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By Meg Miller | Friday,
January 30, 2015 - Off the Shelf
 It’s a new year, a time for resolutions, and mine are as ambitious and unlikely to succeed as ever. Most of them involve perfecting methods of organization that will allow me to fit more work into tinier amounts of time. A year of lifehacks in which efficiency is key, every inch of 2015 will be used for something productive, each increment of time carefully charted out. My days will be like little bento boxes, with appropriately sized compartments for time spent working, swimming laps, writing, reading, yoga, movie-watching, and cooking (sleeping?). Not even halfway into the month my resolve has already faltered; all it took was rereading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett to realize that life is not meant to be hacked. Set somewhere in South America at a birthday party hosted by the country’s vice president, Bel Canto is the most meditative, elegant, dreamlike hostage-takeover novel you will ever read. When terrorists break into the party and hold everyone for ransom, the worlds of captors and captives alike shrink to the size of the vice president’s living room and for weeks on end there is nothing but four walls and a seemingly endless expanse of time. As the days wear on, restless waiting and wanting become blissful time for reflection, for learning other languages, for listening to music, and for truly understanding and appreciating the others in the house, despite their differences. .. READ FULL POST
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Saturday, January 31, 2015
The Most Meditative, Elegant Hostage-Takeover Novel Ever
New Book Unearths The Dark Corners Of The Catholic Church
HuffPost Arts & Books
"When he enrolls in seminary school at 17, Odran Yates counts himself as “one of the lucky ones.” Many of his peers, including his frank and cynical bunkmate Tom Cardle, were forced into a secular life by devout -- and sometimes abusive -- family members. But Odran sees the vocation of priesthood if not as a calling, then at least as a comfort. His mother might’ve declared his destiny after having a vision while watching a late night talk show, but Odran takes no issue with the demands the life calls for -- namely celibacy, an inconvenience often unnamed during his school years." (Read more here)
"When he enrolls in seminary school at 17, Odran Yates counts himself as “one of the lucky ones.” Many of his peers, including his frank and cynical bunkmate Tom Cardle, were forced into a secular life by devout -- and sometimes abusive -- family members. But Odran sees the vocation of priesthood if not as a calling, then at least as a comfort. His mother might’ve declared his destiny after having a vision while watching a late night talk show, but Odran takes no issue with the demands the life calls for -- namely celibacy, an inconvenience often unnamed during his school years." (Read more here)
The Roundup with PW
Amazon
Lost $241 Million on $88 Billion in Sales For the full year, sales increased 20% to $88.99 billion at Amazon, but the company had a net loss in the year of $241 million compared with net income of $274 million in 2013. Media sales in the year rose 7% in North America, but were just about flat in international markets. more »
S&S
Launching Platform-Building Imprint Simon & Schuster has created a new publishing unit that will offer authors a suite of profile-building services. North Star Way will have an editorial focus on nonfiction in the fields of self-improvement and inspiration, mind-body-spirit, motivation, wellness and business inspiration and leadership. more »
Bookselling
Roundup, Week Ending January 30, 2015 The indie bookstore revival continues. Sophia’s Books and Puzzles opened in Plattsburgh, N.Y., earlier this week; a new lease has been signed on Pages Bookshop in Detroit; and the country's largest indie chain, Half Price Books, is planning to open a new location in Georgia. more » »
Target Bids
Adieu to Nook: With little fanfare, Target has ended its
agreement with Barnes & Noble to carry Nook hardware in stores.
40 Tiny Tasks
For a Richer Reading Life: Book Riot has rounded up little ways
to enrich your reading life every day.
Origin of Riches:
A rare first edition of Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' has sold
for a whopping £26,000 at auction.
Song of Ice and
Fire Fans Have to Wait: George R.R. Martin's publisher confirmed
there are no plans for the much-anticipated latest volume from his A Song of
Ice and Fire series to appear in 2015.
Rod McKuen Dies
at 81: Rod McKuen, the husky-voiced "King of Kitsch"
whose avalanche of music, verse and spoken-word recordings in the 1960s and
'70s overwhelmed critical mockery and made him an Oscar-nominated songwriter
and one of the bestselling poets in history, has died.
