Spreading The Word

NYT Glowing Review for the iBio

2011-11-03T03:36:00.000-07:00

After Steve Jobs anointed Walter Isaacson as his authorized biographer in 2009, he took Mr. Isaacson to see the Mountain View, Calif., house in which he had lived as a boy. He pointed out its “clean design” and “awesome little features.” He praised the developer, Joseph Eichler, who built more than 11,000 homes in California subdivisions, for making an affordable product on a

Ready to Rumpus

2011-07-29T01:23:00.000-07:00

Maurice Sendak, author of 'Where the Wild Things Are,' is back after 30 years with a new book called Bumble-Ardy. Bumble-Ardy is the first book Maurice Sendak has both written and illustrated in 30 years. I called him the other day to talk about it, and we were both surprised it had been that long. “Jesus,” he said. “What have I been doing?” We went through a list. He designed operas here and

Penguin's Great Food Series

2011-07-13T00:14:00.000-07:00

Great Food is an original series that brings together the sharpest, funniest, most delicious writing about food from the past four hundred years. Featuring twenty authors, the series is a heady mixture of recipes, literature and simple pleasures of hearing from distinctive voices from history. This series celebrates food writing as writing, revives forgotten, inspirational chefs and writers

Rock on

2011-07-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

When Sammy Hagar appeared at Left Bank Books in St. Louis in March to autograph copies of his memoir, it was not a typical book signing. Sammy Hagar's memoir, “Red,” sold at least 61,000 copies in hardcover. Mr. Hagar, the former Van Halen lead singer, started sipping tequila as soon as the event began. Police officers were hired to provide

Why Bedtime Will Never Be The Same

2011-06-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

The nightly climb up the stairs to Bedfordshire is supposed to be a time of parent-child bonding and sleepy tranquility. The little darlings dress themselves obediently in their pyjamas and clutch hot water bottles dreamily to their chests murmuring: "I love you, Mummy and Daddy." In reality they want "just one more" repeat of Come Dine With Me. When they have

The Tiger's Wife: Orange Prize 2011 winner

2011-06-08T23:53:00.000-07:00

Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Obreht, the youngest of "The New Yorker's" 20 best American fiction writers under 40, spins a timeless novel about a young doctor who confronts the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather's recent death. "... highly original, funny and frightening ... Her writing is remarkable, but she doesn't show off

Man with a Pan

2011-06-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

“Man With a Pan,” edited by the cartoonist, writer and New Yorker editor John Donohue, is a rangy, toothsome, timely and occasionally wince-inducing collection of essays by kitchen dads, men who do most of the cooking in their families. “Man With a Pan” contains essays (and recipes) by marquee names including Stephen King — isn’t it time he set a scary novel in a Hardee’s? — and Mario

Rocking Reads

2011-05-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Do you sometimes feel like taking copious amounts of drugs, drinking whisky with your cornflakes, wearing too much eye makeup and wrecking your hotel room? You’re not alone. But instead of ruining your health/breakfast/skin/favourite furniture, you can live vicariously through the ones who do it best. Bringing you the best of the best rock ‘n’ roll biographies ... www.pulpbooks.co.za. Rock

E-readers 'a threat to impressive-looking bookshelves'

2011-05-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

ELECTRONIC reading devices are not as good as real books for making you look clever, it was claimed last night. E-readers like Kindle are rapidly replacing traditional books, but unlike a shelf full of intimidating hardbacks about poetry, string theory and Russian actors who committed suicide, they can never make you look more intelligent than you really are. Publisher Tom Logan said: "

Killing Kebble now in its 3rd print

2011-04-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

Killing KebbleMandy WienerPaperback, 386 pagesEAN 9781770101326Pan MacmillanAvailable to order R146 In September 2005, Brett Kebble, a prominent South African mining magnate, was killed on a quiet suburban street in Johannesburg in an apparent “assisted suicide”.

Read the first chapters of the Orange Prize shortlist

2011-04-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

Browse the synopses of the shortlisted titles and read the first chapters here. Room - Emma Donoghue Jack is five and excited about his birthday. He lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures eleven feet by eleven feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real - only him,

Modernist Cuisine (hard to lift, but gobsmacking, delicious)

2011-03-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hailed as 'revolutionary' and 'the book to end all cookbooks', the Modernist Cuisine is a six-volume, 2,438-page set that is destined to reinvent cooking. The lavishly illustrated books use thousands of original images to make the science and technology clear and engaging. “This book will change the way we understand the kitchen.” — Ferran Adrià Explore the tome here. Check out

Sex Before the Sexual Revolution

2011-03-16T04:33:00.000-07:00

Simon Callow explores life behind closed doors before the pill. 'The book is superb on courtship and premarital sex, which was of course haunted by the universal dread of unmarried pregnancy, and on the elaborate structures and codes of behaviour that governed such matters. Equally absorbing are the criteria for attractiveness. Despite the development through the 1930s of a new body

Extreme Book Covers

2011-01-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

Setting fire to fields, tangling with tarantulas: it's all in a day's work for a book jacket designer. I used to think book jacket designers were sensitive, aesthetic types whose idea of sustained physical effort was flicking through the pages of Creative Review with one hand while lifting an espresso to their lips with the other. But I appear to have got things totally wrong. I recently

Win some pretty stuff!

