Books

Time to gripe about Things that Annoy Me in Periodicals! 1) Claire Messud's enthusiastic NY Times review of a Leskov collection says of the author: "he emerges as a literary missing link, a writer who brings the metafictional playfulness of Sterne into the Russian tradition..." Leskov is a wonderful writer, but he started publishing in the 1860s, seventy years after Karamzin, the "Russian Sterne," brought that playfulness into the Russian tradition starting in the 1790s (see this post). Karamzin was followed by a whole passel of writers influenced by him and Sterne, including Veltman (see this post), Narezhny, and Senkovsky, and doubtless others I haven't read. It's not fair to blame Messud for this, since she probably took it from Pevear's introduction (and of course I'm always happy to blame Pevear and ?Volokhonsky for things), and the real blame goes to the distorting lens through which we all view pre-Tolstoy Russian literature. 2) This is a simpler case, but more unexpected and therefore more aggravating. In Rebecca Mead's New Yorker piece on dementia care, "The Sense of an Ending," we find the sentence "Residents may choose when, and if, to bathe, provided that they maintain basic hygiene, and there is no compunction among staff members to get uncoöperative residents spiffed up for visitors." She obviously means something like "staff members feel no compulsion to..."; I don't know how the inappropriate "compunction" got in there, but even after years of watching the magazine's standards slip, it still somehow shocks me that their once-famed editing staff didn't root it out.

Today the horses are in town, those beautiful beasts that arrive each year and send my thoughts back to childhood days. You'll find me in the stables early, stroking those long, warm noses, breathing a little easier. And over the weekend, running in the Philadelphia Inquirer, you'll find a story about my love of that show and its long and storied history. Over the course of the summer and into the fall, I'll be traveling a bit, to a number of events, beginning next Thursday when I head up to the BEA to celebrate the naming of Small Damages as the Armchair BEA young adult novel of 2012. A number of other events are brewing, but these are the events I can announce at this time. Also, in the next few weeks you'll find a brief Kephart essay in Good Housekeeping and an excerpt of Handling the Truth in O Magazine. I'm grateful for the generosity of the editors. So here I shall be. Perhaps I'll have the privilege of finding you in one of these cities, at one of these times. May 30, 2013, 10 AMArmchair BEA Awards(Yay, Small Damages!)Shindig Booth # 2135Javits CenterNew York, NYJune 4, 2013Speaker,Friends of the Wissahickon Annual Member MeetingPhiladelphia, PAJune 27, 2013, 10 AMProject FlowFairmount Water Works Interpretive CenterPhiladelphia, PAJuly 2, 2013Philadelphia Literary Legacy UnveilingPhiladelphia International Airport,Philadelphia, PADetails hereJuly 18, 2013, 9 AM to NoonCoffee Klatch LeaderPhiladelphia Business JournalThird Annual Women's ConferenceCrystal Tea RoomWanamaker BuildingPhiladelphia, PAJuly 27, 2013, 3:30 - 5:00 PMLaunching Small Damages paperback/Memoir Workshopwith Debbie LevyHooray for BooksOld Town Alexandria, VAAugust 6, 2013Launching Handling the Truthwith a memoir workshopFree Library of Philadelphia(details to come)Philadelphia, PAAugust 13, 2013Five Author EventDetails to comeSeptember 7, 2013, 10 AM - noonBookPassage Memoir Workshop51 Tamal Vista Blvd.Corte Madera, CA 94925September 7, 2013, 3 PMBooks Inc. Memoir WorkshopOpera Plaza601 Van NessSan Francisco, CASeptember 8, 2013Redwood Writers WorkshopMemoir WorkshopFlamingo Conference Resort & SpaSanta Rosa, CA 95405September 17, 2013, 7 PMDr. Radway LaunchRadnor Memorial LibraryRadnor, PASeptember 22, 2013Chestnut Hill Book FestivalChestnut Hill, PA(details to come)October 3, 2013, 6 PMUniversity of Pennsylvania BookstoreMemoir Workshop/Handling the TruthPhiladelphia, PA(details to come)October 20, 2013Talking Memoir with Linda Joy Myers @Rosemont CollegeRosemont, PA(details to come)March 12, 2014, 8 PMElizabeth Boatwright Coaker Visiting Writers SeriesConverse CollegeSpartanburg, SC

Tom Felton has signed on for his first American television series, where he will costar in DirecTV's upcoming drama "Full Circle," Deadline confirmed on Thursday. The Harry Potter will be part of an impressive ensemble cast, including Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck), David Boreanaz (Bones), Keke Palmer (Akeelah And The Bee), Devon Gearhart (The Wait), Billy Campbell (The Killing, Killing Lincoln), Kate Walsh (Private Practice), Noah Silver (The Borgias), Ally Sheedy (Welcome To The Rileys), Cheyenne Jackson (Behind The Candelabra) and Robin Weigert (Sons Of Anarchy). The program will begin production early this summer, DirecTV announced, and will broadcast this fall on the cable exclusive channel DIRECTV?s Audience in fall 2013. No word yet on who Tom will play in the show. A synopsis of the series, by Neil LaBute, can be read here. Quote: ?Full Circle? is a modern day La Ronde meets My Dinner with Andre as it explores the nature of human contact and true togetherness in our current technology-driven world. It marks a new foray into alternative television production, harkening back to the prolific days of independent filmmaking. Please note, DirecTV is a U.S. cable provider, and only those who are subscribed to it can view the show, assuming they have ordered the Audience premium channel. More information on that can be found here.

