Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Q&A with author Daniella Brodsky


Bio:
Daniella Brodsky is the author of six novels published by Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster, one of which has been adapted by Disney as the film, Beauty & The Briefcase, starring Hilary Duff. Daniella teaches at ANU’s CCE and and at her Captain Cook Studio. A native New Yorker, she lives in Canberra, where she is writing her next novel, The Book Code, which has been awarded a 2012 Varuna fellowship.

Q.  What inspires your writing?

A.  I am fascinated by just about everything, and in my writing these days (a long way from Park Avenue!) this seems to come out in two main themes:  what makes us who we are, and the many ways in which stories affect our lives.

Q.  What is your favorite thing about being an author?

A.  I couldn’t be anything else.  Even when the writing doesn’t come easy (this happens sometimes!), it all feels right.  It’s the constant learning—about both life and the craft of writing—that makes the whole endeavor fascinating.

Q.  What is the toughest part of being an author?

A.  The business of selling books via agents and publishers.  The whole thing is offensively outdated and tipped against the interests of the authors.  But the amazing news is that people like you—who are democratizing the book industry—are changing the face of everything to strike a more natural balance.  It really is becoming about the most important thing:  the books that readers want.

Q.  If you could not be an author, what would you do/be?

A.   I teach a lot of writing courses, but I couldn’t do that without writing.  It really is a chosen calling.  If I had to go off and make some cash, I’d do something, anything, but I’d still wake up in the morning and write.

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

A.  Wow that’s a difficult question!!!  The Unexpected, most likely.

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A.  Impossible to answer.  I love so many books and read all the time—of all types and by all different authors.  Some of my current favorites are Lorrie Moore, Malcolm Knox, and Jennifer Egan.

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A.  I wouldn’t say I’m too much like any character, reason being that characters are composites, most often, and as soon as they come alive, they’re as individual as we are.  But I will say this:  when Bridget Jones’s Diary first came out, back in the nineties, I remember being blown away by finally reading an adult book that seemed to be so truly and authentically about people like me.  The fact that readers found that kind of character and story fascinating certainly had an effect on my writing.

Q.  What character from all of your book(s) are you most like?

A.  None, truly.  You may start with a personal feeling or conflict and filter their experiences through the lens of our own, but the truth is, us real folks don’t actually make for compelling fiction, and even if we did, our character—once we’ve fleshed her out—wouldn’t want us interfering.

Q.  What is your favorite season?

A.  Summer!  And thankfully, I now get to live in Australia, where that lasts a lot longer.

Q.  Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book(s).

A.   I’ll never forget my first book reading.  My whole family came, and all my friends.  Krispy Kreme sponsored it (yum!!), and I couldn’t have been more nervous/excited.  I had just published the book, but there was already one reader who had emailed me and told me she was a fan.  She came to the event.  And so the whole night my family kept going up to me and saying, “Have you seen your fan?”  It was so funny—having only the one!!!  Times have changed, and for that I’m so grateful—especially to her!  She was the first.

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A.  Yes.  It’s called The Book Code, and combining those two themes I mention above, this is the story of a family matriarch who decides to stop speaking.  Instead, she will only communicate with her daughter through a cherished storybook they had spent so much time reading together years before.  Everyone wants to know why, and in the process we learn about the power of language, of story, and just what it is that makes it so personally evocative to each of us.

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A.  Good on you for investigating what books are out there—and not simply relying on paid promotions on amazon, or the highly-publicized books (about one in a thousand—non-scientific figure) that actually get covered in the mainstream media.  It is YOU who will change the face of fiction offerings, and that will have a wonderful impact on the kind of artistic freedom novelists can finally enjoy.  Thank you!



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Monday, January 30, 2012

World Book Night

I just applied to be part of World Book Night.  I hope I am selected to be part of this wonderful event to get people to read!  I will keep you all posted!  Fingers Crossed!
Welcome to World Book Night
We need book-loving volunteers to fan out across America on April 23, 2012! Just take 20 free copies of a book to a location in your community, and you just might change someone's life. Please sign up by Feb. 1. The goal is to give books to new readers, to encourage reading, to share your passion for a great book. The entire publishing, bookstore, library, author, printing, and paper community is behind this effort with donated services and time.  The first World Book Night was held in the UK last year, and it was such a big success that it's spreading around the world! Please volunteer to be a book giver in the U.S. Sign up now to be a book giver.

What is World Book Night?  

The first World Book Night was held in the UK last year, and it was such a big success that it's spreading around the world! Please volunteer to be a book giver in the U.S. Sign up now to be a book giver.World Book Night is an annual celebration designed to spread a love of reading and books. To be held in the U.S. as well as the U.K. and Ireland on April 23, 2012. It will see tens of thousands of people go out into their communities to spread the joy and love of reading by giving out free World Book Night paperbacks.