2010-12-10T07:21:00.000-08:00

Angie from Lucky Pony is giving away some need-to-have-now trinkets for Christmas, one of which Pulp Books has sponsored. Go visit! Maybe you'll win and make us proud.

Notable Crime Books of 2010

2010-12-08T00:44:00.000-08:00

Choosing books for picky friends can be humbling. There’s always one smarty-pants who has read not only the gift book but everything else in the author’s oeuvre. Another recipient refuses to consider any story about “some stupid girl.” And how about that ingrate who scorns the genre altogether, claiming to have developed more mature tastes? I’m speaking, of course, about buying books for

Vote for Paige Nick's charity blogging and the Bookery could win R20K.

2010-11-29T23:41:00.000-08:00

Don't think, just do it! Vote here. The Bookery strive to help children get books. “We want stocked, serviced libraries in every single school in South Africa.” These are the words of Richard Conyngham, the co-ordinator of The Bookery. Interviewed on the premises of The Bookery, Conyngham, a former UCT student who has also completed an MA at Cambridge, stresses what he means by stocked

Books of the year

2010-11-29T12:48:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tiny Japanese sculptures ... which books most excited our writers this year? Julian Barnes Unfit for life, unsure of love, unschooled in sex, but good at washing up: Philip Larkin, in Letters to Monica (Faber), lays out his all-too-self-aware catalogue of reasons for being

Stray Cat Blues

2010-11-16T03:09:00.000-08:00

He’s been a global avatar of wish fulfillment for over four decades and managed to eke more waking hours out of a 24-hour day than perhaps any other creature alive (thanks, Merck cocaine and amphetamines!). As Keith puts it: “For many years I slept, on average, twice a week. This means that I have been conscious for at least three lifetimes.” You better believe it. This cat put the joie in

Following the Booker: The Long Song by Andrea Levy

2010-10-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Synopsis “You do not know me yet. My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed... July is a slave girl who lives

Following The Booker: C by Tom McCarthy

2010-10-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Synopsis Serge Carrefax spends his childhood at Versoie House, where his father teaches deaf children to speak when he's not experimenting with wireless telegraphy. Sophie, Serge's sister and only connection to the world at large, takes outrageous liberties with Serge's young body - which may explain the unusual sexual predilections that haunt him for the rest of his life.

Following the Booker: The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

2010-10-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

Synopsis He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one...' - Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost

Following the Booker: Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

2010-09-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

Synopsis When my countrymen imagined America, they thought of savages and bears and presidents who would not wear wigs. Who among them could have conjured Miss Godefroy in all her beauty of form and elegance of mind, her wit, her delicacy, her slender ankles amid those mad red leaves? An exploration of the great adventure of American democracy, it thrillingly brings to life two characters who

Following the Booker: Room by Emma Donoghue

2010-09-16T03:04:00.000-07:00

Synopsis Jack is five. He lives in a single room with his Ma. The room is locked. Neither Jack nor Ma have a key. The novel opens as Jack turns five. Jack has never been outside of Room, as he calls it, and although he and Ma have access to a TV, Jack believes that everything he sees on the screen is make-believe: as far as he’s concerned, Room is the entire world. He’s happy enough with his

Following the Booker: In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

2010-09-09T03:28:00.000-07:00

Synopsis There is a moment when any real journey begins. Sometimes it happens as you leave your house, sometimes it’s a long way from home… A young man makes three journeys that take him through Greece, India and Africa. He travels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom he meets on the way - including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers and a

Booker shortlist announced

2010-09-09T02:18:00.000-07:00

The Booker shortlist was announced last night! See the lucky titles listed below. Notably overlooked: Christos Tsiolkas's divisive The Slap as well as David Mitchell's much-tipped fifth novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. We will begin tomorrow with South African writer Damon Galgut's tale of a young man travelling through Greece, India and Africa, In a Strange Room. The Prize will

