Michael Janairo

Web Analytics

Blog

  • What was your favorite book of 2006?

    Times Union staff writer and author Paul Grondahl (his most recent books include “Now Is The Time: A History of Parsons Child and Family Center 1829-2004″ and “I Rose Like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodore Roosevelt” and you can see his latest journalism here) weighs in on the favorite novel he read in 2006.

    That’s a tough call, but I’d have to say “Secondhand World,” by Katherine Min. It’s a haunting and evocative coming-of-age story aboutmin.jpg a rebellious teen girl who is torn between the impulses of cultural assimilation and the ethnic isolation of her rigid and traditional Korean-American parents. This debut novel is a moving, lyrical narrative that has added appeal for local readers, since it is set in Clifton Park, where Min grew up. She’s a graduate of Shenendehowa High School and teaches at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. To learn more about Min and her work, visit her Web site at http://www.katherinemin.com

    I like your blog, by the way. It’s a great idea and I hope to be a regular contributor. Best wishes, Paul Grondahl (www.paulgrondahl.com)

  • An interesting link

    One of the best blogs out there for bibliophiles is the National Book Critics Circle’s Critical Mass (full disclosure, I am a member of the NBCC).

    That blog includes an interesting series of interviews with book reviewers from around the country. Take a look if you are interested in how book critics think.

  • Great books, or keeping up with the “dead white males”

    So if you saw the great books story by Paul Grondahl in today’s Times Union, here’s more info about it than could be printed in the paper. What follows after the break are the Siena survey’s press release and then the top 30 ”

    (more…)

  • Steven King on audio books

    I’m not alone in my enjoyment of audio books! Here’s Steven King’s take on them from an October Entertainment Weekly.

    Some critics — the always tiresome Harold Bloom among them — claim that listening to audiobooks isn’t reading. I couldn’t disagree more. In some ways, audio perfects reading. One friend of mine likes to tell the story of how she got so involved in Blair Brown’s reading of Sue Miller’s Lost in the Forest that she missed her turnpike exit and ended up in Boston. Another swears he never really ”got” Elmore Leonard until he listened to Arliss Howard reading The Hot Kid and heard the mixed rhythm of the dialogue and narration.

    The book purists argue for the sanctity of the page and the perfect communion of reader and writer, with no intermediary. They say that if there’s something you don’t understand in a book, you can always go back and read it again (these seem to be people so technologically challenged they’ve never heard of rewind, or can’t find the back button on their CD players). Bloom has said that ”Deep reading really demands the inner ear…that part of you which is open to wisdom. You need the text in front of you.” Here is a man who has clearly never listened to a campfire story.

    He even includes his top ten.

    (more…)

  • The language rule they don’t teach in school

    This story from the NYTimes was just too good to not share. As someone who studied journalism as an undergrad and creative writing as a grad student, and who has job duties now that include being the guardian of Time Union style (aka Conan the Grammarian), I had no idea that the world of publishing included the rule mentioned in the following story:

    NYTIMES December 14, 2006
    By FELICIA R. LEE

    “Next,” Michael Crichton’s new novel about the perils of biotechnology, has not proved as polarizing as his previous thriller, “State of Fear,” which dismisses global warming. But one of the new book’s minor characters — Mick Crowley, a Washington political columnist who rapes a baby — may be a literary dagger aimed at Michael Crowley, a Washington political reporter who wrote an unflattering article about Mr. Crichton this year.

    (more…)

  • Events on Wednesday, Dec. 13

    bahama_new.gifPaul Rutherford on Wednesday, December 13, 6-9 p.m., will sign his new novel “The Bahama Triangle” at the Tri-City Latham Tennis Club, 944 New Loudon Road, Latham NY.
    ACC Lecture Series December 13: Lale Davidson and Laying the Groundwork for Novel Writing – QUEENSBURY – Dr. Lale Davidson, Professor of English at Adirondack Community College, will discuss different methods for novel writing on Wednesday, December 13, as part of ACC’s Lecture Series.The program will be held in Eisenhart Hall, Room 118 from 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. The lecture is free and the public is invited. Light refreshments will be served.Davidson’s presentation – “Laying the Groundwork for Novel Writing” – will include a discussion of two different writing styles, the intuitive and the (more…)

  • A death, and a memorial

    Mary R. Faulkner, age 92, the mother of Donald Faulkner, director of The New York State Writers Institute, passed away Saturday, Nov. 25 in Ft. Myers Beach, FL. She was born July 3, 1914 in Pittsburgh, Pa. She and her late husband, John V. Faulkner were married on May 27, 1937, in Pittsburgh. John passed away in 1976.

    The family suggests that memorial contributions be made to a special fund established in her name at The New York State Writers Institute to promote the work of young writers. Contributions to the Mary Faulkner Fund for Young Writers may be made by check, identifying the Fund, to the University at Albany Foundation, University at Albany, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY, 12222.

  • Sobol award news — winners to be published

    This is from the Hillel Italie at the AP about the novel contest that costs $85 to enter. Note the final quotation from Sobol’s executive vice president ofcontest management, Sue Pollock, : “The Internet has been more difficult to penetrate than we had hoped.”

    A division of Simon & Schuster has agreed to publish the top three winners of the Sobol Award, offering advances of up to $100,000 for a controversial new literary contest for agentless writers that also includes a $100,000 first prize.

    (more…)

  • Richard Ford’s “Lay of the Land”

    images.jpg

    If you read my review of Ford’s book in Sunday’s Times Union, you know that I started the book with high hopes, and ended in disappointment. That, of course, is just me. Or is it?
    Having finished reading the book and writing the review, I allowed myself to read other reviews, and found the disconnect between the NYTimes Michiko Kakutani and A.O. Scott to be quiet interesting.
    Kakutani’s review includes these lines:

    the lethargic third installment of Frank’s story (it follows “The Sportswriter,” published in 1986, and the 1995 sequel “Independence Day”)

    …

    the book tends to substitute a lot of talk about New Jersey property values and realtor strategies for genuine insights about how people live today.

    (more…)