Here are a few *highlights* on Words Worth Books' other blogs!From Edge of Seventeen, our newest blog:
From our Book Club blog:
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
okay, but unless that spoken work artist is William Shatner...
Slate piles on regarding the whole vampire thing.
"No, bloodsucking is so yesterday. It's so 1994. It's so Anne Rice. Today's vampire is a good listener. He cares about our love lives and our problems, which is strange because we're supposed to be his food. Humans just assume that we are the center of the universe and so, faced with a literary creation that should, by all rights, just conk us over the head and suck us down like Slurpees, we've decided that we're too fascinating to be eaten. And so the modern vampire stalks, seduces, sleeps with, and cries over us. They don't eat us.
The author does the rundown of the Twilight series and the followers, including a series called the Vampire Huntress Legends " series featuring Damali Richards, a spoken-word artist who fights vampires, a detail which guarantees that I'm rooting for the vampires."
That'll only encourage them.
David
David
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A saturated market, or
What's that smell?
It's hardly an original lament, but bandwagons move so fast now that even as one sees it coming across the denuded landscape, books getting ready to jump are already committing themselves to being left in the dust.
When this came out in the spring it had a bit of new car smell to it, and good on Quirk books they have a hit. Their site is lively and they clearly know how to move their line, but I'm hoping against hope that every publisher marrying long dead icons with undead ghouls is an aberration and not an unfortunate symptom of mash up culture.
I know I'm old and it's not enough to just be good all the time, but Jesus, enough already!
David
Monday, July 27, 2009
It's the beard that makes the man
Friday, July 24, 2009
Sorry and getting sorrier
Ordinarily, I'm the first to stick it to Amazon, although I don't do nearly the job bird dogging them that others do.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
By this weekend
For those of you who are reading House of Leaves for the Big Read, I will have a post up by this weekend. I am on vacation this week and didn't take that into account! But stay tuned this weekend for a post on the final installment of House of Leaves!
Mandy
Monday, July 20, 2009
I'm Moving!
Words Worth Books has created a blog specifically for teens (ages 12 through 19) and all of the adults cool enough to read YA and teen books!
I am very excited about this project. I'll also be posting more there than on our general blog because that's what I read! But I will not be abandoning this blog!
Our YA/Teen/Cool Adult blog:
See you there!
Mandy
Sunday, July 19, 2009
One more for the pile
Winston Smith and the Hamfishted Overlord
It's everywhere now, but Amazon has removed copies of George Orwell books from functioning Kindles out there due to a copyright spat.
'In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.”On Friday, it was “1984” and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm,” that were dropped down the memory hole — by Amazon.com.In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique,Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of the books from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them.
The NYT further reports that some versions of Harry Potter books and works by Ayn Rand were also removed as well as notes that a student took while using 1984 for a school assignment.
"Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old from the Detroit area, was reading “1984” on his Kindle for a summer assignment and lost all his notes and annotations when the file vanished. “They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work,” he said."
On the upside, editions of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World now come with a Jeff Bezos laugh track.
Thanks to Alex for the link.
David
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Bella and Edward Recommend?
Wuthering Heights was one of my favourite books when I was a teen. Because of the drama and the ghosts and the immortal love, of course. Although I loved Jane Eyre more. There is something about Rochester that is less pathetic than the over-emotional, broody Heathcliff. And I loved Jane for her pluck, while Cathy could be a real jerk. This is what I thought at the time, really. I haven't read either book in years.But Bella and Edward have. And apparently it is their favourite book! I can't remember if the characters mention in in Twilight or not. But I have here a new edition of WH with a seal of approval stating "Bella and Edward's Favourite Book", so who am I to argue? Actually, most of this is tounge-in-cheek because if I had read twilight as a teen and NOT read WH, I would have loved to read it after. It's still the same text. I would love to see all of the people who love Bella and Edward reading Wuthering Heights and swooning over the typhonic Heathcliff and possibly snarking about selfish Cathy.
I want to say that Cathy's husband's name is Linwood? I always felt badly for him and his complete ignorance of the great passion happening around him. Poor kid.
I mention my love for Jane Eyre and I have to admit that each time I read this book I stopped right after Jane and Rochester get together; I had no interest in his wife-abuse plot. At the time it seemed incongruent. I truly mean to re-read this book and read it right through, to see how I think of it now.
