Spanish Writers

A few years ago, I discovered translations of the Hungarian author Sandor Marai and have been transported to another culture and to different epochs in history. Last year, while perusing the Writer's Almanac on this date, I discovered several new books (and an author) that I simply had to read, and now share
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On May 11, three famous 20th-century Spanish intellectuals were born: Painter Salvador Dalí in 1904 in Figueras, Spain. Nobel Prize-winning novelist Camilo José Cela in 1916 in Padrón, Spain. And Francisco Umbral — a who was Spain's best-known writer — in 1935 in Madrid.


Salvador Dalí's ambitions included cultivating a reputation for eccentricity, and he once said, "The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous." You might remember his perfectly waxed, upturned mustache that's been alternately described as "flamboyant," "grotesque," and "hilarious." He often sported clothes like Oscar Wilde's. He himself said he had a "love of everything that is gilded and excessive." On of his most famous painting is "The Persistence of Memory" (1931); it's the one of melted pocket watches hanging from trees and other objects, now in the NYC Museum of Modern Art. Dalí died in 1989, the year that Camilo José Cela won the Nobel Prize in literature. His best-known works include The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942), which the Nobel committee said was "probably the most read novel in Spanish literature ... after Don Quixote."

Francisco "Paco" Umbral was incredibly prolific, writing 80 books in addition to his regular newspaper column for El País. He received critical acclaim in Spain, including the country's top literary prize in 2000. He was unpopular with the international intellectual community, because he was contemptuous of left-leaning intellectuals, belittling the ideas and insulting the characters of those who served on international literary prize judging committees. Camilo José Cela was close friends with Paco. Among his 80 books are a number of biographies including Lorca and Lord Byron. His more recent books include The Capital of Sorrow (1996), A Thief's Forge (1997), Stories of Love and Viagra (1998), and Beloved Twentieth Century (2007). He died in 2007. I had read Umbral in my Spanish classes, all those years ago, but having just finished a biography of Byron by O'Brien, was intrigued to get a different opinion, perspective. Not easy to find translations, but worth the time. Another reason for internet access!

2010 Book List

2010 Book List


Nonfiction

1001 children's books you must read before you grow up
Off the Tourist Track: 1000 unexpected travel adventures
Concord Quartet, Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorn, Thoreau.
Mortimer Adler, Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book 1940, 1976
Sharon Begley Train Your Mind, Change your Life
Blogging for Dummies / iPhone for Dummies
Bill Bryson Seeing Further: Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society, At Home
Nick Bunker Make Haste from Babylon
Caleb Carr The Lessons of Terror
Celtic Wisdom
Bruce Chatwin Far journeys : photographs and notebooks
Nick Collins The End of the Line 2005
Bernard DeVoto Western Paradox
David Hackett Fischer Champlain’s Dream
Atul Gawande. The Checklist Manifesto
David Grann The Devil and Sherlock Holmes
Claire Harman. Jane’s Fame 2009
Charley Hopper (art books/environmental posters)
Bill Holm Poles in Minnesota.
Matthew Mark Jacob What the Great Ate
PD James Talking about Detective Fiction
Henry James: A life in letters Ed Philip Horne,
Sam Kean. The Disappearing Spoon (periodic table)
William Bryan Logan Oak, frame of civilisation 2008
Leonard Maltin 151 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen
John McPhee Giving Good Weight
John Medina Brain Rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home, and school
Sy Montgomery Birdology (adventures with a pack of hens, a peck of pigeons, cantankerous crows, fierce falcons, hip hop parrots, baby hummingbirds and one murderously big living dinosaur (emu)
Philip Mould The Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures
Diana Norman 1970 Tom Corbett’s Stately Ghosts of England.
Stephanie O'Dea Make it fast, cook it slow.
Nancy Pearl Book Lust to Go: recommended reading for travelers, vagabonds, and dreamers
A passion for books (ed Dale Salwak) 1999
A passion for books : a book lover's treasury of stories, essays, humor, lore, and lists on collecting, reading, borrowing, lending, caring for, and appreciating books (1999) Eds Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan.
Eric Pooley The Climate War
William Powers Hamlet’s Blackberry: life in digital age
Eva Rice The Lost art of Keeping Secrets
Sarah Rose For all the tea in China : how England stole the world's favorite drink and changed history
Amy Stewart Flower confidential. The good, the bad and the beautiful in the business of flowers 2001 Wicked Plants 2009
Tom Slayton The Beauty of Vermont
Mark Strand. Hopper
Suzanne Strempek Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama: a year in a Bookstore 2004
Robert Sullivan The Thoreau you Don’t Know 2009
J. Maarten Troost Lost on Planet China
Abraham Verghese Cutting for Stone
Donald Worster A Passion for Nature: the life of John Muir 2008
Donald Worster Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity and the growth of the American West 1985
Zagat Ann Christenson Chicago Restaurants