Pulp loves Trees

2010-09-01T01:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring day! September is Tree month: if you look out the window you’ll see how happy they are, showing off their new leaves and blossoms. We love trees for so many reasons, but mostly because they make good books. You are already on the Green Team by supporting Pulp Books (and therefore Food & Trees for Africa), but this month we’d like to repeat what we did last year and match any tree

Once upon a life

2010-08-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

Entertaining essay written by Justin Cartwright about how he 'became' a writer. Involves drugging cats, soft porn and losing first chapters. In the end he describes the transformation "as if a cloud that I hadn't really been aware of had lifted". Once upon a life: Justin Cartwright He started out as a copywriter, became the crown prince of pet-food commercials then directed a soft-porn film

Drink Till He's Witty: The Reader's Drinking Game

2010-08-04T04:53:00.000-07:00

A recent essay in the Times points out that "rules for drinking are not so different from rules for writing." If that's true, then clearly famous literary stars need their own drinking games. Geoff Nicholson extrapolates from writing-workshop maxims to create these drinking rules: "Drink what you know, drink regularly rather than in binges, avoid needlessly exotic booze, and leave the

Booker prize longlist promises to 'entertain and provoke'

2010-07-28T01:43:00.000-07:00

There were no real wild cards in this longlist – unlike last year, when Me Cheeta, a spoof biography of Tarzan's chimpanzee, was listed. Perhaps the most controversial novel is Emma Donoghue's Room, inspired by the case of Josef Fritzl who kept his daughter prisoner for 24 years. The novel, which was one of 14 called in by judges – rather than being submitted by the publisher –

Judging a book by its cover

2010-07-02T03:31:00.000-07:00

The Book Cover Archive presents an archive of book cover design and designers 'for the purpose of appreciation and categorization of excellence in book cover design'. This site is edited and maintained by Ben Pieratt of General Projects and Eric Jacobsen of Whisky Van Gogh Go. Visit by clicking here. Other great sites for book cover design:The Casual Optimist The Book Design Review Book Covers

Makeover for Wonder Woman at 69

2010-07-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

The costume ties into an alternative history for the character devised by J. Michael Straczynski, the new writer of the series, and into a quest by DC to shine a critical and creative spotlight on the heroine, who stands with Superman and Batman in its primary triumvirate of superstars, despite her series’s modest sales. In the reimagining of her story, Wonder Woman, instead of growing up on

Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna beats Wolf Hall to Orange prize

2010-06-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

An epic, ambitious novel that straddles the Mexican revolution and the crazed communist witch-hunts of 1950s America was tonight named winner of this year's Orange prize for fiction. Barbara Kingsolver took the £30,000 prize for The Lacuna, her eagerly awaited first novel since 2000. The American novelist held off heavyweight competition from Hilary Mantel, for Wolf Hall, and Lorrie Moore, for A

The Sunday Times Literary Awards longlist announced

2010-06-04T02:41:00.000-07:00

Winner to be announced on the 24th of July ... 1. Patterns of Change by Dr Eckart Schumann 2. To Heaven by Water by Justin Cartwright 3. Summertime by JM Coetzee 4. Come Sunday by Isla Morley 5. Beasts of Prey by Rob Marsh 6. The Double Crown by Marie Heese 7. Saracen at the Gates by Zinaid Meeran 8. Black Petals by Bryan Rostron 9. The Transplant Men by Jane Taylor 10. Counting

Charles Saatchi on Art & Life

2010-06-01T03:48:00.000-07:00

One of the world’s foremost art collectors answers questions from readers on why he collects, what he would ask Moses and Darwin—and the greatest mysteries of the universe. Charles Saatchi has been one of the most influential forces of the contemporary art scene. Founder of global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and the most influential art collector of our time, he has vigorously shaped

Ian McEwan brings home bacon with comic novel Solar

2010-05-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

Booker winner bags pig and champagne for 'laugh-out-loud' climate change novelIan McEwan's trophy cabinet has heretofore been home to more serious awards, but the Booker prize-winning author will today be making room on the shelves for his first comic-fiction accolade, won for his take on climate change, Solar.The novel was chosen unanimously from a shortlist of five books to win the Bollinger

Towel Day: Douglas Adams remembered across the globe

2010-05-26T02:56:00.000-07:00

Are you the kind of hoopy frood who knows where your towel is? If so, you're in good company. All over the world today fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are heeding Douglas Adams's words that a towel is "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have" and are conspicuously carrying one with them for the day in honour of the writer who died nine years

Eye Candy for booklovers

2010-05-24T02:29:00.000-07:00

www.thebookcoverarchive.com

The Lonely Polygamist

2010-05-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

Golden Richards, the “lonely polygamist” of Brady Udall’s second novel and third published work of fiction, is not only lonesome but also many other things that, ideally, a patriarch and apostle of the Lord would not be: indecisive, feckless, withdrawn and hesitant. All of which puts his four wives in the excruciating position of having to beg him, often, to “embrace his God-given patriarchal

Britain’s famous lit mag gets down and dirty.