World Book Night, through social media and traditional publicity, will also promote the value of reading, of printed books, and of bookstores and libraries to everyone year-round.

Successfully launched in the U.K. in 2011,
 World Book Night will also be celebrated in the U.S. in 2012, with news of more countries to come in future years. Please join our mailing list for regular World Book Night U.S. news. And thank you to our U.K. friends for such a wonderful idea!

Additionally, April 23 is UNESCO’s World Book Day, chosen due to the anniversary of Cervantes’ death, as well as Shakespeare’s birth and death.

This site exists in order to learn more about
 World Book Night and to keep updated on new developments – and most important, to register to be a World Book Night U.S. book giver.

Want to apply too?  Click HERE

REVIEW: SOMEBODY ELSE'S LIFE by Katie Dale

My Review:
Well, for this review I am not sure where to start.  I truly enjoyed SOMEBODY ELSE'S LIFE, but it was an emotional read.  The story starts a short time after Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from  Huntington's Disease.  Rosie, still grief stricken by her mother's death, is then devastated by news that will change the entire course of her whole life.   For months, Rosie watched her mother deteriorate before her eyes all the while wondering if she would meet the same end.  SOMEBODY ELSE'S LIFE takes you on a journey from England to the United States in search of the some hard learned truths, choices and consequences.  I found myself engulfed in this book.  I felt personally invested in the outcome of the story.  Katie Dale has been compared by some to Jodi Picoult.  There is a level of truth to that comparison.  I love books that tackle the hard subjects and inform at the same time.  I highly recommend SOMEBODY ELSE'S LIFE. 

Someone Else's Life

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2012

When 17-year-old Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was destined to die.

Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the most heart breaking and far-reaching of all.




To buy SOMEBODY ELSE'S LIFE click HERE
To see more on Katie Dale click HERE

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Poem Showcase

From:

famous poetry and poets

famouspoetryandpoets.com




Written by: Robert Frost
Frost, Robert


An American poet. One of the foremost poets of the 20th century.


The Road Not Taken



TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, 
And sorry I could not travel both 
And be one traveler, long I stood 
And looked down one as far as I could 
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair, 
And having perhaps the better claim 
Because it was grassy and wanted wear; 
Though as for that, the passing there 
Had worn them really about the same, 

And both that morning equally lay 
In leaves no step had trodden black. 
Oh, I marked the first for another day! 
Yet knowing how way leads on to way 
I doubted if I should ever come back. 

I shall be telling this with a sigh 
Somewhere ages and ages hence: 
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, 
I took the one less traveled by, 
And that has made all the difference. 
To see it at famouspoetryandpoets.com

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Books of a Feather: The Best Bird Books

NOTE:  I love birds.  I love the freedom they represent.  I love that there are so many different kinds of birds.  I never tire of seeing bald eagles flying by the river or a chance sighting of an owl.  There is beauty in nature and if we all took of few moments to notice we would all be a bit happier.  Enjoy!


TO GO TO ABEBOOKS.COM CLICK HERE



AbeBooks.com  Passion for Books.



The Herring Gull's World: A Study of the Social Behaviour of Birds by Niko Tinbergen (1953)

Although birds are everywhere, too few people own an ornithological book. This particular genre owes much to The Birds of North America (1827-1839) by John James Audubon. It is the most famous of all ornithological works and in December 2010 a copy sold at auction for $11.5 million - a record price for a single printed book. Audubon’s paintings are considered a high point of book art and yet he also contributed much to the discipline of ornithology by discovering 25 new species.
Bird books cover every continent and every species, and the content matter ranges from tiny hummingbirds to nine-foot ostriches. These books include drawings, paintings and photography as well as guides to identification and descriptions of their habitats. Even a small collection of bird books can take you around the world from the hedgerow finches of Britain to the desert owls of Southern Africa and the soaring eagles of Western Canada.
Although birds play a major role in folklore, myths, and popular culture, this selection of books concentrates on their beauty and showcases mainly educational books from the past 120 years. Many copies are highly affordable.
A Flock of Bird Books

Birds of Colorado by Alfred M. Bailey & Robert J. Niedrach (1965)
Birds of Colorado
by Alfred M. Bailey & Robert J. Niedrach (1965)

Covers 420 species. Published by Denver Museum of Natural History.


The Bird Paintings of C. G. Finch-Davies by Alan Kemp (1984)
The Bird Paintings of C. G. Finch-Davies
by Alan Kemp (1984)

100 full page color reproductions of illustrations with descriptive text on the opposite page.