Poetry/Short Stories

TS Eliot Four quartets
Will Weaver - new book! MN press
James Lenfestey (ed) Low Down and Coming on



Mysteries, Fiction
DM Annechino They Never Die Quietly
M Gannon ed. Blood Bedlam Bullets and Badguys
Emily Arsenault The Broken Teaglass 2009
Stephanie Barron. A Flaw in the Blood, The White Garden, Jane and the Madness of Lord Bryon
Lorna Barrett Bookmarked for Death
Lauren Belfer A Fierce Radiance
Vanora Bennett The Queen’s Lover (Henry VI)
Jane Borodale The Book of Fires
Gyles Brandreth Oscar Wilde and the dead man's smile
James Buchan The Persian Bride
Andrea Camilleri The Shape of Water (novel of food wine and homicide in Sicily, first Insp Montalbano)
Jennifer Lee Carrell Haunt Me Still
Kate Carlisle If Books could kill, Homicide in Hardcover
Sarah Caudwell The Sibyl in her Grave 2000
Barbara Cleverly Strange images of Death, Darker God
John Connolly The Whisperers
Martin Davies The Conjurer's Bird, Mrs. Hudson and the Malabar Rose
Catherine Delors For the King
Mathew Dicks Something Missing
Gerald Elias. Devil's Trill
George Eliott Silas Marner
Carolly Erickson Memoirs Mary Queen of Scots
Charles Finch Stranger in Mayfair
Marina Fiorato Glassblower of Murano, The Botticelli Secret
Dick Felix Francis Crossfire
Ariana Franklin Mistress of the Art of Death, Serpents Tale, Grave Goods, Murderous procession, City of Shadows
Tana French Faithful Place
Juliet Gael Romancing Miss Bronte
Andrew Gross Dark Tide
Elly Griffeths The Crossing Places, Janus Stone
Martha Grimes The Black Cat
CS Harris What Remains of Heaven
Erin Hart Haunted Ground 2003 Lake of Sorrows 2006 False Mermaid
Georgette Heyer Duplicate Death
Homer Hickam The Dinosaur Hunter
Quintin Jardine Fatal Last Words 2009
Kathleen Kent The Wolves of Andover
Kathleen Kent The Heretic's Daughter 2008
Elizabeth Kostova. 2010 The Swan Thieves
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall 2009, Fludd 2001 The Giant, O'Brien, Beyond Black 2005
Peter May Virtually Dead, Extraordinary People
Archer Mayor Price of Malice, Red Herring
Sharyn McCrumb The Devil amongst the Lawyers
Caroline Miniscule An Unpardonable Crime
Diana Norman Taking Liberty 2003
SJ Parris Heresy
Anne Perry The Sheen of the Silk
Elizabeth Peters Rivers in the Sky 2009
Ian Rankin. Doors Open
CJ Ransom. Dark Fire, Sovereign
Cornelia Read Field of Darkness, Crazy School, Invisible Boy
Kathy Reichs Spider Bones
Peter Robinson The Price of Love, Bad Boy
John Sandford Storm Prey, Bad Boy (Virgil)
Cathleen Schine Three Weissmanns of Westport.
Olen Steinhauer Victory Square 2007 The Tourist 2009, The Nearest Exit
Andrew Taylor Bleeding Heart Square 2009Roth Trilogy, the Lyndmouth Series, Blaines Trilogy and Dougal Series, A Stain in the Silence, The Barred Window, Raven in the Water, The American Boy.
World of Gerard Mercator.
Charles Todd The Red Door, A Lonely Death: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery, An Impartial Witness



