The Capital Region children’s book author Coleen Paratore has a new book out, the Cupid Chronicles, a sequel to the hugely popular Wedding Planner’s Daughter. She also has a slate of appearances. You can read more about it on her Web site.
►Sat, Jan 20
Book House, Stuyvesant, Albany, 2-4 pm
►Sun, Jan 21
Borders, Crossgates, Albany 1-3 pm
►Sat, Jan 27
Barnes & Noble, Colonie, 2-4 pm
►Sun, Jan 28
The BookMark, Latham, 1-3 pm
Can’t get enough Richard Ford? Maybe you missed him at NYSWI? You can catch him tonight at Northshire Bookstore at 7 pm at 4869 Main St., Manchester Center, Vt.
The Galley Cat at mediobistro has this fascinating post about book prizes in general and Doctor Zhivago in particular:
It really does seem like every other day there’s a new award announcement that goes out to the press, and almost as frequent is the backlash. V S Naipaul (paraphrased by Nilanjana Roy) once said that the Booker was “destroying literature” by looking for good, commercial books that died very quickly, while France’s Prix Goncourt rewarded “antiquated” books. Then there’s Gore Vidal, who pointed out that there are now more American book awards than writers. And Peter Whittle at the Times of London belives
Earlier this week, the Sunday Times reported that Boris Pasternak‘s Nobel Prize win for DOCTOR ZHIVAGO owed much to the CIA and British intelligence, who secretly facilitated the accolade to embarrass the Kremlin, which had banned the novel. “I have no doubt whatsoever that the CIA played a key role in ensuring Pasternak received the Nobel prize,” said Ivan Tolstoy, a respected Moscow researcher who wrote a book about the the matter, which includes excerpts from a letter by a former CIA agent describing the operation that followed.
Here’s an interesting site worth checking out: http://classof2k7.com/. There’s also a blog here. This site includes info about Rose Kent, from the Capital Region.
A Novel Approach to Debut Authors
The Class of 2k7 is a group of first-time children’s and YA authors with debut books coming out in 2007. We’re helping to promote each other’s books with this joint Class of 2k7 website as well as a collective blog, newsletter, forum, chatroom, and brochure. Our authors hail from 20 states and D.C. representing an extensive range of genres and publishers.
We’re just getting started, but there’s already been a great deal of enthusiasm about the idea. And you might get to meet some of us during one of our 2007 regional tours, where cooperative book signings and workshops will bring more attention than any one of us could hope for alone. I look forward to hearing your ideas on how we can make the Class of 2k7 even better and leave a legacy for those who come after us in the Classes of 2k8, 2k9, and beyond. Thanks!
Greg R. Fishbone,
Class President
From the New York State Writers Institute Calendar:
January 19 (Friday): Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford
Reading – 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Richard Ford, novelist and short story writer, is the author of “The Sportswriter” (1986), winner of the PEN/Faulkner award, and “Independence Day” (1995), which received the Pulitzer Prize and a second PEN/Faulkner award.
His most recent novel is “The Lay of the Land” (2006), which the “New York Times” listed as one of the 10 Best Books of 2006.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Art Buchwald has died.
Times Union Editor at Large Harry Rosenfeld, who worked with Buchwald at both the International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post (where he got to know him better) told me this morning that Buchwald “was both funny and insightful, and he knew how to pull things together.” He marveled at how his colleague could have been successful for so many years, and called him one of those rare individuals who pulled himself up in the world. Rosenfeld credited that to his ability to be funny which, Rosenfeld said, isn’t easy to do three times a week. Rosenfeld described a man who became so successful that he made himself a prominent figure in Washington, where he would be invited to speak at major events and have the audience comfortably laughing long enough for him to then make a serious and insightful point. Buchwald had lived a good life, and he fought his illnesses to the end.
Here’s a bit from the obit from the Washington Post:
Art Buchwald, 81, the newspaper humor columnist for more than a half-century who found new comic material in the issues that come up at the end of life, died of kidney failure last night at his son’s home in Washington, his family announced today.
Buchwald, an owlish, cigar-chomping extrovert, zinged the high, mighty and humor-challenged. His column, syndicated to more than 550 newspapers at one point, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1982. He also published more than 30 books.
The NYTimes has a video obit here (registration may be required).
In just three days, the National Book Critics Circle will announce the finalists of its 33rd annual book awards. The member votes are being tallied as we speak, and this Saturday the board will meet at the offices of Library Journal on Park Avenue South in New York City to deliberate.
The announcement of the finalists will be posted on the NBCC blog by 6:45 pm Sat. The blog is here.
Thanks to Eli for posting about the upcoming Ford visit. I know one person has written in to say he expects to attend. I’m going to try to make it. Anyone else?
This looks like fun, if you have the time: 125 writers are asked to name their top 10 books. It’s a Web site and a book, created by fellow National Book Critics Circle member J. Peder Zane, the Book Review Editor and Books Columnist for the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.
