Book Buzz

This Week: A profile of Glenn Horowitz, "Winterton Blue" by Trezza Azzopardi, "Tales From the Torrid Zone" by Alexander Frater and best seller news. Popout Original audio source (24bookupdate.mp3)

SUMMER IN THE CITY A CARRIE DIARIES NOVEL BY CANDACE BUSHNELL ABOUT THE BOOK: Summer is a magical time in New York City and Carrie is in love with all of itthe crazy characters in her neighborhood, the vintage-clothing boutiques, the wild parties, and the glamorous man who has swept her off her feet. Best of all, she's finally in a real writing class, taking her first steps toward fulfilling her dream. This sequel to The Carrie Diaries brings surprising revelations as Carrie learns to navigate her way around the Big Apple, going from being a country "sparrow"as Samantha Jones dubs her to the person she always wanted to be. But as it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile her past with her future, Carrie realizes that making it in New York is much more complicated than she ever imagined. With her signature wit and sparkling humor, Candace Bushnell reveals the irresistible story of how Carrie met Samantha and Miranda, and what turned a small-town girl into one of New ...

<A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_ssw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fpasstothepast-20%2F8003%2F33d6ba59-3208-42a2-8a2a-bb326dd42810&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A> Historical Fiction June 1 Queen of the Summer Stars: Book Two of the Guinevere Trilogy by Persia Woolley (6.1.11) June 1 The Fallen Kings (Morland Dynasty) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles June 1 The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer June 7 The Red Queen (Paperback) by Philippa Gregory June 7 The Borgia Betrayal by Sara Poole June 7 Queen Defiant: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Anne O'Brien June 21 Revenger: A Novel of Tudor Intrigu...

A volunteer army plans to take to Twitter and tweet James Joyce's Ulysses 140 characters at a time on Juny 16, 2011. You can find out the details here . The Twitter account for the Ulysses tweeting is @11ysses . Take a look: Permalink | Facebook | Twitter | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

Anthony Grafton and James Grossman UCSD Coaliton for Educational Justice A poster for the national Day of Action to Defend Public Education on March 4, 2010 Want to know how to solve the problem of ever-increasing college costs? A lot of people have answers. One of the Very Serious People who can give you one is the economist Richard Vedder, professor at Ohio University, Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. In a recently issued report Vedder and two researchers use data provided by the University of Texas system, which includes nine universities, to argue that the state could move towards making college more affordable by moderately increasing faculty emphasis on teachingand, more remarkably still, do so without importantly reducing outside research funding or productivity. Vedders report is being publicized by the Texas Public Policy Foundation , a non-profit, non-partisan research institut...

Daniel Wilkinson Y refundaron la patria: De cmo mafiosos y polticos reconfiguraron el Estado colombiano [And They Refounded the Nation: How Mafiosi and Politicians Reconfigured the Colombian State] edited by Claudia Lpez Hernndez Stephen Ferry Downtown Medelln viewed through bullet-punctured glass, with a billboard reproduction of a painting by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero at lower left, February 2004 In February 2003, the mayor of a small town on Colombias Caribbean coast stood up at a nationally televised meeting with then President lvaro Uribe and announced his own murder. Seor Presidente, I am the mayor of El Roble, Tito Daz said as he walked toward the stage where Uribe sat with several cabinet ministers and officials from the state of Sucre, where the meeting was held. Pacing back and forth before the President, Daz delivered what was probably the first public denunciation of a web of violence and corruption involving politicians and para...

There are plenty of female science fiction authors so where did they go on readers' lists of favourites? Is science fiction sexist? A bald, potentially divisive and rather emotive question, there. But increasingly, science fiction and its close cousins, fantasy and horror, are being accused of an inherent downer on the female practitioners of the genre - and the latest offender appears to be the Guardian's recent online poll to find readers' favourite SF novels . Earlier this month Damien G Walter asked guardian.co.uk/books users to suggest the best novels in the genre , following on from the Guardian's special SF-slanted edition of its Saturday Review supplement . The results went online last week, and displayed a great love for science fiction: more than 500 books, classic and contemporary, were suggested for inclusion. However, according to Seattle-based author Nicola Griffith , who did a bit of number-crunching on the stats, there's an overwhelming bias toward...

