September 13, 2013
A new opera based on Annie Proulx’s story Brokeback Mountain, originally commissioned for New York City Opera, will have its world premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid on January 28. Ms. Proulx, whose cowboy romance was made into an award-winning film in 2005, has written the libretto, saying that “one of her goals in […]
September 13, 2013
Sorry, Potterheads, there’s not going to be a Harry Potter and the Life Beyond Hogwarts (or some such title), but there is news, as reported in today’s Chicago Trib, that Rowling’s book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will indeed be produced for the big screen. Rowling and Warner Brothers have announced that the best-selling […]
September 12, 2013
Joe Abercrombie (author of The First Law series, which starts with The Blade Itself) writes books for the George R. R. Martin fan who is ready to see what happens when someone looks at Game of Thrones and says, “It’s good, but it could stand to be way darker and more violent. Also, it would […]
September 12, 2013
Here are two suggested lists of the many on the September 11 attacks. This first short list of 5 books aims to deal with the human impact of the tragedies. There are many accounts of how the losses affected the survivors and the friends and family left behind. The second list is not necessarily as […]
September 11, 2013
Reports of a new Harry Potter title in the works turn out to be untrue, based on a joke circulated for April Fool’s Day. I seem to recall JK Rowling speaking about how she felt the 7th and last book of the series was definitely “the end.” The rumor mill was spreading the misinformation that […]
September 11, 2013
A copy of the Bay Psalm Book, published in 1640 in Cambridge, MA is on display today at the Newberry Library as one stop of a grand book tour sponsored by Sotheby’s. It is one of eleven surviving copies of the oldest book printed in North America. It’s real title is “The Whole Booke of […]
September 10, 2013
Finalists for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award were announced this morning. Open to writers from Britain, Ireland or one of the Commonwealth nations, the prize has been criticized in the past as “either too popular or not readable enough.” This year’s shortlist includes the following six finalists: We need New […]
September 6, 2013
Agatha Christie’s estate and HarperCollins plan to publish a new Hercule Poirot mystery next fall. British author Sophie Hannah has been commissioned to write the new Poirot 93 years after he was first introduced in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The Belgian sleuth was killed off in the final Poirot novel Curtain published shortly before […]
September 3, 2013
The winners of this year’s Hugo Awards for science fiction were announced Sunday, September 1st in San Antonio, Texas. The winner for the Best Novel went to Red Shirts: A Novel with Three Codas, by John Scalzi. Other awards went to: The Emperor’s Soul, by Brandon Sanderson, The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi (from […]
August 30, 2013
Celebrated and prolific poet Seamus Heaney died in Dublin today after a brief illness. Winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, he was described by Robert Lowell as the “most important Irish poet since Yeats.” In 2008, on NPR’s program All Things Considered Mr. Heaney said: “I have always thought of poems as stepping […]
