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post from on 20 November 2009 11:25:49 PM. ©

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Reading Group Sorting Now Open[...]

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Bad Sex in Fiction

post from The Millions on 20 November 2009 10:49:23 PM. © The Millions

Bad sex in fiction! Here are your excerpts from Literary Review’s annual contest.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/themillionsblog/fedw/~3/Fklec5BpJ7o/bad-sex-in-fic
tion.html

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Hamlet Goes Digital

post from So Many Books on 20 November 2009 07:42:58 PM. © So Many Books

Even though these days a lot of people might think Hamlet is what you call a small side of pork, The Shakespeare Quartos Archive and we readers know better. I must say, however, “hamlet” would be a great name for a deli sandwich, that is if you are into eating animals. It just wouldn’t work [...]

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http://somanybooksblog.com/2009/11/20/hamlet-goes-digital/

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Winner of the National Book Collecting Contest
for Canadians Under Thirty

post from NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS on 20 November 2009 07:37:57 PM. © NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS

Canada’s National Book-Collecting Contest was created by the Bibliographical Society of Canada to encourage young Canadians to collect books and study the discipline of researching and writing bibliographies. The prizes were awarded to the winning entrants at the Annual General Meeting held in Toronto on Wednesday June 24th. First prize went to Charlotte Ashley for: [...]

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post from on 20 November 2009 07:26:16 PM. ©

Trio Film 2009 Children in Need Appeal[...]

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http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/

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It's theatre time

post from dovegreyreader scribbles on 20 November 2009 07:15:00 PM. © dovegreyreader scribbles

Things like buses do come in threes, perhaps they even come in fours and fives and we just stop counting but three it is for this month's theatre visits.
I shall be a fully-fledged Westend Whinger apprentice by the end of November and have been cutting my teeth again on the annual village drama production before moving onwards and upwards to the Theatre Royal in Plymouth and thence to the pinnacle of my theatrical month, London, the music, the greasepaint, the boards and the bright lights, by which time I will be an expert.
I didn't take my camera so have had to rely on last year's pictures to illustrate, but little changes front of house.
We'd decided against taking a box in the village hall and settled on plastic chairs seats in the front row of the dress circle also known as Row E. Rows A-D being the stalls and Rows H to the back, the gods.

Pre-show supper was in the kitchen watching the news before remembering to exchange slippers for shoes and heading into the traffic.
Nightmare I tell you, we should have allowed far more than five minutes, seven at least.
Rush hour...country lanes...who'd drive 'em.
More time spent going backwards than forwards and then the parking ...well don't even get me started on the parking.
Twas a rotten stormy evening, severe weather warnings urging us not to venture forth unless absolutely necessary but we'd paid £5 a ticket and there was a raffle. You might recall my success at the Village Show raffle back in September so clearly the village hall a source of great luck and good fortune for me as long as the roof stayed on and only lifted with the rapturous applause, not the force ten gales.
It's a little corrugated iron structure and there were no certainties but we all piled in as usual.

Bookhound and I settled down in our front row of the dress circle seats, right alongside the Playgroup, which we now have to call Pre-School, notice board and some very nice colouring-in and glittery pictures. We'd forgotten the chocolates but the row behind hadn't so it was good to have that regular rustling going on as we settled down to enjoy Trivial Pursuits by Frank Vickery. Unfortunately we were also seated behind the tallest man in West Devon but we managed.
Here's the plot...

"The leading lights of the Trealow & District Operatic Society meetat director Nick and his wife, Roz's home to hear what their nextproduction will be. As the evening wears on everyonehas far too much to drink and some members try to influence Nick'schoice of the new production - by all sorts of devious means. Theydrink even more and lots of bitchy bickering breaks out.
Derek cannotget used to his impending divorce and Deidre, his soon to be ex-wifearrives with a new man - television addict Eddie (in real life the man from the garden centre)
Nick is having anaffair with Jessica (in real life the practice nurse from the surgery)
Joyce a once talented actress is an alcoholic.
Teddy is delightfully camp and alternately sweet and strident.
There are plenty of mishaps - thebarbecue wont light and then when paraffin is poured on it it goes upin flames and Teddy is badly burnt. Eddie climbs on the roof to change thetelevision aerial to get better reception and Derek agrees to donatemoney to the Society as long as Deidre gets a leading role.
And whatwill the next production be??"

Enough there to keep us all amused and it was of course hilarious, moments of pure farce, brilliant acting as always, the funniest finale I have seen in many a long year which had us all crying with laughter and all replete with those wonderfully endearing moment of AmDram production
...the hand that creeps out to assist the recalcitrant curtain stuck on the rope pulley opening device.
...the prompt who comes in after a bit of a silence with a whispered line.
Then in the interval the tubs of ice cream, (the Whingers would not have approved, no bar) though sadly my luck was out with the raffle.
So that's my first November theatre event done, two to go.

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me-1.html

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GalleyCatnip: Edwidge Danticat Will Miss the
Oprah Winfrey Show

post from mediabistro.com: GalleyCat on 20 November 2009 06:23:21 PM. © mediabistro.com: GalleyCat

For your weekend reading pleasure, here some publishing news briefs...