So, if Bella and Edward are introducing a new generation of gothic-drama, unreachable-men loving ladies to Wuthering Heights than I am all for it.
(Although the new cover line makes me laugh--Love Never Dies...--because I remember the ending to WH as not being that satisfying romantically. Something about Cathy maliciously haunting Heathcliff and driving him insane because they could never truly love each other?)
Mandy
The best crime novelist everyone has heard of
I'm not one to begrudge Martin Levin a bit of hyperbole, but to call Rennie Airth "the best detective fiction novelist you've never heard of" is quite misleading.
If Airth hasn't achieved the numbers of say Ian Rankin or P.D James, it's got more to do with not crossing over to a television series than anything else.
River of Darkness was shortlisted for an Edgar Award, won international crime awards and Airth is extraordinarily well respected among crime fiction booksellers and readers.
Some of the cool kids are onto him in a pretty big way.
Levin is largely correct otherwise. River of Darkness is as good as he says, and the new book, Dead of Winter is close to it.
When River of Darkness appeared in 1999, I was still mucking about in the rare book trade a bit and my slick business partner didn't shut up for weeks about how good the book was. We bought a few signed first editions (very small print run) and it was like knowing who was going to win the World Series in May.
I'd like to think Chris would be in full throat over Levin's odd assertion of Airth being unknown ten years later.
Alas,
David
If Airth hasn't achieved the numbers of say Ian Rankin or P.D James, it's got more to do with not crossing over to a television series than anything else.
River of Darkness was shortlisted for an Edgar Award, won international crime awards and Airth is extraordinarily well respected among crime fiction booksellers and readers.
Some of the cool kids are onto him in a pretty big way.
Levin is largely correct otherwise. River of Darkness is as good as he says, and the new book, Dead of Winter is close to it.
When River of Darkness appeared in 1999, I was still mucking about in the rare book trade a bit and my slick business partner didn't shut up for weeks about how good the book was. We bought a few signed first editions (very small print run) and it was like knowing who was going to win the World Series in May.
I'd like to think Chris would be in full throat over Levin's odd assertion of Airth being unknown ten years later.
Alas,
David
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Big Weekend
So this weekend sports the release of the 6th Harry Potter movie, Half-Blood Prince. And I'm pretty excited for it.I love the books so much more, of course, because by the sixth book there is just too much to cover and I think the fourth and fifth movies did a good job with it, but they in no way replace actually reading the books. Which I think is true of all books to movies (Actually, can anyone name a movie that was better than the book? Maybe the Ten Commandments? harhar).
I came at the Harry Potter books late because I tend to shy away from books with such intense popularity. Not for any reason other than I have a SLEW of things to be read and I hate to see amazing books overlooked because they were printed the same year of Harry Potter. Or Twilight (the first book I think is great, but I read it before the craziness).
But Harry Potter continues to be among my favourite books for kids and teens. And I particularly love books 4 through 7. They are dark and smart and uncompromising; I mean, JoRO kills off HEDWIG! "Grow up, Harry, life is change". Awesome.
I have heard that new generations of kids around 10 years old are being introduced to Harry for the first time. Their parents have decided to introduce each book every year. And for a good reason! Even if a 10 year old is a fantastic reader, much of the emotional depth of the later books will be lost on them. But, I believe that every kid this age should have read the first two books in the series. I believe that the Harry Potter books have done an amazing job of keeping kids reading. Seriously, if there is a kid out there who hasn't read the first book, pass it along to them and stand back.
Mandy
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
that's when I reach for my revolver
Service droids hopped up on Twilight mania are overrunning the town of Forks, Washington.
"The logging town has been transformed, says Mike Gurling of the Forks Chamber of Commerce. "Two years ago we did not have a cash register or credit card terminal. Now our sales of anything that says 'Forks' have increased dramatically." A literary symposium was held last month in Forks high school, including - unusually for a symposium - "an actual, real Prom". Chris Cook, editor of the local paper and author of guide book Twilight Territory, says the school's principal was mobbed at a Seattle airport when a teenage fan spotted his Forks Spartan jacket and started yelling, "He's from Forks, he's from Forks!" The fervour is such, Cook says, that a local evangelist, Hallelujah Bill, has started preaching to fans about the dangers of becoming cult followers of the books."
Oh well, this is for you Hallelujah Bill.
