Social Network

The PEN/Saul Bellow award winners have been announced, and Cormac McCarthy, author of such novels as The Road, No Country for Old Men, and the Border Trilogy, has been given the lifetime achievement award. This is the second time the award, which recognizes excellence, ambition, and scale of achievement over a career, has been given.

Other winners are as follows:

• The Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, presented to Michael Henry Heim
• The Robert Bingham Fellowship for a debut fiction writer, presented to Donald Ray Pollack for Knockemstiff
• The Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography, presented to Richard Brody for Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard
• The John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, presented to Steve Coll for The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
• The Laura Pels Foundation Award for Drama, presented to Sam Shepard, author of such plays as True West, Fool for Love, and others
• A mid-career Laura Pels Foundation Award for Drama, presented to Nilo Cruz, author of such plays as Anna in the Tropics, Beauty of the Father, A Park in Our House, and others
• The Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, presented to Carol Lynch Williams
• The PEN Translation Prize, presented to Natasha Wimmer for her translation of Roberto Bolano’s 2666
• The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, presented to Marilyn Hacker for her translation of Marie Etienne’s King of a Hundred Horsemen

In addition, PEN recognizes excellence in short fiction with the O. Henry Prizes. This year’s winners include:
• Graham Joyce
• Kristen Sundberg Lunstrum
• E. V. Slate
• John Burnside
• Mohan Sikka
• L.E. Miller
• Alistair Morgan
• Roger Nash
• Manuel Munoz
• Caitlin Horrocks
• Ha Jin
• Paul Theroux
• Judy Troy
• Nadine Gordimer
• Viet Dinh
• Karen Brown
• Marisa Silver
• Paul Yoon
• Andrew Sean Greer
• Junot Diaz

If you’ve been wondering what W has been up to since leaving the White House a few months ago, you’ll be interested to know that the former president is reportedly writing a book called Decision Points, which will explain “the environment in which I was making decisions,” Bush said in a phone interview with the Associated Press. “I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made, and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me,” he added. “I want to re-create what it was like, for example, right after 9/11, and have people understand the emotions I felt and what others around me felt at the time.”

This is not Bush’s first book. His 1999 tome A Charge to Keep detailed his life and political philosophy through a series of non-chronological anecdotes and ruminations. But rather than retell his life story, Bush’s new book will focus on a dozen significant personal and political choices that the controversial leader has made, including his decision to quit drinking, his selection of former vice president Dick Cheney, and his deployment of troops to Iraq. The book will also touch on his relationship with his father, George H.W. Bush; Hurricane Katrina; and his religious faith.

Decision Points is scheduled for release in 2010, after the release of former first lady’s Laura Bush’s own memoir. The financial details of W’s book deal have not been disclosed, though publishers have doubted that he will receive near the $15 million that Bill Clinton nabbed for My Life. However, we’re guessing that Decision Points will have no trouble equaling or even surpassing the record-setting 400,000 copies of My Life that sold in the U.S. on the latter’s first day of sales. No doubt readers everywhere will be scrambling to get their hands on the latest addition to the canon of great American humor writing.

The publisher’s review of King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa - superb, engrossing - chronicling “one of the great, horrifying and nearly forgotten crimes of the century” about Belgian King Leopold II’s “rape of the Congo”. Readers call the book:”a brutal history of the colonization of the Belgian Congo”; “amazingly eyeopening”, “rich”, “informative”, “The Epitome of Historical Tragedy”.

Don’t care about African history? So many of us disregard the history of Africa as irrelevant to the history of the world; but the world’s history is invariably tied to the history of Africa. Buy King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

From Amazon.com Review

King Leopold of Belgium searched globe to find colony for Belgium…eventually found a suitable location in what would become the Belgian Congo, later known as Zaire and now simply as Congo where Leopold established rule of terror which culminated in the deaths of 4 to 8 million indigenous people…

If you go by the reviews from some of the people who have read the book, Barack Obama’s “Change We Can Believe In” offers little that is convincing with regard to his promise that change is coming to America. One reviewer compared Obama’s promise of change to Johnny Cochran’s argument that OJ Simpson was innocent of the crime of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her  friend Ronald Goldman, saying if you believed Cochran you’ll believe Obama.

