2009 Man Booker Prize Announced Tuesday

Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall is the 2009 winner of the Man Booker Prize.

It is described on the Man Booker website as “a truly great English novel,” and is the story of Thomas Cromwell, an adviser to King Henry VIII, who must confront the political chaos that ensues after the king’s decision to divorce Catherine of Aragon. Cromwell is depicted as a complex, powerful, and enlightened figure in a historical period that still fascinates us today.

Wolf Hall had been the frontrunner on the short list, but surprised many in being named the winner; apparently, it is unusual for the favorite to win the top prize.

The novel is currently on order in PPLS, and has a short list of holds. For more information on the prize and author, see the Man Booker Prize website at www.themanbookerprize.com.

National Novel Writing Month

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

National Novel Writing Month

Some of you may know that November is National Novel Writing month and here is a website and an opportunity to challenge us all.  I know it’s just September but this is such a cool idea I thought you all might need some extra time to wrap your brains around the concept.  For ten years now the NaNoWriMo folks have been giving people the opportunity to complete that one task that seems to be a part of all our make-up…write our own novel.  All you have to do is join (it’s free!) and all that is required is for you to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  It may sound daunting, heck it may sound impossible, but I for one am going to give it a try and I would encourage all of you to join me!

“No plot, no problem,” thats the motto and I can tell you from experience that the single toughest obstacle to writing anything, is finishing that sucker up.  Completion is the goal here; write, write, write; you have the rest of your life to edit but for 30 days just go FORWARD!  It doesn’t matter what you write…just that you write and tell a story; if the story makes sense, GREAT!  If the story needs some massaging when you’re finished, hey, are any of us REALLY all that busy in December anyway?  Besides, it’s always easier to edit what is already on paper than what exists only in our hopes and imaginations.

Check out the site, see what they offer in terms of support and encouragement; if it seems too much to tackle then no problem, nothing lost but a couple minutes.  However, if you decide to give it a whirl, I will be right there with you!  Look me up, I will be writing in the D/FW region under “bariumcrunch.”  I thought I might come up with a more clever pseudonym to write my first novel but I decided to save all my imagination for November, I have a feeling it’s going to come in handy.  Good luck and see you on the other side!

Man Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction was announced this week.

The six books on the shortlist are:

The Children’s Book by A. S. Byatt

Summertime by J. M. Coetzee

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger is the only title on the list currently available  in the United States and in PPLS.  A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall are on order. PPLS also owns other books by all of the authors on the list except Adam Foulds.

Publication in the United States of the titles by Coetzee, Foulds and Mawer hasn’t yet been announced.

British critics consider this a very strong shortlist. The current favorite to win the prize  is considered to be Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. The winner will be announced on October 6.

For more interesting information, visit the Man Booker Prize website at http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/shortlist.

Friends of the Plano Public Library Book Sale

26th ANNUAL BOOK SALE

Plano Centre

 2000 East Spring Creek Parkway

Plano, TX 

First Nighter Sale
Thursday, July 30
6-10pm
Entry fees: $5 Individual
$10 Family

Free Admission
Friday, July 31
9am-9pm

Saturday, August 1
9am-1pm

Books, DVDs, CDs, audio & video tapes—all $2 or less!

SEE YOU THERE!

Jane Green will be in Plano on July 9

Today’s post is from Cathe at Davis Library:

Bestselling novelist Jane Green will appear in Plano on Thursday, July 9.

Ms. Green, the author of Dune Road and The Beach House and other novels which have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, is sponsored by the St. Andrew Author Series at Plano’s St. Andrew United Methodist Church.

The free event begins at 7:30 PM, and will include a book-signing after the author’s talk.

Here are the details: 

Jane Green at St. Andrew United Methodist Church

Thursday, July 9, 7:30 – 9 PM

5801 W. Plano Parkway, Plano  75093

Festival Hall – Park in North Parking Lot, off Mira Vista Drive

For more information, call 469-385-1815.

Precious on HBO this Sunday

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library:

HBO is beginning a new series on Sundays at 8 pm — The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

Bringing to life Alexander McCall Smith’s series about the adventures of Precious Ramotswe, and Botswana’s first and only female-run detective agency, are the following actors: Jill Scott as Precious Ramotswe; Anika Noni Rose as Grace Makutsi; and Lucian Msamati as JLB Matekoni.

The series premiers Sunday, March 29, with a two-hour episode directed by the late Anthony Minghella and shot on location in Botswana.  For more information, visit the show’s website at www.hbo.com/no1ladiesdetectiveagency.

And if you’re interested in reading more about Precious, her agency and her friends, PPLS owns copies of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and later volumes in this popular series.

Christian Book Expo 2009

Christian Book Expo, March 19 – 22, 2009 at the Dallas Convention Center, will have more than 200 Christian authors signing books and speaking.  There’s a wide range of authors and subjects being discussed.  The Expo even provides a KidZone for kids from young to young teens.

If you enjoy meeting authors of your favorite Christian/Inspirational books, this is the place to be.  Some of the authors include Max Lucado, Janette Oke, Beverly Lewis, Deeanne Gist, Tracie Peterson, Terri Blackstock, Jerry Jenkins, Sheila Walsh, Mike Berenstain (Berenstain Bears series for kids), Denver Moore and many more.

Go to www.christianbookexpo.com to see everyone that will be there and all the scheduled events.

Arts and Letters Live

It’s Arts and Letters Live season!  Sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art and Friends of the Dallas Public Library among others, Arts and Letters Live is “a celebration of the literary and performing arts featuring acclaimed authors, actors, illustrators, musicians, and more.”  The celebration extends from January through June and every booklover will want to be on their mailing list because visits from well-known authors are the highlight of the program.  Details of the full season can be found here:  http://tinyurl.com/cwfu70

Some notable author appearances:

February 24, 7:30pm:  Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, Charles W. Eisemann Center,  Hill Performance Hall, 2351 Performance Drive,  Richardson, Texas 75082

March 6, 7:30pm:  Ian McEwan, author of Atonement, Amsterdam, and many other wonderful books.  Naomi Bruton Theater, Dallas Convention Center Complex, 650 S. Griffin Street, Dallas, Texas 75202

April 19, 7:30pm:  David Sedaris, Southern Methodist University, McFarlin Memorial Auditorium

June 15, 7:30pm:  Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants, Dallas Museum of Art.

Happy New Year 2009!

To all our visitors to the Plano libraries and to PlanoReads:

Happy reading, listening and watching in 2009!

At the sound of the ringing midnight bell

A brand new year will begin.

Let’s raise our hopes in a confident toast,

To the promise it ushers in.

(Author unknown)

 

Novel Destinations

Today’s post is from Cathe at Davis Library:

Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon

This is a wonderful National Geographic travel guide with a  delicious literary flavor, and it felt to me like eating popcorn–absolutely impossible to resist!

The authors describe themselves as “two lifelong voracious readers who share an equally passionate appetite for exploration,” and it’s their love of reading that makes this guide so interesting. They offer fascinating literary details and quotes from any number of books for each place they visit.

Part One: Travel by the Book  includes author homes and museums, book festivals, hotels and restaurants, and cemeteries in Europe and the United States. Part Two: Journeys Between the Pages describes locations identified with ten famous novelists, such as Louisa May Alcott, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, and Charles Dickens.

Shannon Schmidt will be in Dallas in June 2009 for an appearance in the Dallas Museum of Art’s Art and Letters Live series. Should be fun!