David
"The logging town has been transformed, says Mike Gurling of the Forks Chamber of Commerce. "Two years ago we did not have a cash register or credit card terminal. Now our sales of anything that says 'Forks' have increased dramatically." A literary symposium was held last month in Forks high school, including - unusually for a symposium - "an actual, real Prom". Chris Cook, editor of the local paper and author of guide book Twilight Territory, says the school's principal was mobbed at a Seattle airport when a teenage fan spotted his Forks Spartan jacket and started yelling, "He's from Forks, he's from Forks!" The fervour is such, Cook says, that a local evangelist, Hallelujah Bill, has started preaching to fans about the dangers of becoming cult followers of the books."
Oh well, this is for you Hallelujah Bill.
David
or, how I didn't meet your mother
James Wolcott wonders how all this digitization of books and movies will affect the time honoured checking out of others with an eye to romance or judgment.
"Books not only furnish a room, to paraphrase the title of an Anthony Powell novel (sic!)
but also accessorize our outfits. They help brand our identities. At the rate technology is progressing, however, we may eventually be traipsing around culturally nude in an urban rain forest, androids seamlessly integrated with our devices. As we divest ourselves of once familiar physical objects—digitize and dematerialize—we approach a Star Trek future in which everything can be accessed from the fourth dimension with a few clicks or terse audibles. Reading will forfeit the tactile dimension where memories insinuate themselves, reminding us of where and when D. H. Lawrence entered our lives that meaningful summer. “Darling, remember when we downloaded Sons and Lovers in Napa Valley?” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it."
Hell, I'll admit to being a shameless watcher of others on buses, in parks etc., and yes a Mary Gaitskill spotting goes a long way to making my day. Alas, I've developed a numbing immunity to James Patterson. It'll be a hell of a lot harder to approach a potential paramour without seeing that book jacket that one is so familiar with, trying suavely to sidle up to the gentle reader and make use of your shared love for their book to break the ice and perhaps build a life (or an evening) together, but that's just one more reason to dread the digital revolution.
Posted by David
Monday, July 13, 2009
Some free advice
Malcolm Gladwell doesn't care for Chris Anderson's new book, and I'm pretty sure that Hal Neidzviecki doesn't either although he does call 'Free' "an extremely entertaining business book."
There just isn't much in the plus column after that.
Anderson has his backers here and he's going to do fine.
The whole dustup with the plagiarism accusations has rendered the point moot for me,
especially as there's a new book from Joe Meno that's entirely made up.
I love his other stuff and it has a stamp of approval from the coolest kid in the class.
David
There just isn't much in the plus column after that.
Anderson has his backers here and he's going to do fine.
The whole dustup with the plagiarism accusations has rendered the point moot for me,
especially as there's a new book from Joe Meno that's entirely made up.
I love his other stuff and it has a stamp of approval from the coolest kid in the class.
David
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
If ever I would leave you
Even the teaser is mediocre
The cover of Dan Brown's new novel looks...you know the hell with it,
I promise you every single book from these guys is better than anything Dan Brown will ever write.
By a lot.
And full marks to Murder by the Book for doing it for all the right reasons, too.
From their site:
"BUSTED FLUSH PRESS was created in 2005 by David Thompson, an employee of Houston's Murder By The Book, one of the nation's oldest and largest mystery bookstores. The intent of the press is to reprint fine thrillers and hard-boiled crime fiction. You can order these books from Murder By The Book or a wonderful mystery bookstore near you."
Everything from Busted Flush press is distributed by Consortium. By far my favourite place for crime fiction.
David
I promise you every single book from these guys is better than anything Dan Brown will ever write.
By a lot.
And full marks to Murder by the Book for doing it for all the right reasons, too.
From their site:
"BUSTED FLUSH PRESS was created in 2005 by David Thompson, an employee of Houston's Murder By The Book, one of the nation's oldest and largest mystery bookstores. The intent of the press is to reprint fine thrillers and hard-boiled crime fiction. You can order these books from Murder By The Book or a wonderful mystery bookstore near you."
Everything from Busted Flush press is distributed by Consortium. By far my favourite place for crime fiction.
David
Not really book related, but...
The best thing happened to me today at work: a customer told a "NOT" joke! Truly! She had lost her wallet (which is the worst part of this best thing happening, I hope she finds it soon) but still remained in good humor; "Well this is a good thing...(wait for it) "NOT"!!"
