September 27, 2007
|  |  | phone: 541-754-7668 address: 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis, OR
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| | O'Connor International Short Story Award
| | | | | Miranda July's story collection, No One Belongs Here More Than You has won the third annual Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. July is both an author and filmmaker. She is co-author of Learning to Love You More and is best known for her film Me and You and Everyone We Know. The chairman of the judges, Pat Cotter, commented: "The award has been won by a book of original genius, a book which we believe will endure for a long time." The award was founded in memory of the late Frank O'Connor, one of the world's most renowned short story writers. Presented annually in O'Connor's hometown of Cork, Ireland, the award is given to the author of the book judged to be the best collection of English-language stories published in the previous year. No One Belongs Here More Than You
Hardcover, $23.00
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
ISBN-13: 9780743299398
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| Five Good Books
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The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
Artist to Artist 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art
How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like
Fire in the Blood
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Ann Patchett
This fifth novel by the author of the much-admired Bel Canto is engaging, surprising, provocative and moving. A snowstorm and traffic accident bring two families together unexpectedly, weaving together seemingly disparate lives to show how intimately humans can connect. This is a novel about what truly defines family and the lengths we will go to protect it. Hardcover, $25.95
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN-13: 9780061340635
| | | | | | The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War David Halberstam
The three-year Korean Conflict (1950-53) has been called "the century's nastiest little war" but it is also for many Americans a relatively forgotten war. David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest was a defining book for the Vietnam War. Now, Halberstam used his superb research and journalistic skills to shed light on this dark corner of history. At the heart of the book are the individual stories of the soldiers on the front lines who were left to deal with the consequences of the dangerous misjudgments and competing agendas of powerful men. Hardcover, $35.00
Publisher: Hyperion, ISBN-13: 9781401300524
| | | | | | Artist to Artist 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art Anthology (multiple authors)
In this beautiful anthology, twenty-three of the most honored and beloved artists in children's literature talk informally to children, sharing secrets about their art and how they began their adventures into illustration. Fold-out pages feature photographs of their early work, their studios and materials, and preliminary sketches. This is a feast for the eye that will attract both children and adults. Hardcover, $30.00
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group; ISBN-13: 9780399246005
| | | | | | How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Michael Gates Gill
In his fifties, Michael Gates Gill had a big house, loving family, and a six-figure salary. By the time he turned sixty, he was jobless, divorced, and diagnosed with a slow-growing brain tumor. When a Starbucks store manager half-jokingly offered him a job, he took it. He was the only middle age white guy working with a team of young African-Americans, who related to him with kindness and friendship. Through Gill's eyes, we see the wonders of what can happen when people reach out across race, class, and age divisions to help a fellow human being. Hardcover, $23.00
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA); ISBN-13: 9781592402861
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Irene Nemirovsky, Sandra Smith (Translator)
When Irène Némirovsky (1903-42) wrote this novel, it was perhaps the first literary work written about World War II. But it remained unpublished for more than 60 years. When her unfinished Suite Française was finally released, it became an international bestseller. Now, this complete novel has surfaced. The best guess is that Nemirovsky (1903-1942) worked on this novel between 1938 and 1942, when she was deported to Auschwitz, where she perished. Set in provincial France, Fire in the Blood is a story of personal conflicts, hidden motives, and the brief yet passionate loves and infidelities of youth. Hardcover, $22.00
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN-13: 9780307267481
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| For Young Artists
| | | | | If you have a young artist in the family, check out the Artist to Artist contest. The contest is open to children ages 6-9, and entries can be submitted through a school, library or bookstore. The deadline is Jan 4, 2008. To enter, children submit a self portrait on an 8-1/2in. x 11in. sheet of paper, using any medium they choose. To learn more about the contest, which is sponsored by the publishers Penguin Group (the publishers of the book Artist to Artist, reviewed in this week's Five Good Books), visit: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/enter/enter_artisttoartist.html | | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
| Music
| | |      | | | | Washington Square Serenade Steve Earle $16.95
Genre: Folk
Earle now lives in New York City, and Washington Square Serenade deals in part with the sights and sounds of his new hometown. This is Earle's twelfth studio album and his first in three years. The music owes more to the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene than current day NashVegas. He even brings in Latin rhythms for a few tracks, courtesy of the Brazilian act Forro in the Dark.