The foreward of “Change We Can Believe In” begins:

Every so often, there are moments that define a generation.
For my grandfather, who marched in Patton’s army, and my grandmother, who worked on a bomber assembly line while he was at war, it was the liberation of Europe and the rebuilding of an America that offered unrivaled opportunity and mobility for the middle class. Decades later, men and women from all walks of life marched and struggled and sacrificed for civil rights, women’s rights, and worker’s rights. Free people from across the world tore down a wall to end a cold war, while the revolutions in communications and technology that followed have reduced global barriers to prosperity and cooperation.

The book has been reviewed on Amazon 42 times with 29 out of 42 reviewers giving the book the maximum 5 stars, 7 reviewers giving it 4 stars, 3 reviewers giving it 3 stars, 1 reviewer giving it 2 stars and 2 reviewers giving it 1 star (these ratings are of the date of this posting). It should be noted that of the 2 reviewers who gave the book 1 star, one of them admitting never reading the book, stating that the review was being rendered based on the other reviews read.

Among those who rated the book 5 stars, one reviewer called the book “calm, straightforward”, saying it provides “a glimpse into what Obama will do as president”, another claim the book speaks with “clarity” and “wisdom” about Obama’s vision of government, and yet another called the book “well-written, concise and clearly presented.”

“Change We Can Believe In”, according to the editorial review is a book by Barack Obama that details “bold and specific ideas about how to fix our ailing economy and strengthen the middle class, make health care affordable for all, achieve energy independence, and keep America safe in a dangerous world.”

Buy Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to Renew America’s Promise

Here’s another book I was supposed to read in the 9th grade but never bothered to read completely, so I’m adding it to my amazon books to purchase wish list as part of my 2009 a-book-per-week project. I’m not entirely sure it was in the 9th grade that this book was recommended. It could have been the 8th grade. I think it was the 9th grade though because I’m associating the name Paul Zindel with a girl who was in my English class.

I remember I found the title of “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” long and strange. I’m thinking I did try to read the book, but I just never finished it. Then again, it was so long ago, I might have finished it but just don’t remember anything about it.

Growing up can be difficult. I had a pretty unhappy time of growing up myself. I suppose the “dysfunctional” label would apply to my family but I reject it personally. Life doesn’t come with a script really. This book, from what I’ve read, is about a mother, Beatrice, and her two daughters, Tillie and Ruth. They are a “dysfunctional” family. The mother is abusive, and the daughter Ruth is similarly inclined, while Tillie is gifted with scientific talent, insight and kindness towards one and all.

Tillie is the focal point of the book. She is the one who grows marigolds from radioactive seeds for a science fair. She seems to want to go somewhere in life as much as her mother seems to want to make sure she doesn’t succeed. Mothers can be like that in real life. They don’t want good things for their daughters because they did not have good things for themselves. Quite sad.

This Pulitzer-prize-winning play was written by Paul Zindel in 1964. There was a film adaptation in 1972, directed by Paul Newman and starring his wife Joanne Woodward, his daughter Nell Potts, and Roberta Wallach, daughter of Eli Wallach.

If you’ve read this book and would like to discuss it be sure to post a comment. You can also Buy The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds You can get a copy for $1.99 and under.

It’s a young adult novel but we were all once young adults and sometimes revisiting our youth can provide comfort and even clarity. If you have daughters you might even be able to learn something even if it’s what not to do and what not to say to your daughters if you want them to grow up secure and confident and happy.

I confess, when “A Day No Pigs Would Die” by Robert Peck was assigned to be read in the 9th grade, I didn’t bother to read it. I hated reading. I think I still wrote a book report and got an A on the book report, but I never really read the book. I’m compiling a list of books that I’m going to be trying to read as part of my 2009 a-book-per-week project. I’ve decided to put the books I was supposed to read back in high school on the list; so I’ve put A Day No Pigs Would Die on the my books-to-purchase list.

The book is based on the author’s life growing on a farm in Vermont in the 1920s. It’s a coming-of-age story that details events which, based on some of the reviews, offend some sensitive readers. For the most part the book receives a positive rating. Most readers, including grade school children and adults, said they loved the book; but there were a few people who thoroughly hated it, mostly people who objected to the descriptions of scenes involving cruelty to animals.