Oprah Winfrey announced today that she will end her popular show in 2011, closing the televised side of the most influential book club in America. Author Edwidge Danticat told the Wall Street Journal why she will miss the club: "When she calls to tell you that your book has been selected for the book club, she sounds so excited that you feel as though she's both your ideal reader and your biggest cheerleader."

To write its embargo-breaking scoop about Sarah Palin's memoir (which has reportedly sold 300,000 copies already), the AP ripped, scanned, and mined the text for juicy tidbits.

Kat Meyer interviewed Angela James, the executive editor for Carina Press on Twitter for her weekly Follow Reader Twitter chat. Read the whole exchange at #followreader.

Why author and literary blogger Maud Newton is writing a novel instead of a memoir.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/galleycatnip_edwidge_danticat_will_m
iss_the_oprah_winfrey_show_143897.asp?c=rss

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Murder on the Ballarat Train

post from A Work in Progress on 20 November 2009 06:00:00 PM. © A Work in Progress

Well, I must say Kerry Greenwood's Murder on the Ballarat Train is a fun little cozy mystery that has a kick to it. You sort of expect cozies to be all refined and uppercrust but still low key action-wise, and whilst Phryne Fisher is refined, she's also intelligent, very independent and extremely gutsy. It's 1928 and she's quite the modern woman in all senses of the word. This is one cozy mystery that juxtaposes the lush with the gritty and the heroine quite happily has thrown off the shackles of her parent's Victorian society in favor of a more adventurous lifestyle (both in and outside of the boudoir).

Quite a while ago I read the first Phryne Fisher novel, Cocaine Blues. Although I can't quite recall the mystery or solution, Phryne has always stayed with me. I should really go back and skim for more of the details, but what I do remember is that she was raised in England in a family with no money but with the right pedigree. She eventually comes into an inheritance and decides to try her luck as a lady detective in Melbourne, so off she goes. She's got a taste for the lavish lifestyle, has the most divine wardrobe, drives a Hispano-Suiza, yet having grown up poor means she she knows how the other half lives and remains sympathetic to those less well off. Phryne reminds me a lot of another "Honourable", Daisy Dalrymple, though the Phryne Fisher mysteries are decidedly edgier. I like them equally well. Phryne is more street smart than Daisy and likely to find herself in more unsavory situations, but she can always take care of herself.

I like a heroine who in the opening chapter reaches inside her handbag and grabs a .32 Beretta!

"The clasp of the handbag seemed impossibly complex, and finally, swearing under her breath and gasping for air, she tore it open with her teeth, extracted her Beretta .32 with which she always traveled, and waveringly took aim. She squeezed off a shot that broke the window."

Moments later she proceeds to pull the cord to stop a moving train--something she had always wanted to do. What started out as a simple trip to Ballarat ends in death. There might have been more than one victim in the chloroform-filled first class car had it not been for the quick thinking of Phyrne. There's one person missing from the traincar, an elderly lady who had been traveling with her daughter, whose body is found later laying by the tracks. The mystery isn't just who killed the woman and why but also how they managed to dump the body without being seen. Things become murkier when a young girl is found alone in the station having traveled by herself and with no clear memory of the events or her own identity. She's obviously a victim of trauma and locked away in her mind is the face of a killer.

To be honest the mystery isn't especially difficult to figure out or surprising when the murderer is revealed, but the great fun of the novel is Phryne herself. She's a larger than life sort of character. As I was reading I had pictured in my mind an actress from the early days of Hollywood like Louise Brooks and all the action happening as in a 1930s black and white film with all these wonderful scenes on a fast moving train. It's the atmosphere of the story that is so entertaining. Phryne really could be a Flapper, leading a decadent life in the "Roaring Twenties" and getting herself involved in murder. Even the secondary characters are fun--Dot, her loyal maid; Bert and Cec, owners and proprietors of a taxi service and great friends of Phyrne (willing to do a little dirty work if necessary, though don't worry they're the good guys); and Detective-Inspector Robinson who has a high regard for Phryne and her detective business. I'm hoping to get more of a taste of life Down Under since I believe the bulk of the stories are set in Melbourne and other parts of Australia. I don't read Australian authors as often as I should, so I'm hoping she writes more about the culture and society.

I was halfway through Murder on the Ballarat Train when I discovered it wasn't the second in the series but the third. I prefer reading mystery series in order, though it didn't seem to matter in this case. Now I'll go back to Flying too High to fill in the gap. Phyrne might be a little too strong a character or independent-minded for some readers, but I get a kick out of her and will keep reading through the series. The stories are quick, fluffy reads and just the thing when you want a taste of the high life ca. 1928!

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http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/2009/11/murder-on-the-ballarat-train
.html

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2009 National Book Award Winners

The winners of the 2009 National Book Awards have been announced. Here is a list of the winners.

Fiction: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Random House)
Nonfiction: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf)
Poetry: Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop (University of California Press)
Young People's Literature: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

You can find a list of finalists and interviews with the winners here on the National Book Award's website.

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http://www.readersread.com/blog/1120091

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The Draining Lake audio book

My review of the audio-book version of The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason, tr Bernard Scudder and narrated by Saul Reichlin is now online at Whole Story Audio Books.

My review is here.

There are also two reviews of the print book on the Euro Crime website - here and here.

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http://eurocrime.blogspot.com/2009/11/draining-lake-audio-book.html