Michael Janairo

Category: News

  • In celebration of Women’s History Month

    Eleanor from Flight of Fantasy in Loudonville has written in with a wonderful essay about the role of female authors in the realms of fantasy and sci-fi in the past, present and future.

    Here is Eleanor’s essay (Note: many links to author pages appear after the essay):

    From the days of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, women have been writing fantasy & science fiction.

    In the early half of last century it was considered advisable to have a manly name, leading to the slightly altered names of Andre Norton and CJ Cherryh, although Marion Zimmer Bradley was just lucky, as I think that was her original name.

    Nowadays we have plainly female bestsellers like Lois McMaster Bujold, queen of space opera; Laurell K Hamilton, successor to Anne Rice’s throne; and Diana Wynne Jones, one of Britain’s greatest SF/F (science fiction/fantasy) writers.

    Writers like Patricia McKillip, Ellen Kushner, Pamela Dean, and newcomer Holly Phillips write well-styled literary fantasy. Elizabeth Moon and Mary Gentle write military sci fi & fantasy, Pat Cadigan is one of the best-remembered cyberpunk authors, and Patricia C Wrede is the leading author of Regency-era fantasy novels.

    Women dominate the vampire & werewolf subfield, including such authors as Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, Tanya Huff, and Barbara Hambly. Robin McKinley is beloved for her desert kingdom Damar, Mercedes Lackey is beloved for her (different yet similarly named) kingdom of Valdemar. Fruit’s Basket, the number 1 selling shoujo manga in America, is written by Natsuki Takaya. Diane Duane and Tamora Pierce (and, of course, J K Rowling) are famous for their young adult series.

    There are individual stylists like eluki bes shahar (AKA Rosemary Edghill), Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Vera Nazarian, Nalo Hopkinson, and Tanith Lee. Among others, Ursula K Le Guin, Suzette Haden Elgin, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne Bishop, Octavia Butler, and Zenna Henderson have written about issues of women’s liberation, and of course the girl who disguises herself as a man to have adventures is a traditional fantasy trope, although she’s now more likely to simply run away as herself.

    Women who write about gender issues such as homosexuality, intersexuals, and transsexuals include Laurie J Marks, Sarah Monette, Ursula K Le Guin, Ellen Kushner, and Marion Zimmer Bradley (again:), and to a lesser extent, Maria V Snyder and Lois McMaster Bujold.

    Female authors with books coming out this month include Elizabeth Moon (Vatta’s War series), Anne Bishop (Ephemera series), Mercedes Lackey (Five Hundred Kingdoms series), Jane Lindskold (Wolf series), and talented newcomer Vicki Pettersson (The Scent of Shadows).

    Eleanor’s 2007 Schedule of Recommended Releases by
    Women Authors

    APRIL
    Claimed by Shadow – Karen Chance
    New Orleans Noir anthology (Barbara Hambly short
    story)
    Fruit’s Basket 16 – Natsuki Takaya

    MAY
    All Together Dead – Charlaine Harris
    Kushiel’s Scion (paperback) – Jacqueline Carey

    JUNE
    Water Logic – Laurie J Marks
    The Harlequin – Laurell K Hamilton
    Sharing Knife: Legacy – Lois McMaster Bujold
    The Bone Key – Sarah Monette

    JULY
    Ilario: Lion’s Eye – Mary Gentle
    Territory – Emma Bull
    Harry Potter 7

    AUGUST
    The Mirador – Sarah Monette
    Fruit’s Basket 17 – Natsuki Takaya
    On the Prowl anthology (Patricia Briggs and Karen
    Chance short stories)

    SEPTEMBER
    Powers – Ursula K Le Guin
    Ilario: The Stone Golem – Mary Gentle
    Dragonhaven – Robin McKinley

    OCTOBER
    1634: The Bavarian Crisis – Virginia De Marce & Eric
    Flint
    An Ice Cold Grave – Charlaine Harris
    Many Bloody Returns (Charlaine Harris short story)

