Spring is here!

How do I know? There have been a few clues. First, we have had glorious weather the past few days and the flowers are blooming. Second, Madonna stopped by the Hamptons to go horse back riding, fell off, and was taken to our local hospital. Then, as I was leaving work yesterday evening, I slowed my car as I drove through the library parking lot for an attractive older gentleman in a white suit. Yup, Tom is back. For me, this means spring!

It's time to pull out my hammock. This is where I do the majority of my reading in the spring, summer and fall. My dog lies in the sun and I gently rock and turn the pages. It's heaven in my back yard. And I better get that hammock up quick: I have a lot to read!

A story: when I was in elementary school the school Librarian told us that an author was coming to visit our school. A real, live author! I had never met an author before and I was so excited (things never change). I got a copy of the book, called Where It Stops Nobody Knows by Amy Ehrlich. It was a great book and I have vivid memories of listening to a REAL, LIVE author talking to my school. Recently, I was thinking about this book and wanted to read it again. None of the libraries in my library system had it. I checked amazon.com and there were a few used copies available but it seemed to be out of print. I was bummed, so I googled around the Internet, looking for information on Amy Ehrlich. I remember from her visit that she had said she wanted to name the book Joyride but that the publisher had changed it to Where It Stops Nobody Knows and that blew my mind - it never occurred to me that an author might not have complete control of their book. Suddenly, I came across an interview with Amy Ehrlich, who was talking about her book Joyride. Huh? Did she like the title so much that she used it on another book? As I read on, it seemed the plot of this Joyride was the same as the plot of my well-remembered and well-loved book. I clicked back to the library online catalog as quick as I could, and searched for Joyride. Bingo. Then I looked in amazon.com again. There it is. With a cool new-millennium cover. So Amy Ehrlich finally got her way after all, and republished her book with the title she preferred. I have the book in my hands now and I can't wait to reread it. It may have a new title and a new jacket, but it is the same book I read 20 years ago. And I can't wait to get on my hammock and take the joyride again.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Pulitzers and Oranges!

The Pulitzers were announced yesterday, as well as the shortlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction. This information was cut and paste (stolen) from Shelf Awareness.

Book-related winners and finalists for the Pulitzer Prize were announced yesterday. The winners are:

Fiction: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Drama: Ruined by Lynn Nottage (not yet published)

History: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed

Biography: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham

Poetry: The Shadow of Sirius by W. S. Merwin

General Nonfiction: Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon


The shortlist for this year's £30,000 (US$43,701) Orange Prize for Fiction has been named and chair of judges Fi Glover said, "We were right down to the wire on several of the books and choosing just six was far harder than I had imagined, but we all left the judging room proud of the list we have chosen. We have stretched our heads getting to this shortlist," the Guardian reported.

The Orange Prize finalists are:

Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman

The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt

Molly Fox's Birthday by Deidre Madden

Home by Marilynne Robinson

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie

The winner will be announced June 3.

This is a blog.

At the Reference Desk this weekend, a women runs up and wants to know how she can print an article from the computer. This is a question we get a lot, so I get up to help her. She begins to tell me, in a very concerned voice, about this horrible and scary thing that is happening (it involves international politics, and I won't get into it here). She is offering to make me copies of this article, and how no one seems to know what is happening, and it is so scary, and on and on. A partial quote is, "Can you believe this? I found it on the Internet!"

When I get to her computer, her and her husband are pointing, enraged, at this article. It has a cute orange "B" logo in the upper right corner, and the web address is blankyblank.blogspot.com. It's a blog. Someone, like me, is sitting somewhere writing whatever they want and posting it. It's a very simple process really, and there is absolutely no policing, editing, or verifying the content.

Aliens are attacking.

Fact? No. But according to many of my patrons, since it is in print, on the Internet, it MUST be true.

So Many Books, So Little Time (to blog)

Oh, I've been reading. I've been a reading maniac. Let me tell you what I've enjoyed.

My friend Heidi was right. I did get my hands on an advanced copy of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.



This book will be released on April 30, coincidentally, the day I will be seeing Ms. Waters in NYC! This book is different from Water's other historical novels: it is a slow, creepy, slightly supernatural novel. It has her astonishing writing and detailed historical accuracy but feels like an old-fashioned novel - which is a good thing! I just think she may lose some of her fans, even if she picks up more hard-core historical fiction fans (as she did with Night Watch). In the realm of "Sarah Waters novels" it is a very good book. In the realm of "all novels" it is exceptional. I stayed in bed for 12 hours straight with this book, slowly reading and absorbing the expertly drawn characters and constantly being surprised by the subtle historical details that just suck you into a time and place.

After Waters, Trigiani felt like a shock. I read Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani and, after shifting gears and getting used to the severe genre change, very much enjoyed it.



Valentine is one of three daughters in an Italian-American family in New York. She runs the family business with her grandmom - get this - making shoes! Of course, times have changed since they opened in Greenich Village in 1903 and the business is drowning in debt. Valentine is asked by Bergdorf Goodman to compete for the opportunity to have her custom designed and custom made shoes grace the Christmas window displays. She is up against huge names (Prada among others) and this could make or break the family business. Add a trip to Italy, an on-again, off-again New York boyfriend and the possibility of a fling in Italy, plus some family drama and surprises and it makes for a really satisfying, quick read. This is the first of a new trilogy and is cute, stylish and fun.

I've discovered two new authors that I cannot get enough of. The first is Simon van Booy, a British short story writer who will be giving a talk at my library in early summer. While he edits books of philosophy and is working on a children's book and a novel, his two books of short stories is what really caught me. His first, The Secret Lives of People In Love, takes place all over the globe but deals with themes that effect everyone: love, loss, loneliness.



His next collection of short stories, out in June, is titled Love Begins in Winter.

My other new favorite is a Canadian writer named Helen Humphreys. I only took her new book - The Frozen Thames - out of the library because, well, it was about the Thames.
But it turns out, that didn't matter. This is a writer so skilled at short stories, that she could write about doorknobs and it would be beautiful and fascinating. The Frozen Thames is forty short stories - the Thames has frozen forty times - that touch on what was happening in London during each freeze. The point of view is always different - sometimes royalty, sometimes peasants, sometimes children, sometimes third person. The stories are very short but incredible effective. Each story is based on facts from Humphrey's research.



When I discovered that Humphreys has been publishing books since the late 1990s, I was thrilled! I grabbed Wild Dogs next from the library (which is rumored to be on its way to Hollywood) and I can't wait to start it.

“After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer’s breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer - perhaps more.”
This was a new approach; I mulled the idea around in my head.
“Really?” I replied, slightly doubtfully.
“Of course!” Snell laughed. “Surf pounding the shingle wouldn’t mean diddly unless you’d seen the waves cascade onto the foreshore, or felt the breakers tremble the beach beneath your feet, now would it?”
“I suppose not.”
“Books” - Snell smiled - “are a kind of magic.”

From The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde.