Madeline Miller's debut, The Song of Achilles, drowns out seasoned voices to take the 2012 Orange prize for fiction. And here's Miller on why the classics deserve their revival.
Turns out the recipient of what would no longer be known as the Orange prize is a "breastplate-ripping romp" that "often reads like homoerotic slash fiction".
Somehow this 'revived classic' reminds me of the mouth-to-mouth Stephenie Meyer - among others - gave to vampire fiction. But maybe it's, you know ... a good book. Keep and open mind, keep and open mind...
1 Idea from Ms Margaret Howie at the Bookslut blog.
The "B" word
ZI Publications will challenge the seizure and ban of the Malay translation of Allah, Love and Liberty by Irshad Manji (can't they keep the L-word out of this?), as well as the arrest of its director. It seems they may file several lawsuits against the authorities.
On a kind-of-related note, here's Salman Rushdie - of all people - talking about censorship. At least it's a topic he should be familiar with.
More recently, at the 2012 Telegraph Hay Festival, he talked about security and what is arguably his most controversial book. He also had this to say: "It's the people who love books that make them last, not the people who attack them."
Seeds of change?
Here's a review of Michelle Obama's American Grown, a book about a garden, eating healthy and raising healthy kids.
When the FLOTUS planted a garden in the White House compound, an agricultural lobby group reportedly wrote a letter to her reminding her of how Big Ag feeds America, etc. But perhaps, back then, they were not as worried about Americans turning to organic home gardens instead of commercially grown crops as the fact that the White House chef is Sam Kass.
And The Daily Beast thinks the "Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim" crowd won't be pleased that there's a recipe in the book for "braised pork shoulder".
Other news
- Oprah's Book Club returns with "Wild", by Cheryl Strayed. When Slate introduced a monthly books section, Strayed's was one of the books to be reviewed there.
- Terry Pratchett's Snuff gets PG Wodehouse prize. But what makes a classic - book prizes or time? A prizewinner ponders the question.
- Reading for the rushed: maximising reading times and motivation. May be good for bogged-down book reviewers....
- Can't write your book? Blook it, says Nina Amir.
- Giving the game away: Readers gnash teeth over Stanley Fish's spoileriffic piece on The Hunger Games. Fish justifies his piece.
- An essay on the future of book cover design. Would be better with a more straightforward layout....
- Ashok K Banker's remarkable childhood and road to publication. Would've loved to read more of that, though. Also: Indian author Rupa Bajwa on her second book, Tell Me a Story.
- Eight free, "terrible" titles show why Kindle is no writer's gold mine.
- Publishers Penguin and MacMillan hit back at e-book price-fixing charges.
- Five things they may be talking about at BookExpo America in New York City.
- Why the book industry hasn't suffered as much as the music industry - so far.
Categories:
Book Marks
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Got something to say? Great!