Biography

Confucius Sayings
Rusty Dewees Scrawlins (Vermont)
William Fiennes The Snow Geese (2002)
Claire Harman. Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World 2009
Woody Holton. Abigal Adams 2009
St Clair McKelway Reporting at Wit’s End: Tales from the New Yorker
Alice Munro The View from Castle Rock 2006
Edna O’Brien Byron in Love: a short daring life
Val Ross Robertson Davies Portrait
Andrew Taylor The World of George Mercator
Mark Twain Autobiography



Science Fiction

Dave Duncan Monster War
Richard Morgan The Steel Remains, Altered carbon
Paul Hofman. The Left Hand of God
Terry Pratchett I shall wear Midnight
Kim Stanley Robinson Galileo's dream

Literature/Fiction

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier
Barbara Cleverly Tug of War 2006
Tracy Cheveliar Remarkable Creatures
Justin Cronin Passages
Catherine Delors For the King
Tatiana De Rosnay Sarah’s Key 2007
Joshua Ferris Then We Came to the End 2007
Adam Gopnik The Lost Estate
Einar Mar Gundmundsson Angels of the Universe 1993 (winner Nordic Council Lit Prize)
Paul Harding Tinkers
Barbara Kingsolver The Lacuna
Sandor Marai Casanova in Bolzano 1940, translated 2004 The Rebels
Kate Morton The Distant Hours
Julie Orringer The Invisible Bridge
Ali Shaw The Girl with Glass Feet 2009
Alexander McCall Smith, Corduroy Mansions
AMS Double Comfort Safari Club
Lost Art of Gratitude, The Charming Quirks of Others
Helen Simonson Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
Rebecca Stott The Coral Thief 2009
Elizabeth Strout Abide with Me 2006, Olive Kitteridge (2008 Pulitizer)



Romance

Amanda Quick Burning Lamp
Gail Carriger Soulless, Changeless, Blameless
Deanna Raybourn Silent on the Moor 2009
Julia Quinn What happens in London
Emma Wildes My lord Scandal
Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Gulbert The Professor’s Daughter (graphic 1997)

Childrens

GA Aiken What a Dragon Should Know
Kate DiCamillo Louise, the Adventures of A Chicken
Neil Gaiman Wild Hair
Maurice Sendak Where the Wild Things Are
Brandon Mull Fairhaven series
Lemony Snicket Thirteen Words
Lane Smith It’s A Book!



Movies/DVDs

Iron Man
Robin Hood
Climate of Change
Shrek 3D
Nanny McPhee
Secretariat
Fantastic Mr Fox
Blindside
Sherlock Holmes
Crazy Heart
From Paris with Love
Young Victoria
How to Train Your Dragon
Foyle’s War MI-5
King’s Speech
Avatar
Girl who played with Fire/Dragon Tattoo

The Tortoise and the Hare, Elizabeth Jenkins

What a delight it was to re-read this book. I happened across it, with a new introduction (2001) by Hilary Mantel, while perusing the Library shelves. I was obviously in the mood for a bit of Jane Austen: the attention to social detail, the insightful historical perspectives, the splendid nuanced writing laced with gems of observations on the human condition.