People who know me better than they would like to will recognize the appeal of this situation on my small but excitable mind.
And I want to call out to Dave, who has been away for two days at the London Book Fair:
"Okaaay, JOKE'S OVER, come back to work"
or,
"I really could care less if you are away...(wait for it) NOT!"
See, Dave, the state of the blog since you've gone? Hurry back, or so help me more borg pictures.
Mandy
Drum Roll!
The winners of last week's newsletter-blog-crossover draw are:
Paulina, receives a copy of Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen!
Kiirstin, recieves a copy of The Color of Water by Kim Dong Hwa!
You can pick up your free books at the store, under your first name!
AND, because no one loses on this blog, Carolyn and Jessica will also recieve a free book, here's what I have to choose from:
Leave a comment here, Carolyn and Jessica, as to which book you would like and I'll put it aside for you! Thanks to everyone who reads our blog and for sending in your comments.
I really enjoyed this little giveaway so check back in peridoically to see if I have another one! They will be spontaneous, so keep in touch!
Mandy
Monday, July 06, 2009
By the way...
I have a few Book Plates signed by Meg Rosoff. I would love to give these away to anyone who wants one. I have slipped one inside her books at the store if you want to pick one up. Or, if you already have one of this remarkable lady's books, just send along a comment or an e-mail and you will own your own signed book plate.
Previously:
"I have just finished reading How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff, for my Book Club (WWB's official in-store book club--its been a lot of fun, contact me to join) and it ranks as one of my favorite fiction picks in a while. New Yorker Daisy exiles herself to stay with estranged cousins, actually she's never met them, in the English countryside. Four precocious cousins and their mother live in a sprawling, charming old house, embedded in the lush natural landscape. Her Aunt Penn is busy in the city with some hazy government work and the 5 of them make due at home without any adult supervision, filling their days with farmwork, picnics and reading. Idyllic, until the war begins.
I was blown away by this story. I love that Rosoff had decided to set the events during an imagined war, one that feeds on confusion and seems to be a historical pastiche of conflicts during the last century. Rosoff is a master storyteller, an impeccable writer, and dammit, she made me weep (I won't tell you at which part but if you fnd me in the store, ask me and I will say as much as I can before excusing myself, hardly contained, for the washroom). But seriously, a novel like this proves the resonance of literature and its importance for the human heart"
Previously:
"I have just finished reading How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff, for my Book Club (WWB's official in-store book club--its been a lot of fun, contact me to join) and it ranks as one of my favorite fiction picks in a while. New Yorker Daisy exiles herself to stay with estranged cousins, actually she's never met them, in the English countryside. Four precocious cousins and their mother live in a sprawling, charming old house, embedded in the lush natural landscape. Her Aunt Penn is busy in the city with some hazy government work and the 5 of them make due at home without any adult supervision, filling their days with farmwork, picnics and reading. Idyllic, until the war begins.
I was blown away by this story. I love that Rosoff had decided to set the events during an imagined war, one that feeds on confusion and seems to be a historical pastiche of conflicts during the last century. Rosoff is a master storyteller, an impeccable writer, and dammit, she made me weep (I won't tell you at which part but if you fnd me in the store, ask me and I will say as much as I can before excusing myself, hardly contained, for the washroom). But seriously, a novel like this proves the resonance of literature and its importance for the human heart"
I'm very excited for Wednesday when I get to announce the winners of our Mandy's Favourite Reads This Summer book giveaway! And don't forget to finish off your copy of House of Leaves and be back here in a few weeks to see how it all ends.
Previously:
Mandy
Bad Covers Monday?
Inspired by one of my fave blogs, i09, and their collecton of terrible SciFi covers, I want to show you one of the silliest covers I have come across: The Sorrows of Young Werther, Modern Library reprint edition. Regard above.I love Modern Library. But. I really dislike full-on portrait covers. Mostly because the person on the front never reminds me of the character it is depicting. In the case of this book, I just feel embarassed for Young Werther for being so obvious in his sorrow. I'm surprised they didn't decide to add a little glimmer effect on the edge of his tear rivulet.
But seriously check out i09's gathering of awesome SciFi covers. They will "make your eye sockets bleed".
What is the worst cover you've ever seen? Maybe I should make this a regular feature: Monday Worst Cover Ever Day on the blog.
