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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
Posted in Book News, Bookbits | Comments Off

Bookbits for October 16th, 2012

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

Interviews! The Guardian features The Citadel author Kate Mosse in their Life in Writing series this week. They also talk to T. C. Boyle, whose latest novel is San Miguel. The NY Times has a Q&A with J. K. Rowling.

Awards! The finalists for the always excellent National Book Awards (in all categories) were announced last week. The Not the Booker Prize has been handed out, and not without controversy! The official Man Booker Prize is awarded tonight, by the way; I’ll post the winner tomorrow morning first thing. According to the Guardian’s statistics, Will Self’s Umbrella has the biggest chance of winning.

ABC sponsored the Writing Competition for the 6th annual Week of Writing at the beginning of September. Organizer SchrijvenOnline.org announced the winners at the beginning of October – congratulations to them all! Of course, November is the worldwide Month of Writing, what with the fabulous madness that is NaNoWriMo, and SchrijvenOnline will be giving away our € 25,- EBM gift certificates on a weekly basis all that month. Check their site for details!

In other EBM news, look at this beautiful thesis printed at our stores! Thanks Steven for the link.

Podcasts! Iain M. Banks talks about one of his classic science fiction novels Use of Weapons. And how Iain Banks inspires Iain M. Banks and vice versa.

Quiz! Time for Em to beat me again: The Bomb in books. I scored a paltry 4/10 .

Are you part of the legion of Arne and Carlos fans? RTL Boulevard did a lightning fast interview with them. Sadly the presenters still don’t realize knitting is neither dowdy nor unpopular. Thanks Simone for the link!

Remember that BookStore-BookBlogger Connection our Tiemen has been working with? One of the BookBloggers is mightily chuffed her Stand on Zanzibar review is featured in our stores.

Lists! The Huffington Post corrals the Best Books of 2012 so far. They also list 11 Things You Didn’t Know About the Booker Prize. Flavorwire lists the 10 Most Twisted Couples in Literature.

We don’t really celebrate Halloween in this country, but if you are one of the few, Flavorwire has some excellent literary costume advice.

Bret Easton Ellis has something new to fume about: the job of adapting Fifty Shades of Grey for the movies has been given to a woman. Thank you Sigrid for the link and comment (“in my humble opinion, it’s probably better in this day and age to let female erotica be handled by a woman. Having a man do that job is soooo 20th century”).

And finally: awesome writers hanging out together (via flavorwire.com):

Have tips for the Bookbits? Mail blog@abc.nl!

Tags: ABC Espresso Book Machine, awards, Bookbits, competition, EBM, interview, knitting rulez, lists, literary halloween costumes, podcasts, quiz, schrijvenonline, simone, Steven, Tiemen, week van het schrijven, writers chilling in each other's company
Posted in Book News, Bookbits | 3 Comments »

Bookbits for June 19th, 2012

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Awards! The Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals were announced last week, and they went to the same book for the first time in their history: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay. The Walter Scott Prize (for historical fiction) went to Sebastian Barry for On Canaan’s Side (I think Em will like that result!).

R. I. P. Booker Prize winner Barry Unsworth (for Sacred Hunger) died last week, aged 81. Obituaries here and here.

Interview! The Guardian has a full-on interview with Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa. And not so much an interview, but still a lengthy piece on Jo Nesbø, via the NY Times.

Well, it was bound to happen at some point: Harry Potter as a literary anti-christ. In Alan Moore’s latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century 2009 (out soon!).

Lists! Just one this time. The excellent folks at Flavorwire have 10 short films based on short stories.

As a parent myself, I found this piece rather interesting: How to Read a Racist Book to Your Kids. So many classic children’s books are as glorious as they are racist, or homophobic, or otherwise anachronistic – and often you don’t realize it until you read them aloud to your child. How do you navigate through the tricky bits?