Writing a new Philip Marlowe: a question of dialogue, attitude and style
When it was first suggested to me, by my agent and the Raymond Chandler estate, that I might write a Philip Marlowe novel, I was distinctly chary of the idea. Marlowe is one of the immortals, up there with Don Quixote, Emma Bovary and Leopold Bloom, and any attempt to resurrect him would be subject to beady-eyed scrutiny by Chandler’s numerous admirers, a rightly protective cohort, and a frighteningly knowledgable one, too. Then there was the question of whether to update Marlowe for a modern audience, or stick with the original model.
At first, I thought to adopt the former approach. On a simple level, the Marlowe books are far more decorous than the raunchy crime novels of today. Could I really, in our foul-mouthed age, have Marlowe telling a tough LA cop to “go boil your head”, the kind of euphemistic invective Chandler had to confine himself to, given the conventions of his day? And what about Marlowe’s mild but politically incorrect attitudes to women, black people and, in particular, homosexuals? Surely, an updating was required.
More
At first, I thought to adopt the former approach. On a simple level, the Marlowe books are far more decorous than the raunchy crime novels of today. Could I really, in our foul-mouthed age, have Marlowe telling a tough LA cop to “go boil your head”, the kind of euphemistic invective Chandler had to confine himself to, given the conventions of his day? And what about Marlowe’s mild but politically incorrect attitudes to women, black people and, in particular, homosexuals? Surely, an updating was required.
More
Friday, January 30, 2015
Anne Enright announced as Ireland’s first fiction laureate
Arts Council of Ireland unanimously choose the author from 34 candidates as the public face of Irish fiction
Numerous countries have their poet laureate. But a fiction laureate? The Arts Council of Ireland set a brave precedent last year when it invited nominations for the first ever post of this kind. And now, 10 weeks after the decision had been reached (a long time to keep a secret in Dublin), Anne Enright has been announced as laureate.
The 119 nominations were made from bookshops, libraries, arts organisations, book clubs and individual writers, with a total of 34 potential candidates. Many familiar names, young and old, were among them, including John Banville, William Trevor, Edna O’Brien, Emma Donoghue, Roddy Doyle, Sebastian Barry and Eimear McBride. The role will be a highly active one and not all the nominees felt able to be considered;
Colm TóibÃn withdrew because his past involvement with the Arts Council was, he felt, a conflict of interest. The shortening of the shortlist made things slightly easier for the panel of judges (three from Ireland, three of us from elsewhere). We were, at any rate, unanimous. As our chair, Paul Muldoon, put it, Anne Enright’s fiction has helped the Irish make sense of their lives for the past quarter century – and helped the rest of the world understand Ireland.
More
The 119 nominations were made from bookshops, libraries, arts organisations, book clubs and individual writers, with a total of 34 potential candidates. Many familiar names, young and old, were among them, including John Banville, William Trevor, Edna O’Brien, Emma Donoghue, Roddy Doyle, Sebastian Barry and Eimear McBride. The role will be a highly active one and not all the nominees felt able to be considered;
Colm TóibÃn withdrew because his past involvement with the Arts Council was, he felt, a conflict of interest. The shortening of the shortlist made things slightly easier for the panel of judges (three from Ireland, three of us from elsewhere). We were, at any rate, unanimous. As our chair, Paul Muldoon, put it, Anne Enright’s fiction has helped the Irish make sense of their lives for the past quarter century – and helped the rest of the world understand Ireland.
More
Michael Moynahan appointed to the Arts Council of New Zealand
Michael Moynahan has been appointed a member of
the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, Minister for Arts, Culture and
Heritage Maggie Barry announced today.
"I am very pleased to have someone of the
calibre of Michael Moynahan as a new member of the Arts Council," says Ms
Barry.
"Michael has had a long association with
literature and is an articulate and dedicated supporter of the arts. Alongside
that he brings extensive governance experience, business rigour and a
wide-ranging background in the cultural sector to the role."
Mr Moynahan has had a 25-year career in
publishing and helped develop the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival,
becoming the inaugural Chair of its trust board.