    websites:
    bookstore! http://www.fof.net
    CJ Cherryh http://www.cherryh.com
    Lois McMaster Bujold http://www.dendarii.com
    Laurell K Hamilton http://www.eridine.com/blog
    Diana Wynne Jones http://www.dianawynnejones.com
    Patricia A McKillip http://www.patriciamckillip.com
    Ellen Kushner
    http://www.sff.net/people/KushnerSherman/Kushner/index.html
    Pamela Dean http://www.dd-b.net/pddb
    Holly Phillips http://www.hollyphillips.com
    Elizabeth Moon http://www.elizabethmoon.com
    Pat Cadigan
    http://users.wmin.ac.uk/~fowlerc/patcadigan.html
    Patricia Briggs http://www.hurog.com
    Charlaine Harris http://www.charlaineharris.com
    Barbara Hambly http://www.barbarahambly.com
    Robin McKinley http://www.robinmckinley.com
    Mercedes Lackey http://www.mercedeslackey.com
    Diane Duane http://www.dianeduane.com
    Tamora Pierce http://www.tamora-pierce.com
    eluki bes shahar http://sss.sff.net/people/eluki
    Vera Nazarian http://www.veranazarian.com
    Nalo Hopkinson http://www.sff.net/people/nalo
    Tanith Lee http://www.tanithlee.com
    Ursula K Le Guin
    http://www.ursulakleguin.com/ukl_info.html
    Anne Bishop http://www.annebishop.com
    Octavia E. Butler
    http://sfwa.org/members/Butler/index.html
    Sarah Monette http://www.sarahmonette.com
    Maria V Snyder http://www.mariavsnyder.com
    Jane Lindskold http://www.janelindskold.com

    Thanks for all the great recommendations, Eleanor!

    In addition to the books above, I would also mention a couple of others:

    Julie Philip’s “James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life Alice B. Sheldon.” This book just won (on Thursday) the 2006 NBCC Award for Biography. Here’s a write-up from NBCC’s Jennifer Reese:

    SHE IS REMEMBERED, when she is remembered at all, as the eccentric woman who published marvelous, edgy science fiction stories in the 1960s and ’70s under the name James Tiptree, Jr. — a name she took off of a jam jar. And for this short, dazzling run alone, Alice B. Sheldon would merit a biography. But she was much more than just a fleeting sci-fi world sensation, as Julie Phillips makes clear in her splendid reconstruction of this brilliant and multifaceted woman’s troubled life. Sheldon played many roles in her seven decades: the dutiful daugher of a glamorous, globe-trotting mother; flirtatious socialite; army officer; CIA agent; journalist; painter; devoted wife. But it was only in middle age, after she began writing in the guise of reclusive avuncular James Tiptree, Jr., that she found, all too briefly, an outlet for her prodigious talents and energies. The sexual, artisitc and intellectual contradictions Sheldon mostly failed to accommodate in her own stormy life, Phillips captures and contains — in all their complexity — in this deeply intelligent and generous biography.

    Also of note is Delmar-resident Pamela Sargent’s new release “Farseed.” The young adult novel is a sequel to 1983’s (yes, that is correct) “Earthseed,” and is the second part of a trilogy.

    Booklist writes:

    Sargent, Pamela. Farseed. Mar. 2007. 288p. Tor/Tom Doherty, $17.95 (9780765314277). Gr. 7–10.

    In Earthseed (1983), genetically created teenagers were taught survival skills to fulfill a desperate plan to settle other worlds. Centuries pass; settlements are started on an earthlike planet, Home; and children are born. Then a small group breaks away and sets up its own society, which degenerates into a primitive existence. Meanwhile, those who stay at the original settlement are fearful, never straying far from their homes and pastures. In Farseed, Sargent explores the resurgence of the conflict between the groups that begins after 16-year-old Nuy, the daughter of the leader of the breakaway contingent, encounters strangers who are looking for her people. The interpersonal dynamics, plus the challenges of adapting to another world, give this long-awaited second book of the Seed Trilogy strong appeal. —Sally Estes

  • Should religious studies be taught in public schools?

    In today’s Times Union was my review of the book “Religious Literacy.” You can read the review here: http://blogs.timesunion.com/books/?p=423.

    Here’s an excerpt:

    Although chairman of the religious studies department at Boston University, Prothero’s argument isn’t about faith, but about how knowledge of religion is vital to the functioning of a democracy that requires a well-informed citizenry. This, of course, is a key rationale for journalism, so Prothero’s book is likely to get a lot of positive press for his mission, if not always for his writing.

    He is careful to stress the difference between indoctrination, or making people believe a particular religion, and religious literacy, or getting people to understand “the religious terms, symbols, images, beliefs, practices, scriptures, heroes, themes, and stories that are employed in American

    public life.”

    Not understanding this distinction, Prothero argues, is part of the problem. Although the Supreme Court has ruled against “Sunday-school-style religious instruction,” he writes, the high court also ruled that “the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religions and the like.”