Quiz! How much poetry do you know by heart? Evidently more than I thought: 7/10! I have to say that the ones I had wrong did seem to fit in better with the original. *cough*

And finally: our Aviva found this series of dreamy lose-yourself-in-books pictures by Joel Robinson (via brainpickings.org):

Tags: Aviva, awards, Children's Books, Comics & Graphic Novels, Fiction, harry potter as the antichrist, how to read a racist book to your kid, interview, joel robinson, lists, losing yourself in books, quiz, r.i.p, shorts based on shorts
Posted in Book News, Bookbits | 2 Comments »

Bookbits for June 7th, 2012

Thursday, June 7th, 2012

R. I. P. The legend that is Ray Bradbury died yesterday, aged 91. “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” Obituaries can be found here, here, and here.

If you loved Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One (like our Tiemen did), you’ll be thrilled to know that the Easter Egg Hunt is now officially on! Our Jouke is hunting for the Delorean now, and was perfectly happy to pass on the link, so long as you share the car with him if you find it first.

One of the multitudes that mourned the passing of Oprah’s Book Club? Dry your tears, because she’s reincarnated it! The first 2.0 pick is Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Please enjoy this very funny and very informative TEDx talk on book design by Chip Kidd. Whose covers you have seen more than you realize. A word of caution: if you are still planning to read 1Q84, you may want to mute your sound around the 16-minute mark!

Already crafted Hermione’s beaded bag, created Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, thought about the philosophy behind Harry Potter and still want more? Wait till Christmas, and you can ask Santa for your very own interactive Book of Spells.

Quiz! Time for Em to beat me again: the Guardian has an on-trend quiz on coronations in literature. I scored 5/10.

Interview! Or rather, short Q&A! with Amitav Ghosh on River of Smoke. Via the Guardian, of course. The NY Times also has a book-themed one, but with Carl Hiaasen (most recently of Chomp).

Tags: chip kidd, chip kidd is awesome, easter egg hunts IRL, harry potter, interview, oprah's book club, quiz, r.i.p, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TEDx
Posted in Book News, Bookbits | 3 Comments »

Bookbits for May 22nd, 2012

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

Awards! The 2011 Nebulas were handed out last weekend. Jo Walton won the Novel category for Among Others; please click here for the full list (including nominees). In a category close to my heart, Jane Lovering has won the overall Romantic Novel of the Year for Please Don’t Stop the Music.

Parents of 2 – 6 year-olds: have you found Magic Town yet? A website devoted to stories and books for young children, including Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, Superfairies and Aliens Love Underpants.

Interview! The Guardian has a lengthy interview/overview with Alan Hollinghurst (The Stranger’s Child). They also have a shorter interview with smash debut author Chad Harbach (The Art of Fielding).

A California judge will release a supposedly violent criminal on the condition that he reads for at least one hour a day and writes book reports on what he’s reading for another half hour that day. Good idea or just plain silly? And what books should a supposed criminal read to mend his ways?

Lists! An absolutely inspiring list of 10 picture books (beyond Oh, The Places You’ll Go!) to give to the coming school/college graduate in your life. I want to read all of them *now*! I do think Neil Gaiman’s Instructions is missing, though. If, on the other hand, you still have a school-bound person in your life, the Guardian has 10 Alternative Teen Reading List Choices for you. The Observer also has their 10 Best Historical Novels (although I think they’ll generally be found in the regular Fiction section than the Historical Fiction section in our stores ).

How fast do YOU read? Apparently I read 462 words a minute – crow about how much you beat me by in the comments!

R. I. P. Mexican author Carlos Fuentes died last week, aged 83. Obituaries can be found here, here, and here.

Quiz! Although not your usual one, but 10 great questions any Austen afficionado will have to think long and hard about. Time to reread them, methinks.

And finally: These are your kids on books. Love it! Thanks Rick for the tip. Via huffingtonpost.com:

Tags: awards, interview, kids on books, lists, magic town, novel criminal sentencing, quiz, r.i.p, speed reading
Posted in Book News, Bookbits | 2 Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘quiz’

Bookbits for January 22nd, 2013

Bookbits for October 16th, 2012

Bookbits for June 19th, 2012

Bookbits for June 7th, 2012

Bookbits for May 22nd, 2012

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