Mandy
Sunday, July 05, 2009
William Golding meets the Borg
Years ago I read one of those books that sticks in a strange sort of way. It's never far from one of the founding titles that I always go back to thinking about, but I've only reread it once.
The Inheritors by William Golding is similar to Lord of the Flies in that it was written after World War Two and was full of comment on the primitive nature of 'modern' man, equally given to broad commentary and telling detail.
Essentially the book deals with a band of Neanderthals who come upon a group of early humans. The Cro-Magnons have the obvious evolutionary advantages, certainly the superior weaponry and the main Neanderthal character Lok, rises to prominence among the small band after several Neanderthals are killed during an initial encounter with the early humans.
The Neanderthals are awed and fearful of the race before them and after tensions between the tribes conclude in a final battle, Lok loses his partner Fa and as the novel concludes he displays the beginnings of a larger self-awareness (at least as we understand it) and rather than be alone, chooses death.
It's a simple, profoundly moving book and I find myself coming back to it often whenever I read articles like Sarah Sheard's in the Globe and Mail this weekend.
She asserts that it's time writers took publishers out of the equation and used the Web and ebooks to keep more of their earnings.
"If everyone else is so hip, why aren't writers? Why are they still so stuck on the Gutenberg model, hugging boxes of returns to their breasts like life preservers in sharky electronic waters? Why are writers - seemingly the last people in the universe to have trouble grasping change - so willfully ignorant of this empowering technology? A 16-gigabyte iPhone can store roughly 30,000 English Patients plus a few hundred The Lovely Bones. Get it? Lots of shelf room. E-rights are valuable. They turn into e-books, which turn into money for the writer. There is no earthly reason for writers to accept minuscule remuneration from paternalistic publishers for their creative contribution. Technology now connects writers directly to readers, virtually for free."
Sheard wraps up with "The e-book will encourage a thousand literary flowers to bloom, good news for visionary editors, freed from the bottom-line/bang-for-buck economics that have been squeezing the breath out of publishing for most of the last decade. And that's good news for readers of literature everywhere."
Her notions that writers should have a decent income are correct and she's right that publishers and booksellers have gotten too big and shirked too many responsibilities to writers, who after all provide the critical element. Independent bookstores and publishers are a small part of the pie and I assume, a footnote to her argument since we're only mentioned in terms befitting an obituary.
Sheard is with the Writer's Union of Canada, an organization that advocates on writers' behalf, so I worry about her all-in statement that the ebook will seemingly solve writers' woes.
If she decries writers influence with Canadian publishers I'm not sure how that influence gets stronger with Amazon or Google. As for letting a "thousand literary flowers to bloom" we're already there, and then some.
In the U.S market, the number of books published as short run or Print-on-Demand books actually exceeded the number of books made by publishers. Say what you will about the dubiousness of publishers being the vanguards of quality, that ship has sailed and there is a lot of stuff out there that no one needs. If everyone gets into the pool at once, even the vastness of the Web isn't going to guarantee an income. It's more likely as pointed out here that the digital revolution is going to be a more effective blockbuster delivery system, rather than the reverse.
Michael Antman's essay has a lot in it, and one can cherry pick to support either pro or con digital argument, but on balance I find it awfully hard to share Sheard's optimism.
She's right insofar as it's only midmorning in the ebook world, and the huge growth (and the relentless marketing) so far is undeniable. But as for a better income for writers in the digital future?
Tread carefully, and for what it's worth I thought Sheard's early novel Almost Japanese was terrific. If you deign to put the new novel out in paper, I promise I'll read it and get behind it.
David
The Inheritors by William Golding is similar to Lord of the Flies in that it was written after World War Two and was full of comment on the primitive nature of 'modern' man, equally given to broad commentary and telling detail.
Essentially the book deals with a band of Neanderthals who come upon a group of early humans. The Cro-Magnons have the obvious evolutionary advantages, certainly the superior weaponry and the main Neanderthal character Lok, rises to prominence among the small band after several Neanderthals are killed during an initial encounter with the early humans.
The Neanderthals are awed and fearful of the race before them and after tensions between the tribes conclude in a final battle, Lok loses his partner Fa and as the novel concludes he displays the beginnings of a larger self-awareness (at least as we understand it) and rather than be alone, chooses death.
It's a simple, profoundly moving book and I find myself coming back to it often whenever I read articles like Sarah Sheard's in the Globe and Mail this weekend.
