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By Redford & Nikita

Translated by Jen Quigley, Sales Associate, and Betsy DeJesu, Publicity Manager

Welcome to round two. Last week you met Redford and Nikita. Two brave souls attempting to bridge the gap between dogs and cats. As our two volunteers continue to explore their common love of literature, we are quickly learning that the written word does more than just spark conversation for your book club.

Redford: Nikita!!!! Nikita, Nikita. (Redford lies down and licks his paws). Thanks for agreeing to meet with me again. Last time I ate your catnip so…. (Redford knocks over his food bowl…but it is empty…sigh).

Nikita: Hello, Redford. Nice to…see you again. I was told that I should say that I’m excited to be here and to discuss all things literary. So there, I said it. Are you…listening to me?

Redford: Wait, what? Squirrel! (Panting)

Nikita: That sounds about right.

Redford: Okay, sorry I’m ready now. Let’s start off with the question on everyone’s mind. Number one book that tickles your whiskers.

Nikita: Just one? Well, for the sake of this interview, I suppose I could choose just one…I’ll say the most recent book to make my whiskers shake was The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. It’s the story of an elderly lady, who served as a maid to an aristocratic family in England in the years before, during, and after World War I. She was the same age as the family’s two youngest daughters, and she kept some of their darkest secrets, including the truth about what really happened the night the man both sisters loved killed himself. The book vividly recreates the whole flapper, high society generation that took over post-World War I. And there is a mystery to boot. If there had been a cat in the book, then it would have been perfect.

Redford: Coolness! Now let’s talk character. Right now, you and I are living the dream. Taking naps, chasing squirrels, pawing at things…Tell me Miss Nikita, if you had to do it all over again which literary character would you choose to live as? Person, cat, dog, jellyfish…be honest.

Nikita: Jordan from The Great Gatsby. But with less cheating at golf.

Redford: When did you first discover your love of books?

Nikita: From a very young age. When I wasn’t chasing feathers on the end of a string or trying to hide in closets, I always had a book in my paws. Reading is fundamental, people!

Redford: Author you’d like to share a yarn ball with?

Nikita: I’ll stick with the flapper theme and say F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. They knew how to have a good time.

Redford: How do you feel about…Squirrel! Did you see it? Right there…he just…(Panting). How do you feel about those books with no pages? I think my person call them eReaders?

Nikita: They would be easier for me, I suppose, since I don’t have thumbs, and it’s hard to flip through pages without them. But I do love to curl up and take a nap on a good book. Nothing beats sleeping on warm paper.

Redford: Cool, cool. I still want to be an astronaut when I grow up…

Nikita: Of course you do.

Redford: Word of day?

Nikita: Felis cattus.

Redford: Thanks Nikita. I’d like to think that over the past two weeks you and I have brought closure to the mindless battle between cats and pups…well at least when it comes to paper…Pl

By Nikita & Redford

Translated by Jen Quigley, Sales Associate, and Betsy DeJesu, Publicity Manager

Though the 2010 World Cup has drawn to a close, there is a very important lesson we can glean from that spectacular, month-long, global soccer match. And not just that vuvuzelas are very ear-splittingly loud. Instead, the World Cup has shown us that despite our many differences—of geography, culture, languages, time zones, and beers of choice—there are still certain things that can bring together even the most opposite of peoples.

In that spirit of unity, then, we wanted to foster a partnership between two of the world’s most, shall we say, unfriendly beings. We’re not talking about Team Jacob vs. Team Edward or the Yankees vs. Red Sox vendetta. We’re talking about the real deal. That’s right. Dogs and cats.

Though typically considered enemies and many times relegated to different parts of the yard, we are here today to take the first steps to bridge the gap between our species. Representing for canines will be Redford, and weighing in for the feline perspective will be Nikita. Redford and Nikita have agreed to meet on neutral territory to open up a dialogue and see if they can find some common ground for their people to run around on.

Nikita: Hello, Redford. Thank you for agreeing to this meeting. Please disregard the copious amounts of catnip I have sprinkled on the floor. It keeps me grounded during situations like this.

