch the interview with Tracy Kidder as he discusses his new book, about Deo from Burundi who has worked to establish a public health facility in his native land, Burundi.

Read an excerpt from Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains [PDF].