She asserts that it's time writers took publishers out of the equation and used the Web and ebooks to keep more of their earnings.
"If everyone else is so hip, why aren't writers? Why are they still so stuck on the Gutenberg model, hugging boxes of returns to their breasts like life preservers in sharky electronic waters? Why are writers - seemingly the last people in the universe to have trouble grasping change - so willfully ignorant of this empowering technology? A 16-gigabyte iPhone can store roughly 30,000 English Patients plus a few hundred The Lovely Bones. Get it? Lots of shelf room. E-rights are valuable. They turn into e-books, which turn into money for the writer. There is no earthly reason for writers to accept minuscule remuneration from paternalistic publishers for their creative contribution. Technology now connects writers directly to readers, virtually for free."
Sheard wraps up with "The e-book will encourage a thousand literary flowers to bloom, good news for visionary editors, freed from the bottom-line/bang-for-buck economics that have been squeezing the breath out of publishing for most of the last decade. And that's good news for readers of literature everywhere."
Her notions that writers should have a decent income are correct and she's right that publishers and booksellers have gotten too big and shirked too many responsibilities to writers, who after all provide the critical element. Independent bookstores and publishers are a small part of the pie and I assume, a footnote to her argument since we're only mentioned in terms befitting an obituary.
Sheard is with the Writer's Union of Canada, an organization that advocates on writers' behalf, so I worry about her all-in statement that the ebook will seemingly solve writers' woes.
If she decries writers influence with Canadian publishers I'm not sure how that influence gets stronger with Amazon or Google. As for letting a "thousand literary flowers to bloom" we're already there, and then some.
In the U.S market, the number of books published as short run or Print-on-Demand books actually exceeded the number of books made by publishers. Say what you will about the dubiousness of publishers being the vanguards of quality, that ship has sailed and there is a lot of stuff out there that no one needs. If everyone gets into the pool at once, even the vastness of the Web isn't going to guarantee an income. It's more likely as pointed out here that the digital revolution is going to be a more effective blockbuster delivery system, rather than the reverse.
Michael Antman's essay has a lot in it, and one can cherry pick to support either pro or con digital argument, but on balance I find it awfully hard to share Sheard's optimism.
She's right insofar as it's only midmorning in the ebook world, and the huge growth (and the relentless marketing) so far is undeniable. But as for a better income for writers in the digital future?
Tread carefully, and for what it's worth I thought Sheard's early novel Almost Japanese was terrific. If you deign to put the new novel out in paper, I promise I'll read it and get behind it.
David
Friday, July 03, 2009
What? You don't write sonnets?
Author Sarah Dunant has this good little article in last week’s Globe & Mail, questioning the presumption that historical fiction may be seen as childish.I cut my teeth on Tudor historical fiction and historical fictional biographies of famous women. If it had a gold-leafed, period image of a woman on the cover, I ate it up. I was very keen on anything about Elizabeth I. Actually one of my very favourite books growing up was I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles. I remember that this one in particular focussed on Liz’s childhood and teenage years and I loved that! It was crazy for me to think of famous women even being that age, at the time. I completely connected with the mythos that Rosalind Miles had forged, filling in concrete historical fact with a creator’s heart.
I also read history books about my period ladies, namely The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser and Elizabeth by David Starkey, but I truly loved reading about the “inner” lives of these women because I could connect with that. And the fictional side of history could do that for me. I was more about imagination and tone, although I clung to historical fact, chomping at the bit if some new author got it “wrong”. Historical fiction made me righteous and obsessed with Tudor England. I thought the coolest book in my collection was a little blue cloth bound edition of the history of the Tower of London, including tower schematics and drawings. I was 15 and in love with Shakespeare (I think of that girl from 10 Things I Hate About You and it’s like I’m looking into a mirror!). I feel bad now for any interested boys of the time, “What? You don’t write sonnets? Begone you clod of wayward marl!”
I guess I came to the end of historical fiction in University, when a few horrible English literature survey classes killed my interest in anything “old”. Sarah Dunant, supposedly the focus of this entire story, mentions a drop away from historical fiction during her University days as well. She fell back into old ways after school when she realized she wanted to “write a different kind of historical novel from those that turned me into a historian: a novel steeped in [this] new research, especially about women, but used in a way which always added to the story, a story in which everything but the characters was true”. And although I slowly caress every gold-leafed, period woman cover that arrives in the store, I am still waiting for my second historical fiction wind. This Sarah Dunant essay pushed me a little closer to it.