The Tortoise and the Hare is her 6th of 12 novels (published in 1954), detailing the marriage of Evelyn and Imogen Gresham (he an aging barrister, her an ingenue) trapped not only in their social standing, but in their own self interests. I love the opening sentence of Mantel's review "Apart from a war, what could be more interestng than a marriage?" There is of course 'another woman', their one son, and a variety of village characters that fascinate and repel while being exquisitely and acerbically described. The post note in this edition was also extremely illuminating (Carmen Calil, 1997) who in an interview with Jenkins discovered that this novel was largely autobiographical! And while you may detest Evelyn (I certainly did), Jenkins comment "well of course you didn't know him" slightly throws you, while fitting in completely with the story. Are you sure you is the tortoise and who is the hare? Have they changed?

If you like Jane Austen or Elizabeth Ironside, this is definitely comparable. Most enjoyable!

This is a perfect book for a rainy chilly autumn day - today!

Back to School!

ALREADY??!!
Well, anytime is a good time to read a classic, or catch up on literature, or just a great read.

What a fabulous display we have in the Friends' Bookstore!  It will be changing daily with new selections as they are selling like hotcakes!

Literary Bookstore Display

There is another great display in the Friends' Bookstore which highlights all kinds of literature - we have a GREAT selection for you to choose from. Indeed, some of them you might have always been meaning to get to, others could be 'hmmm this looks interesting' and of course all of them have unbelievable prices to entice you to buy several, many, more, as well as hardcover, paperback, tradesize, fiction, nonfiction, comics, humor, childrens, ETC. Stop in soon, as always the selection changes daily. We have just ALPHABETIZED some of the paperbacks too with the intent to do ALL of them this month. That will make finding the book you are looking for so much easier.

BBC news, Elliott Prize

Three novelists vie for £10,000 Desmond Elliott prize : Jacob Polley, Maria Allen and Ali Shaw and will find out if they have won in June. A former bookseller, an acclaimed poet and a teacher have made the final shortlist for the Desmond Elliott prize for first time novelists.

Bookmakers have made Before the Earthquake by teacher Maria Allen favourite to win the £10,000 prize.

Talk of the Town by poet Jacob Polley and The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw make up the shortlist.

The prize was set up in 2007 in honour of the publisher and literary agent Desmond Elliott, who died in 2003.

The three shortlisted books cover a range of genres from a coming-of-age tale to historical fiction and magical realism.\

The latter is Ali Smith's Girl with Glass Feet which Gail Harris and I loved!

Anne Perry, The Sheen on the Silk (2010)

Anne Perry, The Sheen on the Silk
This is an interesting book, similar to the Ariana Franklin books I have just finished reading. It is however all Perry - intricate plot, complex characters, intrigue, incredible detail and wonderful historic setting. Constantinople and Constantine 1100s. A girl who masquerades as a physician to restore her twin brother's name/reputation. A girl with a complicated past, uncertain present and nearly no future. Constantine is equally fascinating, leaving one wondering if he did indeed realise how corrupt he had become, and the implications of his power designs. And all those lost souls.

Shakespeare!

Today is the birthday of William Shakespeare! We have most of his works in various forms in the Bookstore, at incredible prices! Stop in and pick up a copy of the one you want to read now. Or preview the play/performance you will see later this summer in Winona, Twin Cities, Chicago, Madison, Canada, England... ;-)
And if you can find these books (outside of the Library!) I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Nye's take on Shakespeare both the Late Mr Shakespeare, and Mrs Shakespeare. They are gritty but full of historical detail in a new voice. The PBS special that Michael Palin did is still my favourite television programme about Shakespeare.
If any one is going to be in Chicago before the 6 June, the Chicago Shakespeare theatre is performing The Taming of the Shrew. It is brilliantly done, one of the only performances I have seen with a frame story (not the original, but a modern version written by Neil LaBute). There isn't a bad seat in this small theatre (on Navy Pier).