NYTimes Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Evanston Public Library

What's In A Name

August 1, 2013

After J.K. Rowling admitted she wrote The Cuckoo’s Calling, the NYT asked some other authors to choose a pen name and a genre they would write. One of my favorite’s is Carl Hiaasen who said his pen name would be Rick O’Morits and his genre fantasy: “I envision a series of vampire-romance novels set at an assisted-living facility in post-apocalyptic Boca Raton.” Other writers include Anne Lamott (her pen name – Dr. Morris Fishback), Rebecca Skloot (who would write “a story of a dog who wrote a best-selling book about animal intelligence”), and Stacy Schiff. For all the authors, pen names, and genres read the entire article here. (The best comment is from the editor: “This informal survey was conducted before any of them had a chance to consider “Carlos Danger” as an option.”)

Laura

Creating great book covers, an insider's view

June 19, 2013

I enjoyed this short article because it provides insight into book cover creation from the book designer’s perspective. Before and after choices with text are presented in a slideshow. NYTimes writer John Williams says this is the first in a four part series.

While an effective cover may greatly enhance a book and whet our appetite to read more, a nondescript one may cause us to disregard the material. Quite a daunting task to convey the essence of a book and capture our imagination in a few seconds!

Link to another article on favorite book covers of 2012. See this link to the Book Cover Archive for a collection of thought-provoking choices.

Shira S.

Film in "Blume"

June 7, 2013

Judy Blume has been a best-selling author since her first novel Iggie’s House was published in 1970. Although she’s sold more than 80 million books none of them have been produced as a feature film until today. Her 1981 young adult novel Tiger Eyes will open in select theaters around the country – and has already won a jury prize at a film festival screening. Judy Blume’s son Lawrence directed the film and both mother and son wrote the script. It was “a real homemade movie,” according to Lawrence, who thought the book very cinematic when he first read it as an 18-year-old. The story of teenage girl Davey who has to adjust to life in New Mexico after her father is killed stars Willa Holland of “Gossip Girl.” Ms. Blume will be in Chicago this weekend to accept the 2013 ChicagoTribune Young Adult Literary Prize at the Printers Row Literary Festival. See the articles in today’s NYT and Chicago Sun-Times, and check out the library catalog for the many books by the acclaimed author.

Laura

1936 James Agee Article to be Published

June 4, 2013

James Agee’s 1936 Fortune magazine article was the basis for his 1941 book on poverty in the South Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. That 30,000-word article, previously unpublished because Agee felt it was obscene to “pry intimately into the lives of an undefended and appallingly damaged group of human beings,” will now be published as the book “Cotton Tenants: Three Families”. The release of this book will include the real names of Agee’s sharecropper families, which Agee had wanted to keep private. You can read the entire fascinating NYT article here. Check the library catalog for books by James Agee.

Laura

Andrew Greeley, 1928-2013

May 31, 2013

Controversial Chicago priest Andrew Greeley died Thursday at the age of 85. Although he was an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church, “his criticism was seen as offering the faithful a route back to the church, and helping the church find its way toward embracing them.” In addition to his duties as a priest, Rev. Greeley was a renowned sociologist, a longtime columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and a best-selling author. His first novel The Cardinal Sins was on the NYT best seller list for eight months and sold three million copies. But above all, “I always wanted to be a priest”, he wrote. “My core identity is priest. I will always be a priest.”You can read Neil Steinberg’s obituary in today’s Sun-Times or the more in-depth NYT obit. Also check out the library catalog for books by Andrew Greeley.

Laura

Newly Discovered Pearl Buck Novel to be Published

May 24, 2013

Manuscript for a novel by Pearl S. Buck, discovered in a storage unit in Texas, will be released in October in paperback and e-book formats. Best known for her second novel The Good Earth, published in 1931, Pearl Buck is the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Renewed interest in her work soared when Oprah Winfrey chose The Good Earth as a book club selection in 2004. This recent manuscript The Eternal Wonder is being described by her publisher as “the coming-of-age story of Randolph Colfax, an extraordinarily gifted young man whose search for meaning and purpose leads him to New York, England, Paris and on a mission patrolling the DMZ in Korea that will change his life forever – and, ultimately, to love.” Read the entire NYT article here and check out the library catalog for other books by the acclaimed author.

