Events & Literary News

While we sit back and take inventory, we thought you might be interested in some of the following:

Grove Project Blog: This is a new blog about the Cape Fear area by "citizen journalists" with local essays, restaurant reviews, op ed columns and general items of interest to people in the area.
One Tree Hill  has returned to Wilmington-the kids are all grown up now and out of college!
And who could resist this? For $2500 you can be in a Margaret Maron novel! (it's for a good cause)

More events information here

Tom Perrotta's new book, The Abstinence Teacher ($24.95) is another trip into his specialty-American suburbia.  When a newly arrived evangelical church group gets wind of what's being taught in sex-ed classes at the local schools, they decide to take action.  Ruth Ramsey, the sex-ed teacher takes issue.  The clash between the two, questions of morality, religious belief, and individuality form the framework of the story.  But the heart of the book is the people inside the square boxes-how they're not so easily defined.  The local soccer coach Tim is a member of the church; a struggling alcoholic and drug addict, he's also a divorced dad who's good with kids.  Ruth, also divorced, finds herself defined by events in her past that she's just beginning to understand.  I don't think we learn anything new in this version of the culture wars, but we do get an engaging read out of it.

The Ghost ($26.00) by Robert Harris is just a fun read.  Former Prime Minister Adam Lang is writing his memoirs when his collaborator suddenly dies.  Because he's on a tight deadline, Lang's publisher hires a new assistant to be his ghost writer.  The new writer quickly learns that the public Lang is quite different from the private man.  Stir in war crimes accusations that involve Guantanamo Bay and you've got a smart, fast-paced thriller that is a perfect reason to kick back and read on the weekend!

I love the way certain writers inspire their own genres of fiction that either pick up their stories where they left off or include the writers as characters . . . Jane Austen and Sherlock Holmes come to mind.  Shakespeare deservedly has this too and if you're a Shakespeare fan or just a literary thriller fan, you have to pick up Interred with Their Bones ($25.95) by Jennifer Lee Carrell.  Carrell's book involves the search for a lost Shakespeare play, and she has great fun killing off Shakespeare scholars, burning down the Globe, chasing clues across two continents, and generally reminding us of how much fun there is to be had with the bard. 

Clive James' Cultural Amnesia ($35.00) is a collection of essays on a variety of people from history and the arts.  Some subjects are instantly recognizable while others like Sophie Scholl (a young German guillotined for her stand against anti-Semitism) are people I was happy to learn about.  James is a well-known writer and critic and reading his work is like climbing inside his head to get a different view of the world-intelligent and funny, masculine and disjointed . . . always interesting.  The political undercurrent of this work, the responsibilities of artists and the need for the survival of humanism, is what holds this giant book together . . . it seems like an important argument.

-Joan

Life Class by Pat Barker ($23.95)  is a quiet but intense novel about how ordinary lives unravel in the face of extraordinary events-such as war. In the spring of 1914 a group of art students have gathered together to take a drawing class - a "life class" where the artists draw from real models.  It is the eve of war, but like most people these students are not gifted with forsight-theirs is a world of passionate liaisons and even more passionate discussions about the importance of Art and the nature of Art to Reality. (The latter, it is agreed, is only an unimportant subset of the former).  Paul Tarrant is one student, a young man struggling to find himself as a painter. Elinor Brooke is another--a young woman who struggles not only to paint, but to be recognized as an artist, not a woman.  Paul and Elinor circle each other warily throughout the spring, attempting to reconcile their painting and their passions

And then Germany marches on France, and suddenly the Reality becomes inescapable and absolute, and all the brave posturing about the importance of Art whithers in the face of the fear and fanaticism that comes when a country declares war.   Paul goes to Belgium with the Red Cross and tries to continue to paint surrounded by the wounded, the dying and the dead. Elinor stays in London, and tries to paint in the face of immense pressure to do other things-like practice making bandages on the fat ankles of members of local women's auxiliary societies.