Mandy
Tune in next week
We will give it a week for people to leave their names and/or comments for our book giveaway (details here).
But check back here on Wednesday July 8th to see if you've won one of 2 books!
Thanks to everyone who has left comments and messages already!
(There might even be some other FREE items given away on that day)
Mandy
But check back here on Wednesday July 8th to see if you've won one of 2 books!
Thanks to everyone who has left comments and messages already!
(There might even be some other FREE items given away on that day)
Mandy
Thursday, July 02, 2009
From the Peanut Gallery
The last few days have shown a nasty dust up on a couple of fronts between writer and reviewer.
There have always been wars between artists and critics as a whole, indeed some critics have largely destroyed careers with a single bon mot. Recall legendary Broadway critic George S Kaufman’s devastating line to do with young actor Guido Nazzo, of whom Kaufman opined: “Guido Nazzo was nazzo guido.”
It took a name change to save the poor man.
During Kaufman’s time, the critic was in a much better position relative to the poor player as it were, but the democratizing effect of the web on the artist/critic relationship has given writers an avenue to return fire if they so choose, but it often doesn’t work very well.
A bit of history.
In 2003, novelist Heidi Julavits
urged a return to a standard of decency in the print review of fiction.
Julavits coined the term ‘snark’ to mean a style of review that was provocative to the point of crossing the line. She wonders if snark “was a critical attempt to compete, on an entertainment level, with the Anthony Lanes of the world, critics who write witheringly and hilariously about movies that will nonetheless go on to sell millions of tickets and win twelve Oscars. Lane and (David) Denby make us feel like cozy ex-pats in a country of higher standards; we are the giggling, minuscule minority. We also see those movies. Book reviewers who adopt this tone when reviewing literary fiction are about as humorous as cow tippers; as a result, they guarantee a book that might have sold 4,000 copies, will now sell 800. And nobody will read that book, not even the literary types, who are off watching Titanic with a knowing smirk.”
Julavits then argues for and attempts to define the other side of snark.
‘To be perfectly clear—I am not espousing a feel-good, criticism-free climate, where all ambitious literary books receive special treatment, just because they’re “literary” (I acknowledge the dubiousness of the term)—I’m simply asking that we read between the lines, and see what value systems these reviews are really espousing. I imagine snarkiness has always been around, if not thriving then dormant, but I’d argue that the critics with staying power never employ it.”
Reaction was swift, bearing in mind the American critic Robert Birnbaum’s assertion that “the reason literary squabbles are so bitter is because they are for such small stakes.”
Small and getting smaller as review space shrinks and the fact book blogs have some influence for good or bad on critical opinion.
The ground has shifted markedly since Julavits’ essay as now critics don’t always come with a New York Times byline or even from recognized quarters at all.
Perhaps it was this state of affairs that recently prompted the American novelist Alice Hoffman to issue a ‘politician's apology" after her response to a so-so review of her latest book in the Boston Globe.
Hoffman fired up her Twitter account and called the reviewer Roberta Silman a “moron”
and then moving on to lament that “now any idiot can be a critic” before twittering Silman’s home phone number and instructing her minions to “tell her what you think of snarky critics.”
Given that the story is everywhere in the newspapers and the literary blogosphere now, it’s fair to say that Hoffman did more damage to her new book than a single bad review.
The final word came from the always classy Ron Charles at the Washington Post.
After calling Hoffman’s actions “just plain immature,” he noted that ‘this radiant finale reminds us what a satisfying novelist Alice Hoffman can be, when she feels like it.”
It’s just my opinion, but I follow Ron Charles on Twitter religiously; I can’t think of a use for it otherwise.
Snark or not, I stand by it.
Alain de Botton may wish for a do over concerning his response to a NY Times review.
He posted a riposte on reviewer Caleb Crain’s blog which read:
““I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make,” writes de Botton. “You have now killed my book in the United States, nothing short of that. So that’s two years of work down the drain in one miserable 900 word review.”
Perhaps the gold standard in response to a poor review comes from the American novelist Richard Ford. After a bad review of the Sportswriter, the book that largely cemented Ford’s reputation as a giant, he and his wife got a book by the reviewer, tied it to a tree and shot it full of holes.