2010-05-11T02:30:00.000-07:00

Who knew that Dave Eggers could get this sexy? His illustrations of animals contemplating, well, you can guess, is just one of the many surprises in this new issue of Granta. With writing from Jeanette Winterson, Adam Foulds, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Marie Darrieussecq, Mark Doty, and Roberto Bolaño, Granta’s line up proves that literary sex is all too often overlooked. Though not every story

1000 Awesome Things

2010-05-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

From neighbors with pools to ordering off the menu at fast-food restaurants to fixing electronics by smacking them, The Book of Awesome takes on life’s sweet feats with all the honest humor and winning enthusiasm that has earned Pasricha’s blog its millions of followers. But while powered along by Pasricha’s distinctive, fresh, and hilarious voice, The Book of Awesome isn’t about one man’s

Dykulture's Cover Art: The weird and sexy world of lesbian pulp fiction

2010-05-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

The more I find out about the cover art of lesbian pulp fiction, the more I develop a trashy taste for it. The same reason I’m an unashamed fan of country music, puns and Sparletta. They’re almost like those ironic black & white greeting cards where a frumpy uptight woman smiles at the camera, and underneath is the caption: “Jane couldn’t do without a steaming cup of coffee and a hot (insert rude

Penguin cookbook calls for 'freshly ground black people'

2010-04-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

A recipe for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto has proved a little too spicy for Penguin Australia, after a misprint suggesting that the dish required "salt and freshly ground black people" has left the publisher reaching for the pulping machine, rather than the pepper grinder.It's a one-word slip that only came to light after a member of the public got in touch, and which has sent all

Sherman Alexie Wins 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

2010-03-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Picked from among 350 novels and short story collections, Sherman Alexie's War Dances has won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The award was judged by Rilla Askew, Kyoko Mori, and Al Young, analyzing books from more than 90 publishing houses, small presses, and academic presses. Judge Young had this statement about the book: "War Dances taps every vein and nerve, every tissue, every

Orange Prize longlist announced

2010-03-17T00:56:00.001-07:00

Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the Orange Prize for Fiction today announces the 2010 longlist. “It was a tough judging process as there was a particularly strong range of books submitted from all over the world in this, the 15th year of the Orange Prize,” commented Daisy Goodwin, Chair of Judges, “but in the end we have chosen a muscular, original and pleasurable longlist that

e-readers versus books: what's greener?

2010-03-11T02:02:00.000-08:00

The Sony Reader e-book viewer hits the UK today, hoping to "revolutionise" the way we read. Whether you think it's a hot gadget, a solution in search of a problem, an opportunity for new authors (Toby Young's opinion) or an over-priced gizmo (Nick Hornby's take), one question remains: is it green? Does Sony's e-book viewer have a smaller environmental impact than the printed book? Let's take a

That Woman Who Writes

2010-03-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

I’m always seeking places to write. Never at home—laundry piles, dishes in the sink, MOM emblazoned on my forehead. Although problematic, coffeehouses and libraries are a mainstay. Inevitably, I’ll be thick into my work when someone I know will come up behind me, “Hey, hi! What’cha doin’?” Depending on a combination of fluctuating circumstances—a scale that includes politeness, how the

Obama sends Martel a note about Life of Pi

2010-03-02T02:39:00.000-08:00

Martel ... revealed that he recently received a handwritten thank you note from Barack Obama, who had just finished reading Martel’s Life of Pi with his daughter. The president wrote that it was “a lovely book – an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling.” Martel told Harper that he would frame the note “for sure,” and still takes it out sometimes to marvel at it: What amazes me is

Electric Literature

2010-03-01T05:42:00.000-08:00

Electric Literature’s mission is to use new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture.We are a quarterly anthology of five top-notch short stories, delivered in every viable medium.As A.O. Scott wrote recently in the New York Times:The blog post and the tweet may be ephemeral... but the culture in which they thrive is fed by a craving

Your rules for writing

2010-02-25T00:54:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed Saturday Review's Ten rules for writing fiction feature and, judging by the stats for page hits and the buzz about it on Twitter and other sites, so did many others.While Jonathan Franzen's point that "It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction" certainly hit where it hurts, I was struck by how many of the writers emphasised the

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

2010-02-21T23:42:00.001-08:00

Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again – if all else fails, pray. Inspired by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal dos and don'tsIllustration: Andrzej KrauzeElmore Leonard: Using adverbs is a mortal sin 1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to