Mr Moynahan is a former Chair of both the
Publishers and the Booksellers Associations of New Zealand, and former member
of the New Zealand Book Council. He was CEO of Harper Collins ANZ (Australia,
New Zealand and India), CEO Random House India and MD and Chairman of Random
House New Zealand.
Authors and publishers may constrain the rise of e-book subscriptions
| NEW YORK | The Economist
A world of books at your fingertips
“BEWARE of the person of one book,” said Thomas Aquinas, a medieval friar and author. The risk of encountering such unscholarly types is rarer in modern times. Digital devices can hold dozens of e-books, so people can carry around a whole shelf of reading material with them. Now a new crop of e-book subscription companies is offering bibliophiles the chance to consume as many books as they like, from a huge range of titles, for a flat fee of around $10 a month.
It is a bit like having a whole lending library in your pocket—but with no need to return the books. In America the main providers of e-book subscriptions include Amazon, Oyster and Scribd. Similar companies have sprung up in Spain, Scandinavia and China. Their reach is limited so far, but it is growing. Around 4% of book buyers have tried an e-book subscription service in America, according to Nielsen, a research outfit.
The subscription model has already taken off in music and television, with providers such as Spotify and Netflix. Consumers have shown an increasing preference for such all-you-can-eat bundles, as opposed to buying each item separately. That worries book publishers and authors, who still make most of their money from sales of single copies. So far they have approached subscription services cautiously, holding back their newest and most popular titles from them. Only three of America’s five biggest publishers have so far made their works available on Oyster or Scribd.
More
Press statement from convener of judges, New Zealand Post Book Awards 2014
Esteemed
academic Peter Munz once said to me, “The wonderful thing about the humanities
is the lack of one answer to any issue, there is always debate, there must
always be discussion and there may not ever be consensus.”
I’m reminded
of this as I watch, with a mix of admiration and dismay, the debate fuelled by
Eleanor Catton’s comments about the political state of our nation and her
feeling that she is a victim of a ‘tall poppy’ syndrome. I am interested in
listening to all of it, but wish only to comment, as the convenor of the
judging panel of the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2014, on the continuing conversation
surrounding our decision-making.
The New Zealand
Post Book Awards is a multi-category, multi-genre competition. It is quite
unlike the Man Booker competition, which considers only fiction. The Luminaries won the Man Booker
competition, a thrilling achievement. Last year it went on to win the New Zealand
Post Book Awards prize for fiction. In
doing so, it won New Zealand’s equivalent of the Man Booker. It then went into contention for the supreme
prize against three other exemplary finalists of different genres. It did not
win that supreme prize; Jill Trevelyan’s book Peter McLeavey; The Life and Times of a New Zealand Art Dealer did.
I’m as
impressed as I am bemused by Eleanor Catton’s belief that The Luminaries should have won the supreme prize. I’m impressed because
we don’t have a proud history of owning our achievements, of proudly
proclaiming our talents. Perhaps this is a by-product of a nation that did
suffer a ‘tall poppy’ syndrome. Comments like Eleanor’s make me believe that
this is changing. But I’m bemused because, putting aside that it diminishes the
achievement of the supreme prize winner, Jill Trevelyan, it betrays a belief that
our judging panel should have fallen into line with an international panel of
judges. This is at odds with Eleanor saying that she grew up with the erroneous
view that Kiwi writers, and by extension Kiwis generally, were somehow less than
British and American ones; that we did not, and perhaps do not, back our own
opinions or our own talent.
There was no
feeling on our judging panel that it was ‘someone else’s’ turn to win. We made
a literary judgement, not a political statement. Given that our opinion did
happen to align with the Man Booker judges and we did award The Luminaries our top fiction prize, it
is at least churlish and, at most, mischievous to suggest that The Luminaries did not win its due in New
Zealand.
But then,
that’s the beauty of the humanities. Such decisions rightly inspire debate.
