Michael Janairo

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Author: Michael Janairo

  • Judging book covers

    chipkidd.jpg
    Over the weekend, went to the Cooper Hewitt Museum to see its National Design Triennial and was glad to see the work of Chip Kidd featured. The image above is the cover to his own book, which is basically a book of book covers. Seeing a bunch of his covers on the wall together showed quite an impressive range of skill and an intriguing sensibility. One of his covers was for the Jay McInerny book The Good Life (below). Though the post-9/11 novel received mixed reviews, the cover was a stark and vivid reminder of the terrorist attacks.
    goodlife.jpg

    From the museum:

    Writer and graphic designer Chip Kidd has been designing book jackets for Alfred A. Knopf since 1986. His innovative work, recognized by international awards, has helped spark a revolution in the art of American book packaging. Kidd has written about graphic design and popular culture and is an editor of comic books for Pantheon, a Knopf subsidiary. His work will be included in Cooper-Hewitt’s 2006 National Design Triennial.

    You can listen to him speak about his process here:
    http://www.peoplesdesignaward.org/designlifenow/files/podcasts/Chip_Kidd.mp3

    Give it a look and a listen. Interesting stuff.

  • Free audio books

    Here’s an interesting site for lovers of audio books, especially ones that are free. It’s called LibriVox and this is what they say:

    LibriVox: free audiobooks

    LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project.

    Go to http://www.librivox.org/

    Some of their new releases are:

    Concerning virgins by Ambrose, Saint, Schaff, Philip (editor)
    Short Poetry Collection Vol. 022 by Various
    Match, A by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
    Selected Lullabies by Eugene Field by Field, Eugene
    Sonnet 43 by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
    LibriVox NaNoWriMo Novel 2006 by LibriVox Volunteers
    Selected Poems by Robert Frost by Frost, Robert
    Vindication of the Rights of Woman, A by Wollstonecraft, Mary
    Love Among the Chickens by Wodehouse, P. G.
    Villette by Brontë, Charlotte

    Here’s the link for PG Wodehouse’s Love Among the Chickens.

    You, yourself, could volunteer for LibriVox (considering it is all volunteer). The link is here.

  • Black History Month: “Apex Hides the Hurt”

    whitehead-apex_hides.jpg
    Colson Whitehead’s 2006 novel “Apex Hides the Hurt” once again delves into issues of race and identity through a “nomenclature consultant” hired to help rename the town of Winthrop so it can be revived for the 21st century, but who is also going through his own crisis having named a successful but shoddy product, Apex, a Band-Aid competitor that comes in a variety of shades so the bandage can “disappear” on the skin of most anyone (and it is specifically targeted across the country by ZIP code).

    Listen to an audio interview here.

    Click “more” to read my review of the book.

    (more…)

  • “Roscoe,” ASO

    roscoe.jpg

    From Sunday’s paper:

    The Albany Symphony Orchestra is inviting Capital Region book clubs to take part in its upcoming celebration of William Kennedy, Albany’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

    At 7:30 p.m. on April 20 at Albany’s Palace Theatre, the ASO will present the world premiere of “Roscoe, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” by Kevin Beavers. The new work was inspired by Kennedy’s novel “Roscoe,” the seventh book in his Albany cycle about politics and power in a fictionalized Albany of the 1930s and ’40s. Violinist Colin Jacobsen will perform the piece alongside Kennedy, who will read selections from the novel, to introduce the movements of the work.

    Kennedy will talk about his work and sign books at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at Borders on Wolf Road in Albany.

    Area book clubs are encouraged to read “Roscoe” in preparation for the world premiere of the Beavers’ concerto, and may attend the performance at a special discounted rate of $22 per ticket. Book clubs attending the concert also will be able to meet and have a photo opportunity with Kennedy.

    To receive the book club concert ticket discount, club leaders must sign up at the ASO Web site: http://www.AlbanySymphony.com, where a readers guide to “Roscoe” developed by Kennedy is also available.

    For more information, call the ASO at 465-4755.

  • For serious books, turn to comedy

    Media Bistro reports that the Daily Show helps boost sales of serious books after their authors appear on the show, and that the TV outlets for serious authors are shrinking.

    The blog post is here.

  • Bringing the world to the U.S.

    It is no secret in the book world that far more books are translated into other languages than into English. Having lived in Japan (a nation that seems to devour far more literature than the U.S.) in my early 20s and then returning to the U.S., I’ve seen this firsthand — a marked provincialism of America as a symptom of the country’s complacency of empire.

    The NEA seems to be trying to help to change this with the first grants for translation, which were recently announced. The news can be found here.

    The National Endowment for the Arts offers the NEA International Literature Awards to provide American readers with greater access to quality foreign literary work in translation. The NEA conducts this initiative together with partner governments, with the first awards focusing on the literature of Greece and Spain. The NEA announces today that the 2007 award recipients are three nonprofit literary presses that will translate and publish a work from these countries and promote the book to American readers. The three American presses that each will receive a $10,000 NEA award are Archipelago Books of Brooklyn, NY; Dalkey Archive Press of Champaign, IL; and Etruscan Press of Wilkes-Barre, PA.

    As you could probably guess, $10,000 is a drop in the bucket, but at least it’s a start.

  • For lovers of mysteries…

    … the Edgar Awards has a new Web site.

    The Edgars are the top awards from the Mystery Writers of America:

    Mystery Writers of America is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. MWA is dedicated to promoting higher regard for crime writing and recognition and respect for those who write within the genre.

  • The book that changed your life

    Do you read a special book every year? Did a book that you read when you were a child set you on a specific path? I’m still looking for contributions for an upcoming column on influential books in the lives of our readers. Post them here, or send me an e-mail at bibliofiles@hotmail.com.

  • New story from Steven Millhauser

    Skidmore prof and Pulitzer-winner has a new piece of fiction in the latest New Yorker.

    Click here for the story, History of Disturbance.