I suppose I can understand how someone might hate a book or refuse to read a book because it describes things that upset them. I recently read a passage from a book about the holocaust written by a holocaust survivor and the description of the treatment of Jews by the Germans was unbearable to read. Just that one passage was enough for me. I decided not to read the book because it was too much to take; but I wasn’t going to discredit the merits of the book or the author just because I personally found it unbearable to read about the treatment of Jews.

I think the reviews of people who gave A Day No Pigs Would Die the lowest rating possible because they object to animal cruelty should be discounted for lack of objectivity. These people were making a statement to how they feel about cruelty to animals, not to the merits of the book.

Buy A Day No Pigs Would Die

Are you a Neil Diamond Fan? Then you’re going to want to read He Is . . . I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond, a biographical sketch of Neil Diamond written by David Wild. Booklist calls the book “affectionate and touching”, describing it as part biography, part autobiography. What makes is part auto-biography is the fact that the book isn’t specifically about Neil Diamond. The book is about David Wild’s experience as a Neil Diamond fan. The book contains biographical information about Neil Diamond based on research and also on Wild’s personal encounters with the legend.

According to the Publisher’s Weekly review of the book, it is really “a book-length case of pure, unapologetic fandom that traces every step of Diamond’s life, from his childhood in Brooklyn and his rise to fame in the 1960s and ’70s to his most recent comeback albums”.

Other reviewers promise that if you are a true Neil Diamond fan you are going to enjoy the book because it is “fast, breezy and humorous”, as well as excellent and witty. The Palm Beach Post calls the book “one of the best pop books of the year”. The 224 page book is published by Da Capo Press and is available in hardcover. You can also get the book on amazon kindle.

Buy He Is . . . I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond

Before the date on which Senator John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his Vice-presidential running mate in his bid for the US presidency, few people had ever heard the name Sarah Palin.

Now, however they might react at the sound of her name, most people in the world are familiar with Sarah Palin. Whether you think of actress Tina Fey’s SNL sketches where she parodied the former US vice-presidential candidate, or you think of the famous interview with CBS’s Katie Couric; or you think of some other image of Sarah Palin, one thing is certain, you’re not likely to forget Sarah Palin any time soon.

In Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down, author Kaylene Johnson aims to give readers a glimpse into the life of Sarah Palin from her youth up to the time she was elected governor of Alaska. Some readers call the book “great” saying that it provides meaningful insight. Of 131 customers who reviewed the book, 76 gave it 5 stars, 21 gave it 4 stars, 10 gave it 3 stars, 11 gave it 2 stars and 13 gave it 1 star.

In a review of the book Fox News Network said of Sarah Palin: “A politician of eye-popping integrity . . . and probably the most popular public official in any state.” - Fox News Network

Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down is available for purchase at amazon.com for $8.77

The opinions on Barack Obama’s book Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance vary from some readers calling it a must read to others calling it “uninspiring”.

One reviewer wrote that there were passages in the book where Obama tried to ‘ “out eloquence” himself’, but the same reviewer gave the book 4 stars out of 5 reminding readers who might be tempted to question what Barack Obama truly stands for after reading the book, that the book was written when Obama was much younger and should therefore be read in that context.

Based on the reviews of the book, both good and bad, it would seem that Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is very focused on the issue of race, which makes sense given the title.

Some reviews suggest that Obama appears in the book to reject his White heritage and his White mother, sharing the following quotes from the book to support their claim:

From “Dreams From My Father”
“‘I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13″, I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.’

‘I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race.’

‘There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.’

‘It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.’

‘I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa , that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.’

Whatever the truth, 205 out of 312 reviewers rated the book 5 stars, 49 people rated the book 4 stars, 30 people rated the book 3 stars, 16 people rated the book 2 stars and 12 people rated the book 1 star.

This is the book by Andrew Morton over which Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology have threatened 100 million dollar lawsuit.

In the book it is alleged that Tom Cruise kept a list of the names of female celebrities that he thought would make suitable wives and that Jennifer Garner was higher up on the list than Katie Holmes; but Tom was apparently unsuccessful in capturing Jennifer Garner’s interest despite an attempt.

(more…)