The reviewer of Ford’s book was Alice Hoffman.
David
There have always been wars between artists and critics as a whole, indeed some critics have largely destroyed careers with a single bon mot. Recall legendary Broadway critic George S Kaufman’s devastating line to do with young actor Guido Nazzo, of whom Kaufman opined: “Guido Nazzo was nazzo guido.”
It took a name change to save the poor man.
During Kaufman’s time, the critic was in a much better position relative to the poor player as it were, but the democratizing effect of the web on the artist/critic relationship has given writers an avenue to return fire if they so choose, but it often doesn’t work very well.
A bit of history.
In 2003, novelist Heidi Julavits
urged a return to a standard of decency in the print review of fiction.
Julavits coined the term ‘snark’ to mean a style of review that was provocative to the point of crossing the line. She wonders if snark “was a critical attempt to compete, on an entertainment level, with the Anthony Lanes of the world, critics who write witheringly and hilariously about movies that will nonetheless go on to sell millions of tickets and win twelve Oscars. Lane and (David) Denby make us feel like cozy ex-pats in a country of higher standards; we are the giggling, minuscule minority. We also see those movies. Book reviewers who adopt this tone when reviewing literary fiction are about as humorous as cow tippers; as a result, they guarantee a book that might have sold 4,000 copies, will now sell 800. And nobody will read that book, not even the literary types, who are off watching Titanic with a knowing smirk.”
Julavits then argues for and attempts to define the other side of snark.
‘To be perfectly clear—I am not espousing a feel-good, criticism-free climate, where all ambitious literary books receive special treatment, just because they’re “literary” (I acknowledge the dubiousness of the term)—I’m simply asking that we read between the lines, and see what value systems these reviews are really espousing. I imagine snarkiness has always been around, if not thriving then dormant, but I’d argue that the critics with staying power never employ it.”
Reaction was swift, bearing in mind the American critic Robert Birnbaum’s assertion that “the reason literary squabbles are so bitter is because they are for such small stakes.”
Small and getting smaller as review space shrinks and the fact book blogs have some influence for good or bad on critical opinion.
The ground has shifted markedly since Julavits’ essay as now critics don’t always come with a New York Times byline or even from recognized quarters at all.
Perhaps it was this state of affairs that recently prompted the American novelist Alice Hoffman to issue a ‘politician's apology" after her response to a so-so review of her latest book in the Boston Globe.
Hoffman fired up her Twitter account and called the reviewer Roberta Silman a “moron”
and then moving on to lament that “now any idiot can be a critic” before twittering Silman’s home phone number and instructing her minions to “tell her what you think of snarky critics.”
Given that the story is everywhere in the newspapers and the literary blogosphere now, it’s fair to say that Hoffman did more damage to her new book than a single bad review.
The final word came from the always classy Ron Charles at the Washington Post.
After calling Hoffman’s actions “just plain immature,” he noted that ‘this radiant finale reminds us what a satisfying novelist Alice Hoffman can be, when she feels like it.”
It’s just my opinion, but I follow Ron Charles on Twitter religiously; I can’t think of a use for it otherwise.
Snark or not, I stand by it.
Alain de Botton may wish for a do over concerning his response to a NY Times review.
He posted a riposte on reviewer Caleb Crain’s blog which read:
““I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make,” writes de Botton. “You have now killed my book in the United States, nothing short of that. So that’s two years of work down the drain in one miserable 900 word review.”
Perhaps the gold standard in response to a poor review comes from the American novelist Richard Ford. After a bad review of the Sportswriter, the book that largely cemented Ford’s reputation as a giant, he and his wife got a book by the reviewer, tied it to a tree and shot it full of holes.
The reviewer of Ford’s book was Alice Hoffman.
David
Win FREE Books!
Later today we are releasing our July e-newsletter, which features a draw for these free books (which you have seen on this blog):These two books are some of the best summer reading I've done so far!
If you don't already receive our e-newsletter, e-mail me and I'll sign you up (mandy@wordsworthbooks.com)!
Until then, simply leave your name or a comment or both in the comments section for each of our reviews of these two books to enter the draw.
The draw will take place in about a week and each winner will receive a copy of either book! Just use the links above to get to the reviews.
More books will be put on draw within the e-newsletter and on the blog, so watch out for future chances!
Good Luck!
Mandy
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