Laura

2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced

April 16, 2013

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners for letters, drama, and music were announced Monday, April 15. The award for fiction went to Adam Johnson for his novel The Orphan Master’s Son, cited as an “exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart.” Pakistani-American Ayad Akhtar’s play Disgraced about “a successful corporate lawyer whose deep-seated self-loathing is fully revealed at a dinner party” won the Pulitzer in the drama category. Mr. Akhtar has also written the novel American Dervish and is working on another novel and play. For history, Cornell professor Fredrik Logevall won for Embers of War which was noted as a “balanced, deeply researched history” into the Vietnam conflict. Other Pulitzers were given to Tom Reiss for his biography The Black Count, Sharon Olds for her work of poetry Stag’s Leap , Gilbert King for his nonfiction book Devil in the Grove, and Caroline Shaw’s for her music Partita for 8 Voice. You can see the complete list of winners and finalists in this NYT article. Also check out Hedy Weiss’s article in the Chicago Sun-Times on Mr. Akhtar’s play which had its world premiere at Chicago’s American Theater Company in January 2012.

Laura

2013 PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award Winner

March 20, 2013

Benjamin Alire Sáenz has won this year’s PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his short story collection, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club. The judges considered more than 350 novels and short story collections by American authors published during 2012. Finalists included Amelia Gray for her novel Threats ; Laird Hunt, author of Kind One; T. Geronimo Johnson, author of Hold it ‘Til It Hurts ; and Thomas Mallon, author of Watergate. Founded in 1980 by National Book Award winner Mary Lee Settle, the PEN/Faulkner Award was established to recognize literary fiction of excellence juried by writers for writers. The prize was named for William Faulkner, who used his Nobel Prize funds to establish an award for younger writers, and PEN, the international writers’ organization. In addition to this award, Mr. Saenz’s book Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was honored by the American Library Association this year as the best young adult novel about the Latino cultural experience and the best book about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender experience. You can read the full article in today’s NYT. And check the EPL catalog for more books by this award-winning author.

Laura

The Buzz on Reading

February 18, 2013

This NYTimes article explores word of mouth networking for book lovers and its impact on the business of bookselling. Many of you are already familiar with Goodreads. The website’s success is attributed to readers’ ability to access honest reviews, untarnished by the ulterior motive of companies trying to sell books. As the article states, “Goodreads and smaller similar sites are addressing what publishers call the “discoverability” problem: How do you guide consumers to books they might want to read?”

Another aspect of this discussion is that several years ago Amazon bought all of Shelfari and part of LibraryThing– how has that affected the independence of the sites? (See this old post by LibraryThing’s president for one rather heated opinion on Amazon’s initial incursion into this arena.)

Shira S.

Prestigious Arts Prize Awarded to Anna Deveare Smith

January 23, 2013

Playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith received this year’s Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. Now in its 19th year, the $300,000 arts award was established by actress Lillian Gish’s will and given “to a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” Chosen from a list of 30 finalists, Ms. Smith is well-known for creating one-woman theater pieces focusing on social issues (Fires in the Mirror, Twilight: Los Angeles) where she portrays multiple people she’s interviewed. Past honorees names include Bob Dylan, Ornette Coleman, Ingmar Bergman, Isabel Allende, Merce Cunningham, Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson, Bill T. Jones, and Pete Seeger. She’s received numerous other accolades: a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 1996, Tony nominations for best actress and best play in 1994, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Anna Deveare Smith is a professor at NYU in their Performance Studies department and has had numerous film and television roles, including The West Wing and most recently Nurse Jackie. See more in this NYT article.

Laura