LibWorm.com provides a librarian RSS filtering service. Over 1500 RSS librarian sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest headlines from journals and sites in the Graphic Literature interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:51:12 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://wplbookclub.blogspot.com/2016/04/louis-riel-comic-strip-biography-by.html In 1869, the Red River Settlement area, home to the French-speaking Metis, is sold to the Canadian government. Louis Riel, the de facto leader of the Red River Settlement, demands that they be granted the right to govern themselves. Not suprisingly, the government refuses this. This story relates Riel's resistance to the Canadian government's mistreatment of the Metis community.Louis Riel - Wikipediahttps://owa.fibrehost.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_RielLouis Riel - rethinking Riel (CBC Archives)Louis Riel - Trivial Pursuit (CBC Archives) Place a hold on a WPL copy of the book here. (Source: WPLBOOKCLUB) Wed, 20 Apr 2016 04:00:00 +0100 377637 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/31/new-year-reading Whether you want to improve yourself or simply get your brain going again after Hogmanay excess, it pays to choose the year's first book carefullyIf you're like me and tend to use literature as a kind of How-to guide to navigate life, then the book one chooses to read at the start of a New Year requires some careful consideration. Perhaps this book will be something worthy to get the brain working again after the excesses of the night before … Or an old favourite to welcome in the new year on a friendly, comforting note … Or perhaps something inspiring to set the tone for the upcoming 12 months and strengthen one's resolve to change and do better … Here then are just a few of the titles you might consider opening up on the first of January.Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton by John LahrOK, so it doesn't end happily, but Orton's journey from abject failure to dizzying success is utterly inspiring and compellingly told. Lahr's admiration and enthusiasm for his subject is contagious, and if his critical dissections of Orton's work occasionally have the air of the study-note about them, there's always the sparkling wit of the diaries to turn to – or even the plays themselves. A one-off talent triumphing against overwhelming odds.The Memory Chalet by Tony JudtPublished earlier this year (sadly posthumously), historian Tony Judt's memoir was written under the most arduous of conditions: paralysed from a neurodegenerative disorder, Judt composed these warm and intelligent essays in his head during what must have been near-unbearable hours of insomnia and dictated them back the next day. The result is a remarkably positive, life-affirming read, and about as far away from the realms of "misery memoir" as one can get.Lucky Jim by Kingsley AmisAnd so to fiction. ... Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:00:03 +0100 895783 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/interview-pete-abrams-sluggy-freelance-cartoonist-part-three-of-three/ In this third portion of the interview, I asked about the plotting process, plans for the future, and whether Pete had been inspired by particular sources. Previously: Part One, Part Two Me: You talked in the past about how the huge plot that you’ve woven together in Sluggy over the years has drawn toward a close. You said you didn’t want to start any new plot arcs until that was finished. What happens when it’s finished? Do you start another decade-long story arc? Pete: That’s the thing, I have the freedom to make the choice at that point. That’s why, every time I’m asked the question I’ve never said definitively I’m going to stop the strip. I basically have to see where I am when I get there, because there’s definitely more stories I could be telling. But at this point there’s so many things that are unanswered, I almost want to answer everything, wrap everything up exactly the way I want to, and then see from that point where it will continue. And if it will continue. But as I’ve also said, at the rate I’m going, it’ll probably take ten more years for me to get there. So it’s not going away anytime soon. Me: Something about Sluggy Freelance seems to be very polarizing in some ways. It seems a lot of people either love serious stuff and hate the broad parodies, or vice versa—so no matter what kind of story arc you’re doing, some significant fraction of your fandom is annoyed at any given time. Why do you think that is? Does it ever influence your decisions in writing scripts? Pete: Well, I can answer the second part of that easier. No, it doesn’t influence me at all. I have a good gut instinct for what I want to do and how I want to do things. And I’ve been doing that for ten years, and there’s never been any time I could point to where fan influences caused me to adjust them. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 13:15:00 +0100 895518 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/29/charles-dickens-great-expectations Written at speed to save a magazine, it's no surprise Great Expectations has spawned a fistful of adaptations in the 150 years since it was first publishedOne hundred and fifty years after its first appearance, Great Expectations, which Charles Dickens published in All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to 2 August 1861, continues to delight. Dickens had originally planned to publish the novel in monthly parts, a highly successful format he'd used for previous novels such as The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, and many others. But when readers of his weekly journal became dissatisfied with the lead story, Charles Lever's A Day's Ride, and sales began to dip, Dickens intervened. "The property of All the Year Round," he told John Forster, "is far too valuable, in every way, to be endangered," so he relegated Lever to the back pages, sped up the composition of Great Expectations and put it on the front cover. Sales of All the Year Round immediately began to pick up.It would appear, as Edgar Rosenberg observed, that necessity "was never more pressingly the mother of invention than in producing Pip and Magwitch and Joe." The story went on to enjoy immense popularity when it finally appeared in book form in July of 1861, selling in multiple editions across England, the US, and Europe. Mudie's Circulating Library purchased 1,400 copies alone, Mudie himself estimating that every copy of Great Expectations found "on an average thirty readers – considerably more, in the majority of instances, as regards novels."From the beginning, the success of Great Expectations was due in part to its great adaptability – so it's no surprise that today we should see the novel still adapting. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 09:00:03 +0100 895490 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/interview-pete-abrams-sluggy-freelance-cartoonist-part-two-of-three/ In this second portion of the interview, I asked about the ways Pete earns money from the comic, including Amazon and other referrals and his premium subscriber program, “Defenders of the Nifty.” I also asked about his feelings about or experience with e-books. Previously: Part One Me: How did you decide to start the Defenders of the Nifty program? Pete: There again, that’s been going on so long I can’t remember exactly how it started. I guess it just came from the idea of, instead of just offering donations, kind of giving a little bit back to people who donate because, with the way I do business, it’s very hard to have merchandise bring in that much money because, well, for one thing, I’ve been ages behind on books; I’m trying to fix that. And the shirt design, maybe it sells, maybe it doesn’t. If it doesn’t sell then I have two good designs to make up for the one that didn’t work out so well. It’s kind of tricky in that way. But with the Defenders of the Nifty membership, all the money goes straight to cover my expenses and pay me for the comic. The money doesn’t go to pay for the shirt materials, the merchandise, to put the stuff in the box and ship it—it all goes directly to the strip. So in that sense, it’s the single best way to support the strip and it’s been the biggest support. I think it’s like anything else in Sluggy, it just happened kind of organically. Just a concept that went through and worked really well. Me: So does Defenders account for most of your revenue now? Pete: Currently it’s most of my revenue. Of course, as I said I’m about seven years behind on books. Once I get some of those books out, maybe that would come into the running. Advertising has never really been a significant chunk of the money. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:15:00 +0100 895351 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/interview-pete-abrams-sluggy-freelance-cartoonist-part-one-of-three/ It has taken me a while to get around to transcribing this, but better late than never. On May 28th, I sat down with Pete Abrams at the ConQuesT SF convention in Kansas City for an interview about his webcomic, Sluggy Freelance. Sluggy is a rarity in that it is one of relatively few webcomics that provides its artist’s entire living, and it has also been in operation for over 14 years (13 as of the interview). Abrams has been interviewed in a number of places already, and I tried to avoid covering the same territory as the others. Further, I wanted to get into how he was able to earn a living from giving his comic away free on the Internet when so few others have been able to do that. I will be running this interview in three parts, starting today. Me: So, for the first part of this interview: There’s this whole thing going on right now about paywalls in the electronic newspaper industry. Everyone’s complaining about how giving content away for free is killing the newspaper industry and so forth. You’ve made a living giving content away for free for over ten years. When did you first think that it might be possible for you to do Sluggy Freelance as a full-time, paying job? Pete: Well, when I started Sluggy Freelance, webcomics wasn’t anything like it is right now. I mean, there were very few strips in existance. So there wasn’t anyone else’s strip to compare myself to and ask myself if I could make a living doing it or how long it would take. When I started, I knew that most businesses took two to three years to become profitable—I heard that at some point. And when I started the strip, I made it daily and I treated it like it was my profession before it was paying me full-time. And sure enough, what happened was in about the third year I suddenly started making a profit and was able to support myself at that point, and it’s been growing in profitability every year since then. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:15:00 +0100 895269 http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/12/go.digital.comics/index.html (Source: Library Link of the Day) Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:00:00 +0100 895152 http://www.tangognat.com/2010/12/26/when-amethyst-met-superman/ It is DC Comics Presents #63, “Worlds to Conquer.” Amethyst Princess of Gemworld meets Superman! Look at that cover, Dark Opal seems to be menacing Superman with some Kryptonite. Click to make the images bigger! I love the fact that Carnelian and Sardonyx seem to spend their time locked up in a castle together, plotting [...] (Source: TangognaT) Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:36:25 +0100 895065 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoblinCartoons/~3/ZhU_hwHOea4/ Joshmas is upon us again. This means we’re a week away from the end of 2010. (It also means I’m now 41, but let’s not focus on that.) I don’t generally do New Year’s resolutions, but this year, I’ve decided to actually make some. Since this is the end of one year for me and the beginning of another, why not make my resolutions now? This past year has been a very good one, but it’s also been difficult. Separating from Julie has pushed me to take a really hard look at myself. I’ve spent the past year reflecting, self-evaluating and digging in the dirt. I’ve come to understand a lot about myself, all for the better. Part of this self-discovery has been getting inspired by creative people in a big, big way. Getting to know Tessa Gratton and Natalie C. Parker has been very inspirational. Wil Wheaton‘s very honest blogging about his writing and his struggles with insecurity has been extremely inspirational. Bonnie Burton and Jane Wiedlin are big inspirations, too. Last weekend, Kevin Smith wrote a series of incredibly inspirational tweets that he turned into two fantastic blog posts. And my friends Laura and Gareth Skarka posted public declarations of creative endeavors that inspired me a whole hell of a lot. So…my New Year’s resolutions are as follows: if 2010 was a year of self-therapy and sorting things out in my head, 2011 will be a year of play, a year for me to get excited and make things. I want to push myself to do more creative play, to write prose and poetry, to blog more about comics, movies, TV shows, games and the like, to make trash that is ugly and beautiful, to make mad mistakes and happy accidents. I’m going to be daring and unreasonable. I’m going to dream out loud. The most important resolution is to DO IT EVERY DAY. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 19:07:08 +0100 894839 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2010/dec/09/callow-jacobson-self-armitage-mieville As we come to the end of the first full year of the Guardian books podcast we take a look back at some of the highlights.We talk comic writing with Booker winner Howard Jacobson, put the novelist and essayist Will Self on the psychiatrist's couch, and hear from the poet Simon Armitage, who tells us what what the elf said to Kevin in his latest collection.As part of an occasional series, The Books that Made Me, we also find out about the surrealist artist who made an indelible impression on the teenage China Miéville, now one of the UK's leading science fiction writers. We also delve into theatre anecdote with Simon Callow, and venture out to South London to find out what the potter Edmund de Waal has to say about his "hidden inheritance" of Japanese netsuke.Reading listThe Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, by Edmund de Waal (Chatto & Windus)The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)My Life in Pieces, by Simon Callow (Nick Hern)Walking to Hollywood, by Will Self (Bloomsbury)Seeing Stars, by Simon Armitage (Faber)China MiévilleClaire ArmitsteadSarah CrownTim Maby (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:00:42 +0100 894796 http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-post-2010-readers-edition.html We continue our series of posts for the holiday season here at The Itinerant Librarian. As a librarian and avid reader, I feel it is essential to make an end-of-year post about reading and books. I will be posting my end-of-year reading list and commentary right after the end of 2010. I am trying to squeeze in one or two books more to the tally before the year ends. So, here we go: Book lists: The Usual SuspectsThe New Yorker's Book Department has a "Holiday Gift Guide 2010." It also includes reading paraphernalia and accessories, but there are some interesting books too. The New York Times Book Review has its "100 Notable Books of 2010."  The Guardian has its "Best Books of 2010" list.  The Economist also has a 2010 Best Books list. You can find fiction and nonfiction here. The Financial Times has its "Fiction Round-up." Bob Sutton's Good Boss, Bad Boss book was featured in various business book lists. I am linking to the post because it includes links to various business book lists. Largehearted Boy has a large aggregation of book lists from the usual suspects (Amazon, NYT, etc.) as well as some less known lists. This is basically "one-stop shopping" for book lists. More Book Lists: Things not as easy to find but just as coolFor manga readers, and I happen to be one of them, here is The Manga Critic's 2010 Holiday Gift Guide.  The author also rounded up "The Best Manga of 2010." Via The Manga Critic. Lambda Literary has book lists for LGBT readers (and by this I mean not only LGBT folks, but those of us who enjoy LGBT literature as well). Their 2010 guide features "75+ Books for every LGBTQA Person in Your Life." They even have a list for comics and graphic novel readers. There is a lot of stuff in here that I want to read at some point. The folks at Guys Lit Wire discuss "Graphic Novels-- notes from a Top 10 List. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895485 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SellersLibraryTeens/~3/3jo9cBczYsM/new-books-continued.html Another pile of books just turned up in my office, so look for these on the teen shelves: FICTION Jason and Kyra by Dana Davidson (replacement copy) Played by Dana Davidson (replacement copy) Hustlin' by L. Diving (Drama High series; replacement copy) Second Chance by L. Diving (Drama High series; replacement copy) Seven Paths to Death by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler Promise Kept by Stephanie Perry Moore (Perry Skky Jr. series) Staying Pure by Stephanie Perry Moore (Peyton Skky series; replacement copy) Sweetest Gift by Stephanie Perry Moore (Peyton Skky series; replacement copy) Fast Forward by Celeste O. Norfleet (Kimani Tru) Homeboyz by Alan Lawrence Sitomer (replacement copy) Crashed by Robin Wasserman GRAPHIC NOVELS Vampire Knight, volume 11, by Matsuri Hino Bleach, volume 33, by Tite Kubo NONFICTION No Choirboy:  Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin (Source: Sellers Library Teens) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:04:00 +0100 894776 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/dec/23/green-hornet-kick-ass Michel Gondry's superhero might be creating a buzz, but haven't we heard this 'ordinary guy decides to fight crime' shtick before?It might not have performed well at the US box office, supposedly the ultimate arbiter of future big budget movie-making, but Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass has certainly made a profound and lasting impact on the world of comic-book films. Perhaps it's a little like the old adage about the Velvet Underground's first album (albeit on a rather larger scale), that each of the 1,000 or so people who bought it went out and formed a band. Or perhaps Hollywood is aware of quite how many people illegally downloaded a copy of the film.In any case, I doubt that films such as Michel Gondry's forthcoming The Green Hornet, which arrives in the UK and US on 14 January, would have looked quite the same before Hit Girl and Big Daddy's big-screen debut. Kick-Ass seems to have created a "third way" for the genre that eschews both high camp and "dark and serious" approaches in favour of a postmodern take, allowing the audience to laugh at various genre tropes. In a sense, it's the superhero film's answer to Wes Craven's Scream, which poked fun at horror sensibilities yet remained a pretty scary movie in its own right.But back to The Green Hornet, which is looking increasingly like the heir to Kick-Ass. A new featurette for the film (below), which stars Seth Rogen as publishing-heir-turned-crimefighter Britt Reid, and Jay Chou as Kato, pitches the project as a different kind of superhero movie in which the protagonist is just an average guy who decides to take up a career fighting crime. Sound familiar?"We knew that me as a superhero is not something that people would expect," says Rogen. "So to start with something that people could totally see me as, which is a moron that drinks all day, and slowly turn that guy into a superhero, became something that was interesting. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:24:11 +0100 894610 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/23/andrea-levy-book-club Andrea Levy will be in conversation with John Mullan at Kings Place on 24 JanuaryDate: Monday 24 JanuaryTime: 7.00pmVenue: Hall OnePrice: £9.50Andrea Levy will talk to John Mullan about Small Island. Set in 1948, the novel is narrated by four different characters – Gilbert and Hortense, a married couple newly arrived in London from Jamaica, Queenie, their English landlady and her husband, Bernard. A comic and touching story about the first wave of West Indian immigration to Britain, exploring themes of empire, prejudice, war and love, it won both the Orange and the Whitbread prizes in 2004 and was later adapted for the small screen by the BBC. Tickets are £9.50 online or £11.50 from the box office: www.kingsplace.co.ukBox Office: 020 7520 1490Andrea LevyFictionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 13:00:00 +0100 894611 http://westwoodchildrensdept.blogspot.com/2010/12/smile-by-raina-telgemeier.html Raina was not looking forward to getting braces, but before she could even get started, she fell and badly damaged her front teeth. Middle school isn’t a very supportive place to live through the experience of having her teeth fixed. It’s embarrassing, humiliating, and maddening, not to mention painful. Her “friends” aren’t helpful; in fact they probably hurt her feelings more than help her. This graphic novel, based on the author’s real life experience, is about teeth and friendship –both sometimes painful! Review by Loretta Eysie (Source: book bits) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894792 http://santafelibrary.