Redford: (Silence…Redford looks up from eating catnip off the floor). Bone. Cat. Squirrel. (more chewing).

Nikita: Let’s start. I figured that since we are both big readers, we could discuss our love of the written word.

Redford: I like book. Smells good. Tastes even better. Squirrel!!! (Redford takes off and returns several moments later out of breathe.) I like book. (Panting….)

Nikita: Great. First question: What recent book, in your opinion, deserves two paws up and a tail wag?

Redford: Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain. Paws down. Stein took it to another level with this one. Intellectual pups, race cars, rain puddles and a bunch of tail wagging moments between person and dog. Truly an empowering moment for any young canine after reading this book. I mean, it’s our job to take care of our people and any person, cat or dog that thinks otherwise can duke it out with Mr. Stein.

Nikita: Who is your favorite character in literary fiction and why? It’s okay if it is a human. Or a cat. No one will judge.

Redford: Does the squirrel sitting outside that window count….

Nikita: What was your favorite book when you were a puppy?

Redford: That monkey, George. I like him. Yellow Hat. Hugs. Monkey.

Nikita: Blog vs. print?

Redford: Bone. Wait, what? Oh sorry. My little legs prevent me from reaching the computer screen. Print. Read it. Eat it. Pee on it. Enjoy it.

Nikita: Steampunk or YA fiction?

Redford: When I grow up I’m going to be an astronaut. (Redford lies down to lick his paws and scrounges for catnip crumbs,)

Nikita: Thank you for your time, Redford. I hope thi

By Stuie

as narrated to Susan Fensten, Senior Publicist

I’m often understandably mistaken for a Pomeranian. We are cousins. I am a 4 year-old German Spitz Klein [small Spitz] and I was adopted by my human friend at BARC Shelter in Williamsburg. It was love at first sight.

But don’t let my silky fur and cute, little cookie face fool you, when it comes to reading I’m dead serious. Life is too short and there’s no time for fiction. I’m a true crime lover. There’s nothing better than curling up on my pillow spending hours lost in the fervor of a terrifying crime spree and its aftermath. The excitement, the fear, the victim/s, the suspect/s, the cops, the investigation, I love it. Then ultimately the trial and surprise verdict keeps me turning the pages.

Murder is the territory and the idle, filthy rich are the adventurers in this unique true crime story. Savage Grace: The True Story of Fatal Relations in a Rich and Famous American Family by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L. Aronson. Born into staggering wealth and privilege, Tony Baekland’s fate was sealed by the very elements which propelled him throughout his tragic life. His grandfather was the inventor of plastic, bakelite it was called, in its early form. A suffocating, beautiful mother, Barbara and a critical, distant and demanding father Brooks Baekland both lit the fuse that would later shock the world elite, the beautiful people. Poor unfortunate Tony. What could he do? Nothing, except to maybe put an end to all of the noise in his mind.

The book is told entirely through actual correspondence between family members and their wheel-heeled, well off friends. The Baeklands trundled aimlessly to the glamorous ports of the world, staying only for short spates before pushing on, writing mountains of letters, ever rambling. Chasing endless pursuits each more futile than the one before it. In their own words they express finely nuanced details about themselves as only the self can know. They reveal their insecurities, egos, their pettiness and pomposity, their dreams and crushing disappointments in themselves and in each other. It’s a jungle of madness and murder, letters and locations and dark secrets.

My adoring human friends are taking me to Maine next week and I cannot wait. We are going back to Stonington on Deer Island in Penobscot Bay. We went there last year. I loved the pines, the tide washed coves, the sharp-eyed fledglings and most of all, the lobster rolls! Seacoast Maine: People and Places by Martin Dibner with photographs by George E. Tice is the per

A couple of weeks ago I brought you a post on the Hay Festival by OUP UK’s Head of Publicity Kate Farquhar-Thomson. Today, for those of you who couldn’t make it to the Festival (like me), here are some of Kate’s photos from the few days she spent there.

The festival site from on high

Priya Gopal, author of The Indian English Novel, speaks to a festival-goer

Scientists Steve Jones and Jerry Coyne. Coyne’s book Why Evolution is True was published by OUP in the UK.