Perfectly formed for drama, it's easy to see why islands remain such a popular destination for fiction The remote backwoods of Alaska are not remote enough for Gary, one of the troubled central characters of David Vann 's recent hit novel Caribou Island . Gary wants to retreat further from civilisation. His plan is to sail out across a lake to the uninhabited Caribou Island, build a cabin by hand and ... well, that's it. Just being on an island will, he thinks, be enough. Because that sense of detachment from mainland society being able to view from a removed distance is all he craves. As with Vann's previous book, Legend Of A Suicide , which primarily concerned a man and his son relocating to a cabin on an Alaskan island (there is a pattern emerging here) and the dire circumstances that followed, the place in this case, the island is the star of the show. Stoic, immoveable, enduring, self-contained, tough: it manifests all the qualities that the men in Vann's n...

I'm lucky enough to get paid for it, but the pleasures and rewards of putting words together can and should be shared by all So I'm walking along a railway platform in Lancaster and it's all good. The rain falling is not heavy rain. My train should have gone clear through to Glasgow and has nevertheless decided to end things here, but there'll be another option along any time. I have been assured. The bag I am carrying is light and comfy and I am not ill. I am not even a bit ill. Last night I did my one-person show in Liverpool first gig in a couple of months, since the labyrinthitis took hold. I didn't fall over, or blank out, the audience seemed pleased and my hotel for the night was very cool in the nice way, not the way that means I had to break out the emergency foil blanket which, yes, I do carry with me in case of nocturnal freezing. And my iPod is Dum-dah-dum, da dah-dum dah-dum playing me "I Want You" , because this is a morning for being chee...

Terence Toh came along to our MPH reading from Readings From Readings at the 1 Utama branch on 15th May and wrote this really nice account of the event and the book which came out in The Selangor Times today (P23): I enjoyed the 1 utama reading which was held right in the middle of the bookshop - unlike the earlier reading at MPH Midvalley where we were somewhat hidden in the children's section at the back of the store. I am so grateful to all friends who came along to cheer us on, and also to the writers. We have several more bookstore readings in June. The dates keep changing, but we will be at Kinokuniya 7.30pm on 17th, at Times Pavilion on Sunday 19th, and Borders at The Curve on Saturday 25th. More details later. It seems like a long haul to publicise a book, but exposure like this makes it all well worth it.

This Week: Author Joshua Ferris, "When The Light Goes" by Larry McMurtry, "Biography" by Nigel Hamilton and best seller news. Popout Original audio source (17bookupdate.mp3)

DREAMS OF JOY BY LISA SEE ABOUT THE BOOK: In her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan , Peony in Love , and, most recently, Shanghai Girls , Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls , and Pearls strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth fatherthe artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the communist regime. Devastated by Joys flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. F...

Another Monday, Another Mailbox!! This is a feature where we all share with each other the yummy books that showed up at our doors! WARNING: Mailbox Mondays can lead to extreme envy and GINORMOUS wishlists!! Mailbox Monday was originally hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page , but is now a traveling meme and for the month of May your new host for MM will be Mari @ Mari Reads ! Hello dear readers, how I have missed you! I returned yesterday from New York City and the Book Blogger Con 2011 and have lots of new, yummy books to tell you about! BBC was a great time...I learned a lot, met some fantastic bloggers and saw some NYC sights. A post-event write up will be posted this week and I will give you the highlights of the Book Blogger Convention. While in NYC I visited THE coolest used bookstore EVER called The Strand . If you are ever in the city I highly recommend you go there. My husband is so awesome and he patiently waited for me while I...