The Wren by Edward A Armstrong (1955)
The Wren
by Edward A Armstrong (1955)

New Naturalist Series, 20 b/w photographs and 41 drawings and diagrams.


Birds and Men by E.M. Nicholson (1951)
Birds and Men
by E.M. Nicholson (1951)

42 color photos by Eric Hosking and others.


Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland by J. N. Dymond et al (1989)
Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland
by J. N. Dymond et al (1989)

More than 300 species from 1958-1985.



Birds of Canada by Earl Godfrey (1966)
Birds of Canada
by Earl Godfrey (1966)

Color illustrations by John A. Crosby and line drawings by S.D. MacDonald.




A Guide to the Birds of Ceylon by G.M. Henry (1979)
A Guide to the Birds of Ceylon
by G.M. Henry (1979)

30 half-tone plates of which 27 are colored, 124 black and white drawings.


George Edward Lodge Unpublished Bird Paintings by C.A. Fleming (1983)
George Edward Lodge Unpublished Bird Paintings
by C.A. Fleming (1983)

89 watercolors reproduced in full color as full-page plates.


British Birds and Their Eggs: With a New Method of Identification by J Maclair Boraston (1909)
British Birds and Their Eggs: With a New Method of Identification
by J Maclair Boraston (1909)

by J Maclair Boraston (1909)


Bird World: A Book for Children by J.H. Stickney (1898)
Bird World: A Book for Children
by J.H. Stickney (1898)

Illustrated with B&W sketches by Ernest Seton Thompson.



British Sporting Birds by F.B. Kirkman & Horace G. Hutchinson
British Sporting Birds
by F.B. Kirkman & Horace G. Hutchinson

Curlew, duck, goose, grouse, mallard, partridge, pheasant, pigeon, plover & more.


Familiar Wild Birds by Walter Swaysland (1883)
Familiar Wild Birds
by Walter Swaysland (1883)

Four volumes. Reprinted several times. Illustrated by A. Thorburn.


The Folklore of Birds by Edward A. Armstrong (1958)
The Folklore of Birds
by Edward A. Armstrong (1958)

New Naturalist series – an examination of ancient bird beliefs with photos and illustrations.


The Glorious Grouse: The Natural and Unnatural History by Brian P. Martin (1990)
The Glorious Grouse: The Natural and Unnatural History
by Brian P. Martin (1990)

Shooting, natural history and game keeping, history and development of the grouse moors.


A Guide to the Birds of Colombia by Steven L. Hilty & William L. Brown (1986)
A Guide to the Birds of Colombia
by Steven L. Hilty & William L. Brown (1986)

Nearly 1,700 species and more than half of all the species of birds in South America.



Birds in Town and Village W.H. Hudson (1919)
Birds in Town and Village
by W.H. Hudson (1919)

8 full-page color plates by legendary illustrator E.J. Detmold


The Book of Indian Birds by Salim Ali (1941)
The Book of Indian Birds
by Salim Ali (1941)

Published by the Bombay Natural History Society, 66 color plates, 22 b/w plates


At the Turn of the Tide: A Book of Wild Birds by Richard Perry (1938)
At the Turn of the Tide: A Book of Wild Birds
by Richard Perry (1938)

Waterside birds - wild geese, wading birds, terns & gulls, petrels & shearwaters, & more.


Birds: The Paintings of Terance James Bond by Terance J. Bond (1989)
Birds: The Paintings of Terance James Bond
by Terance J. Bond (1989)

Fabulous illustrations by one of the great ornithological painters.


The Living Bird by Mary Heimerdinger Clench

The Living Bird
by Mary Heimerdinger Clench

An annual published by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology


Birds of the Bible by Gene Stratton-Porter (1909)


by Gene Stratton-Porter (1909)

81 full page photo illustrations by the author.



Bird Life in Cornwall by B.H. Ryves (1948)
by B.H. Ryves (1948)

16 pen and ink drawings by R. A. Richardson. Took author 27 years of study to compile.



Birds: The Art of Ornithology by Jonathan Elphick (2005)
Birds: The Art of Ornithology
by Jonathan Elphick (2005)

Classic ornithological art from London’s Natural History Museum spanning six centuries


The Owls of Southern Africa by Alan Kemp & Alan Calburn (1987)
The Owls of Southern Africa
by Alan Kemp & Alan Calburn (1987)

A monograph on the 12 species that inhabit the southern African sub-region.


Hummingbirds of Costa Rica by Michael Fogden (2006)
Hummingbirds of Costa Rica
by Michael Fogden (2006)

Features 44 of the 45 species of hummers that inhabit Costa Rica.
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