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Posts Tagged ‘biography’

Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

The 2013 Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week! Without further ado, here are the Letters, Drama and Music winners (the winners for Journalism can be found here).

Fiction: The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson
Drama: Disgraced – Ayad Akhtar
History: Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam – Fredrik Logevall
Biography: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo – Tom Reiss
Poetry: Stag’s Leap - Sharon Olds
General Nonfiction: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America – Gilbert King
Music: Partita for 8 Voices – Caroline Shaw

Tags: awards, biography, Drama, Fiction, History, military history, Music, Poetry, pulitzer prize, pulitzers
Posted in Book Awards, Book News, Bookbits | 1 Comment »

Bookbits for January 22nd, 2013

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

Awards! The Costa Book Awards category winners were announced at the beginning of the month: Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes by Mary and Bryan Talbot (Biography), Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Novel), The Innocents by Francesca Segal (First Novel), The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie (Poetry) and Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner (Children’s Book). Significant details are that for the first time ever, a woman wins in each category, and also that a graphic novel has won. The overall winner will be announced next Tuesday. The 2012 T. S. Eliot Prize (for poetry) went to Sharon Olds for Stag’s Leap.

Still pining for 2012? Brainpickings put all their Favorite Reads in one manageable place. Thanks for the link, Joke!

Or looking firmly ahead at 2013? The Guardian is right there with you, and has all the literary highlights lined up for you (via Sigrid).

Interview! The Guardian spoke with William Dalrymple, whose latest book The Return of a King is out this month. They also spoke to Olwyn Hughes, sister-in-law to Sylvia Plath.

In case you are making traveling plans to the USA, be sure to include one of the 16 best bookstores as collected by Travel and Leisure magazine (via Steven).

Robert Langdon returns! On May 14th, to be exact, when Dan Brown’s newest thriller Inferno hits the shelves.

P. G. Wodehouse fans (and I’m sure you are legion): my apologies. I am dreadfully tardy with the news that the Blandings books has been turned into a BBC 6-parter. The first two episodes have aired already, but you can still catch the next four every Saturday (and see the iPlayer app to catch up). Thanks to Sigrid for the link, which was well in advance; I’ve just been lagging!

Quiz! The Guardian commemorates the inauguration of Barack Obama with an American Presidents in Literature quiz. I scored a paltry 7/15 and earned the stinging Guardian judgement of “No, you can’t. You make W look like Umberto Eco.” Ouch!

And finally, to offset all this dismal grey weather we’ve had, the RGB colorspace atlas (via designboom.com and Hans):

Tags: awards, biography, blandings hoo-o-o-o-ey, color everywhere, Comics & Graphic Novels, Fiction, Hans, interview, joke mestdagh, looking forward to 2013, Mysteries & Thrillers, pining for 2012, Poetry, Politics/Current Affairs, quiz, Sigrid, Steven
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Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

These January movies were adapted from books:

Pitch Perfect is based on the non-fiction book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory by journalist Mickey Rapkin.

The Hypnotist is based on the thriller The Hypnotist by Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, a married couple better known in the literary world as Lars Kepler.

Gangster Squad, that movie reuniting Emma Stone with Ryan Gosling, is based on true crime tome Gangster Squad by Paul Lieberman.

Les Misérables is of course based on the seminal Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Bring tissues.

Nijntje de film (Miffy the Movie) is, much like the very successful theater production, based on the Miffy books by Dick Bruna.

Lincoln is based in part on the award-winning Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Parker is based on Donald E. Westlake’s Flashfire (originally published under Westlake’s pseudonym Richard Stark).

Bonus:

Lay the Favorite has apparently been bumped back two month in the theaters or has made a triumphant comeback; it was featured in the November Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

Tags: biography, Children's Books, classics, crime, Fiction, History, Music, Mysteries & Thrillers, saw the movie read the book, true crime
Posted in Film & TV Tie-ins, Saw the Movie? Read the Book! | Comments Off

An Hour With(out) Banksy

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

Tags: ABC Events, ABC Meets, Art, banksy, biography, elsworth-jones, will
Posted in ABC Meets..., Art, Events | Comments Off

Bookbits for July 3rd, 2012

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012

R. I. P. Essayist, humorist and screenwriter Nora Ephron died last week, aged 71. Obituaries can be found here, here, and here.

Julian Barnes’s ode to the book. Just lovely.

Interview! The Guardian has a lengthy piece on John Banville, in honor of his latest, Ancient Light, as well as a talk with Martha Nussbaum about her book The New Religious Intolerance. They also have a podcast on writings in lesser known European languages. The NY Times has an interview with Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, whose latest novel The Colonel has not yet been released in his home country.

Speaking of the Olympics, the NY Times has a great piece about the Olympic history of poetry. I never knew you could have won a gold medal in poetry up until 1948!

Awards! The 2012 Desmond Elliott Prize (for new fiction) was won by Grace McCleen for The Land of Decoration. The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Fiction and Nonfiction are new this year (as opposed to those for Children’s Books), and were given to Robert K. Massie for Catherine the Great (nonfiction) and Anne Enright for The Forgotten Waltz (fiction).

Lists! HuffPost has 5 Sexy Books that Went Viral Before 50 Shades. Mentalfloss, meanwhile, found Early Jobs of 24 Famous Writers (not very surprising Burroughs was an exterminator, but Douglas Adams as a bodyguard seems rather unlikely!). Graham Joyce lists his Top 10 Fairy Fictions for the Guardian. And over at Flavorwire is a list of 10 of the Strangest Apocalypses in Literature.

Remember that Stephen King read-a-long the Guardian is having? Our Ester found you a Stephen King Universe Flowchart to go with it.

And finally, brain food. Literally (via bookliciousblog.com). Also, absolutely stunning book art by Guy Laramee (via our Jitse).

Tags: 2012 Olympics, awards, biography, book art, brain food, Fiction, flowcharts, interview, lists, ode to books, r.i.p
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Posts Tagged ‘biography’

Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced

Bookbits for January 22nd, 2013

Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

An Hour With(out) Banksy

Bookbits for July 3rd, 2012

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