Commonwealth Writers' Prize shortlist

2010-02-18T08:37:00.001-08:00

2010 is the year to show the rest of the world what we can do!Listed below are the books from Africa that made the Commonwealth cut:(find the rest of the finalists here)The shortlisted writers for Africa's Best Book are:Trespass by Dawn Garisch (South Africa)The Double Crown by Marié Heese (South Africa)The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi (Nigeria

Ordinary Thunderstorms

2010-02-11T02:00:00.000-08:00

Novelist William Boyd’s latest is a thrilling story of an innocent man forced into hiding in the underbelly of London. Olivia Cole spoke to him about his new work and why he aims to entertain. The everyman hero of Ordinary Thunderstorms, William Boyd’s new novel, is a climatologist, Adam Kindred. An American in London, who with a simple twist of fate loses every semblance of his life when he is

Drinking and Grieving

2010-02-09T04:03:00.000-08:00

They travel to St. Kitts for winter breaks and to Florence for their 20th wedding anniversaries. They play CDs of Joan Sutherland in their car radios. When crises arise they take to bourbon in the midafternoon and snack on olive tapenade. Rome’s air pollution is a likely subject of conversation over their dinners, which might feature gnocchi in basil cream sauce and radicchio and orange salad,

Shelf indulgence: why it's best to build your own bookcases

2010-01-29T00:31:00.000-08:00

After years of making do with shoddy shelving, the benefits of handcrafting a home for your books can't be overestimated.I've lost count of the number of flats I've lived in over the last two decades, from the red bricked Victoriana of Manchester via the basement bed-sits of Brighton to the crumbling splendour of east London. All those dodgy landlords, mismatching interiors and ill-fitting

Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert/Couples: The Truth by Kate Figes

2010-01-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

How can emancipated women in the 21st century reconcile freedom and professional success with the urge to have children? And can all of this be achieved within that ancient institution, marriage? These are the main questions posed by two very different books tackling the same subject. Elizabeth Gilbert’s first book, Eat, Pray, Love, sold 7m copies and put her on best-friend terms with

Books to make you healthy, wealthy and wise in 2010

2010-01-24T23:55:00.000-08:00

Penguin presents 52 of its top titles to get you excited about reading all throughout the year. For ease you can print off your reading list here, or if you prefer, you can take their 52 books widget for your blog.

Four Tips from Forgotten Books

2010-01-19T03:56:00.000-08:00

Some out-of-print books of advice and information have been abandoned for good reason – perhaps for their out-dated data, awful social prejudice or even dangerous ideas. Yet many are worth picking up again, not least because reflecting on past follies prompts us to confront our own. There’s also the chance we’ll find a bright idea languishing even in the thickest thickets of

Haiti in Ink and Tears

2010-01-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

Today is a good day to remember that in Haiti, nobody ever really dies. The many thousands who've had the breath crushed out of their bodies in the earthquake, and the thousands more who will not physically survive the aftermath, will undergo instead a translation of state, according to the precepts of Haitian Vodou, some form of which is practiced by much of the population. Spirits of the

The Talented Miss Highsmith

2009-12-20T23:46:00.001-08:00

Patricia Highsmith said of herself, “I am always in love. . . .” Yet at her memorial service in Tegna, Switzerland, in 1995, there were no lovers from the past, and there was no lover to mourn her in the present. The service was filmed, which Highsmith would have liked, because although reclusive, she was interested in posterity. Such display also allowed Highsmith to hide in plain sight (as her

Christmas books

2009-12-07T23:33:00.000-08:00

From prizewinning poetry to bestselling thrillers, D-day to the credit crunch, Wolf Hall to a picturebook about a dying duck, our writers and guests pick the best of 2009.Anthony BrowneThe two best illustrated books for me this year have both come from abroad, and both are stunningly original. Tales from Outer Suburbia (Templar) by Shaun Tan, from Australia, is a collection of 15 short

The 100 Best Books of the Decade

2009-11-17T04:46:00.000-08:00

100 The Position by Meg Wolitzer (2005) An hilarious, serious novel about sex and love and family. Paul and Roz Mellow publish Pleasuring (think of The Joy of Sex) in 1975 — it’s a bestseller, but what do you think their four children make of this? 99 The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah (2008) In his first collection for almost two decades, Mick Imlah takes up the challenge to forge poetry

Essential reading: the 42 essential third act twists

2009-11-10T01:01:00.000-08:00

My morning has been made complete thanks to this: an illustrated list of the 42 essential third act twists from the web comic Dresden Kodak ...From the thriller's peripeteia: "amnesiac villain kidnaps self" to its Deus Ex Machina: "autistic boy solves crimes", and from mystery's anagnorisis "all the butlers did it" (just look at that scary picture) to fantasy's brilliantly Narnia-esque "Christ

