With the recent release of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" I've been thinking about some of my favorite fictional characters. Because, naturally...or not, Lisbeth Salander ranks right up there as one of my favorite female fictional characters of all time. I know that Stieg Larsson's gritty series with its share of graphically violent content doesn't suit everyone's taste. Furthermore I imagine the movie image of the dark, pierced and spiky-haired Swede might leave many folks cold, wondering what there is about her that could possibly appeal to anyone. And yet, several months after I finished reading Larsson's trilogy this married, advanced-age mother of two grown men still sometimes wonders what Lisbeth might be up to.
Yes. That's what I do. When I befriend a fictional character in a book we become bff's [Best Friends Forever]. For instance I can't recall how many years ago I read Nabokov's "Lolita" but to this day during the occasional idle moment I wonder what my old buddy Humbert Humbert is up to. Yes. I have to admit that a true rat bastard like Humbert is an odd pick as a favorite character, much less as a friend. After all, who could like a pedophile? Truth? Nobody. And maybe, in this case, friend is the wrong word. I think ours -- Humbert's and mine -- is more a student/master relationship. See, he's a terrific liar. Okay, he's a filthy, scum-of-the-earth pedophile. But he couldn't be such a scumbag if he wasn't a master of prevarication. From page one Humbert grabs and holds my attention with the utter abandon with which he lies to me. And to himself. There are times when he has both of us temporarily convinced that he's not as big a bastard as we thought.
What better month to snuggle up with a good book than February? And what better book to snuggle with than an anticipated debut!
Below are a dozen exceptional books that will publish in February, all by first time authors, including four novels, two story collections, four nonfiction works and two books for younger readers.
These books are selected from our February Preview issue, that profiles almost 90 notable books publishing next month,
Enjoy!
Davina, BookBrowse editor
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Novel, 400 pages
Publishers February 1
Reagan Arthur
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.... Full description & reviews
A Good American by Alex George
Novel, 400 pages
Publishes February 7
Amy Einhorn Books
It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead ("What's the difference? They're both new"), and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together... Full description and reviews, including 21 reviews by BookBrowse members
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
Novel, 448 pages
Publishes February 14,
Graywolf Press
Red Plenty is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as Sputnik, as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant, and as different from what you were expecting as a glass of Soviet champagne.... Full description & reviews
Posted: January 19, 2012 6:09 AM
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News
Somewhat controversial news from Britain where McDonald's is in the process of giving away 9 million books with Happy Meals.
The six titles which are being given away (along with a finger puppet and a voucher for a heavily discounted additional book) are all from Michael Morpurgo's Mudpuddle Farm series, published by Harper Collins. Technically speaking, this will make McDonald's the nation's largest bookseller for the four week period (and the charity Farms for City Children considerably better off, as Morpurgo intends to donate all his royalties to them).
Stunning as it may seem, while eight out of ten British children visit McDonald's at least once a year, one in three doesn't own even a single book (the stats in the USA probably aren't all that different). Because of this, the promotion has been endorsed by at least two leading book related charities:
I learned to read when I was four years old and books have been a very important part of my life ever since. There were plenty of them around. My parents bought many books - cheap editions of classics available in regular bookstores, pre-war editions of books one could only get at second-hand bookstores and flea markets.
There were libraries, too, but more popular titles were hard to get and there were no holds, unless a librarian took pity on me and helped me secure what I craved.
Why did I read so much? Because books told fascinating stories and because life outside books was scary and restricted. In the Poland of my childhood, the 50s were still post-war years, with ruins lining up the streets. My parents did not like to let me play outdoors without supervision. Books were a safe passion.
Nancy Pearl, the closest thing American libraries have to a celebrity, unleashed something of a shockwave through the book industry yesterday with the announcement that she is publishing a series of books with Amazon.
Apparently the NPR commentator and doyenne of public libraries and independent bookstores (who even has an action figure modeled on her) plans to publish about six books a year with Amazon, branded as Book Lust Rediscoveries. The titles will be Pearl's favorite out-of-print books from 1960-2000. It is to be assumed that all or most of the titles will be ones that she has recommended in her Book Lust recommended reading series of books - books that many would say were made popular by huge word of mouth enthusiasm from librarians and independent bookstores, who saw Pearl as one of their own.