Festival-goers on site. Doesn’t it look glorious?

Simon Baron-Cohen, author of Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The Facts, signs books.

Today sees the kick-off of the football (OK, soccer, but I’m British) World Cup in South Africa. Given that tomorrow sees England play the USA, this seems like the perfect time to bring you the below features from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, I’m not supporting anyone. I’m Scottish. We didn’t make it into the competition (again).

Who would Fabio Capello, England manager, have picked with the whole of British history to choose from?

Editors at the ODNB have drawn on more than 55,000 historical figures to select an alternative XI: Cole, Crouch, and Terry, but not as you know them. They appear alongside a team of true footballing greats who’d have had more of a chance.

Crouch and Crouch

Geoffrey Block, Distinguished Professor of Music History at the University of Puget Sound, is the author of Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical From Show Boat to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber.  The book offers theater lovers an illuminating behind-the-scenes tour of some of America’s best loved, most admired, and most enduring musicals, as well as a riveting history.  In the original post Block challenges readers to test their Tony knowledge.  We will post the answers next Wednesday so be sure to check back.

1. Who is Tony?

2. What was the first musical to win the Tony for Best Score?

3. What was the first musical to win the Tony for Best Musical?

4. What was the second musical to win the Tony for Best Musical?

Hint: This show made its debut only a little more than three months after the first winner.

5. In what year were the Tony Awards first nationally televised?

6. Who has the most Tony Award wins in the Best Score category?

7. What other lyricists and composers (or lyricist-composers) have won two or more Tony’s in the Best Score category?

8. Who has received more Tony’s than anyone else since the awards were established?

9. One winning musical in the Best Score category was the only musical nominated that year.

10. What year produced arguably the most impressive line-up of Tony nominated musicals?

11. So far there has been only one tie in the Best Musical category? Name the two shows.

12. Fourteen times in the last fifty years the Best Musical and Best Score winners were not the same. No less than half of these disparities have occurred in the past twelve years. What are the names of these last seven shows that won the Tony for Best Musical but not Best Score? What shows did win for Best Score in those years?

13. Name the two Best Musicals that went on to win Best Picture Oscars.

14. Name the three Best Musicals losers that went on to win Best Picture Oscars.

15. Starting in 1994, the Tony Awards decided to make the Best Musical Revival its own category instead of forcing musicals to share the award with revivals of plays. In the years since, the Best Musical Revival category has often proven to be fiercely competitive. Name the three winning revivals that first appeared before the launching of the Tony Awards and the four winning revivals that did not win a Tony Award for Best Musical the season of their Broadway debut.

16. The Four Questions: What show won the Tony for Best Musical in 1984? What Pulitzer Prize winning show lost that year? Who wrote the winning score? What controversial remarks did the winner utter on national television?

17. One composer had been dead for nearly 70 years when he won for Best Score. Who was this composer and what musical did he write?

The Hay Festival of Arts and Literature is one of the highlights of the UK literary calendar. Every year it takes place in Hay on Wye, a small village on the English-Welsh border, famed for its numerous bookshops. This year sees events from lots of big names including  AC Grayling, Niall Ferguson, Ian McEwan, and Karen Armstrong. Several OUP authors are also doing events during the festival, including Anthony Julius, Ian Glynn, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, and Jerry Coyne.

OUP UK’s Head of Publicity, Kate Farquhar-Thomson, is also there, and this week will be sending her dispatches from the festival front line. Today, though, she writes about the other side of Hay.

It would be easy to make a list of the stars that I have spotted here at the Hay Festival since I arrived, or indeed the past colleagues I have worked with, but actually what strikes me more, on this visit, is what is going on outside the boundaries of the festival.

The fact is that whilst tens of thousands of people descend on this small Welsh border town for a week (or so) to mingle with politicians, models (oh yes, Jerry Hall was here!), historians, novelists and more, life around the UK’s premier ‘Book Town’ still goes on.  I see tractors going about their farm business, sheep lambing and hay being made.  However it is not only hay that is being made in Hay by the indigenous population.  There are numerous little stalls of bric-a-brac, tea shops, cake stalls and plant sellers that have sprung up in gardens, on pavements, under tents and in driveways.  The whole town embraces the festival and is keen to capitalise on it!  Good for them I say.  It happens but once a year and it is truly special.  It is like the circus is in town… all encompassing but transient.