Barker is well-known for her earlier novel Regeneration, a story of two soldier-poets suffering from shell shock and the doctor who must "regenerate" them, (make them sane enough to return to the war) .It is a book I recommend often and at the least provocation.  It would be facile to say that Life Class is an novel about painters in the way that Regeneration is a novel about poets, but it is true that both books are novels about how relationships are forced to change when they are faced with the relentless cruelty and violence of war.  Paul and Elinor signed up to take one kind of life class, but find themselves enrolled in quite another.

--Nicki

Anyone who has ever been "done wrong", left behind, dumped for a new edition can relate to Suzanne Finnamore's book, Split.  Finnamore's marriage abruptly ends when her husband announces that he deserves his happiness.  She wraps her despair in words that are at the same time deeply sad and hysterical.  Finnamore takes us through the twists and of courtship, marriage and the birth of her son.  At the beginning of the separation she is in denial and attempts to win back her husband this flows into dark anger then finally friendship with the man who will always be in her life.  This is a painful subject matter and Finnamore takes us into the dark depths of divorce through to the realization that her marriage was beautiful, precious time giving her the gift of a son and a friend. She " finally feels good being unmarried."    Split will be out in April 2008.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell is a story of a life lived in the consequences of secrets, lies, betrayal and jealousy.  Esme is betrayed by her family, locked away in an insane asylum for 63 years because she is different. She was born in a time where young girls were to be married, they did not go to college, they did not work outside of the home.  Esme wanted no part of this.  Her life becomes a tangled web of insanity, rape, and childbirth.  She learns how to function in the asylum, how to get by.  Forward to 63 years. Iris is running a vintage clothing store and trying to decide what to do with her married boyfriend when she gets a phone call from the asylum asking if she knows Esme, Iris has never heard of this person and is stunned to find out that she is her aunt.  The asylum is closing and Iris decides to bring Esme to live with her.  Esme is back in the world after "61 years, 5 months, 4 days".   This story is an intricate weaving of  betrayal and lies, of a time where being different could land a young girl in  a mental hospital , abandoned and forgotten.  I found it deeply disturbing and hard to put down.  Made me hope that this is not the way families really operate or do they?

Socrates said,"Do not do to others that which would anger you if others did it to you." The Otters are Mr.Rabbit's new neighbors and he doesn't know a thing about otters, how will they ever get along?  Mr. Owl tells Mr. Rabbit an old saying, "DO UNTO OTTERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE OTTERS DO UNTO YOU."  Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller ($16.95) is very funny book on manners. How would Mr. Rabbit like the Otters to treat him? He would like them to befriendly, polite, be honest, be considerate, and to cooperate (co-otter-ate). Just "Doo-Dee-Doo unto Otters as you would have Otters Doo-Dee-Doo unto you!" The only way to do this book justice is to come in and see the illustrations which pack each page. But you need to hurry because this one flies off the shelf.Children and "grown-ups" alike get a huge chuckle along with a sweet reminder on how we should all treat each other.

--Susan

Childrens Books: It's Newbery and Caldecott Season!

The American Library Association has announced the recipients of its Children's Book Awards

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, written by Laura Amy Schlitz, is the 2008 Newbery Medal winner. The book is published by Candlewick.

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters. Maidens, monks, and millers' sons -- in these pages, readers will meet them all. There's Hugo, the lord's nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant's daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There's also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd -- inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany -- this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.

Three Newbery Honor Books were named: "Elijah of Buxton," by Christopher Paul Curtis, published by Scholastic; "The Wednesday Wars," by Gary D. Schmidt, published by Clarion and "Feathers," by Jacqueline Woodson, published by Putnam.

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," illustrated by Brian Selznick, is the 2008 Caldecott Medal winner. The book is published by Scholastic.