Wild things at heart

2009-10-30T02:33:00.001-07:00

A long time ago, before I knew either one of them, Spike Jonze and Maurice Sendak began talking about a film adaptation of his classic picture book Where The Wild Things Are. When Spike got started on it, he called me up and asked me to co-write the screenplay. I had never written a screenplay; hell, I'd never read a screenplay. But I said yes, because these two people were among my favourite

Coming soon: the novel Nabokov wanted destroyed

2009-10-23T02:17:00.000-07:00

Next month Nabokov's last novel will be published - despite the fact that he never wanted it to see the light of day.In October 1976, asked to nominate three books he had recently been reading, Nabokov chose a new translation of Dante's Inferno, an illustrated guide to North American butterflies and a book of his own, "the not-quite-finished manuscript of a novel". He had recently been ill, and,

The English Marriage: Tales of Love, Money and Adultery by Maureen Waller

2009-10-20T05:37:00.000-07:00

This is a collection of marital horror stories from 1465 to the present day, and, like all good horror stories, it runs an icy finger down your spine. Maureen Waller’s subject is less the English marriage than the absence, until recently, of the English divorce. For centuries, England lagged behind Scotland and the rest of Europe in clinging to the obscure marriage laws of the medieval

The heart fails without warning

2009-10-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

An exclusive short story by Hilary Mantel, winner of the Man Booker prize 2009

Mantel takes the Booker prize 2009

2009-10-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

With none of the usual blood on the carpet, this year’s judges agreed that they would be happy to see any of the finalists win.The vote wasn’t unanimous, but Mantel’s Wolf Hall won out for its bold scope, detail and lyricism, with glittering passages that are said to make you want to read them over and over again.England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male

The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009

2009-10-01T00:53:00.000-07:00

Fifty books — read one a week and they’ll last you nearly a year. Today is the kick-off of The Times WHSmith Paperback of the Year, writes Erica Wagner. On this page you’ll find all 50 books from which our winner, announced here on December 12, will be chosen. The judges — for the only prize in the UK given to a paperback — are myself, bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith and WHSmith

Twin Powers

2009-09-28T01:56:00.001-07:00

In the second half of the 19th century, Londoners enjoyed a form of recreation that today might seem grisly: a Sunday stroll through one of the vast graveyards beyond the city center. The new burial grounds were established to move corpses out of the metropolitan churchyards, where they had contaminated the groundwater; these cemeteries were at once gardens, social centers and museums of

The Holy Grail of the Unconscious

2009-09-21T01:48:00.000-07:00

This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say “Liber Novus,” which is Latin for “New Book.” Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and

The 19 Best Read-Aloud Books for All Ages

2009-09-16T00:47:00.000-07:00

We all know that reading out loud to your child is the best thing you can do; if the psychologists (and my mother) are to be believed, it’s the only foolproof way to make sure your kid grows up to be a productive — not to mention brilliant — member of society, instead of an indigent criminal lying unconscious in a gutter somewhere. But when you just can’t face the 999th reading of Maisy the

A Familiar Cast of Fighters in a Final Battle for the Soul of the Earth

2009-09-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

The flood referred to by the title of Margaret Atwood’s new novel isn’t the biblical deluge, sent by God to wipe out wickedness and sin, but a waterless one: an uncommon pandemic that cannot be contained by “biotools and bleach,” and that sweeps “through the air as if on wings,” burning “through cities like fire, spreading germ-ridden mobs, terror and butchery.” This flood has killed millions

Pornography and prejudice: Jane Austen's dirty talk is a sweet affair

2009-09-11T03:28:00.000-07:00

There are some predictable smirks, but a show imagining the novelist's work with an explicit playwright is surprisingly sweet and witty.What is this inescapable desire we have to mess around with Jane Austen? The poor woman has been through the mill of late, with the literary world seeing Elizabeth Bennet contending with the undead in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and the Dashwoods about to

Warning: cheesy pic

2009-09-11T03:22:00.000-07:00

Last night Pulp Books got a pat on the back and a cool certificate.Out of more than 10 500 nominations, Pulp was one of the 30 finalists at the 702 Small Business Awards.Cheese aside, it was awesome ( :Thanks to everyone who made it possible!

The Many Faces of JM Coetzee

2009-09-07T02:09:00.000-07:00

'How can you be a great writer if you are just an ordinary little man?' asks a character in JM Coetzee's new book Summertime. This unsparing, autobiographical novel continues the intimate conversation the Nobel laureate has been having with a series of alter-egos in his work. James Meek listens in.At some point during the past couple of years, an eminent South African writer now living in

Hooray!