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Joni Mitchel $18.95
Genre: Folk
Having turned her back on the recording industry years ago, Mitchell has now returned to the studio to make an album that rings with personal conviction and quiet intensity. In addition to the new smart, jazz-tinged, adult contemporary songs, she's includes an updated version of her first hit, "Big Yellow Taxi." Mitchell plays piano, guitar, and does all the other instrumentation and arrangements herself.
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Sweet Honey in the Rock $17.95
Genre: Folk
This cappella African American women's group is a longtime favorite. Experience 101 is aimed at the young person's market, but crosses over with its appealing mix of folk, blues, gospel and rap.
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Chris Botti $13.95
Genre: Jazz/Blues
Smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti pays homage to his Italian roots on an album of plush love themes and Neapolitan songs. In addition to a tune featuring Andrea Bocelli, Botti was able to record a duet with the late Dean Martin.
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Iron & Wine $15.95
Genre: Folk
Sam Beam's musical reach has expanded from his earliest bare-bones recordings. Here Beam surrounds himself with a large cast of musicians and they blanket the songs with a wide array of instrumentation. Critics say it's their best, most diverse and listenable record yet.
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| | This is a busy week for new albums. Here are five more new albums:
- In Our Nature
Jose Gonzalez,$14.95
Hushed, intimate tunes accompanied by acoustic guitar.
Genre: Folk
- Afriki
Habib Koite, $16.95
Explores the traditional music of Mali.
Genre: Ethnic/World
- Dial M for Mantra
Jai Uttal, $17.95
One of the foremost Western practitioners of kirtan (ecstatic chant) peppers his hymns with bits of electronica.
Genre: Ethnic/World
- River: The Joni Letters
Herbie Hancock, $18.95
One of jazz music's legendary piano innovators turns his attention to the music of Joni Mitchell.
Genre: Jazz/Blues
- Brazil
LAGQ, $17.95
The popular Los Angeles Guitar Quartet applies its strings to Brazilian favorites, popular and classical.
Genre: Classical
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| The Vanishing Hyphen
| | | | | It's small. It's flat. And it's been around at least since the birth of the printing press. And according to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, its numbers are shrinking. Welcome to the dwindling world of the hyphen. The sixth edition of the dictionary has eliminated hyphens from 16,000 words, many of them compound nouns. Fig-leaf is now fig leaf, pot-belly is now pot belly, pigeon-hole has finally achieved one word status as pigeonhole and leap-frog is united as leapfrog. Then, there's bumblebee, chickpea, and test tube. OUP stated that the elimination of hyphens was in part motivated by the practices of emailing and text messaging (note: not e-mailing and text-messaging!). An analysis that compared hyphen usage in a range of publications in 1961 and 1991 suggested a 5% decline in hyphenating over three decades. While the hyphens are suffering, words themselves are a growing commodity. New (hyphen-less) terms in this edition include biosecurity, webinar, and carbon footprint. (Editor's note: my spellchecker (one word) flagged "hyphenless.") | | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
| Upcoming Event - The Poetry of Sarah Lantz
| | | | | Grass Roots and Calyx Books present: The poetry of Sarah LantzMonday October 8 - 7 pm ArtCentric (Corvallis Arts Center) Margarita Donnally will be reading on behalf of Sarah, who passed away before her book, Far Beyond Triage, was published (but after she received her copy of the finished galley). This collection of deeply spiritual poetry explores the longings of the soul and tests the boundary between the living world and the ethereal. The poems express complex emotions in an accessible way and describe a world in which small, ordinary moments possess elements of divinity. This event is part of the continuing Northwest Writers series hosted by ArtCentric. | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
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