It’s a Good Time to Be a Woman in Literature
On October 10, legendary Canadian author Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Canadian-based author to ever receive the honour*, and only the 13th woman overall in the history of the prize. It’s an interesting award because, rather than just one book, the winner is judged on a lifetime of work. While announcing her win, the Swedish academy referred to the 82-year-old author as, “Master of the contemporary short story.”
Now, the Man Booker Prize, a prestigious annual award given to “the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe,” has just been awarded to New Zealand author Eleanor Catton for her novel The Luminaries, set in the 19th century goldfields of New Zealand.
A bit of history. The 45-year-old prize was originally just called the Booker Prize from 1969 –…
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Stunning Photographs of the Most Beautiful Libraries in the World
I love libraries and below are some of the world’s very best as photographed by British academic Dr James Campbell:
The grand Mafra Palace Library, in Mafra, Portugal
The Codrington Library was built to house the thousands of books at All Souls College in Oxford
Biblioteca Joanina, in Coimbra, Portugal
George Peabody Library, Baltimore
Admont Abbey in Austria
Click on the link to read The Call to Stop Kids From Reading Books they Actually Enjoy
Click on the link to read The Classic Children’s Books they Tried to Ban
Click on the link to read How Spelling Mistakes can Turn a Compliment into Something Quite Different.
Click on the link to read Why Spelling is Important at Starbucks
Click on the link to read The Ability to Spell is a Prerequisite for Getting a Tattoo (Photos)
Click on the link to read This is What Happens When You Rely on Spell Check
Click on the…
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National Book Award Finalists Announced
The five finalists for the National Book Award for fiction has been officially announced. The finalists include Thomas Pynchon (The Bleeding Edge), Jhumpa Lahiri (The Lowland), James McBride (The Good Lord Bird), Rachel Kushner, (The Flamethrowers), and George Saunders (Tenth of December).
Lahiri, Saunders, and Pynchon, have been on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list this year with Lahiri peaking at number 9, Saunders at number 26, and Pynchon at number 29.
Pynchon is the notoriously private novelist who has continually captivated audiences for over 40 years. His novel, “The Bleeding Edge” is set in New York between the dot-com boom and 9/11. He is one of the most known novelists in this year’s finalists. However, it is doubtful that he will attend the black-tie awards ceremony in New York as he has evaded journalists throughout his 40 year career. In 1974 when he won…
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Mythbusters: Confirm Or Bust Science
You have got to read Mythbusters: Confirm Or Bust! Science Fair Book #2 (mythbusters Science Fair Book) an important children’s book. My husband and I hoped to get our daughter who is 9 years old a brand new child’s book and my coworker Darryl Mcintosh from Tampa, Florida pulled out a copy of Mythbusters: Confirm Or Bust! Science Fair Book #2 (mythbusters Science Fair Book) .
Written by Samantha Margles and it is published by Scholastic Paperbacks. The child’s book was released on the 1st of December, 2012. The book has 128 pages. The child’s book dimensions are 0.4″H x 8.9″L x 7″W.
Let yourself end up being engrossed during this children’s book. Just picture yourself being the key figure, pondering and also struggling to find an answers in the process. You could get as imaginative as you choose with the circumstances in your mind. It’ll most likely put you…
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Don’t Tell Me How to Think
I went to a Banned Book website to pick which book I wanted to read during Banned Books Week, a site that, for me, is so high in comedic value. Charlotte’s Web is on there? It’s such a wonderful, sweet book that teaches kids about the power of friendship and helps them understand death. Who could possibly not want their children to read that? Oh, I see. The people who complain that talking animals are blasphemous. Sigh.
I realize I will never understand the Religious Right, but perhaps I can give them some perspective: It’s MAKE BELIEVE! It’s FICTION! Animals don’t really talk. Nor have the ability to be blasphemous.
Do they never let their children near any book that has talking animals in it? It seems to me that three-quarters of picture books we read to our children before they are old enough to read for themselves have talking…
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Oxford American features Charles Portis film adaptation
Today, August 26, 2013, the Oxford American website features the world premiere of a film adapatation of Charles Portis’ “I Don’t Talk Service No More.”
In addition to the film, the website features an interview of the filmmaker Katrina Whalen. Jay Jennings, who edited Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany chats with Ms. Whalen about Portis and the process of making films.
Whalen worked in production for directors Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich; Adaptation; Synecdoche, New York) and Julie Taymor (Titus; Frida; Broadway’s The Lion King) after her undergrad education at Yale. She then enrolled in graduate school at New York University.
Jennings is a freelance writer whose journalism, book reviews, and humor have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Oxford American, and many other newspapers and magazines.
To see the film, which…
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Amber Nicole Brooks 