2009-09-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Pulp Books has been nominated for the 702 Small Business Awards, hooray!Thanks to all my loyal and fabulous customers, you guys are the best.

More ‘Unfortunate Events’ to Befall Readers

2009-08-28T00:51:00.000-07:00

Lemony Snicket, the sinister pseudonym of Daniel Handler and the author of the bestselling “Series Of Unfortunate Events” sequence, will write a new four-book series, BBC News reported. The Gothic “Unfortunate Events” novels about the Baudelaire orphans, which started in 1999 with “A Bad Beginning” and ended in 2006 with “The End,” have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. The series’

Down and out in Paris

2009-08-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

For half a century, a crowded bookshop on the Left Bank has offered food and a bed to penniless authors - the only rule is that they read a book a day.Way back, in 1913, the original Shakespeare and Company was opened by a young American called Sylvia Beach. Her shop in rue de l'Odéon soon became the place for all the English-speaking writers in Paris. Her lover, Adrienne Monnier, owned the

An Awesome Book

2009-08-20T05:37:00.000-07:00

It's taking the world by storm.Based on the simple concept of dreaming big, “An Awesome Book” is the inspiring debut work of Los Angeles writer/artist Dallas Clayton. Written in the vein of classic tales by Dr. Suess, Shel Silverstein, and Maurice Sendak it is a sure hit for all generations young and old.Look inside here.

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

2009-08-19T10:02:00.001-07:00

At this stage of his career, Thomas Pynchon resembles Stanley Kubrick more than he does any living novelist. Like Kubrick, Pynchon is a maverick visionary, a creator of iconic, sometimes inaccessible works of art; famously reclusive and yet the object of a cult-like following; and, like Kubrick, who experimented with various genres, Pynchon has in recent years developed a love of

Love Comes First

2009-08-18T01:53:00.000-07:00

Erica Jong's first book of all-new poems in more than a decade.Using brilliant imagery and intense metaphorical insights to capture love in all its facets - the height of elation, the depths of sorrow, and the longing of desire - Jong reveals the full spectrum of this deepest of human emotions.It's the perfect gift for a lover."Fresh, surprising, funny, sexy. Jong's poetic voice is as enchanting

Did I say that?

2009-08-07T01:11:00.000-07:00

On early days at the Royal Court TheatreIt was like a bag of bitches in there. They were vicious (2000)On "My Beautiful Launderette"There were no other films like that around back then. Now all films are gay (2007)On readingI've never read a book beyond 100 pages (2008)On religious certaintyWe who are liberals whirl in a meaningless vertigo of doubt all the time, but if you're religious you know

First look: Murderous 'Lovely Bones' is also 'optimistic'

2009-08-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

For all the violence and grief of The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson believes the movie adaptation need not be a downer. In fact, he says, the film version of Alice Sebold's best-selling novel about teenager Susie Salmon, who watches from heaven as her family collapses after her murder, is downright uplifting. INTERVIEW: See what else Peter Jackson had to say about 'Lovely Bones' "I found the

Book fans develop a taste for library-themed ice-cream

2009-08-04T01:37:00.000-07:00

Thousands sign Facebook petition asking Ben & Jerry's to produce flavours such as Li-berry pie and Sh-sh-sh-sherbet.Ben & Jerry's is considering launching a library-themed ice-cream flavour, after a campaign by a New Jersey librarian gathered thousands of supporters.Burlington county librarian Andy Woodworth already has more than 4,400 people signed up to a Facebook group supporting his plan,

Su Blackwell Destroys Books, Creates Wonders

2009-08-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

These amazing sculptures are the work of British artist Su Blackwell, who carefully dismembers books in order to create a visual interpretation of their contents. Blackwell's sculptures are composed entirely from a single book — that is, she only uses the pages in the book itself to create her three-dimensional marvels. Blackwell says she searches second hand bookshops for the perfect

Batman has a proposal for Catwoman

2009-07-31T01:52:00.001-07:00

The cartoonist Darwyn Cooke is an extraordinary talent. He had already proven himself to superhero fans with a taut psychological examination of Bruce Wayne (“Batman: Ego”), a down-and-dirty heist adventure (“Catwoman: Selina’s Big Score”) and an audacious revisionist look at the formation of the Justice League (“The New Frontier”). Now Mr. Cooke has turned his eye toward the guys and dolls

Booker longlist pits fiction's finest against first kiss-and-tell chimp

2009-07-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

Literary heavyweights AS Byatt and JM Coetzee were today named on this year's longlist for the Booker prize – which also features a first-time writer purporting to be Tarzan's chimpanzee.The broadcaster James Naughtie, who chaired this year's panel of five judges, called the line-up of the 13 writers on the longlist, chosen from 132 books, "one of the strongest in recent memory" with "a span of

Unfinished Foster Wallace novel finds UK publisher

2009-07-23T02:09:00.000-07:00

Hamish Hamilton says The Pale King is 'as good as Infinite Jest' and will publish it in 2010.The late David Foster Wallace's unfinished final novel, The Pale King, is set for publication in the UK next year following an intensely contested auction between six British publishers.Foster Wallace, author of the virtuosic, 1,000-page masterpiece Infinite Jest, killed himself last September following a

Ashes to Ashes

2009-07-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. Frank McCourt.Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.- William Grimes, The New York TimesRead the rest of the article here.