    For high schools, Prothero describes two required courses: one that views the Bible in terms of its literary and religious importance, another that introduces students to “the seven great religious traditions of the world: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”

    For colleges, he calls for all students to be required to take one course in religious studies, so graduates can have at least “minimal religious literacy.”

    The question is: Is this a good idea? What do you think?

  • Events on Saturday, March 10

    tenth-circle-small.jpgBest-selling author is coming to town for a couple of events:

    Saturday, March 10 ALBANY, NY 11 AM BJ’s, Northway Mall, 1440 Central Ave., 518-438-1400 (signing only)
    Saturday, March 10 SCHENECTADY, NY 1 PM, Schenectady County ublic Library, 99 Clinton St., for info call 518-388-4533.

    BJ’s? That’s right. BJ’s.

    Here’s a video promotion — a book trailer — for her brand-new novel “19 Minutes” (could this be a growing publishing trend?):

  • Something odd this way comes

    There are a lot of contests out there, some of them more serious than others. Here’s one that is on the nonserious side: the oddest book title.

    Among the nominees this year is “How Green Were the Nazis.”

    And, yes, you — dear readers — get a chance to vote. Scroll to the bottom for the link.

    Here’s more from the AP:

    `How Green Were the Nazis?” could be the title to beat this year for the
    Bookseller/Diagram Prize for oddest book title.

    The book by Thomas Zeller, Franz-Josef Bruggemeier and Mark Cioc is billed as the first to
    examine the environmental policies of the Third Reich. It is published by Ohio University
    Press.

    Other nominees announced Friday:

    “The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: a guide to field identification,” by
    Julian Montague.

    “Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan,” by Robert Chenciner, Gabib
    Ismailov, Magomedkhan Magomedkhanov and Alex Binnie.

    “Di Mascio’s Delicious Ice Cream, Di Mascio of Coventry, an Ice Cream Company of Repute,
    With an Interesting and Varied Fleet of Ice Cream Vans,” by Roger De Boer, Harvey Francis
    Pitcher, and Alan Wilkinson.

    “Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Seaweed Symposium.”

    “Better Never To Have Been: the Harm of Coming Into Existence,” by David Benatar.

    The winner will be chosen by the public. You can vote online at http://www.thebookseller.com. The prize will be announced on April 13.

    Last year’s winner was “People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It,” by Gary Leon Hill.

    Go here to vote in the poll www.thebookseller.com.

  • NBCC winners

    The National Book Critics Circle has announced its winners for the previous year in six categories. Here’s the link to Critical Mass, the NBCC blog.

    Here’s what the AP’s Hillel Italie had to say:

    Kiran Desai’s “The Inheritance of Loss,” a narrative of global discovery
    and displacement that has already won the Man Booker Prize, received another literary honor
    Thursday night: the National Book Critics Circle fiction award.

    “To be claimed by the place in which you live means so much,” said Desai, a native of
    India who now lives in New York.

    The daughter of author Anita Desai, she worried about the “perverse” luck of her book,
    although she was clearly prepared to win, reciting a poem by Jorge Luis Borges, “The Boast of
    Quietness,” which reads, in part, “More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily
    covetous multitude.”

    Six prizes and two honorary awards were handed out at the 33rd annual critics award
    ceremony. Simon Schama’s “Rough Crossings,” a history of slaves who fought with the British
    during the Revolutionary War, won for general nonfiction. Julie Phillips’ was the biography
    winner for “James Tiptree, Jr.,” the pen name for science fiction author Alice B. Sheldon.

    Phillips, who took 10 years to complete her book, accepted the award by quoting Sheldon,
    who committed suicide in 1987: “Life is fair. Some people have talent; other people get
    prizes.”

    Daniel Mendelsohn’s “The Lost,” a memoir of six family members lost in the Holocaust, won
    for autobiography. Troy Jollimore’s “Tom Thomson in Purgatory,” a debut collection, was a
    surprise for poetry, chosen over such celebrated finalists as W.D. Snodgrass, Frederick Seidel
    and the late Miltos Sachtouris.

    “I’m stunned, and I may not be the only one,” said Jollimore, who smiled and shook his
    head in disbelief when he heard his name announced as the winner.

    The criticism prize went to Lawrence Weschler’s “Everything That Rises,” which beat out,
    among others, Bruce Bawer’s controversial “While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is
    Destroying the West from Within,” a book that even members of the NBCC have called racist and
    anti-Muslim.

    Steven G. Kellman, whose work has appeared in The Texas Observer, The Georgia Review and
    other publications, won the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. Longtime
    critic John Leonard, who has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and
    The Nation among others, won the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award.

    Hundreds gathered at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium in downtown Manhattan at a time
    when critics have been reminded yet again of their precarious status, with the Los Angeles
    Times expected soon to cut its Sunday review section and combine it with the Saturday opinion
    pages, a day of lower circulation.

    In accepting his honorary award, Leonard joked about appearing before “a roomful of people
    so innocent of the profit motive.” The head of the book critics circle, John Freeman, began
    the evening by noting the trend of shrinking review coverage and reminding the audience … who
    needed little reminding … that criticism was a kind of “Ellis Island” for culture, a
    passageway for the best writing.

    The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, has nearly 500 members. There are no
    cash prizes, but a great deal of prestige. A solid majority of nominees showed up, including
    such high-profile writers as novelists Richard Ford and Dave Eggers and historian Taylor
    Branch.

  • Value of unimportance

    In grad school, one class got into a debate about a published comment that art was meaningless, meaning it was a thing outside commerce and utility. This seemed overly idealistic, or maybe only true in the eyes of the creator. And it seems Jonathan Lethem has stepped into this debate in the Boston Globe with the statement about his latest book “You Don’t Love Me Yet” as being “a profoundly unimportant book.”

    Here’s a bit from The Elegant Variation:

    According to a Q&A between the Boston Globe and Jonathan Lethem on Sunday, Lethem says You Don’t Love Me Yet is “a profoundly unimportant book.”

    What does it mean for a book to be “unimportant”? Surely not “Don’t even bother to read it, it’s that unimportant.” I have a hard time believing he’d have bothered to write it. The interview gestures at a definition of “unimportant” that belongs to Nabokov: literature serves no social function, only provides artistic delight. But that’s a form of importance, right? To me, that’s one of the primal important things. I haven’t read You Don’t Love Me Yet yet, so there’s no insight here, but so what if it’s not original, or educational, or politically conscious. Those aren’t the only requirements for relevancy. If it’s about “language and life and the impulse to make art [and evoke] feeling in the reader — laughter, embarrassment, yearning,” well, those things are important, no? Maybe the quote was cut off. I’d like to believe he said, “It’s a profoundly important book for being a profoundly unimportant book.”

  • Reads like teen spirit

    Media Bistro links to a Seattle PI article about the rise in teen buying of books:

    The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Celia Goodnow checks in on one of the happier publishing trends, where teens are buying books in numbers not seen in decades. “Kids are buying books in quantities we’ve never seen before,” said Booklist magazine critic Michael Cart, a leading authority on young adult literature. “And publishers are courting young adults in ways we haven’t seen since the 1940s.” Credit a bulging teen population, a surge of global talent and perhaps a bit of Harry Potter afterglow as the preteen Muggles of yesteryear carry an ingrained reading habit into later adolescence.

    From the PI article:

    Horror and other pulp series prevailed, most titles were aimed at ages 11 to 14, and older teens were becoming an “endangered species” in the marketplace, Cart chided in his 1996 book, “From Realism to Romance: 50 Years of Change and Growth in Young Adult Literature.”

    Reached by phone in Indiana, Cart laughed softly and said, “That was then and this is now.”

    There are many reasons for the turnaround, not least the sheer size of the teen population — well over 30 million kids with ready cash in their pockets. Called Gen Y or Millennials, they trail only the baby boomers in number.

    More interesting articles in the PI:
    On teen trends.
    On books that may be too mature for young kids.

  • The Asian American Literary Award

    Since 1998, The Annual Asian American Literary Awards have honored Asian American writers for excellence in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, memoir, stage plays and screenplays. Literary awards recipients are determined by a national panel of judges who are selected on the basis of expertise in a literary genre and/or experience in academic environments relevant to Asian American literature; residence in the U.S. and ethnic background as to create a diverse committee.

    To qualify for our next award, a work must have been written by an individual of Asian descent living in the United States and published originally in English during the calendar year preceding the award year (for example, works published in 2004 are eligible for the 2005 Literary Awards). No self-published works will be considered. Award submissions are accepted in Spring, with award recipients announced in Fall, and publicly presented during our Winter awards ceremony.

    More info is here:

    http://www.aaww.org/aaww_awards.html

  • POLL: How Do You Discover Books?

    hey, reader, check out this quick and easy poll and Media Bistro. The poll through Tuesday, March 13. Go here:
    http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/polls/poll_how_do_you_discover_books_54534.asp?c=rss