Four Caldecott Honor Books were named: "Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad," illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine, and published by Scholastic; "First the Egg," illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and published by Roaring Brook/Neal Porter; "The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain," illustrated and written by Peter Sís, and published by Farrar/Frances Foster; and "Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity," illustrated and written by Mo Willems, and published by Hyperion.


Coretta Scott King Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults. "Elijah of Buxton," written by Christopher Paul Curtis, is the  King Author Book winner. The book is published by Scholastic. Two King Author Honor Books were selected: "November Blues," by Sharon M. Draper, published by Atheneum Books for Young Adults and "Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali," written by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Bryan Collier, published by Candlewick Press.

"Let it Shine," illustrated and written by Ashley Bryan, is the King Illustrator Book winner. The book is published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Two King Illustrator Honor Books were selected: "The Secret Olivia Told Me," by N. Joy, illustrated by Nancy Devard, published by Just Us Books, and "Jazz On A Saturday Night," by Leo and Diane Dillon, published by Scholastic Blue Sky Press.

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award; "Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It," written by Sundee T. Frazier is the Steptoe winner. The book is published by Delacorte Press.


Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished book for beginning readers. "There Is a Bird on Your Head!," written and illustrated by Mo Willems is the 2008 Geisel Award winner. The book is published by Hyperion.

Robert F. Sibert Medal

Rediscovering Cookbooks:
Rosa Bianca recently wrote about her resolutions for the New Year, one of which was to "rediscover" her own cookbooks:

"I'm going to find a new recipe in one of my cookbooks every week.

I actually own around 500 cookbooks and a couple hundred more books that might be classified as "food writing."  They are a record not so much of how I learned to cook, but how I learned to eat.  When I first began to discover that there was more to Asian cuisine than the pot stickers and mu shu pork I lived on during exam week in college, I turned to cookbooks to teach me the differences between Thai, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian dishes.  When I came South, I began to amass a fair number of Junior League and community cookbooks about the area I had decided to call home.  Cookbooks, not restaurants, have been my gateway to new foods and new cuisines."

--Rosa Bianca

Thirty minutes after I submitted my column to Encore magazine annoucning, confidently, that I would find something new in one of my own cookbooks every week to make, I found myself standing infront of my bookcase at a loss. My resolution, I'm afraid, was more ambitious than my pantry and I was starting to  realize just how many cookbooks I owned that relied on regular trips to ethnic markets and a willingness to mail order rare and unusal ingredients.  Eventually, because I was feeling chilled and in need of some comfort food, I decided to make chili from Jan and Michael Stern's Chili Nation.  The Sterns make a living by travelling around the country eating (what a job!). Every now and then they publish a book about the meals they've had and the dive bars and diners they discovered them in. Chili Nation is one of those books.

Chili is a little like barbecue in that every region has its own ideas of how to make it, and arguments can get quite heated over what should and shouldn't go in the pot. Each page in the book features a chili recipe from one of the fifty states.  It isn't a large book, but it does present some interesting ideas on the nature of the dish.  I ended up choosing a recipe from Missouri called "Mule-Kicking Hot Chili."  I chose it firstly because I already had most of the ingredients on hand, and secondly because it didn't arouse any of my own prejudices. In other words, there wasn't anything too weird in it. The Hawaiin recipe used macadamia nuts, the Arizona recipe-you'd think they'd know better-involved cream cheese, and the Alabama "Whistle Stop" chili used, gulp, rolled oats."  By contrast, the weirdest think in the Mule Kicking Missouri chili was a can of Budweiser. That was only to be expected, since Missouri is the home state of Anheuser Busch. 

It was an entirely meat-based recipe; no beans, and no tomatos, if you can believe it. The base is made by soaking dried chili peppers (ancho and chipotle) in hot boiling water until they are soft, and then pureeing them.  Otherwise it is just browned cubes of steak and sweet sausage, a dash of mustard for some kick, and a little bit of onion and garlic. And a can of beer.