Some of Hay on Wye’s native residents.

Talking of circuses there is actually one in town in the grounds of Hay Castle this year.  Giffords Circus, normally to be found every other year in a field just over the Hay Bridge has bedded down in the town centre this year.  Within the castle, which was built in 1200, is a flat owned by Richard Booth, the self-proclaimed “King of Hay” whose eponymous bookshop stands at the centre of Hay and was the first second-hand bookshop to open here well over 40 years ago.  And for the first time since I have been coming to Hay I actually met the man himself last Saturday night!

In honor of Lena Horne, who passed away last Sunday at the age of 92, Philip Furia has reflected on her legacy.  Furia is a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the author with Laurie Patterson of The Songs of Hollywood.

I would never pretend to be an expert on Lena Horne, but my research prompts me to make a few observations on her career as a singer of popular songs. Perhaps the most striking thing about her stellar career is that Lena Horne, alone among the great singers of her era, never introduced a hit song. The songs she is associated with are the “standards” of what’s been termed The Great American Song Book. In the television obituaries, for example, she was heard singing the classic songs of Cole Porter, Ira and George Gershwin, and Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. Even her signature song, “Stormy Weather,” was originally written by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen for Ethel Waters in the 1933 Cotton Club Revue. (Waters, supposedly, always resented the fact that Lena Horne had co-opted “her” song).

One reason why Lena Horne’s song repertory was confined to the great standards is that for most of her career she worked in Hollywood films. In a few of these films, such as Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather (both 1943), she had a leading role, but in most of her other films she had cameo roles where she sang songs as “performances” in night clubs and other settings. Rather than have her render new, untried songs, Hollywood studios took the safer route of having her sing tried and tested standards. Hollywood’s practice of recycling old songs, in fact, is one reason these songs became “standards” instead of simply fading away as most popular songs do after their heyday. (It didn’t hurt, too, that the studios often owned these old songs and stood to profit from their renewed popularity.)

Lena Horne’s greatest opportunity to introduce new hit songs came in 1946 when she was offered the lead in the Broadway musical St. Louis Woman, where she would have introduced such songs as “Come Rain or Come Shine” by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Horne, however, refused the lead because she felt that the show caricatured blacks—even though the book was written by two African-American playwrights. Without Horne, St. Louis Woman quickly folded, and the singer lost one of her few chances to introduce hit songs.

Julio Torres, Intern

A History of US is the James Michener Prize-winning collection of  books written by Joy Hakim, a former teacher and editor. The series tells the story of the nation through its ten volumes.  For the next six weeks, starting Sunday, the History Channel will air their ambitious chronological series, America: The Story of Us.

Since A History of US and America: The Story of Us, follow the same timeline we thought it would be fun to share some of American history’s  lesser-know facts found along the margins of the books.  Make your way through the nation’s history as we enlighten you with facts and challenge you with trivia questions inspired Hakim’s volumes.

First up, trivia questions from books 2 and 3, Making Thirteen Colonies and From Colonies to Country, corresponding to the History Channel’s first week of the series (premiering April 25^th) dedicated to the colonies and the Revolutionary war.  Don’t be discouraged if most of these feel obscure, chances are they were bonus questions back in Middle School. The answers are at the bottom of the post. Be sure to check back in the coming weeks for more fun content related to our nation’s great history.  Read an original post by Hakim here.

What state was its own nation from 1777 to 1791 and became the first state to outlaw slavery?

Which Shakespeare play was inspired by the wreck of the colonist ship, the Sea Venture?

What state name means “at the big hill” in Algonquian?

Which treaty officially ended the French and Indian War?

What famous, brave soldier switched sides from the Patriots to the British in 1780? (He captured Fort Ticonderoga)

Grace Labatt, Acquisitions Editor, Reference

Everyone has a favorite place in the world. Mine happens to be on that most derided of beaches, the Jersey Shore. (Thanks, Snooki.) I love escaping the gridlock and heat of Manhattan to the peaceful Shore, with its beautiful beaches, tons of activities—biking, crabbing, beach volleyball, fireworks watching, to name a few—and excellent ice cream. It’s just a short trip from New York, but feels like a different world.