Recently, I attended a genocide conference that included a film called Beyond the Deadly Pit, produced and directed by Rwandan genocide survivor Gilbert Ndahayo. It documents confronting his father's killer during gacaca, the traditional court used to try "lesser" perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Ndahayo said, "If one wants to be healed from the sickness, he must talk about it to the world. For 12 years, I lived with the remains of about 200 unpeaceful dead in my parents' backyard." I found the film so profoundly moving that I could not rise from my chair. Even now, writing this, I cannot prevent the tears. During the post-film q&a, I asked Ndahayo if making the film had facilitated healing. He said simply, "No."
Wondering what books will be made into movies in Winter and Spring 2012? BookBrowse has the answer!
There's something for all ages and interests in this season's movies based on books. For the younger set, Danny DeVito, Taylor Swift and Zac Efron star in The Lorax. The YA crowd is already anticipating The Hunger Games. While adults with a political bent will likely be lining up for The Iron Lady. Personally, I'm pretty sure I'll be plunking down my money for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!
January
Norwegian Wood
Starring: Ken-ichi Matsuyama, Kiko Mizuhara and Rinko Kikuchi
Opening: Jan 6 in USA. First released in Japan in 2010 as Noruwei no Mori
Based on: Haruki Murakami's bestselling novel of the same name (published 1987).
Opinion:
23 reviews at rottentomatoes.com, 17 of them positive, but the subtitles and generally languid plot are likely to limit the audience. As Jason Best at MovieTalk says "[Norwegian Wood] was long thought unfilmable, but Tran does an impressive job of translating the author's dense and poetic first-person narrative to the screen."
The Iron Lady
Starring: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent and Iain Glen
Opening: Jan 13 in USA
Based on: John Campbell's two volume biography of Margaret Thatcher, the second of which is titled Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady.
Opinion:
The Tomatometer at rottentomatoes.com shows 21 positive reviews and 11 negative. The Hollywood Reporter rates it fresh saying, "playing both the staunch human battleship and the diminished old woman sifting through her past, Meryl Streep is riveting."
Coriolanus
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave, and directed by Ralph Fiennes
Opening: Jan 20 in USA
Based on: Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name.
Opinion: Set in contemporary Rome, complete with tanks and AK-47's. A user reviewer on IMDB suggests that this is only for die-hard Shakespeare fans already familiar with Coriolanus.
A Smile as Big as the Moon
Starring: John Corbett, Jessy Schram and Cynthia Watros
Opening: Late Jan on ABC TV
Based on: Mike Kersjes' 2002 book subtitled A Teacher, His Class and Their Unforgettable Journey.
Opinion: A special education teacher and his class take an inspiring journey through U.S. space camp. I'll probably tune into this one simply for the chance to see John Corbett, perhaps best known for his roles as Aidan Shaw in "Sex and the City" and Chris Stevens in the 1990s comedy "Northern Exposure".
For the last few years, when the holiday season has come around, I've looked back to previous centuries for the newsworthy events of the year. Today, please join me on a whistle stop tour through 1811 ....
If you thought that 2011 was an interesting year to live through, you should try 1811!
The Great Comet
The Great Comet draws the eyes of many to the night sky, including artist and poet William Blake who incorporates it into one of his most famous paintings, "The Ghost of a Flea" (which is also one of his smallest at less than 9x7 inches). The comet would be sufficiently memorable that Tolstoy, writing War and Peace almost 60 years later, has the character of Pierre observe this "enormous and brilliant comet [...] which was said to portend all kinds of woes and the end of the world."
Good Year for Wine
1811 was also an exceptional year for wine, a fact that winemakers of the time (and perhaps even today) would say is not coincidental as some of the strongest vintages of the last two centuries have been in years with visible comets. But it is a bad year for the 41-year-old Beethoven who, having lost his patron and most of his hearing, enters a period of physical illness and low output.
