May is for manful titles, courage and resolution, old crime stories and new thrillers. Read Hobbs’s debut novel Ghostman, Kerr’s A Man Without Breath, Hillerman’s (1986) Skinwalkers, and more.
Ladies with Attitude | African American Fiction (and More)
By on May 16, 2013 Leave a Comment
The ladies in this month’s selections are feisty, cunning, disrespectful to everyone, and laser beam-focused on fulfilling their self-centered desires.
Fringe Politics: Hate and Extremism | Collection Development
By on May 3, 2013 4 Comments
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) states that since the year 2000 the number of hate groups in the United States has increased by 69 percent. A new report released by the center in March 2013 shows that the number of patriot and militia groups has skyrocketed from 149 in 2009 to an astonishing 1,360 in 2012. The SPLC is an excellent resource for identifying trends in far-right fringe groups (ironically, there is a video on the American Family Association’s website that suggests the SPLC is itself a fringe political group). SPLC is the go-to resource for those looking to get a basic understanding of fringe political movements in the United States.
Magazine Vital Signs: Best Magazines of 2012
By on May 2, 2013 Leave a Comment
The best magazines launched in 2012 include one sport magazine, a travel magazine, two in the lifestyle genre, an art journal, and five literary magazines. None this year are strictly online; all are available in print.
Author Q&A: Hanan al-Shaykh’s New Shahrazad
By on April 26, 2013 Leave a Comment
“Many thought that One Thousand and One Nights were folklore, tales, and that’s it—not a treasure. These stories were told so people could learn lessons about humanity, even from bad deeds or omens.”
I Will Survive | Memoir Short Takes
By on April 22, 2013 1 Comment
Some stories of survival leave powerful imprints on human consciousness: a wrist stuck under a boulder; a teenager stranded with only a hatchet; cloned dinosaurs on a rampage.* Such images leave us white knuckled with tense jaws and a ferocious desire to know what will happen next. Still, survival may mean something as simple as putting one foot in front of the other each morning, joining a choir, moving into a van, getting sober, or leaving the country. This month’s memoirs column features acts of survival that may seem small but are in fact indispensable steps taken in the direction of a more fulfilling life.
An Excellent Year for K’wan | African American Fiction (and More)
By on April 18, 2013 Leave a Comment
The Street Lit Book Award Medal (SLBAM) committee of librarians acknowledges the best of the best from 2012 and author K’wan hits the trifecta! A useful third annual list and reader’s advisory tool.
A Simple Murder, Wool, and The Human Division | Books for Dudes
By on April 10, 2013 2 Comments
This month’s Books for Dudes features star SF author Scalzi’s The Human Dimension, Atkins’s The Broken Places, Kuhns’s historical mystery A Simple Murder and a nonfiction account of discovering how polar bears reflect human behavior.
Adult Fables and Literary Essays | Classic Returns
By on April 3, 2013 Leave a Comment
April’s Classic Returns feature new English translations of The Fabliaux, Tacitus’s stern Annals, and a slim retelling of One Thousand and One Nights alongside Müller’s Anne Frank: The Biography, Merton’s Selected Essays and a rarely seen bilingual collection of Proust’s poetry.
Eastern Literary Traditions: Chinese and Indian Fiction | Collection Development
By on April 3, 2013 Leave a Comment
China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, share a border, have growing economies in common, and each has a centuries-old literary tradition of its own. Similarly, both countries have robust publishing industries, but despite a tremendous number of books published and sold annually, relatively few of those titles make it to the American market. In 2012, in what Paper Republic, a resource about Chinese literature in translation, called “a good year,” about 20 titles were translated, and the majority of those were not published in the United States. Indian fiction, especially that written in English, fares slightly better.
LJ Reviews Social Club