Like the Man Booker judges, we were a group of individuals making a collective
decision. We worked hard at the task in front of us and, in my view, we made
wise and well-placed decisions. I was proud to honour Eleanor’s incredible
work, The Luminaries. I was proud to
award prizes to all the finalists that night of the New Zealand Post Book
Awards, and to crown, as supreme winner, Jill Trevelyan’s book Peter McLeavey; The Life and Times of a New Zealand
Art Dealer. It deserved to win. But
in the grand tradition of debating and discussing the humanities, I urge you to
read all our finalists before making up your own mind.
Miriama Kamo
Convenor of Judges
New Zealand Post Book Awards 2014
E: miriama@kamo.net.nz
Australia & New Zealand Festival returns to London
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Colleen McCullough R.I.P.
30 January 2015
Colleen McCullough
It is with great sadness that HarperCollinsPublishers
Australia advise that the iconic and much-loved author, Colleen
McCullough, passed away on Thursday 29 January 2015 in hospital on Norfolk
Island, aged 77.
Colleen McCullough’s contribution
to Australian writing – and to readers around the world – has been
immense. She was one of the first Australian writers to succeed on the
world stage: the signing and publication in 1977 of The Thorn Birds by
Harper & Row in New York made international headlines, and the book went
on to sell 30 million copies worldwide. Colleen’s success continued over the
following decades and she hit the bestseller lists most recently with 2013’s Bittersweet,
the story of two sets of twins in 1920s New South Wales.
The Thorn Birds’ popularity
endures to this day: it remains the highest selling novel in Australia, as
well as the highest selling Australian novel throughout the world. It was
voted top
of the ABC’s ‘The Book Club’ poll of Classic Beach Reads in December 2014,
and one of the BBC’s 100 Best Novels in 2003’s ‘The Big Read’.
A
self-taught reader by the time she was three, Colleen McCullough exhibited a
sharp mind and a precocious talent for learning at an early age. She was born
in 1937 in Wellington, central New South Wales, and her childhood dream was
not to be a writer but rather a doctor – a dream that was dashed in her first
year of medical studies at the University of Sydney when she contracted
dermatitis from the surgical soap. Instead, she became a neurophysiologist,
working in hospitals in Sydney and England before spending a decade as a
research associate in the Department of Neurology at Yale Medical School in
the United States. It was during her time at Yale that she began writing; her
first novel, Tim, was published in New York in 1974, followed three
years later by The Thorn Birds.
Colleen
was one of Australia’s most prolific and successful authors. Her body of work
includes 23 novels, a biography and a cookbook.
She was proud of being a commercial fiction writer – writing for a broad
audience rather than the elite. Her fiction ranged over a number of genres,
including family saga in The Thorn Birds and Bittersweet;
historical fiction in the Masters of Rome series, which is widely
acclaimed as a work of towering scholarship and brought many new readers to
her work, often being used as a teaching aid; crime-thriller fiction with the
Carmine Delmonico series; and a postmodern re-imagining with The
Independence of Miss Mary Bennet.
Colleen was famously
opinionated. In her collection of essays and memoir, Life Without
the Boring Bits (2011), she discussed a number of controversial subjects,
including her difficult childhood, her neglectful, cruel parents and her
beloved brother’s suicide.
She was a member of the New York
Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. Her books have won and been shortlisted for numerous
prizes. In 1997, she became a National Trust Living Treasure and in 2006 was
made an Officer of the Order of Australia. In 2010 she was one of six
recipients of the Australia Post Australian Legends Award and a stamp
featuring her image was released in her honour.
Colleen McCullough is survived by her
husband, Ric Robinson, and will be much missed by her many friends and fans
around the world.
Shona Martyn, Publishing Director, says,
‘For all of us at HarperCollins it was a privilege to work with Col. Her
determination to keep writing (via dictation) despite a string of challenging
health and eyesight problems was an inspiration. Ever quick-witted and
direct, we looked forward to her visits from Norfolk Island and to the
arrival of each new manuscript delivered in hard copy in custom-made maroon
manuscript boxes inscribed with her name! We will miss her dearly. The world
is a less colourful place without Col.’
Her agent Georgina Capel says ‘It was an
honour to work with the great Colleen McCullough. She was a wonderful
writer and storyteller whose books will continue to thrill readers for many
years to come. It was a privilege to be her friend.'
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