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-comics.html Yes, I admit it, I love comic books! Like many kids, I grew up on Archie comics, simple stories with bright colors, and in conjunction with picture books that's how I learned how to read. When I grew out of the Archies, all that was available were superhero comics. Now, while I loved the Wonder Woman TV show and the Super Friends cartoons, the comic books weren't quite to my taste. So, alas, I put the comic books aside in favor of "real books" such as novels, non-fiction, poetry, and of course, schoolwork.Thankfully, a college friend introduced me to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. With stories that dovetailed nicely with the mythology and literature classes I was taking, and breathtaking art that made the Archie comics look like doodles, I was immediately hooked. I was soon seeking out interesting, intelligent, and beautifully-styled comic books on a weekly basis. When I'd travel to another city, I'd load up on "graphic novels", an emerging literary form that was giving those flimsy funny books a more substantial binding and cover.Many years later, comics and graphic novels that were once hard to find have now hit the mainstream. Hollywood regularly adapts some of my favorite tomes for the big screen with mixed results. K-12 teachers are using graphic novels in the classroom, both to assist struggling readers and to teach these beautifully crafted stories as literature. Advances in printing and publishing technology have surely helped, but I think we've also gone full circle: back to a golden age of books, when illuminated manuscripts demonstrated that information and tales can be presented beautifully.While we may not be as knowledgeable as some of the folks at True Believers and other comics shops, we do have quite a collection of graphic novels for all ages and tastes. Many of our books, including manga and superhero series, are in an easy-to-browse section of the Young Adult collection. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894680 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/22/nikesh-shukla-top-10-anglo-asian-books From Hanif Kureishi to Helen Walsh, the novelist celebrates books that find room for naked raves and Bruce Springsteen as well as wrangles over arranged marriagesNikesh Shukla is a writer, performance poet and filmmaker. His writing has appeared on radio and television and his film The Great Identity Swindle, co-directed with Videowallah, won best short film at the Satyajit Ray Foundation awards in 2009. He lives in north London. His first novel, Coconut Unlimited, is shortlisted for this year's Costa first novel award."If we've been told anything ever in our lives ever, it's that Anglo-Asian books will cross swords with themes of cultural identity and dual heritage, repressed marriages and there will be at least one mystical encounter in a mangrove swamp. Probably with mist. Anglo-Asian books are more than these stereotypes."Writing my own debut meant doing the entire opposite of all those things, throwing them out and doing a Hornby, or a Coe, filling the soundtrack with Public Enemy and steeping the drama in suburban nausea. These books deal with the diversity of Anglo-Asian themes and take us to communes, squats, concerts, Mumbai, even Tunbridge Wells. Not a banyan tree in sight. And it's not just the brown boys and girls getting involved. Multiculturalism is so embedded in our culture that writers like William Sutcliffe are considering themes of racism and spiritualism. Anglo-Asian books are beyond being about Asians in England. They're about the marrying of cultures, about understanding of the world we live in and its changing boundaries.1. Hanif Kureishi - The Black Album (Faber)While The Buddha of Suburbia is a masterfully comic tale of rise and fall that loves its characters, there's something a lot more sinister about The Black Album, making it the oddball in his output. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:17:38 +0100 894377 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/dec/22/jesus-buddha-japan-manga-novel A new manga novel lightheartedly depicting the two as everyday young men may inadvertently raise interest in religion in JapanWhat would Jesus and Buddha do if they were suddenly thrust into contemporary society, and how would they react to what they found?Japanese author-illustrator Nakamura Hikaru has sketched an answer to this provocative question in a very popular manga, or illustrated serial novel, entitled Saint Young Men (Seinto oniisan).Nakamura (her surname) depicts the adventures of the two religious founders as they room together in Tachikawa (a suburb west of Tokyo) while vacationing in Japan.Humour, rather than veneration, sets the tone for the series, which is replete with visual gags and puns. For example, when the roommates discover that the prizes they have won at a shrine festival are cheap imitations of coveted handheld videogames, Nakamura quips: "The two were enlightened as to the true flavour of Japanese festivals," playing on a double sense of the word daigomi, which can either mean sublime Buddhist teaching or – more colloquially – the "true charm" of something.Similarly, quirky interactions that juxtapose episodes from Jesus' ministry with hilarious social faux pas provide opportunities to chuckle. When Jesus says that he "just wants to wash his [disciples'] feet," a local gangster who overhears him misinterprets this phrase in its figurative sense as an indication of one's desire to start afresh after a life of crime. Jesus, oblivious to this misunderstanding, unwittingly gains notoriety among the mob as a particularly tough villain.Nakamura's protagonists, though saintly, are hardly infallible. Jesus' all-encompassing love makes him excessively enthusiastic (Nakamura portrays him as a compulsive shopaholic), while Buddha's ascetic tendencies make him seem – as the back of one volume states – like "the parsimonious lady next door". ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:00:00 +0100 894378 http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/2010/12/call-for-papers-childrens-and-young.html Call for Papers Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture for the PCA/ACA & Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture AssociationsJoint ConferenceApril 20-23, 2011San Antonio, TXhttp://www.swtxpca.org/You may submit your proposals online by going to the conference event management database, here: http://ncp.pcaaca.org/Once in the database, create an account, and then submit a proposal. For submitting to this area, please use the pull down menu for the Topic Area: choose the one that reads: Children's/Young Adult Literature and Culture (Dominguez). This will make sure your presentation is submitted to my area for programming purposes (the national PCA/ACA also has a children's literature and culture area).You may also submit proposals to me directly:Dr. Diana Dominguez, Area ChairE-mail submissions preferred:gypsyscholar@rgv.rr.comPlease put SWPCA Submission in e-mail subject line.Proposal submission deadline extended to: December 31, 2010Conference hotel: Marriott Rivercenter San Antonio101 Bowie StreetSan Antonio, Texas 78205 USAPhone: 1-210-223-1000Now accepting proposals for the Children's and Young Adult Literature and Culture area of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Associations Conference. This area is not limited to proposals/papers about traditional literature; children's and young adult culture can encompass a myriad of media: books, television, film, computer/internet culture, fan fiction, toys, marketing issues, music, comics and graphic novels, and non-fiction mediums like documentaries, non-fiction books or magazines, textbooks, television non-fiction shows. Theoretically-based papers about the very nature of "children's" and "young adult" categories/genres also encouraged. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894986 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/interview-with-mark-waid-on-digital-and-the-future-of-comics/ I’m not familiar with Mark Waid, who is the former chief creative officer of Boom! Studios, but a recent tweet by Richard Nash says: And don’t pretend it’s just comix … If you’re in publishing, you should listen to what @markwaid has to say …. You can find the interview at Comics Alliance. There’s a lot of interesting stuff there, but one of the things that really shocked me was this: CA: In our interview with Chip, he also talked about the barriers of the comic book format itself for new readers, including how and when comics are distributed, and even how to read them. He thought this could be a major impediment to breaking in new readers. How serious of an issue do you think that is? MW: I think it’s a huge impediment on a couple of counts. First off, all of us who have read comics since were kids, we all lose sight of the fact that smart adults can’t figure out how to read comics, which is mind-blowing. Just a couple weeks ago, I was in Indiana guest-lecturing at an anthropology class about comics, and I passed out some pages of comics to make some points. And some of the kids who didn’t read comics came down afterwards – these are bright kids who have light behind their eyes – and they were saying, “I’m not exactly sure how to read this. Do I read the balloons first? Do I read right to left or up and down?” For you and me, it’s like asking us how we breathe; we just know this stuff. But comics is like any other foreign language; you learn it easiest and best as a kid, and if you have to learn it as an adult it’s much harder to pick up on. Just the reading of comics, the mechanism is an impediment. Second, there’s a reason that newspapers don’t still publish serial fiction like [Charles] Dickens. Nobody wants to read it that way anymore. ... Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:16:57 +0100 894293 http://mcpldteens.blogspot.com/2010/12/reviews.html Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (DVD, 2010)Two words...crazy awesome! This movie is based on the graphic novel series by Bryan O'Malley, and from what I hear, the movie follows the GN really well, so fans of the series won't be disappointed. The story (both movie and GN) is about an aimless 22 year old, Scott Pilgrim, who plays the bass in a band, dates a high schooler (which I believe is illegal), and is currently unemployed. Everything changes for Scott when he meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (although, not the jobless part). There is a catch to this relationship, he must defeat her seven evil exes before they can be together. This movie has action, comedy, and romance. Definitely look Scott Pilgrim on the teen shelves.Gothic Beauty (Magazine)Recently this magazine came to my attention, being new to the shelf, and it is wicked cool. I don't even think you need to be gothic to enjoy it. Some of the articles found in the most recent issue deal with steam-punk fashion, insane assylms, timeless trends, DYI (do-it-yourself) coffin purses, and heritage museums. I really like how it mixes history with fashion. Of course, Gothic Beauty also contains music, book, and product reviews that are related to gothic culture. Look for issues of this magazine in the teen section at the Central Branch.Shanna~Teen Librarian (Source: Teen Stuff @ Mesa County Libraries) Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894761 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/20/andy-mulligan-trash-blue-peter The children's author Andy Mulligan talks about his thriller, Trash, and how Blue Peter ducked a chance to take their viewers beyond the 'cotton-wool world' when they removed it from their book prize shortlistAndy Mulligan doesn't look like the kind of author you'd expect to find at the heart of a controversy around the "suitability" of his work for children. A mild-mannered, scholarly-looking English teacher in his mid-40s, Mulligan's first novel was a comic tale for 10-year-olds about an absurd school, Ribblestrop. But it's his second, Trash, which has sparked a debate over children's reading. A thriller about streetkids living on a dumpsite in the developing world, it was shortlisted for the Blue Peter award by the prize's judges, only to be dropped when they were overruled by one of the programme's editors. Not that there's any of the heroin abuse or underage sex which usually gets adult readers of children's books hot under the collar. The book was allegedly removed from the shortlist over a scene of violence, and one use of the word "shit".Mulligan describes himself as "disappointed" by a decision that came a week after he had been told he was a contender in the Favourite Stories category of the prize. The award is aimed at the TV programme's audience of, roughly, six to 12-year-olds – does he think his book should have been nominated for that age group?"There are some books that are unsuitable for children. I'd be surprised to see Burroughs' Naked Lunch on the equivalent shortlist," he says. "But a good book will upset someone, because the moment you engage with someone's imagination, you take them into both light and dark. Ask Philip Pullman. Ask Michael Morpurgo. Ask even Beatrix Potter, whose cosy animals were hunted, shot at and traumatised. What's 'suitable' is the journey we ask our readers to make. ... Mon, 20 Dec 2010 14:00:00 +0100 894011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/20/scott-pilgrim-world-satellite-awards Edgar Wright's comic book movie is best motion picture comedy or musical and Michael Cera is best comedy actorWith its video game imagery, slacker geek protagonist and sardonic 20-something humour, it is not the type of fare which generally tends to capture the imagination of Hollywood awards body members. Yet the comic book movie Scott Pilgrim Vs the World began a late run for awards-season recognition at the weekend after it picked up a gong for best film of the year at the Satellite awards.British director Edgar Wright's film took the best motion picture comedy or musical gong at the awards, which are handed out by the International Press Academy and mimic the Golden Globes by splitting awards into drama and comedy categories. Star Michael Cera also carried off the best comedy actor award for his turn as the lovelorn yet pugilistic Pilgrim.The award comes as a surprise because Wright's movie was generally seen as something of a turkey at the US box office, though it did receive strong reviews. Cera et al are unlikely to be celebrating at the Oscars come February, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not distinguish between comedy and drama, and rarely garlands the former. However, a Golden Globe run looks a distinct possibility.Elsewhere, The Social Network added to its haul of awards season wins by carrying off gongs for best motion picture drama, best director for David Fincher and best adapted screenplay for Aaron Sorkin, writer of The West Wing. Christopher Nolan's brainteaser thriller Inception won the awards for best score (Hans Zimmer), cinematography (Wally Pfister) and art direction and production design (Guy Hendrix Dyas, Luke Freeborn, Brad Ricker and Dean Wolcott).In the acting categories, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's Noomi Rapace won best actress in a drama, Colin Firth was best actor in a drama for The King's Speech and Anne Hathaway was best actress in a comedy for Love and Other Drugs. ... Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:29:02 +0100 894016 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2010/dec/07/helen-dunmore-frank-oconnor Dunmore on O'ConnorThe Irish writer Frank O'Connor was a committed nationalist who joined the Irish Republican Army at the age of 15 and fought in the Irish war of independence. He drew on these experiences in one of his most famous stories, "Guests of the Nation", which deals with relationships between two captured British soldiers and the IRA soldiers who guard them. The story's realism, complexity and humanity exemplify the qualities that made O'Connor one of the most celebrated Irish writers of his generation, and also reveal how much he learned from great short-story writers such as Isaak Babel.O'Connor is now best remembered for his short stories and autobiographical writing. The story I have chosen, "My Oedipus Complex", draws on O'Connor's own childhood in Cork with a mother whom he loved deeply, and a father who was mired in alcoholism and debt. It is a fiercely comic, touching story written from the viewpoint of Larry Delaney, a recurring character in O'Connor's stories of ­childhood. Larry is outraged when he is relegated to second place in his mother's attentions by his father's return. He cannot understand why she tolerates "this monster ... a total stranger who had cajoled his way back from the war into our big bed". Larry plots to overthrow his father, but the outcome is not what he expects. I love this story for its narrative voice, its rare combination of warmth and detachment, and its lightness of being.Lisa AllardiceFrancesca PanettaIain Chambers (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Mon, 20 Dec 2010 06:00:00 +0100 893898 http://rochellejustrochelle.typepad.com/copilot/2010/12/ereaders-overdrive-compatibility-libraries-as-digital-content-ghost-towns.html This past Saturday, I stopped by the nook kiosk at Barnes & Noble so that I could chat with the sales rep and better explain exactly what the library had to offer from Overdrive. We’ve had a few patrons who’ve said they were told by BN sales staff that they could find TONS of free books at the library. While, technically, this is true, if you count the public domain content, most people were already force-fed the classics at some point during their formal education and want something a little more current.Pro tip: It’s not a good idea to engage retail employees on the Saturday before Christmas. Especially one who is hawking THE HOT ITEM ON EVERYONE’S CHRISTMAS LIST at a kiosk in the entry of a mall anchor store. What I mean to say is, Holy cow, that joint was jumpin’!  I waited at least ten minutes to get the guy’s attention. In that ten minutes, he sold at least two nooks, and lost another customer who decided to come back later. Other people stood and listened--there was kind of a county fair/veg-o-matic vibe to the scene. Finally, I saw a break, jumped in and introduced myself as someone from the library who wanted to make sure BN staff understood exactly what we had to offer, since I wasn’t sure the right message was getting out. We barely got started when more customers came up to the kiosk. I stepped back and let him work. After about five minutes, I gave up and went browsing. I came back about 20 minutes later and managed to catch him in between customers and we ended up having a great chat.  He’s already a library user, but wasn’t really familiar with Overdrive except on a basic level. So, I gave him the talk that I’ve been giving all the patrons who are smart enough to come to us before buying an e-reader.Are You Really Ready to Buy an Ereader?: Overdrive-Compatible VersionFirst off, Kindle does not work with Overdrive. ... Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894124 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/19/grant-morrison-the-invisibles-comics The Glasgow lad has cracked America with his exhilaratingly strange, puckish tales, despite having been abducted by aliensThe first thing the comics writer Grant Morrison did when he arrived at the podium to address the Disinfocon convention in 2000 was to unleash a bloodcurdling 10-second scream. "Okay, I'm pissed," he admitted to the audience at the bash for the anti-establishment publisher. "And in half an hour, I'm going to come up on drugs."Footage of his speech was greeted with chuckles when it cropped up in Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, screened last week at the ICA in London. It's sort of how Morrison's fans want him to behave – and, with its copious hallucinogenic drugs, magic symbols and alien encounters, the Talking With Gods documentary didn't disappoint.Morrison, who is in the DC comics stable, certainly plays up to his own myth with his shaved head, shades and trenchcoat. But he's thoughtful and well read, too. This was a properly interesting – albeit rather worshipful – portrait of one of the most interesting writers in the comics medium.Morrison's friend Warren Ellis, another excellent comics writer, points out that Morrison's occultism is actually very pragmatic. The only reason he was abducted by aliens in Kathmandu in 1994, says Morrison, is "because I went to Kathmandu in 1994 to be abducted by aliens. And it works! These fuckers, they will turn up!" Morrison practises magic, and encourages his readers to do the same. He's matter-of-fact about it: "Anyone can contact the scorpion gods."At their best, Morrison's comics are crammed with ideas. They are exhilaratingly strange, and kind of puckish. His Doom Patrol featured a gang of supervillains called The Brotherhood of Dada, a sentient piece of roadway called Danny the Street and a painting that ate Paris. ... Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:30:01 +0100 893900 http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html#7835680940906080235 But Gregg Williams is growing on me a little. At least as a comic figure anyway. They know that I don't come to talk during pregame. I don't ever say good luck, because I hope you have a heart attack. If you fall over, I hope you have to forfeit. I'm not looking to say good luck. (Source: Library Chronicles) Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894598 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/19/andrew-miller-books-about-russia Novelists from Le Carré to Amis have an obsession with Russia. Small wonder: it's fertile territory for fictionA man walks into a room. Let's say he's 50-ish, greying, slightly dishevelled. What is his story? If he's a Russian, one of his grandparents might have died in the siege of Leningrad and another in the purges. After the grind and humdrum heroisms of the Soviet Union, he might have lost his savings and home to the hyperinflation and rackets of the 90s. Maybe along the way he fell in love, had children, did the commonplace things that make up the whole drama of lives lived elsewhere.All lives are interesting, and one of the jobs of fiction is to prove it. Still, that task is easier if they are Russian – which helps to explain why, as well as spewing out renegade oligarchs and rogue spooks, Russia has recently inspired an abundance of novels. I mean, specifically, novels set there by English-speaking authors, from thrillers such as Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko mysteries, to Helen Dunmore's Leningrad books. (By contrast, surprisingly few home-grown, contemporary Russian writers have found wide foreign readerships. The Putin era has not in general been conducive to great literature.) The vogue for Russian-themed novels reflects Russia's enticing turbulence. But I think it also tells us something about our own moral anxieties.The country's appeal to Olga Grushin, Gary Shteyngart and David Bezmozgis is easy to understand. They were all born in the Soviet Union, emigrating to North America as children. They inherited a folk memory of suffering, plus the minutely descriptive Russian language. The dying Soviet Union, in which shortages could sometimes be overcome by ruses and yarns, was a natural breeding ground for fabulists. Finally, a system that had seemed adamantine crumbled; the world broke open (Grushin's The Dream Life of Sukhanov wonderfully captures the disorientation caused by this rupture). ... Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:05:03 +0100 893715 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/19/lampedusa-letters-london-europe-review These shrewd and witty dispatches from a travelling aristocrat to his friends are a complete joyThese are rackety and uncertain times for writers. They go from one literary festival to the next, hoping to shelter in great houses full of fine books and they rely on the kindness of patrons. So it's as refreshing as a jug of freshly made Sicilian lemonade to contemplate the heroically languid career of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of The Leopard.The Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa, to give him his full handle, had great houses and fine books of his own and his only experience of patronage was in all probability of watching it dispensed by his noble, if straitened, family. His masterpiece, about an exhausted aristocratic line in his Mediterranean homeland, was published posthumously, after several rejections, and provoked outrage with its imputation of island-wide indolence: "Sleep, my dear Chevalley, sleep is what Sicilians want, and they will always hate anyone who tries to wake them, even in order to bring them the most wonderful of gifts."Lampedusa's successfully quelled industriousness saw him publish a bare handful of articles for scholarly journals during his life. This triumphant negation of ambition is well captured in a newly discovered note to an editor, chasing up the whereabouts of one of these contributions – if "chasing up" is really the term. "If it happens to be published, I should like to know if more articles are needed... so that I shall be forced to work – otherwise I wouldn't do anything." (The italics are the prince's own.)One capacity in which Lampedusa did exert himself was as a correspondent. The best and happiest part of his marriage to his beloved Alessandra appears to have been in their voluminous correspondence: 400 love letters have turned up, and counting. ... Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:04:01 +0100 893726 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/dec/18/frank-capra-bfi-season-review It's A Wonderful Life is a Christmas tradition – and the film that has preserved Frank Capra's popularity. It is too easy to dismiss his work as sentimental, prudish and politically naive, argues Michael Newton. Many of his movies are still magicalOf all Hollywood directors, Frank Capra is the most loved and the least respected. From the early 1930s to the mid 40s, as the maker of such classic movies as It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), he achieved fame, won Oscars and found huge audiences. Yet for every film-fan who warms to his work, there's a hard-nosed critic eager to pounce on this purveyor of "Capra-corn". He offers a personal vision, but it's one that has been judged suspect, offering up a sentimental and duplicitous Americanism. To those on the left, he has seemed a fascist; to those on the right, a communist. In their own minds, it's plain that the new Tea Party representatives see themselves as acting out a Capra movie, though of course one purged of any taint of socialism. It's meant to seem a small step from Jimmy Stewart playing Jefferson Smith to Sarah Palin.To dislike the work is to distrust the man, for Capra's films were emphatically his own creation. His motto was "one man, one picture", his movies marked by his unusual insistence that his name appear above the title, possessing the enterprise – it was always "Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life". This advocate of American democracy spearheaded the vision of the autocratic film director, making personal films despite the compromises of collaboration or the confines of the studio system. Bossiness came naturally to him; reading his autobiography, his vanity astounds you. For a moment, you can only catch the complacency in his films. ... Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:07:26 +0100 893554 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/18/first-novels-reviews Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla, The Spider Truces by Tom Connolly, Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes and Sleepwalker by John ToomeyCoconut Unlimited, by Nikesh Shukla (Quartet, £10)Harrow, London, early 1990s. In this Costa-shortlisted debut, Amit, Anand and Nishant belong to neither the world of their white private school, where they are mocked as the only Asian pupils, nor that of their traditional Gujarati families, where their lack of interest in science infuriates their parents. So they decide to embrace a new identity – as black rappers. That none of them has even spoken to a black person, and they have only the faintest idea of Public Enemy etc, is, apparently, not a problem. Their hip-hop band, Coconut Unlimited, will transcend the taunt levelled at them: "Brown on the outside, white on the inside." Yet Anand becomes sidetracked by girls, and it is left to Amit to galvanise the group. What the writing lacks in depth and maturity, Shukla makes up for with irreverence and humour.The Spider Truces, by Tom Connolly (Myriad, £7.99)A remote corner of Kent is the background to Connolly's magical coming-of-age novel, set between 1976 and 1989. Denny O'Rourke, struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife, moves his daughter Chrissie and her younger brother Ellis to a run-down woodland cottage, which he aims to restore as they rebuild their lives. Denny's eccentric Aunt Mafi completes the picture. Ellis is an awkward, unusual boy, given to outrageous utterances, dominated by a fear of the spiders dwelling in every corner of the house; the negotiation with Ellis's ongoing terror and his challenging singularity is one of many family battles focused on personal boundaries and freedom. Growing up, Ellis prefers to spend time on the local farm; later he will develop a talent for photography, but relationships remain a mystery to him in this fierce, humane and hazily poetic work.Down to the Dirt, by Joel Thomas Hynes (Brandon, £9. ... Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:07:15 +0100 893558 http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/article-note-on-graphic-novels-for.html Citation for the article: Downey, Elizabeth M. "Graphic Novels in Curriculum and Instruction Collections." Reference & User Services Quarterly 49.2 (Winter 2009): 181-188.Read online. Downey starts by stating that most of the LIS literature related to graphic novels looks at the form as either one for recreational reading, often for college students, or as historical and pop culture artifacts, in other words, stuff for academic courses. Personally, I wonder if the focus on college recreational reading reflects the fact that most of the LIS literature is written by librarians on college tenure lines and/or LIS professors. This is what comes natural in terms of writing topics. While there may be some who are not as familiar with the format, and as a result we often get objections and complaints about the form in terms of violence, sex, etc. (with many of the complaints unfounded and/or just reflective of certain less than enlightened interests), more educators are choosing to use graphic novels in the classroom as part of the curriculum.Downey argues that "part of the academic library's mission is to provide materials and resources for future educators" (182). Academic libraries should carry graphic novels not only for pleasure reading or for art or for pop culture but also to meet the needs of educators who are likely to use graphic novels in their curriculum. In other words, future teachers and school librarians, if they are going to use them in their classrooms, should have access to them during their teacher training period so they can read them and become familiar with them. Yet some academic institutions, according to a study the author cites from Library Resources and Technical Services, are still found to be lacking. The study revealed "that a considerable number of institutions supporting library science or education programs aren't actually collecting graphic novels for teens" (qtd. in 182). ... Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:22:00 +0100 893799 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/12/17/the-friday-fillip-228/ Though my father didn’t name me Autolycus†, I, too, am something of a “snapper-up of unconsidered trifles,” as anyone who reads Friday Fillips will agree. It’s often the little things, the throw-aways, that prove to be, if not treasures, then sources of delight. Take comic books. Yes, my mother, too, threw them away, in my case while I was away at university pondering matters of great moment. Those slim, cheap — “trashy” — books were, at a dime a copy, meant for consumption and the garbage heap. Yet, there were those wise enough to have “snapped up” these insignificant chromatomes. And for that I’m grateful, because I just purchased ten of the classics as a Christmas gift for my seven-year-old grandson, who is having trouble grasping why he should bother reading much. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern… tease ‘im with trifles and he’ll be hooked. I hope. And only yesterday on the CBC I heard mention of one of the all-time great trifles of my childhood, another that I failed to hang on to. We ate Quaker Puffed Rice back then (never did like the way it refused to sink beneath the milk) and for a time you could send away for a genuine deed to one square inch of the Klondike. Click on image to enlarge. At one point, I must have been a land baron, with holdings of perhaps seven or eight of these plots — all, alas, now decomposing in some landfill. It turns out that, according to sources in Yukon at least, any right and title I may have had is now gone: Not only do these people not own the land now. They never did, because each individual deed was never formally registered. The Klondike Big Inch Land Co., an Illinois subsidiary established to handle the cereal’s land affairs, has gone out of business. And anyway, the Canadian government repossessed all the land back in 1965 for nonpayment of $37. ... Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:42:25 +0100 893953 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/17/white-supremacists-boycott-thor Council of Conservative Citizens attacks Marvel for giving role of deity Heimdall to Idris Elba, star of The WireA US white supremacist group has called for a boycott of the Kenneth Branagh-directed superhero movie Thor on the grounds that a black actor has been cast in the role of a Norse god.The Council of Conservative Citizens is upset that London-born Idris Elba, star of The Wire and BBC detective series Luther as well as a number of Hollywood films, is to play deity Heimdall in the Marvel Studios feature. The group, which opposes inter-racial marriage and gay rights, has set up a website, boycott-thor.com to set out its opposition to what it sees as an example of leftwing social engineering."It [is] well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for leftwing ideologies and causes," the site reads. "Marvel frontman Stan 'Lee' Lieber boasts of being a major financier of leftwing political candidates. Marvel has viciously attacked the Tea Party movement, conservatives and European heritage."Now they have taken it one further, casting a black man as a Norse deity in their new movie Thor. Marvel has now inserted social engineering into European mythology."The site chooses to ignore its target's thespian talents, referring to "hip-hop DJ Elba" in apparent reference to the actor's career in East End nightclubs more than a decade ago. Elba himself addressed the casting issue earlier this year, pointing out that "Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers". He continued: "That's OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?"Branagh's decision to cast non-white actors as citizens of Asgard stands in apparent opposition to a one-time policy on Peter Jackson's forthcoming Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. A British woman of Pakistani origin complained last month that she had been turned away from a casting session for being "too brown". ... Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:01:52 +0100 893358 http://mcpldteens.blogspot.com/2010/12/graphic-novel-review.html Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse Vol. 1Birds, Bees, Beer & Bloodby Ben TemplesmithSmart-aleck jokes, grotesque dismemberment, a sentient worm living inside a corpse's eye socket, male alien pregnancy, strippers, and beer - these are just a few of the wonderful things you will find in this beautifully illustrated graphic novel. Some readers will be very attracted to it, and some will be utterly disgusted. Created, written, drawn, and designed by Ben Templesmith, who is best-known for 30 Days of Night, this is the best graphic novel I have read in months. It is very funny, almost silly at times, yet it is about saving the world from a demon. The humor is really just a bonus to the great characters, fascinating story, and incredibly visceral drawings. I was really bummed when it ended. I hope Volume 2 comes out soon!Trevor~Youth Services (Source: Teen Stuff @ Mesa County Libraries) Fri, 17 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894762 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/16/thomas-hardy-oxen-seasons-readings Thomas Hardy looks back on the Christmas beliefs of childhood in 'The Oxen'. Meanwhile, let us know which yuletide story is your favourite and we'll announce the winner on the Books blog on 24 DecemberThe legend that cattle – descendants of the beasts that knelt in reverence at the stable in Bethlehem – would kneel each Christmas Eve at midnight was familiar to Hardy from childhood. He uses it in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, in a rare moment of comic relief: when Tess arrives at Talbothays looking for work as a milkmaid, Dairyman Crick relates the story of his friend William Dewy, walking home to Mellstock late at night after a wedding. Crossing a field, he is chased by a bull: "The bull seed William, and took after him, horns aground, begad; and though William runned his best, and hadn't much drink in him ... he found he'd never reach the fence and get over in time to save himself." But William has his fiddle with him and, as a last resort, takes it out and plays the bull a jig. "The bull softened down, and stood still, looking hard at William Dewy, who fiddled on and on; till a sort of a smile stole over the bull's face." But as soon as he stops playing, the bull advances again, and eventually he has almost depleted his stock of tunes to play. "Well, then he called to mind how he'd seen the cattle kneel o' Christmas Eves in the dead o' night. It was not Christmas Eve then, but it came into his head to play a trick upon the bull. So he broke into the 'Tivity Hymn, just as at Christmas carol-singing; when, lo and behold, down went the bull on his bended knees, in his ignorance, just as if 'twere the true 'Tivity night and hour. As soon as his horned friend were down, William turned, clinked off like a long-dog, and jumped safe over hedge, before the praying bull had got on his feet again to take after him. ... Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:26:20 +0100 893217 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2010/dec/10/dan-dare-history-frank-hampson How Dan Dare's bold colours and dashing storylines captured the hearts of a generation (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:57:53 +0100 893218 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/16/jane-austen-google-doodle-tribute Search giant celebrates much beloved author's 235th birthdayGoogle's home page is festooned today with a doodle to celebrate the 235th birthday of novelist Jane Austen. A Regency couple – most likely the novelist's most celebrated characters, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice – are pictured taking a stroll through the English countryside, eyeing each other rather coyly, in the illustration on the search engine's site.Google makes a habit of marking literary anniversaries, among others, and has already featured Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th (13 November) and Agatha Christie's 120th (15 September) this autumn.Austen is another writer who hardly needs further publicity, with novels – including Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion and Mansfield Park – that remain widely read, and so frequently adapted on film and TV that they have almost become a costume drama cliché.Often represented as a "romantic" writer, Austen's books in fact contain much comic but biting social satire, and reflections on the chances and choices of women whose options in life are severely limited. Accusations by Oxford professor Kathryn Sutherland earlier this autumn that her famously crisp prose style owed as much to her editor William Gifford as to her own talents have been rebuffed by other Janeites, leaving her reputation as the queen of elegant prose unsullied.The author herself was born in 1775, one of eight children born to a clergyman, growing up in a close-knit family. She began to write as a teenager and, despite attachments, never married, living instead with her mother and sister Cassandra.Austen's first book, Sense and Sensibility, about two sisters with contrasting temperaments, appeared in 1811. It was published anonymously, with Austen's brother Henry helping her negotiate with the publisher. ... Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:06:51 +0100 893103 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/15/poetry-protest-politics Should poets be leading the charge in rousing metres, or reflecting thoughtfully on the sidelines?Last week's images of mounted policemen charging the protesters around Parliament Square evoked multiple memories: the poll tax riots in John Major's 90s; the angry young of Brixton and Toxteth in Thatcher's 80s; even, for the historically minded, the Peterloo massacre in 1819, where magistrates sent in cavalry to disperse a crowd of over 60,000 who had gathered to protest for political reform. Shortly after the massacre, in which several were killed and several hundred injured, Thomas Love Peacock wrote of it to his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley in Italy. Shelley was so moved by Peacock's description of the events that he responded by penning The Masque of Anarchy, a poem that advocates both radical social action and non-violent resistance: "Shake your chains to earth like dew / Which in sleep had fallen on you- / Ye are many — they are few".At times of upheaval and unrest, is poetry's role to fan the flames or cool tempers? Down the centuries it has proved remarkably effective at both. Against a background of civil unrest in 1970s America, Gil Scott-Heron told the world "you will not be able to stay home, brother". In his searing, satirical masterpiece "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" on the album Small Talk at 125th and Lennox. Scott-Heron offers a line in tightly-wrought comic surrealism; "The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary." But it is as much his delivery, his voice impassioned but not quite righteous, that electrifies the poem.Scott-Heron's influence is evident in a generation of young British spoken word poets and performers who have emerged with a political agenda. ... Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:02:20 +0100 892959 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/comixology-gets-android-app/ From the press release: Due to overwhelming demand, the holidays have come early for millions of comic book fans everywhere with the release of the Comics by comiXology Android™ app (beta) powered by comiXology, the leading digital comics platform provider for all iOS devices, the Web and now Android. Expanding beyond its industry-leading digital comic book apps on iOS and the Web,comiXology brings the largest digital comics library to the Android marketplace, enabling fans to read comics on Android devices running 2.1 (Eclair) or higher. The Comics by comiXology Android beta app gives users the ability to discover, purchase, and read more than 2,500 digital comics and over 300 free comics from 40 publishers. Launch partners include DC Comics, Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and Archie, alongside many more. Users can search and browse through comics based on titles, creators, publishers, genre and ratings, and find local comic book retailers with the built-in retailer finder. … The comiXology app for Android features a full in-app store and the best digital comics reader on the market. comiXology’s patent pending Guided View™ Technology gives users a natural reading experience while making it readable on small devices. Comics downloaded to the Android app will be available on the Comics by comiXology iOS and Web platforms through cross-platform synchronization so users can enjoy comics on all their devices, anywhere. Via Mania (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:11:12 +0100 893004 http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/japanese-publishers-complain-apple-infringing-copyrights/ From a WSJ “Digits” Article: A Japanese consortium of book, e-book, magazine and digital comic publishers issued a stern rebuke of Apple’s enforcement of copyrights on its App Store. The group said certain works by renowned Japanese authors Haruki Murakami and Keigo Higashino have been illegally scanned and distributed over the App Store. In a joint press release on Tuesday, the Japan Book Publishers Association, the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, The Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan, and Digital Comic Association said Apple’s distribution of content that clearly infringes copyright is “illegal.” “The associations we represent believe that Apple bears grave responsibility for this problem,” the statement said. Read the Complete Article See Also: Industry groups urge Apple to stop pirated content, take measures (Kyodo via Mainichi Japan) Via Resource Shelf (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:00:02 +0100 893007 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TravelinLibrarian/~3/GH-a9yOmDCI/ The Pirate Conference at the Incubate Festival 2010 took place on September 17, 2010. The Pirate Conference offers reflection on the comprehensive piracy-program of Incubate Festival and on the value of creation in society. What do artists think about the current state of issues? How can they best react to the current operation of copyright? What strategies, tactics and interventions can be used? How do we shape creativity and innovation as a society, and what could businesses learn from these tactics? The keynote speech was given by Matt Mason, recently proclaimed Pirate of the Year by Week Bussines. He earned this title as author of the book Piracy, which topped both Amazon’s economy and rap/hip hop bestseller lists. Mason was a DJ at a pirate radio station and a club in London, produced TV series, comics, videos and records, and his articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent and Vice among others. In his book Mason shows how operating methods of various underground scenes and trends have become global industries over the past years. For more info, check the festival site: incubate.org/​2010 or the innovation blog: incubate-innovation.org. Incubate Pirate Conference #1: Matt Mason Keynote from Incubate Festival on Vimeo. (Source: Travelin' Librarian) Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:36:19 +0100 892941 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62615 From a WSJ "Digits" Article: A Japanese consortium of book, e-book, magazine and digital comic publishers issued a stern rebuke of Apple’s enforcement of copyrights on its App Store. The group said certain works by renowned Japanese authors Haruki Murakami and Keigo Higashino have been illegally scanned and distributed over the App Store. [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:34:03 +0100 892795 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/digital-book-world-announced-publishing-innovation-awards/ From the press release: The Publishing Innovation Awards will recognize the best ebooks and book apps based on their merits in the areas of origination, development, production, design, and marketing. To celebrate the launch of the awards, organizers at Digital Book World 2011 Conference + Expo will present the inaugural Publishing Innovation Awards in five categories – Fiction, Non-Fiction, Reference, Children’s, and Comics — during their opening ceremony on January 24th, 2011 at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers in New York City. “The Publishing Innovation Awards will honor those making strides in this nascent medium,” said David Nussbaum, CEO of F+W Media, parent company to Digital Book World. “As the mission of Digital Book World is to learn, share and celebrate innovation in our industry, the Publishing Innovation Awards are a natural extension to the community.” To advise the launch of the Publishing Innovation Awards, Digital Book World has recruited some of the brightest minds working at the intersection of publishing and technology, including Peter Costanzo, Online Marketing Director of Perseus Books Group, Elizabeth Castro, author of EPUB: Straight to the Point, and Peter Meyers, author of Best iPad Apps and the E2BU white paper, “Enhanced Ebooks Today and Tomorrow: A Survey for Authors and Publishers.” Liza Daly, president of Threepress Consulting and developer of Bookworm, ePub Zen Garden & Ibis Reader, and Joshua Tallent, founder/CEO of eBook Architects and author of Kindle Formatting: The Complete Guide, will assist the panel in selecting and judging the inaugural winners. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:59:31 +0100 892775 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/14/season-s-readings-mark-helprin A very modern fantasy set in a snowbound turn-of-the-century New York, this isn't obviously festive. But for me it feels steeped in yuletide atmosphere. Do let us know what your favourite Christmassy read is here, and we'll blog about the most popular on 24 DecemberAs a teenager in the mid-80s I was mildly obsessed by – among other things, of course – fantasy novels and New York. I'd never been – still haven't, as a matter of fact – but had assembled a composite picture of it from movies, TV cop shows and Marvel comics. Then along came a book which fuelled both of my obsessions: Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. Back then books came to me with no hype or fanfare. We didn't get a broadsheet in the family home so I never read book reviews, and the internet was a distant dream from one of my SF novels. So I went blind into new books, judging them by their covers, their blurbs and a furtive read of the first few pages.I think I bought Winter's Tale with a Christmas book token, and it's that, along with the snow and frost and icy winds that whip through the book from start to finish, that will forever lodge it in my heart as a festive read, despite the fact that it isn't especially Christmassy.I was blown away by Winter's Tale. It was set in New York, but no New York that I'd ever imagined, even in the most way-out Marvel comic adventure. It was a fantasy novel, but without elves or dragons, and set in a place I vaguely recognised. I hadn't heard the term "magical realism" back then; nor had I read much 19th-century literature – so I didn't recognise the archetypes of the beautiful yet consumptive girl who sits, swaddled in blankets, on the roof of her house dreaming of the world and her collision with Peter Lake, a petty crook who lives in the rafters of a fantastical Grand Central Station and who tries to burgle her remote house. ... Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:15:14 +0100 892698 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2010/12/14/reading-the-screen-american-psycho-the-musical/ This isn’t strictly movie-related, but it does relate to a previous post about Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, and it’s just too delightfully weird not to mention it here. According to this article at shocktillyoudrop.com, there is going to be a stage musical based on the novel.  As a fan of the book, and its brilliant movie adaptation, I’m intrigued by the idea of an American Psycho musical. Whether it succeeds, or falls flat on its face, depends on two things, I think: the actor who plays Patrick Bateman, and the way the director approaches the story’s frequent blurring of reality and fantasy. What do you think? Are you excited, or repulsed, by the idea? (Source: Likely Stories) Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:12:36 +0100 893253 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/13/10-best-perfect-comic-novels Robert McCrum chooses his favourite English literary comediesIn last week's Spectator, the journalist and author Marcus Berkmann, selecting his books of the year, observed that "every compulsive reader is on a quest", and confided that his was for "the perfect comic novel". This, wrote Berkmann, explained why he had about 80 PG Wodehouse books on his shelves, "a good quarter of which must be as near perfection as makes no difference".This caught my eye. I published a life of Wodehouse in 2004, for which I read some 100 Wodehouse titles, including many collections of short stories. Some of his novels (I wouldn't estimate it as high as 20) are indeed close to perfection. Heavy Weather, The Code of the Woosters, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, Hot Water and Thank You, Jeeves are all touched with greatness.Wodehouse, a comic master dedicated to making his readers laugh, is a special case. Still, the English tradition has many comic novels, and Berkmann's provocative little paragraph got me thinking. Setting PGW to one side, which titles would I include in a top 10 of English literary comedy? A note to international readers: this has to be a strictly English catalogue. The American comic tradition is quite different. Not better or worse – just different. For the purposes of this discussion, then, I exclude Twain, and – because he is a special case – Wodehouse. So here's my list, a pre-Christmas cracker, in chronological order:Lawrence Sterne: The Life and Opinions of Tristram ShandyJane Austen: Northanger AbbeyThomas Love Peacock: Headlong HallCharles Dickens: The Pickwick PapersRL Stevenson: The Wrong BoxJerome K Jerome: Three Men in a BoatEvelyn Waugh: Decline and FallGraham Greene: Travels with My AuntKingsley Amis: Lucky JimHanif Kureishi: The Buddha of SuburbiaI'd also make a plea to include the Stories of Saki (HH Munro), which are small masterpieces of satire. ... Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:48:21 +0100 892441 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/girl-genius-novelization-now-available-as-baen-e-book/ The Night Shade Books section on Baen Webscriptions recently began selling the novelization of the first part of the Girl Genius graphic novel/webcomic series by Phil and Kaja Foglio: Agatha H and the Airship City. As with all Baen titles, including the ones Baen sells on Night Shade’s behalf, there is no DRM, it is available in multiple formats, and the cost is $6. I follow the Monday/Wednesday/Friday “Girl Genius” webcomic anxiously from week to week, and I am greatly looking forward to the chance to go back to the beginning with this novel and learn all of the background details about the universe that could never be fit into the graphic novel series. (It also brings Girl Genius to the e-book format that Paul thought it couldn’t compete with paper in.) I have already purchased and downloaded it, and can’t wait to dig in. The print, Kindle, and audiobook versions of it will not officially be available until January 5th. (I have been told that this book is one of very few that don’t have a restricted street date, so bookstores can begin selling it as soon as they have it in stock.) In his LiveJournal, Phil Foglio asks that people who plan to purchase the book from Amazon wait and do so on January 12th (which also happens to be Kaja’s birthday). He and Kaja hope that so many people buying it on the same day will drive sales rankings high enough that non-fans will notice and check it out and more bookstores will be willing to carry it for local customers. (And if nothing else, it seems like a great birthday present for Kaja, so I’m all for it.) One thing about the book puzzles me just a bit, however. The Kindle version is priced at $7.99, almost $2 more than the Baen/Night Shade e-book. Given that Amazon’s contract usually requires that they have a price lower than or equal to that for which the title is selling elsewhere, I’m curious about the lack of parity. I have asked about it on Baen’s Bar and will see what I find out. ... Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:15:00 +0100 892512 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/13/celebrity-memoirs-bestsellers-autobiography-christmas One celebrity memoir made our reviewer cry – but the rest just bored him to tears. What would reading 11 of them in four days do to his brain?Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas famously begins: "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." The first sentence of The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, goes like this: "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."But never mind all that. Life & Laughing is the autobiography of Michael McIntyre, the 34-year-old comedian who is now arguably as successful as any standup has ever been. At the time of writing, it has sold 169,210 copies. People like it; at my local WH Smith, it seems to be selling like cut-price gold. It starts: "I am writing this on my new 27-inch iMac. I have ditched my PC and gone Mac . . . It's gorgeous and enormous and I bought it especially to write my book (the one you're reading now)."While we're here, consider also the enticing kick-off passage of My Story, by Dannii Minogue: "Having a baby; joyful, a quiet celebration with family. An intimate and magical moment of discovery shared with your partner. Hmmm . . . I wish!" She goes on: "The car is stuck in rainy London traffic and, as usual, I'm running on what some of my closer friends would call 'Minogue Time', which basically means I'm late." This does not quite get me hooked, though I persevere. But more of that later.To begin The Woman I Was Born To Be, that blessed national treasure Susan Boyle goes for a gnomic statement of the obvious: "My name is Susan Boyle." Cheryl Cole's Through My Eyes commences no less prosaically – "In 2009, we decided to take a break from Girls Aloud. During this time an opportunity came for me to make a solo album" – but it's essentially a picture book, so maybe I should leave off. ... Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:59:01 +0100 892432 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/12/wit-wisdom-chesterton-review You can't help but admire the critic's wordplay, if not his politicsAt the end of the 19th century, that era of truisms and conventional thinking, the world discovered the wicked pleasure of turning truth upside down. Lewis Carroll's nonsense mocked logic by declaring that "no hedgehog takes in the Times", and the nurse in The Pirates of Penzance marshalled "quips and quibbles heard in flocks" and made the hero's fate depend on "a most ingenious paradox", which is in fact a pun on "pirate" and "pilot". Epigrams and aphorisms were Oscar Wilde's version of Nietzsche's gay science, sanctimoniously propounding the commandments of a new immorality. As GK Chesterton pointed out in 1906: "We feted and flattered Wilde because he preached such an attitude, then broke his heart in penal servitude because he carried it out."Reacting against this decadent subversion, Chesterton's own verbal conceits – neatly cherry-picked here by Bevis Hillier, the biographer of Betjeman – retained Wilde's mannerisms but used them to call for a return to order and orthodoxy. "Science is the Latin for knowledge," Chesterton said, and added: "Agnosticism is the Greek for ignorance." His opinions, as Hillier puts it, were "pontifical"; as a Catholic, he resisted the secular impiety of the 20th century and Jesuitically turned the tables on unbelievers by pointing out that "if there were no God, there would be no atheists". Even more outrageously, he claimed that Christ's moment of doubt and rebellious anger on the cross proved that Christianity, absorbing and neutralising all opposition, was "the only religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist". Wilde's wit was illicit and dangerous; Chesterton's pronouncements, by contrast, often sound like the fulminations of a bigot. ... Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:06:02 +0100 892119 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/dec/12/king-lear-jacobi-matilda-seasons-greetings-review Donmar, London; RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon; Lyttelton, LondonIt's hard to remember a better week in the theatre. Three top-notch productions; three totally different dramas; three surprises: the year is going out with an exhilarating demonstration of the vividness and variety of the British stage.Distilled, unadorned, concentrated, Michael Grandage's production of King Lear remakes the idea of what Shakespeare's play can be. What it doesn't have is an absolute sense of wilderness: of everything abandoned, wide-open, lashed. What it gains is something extraordinary. The action is literally contained in the pale timber box of Christopher Oram's compelling, spare design, a visual suggestion of the "nothing" that is so central to the tragedy. A fine, evocative soundscape by Adam Cork creates battles and threats as a distant rumble, but on stage there's no bellowing or rushing. Restraint suggests the huge forces that are being held back, and restraint is the keynote of Derek Jacobi's exquisitely calibrated performance.Jacobi begins with twinkling dignity, almost a touch of Santa Claus and a definite echo of the Prospero he played in Grandage's Tempest: he relinquishes power leaning on a staff. He steps delicately, precisely into madness, his low-level vehemence making evident how full this play is of curses. He creates an electric shock in the storm scene, by seeming to do less than expected: his imprecations to the elements are delivered in a level whisper, as if they are an internal affair, not a regal warning. He saves his big roars for the howls of his towering final scene, when he enters carrying the dead Cordelia, then sinks back into a soft register for the closing moments – and a long, expiring sigh.These moments with Cordelia are more than usually moving because they have been so carefully prepared for: Pippa Bennett-Warner makes this potentially irritating, namby-pamby heroine into a persuasively candid presence. ... Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:05:05 +0100 892123 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/11/comfort-joy-india-knight-review Laura Barnett celebrates the comic potential of family get-togethersIf you're allergic to tinsel, come out in hives at the idea of spending each 25 December in the company of your nearest and not-so-dearest, and think Ebenezer Scrooge had a point, then you should probably look away now. Comfort and Joy, the third novel by India Knight, is in love with Christmas, and all its glorious Technicolor traditions of overeating, over-imbibing and over-exposure to an endless stream of friends, relatives and hangers-on.The action takes place over three consecutive festive seasons. In part one, set in 2009, we meet our heroine, twice-married mother-of-three Clara Dunphy, cutting short some last-minute Christmas shopping on London's Oxford Street for the wild, solitary abandon of a champagne cocktail at the Connaught hotel, where she meets a handsome stranger, known thenceforth only as "the man from the Connaught". Part two segues to Christmas Day 2010, where we find Clara entertaining disturbingly sexual thoughts about her turkey as she prepares dinner for a motley set of friends and relations, the seating arrangements for whom would give Nigella Lawson a headache (among them are Clara's now-estranged husband and his mother, and her first husband and his mother). And in part three, set in 2011, we see the whole brood decamp to Marrakesh for a turkey-free but no less family-centred Christmas Day.Clara's idiosyncractic first-person narrative takes a little getting used to – it's riddled with posh exclamations like "yay" and "wahoo" – but her indefatigable enthusiasm for all things Christmassy quickly proves infectious. ... Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:06:33 +0100 891877 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/11/grandville-mon-amour-bryan-talbot-review Michael Moorcock enters the parallel universe of Insepctor LeBrock and Detective RatziBryan Talbot has always specialised in that brand of nostalgic satire known as steampunk. His Luther Arkwright stories were set against the background of a British Empire where uniformed airshipmen fought for queen and country, until discovering their idealism to be a little misplaced – whereupon their adventures continued apace, only with somewhat altered objectives.In those books Talbot drew heavily on a wide range of English iconography to depict an Albion ruled by monarchy and church. This came in for some stern thrashings through the 1990s as he continued his relentless prosecution of authoritarian power, up until what remains my own favourite, The Tale of One Bad Rat. This moving story of child abuse set pretty much in the here and now referenced, of course, Beatrix Potter.Talbot's storytelling, as well as his draughtsmanship, has grown steadily more assured and subtle. With his superb graphic novel Grandville, published last year, he extended his range to include references to the mid-19th-century French artist JJ Grandville, best known for his anthropomorphic representations of animals. That said, Talbot's animal characters owe more to British artists such as Tourtel and Bestall, who drew the Rupert stories. Their inhabitants of Nutwood included Percy the Pug, Bill the Badger and Edward the Elephant, all drawn to the same human scale. It's a tradition dating at least from ancient Egypt, which gives us such 20th-century favourites as Tiger Tim, Korky the Cat and, of course, the enduring characters from The Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh. Talbot knowingly chooses to work in a European, predominantly English, tradition. ... Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:06:27 +0100 891881 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/11/critics-recommendations-fiction-books-presents Justine Jordan rounds up our critics' recommendationsWhile Jonathan Franzen's family epic Freedom (Fourth Estate, £20) will be the novel under most Christmas trees, and David Nicholls's bittersweet romance One Day (Hodder, £7.99) the paperback to stuff into stockings, our critics found plenty of other gems to recommend over the reading year.It was a great 12 months for the comic novel, with Howard Jacobson's uproarious investigation of grief, friendship and British Jewishness, The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury, £18.99), a Man Booker winner that surprised and pleased in equal measure. Reviewer Alex Clark found it "a terrifying and ambitious novel, full of dangerous shallows and dark, deep water", bringing knockabout humour to bear on the most serious themes. Surely the year's most pleasurable read and now a Costa contender, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton, £13.99), charted teenage highs and lows at an Irish boarding school: Patrick Ness called it " a rare tragicomedy that's both genuinely tragic and genuinely comedic".Christopher Tayler applauded Ian McEwan's "elegant and surprising" response to global warming in Solar (Jonathan Cape, £13.99): "instead of applying doom and gloom, he reaches for a lighter, more comic mode than usual". Meanwhile, Alfred Hickling fell in love with Tiffany Murray's Diamond Star Halo (Portobello, £12.99), a "glam-rock Dodie Smith" extravaganza about coming of age in a rural recording studio in the 70s. Moving from Wales to San Francisco, later in the year he found Armistead Maupin back to his "rapturous best" with Mary Ann in Autumn (Doubleday, £17.99), revisiting the Tales of the City cast 20 years on.Lloyd Jones followed his 2007 hit Mr Pip with a novel that Joanna Briscoe described as "extraordinary". Hand Me Down World (John Murray, £14. ... Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:06:12 +0100 891864 http://nnlm.gov/mcr/news_blog/2010/12/education-two-new-archived-sessions-biomedical-publishing-101-and-healthy-kids-resources/ 1)  Biomedical Publishing 101 was held on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010.  It was created by the Chicago Collaborative, a joint partnership of librarians, publishers and editor, and sponsored and hosted by the Four Corners Directors, and the MidContinental, Pacific Southwest and the South Central Regions of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. This 90-minute webinar provides an opportunity to learn about the publishing cycle of biomedical journals, both in print and online.  The complexities of publishing, in a world of rapidly changing delivery formats and devices were explored, including the publishing challenges and opportunities posed by each.  The presenter was John Tagler of the Association of American Publishers, Inc. and the session was moderated by Jean Shipman, Director of the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library and the MidContinental Region Director. Available at: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p45972483/ 2) Spotlight! on National Library of Medicine Resources – Healthy Kids’s Resources was held on Dec. 8, 2010.  Resources covered included those about kids, as well as those for kids, including gaming,  comic books, coloring books, and stories.   Marty Magee presented this hour long session.  Available at: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p46786831/ (Source: Midcontinental Region News) Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:46:21 +0100 891970 http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/dec/10/the-joy-of-six-football-cartoons From Hot Shot Hamish to Billy the Fish, via Johnny Dexter, here are half a dozen of the most memorable1) Hot Shot HamishAsk anybody to name a cartoon football character and, a hundred times out of a hundred, they'll come up with Roy of the Rovers first. But let's get straight down to the nitty gritty here: Roy Race was a bampot. If he and his mate Blackie Gray weren't taking themselves so very seriously, and frowning their way through the strip as they pompously sermonised over "issues" – Race, for example, once refused to play for England because he didn't like the manager's tactical set-up, a self-regarding stunt not even John Terry would think of pulling, the over-inflated sack of hot air – they were projecting their Little Englandisms on to foreign nations. Over the years, they worried themselves over Italians cheating, Americans spying, and Indigenous Australians (or "Abbos", as the appropriately named "Racey" liked to call them) spiking them with drugged darts. Installing a myopic island mentality into generations of English kids, simple extrapolation proves conclusively that Race was a huge factor in the FA's inability to land the 2018 World Cup. So we're all agreed: Roy Race is a virulent xenophobe whose very existence has cost the country 18 million quid.However his stablemate in Tiger comic, Hamish Balfour, brought from a small Hebridean island to play for Princes Park in the Scottish Premier Division, was a true hero. Unlike Race, Balfour, a strapping long-haired powerhouse of a striker – essentially Andy McCarroll – had no interest in belittling Johnny Foreigner. He was only concerned with scoring goals, terrorising keepers with his Hot Shot, and making sure his Daddie didn't get into too much trouble off the pitch. ... Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:51:32 +0100 891692 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/dec/10/matilda-musical-review The RSC have produced a dark and delightful adaptation of Roald Dahl's tale of a child genius, and her monstrous headmistressAt a time of year when mush is licensed, it is a bright idea of the RSC to have turned Roald Dahl's rebarbative 1988 story into a musical. While the book is a testament to the joy of reading and childhood cleverness, it also offers a wickedly funny portrait of adult cruelty and barbarism and, in the figure of Miss Trunchbull, creates one of the great monsters of modern fiction.Dennis Kelly, as adaptor, has, if anything, heightened Dahl's awareness of both the mean-spirited and the miraculous. Matilda is a brilliantly precocious child detested equally by her dodgy car-dealer father and her ballroom-dancing obsessed mother. And, at school, she falls prey to the evil machinations of the diabolical headmistress to whom all children are maggots. But, in Kelly's version, Matilda is not just a voracious reader and opponent of injustice. She is also a prophetic storyteller who magically prefigures the plight of her one schoolroom champion, the aptly named Miss Honey.Tim Minchin's ebullient music and lyrics add to the gaiety of the show while inevitably shifting the focus at times away from Matilda: we get, for instance, an extended interlude in which Matilda's mum and her tight-trousered partner do a florid Latinate number that could easily fit into Strictly Come Dancing. But Kerry Ingram (one of three children playing Matilda) always draws the attention back to the heroine through her awesome mix of solemnity, vulnerability and singing talent: Ingram makes you like a character who, with her ability to solve mathematical puzzles and devour everything from Dickens to Dostoevesky, could easily seem priggish. And Bertie Carvel offers one of the comic performances of the year as the terrifying Miss Trunchbull. ... Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:06:34 +0100 891560 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/09/film-franchises-success-harry-potter-narnia In the world of film franchises, it's billions or bust – anything less than Harry Potter-style success spells the end for a series. Cath Clarke reports on how Narnia went to the brinkThe omens suggest there may be a happy ending in sight in the saga of the Narnia franchise. Last week snow was falling – as if Aslan himself had ordered it – as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third in the Chronicles of Narnia series, was premiered as the royal film performance. (Rumour has it the Queen shed a tear or two; maybe it was from relief – last year she had to sit through The Lovely Bones.) But in 2008 it was different story: it looked like curtains for Narnia after Disney unceremoniously dumped the series – disappointed with the performance of film No 2, Prince Caspian. Production of Dawn Treader was downsized, then delayed; for a while it looked likely that it wouldn't get made at all, and the projected seven-film series would be cut off at the ankles.It wasn't the first high-profile franchise to be rejected by its parent studio. A year earlier, the planned trilogy of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials was canned after the first film, The Golden Compass, failed to live up to expectations at the US box-office. To the casual observer, neither Caspian nor Compass looks much like a failure: both took hundreds of millions of dollars. But there is no margin for error in the new generation of multi-film, factory-line franchises – with their whopping CGI bills and budgets that would keep a despot in military trifles. Get it right, like Harry Potter ($6bn and counting) or Twilight ($1.7bn), and it's golden. But films have to match those takings to have got it right. Anything less is a failure.Franchises have been around longer than Bond has been bothering blondes, or Dracula has been sucking blood. ... Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:59:02 +0100 891561 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2010/dec/09/simons-cat-christmas Simon Tofield's endearingly anarchic pet is back, lending a paw with the Christmas decorations (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:00:46 +0100 891557 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/theatreblog/2010/dec/09/steve-martin-comedian The comedian has been criticised for daring to talk about art rather than do gags. Why aren't comics allowed to do serious?I saw an episode of House for the first time recently. I didn't really follow the story, I just found Hugh Laurie spellbinding. I could tell the show was highly dramatic, brooding, sardonic, and all that. But – well, how can anyone take it seriously? After all, this is Hugh Laurie. Prince George. Bertie Wooster. Fry and Laurie. Cover that dopey face with as much designer stubble as you like, but I still expect it to crease into a goofy smile and announce: "I'm absolutely top-hole, sir, with a yin and a yang and yippie-dee-doo." Last week, Steve Martin encountered a similar response from his audience, and the rest is ignominy. Martin was in conversation at New York's 92nd Street Y cultural centre, discussing his new novel An Object of Beauty with scholar and journalist Deborah Solomon. Halfway through the event, a Y staff member handed Solomon a note curtly demanding that she "discuss Steve's career". Audiences watching the interview by across the US had complained that the conversation was about art (the novel's subject) rather than showbiz. Attendees later had their tickets refunded on the basis that "last night's event", according to the Y's executive director, "did not meet the standard of excellence you have come to expect from [the venue]".Martin is now fending off accusations that he was, and is, boring – but his crime was simply to be serious, which isn't what we expect from comedians. Martin is not alone in attracting suspicion for writing a novel; standups' exertions in creative writing are often greeted with scepticism. And notice the recent confusion in America when TV comic Jon Stewart held his Rally to Restore Sanity in advance of the mid-term elections. ... Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:22:54 +0100 891567 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/09/why-we-think-the-butler-did-it This plot formula has the unusual distinction of being a cliché of mystery writing without ever having been widely usedIt's the biggest cliché in mystery writing. But where did the cliché originate? Were any fictional butlers ever actually revealed as murderers? Judging from the phrase's cultural resonance, you'd think the early mystery scene was seething with hatchet-wielding manservants. An investigation of the evidence, however, reveals another story entirely. The butler was framed.The concept of "the butler did it" is commonly attributed to Mary Roberts Rinehart. Her otherwise forgettable 1930 novel, The Door, is notable for (spoiler alert) the ending, in which the butler actually is the villain. (The actual phrase "the butler did it," however, never appears in the text.) While suspicion had fallen on butlers with some regularity in earlier mystery fiction, only one previous author placed the knife (or in this case the pistol) directly in the butler's hand: "The Strange Case of Mr Challoner" by Herbert Jenkins, published as part of the collection Malcolm Sage: Detective in 1921. It was The Door, however, that locked the cliché into the imagination of the reading public.The Door struck such a resonating chord with readers because Rinehart was Sue Grafton-level famous during the Golden Age of Mystery Writing, which flourished between the two world wars. Rinehart shot to fame on the back of The Circular Staircase, published in 1907, which sold well over 1m copies and remains in print to this day. By the time Rinehart wrote The Door, in 1930, she'd been a household name for 23 years, with several bestsellers under her belt. Rinehart, generally a clever and careful plotter, wrote The Door quickly while recovering from an illness in a hospital. Her two sons had just launched a new publishing house, Farrar and Rinehart, and were hoping for an early commercial success. ... Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:57:57 +0100 891559 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/08/three-musketeers-princess-of-spain-review Traverse, EdinburghIf there's a rule to be broken about family-centred theatre, playwright Chris Hannan breaks it. His brilliant version of the Alexandre Dumas stories is rude, anarchic, witty, intelligent, irreligious and coarse – the more so in Dominic Hill's production, designed by Colin Richmond to look like a scene of plague-ridden theatrical dilapidation in sore need of a good revolution.If you're looking for conventional role models, you won't find one in Beatriz Romilly's Princess of Spain who, although "as posh as a pineapple", is pregnant to an unnamed father. Thrillingly, no one finds this a problem, least of all Alexander Campbell's gloriously effete King of France, who is so smitten with her that he changes the new baby's nappies. And if you're looking for conventional swashbuckling heroes, you won't find them in Porthos, Athos and Aramis. These musketeers are a merciless portrait of masculinity in crisis: obese, drunk and narcissistic.Throw in an extended farting scene, gags about front bottoms, excrement and womanising, and a vision of the church as a bastion of immorality, and you should find yourself a long way from child-friendly entertainment. This is no show for tots – Rachael Canning's creepy skeletal puppets will see to that – but it is underpinned by such a keen sense of good-versus-bad, and enlivened by so many breathless sword fights and a great live folk-punk score, that it holds the entire audience.Above all, what we get in Oliver Gomm's D'Artagnan and Cynthia Erivo's Constance is a compelling existential journey towards self-discovery in which the hero strives to breach the two-dimensional constraints of his comic-strip character. When finally he says the word "love", it makes you cry.Until 24 December. Box office: 0131-228 1404.Rating: 5/5Alexandre Dumas, pereTheatreMark Fisherguardian.co. ... Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:31:01 +0100 891262 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/08/anne-holt-top-10-female-detectives From Miss Marple to Modesty Blaise, Lisbeth Salander to Nancy Drew, the Norwegian novelist pays tribute to some multi-dimensional crime-bustersAnne Holt began her career in the Oslo police department before founding her own law firm. She was then appointed to government and served as Norway's minister for justice in the late 1990s. Her first book was published in 1993 and she has subsequently developed two series: the Hanne Wilhelmsen series and the Vik/Stubo series, all of which will be published by Corvus in 2011."If the great male detectives are archetypically loners, female detectives are doubly so. They are alienated both by entrenched male hierarchies at work and the Janus-like disjunction between their formidable professional personas and their vulnerable private lives. They have a special sensitivity to victims and a repressed compassion that fuels their zeal to see justice done. This multi-dimensionality makes for good writing and good reading. The dramatic potential is heightened because female detectives, without the physical strength of their male counterparts, have to be more resourceful, intelligent and tactical to solve the case. The stories tend to focus as much on their character as on the whodunnit."I must mention two names at this stage – Detective Mary Beth Lacey (played by Tyne Daly) from Cagney and Lacey and DCI Jane Tennison of Prime Suspect. Both women are TV characters so don't qualify for this particular roll call. But my list would be criminally incomplete without them, especially since it was Mary Beth's multi-dimensional character that first got me thinking about writing a crime series featuring a strong but vulnerable female detective. A highly respected tough cop on the streets of New York, she was also a committed mother, devoted wife and good friend to her overtly sexy single partner Christine Cagney (played by Sharon Gless). ... Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:34:11 +0100 891258 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/dec/07/the-three-musketeers-review Rose, KingstonClaude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil took a big fat French novel and turned it into musical-theatre gold with Les Misérables; George Stiles clearly aims to do the same with Alexandre Dumas's 19th-century tale of 17th-century derring-do. It's an ambitious evening, even if around halfway through I found myself agreeing with the musketeer Porthos, who professes some confusion about his own enthusiasm for sweating so much blood on a noble but completely baffling cause.The storytelling, particularly around the crucial matter of the Queen's missing diamonds, is in need of some serious sharpening, and at three hours the show is way too long: even Les Mis managed to cram copious amounts of back story and a minor revolution into two and a half hours.But while there seldom seems quite enough at stake, there is a great deal to enjoy in what is a show of some potential, performed by a game and likable cast. The layered melodies of Stiles's score are always pleasant, and occasionally striking. In such a Boy's Own story, with plenty of swash and buckle, the women provide the music's emotional heart: the voices of Kirsty Hoiles's Queen in her gilded cage, the doomed Constance (Kaisa Hammerlund) and CJ Johnson's wickedly attractive Milady provide real texture as they swirl and bleed together.It's fun, and pretty rare, to have such a memorable female villain as Milady. But she needs a stronger comic counterpoint. Indeed, while there are a great many characters, few are really distinctive. Even the musketeers need more definition.Yet, for all its failings, this is a genuinely honourable attempt to put Dumas's tale on stage, and with more work it could be heroic entertainment.Rating: 3/5MusicalsTheatreAlexandre Dumas, pereLyn Gardnerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0100 891161 http://spclibraryblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/you-deserve-break-read-something-fun.html The Clearwater Campus Library's newly created Study Break Collection is here! Boasting over 60 titles, this collection is the place to find graphic novels, manga, humor books, blogger's books, "chick lit", guy reads, style and relationship manuals, the newest sci fi/fantasy novels, and more!The companion study break collection online site has links to popular magazines, e-books, and (Source: St. Petersburg College Library Blog) Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:10:10 +0100 892162 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/dec/07/man-who-inspired-tintin The story of Palle Huld, a globetrotting, red-haired 15-year-old, may have provided the inspiration for Hergé's comic-book hero, TintinEarly in 1928, a Danish newspaper ran a competition to mark the centennial of the celebrated author Jules Verne. The winner would re-enact the globe-circling voyage undertaken by Phileas Fogg in Verne's bestselling novel, Around the World in 80 Days. For reasons a 21st-century parent can only wonder at, however, Politiken decided the contest should be open only to teenaged boys, who – if they won – would have to complete the circumnavigation unaccompanied, within 46 days, and without using planes.Fresh-faced, freckled, with a snub nose, a shock of bright red hair and a penchant for plus-fours, 15-year-old boy scout and car showroom clerk Palle Huld left Copenhagen on March 1 and duly circled the globe – including then-wartorn Manchuria and foreigner-unfriendly Moscow – by train and passenger liner. He returned 44 days later to be greeted by a crowd of 20,000 cheering admirers and his mightily relieved mother, who, according to the Copenhagen Post, "had been prescribed sleeping tablets for the duration".The following year, an intrepid, globetrotting boy reporter – fresh-faced, freckled, with a snub nose, a shock of bright red hair and a penchant for plus-fours – made his first appearance in a Brussels newspaper called Le Petit Vingtième.Over the following 50-odd years, Tintin, the creation of a Belgian comic artist called Georges Rémi, better known as Hergé, went on to star in some two-dozen comic books with more than 200 million volumes being sold worldwide.Meanwhile, Huld, who died last week, went on to a glittering career as a stage and screen actor in Denmark, performing for years with the Danish Royal Theatre and appearing in 40 movies.But was he the inspiration for Tintin? Huld certainly suggested so. ... Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:00:02 +0100 891019 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/07/batman-comic-auction-first-edition Rare first edition from 1939 is star item in vast collection of vintage American comics soon to go under hammerBatman's first appearance in a restored 1939 edition of Detective Comics is expected to fetch £25,000 at auction, the star item of the largest private collection of vintage American comics ever to go under the hammer in Britain. There are thought to be only 150 copies of the caped crusader's debut left in the world and an unrestored edition sold earlier this year for more than $1m (£636,000) in Texas. The sale at Dominic Winter auctioneers, in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, on 16 December will also include a first issue of Superman, estimated to sell for up to £15,000.Comics and graphic novelsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:51:59 +0100 891020 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/07/just-my-type-simon-garfield-review Jonathan Glancey comes face to face with the old masters of typographySimon Garfield tells the seemingly crackpot story of Cyrus Highsmith, a New York type designer who decided to live without Helvetica for a day. Helvetica is the Alpine-clear, sans-serif Swiss typeface designed by Max Miedinger in 1957. When he woke up, Highsmith had virtually nothing to wear: the washing instructions in most of his clothes were set in Helvetica. He forsook his regular breakfast yoghurt: Helvetica label. Hungry, he dashed to the subway unable to pick up a copy of the New York Times because it employs Helvetica. So does the New York subway. No train ride. The menu in his regular Chinese restaurant was printed in Helvetica. No lunch. It was hard to buy anything as his credit cards and the new dollar bills in his wallet were also set in you know what. Back home and flopped in front of the TV, Highsmith was unable to switch on and relax because the remote control was a typographical hell of Helvetica, too.Type, as Highsmith proved, matters. How much of it, or how many typefaces we need, is one thing; the fact that they have become inescapable and fast-breeding parts of everyday life is another. Wherever Roman lettering prevails, some typefaces, such as Helvetica, Times New Roman, Gill Sans and Comic Sans, are all but universal, while others, including the divine Doves Type, cut by Edward Prince for Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, artist and bookbinder for William Morris, are not so much rare as extinct. Having set his covetable Doves Press Bible in this peerless font in 1902, Cobden-Sanderson was haunted by the idea that it might be used for less worthy books in future. Before he died, he made more than 100 trips to Hammersmith Bridge to dump every last bit of Doves into the Thames.Type is evidently the stuff of passion. Strange passions, too. ... Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:16:16 +0100 891022 http://nnlm.gov/mcr/news_blog/?p=8697 Tune in at 12:00 pm Mountain Time/1:00 pm Central Time. **Note the starting time! Kids’ resources can be found on many National Library of Medicine web sites and more.   The resources covered will include those about kids, as well as those for kids, including gaming,  comic books, coloring books, and stories.   Marty Magee will be presenting this hour long session. Taking the one-hour class and completing the exercises and class evaluation makes you eligible to receive 1 Medical Library Association Continuing Education credit. This online training is FREE. Register online at http://tinyurl.com/mcrclasses (registration is not required but is appreciated). URL: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/mcr/, Equipment: connection to the Internet and a phone, Login: as a guest with your first and last name, Instructions to connect to the audio will show up once you’ve logged in. Captioning will be provided. Questions to mmagee@unmc.edu. (mm) (Source: Midcontinental Region News) Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:32:12 +0100 890903 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SellersLibraryTeens/~3/wAUE0gRXF6A/what-we-got-from-bookfair.html I had some money to spend at the Barnes and Noble bookfair on Saturday, so I tried to buy a variety of things.  TAB members Elena, Kaitlyn, and Christine picked out some new fiction for us, while I shopped for nonfiction and fiction replacements.  They will probably come through processing later this week or sometime next week, so come in and look for them or place a hold online!  FICTION One Night that Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (replacement copy) Darkest Hour by Meg Cabot (Mediator series; replacement copy) Haunted by Meg Cabot (Mediator series; replacement copy) Shadowland by Meg Cabot (Mediator series; replacement copy) Burned by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast (House of Night series; replacement copy) Hunted by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast (House of Night series; replacement copy) Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (replacement copy) My Little Phony by Lisi Harrison (Clique series; replacement copy) Blood Ninja by Nick Lake Blood Ninja II by Nick Lake Jane by April Lindner Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev Flawless by Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars series) Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard Perfect by Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars series) Unbelievable by Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars series) Blue Is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz (replacement copy)  GAMING MANUALS Call of Duty:  Black Ops (BradyGames Signature Series Guide) Dungeons and Dragons Essentials:  Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms Halo: Reach (BradyGames Signature Series Guide) Pokedex:  All 493 Pokemon and Post-Story Guide for Nintendo DS (Includes HeartGold and SoulSilver) Red Dead Redemption (BradyGames Signature Series Guide) OTHER NONFICTION Quick Cash for Teens:  Be Your Own Boss and Make Big Bucks by Peter G. Bielagus GRAPHIC NOVELS Hetalia:  Axis Powers, volume 1, by Hidekaz Himaruya (Source: Sellers Library Teens) Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:24:51 +0100 890841 http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/2010/12/cfp-american-literature-association.html CFP: AMERICAN LITERATURE ASSOCIATION - CHILDREN'S LITERATURE SOCIETYMAY 26-29, 2011Boston, MAThe Children’s Literature Society of the ALA seeks abstracts for two panels on children’s literature for the American Literature Association Conference to be held May 26-29, 2011, at The Westin Copley Place in Boston, MA.Panel 1:Images, Imagination and Children’s Literature: Graphic Novels and Picture Books through History.This panel explores the expression of the American imagination through illustrated literature for youth. This interpretation of images and the text that mediates them will deepen our understanding of how the American imagination exists in children’s literary tradition. Papers in this panel investigate uniquely American attributes in graphic novels, picture books and other forms of illustrated literature. Papers may also investigate how defining characteristics of American illustrated literature for youth have influenced or been influenced by literary culture. Papers about influential illustrators are also of interest, as are papers that offer an historical or interpretative overview of the topic.Please send panel proposals or paper abstracts (250-500 words) by December 30, 2010 to Linda Salem lsalem@mail.sdsu.eduPlease include academic rank and affiliation and AV requestsHard copies can also be sent toLinda SalemLibrarySan Diego State University5500 Campanile DriveSan Diego, CA 92182-8050Panel 2: The Digital Worlds of Children’s Literature: From Video Games to the iPadWhen Steve Jobs presented the iPad, combining the e-book format with multimedia capabilities, “books” and “reading” were alleged to have changed. But this “change” had already been occurring in the world of children’s new media adaptations and formats The seamless relationship of young people and new media has, in fact, led the MIT Comparative Media Studies website to call the generation entering the 21st century, “generation. ... Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 892103 http://lisnews.org/audio/download/38204/LISTen-132.mp3 A key line this week: "Content remains content regardless of the form it is fixed in." You'll hear more in this week's episode. Related links: Yahoo News bringing word on WikiLeaks John Perry Barlow on the first infowar John Perry Barlow equating Julian Assange with Salman Rushdie How to nuke your Amazon account WikiLeaks moving to Elastic Compute Cloud Wikileaks getting kicked off the Elastic Compute Cloud Dave Winer on WikiLeaks Reporters Without Borders on WikiLeaks Julian Assange And The Potential Case of a Very Nasty Assassination Related links to materials posted since the recording session concluded: WikiLeaks releases US listing of critical infrastructure across the planet RedState.com: Wikileaks now comic-opera Bond Villian group. The Guardian: WikiLeaks cables claim al-Jazeera changed coverage to suit Qatari foreign policy Meitar Moscovitz on running a cablegate mirror Twitter versus WikiLeaks (Source: LISNews.org) Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:44:35 +0100 890724 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/05/mark-kermode-dvd-inception-eclipse Inception; The Twilight Saga: Eclipse; Shrek Forever After; White Material; Erasing DavidIs Christopher Nolan the saviour of spectacularly intelligent cinema? On the evidence of his most recent work, the answer is an unequivocal "yes". Having used a bestselling comic-book franchise to create a pair of movies (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) that are perhaps best described as art-house flicks posing as blockbuster fare, Nolan cashed in his hard-earned artistic and financial freedom with Inception (2010, Warner, 12), the $160m auteur vehicle that proves really expensive movies don't have to be stupid to be successful.Playing with riffs previously explored in such diverse (and, to some eyes, downmarket) screen thrillers as Total Recall, Dreamscape and Nightmare on Elm Street sequel Dream Warriors, Inception casts its characters' psyches as the scene of the crime, setting a team of industrial espionage agents loose within the subconscious of their unknowing sting. Leonardo DiCaprio is terrific as the team leader within the murky mansions of whose mind lurks a guilty vision of a femme fatale, while Ellen Page continues to impress as the diminutive architect of his money-making dreams.Treating his audience with the same respect he displayed in Memento and The Prestige, Nolan demands and expects that everyone keeps up as the narrative descends ever further into the windmills of its writer/director's mind. Nor does he skimp on the inventive action sequences, mounting snowbound setpieces that owe a weighty debt to James Bond, casting his own film as something akin to On Her Majesty's Psychiatric Service. ... Sun, 05 Dec 2010 00:05:09 +0100 890361 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/05/fiction-for-teenagers-reviews Malorie Blackman's family drama is a heartwarming Christmas read, while Rebecca Maizel's vampire tale is both witty and scaryThe double single-father family of Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman (Doubleday £12.99) is a heartwarming place to curl up for Christmas. Widower Tyler, doing his best to nurture his teenage sons, Dante and Adam, has rationed praise and approval, leaving Dante especially eager to flee the nest for university and a career. But Dante's plans have to be abandoned when A-level results day brings chickens home to roost in the form of his baby daughter, Emma, conceived during a one-night stand.When Emma's mother drops the buggy and runs, Tyler proves himself solid grandfather material, supporting Dante as he reluctantly shoulders his responsibilities in the face of terror and denial. This tale of three men, a baby and a rapidly filling swear box is liberally laced with comedy alongside a painful picture of Dante's struggle to be accepted as a valid parent by everyone from social services to waspish Aunt Jackie, not forgetting himself.Meanwhile Adam, who is gay, deals with the effects of fear and homophobia among the boys' peer group. The outcome of his first love affair leads the family into another crisis just as Emma has won their hearts and minds, and deepens Dante's re-evaluation of his key friendships. A thoughtful and truthful story that could have been enhanced by an update on Emma's missing parent.Another terrified but brave teenage boy holds together a rather more dysfunctional family in You Against Me by Jenny Downham (David Fickling Books £12.99), a tale of love across the social divide in coastal Norfolk, with the edge of a crime novel. Mikey's mother is an alcoholic and his sister Karyn has suffered a breakdown since being raped, leaving him to care for their younger sister while working as a pub cleaner. ... Sun, 05 Dec 2010 00:05:02 +0100 890365 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/dec/05/family-theatre-christmas-pantomime-festive-shows It's not just Jack and the Beanstalk – this year the annual family night out has had a makeover, with plenty of original work to choose fromWith the first advent calendar chocolates snaffled, it's surely time to book the annual family Christmas show – and what a bumper year it is. This festive season, an impressive array of pop, poetry and comedy names has been lured into writing for the stage: London's Hampstead theatre presents European fairytales retold by the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy in Beasts and Beauties (10-31 Dec) while comedian Tim Minchin provides the music for the RSC's musical version of Roald Dahl's Matilda in Stratford-upon-Avon (until 30 Jan). At Bristol Old Vic, Swallows and Amazons (until 15 Jan) features songs penned by Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hannon, and direction from its imaginative artistic director Tom Morris.Other classics getting stylish makeovers include Hansel and Gretel at the Southbank Centre, London (16 Dec-2 Jan) by Cornwall's masters of invention Kneehigh; Alan Bennett's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows at Northern Stage, Newcastle (until 8 Jan) with cuddly comic actor Mark Benton as Mr Toad promising laughs aplenty; JM Barrie's Quality Street at London's Finborough theatre (until 22 Dec); and, in the north, double helpings of A Christmas Carol from Hull Truck (9-31 Dec) and West Yorkshire Playhouse (until 15 Jan). Meanwhile, the WYP's neighbour, Leeds Grand, hosts Opera North's acclaimed production of The Adventures of Pinocchio (17-30 Dec). And if you fancy a spot of swashbuckling, catch The Three Musketeers - a Musical at the Rose theatre, Kingston (until 2 Jan) or The Three Musketeers and the Princess of Spain, Scottish writer Chris Hannan's surreal take on Dumas's tale at the Traverse theatre, Edinburgh (until 24 Dec).There's also no shortage of original new work vying for attention. ... Sun, 05 Dec 2010 00:04:07 +0100 890369 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/04/kurt-vonnegut-stories-review M John Harrison sees the best and worst of Kurt Vonnegut in a collection of early storiesThe short stories that comprise Look at the Birdie were rejected by the editors of the American "slick" magazines in the 1950s and have remained unpublished since. Written for "fat checks" – as the author puts it in a 1951 letter to Miller Harris – from such wide-readership glossies as Cosmopolitan, Collier's or the Saturday Evening Post, they display many of the characteristics we associate with Vonnegut the novelist: the amiable vagueness, the whimsical set-ups, the piquant but low-key observations. Their comic plots often revolve on an almost invisible change of heart. They catch tiny, pivotal moments. In many of them, everything that has actually happened to precipitate the crisis comes to the reader by back-narration, giving a wan, dissociated feel. Every so often an idea or a sentence stands out. "Autumn winds, experimenting with the idea of a hard winter, made little twists of soot and paper"; or, "Henry and Anne were in love with each other in a highly ornamental way."Vonnegut gets down to it in the first or second sentence of each story; he's good at the hook. He blesses his central characters with surnames that readily communicate: what else do we need to know about someone called Fuzz, Littler or Foltz, except that he's "middle aged and rumpled" and "decent to a point that crippled him"? Fuzz, Littler and Foltz are "ordinary people", the McCarthy-era magazine audience stripped down to a notion and sold back to itself by the author. Though they're offered the new, ego-centred life we associate with Mad Men, they're still trying to see themselves through the clichés of self-renunciation that scaffold It's a Wonderful Life. ... Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:05:25 +0100 890150 http://146.74.224.231/archives/2010/12/ginger_rogers_b_1.html The Ginger Musical "Backwards in High Heels" is showing at the San Jose Rep Theatre from November 24 - December 19, 2010. In his Frank and Ernest comic strip, Bob Thaves wrote about Fred Astaire: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards...and in high heels." Get to know more about Ginger Rogers: Ginger: My Story a book by Ginger Rogers The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book by Arlene Croce Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers at RKO Music CD Hollywood Singing and Dancing. The 1930s, Dancing away the Great Depression DVD A selection of DVDs with Fred Astaire: Top Hat Shall We Dance Follow the Fleet The Barkleys of Broadway A selection of DVDs on her own: Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers won an Academy Award for Best Actress) The Major and the Minor Roxie Hart (a version of Chicago) Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (Source: Santa Clara County Library - The Latest SCCoop) Thu, 02 Dec 2010 02:00:46 +0100 889868 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/01/father-christmas-raymond-briggs Ready or not, the festive season is here, and to get us into the mood the books team will be recommending a favourite Christmas read every day leading up to Christmas. We also want to hear what your best-loved Yuletide tale is, and we'll unwrap the winner in a special post on 24 December. In the meantime, to kick us off, some gloomy magic from Raymond BriggsI can remember reading Raymond Briggs's Father Christmas when I thought it was a documentary rather than a piece of fiction. So part of the delicious tingle I get when I open the book now comes from the memory of that early magic. It takes me back to my Grandma's house in the run-up to Christmas, snug in my little bed, occasionally glancing out the window to see if I could spot Rudolph. A place I'd always like to be. Although, at the same time as they bring on the memories, the browning corners of my copy remind me of the impossibility of ever really going back. It's the epitome of nostalgia.But there's more to the pleasure than sentimentality. Once I've finished indulging my regression to childhood, I can still enjoy the book as an adult. It's gorgeous for a start. Who wouldn't want that sleigh full of presents – especially when their brightness is covered in a military green all-weather tarp. Who wouldn't want to be on the inside of the lovely glowing windows Briggs has drawn? Glows are his speciality, in fact. There's a brilliant picture of sleigh and reindeers silhouetted against a lighthouse. A splendid glowing sunset. And then there's Father Christmas's nose as he drives his sleigh through fog. Ouch.Talking of fog, all the weather is hostile. Briggs evokes winter wonderfully. But not in a tacky wonderland way. It's a dark, cold, forbidding and icy beauty. It's just as the radio advertises when Father Christmas listens to it (a typically pleasing intimate detail) on a rooftop, eating a sandwich and drinking a thermos of tea: "Snow, ice, frost, sleet, hail, rain. ... Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:34:37 +0100 889602 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2010/nov/30/spiderman-musical-web-critics-broadway Broadway's bitchy online critics have been relishing Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark's every mishap. Can it turn things around when it finally opens?Laws of physics operate differently in New York City. For example, what would you estimate is the duration of a multiple car crash at the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway? Try six weeks. That's how long the preview period is for the notoriously troubled megamusical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Unless the entire cast ends up in hospital from aerial-stunt mishaps, the producer pulls the plug, or the infrastructure of Foxwoods theatre collapses under the weight of impossibly inflated expectations, this bloated behemoth, currently priced at $65m (£42m), will open properly – it's currently in previews – on 11 January.However, to judge by the online torrent of commentary to the first preview on 28 November, you would think the show had already begun. The premature appraisals have taken a number of forms: mischievous muckraking from vicious gossip columnist Michael Riedel; a scrupulous news report in the New York Times; and then there's All That Chat, a bitchy Broadway-centric message board that should, for the next month, be renamed All That Spidey. Every technical delay in the first preview has been clocked and documented. Every weakness in the book and score (by U2's Bono and The Edge) has been singled out and clucked over. The overweening ambition of the project's director-sorceress Julie Taymor has been wondered at with mixed disgust and consternation. A producer I met the night after the first preview had been there, and frankly perplexed. "I literally didn't understand what was going on," he admitted. "Sixty-five million for a budget? I didn't see it up there." I couldn't resist suggesting that maybe it was going on band-aids and aspirin.Truth be told, I should not listen to such gossip, nor crack jokes about it. ... Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:12:44 +0100 889356 http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/11/read-in-nov-2010.html Several nice finds in Nov.Harry Turtledove's WWII historical fiction piece, "Man with the Iron Heart".Leslie Scott's "About Jenga" (bet you didn't know Jenga was a recent invention)."My Jakarta", a collection of interviews of Indonesians from all walks of life. I found the accounts fascinating."Runaways" graphic novel series, by Brian K. Vaughan (writer). Turns an ordinary idea on its head.I'll probably blog about some of them in details.[RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus][RoughNotes | NLBsearchplus]   Web ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com myrightbrain.wordpress.com roughnotes.wordpress.com (Source: Rambling Librarian :: Incidental Thoughts of a Singapore Liblogarian) Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 890012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/nov/29/spider-man-broadway-musical-preview Despite $65m budget and music by Bono, musical's preview hit by problems including a superhero dangling above the audienceHow do you convert the whizz-bang acrobatics of Spider-Man – easy to draw in a Marvel comic and almost as easy to put on the big screen via digital technology – into a live Broadway show? With difficulty, judging by last night's preview show.Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark lived up to its reputation as one of the greatest gambles in musical history when it gave its first public performance to a packed audience of 1,900 at the Foxwoods theatre in Manhattan. The problem was that its record-breaking budget of more than $65m (£42m) was not enough to prevent some pretty glaring glitches.The show – directed by the award-winning creator of The Lion King, Julie Taymor, and with music by Bono and The Edge of U2 – had to be stopped five times to correct faulty technical equipment. The dramatic cliff-hanger at the end of the first half, in which Spider-Man saves his girl Mary Jane and then flies through the air across the auditorium to make an exit ground to a halt when Reeve Carney, playing the superhero, was left swinging helplessly above the audience.It took stage hands almost a minute to catch Carney by the feet to drag him down, and later there was some heckling.The convention of Broadway has traditionally been to maintain a blackout on all previews to give shows time to iron out their wrinkles before opening to a blaze of publicity on press night. That's particularly important for a show like Spider-Man that has been beset by funding problems, technical nightmares and multiple delays.But in the age of Twitter and blogging, and with huge interest revolving around the first preview, there was no way that the producers were going to keep chatter at bay until opening night on 11 January.Several of the New York papers were in the audience, breaching the agreement over treating previews as non-events. ... Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:21:35 +0100 889118 http://nnlm.gov/mcr/news_blog/?p=8615 Tune in at 12:00 pm Mountain Time/1:00 pm Central Time. **Note the starting time! Kids’ resources can be found on many National Library of Medicine web sites and more.   The resources covered will include those about kids, as well as those for kids, including gaming,  comic books, coloring books, and stories.   Marty Magee will be presenting this hour long session. Taking the one-hour class and completing the exercises and class evaluation makes you eligible to receive 1 Medical Library Association Continuing Education credit. This online training is FREE. Register online at http://tinyurl.com/mcrclasses (registration is not required but is appreciated). URL: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/mcr/, Equipment: connection to the Internet and a phone, Login: as a guest with your first and last name, Instructions to connect to the audio will show up once you’ve logged in. Captioning will be provided. Questions to mmagee@unmc.edu. (mm) (Source: Midcontinental Region News) Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:32:02 +0100 889191 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NetbibWeblog/~3/yM4P9sOrKMw/ Schwierig, den Kindern zu erklären, dass bereits 1. Advent ist, der 1. Dezember aber noch bis Mittwoch auf sich warten läßt. Warten wir selbst doch auch sehnsüchtig auf die Wiedereröffnung des Fleischmann Adventskalenders! Wer heute ein Fensterl braucht, der sollte sich den neuesten Eintrag aus Bibliothek comic : aus dem Leben des Bibliotheksdirektors (B.D.) ansehen. Eignet sich hervorragend als Adventsfenster: Man gönnt sich ja sonst nichts, und so gönnt man sich halt Selbstkritik … (Source: netbib weblog) Sun, 28 Nov 2010 10:32:12 +0100 888927 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/28/madame-bovery-flaubert-lydia-davis-review Lydia Davis's new translation of Madame Bovery captures for the first time in English the powerfully filmic aspect of Flaubert's narrativeI didn't like Madame Bovary when I first encountered the book as a teenager. The story of a suicide of a doctor's wife in rural 1840s Normandy seemed too banal for me. Like many others, I didn't really like Emma, who seemed neither intelligent nor charming. But the book has become one of the few works of fiction that I read again and again, decade by decade, and each time it seems different, as if Flaubert and his heroine were following me through life. It may help that my French family come from the part of Normandy in which Flaubert set his story, but I sense that I would love the book as much if I came from Patagonia.I feel I've seen the expanse of white stocking between Emma's ankle-length boots and her long skirt that so excited Flaubert. Every moment of her terrifying death by arsenic poisoning might be occurring now, before my eyes. I've encountered many versions of the brilliantly rendered discussions about human existence that dot the novel, giving it its sharp, ironic edge. Someone whom I married told me that most women think of life as negatively as Emma did. Thirty years later I am still wondering whether this is true. When my French mother was 92, I found myself arguing about the book with her. She said that she had never met a woman as stupid as Emma, but I was convinced that Emma was far from stupid. She just had the wrong ideas about life and – in a modern way, for which I couldn't reproach her – felt entitled to them.There is no Shakespeare in French literature, and Hugo and Balzac don't quite fit the bill. My mother was a Proustian, capable of reinterpreting a host of his observations for her own life. I do that, too, but Madame Bovary fills another gap. Every observation of Flaubert's has gone into French life with the force of a large meteorite. ... Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:05:33 +0100 888825 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/28/margaret-atwood-interview With almost 50 books to her name, the formidably intelligent Margaret Atwood is a force to be reckoned with. But one year on from the Copenhagen Summit, not even her dark imagination could have predicted the bleak situation the world now faces. Here, she talks about cowardly politicians, her love of birds and why she's joined the TwitteratiIt's 25 years since the publication of The Handmaid's Tale, her dystopic masterpiece, but Margaret Atwood firmly resists the suggestion that she might be an icon of Canadian literature. "What does that mean?" she counters in her distinctive prairie monotone, somewhere between a drone and a drawl. "I don't like being an icon." A thin ironic smile. "It invites iconoclasm. Canada is a balloon-puncturing country. You are not really allowed to be an icon unless you also make an idiot of yourself."Now no one has ever dared suggest that Margaret Atwood, a famously scary and prodigiously gifted Canadian intellectual with nearly 50 books to her name – poetry, fiction, critical essays, books for children, radio and film scripts, anthologies and collections of short stories – would ever willingly make an idiot of herself in public. But here's the big surprise: lately she's become game for a laugh. "If you want to see me make an idiot of myself in public," she goes on in that inimitably dry timbre, "you can look it up. Margaret Atwood + goalie + Rick Mercer."It turns out Mercer is an entertainer who performed this national service when he insisted that the author of The Edible Woman, Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin (which won the Booker Prize in 2000) should get kitted up as an ice-hockey goalie for television in an item entitled "How to Stop a Puck". At first Ms Atwood demurred. No, said Mercer. You've got to be a goalie. Why, she asked. Because it will be funny, he said. ... Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:04:02 +0100 888813 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/27/christmas-books-year-roundup Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tinyJapanese sculptures... which books most excited our writers this year?Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieIn Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.John BanvilleWilliam James, brother of the – in some quarters – more famous Henry, was that rarest of beings, a philosopher who wrote clear, elegant and exciting prose. In The Heart of William James (Harvard University Press), James's biographer Robert Richardson has put together a dazzling selection of this great thinker's work, with perfectly judged short pieces to usher in each of the selections.Tony Judt, too, had a wonderful prose style, and his little book The Memory Chalet (William Heinemann), a collection of autobiographical essays, is beautiful and moving. Although Judt, who suffered from motor neurone disease, died earlier this year, this late work is more sustaining than sad.Death stalks the pages of Seamus Heaney's collection Human Chain (Faber), but as we would expect from this most affirmative and celebratory of poets, the book in the end is really a meditation on life in all its fleeting sweetness. ... Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:10:00 +0100 888666 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/27/michel-houellebecq-art-of-struggle-review There's a mordant humour at play in Michel Houellebecq's poetry, says Paul BatchelorDepression is poet's flu: we all get it sooner or later. Michel Houellebecq is unusual in that he has brought the black dog indoors and put it to work. In his fiction, Houellebecq unashamedly projects his depression on to the worlds he creates. In his latest novel, the Prix Goncourt-winning La Carte et le Territoire, he even makes a personal appearance as a depressed character: "Houellebecq was notoriously misanthropic, he barely spoke to his dog . . ." In his poetry he goes further, founding an aesthetic principle on depression: "What we need now is an attitude of non-resistance to the world." Humans should aspire to the condition of lizards and "bask in the light of phenomena" but never fight: "We stay forever in a position of defeat."The Art of Struggle was first published in 1996 as Le Sens du combat, appearing between the early novels that brought Houellebecq so much fame and notoriety: 1994's L'Extension du domaine de la lutte (published in English as Whatever) and 1998's Les Particules élémentaires (Atomised).The argument of Houellebecq's poetry is much the same as that of his fiction: the illusion of diversity has created cultural homogeneity and proscribed individualism. Intimacy is impossible, its place having been taken by casual sexism ("Her secretary meat had passed its date") and morbid attitudinising: "Fortunately, Aids is watching over us."To illustrate his sense of the world as a tourist attraction, Houellebecq frequently presents himself en route from one meaningless destination to the next: "Struck by the sudden impression / Of an inconsequential freedom / I travel serenely through stations / Never thinking of making connections. ... Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:07:02 +0100 888687 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/27/richard-stark-parker-outfit-review By James SmartParker has been played, in various incarnations, by Lee Marvin, Mel Gibson and Robert Duvall, and loses none of his lustre in this graphic novel. Cooke's second foray into Parker's world picks up where The Hunter left off: having avenged himself on the couple who betrayed him, getting a vast crime syndicate known as "the Outfit" on his back in the process, Stark's anti-hero is lying low in a Miami hotel bed with a new face and a woman by his side. When an assassin breaks in, Parker makes him spill the beans and pushes him gently down the fire stairs. The Outfit are after Parker, and that means Parker is after the Outfit. Casinos are stormed, horse racing syndicates robbed, money mules bamboozled and bosses threatened at gunpoint. Cooke renders it all in fine style, his minimal blue and black palette shifting from classic, pop-arty pulp through squat, cartoony figures to faux-reportage, the bam and crack of violence sitting alongside intricate plans that show how Parker's scams are enacted. It's fast, smart and amoral: a gleefully guilty pleasure.Comics and graphic novelsJames Smartguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:07:00 +0100 888688 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/nov/25/birmingham-royal-ballet-cinderella-review Hippodrome, BirminghamFor any British choreographer, part of the challenge of creating a new Cinderella lies simply in dodging the sweet, funny but overarching shadow cast by Frederick Ashton's classic production for the Royal Ballet. Here, David Bintley doesn't even wait for Prokofiev's overture to finish before he stakes out his own, darker terrain. In a brief prologue he takes us to the grave of Cinderella's mother, where a small and weeping Cinders watches her father being claimed by a sinister female friend, and has her first, terrified glimpse of the two girls who will become her horrible stepsisters.That terror is graphically justified through much of the first act, as Bintley and designer John Macfarlane consign Cinderella to the grimmest of below-stairs worlds. The kitchen is grey and damp, and we can almost smell the rankness of the dishcloth with which she has to wash the floor. Elisha Willis as first-cast Cinders is visually perfect: her delicate features look pinched and pale, as if she hasn't had a hot meal in months.As for her vicious stepfamily, the ugly sisters may have pantomime-sounding monikers (Dumpy and Skinny), but they push Cinders around with realistic force, while their mother – Marion Tait at her most evilly charismatic – strikes a ghastly chill every time she appears. It's not a prince and palace this Cinderella hankers for, but simple human affection.Bintley and Macfarlane continue spinning tradition in a dozen other clever ways. They restore some of the homely magic of Perrault, bringing on a capering consort of lizards, mice and a frog to aid the transformation scene. They add a smart sprinkling of comic detail: Dumpy, juice-stained and scattering orange peel as she guzzles all the fruit at the ball; the mob of desperate women who clamour to try on the glass slipper. ... Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:31:00 +0100 888479 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/nov/25/zack-snyder-superman-matthew-goode There's only one thing worse than Matthew Goode as the Man of Steel – rumours that Snyder plans to 'Avatarise' the film's effectsThere can be few tougher casting choices than the one facing Zack Snyder as he plans his forthcoming Superman reboot. While audiences will happily accept awkwardly handsome actors as Batman (Michael Keaton) or, say, The Green Hornet (Seth Rogen), it's almost impossible to cast anyone as the Man of Steel who doesn't fit the all-American mould of the "big blue boy scout". Which is to say, it's almost impossible to cast anyone who doesn't look an awful lot like Christopher Reeve.Reeve more than owned the role of Superman, even if he only appeared in one and a half decent movies wearing his underpants on the wrong side of his trousers. Brandon Routh can count his lucky stars because, while a decent actor, he would probably still be an unknown were it not for a remarkable resemblance to his predecessor. Nicolas Cage was once considered to play Superman but would have been hugely hampered due to his rather unwieldy looks: audiences would have seen Nicolas Cage dressed as Superman rather than Superman himself, thus throwing the entire project into pantomime.The reason what we'll call "the Reeve issue" is of relevance is that a number of sites are saying Matthew Goode, who appeared in Snyder's excellent Watchmen as hero-turned-industrialist Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias), is the frontrunner to play Clark Kent/Supes in the new film. At first glance this seems an eminently sensible choice: Snyder has worked with Goode before, and the actor has experience in the comic-book world. He's 6ft 2in tall, which is just about big enough to play Superman, and is capable of packing on the pounds if necessary (Veidt was a svelte but pretty solid chap). He also has the right colouring (dark hair and blue eyes).All good on the surface, then. ... Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:05:52 +0100 888483 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2010/11/24/weeklings-literary-elephantiasis-stefhaufmannchen-forbidden-books-bad-sex-and-tintin-as-youve-never-seen-him-before/ A quick roundup of the last week and a half before I don my camouflage coverall, smear my face with dirt, and go hunting for wild turkeys with my bare hands. Just kidding–who am I, Ted Nugent? Good old cranky Robert McCrum–why, he even scowls in his headshot! Last week, took books to task for ballooning page counts, explaining “Why modern books are all too long” (Observer): Whatever happened to brevity? Once upon a time, it was not just the soul of wit, there was a strong literary preference for the shorter book, from Utopia to Heart of Darkness. More recently, The Great Gatsby, for my money the greatest novel in English in the 20th century, comes in at under 60,000 words, a miracle of compression. The novels of that great triumvirate – Waugh, Greene and Orwell – average 60-70,000 words apiece; even 1984 is not much over 100,000 words. Hmm . . . having read the article, I find myself agreeing with it but don’t feel that McCrum has really answered the question posed in the headline, other than to opine that “Literary elephantiasis starts across the Atlantic” (meaning here in the U.S., gentle readers). And, frankly, he could have said what he did say a whole lot more quickly. Moving rapidly along, in More Intelligent Life (”We Ten Million“), Alix Christie explains how she keeps going after 13 years of life as an unpublished novelist. (Coincidentally, that’s exactly how long it took me to publish my first novel.) Want to know how she does it? I”ll give you a hint: Stehaufmännchen. An interesting story in the Los Angeles Times about Amman, Jordan bookseller Sami Abu Hossein: “In Jordan, a Bookstore Devoted to Forbidden Titles,” by Borzou Daragahi. Hossein sounds like quite the character–and, for my money, he’d make a perfect character in an uplifting, literary novel about . . . ... Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:26:07 +0100 889066 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/piracy-follow-up-dutch-court-rules-piracy-beneficial-techdirt-response-to-colleen-doran/ Techdirt has a couple of pieces about digital piracy today. First, a Dutch court has ruled that it is actually advantageous to right-holders (at least in the Netherlands) that unauthorized download sites exist, because the downloads from those sites help to pump up the amount of the Dutch private copying levy. The Court of Appeal stated that the private copying exemption in the Dutch Copyright Act does not differentiate between copies made from legal or illegal sources. With reference to statements made by the Minister of Justice, the Court argued that the legitimate interest of the right holders is more adequately protected in a regime that allows downloading from illegal sources. In view of the Dutch government’s statements, such a levy system better ensures that compensation is due to right holders for the use of their work. Of course, we don’t have a private copying levy here, but it’s still interesting to see a court state that illicit downloading sites can “more adequately protect” the interest of the rights holders in any circumstance. And second is an opinion post by Tim Geigner responding to Colleen Doran’s blog post that we covered a few days ago. He responds to her assertions point by point, suggesting that perhaps the failure to engage fans might be on her end. Oh, and that last part, about there being no connection between fans and creators? That’s YOUR job, not the fans’. You have to make that connection. We’re not mindless moths, fluttering about the heat of your light, desperate to slam our bodies against the fixture. You connect with us, since you’re doing the selling, not the other way around…. He compares Colleen’s case to that of Steve Lieber, who managed to pump up sales of one of his graphic novels considerably by going to the site where it had been pirated and talking with the fans there. ... Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:58:50 +0100 888287 http://146.74.224.231/archives/2010/11/ginger_rogers_b.html The Ginger Musical "Backwards in High Heels" is showing at the San Jose Rep Theatre from November 24 - December 19, 2010. In his Frank and Ernest comic strip, Bob Thaves wrote about Fred Astaire: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards...and in high heels." Get to know more about Ginger Rogers: Ginger: My Story a book by Ginger Rogers The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book by Arlene Croce Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers at RKO Music CD Hollywood Singing and Dancing. The 1930s, Dancing away the Great Depression DVD A selection of DVDs with Fred Astaire: Top Hat Shall We Dance Follow the Fleet The Barkleys of Broadway A selection of DVDs on her own: Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers won an Academy Award for Best Actress) The Major and the Minor Roxie Hart (a version of Chicago) Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (Source: Santa Clara County Library - The Latest SCCoop) Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:10:23 +0100 888407 http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/2010/11/24/kirkus-reviews-2010-best-books/ Kirkus Reviews has announced their lists of the 2010 Best Books for Children and Teens.  Interestingly, they have broken their list into categories, making it very easy to head just to the section you are most interested in.  So there are complete lists for children and teens, or you can browse by Animals, Art, Contemporary Novels, Graphic Novels, and many more.  Just paging through, there are so many titles that I have yet to read!  Here’s to new-found great reads. (Source: Kids Lit) Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 888492 http://csbsjulibrary.blogspot.com/2010/11/clemens-reads-memoirs.html Clemens Reads has many memoirs available to check out. Read stories about a heart surgeon, a mennonite or living in the sixties. Memoirs come in many styles also - check out these graphic novels: Cancer Vixen, Stitches and Funhouse. You can also find on display books on how to write your own memoir. Don't see one that interests you? Ask a librarian for help! -sg (Source: CSBSJU Library Blog) Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 888218 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2010/11/23/dont-be-messin-with-my-hardy-boys/ I really don’t have anything against mash-ups. I loved Classic Comics as a kid, and only a few years ago I saw a version of King Lear at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre that was set in an unnamed Balkan country. Lear, played by Stacey Keach, was portrayed as a Slobodan Milosevic-like dictator ready to retire and turn over the family business to his daughters. No purist, I thought the transposed setting worked fine, and I didn’t even have a problem with Regan and Goneril driving onstage in a real Mercedes. And as far as I’m concerned, Jane Austen and zombies make a perfect match. But we all have our limits, and I seem to have met mine: The Hardy Boys Crawling with Zombies. Do whatever you want with Jane Austen, and if it pleases you, feel free to turn Charlotte Bronte into a madam at a Victorian brothel for vampires. But do not mess with Frank and Joe. I was a Hardy Boys devotee as a boy; in fact, my friend Rob and I, a few decades ahead of the curve, formed a Hardy Boys book club. We were the only members, and meetings consisted of the two of us sitting in his attic and talking over which parts of the latest adventure we liked best. By common consensus, we declared The Yellow Feather Mystery the jewel in the Hardy Boys’ crown. So I’m speaking with the authority of a dedicated fan when I say that the portrayals of Frank and Joe in Gerry Conway and Paulo Henrique’s comic book series just won’t do. Joe is too skinny, for one thing, and Frank is way too much of a prig (granted, he was always the more conservative brother, the one who never wanted to improvise, but here he’s just a whiner). And, I’m sorry, as comic-book characters, they don’t look like right at all. I know, I know; the authors are more interested in capturing the images of Frank and Joe in the minds’ eyes of today’s young readers, but that’s just too damn bad. Where Frank and Joe are concerned, Rob and I should be the sole arbiters. ... Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:11:54 +0100 889067 http://www2.cincinnatilibrary.org/blog/entries/the-lark-shall-sing One of the library customers I email with regularly about books recommended the works of Elizabeth Cadell to me, and I can already tell, halfway through The Lark Shall Sing, the first one I picked up, that they're going to be my new cozy reads.  Cadell is one of those mid-century minor English novelists whose works are such quirky, small delights.  Gently comic romances are sometimes just the right cup of tea.  I believe some of Cadell's works are set in Spain and Portugal (she herself was born in India), but Lark is set in the English countryside in the classic manner.  The oldest sister of a scattered family decides to sell the family home, and the clan converges by train, bicycle, motorcycle-with-doddery-sidecar, and the Rolls Royce of a passing film star, to protest.  You and I can both guess how it's going to turn out.So if you're stressed out by the holidays, or if you just love Flavia de Luce and Cassandra Mortmain try Cadell.  And let me know your favorites, since I'll be working my way through!Sorry, no cover illustration for this one--they seem to have mostly lapsed out of print, so I couldn't pull an illustration from my usual sources.  Such a good thing the books are still in libraries! (Source: Turning the Page...[Combined Feed]) Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:51:24 +0100 888080 http://engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=4725&BlogID=61&BlogPostID=7946 This is a captivating biography from the point of view of a young boy who experiences the changes to Cuba and it's citizens as Fidel Castro and communism take over the island in the early 1960's.  Even as a 4-year-old, Eduardo notices the changes happening around him - the soldiers lined up on every street corner, the Voice on the radio, and especially the strange way his parents are acting. His father realizes immediately that the family must leave their home if they want to ever experience freedom again, not an easy decision considering their extremely large extended family surrounding and supporting each other. After applying for exit visas, which are awarded through a lottery, Eduardo's father is taken away to a work labor camp as a dissenter. In school, being a dissenter means daily bullying from his teachers and fellow students. Luckily, Eduardo has three close friends to defend him, including two who try to be loyal communists but who also don't believe the propaganda they are taught. As the months and years pass, Eduardo's family continues to believe that the military Jeep will drive up to their door with the telegram telling them that they will be able to leave. Time is running out, though, as Eduardo approaches 14-1/2 when he will be considered too old to leave and drafted into the army. Reading about Eduardo's story, complete with food rationing, tormenting by government thugs, and the complete loss of the most basic liberties such as public gatherings to play cards makes the reader appreciate better the problems associated with communism and the luxuries we often take for granted here in the United States. Even seemingly small things like chewing gum, comic books, and ice cream have been removed from Cuban experience. ... Tue, 23 Nov 2010 03:20:02 +0100 887867 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/nov/22/kafka-comics-standup-key-basden Two young comedians are spearheading a more theatrical style of comedy with their stage version of The TrialWhen you think Franz Kafka, what comes to mind? Mitteleuropean gloom, perhaps. "Bowler hats, briefcases and faceless bureaucrats," as playwright Tom Basden suggests. What you don't think of is standup comedy – between Kafka and Michael McIntyre, an unbridgeable gulf yawns. But Basden is a standup, too, as is 2009 Edinburgh comedy award champ Tim Key, and they are respectively writer of, and actor in, a new version of Kafka's The Trial that hits the London stage next month. From Key and Basden, such an adaptation is, in its very unexpectedness, exactly what one might expect.They are, after all, leaders of a new generation of comics, who are dismantling and reconstructing what we consider standup comedy to be. Key is resident poet on Charlie Brooker's Newswipe; he has just released an album of "poetry, prose and tense conversation"; and he has published two books (mainly) of verse. Basden is also an Edinburgh award-winner, having bagged the best newcomer gong in 2007. His standup shows combine PowerPoint, Google, doodles and whimsical song. His comic political play Party (in which Key starred) made it to the West End this spring. "Between us," says Key, "we're keeping a lot of balls in the air."Is that wise? Should two capable young comics, in the midst of Britain's current standup boom, be dedicating three months to staging Kafka in a west London pub-theatre? "Probably not," Key admits, over breakfast at their Southwark rehearsal room. "But I thought it'd be interesting.""We're not diversifying for the sake of being diverse," says Basden. "I'm approaching this with the same determination [as in his standup] to make something really good. It's not like Minnie Driver releasing an album."Key and Basden's instincts have always been theatrical, they tell me. ... Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:38:57 +0100 887727 http://ricklibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/11/tower-zoo-and-tortoise-by-julia-stuart.html The Tower of London has been a royal palace since the days of William the Conqueror and the site of many events, including the imprisonment of Elizabeth I and the executions of Anne Boleyn and Sir Walter Raleigh. Now with its museums, the Crown Jewels, and tours run by the Beefeaters, it is a highly popular tourist attraction. What it has not been until now is the setting for a highly entertaining 21st century comic novel. Julia Stuart brings the Tower into the present in her second novel The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise.Of course, being in the present does not mean the past is forgotten in a place like the Tower of London. Beefeater Balthazar Jones repeats the old stories to tourists daily. The past is also Queen Elizabeth II's source of inspiration for moving the wild animals sent to her by other heads of state on the Tower grounds. Elephants, zebra, and many exotic birds belonging to monarchs were kept there before the London Zoo was opened in the 1830s. According to the Queen's equerry, she wants the already popular Tower to draw bigger crowds and a new menagerie will do the trick. Balthazar and his fellow Beefeaters are not pleased. Balthazar is also dismayed to find himself appointed overseer of the menagerie. Other than caring for an aged tortoise, he knows little about animals.While much that is funny happens at the Tower, my favorite recurring setting in the novel may be the London Underground's Lost Property Office, where Balthazar's wife Hebe and her free-spirited friend Valerie Jennings work. They try to reunite underground commuters with the purses, clothes, lost teeth, books, and such that they leave at stations or on trains. In their collection that has never been inventoried by computer are some rather bizarre items, including Dustin Hoffman's Academy Award, a sarcophagus, and a safe that they have not been able to open. An unusual group of characters visits regularly to deposit or claim lost items. ... Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 887805