Traveling there is easy: just hop on New Jersey Transit from Penn Station. Traveling across the world, though, is never a breeze. Just as everyone has a place they love to escape to, everyone knows what a pain it can be to get there. In anticipation of the quickly approaching summer, below are some tips from Oxford editorial staff and authors on the best ways to get around the world—or, if you’re not sure where you’re headed yet, tips on where to go!

For more travel destinations, check out the New Concise World Atlas Third Edition, which has hundreds of full-scale maps from around the globe.

Amber Fischer, Senior Editor, Oxford Art Online and Oxford Music Online: Pokhara is definitely worth a visit if you’re in Nepal and is a relaxing alternative to Kathmandu….Or try Wolsey Lodges if you’re looking for something different. Mostly in the UK (although there are also some in France and Spain), they are mostly beautiful, grand, historical homes where the owners choose to rent out a room or two to travelers. You get luxury (or at least really cool and historical) accommodations for usually 45-85GBP per night, and you’re almost always invited to dine with the owners, who always seem to be down-to-earth and friendly.

William Beezley, Editor of the Oxford History of Mexico: For absolutely excelente lunches with reasonably priced wine go to the Casino Español in Mexico City. I go at least once on every trip. A delightful museum is the Museo de Arte Popular, a new museum with excellent examples of popular art of all kinds and a good bookstore and coffee shop. The building was once a fire department.

Mary Funchion, Development Editor, Reference: Before I book an airline ticket, I use Kayak.com. It compares all the airlines and lets you know which ticket is the cheapest option. You have to leave the site to actually book the ticket, but it saves having to g

Lauren Appelwick, Publicity

Robert M. Geraci is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College. In his new book Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, he examines the “cyber-theology” which suggests we might one day upload our minds into robots or cyberspace and live forever. Drawing on interviews with roboticists, AI researchers, Second Life devotees, and others, Geraci reveals that the idea of Apocalyptic AI is strikingly similar to Judeo-Christian apocalyptic traditions. Here, he shares 10 ways World of Warcraft, one virtual reality game, could help us survive the end of the world as we know it.

1. The dangers will be minimal…level 80 priests can provide universal health care.
President Obama plans to insure 32 million more Americans than are currently protected; but the area of effect healing spells of priests can jump from one person to another, healing them as they become sick and injured without need for hospital visits, insurance payments, etc. This approach to medical treatment has obvious benefits over the constant paperwork that federally mandated insurance will require.

2. When aliens come to take over the planet, they’ll get addicted to WoW and forget what they were doing.
Instead of world domination, aliens will hope to complete all four daily cooking quests for The Rokk. After they’ve already eaten Emeril, they’ll spice up their life with Super Hot Stew and realize that people don’t taste all that good after all.

3. Who needs indoor plumbing? You’re already used to peeing into bottles.
Your guild’s “friendly” three day race to level 80 has given you all the continence you need…and the willingness to do what you must when the time comes.

4. After countless hours of farming for minerals, herbs and animal hides, you’re well prepared for life after subprime mortgages collapse the economy.
Let’s face it, the economy is in shambles and no one knows when it will recover. On the other hand, while toxic mortgage securities provide neither housing nor security, a proper skinner can ensure that all the local children stay warm through the winter.

5. Gnomish engineers will program the robots to like you (though they can’t guarantee proper functioning).
It’s not the Gnomes’ fault that Skynet became self-aware…they didn’t think it would defend that off switch so vociferously! And to compensate, they’ll happily upload your mind into one of their inventions so that you can join the robots in their post-apocalyptic future.

6. As the value of the dollar declines, gold and mithril will remain safe investments.
Gold will shine through the darkest of times and foreign governments will always be content to buy it from you at the auction house.

7. Your family pet can take aggro for you while you lay a fire trap to destroy a zombie mob.
A lifetime of treats and petting repaid in one priceless moment.

8. Your potions of underwater breathing will let you grab the a