Friday, January 30th, Former President Jimmy Carter is scheduled to be at the Books-A-Million in Brookwood Mall signing his latest book We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land. I couldn’t find where you could reserve copies in advance, but he’s scheduled to be there at 7 p.m.
As big a fan of the printed word as I am, I admit that there is just something to be said for getting to hear an author speak. Even if you don’t listen to what all is said, just listening to the accent, voice, etc. is fun. So even after all the little Nabokov bios I’ve read over the years, I really enjoyed this video posted to video.thirteen:
{hat-tip to whoever posted this to Twitter, sorry I can’t find you now}
The Literary Review has released the shortlist for this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction award. The award is designed to
“…gently dissuading authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels”.
Here is the shortlist, in full:
James Buchan for The Gate of Air
Simon Montefiore for Sashenka
John Updike for The Widows of Eastwick
Kathy Lette for To Love, Honour and Betray
Alastair Campbell for All in the Mind
Rachel Johnson for Shire Hell
Isabel Fonseca for Attachment
Ann Allestree for Triptych of a Young Wolf
Russell Banks for The Reserve
Paulo Coelho for Brida
Last year’s winner was Norman Mailer and it was well deserved. This year’s winner will be awarded the Plaster Foot award November 25th.
{the Guardian}
BookTV has re-posted an appearance Bill Bryson did back in 2003 when he was traveling to promote his then-new A Short History of Nearly Everything. You’ll need the Real Player to watch, but he always makes me laugh.