Meanwhile, in Germany, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué begins the peak period of his popularity with the publication of Undine - the much translated and retold story of a water spirit who marries a knight in order to gain a soul, which is considered one of the earliest German romances.
Austen and Shelley Jane Austen's first book, Sense and Sensibility, is published. She will see three more books published before her untimely death six years later at the age of 42.
Percy Bysshe Shelley is in fine form, publishing a novel and a treatise on atheism. The latter results in him being expelled from Oxford. Married twice (having run away with both women when they were 16), fathering at least six children by three women, and burning through all his money, Shelley will drown eleven years later in dubious circumstances.
This year my husband and I unwittingly purchased what can only be considered a "Charlie Brown tree". If you sneeze, it loses needles. There's a gaping hole in the back that we've awkwardly pressed up against the wall, and it leans in its stand. And though I'd be the first to admit we still love it, I had to wonder if David Maybury, co-editor of Inís magazine, didn't have the right idea! He (and friends) constructed a Christmas tree entirely out of Irish picture books:
With the recent release of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" I've been thinking about some of my favorite fictional characters. Because, naturally...or not, Lisbeth Salander ranks right up there as one of my favorite female fictional characters of all time. I know that Stieg Larsson's gritty series with its share of graphically violent content doesn't suit everyone's taste. Furthermore I imagine the movie image of the dark, pierced and spiky-haired Swede might leave many folks cold, wondering what there is about her that could possibly appeal to anyone. And yet, several months after I finished reading Larsson's trilogy this married, advanced-age mother of two grown men still sometimes wonders what Lisbeth might be up to.
Yes. That's what I do. When I befriend a fictional character in a book we become bff's [Best Friends Forever]. For instance I can't recall how many years ago I read Nabokov's "Lolita" but to this day during the occasional idle moment I wonder what my old buddy Humbert Humbert is up to. Yes. I have to admit that a true rat bastard like Humbert is an odd pick as a favorite character, much less as a friend. After all, who could like a pedophile? Truth? Nobody. And maybe, in this case, friend is the wrong word. I think ours -- Humbert's and mine -- is more a student/master relationship. See, he's a terrific liar. Okay, he's a filthy, scum-of-the-earth pedophile. But he couldn't be such a scumbag if he wasn't a master of prevarication. From page one Humbert grabs and holds my attention with the utter abandon with which he lies to me. And to himself. There are times when he has both of us temporarily convinced that he's not as big a bastard as we thought.
Somewhat controversial news from Britain where McDonald's is in the process of giving away 9 million books with Happy Meals.
I learned to read when I was four years old and books have been a very important part of my life ever since. There were plenty of them around. My parents bought many books - cheap editions of classics available in regular bookstores, pre-war editions of books one could only get at second-hand bookstores and flea markets.
There were libraries, too, but more popular titles were hard to get and there were no holds, unless a librarian took pity on me and helped me secure what I craved.
Nancy Pearl, the closest thing American libraries have to a celebrity, unleashed something of a shockwave through the book industry yesterday with the announcement that she is publishing a series of books with Amazon.
Apparently the NPR commentator and doyenne of public libraries and independent bookstores (who even has an 
Recently, I attended a genocide conference that included a film called Beyond the Deadly Pit, produced and directed by Rwandan genocide survivor Gilbert Ndahayo. It documents confronting his father's killer during gacaca, the traditional court used to try "lesser" perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Ndahayo said, "If one wants to be healed from the sickness, he must talk about it to the world. For 12 years, I lived with the remains of about 200 unpeaceful dead in my parents' backyard." I found the film so profoundly moving that I could not rise from my chair. Even now, writing this, I cannot prevent the tears. During the post-film q&a, I asked Ndahayo if making the film had facilitated healing. He said simply, "No."
The Great Comet
Jane Austen's first book, Sense and Sensibility, is published. She will see three more books published before her untimely death six years later at the age of 42.
Percy Bysshe Shelley is in fine form, publishing a novel and a treatise on atheism. The latter results in him being expelled from Oxford. Married twice (having run away with both women when they were 16), fathering at least six children by three women, and burning through all his money, Shelley will drown eleven years later in dubious circumstances.