I stayed true to the recipe and ended up with a spicy hot, sharp-tasting stew that really hit the spot. But it was even better reheated the next day, and even better the day after that, when I caved and dumped in a can of crushed tomatoes to balance out the beery flavor.   You can see the original recipe here.

For Bookclubs

National Book Critics Circle Finalists have been announced. I like these lists, because they often show a refreshing disregard for what has been popular or in the news, in favor of books that, well, deserve to be recognized for literary merit. So the list below, while not all in paperback, is an excellent starting point for book clubs who are looking to pick books for the upcoming year.

Autobiography

Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone, Joshua Clark
Brother, I'm Dying, Edwidge Danticat
The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates, 1973-1982
A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, Anna Politkovskaya

Nonfiction

American Transcendentalism: A History, Philip Gura
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of American, 1815-1848, Daniel Walker Howe
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, Harriet Washington
Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA, Tim Weiner
The World Without Us, Alan Weisman

Fiction

Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
In the Country of Men, Hisham Matar
The Gravedigger's Daughter, Joyce Carol Oates
The Shadow Catcher, Marianne Wiggins

Biography

Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer, Tim Jeal
Edith Wharton, Hermione Lee
Ralph Ellison, Arnold Rampersad
The Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932, John Richardson
Thomas Hardy, Claire Tomalin

Poetry

Elegy: Poems, Mary Jo Bang
Modern Life, Matthea Harvey
Sleeping and Waking, Michael O'Brien
The Ballad of Jamie Allan, Tom Pickard
New Poems, Tadeusz Rozewicz

Criticism

Twenty-eight Artists and Two Saints, Joan Acocella
Once Upon a Quinceanera, Julia Alvarez
The Terror Dream, Susan Faludi
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, Ben Ratliff
The Rest Is Noise, Alex Ross

Illustrating Nature: Two essays on Thomas Bewick and John James Audubon

Thomas Bewick: Illustrating an Era

. . . Opening Nature's Engraver, the first thing I realized was that I already knew Thomas Bewick. I had seen his engravings and woodcuts in countless books I had read over the years-small vignettes gracing the ends of chapters, decorating the frontispieces of old novels, illustrating the odd memoir or traveler's diary. I had seen, but obviously never looked, my eyes sliding over the illustrations as mere decorations to the accompanying story.

Jenny Uglow corrected my error immediately. One of the first reproductions she includes in this engaging biography is a small scene (most of Bewick's woodcuts were small in size, to fit their use in printing) of a man looking at the ruins of an old wall on the edge of a forest. I looked at the picture on the page before I read the text and thought, "very pretty."  And then went on to read Uglow's description: "Before me was a tiny scene, not a lyrical country lane, but a man pissing against a wall.". . .

http://www.bibliobuffet.com/bb/content/view/587/193/

Audubon: Drawing from Life and the Life of a Drawing

It is, perhaps, stretching a point to call John James Audubon a "young man" when he first paid a visit to the elderly and respected Thomas Bewick on a chilly spring evening at his home in Newcastle-on-Tyne. Bewick was a hale and hearty seventy-four, but Audubon himself was no teenager. At this point in his life he was old enough to have married, had two children, started and failed at several businesses, conceived of and pursued a natural history project on a grand scale, earned the enmity of peers and colleagues on this side of the Atlantic for his brash arrogance, and put together a portfolio of some 250 drawings and watercolors of species of American birds. He was forty-two years old, about the same age as I am as I write this, and quite obviously he had managed to do much more with his life than I have by this point.
The name of Audubon was fairly common in my household growing up. There was a major road in Buffalo where we lived called the John James Audubon Parkway. We usually had Audubon Society newsletters, calendars and cards around the house. We had a book of reproductions of his paintings and it wouldn't be exaggerating too much to say that Audubon was the first artist whose work I learned to identify by style-with the possible exception of Dr. Seuss. . . http://www.bibliobuffet.com/bb/content/view/600/193/

--Nicki