"A religion is as much a progressive unlearning of false ideas concerning God as it is the learning of the true ideas concerning God."— Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881-1983), founder of the Reconstructionist movement of Judaism

There is currently a major European research project to investigate the furthest reaches of the human brain, involving thousands of researchers and millions of Euros. But I reckon researchers could save oodles of dosh, and do a lot worse than simply seeing Fleur Hitchcock in action: This week - as part of a book week at St Swithun's School, Kennington - Fleur tried to get schoolchildren to visualise just what it was like inside her brain as she endeavoured to create stories. The author of The Trouble With Mummies, Dear Scarlett and Shrunk! hauled up lots of volunteers, and lined them up with baskets of eggs, German war helmets, genuine bronze-age axe heads, replica Saxon armour - and she even had children mummifying each other. The result was not-quite-chaos - and for the children who had already been doing lots of writing exercises, it was a remarkable insight into the writing process. Fleur has always written, but at school - with undiagnosed dyslexia - she found no-one else could really read what she had written. Inspired by books such as The Silver Sword and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase she has quickly found herself with not one but two publishers in the eight months since her first book Shrunk! was published. She plots out stories, not with a synopsis, but in storyboards drawn on the back of long rolls of wallpaper. In response to children's questions, she compared the writing process to turning on the hot tap, and waiting for plenty of cold water to come up before the hot stuff. (Trouble with mummies: pupil at left learns never to volunteer for a Fleur Hitchcock event) Fleur signed copies for pupils afterwards... ...and St Swithun's definitely win the prize for 'best coffee offered to bookseller and author' award... We managed to lure her back to the shop with the lure of more coffee... ...and the chance to find out more about Fleur's approach to writing. Five Questions with...Fleur Hitchcock's Writing Life 1. What are you working on at the moment? So many things *clutches head*. But I am currently working on a book for Hot Key which involves time travel and yoghurt pots... 2. What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given? Mmm. Difficult. I think it has to be 'Read as much as you can'. This one really counts. You cannot be a writer if you don't read. 3. What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?The best thing is meeting the children: that lack of reverence, sometimes you find yourself sitting in primary schools, eating school dinners, talking about your book with children - who wouldn't love that, being asked all kinds of random questions! The worst thing is sometimes you have to modify your stories to get them past the gatekeepers. For example in 'Dear Scarlett' the gangsters are very tame, and believe me I wanted them to be much more scary than that but wasn't allowed to get away with it. Neil Gaiman gets away with it, but not me! 4. Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing, thing or snack essential before you can start work? I have to have a hot drink. I have to have the phone unplugged. I have to have the Internet turned off - definitely. Honestly, if you take all the tweets I've done it probably adds up to several books... 5. What was your biggest breakthrough? Being picked as the Sunday Times 'book of the week' five days before publication of SHRUNK! I think it made the biggest difference, and it made me go prickly all over.

Bonnie Wright, as she mentioned numerous times on her Twitter the past week, attended amfAR's 20th annual Cinema Against AIDS charity event, in conjunction with the Cannes Film Festival this month. Photos of the Harry Potter actress at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in France on Thursday evening can be seen here.

Welcome to the LOVE IN BLOOM Giveaway Hop! This hop is hosted by: vvb32reads (HERE) Check out the entire list of participants HERE There are a bunch of blogs participating and each has their own entry rules and geographic limits, so be sure to read the rules for each one. This hop starts May 24th and and ends on May 27nd, midnight. HERE IS WHAT I HAVE FOR ONE LUCKY WINNER: (click on the covers for more information) Want to win this set of books? Contest is open to anyone over 13 years old with a reliable mailing address within the free shipping areas of The Book Depository. Contest ends on 5.27.13 Winner will be chosen by Random.org WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THE COMMENTS OF THIS POST Winner will have 48 hours to respond to email or a new winner will be chosen. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Void where prohibited. This giveaway is sponsored by me and ONE set is available. Complete the below form Follow Me Extra Entries +1 Follow me on Twitter HERE +1 Like BookHounds on Facebook HERE +1 Follow my reviews on Goodreads HERE (I am at my limit of friends!) Loading...

... The Art of Staying Focused in a Distracting World - James Fallows - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

cover image via http://mayabanks.com/books/darkest/What The Darkest Hour is about:It’s been one year since ex-Navy SEAL Ethan Kelly last saw his wife Rachel alive. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt over his failures as a husband, Ethan shuts himself off from everything and everyone. His brothers have tried to bring Ethan into the KGI fold, tried to break through the barriers he’s built around himself, but Ethan refuses to respond… until he receives anonymous information claiming Rachel is alive.To save her, Ethan will have to dodge bullets, cross a jungle, and risk falling captive to a deadly drug cartel that threatens his own demise. And even if he succeeds, he’ll have to force Rachel to recover memories she can’t and doesn’t want to relive—the minute by minute terror of her darkest hour—for their love, and their lives, may depend on itIt's no surprise to any of my book friends that I've been on a bit of a romance junket lately. I find that they are fast, fun books that leave me with a stupid smile on my face and great dreams to look forward to when I tuck myself in for the night! This book starts out great and the pacing stays pretty even all the way to the end. I loved the brother's connection to each other and most especially the love and high regard they each had for the parents. This book is about more than just romance and sex. It's about family and I found that quite refreshing!Recommend? For those that enjoy romance with some thrill seeking adventures included, brothers who are hot, hot, hot, and their smart significant others, then I think you would like this series!!Source: My Public LibrarySix Sentence Bookish Thoughts #103© 2013, Staci of Life in the Thumb. All Rights Reserved. If you reading this on a site other than, Life in the Thumb or Staci's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

... Lydia Davis bags Man Booker Prize.