As Hurricane Sandy nears the East Coast, FEMA administrator Craig Fugate urged parents to read with their children.
If you want to know how Hurricane Sandy will affect your state, visit the State-by-State Guide to Hurricane Sandy at The New York Times.
Readers have been using the #StormReads hashtag to talk about the books they are reading during this difficult time. We’ve embedded some of these tweets below.
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The National Book Award finalists were unveiled yesterday and many readers instantly started drawing lists of influential authors who didn’t make the list. Over at Salon, Laura Miller took the most dramatic stance in her essay “How the National Book Awards made themselves irrelevant.”
She cited four popular novels that the judges passed over: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett and The Submission by Amy Waldman.
Here’s more from the essay: “the National Book Award in fiction, more than any other American literary prize, illustrates the ever-broadening cultural gap between the literary community and the reading public. The former believes that everyone reads as much as they do and that they still have the authority to shape readers’ tastes, while the latter increasingly suspects that it’s being served the literary equivalent of spinach. Like the Newbery Medal for children’s literature, awarded by librarians, the NBA has come to indicate a book that somebody else thinks you ought to read, whether you like it or not.”
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I'm going to spend this beautiful day in the company of the students and faculty of the Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, which chose
Dangerous Neighbors as its summer read.
Before I head out, I wanted to share these few things:
First, readers of this blog know how moved I was by the
Logan Schweiter Fundraiser, which took place at Club La Maison. Today, at Generocity.org, in a story called
"A Spectacular Act of Love," I report on the remarkable efforts of literally hundreds of people who together raised an extraordinary amount of money on behalf of a young local teen still recovering from a near drowning following a storm.
Second, yesterday morning I had a chance to read the
Vanity Fair story "The Book on Publishing," which can also be found on Nook and Kindle reading apps at vfr.com/go/ebooks. This extended essay by Keith Gessen takes an instructive look behind the scenes of one of the largest book auctions in recent history, which yielded Chad Harbach, a first-time author, a $665,000 advance from legendary editor Michael Pietsch for the novel (ten years in the making) called
The Art of Fielding. Anyone who ever wondered just how major parts of the industry work will have questions answered here.
Finally, a bouquet of gratitude to Medieval Bookworm, for
her eloquent words about
You Are My Only, and a thank you to
Caribousmom for letting me know those words exist. I am, as always, very grateful.
To the Country Day School I now go.
In a BEA tradition yesterday, six editors described their favorite book of the season in the annual Editors Buzz Forum. For ten minutes apiece, these editors advocated for a particular book in a room filled with booksellers.
The annual event can teach you a lot about writing blurbs, particularly how to write one or two glittering sentences about a book. We’ve included a few choice examples below–how would you describe your favorite book in a single, perfect sentence?
“It’s huge but familiar at the same time.” Little, Brown and Company publisher Michael Pietsch on The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
“It gave me goosebumps. On my face.” Dutton senior editor Denise Roy on The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson
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Have a wonderful time at the wonderful Sacred Heart! LOVE the dog! That about sums it up! xo
Sounds like a terrific day!
Sounds like a fun day and that fundraiser raised $32,000?? That's crazy cool. This is the first time I have ever wanted an e-reader so I can read that publishing article. I'm going to have to track down a Vanity Fair...