If you're a fan of Alexander McCall Smith's writing, you might want to pay a visit to the British web site, Telegraph.co.uk. Mr. McCall is writing his first online novel, Corduroy Mansions, adding a new chapter each weekday for 20 weeks. And there are several options for viewing or listening to this book: you can read the chapters directly on the web site, have the chapters emailed each day, receive the chapters through a feed, or (and I think this is the coolest part) you can listen to each chapter online. Andrew Sachs, who is best known for being on Fawlty Towers, narrates Mr. McCall's story.
In addition to the novel, the web site provides several interesting links to such things as character profiles (I believe my favorites are Berthea Snark and her son Oedipus - she's a psychoanalyst, of course), reader questions, locating Corduroy Mansions on a Google map, and interviews.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
TOP 10 SPORTS BOOKS
The most recent issue of Booklist has a spotlight article on new sports books, and lists the "Top 10 Sports Books" from the past year (according to them, of course). FVRL has all ten and here they are with the sport they are about:
1. Carlisle vs. Army (Football) by Lars Anderson
2. The Driver (Road Rallies) by Alexander Roy
3. Falcon Fever (Falconry--of course!) by Tim Gallagher
4. The Great Swim (Swimming the English Channel) by Gavin Mortimer
5. The Last Great Fight (Boxing) by Joe Layden
6. Living on the Black (Baseball) by John Feinstein
7. Major (Cycling) by Todd Balf
8. The Match (Golf) by Mark Frost
9. Playing the Enemy (Rugby) by John Carlin
10. Preferred Lies (Golf) by Andrew Grieg
Monday, September 8, 2008
CAREER ROMANCES
I keep a dozen or so personal books at my desk at work. They are books that mean something to me and I like to keep them close by. One of those books is "Jinny Williams: Library Assistant" (A career romance for young moderns). Copyright 1962. I bought it about 20 years ago at a library booksale in Indiana, and I have always brought it along from job to job because I think it's funny. In 2008 the idea that women need "career romances" just seems strange to me. I thought I would look in our library catalog just for kicks to see if we had any remaining copies of this old series from the 60s. I was quite surprised to find that there is a current "career romance" series being published by Avalon Books.
The FVRL catalog actually lists 44 titles in this series owned by our library system. Here are a few selections of titles with the career involved: Tender Harvest (working in cranberry bogs), April Showers (a garden designer), Treasures of the Heart (antiques store owner), Captain of Hearts (teacher of university extension classes on a military base), and my favorite, Kaleidoscope (a kaleidoscope designer). I guess someone has to design kaleidoscopes, and why not add some romance to the process?!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Book Trailers
An interesting trend is happening in the world of book promotion - book trailers. I think readers have always appreciated watching interviews of authors (just see how many author podcasts are now available), so it makes sense to me that publishers and authors are trying other visual techniques to reach potential readers. If you've never seen a book trailer, here are a couple of links for the authors Brad Meltzer and Christine Feehan.
Both titles - The Book of Lies by Meltzer and The Dark Curse by Feehan - are on order at the library.
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