Where The Money Went

2009-07-16T02:08:00.000-07:00

WHERE THE MONEY WENTBy Kevin Canty“Sometimes it seems to me that anger is the engine of a marriage, the power that drives all the other parts. Each of us is doing half and feeling like it’s three-quarters. Each of us has it exactly as hard as the other, and suspects the other of having it easy. Both of us take care, and suspect the other of carelessness.” So says the nameless narrator of “No

Food for Thought

2009-07-10T02:29:00.000-07:00

Mmm... Winter.Time to snuggle up with a toasty book, bottle of red and your favourite prix fixe.In fact, apart from being able to stoke the fire and eat immoral amounts of full-flavoured food, we think Winter has very few redeeming qualities.We’re glad it’s almost at an end, but to tide us over till Spring, here are Pulp’s latest ‘foodie’ reads:Food for Thought: Thought for Food: A Reflection on

Bibliotherapy for Idle Parents

2009-07-09T01:13:00.000-07:00

How can the idle parent make the most of story time? Tom reminded us that stories must grab your children, otherwise it’s a waste of time putting your all in; using funny voices and fabulous expression. His moment of enlightenment was when he saw how his children sat transfixed, wide eyed and still, through each chapter of ‘Treasure Island’ (full of death and killing) after fruitless

Who is Sookie Stackhouse?

2009-07-07T01:43:00.001-07:00

I have watched with fascination as the books in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series have clawed their way up into the New York Times bestseller list. I had seen them mentioned in various articles and top ten lists and the like but had always dismissed them as silly vampire dross with only novelty value. But they stayed. And then more arrived. Today there is a convincing coven of eight

The joy of exclamation marks!

2009-07-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

Exclamation marks used to be frowned upon. Now look what's happened! We use them all the time! Hurrah!!! But what is it about the age of email that gets people so over-excited?There is a town of 1,471 happy souls in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!. The second "Ha!", amazingly, is part of the town's name, not my commentary on the first "Ha!". Unlike, for example, the Devon town of Westward Ho

From crack houses to evil aliens

2009-07-03T03:16:00.000-07:00

James Frey targets a million little readers Controversial writer James Frey has been outed as the co-author of a hot new children's book, as yet unpublished. But why all the mystery?Not content with penning the third book of the Bible, James Frey, who wrote of his struggle with drug addiction in a controversial memoir, is turning to children's books. As ever with

Cathy Haynes on the fun to be had lying about books

2009-07-01T01:54:00.000-07:00

A recent Mori report revealed that 40% of us resort to lying about having read certain books just so we can join in with a conversation. My cynical side seizes on this as dismal evidence that we’re buckling with indignity under the weight of “must-reads” the media piles upon us daily. But my upbeat, airy self wonders if the statisticians have stumbled upon and misinterpreted a fantastic party

R.I.P. Jacko

2009-06-26T02:02:00.001-07:00

Michael Jackson first entered a recording studio in November 1967, just three months after his ninth birthday. Two years later he and his older brothers scored their first hit, 'I Want You Back' - and, despite set-backs that would have ended the career of a lesser man, Michael's legion of fans remain as loyal today as they have ever been. This is the story of the man and his music.Michael Jackson

Here’s a Clue: Mr. Kumar, With a Gun, in India

2009-06-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

writePost() “Q&A,” the novel that became the basis for the smash-hit film “Slumdog Millionaire,” used questions from a television quiz show to prompt flashbacks about its main character’s life story. Here’s a question for its author, Vikas Swarup: Can a novel be any more high-concept than that? Yes it can. Mr. Swarup’s second novel, “Six Suspects,” is a

Top 10 literary ménages à trois

2009-06-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

Ewan Morrison is the author of three novels which explore modern relationships and sexuality: Ménage, Distance and Swung. Ménage, his most recent novel, is the story of three bohemians in a ménage à trois in 90s London."The ménage à trois is a rich and rarified fictional seam which arose in the 19th century and originated from memoirs or fictionalised accounts of real-life events. The number of