Son of a Witch

"When a Witch dies—not as a crone, withered and incapable, but as a woman in her prime, at the height of her passion and prowess—too much is left unsaid. What might have happened had Elphaba lived? Of her campaigns in defense of the Animals, of her appetite for justice, of her talent for magic itself, what good might have come? If every death is a tragedy, the death of a woman in her prime keenly bereaves the whole world.
Ten years after the publication of Wicked, bestselling novelist Gregory Maguire returns to the land of Oz to follow the story of Liir, the adolescent boy left hiding in the shadows of the castle when Dorothy did in the Witch."

The story's very gripping right from the get-go with dead bodies and ripped off faces hurtling you into this yarn at breakneck speed. I only wish I'd read Wicked when it came out ten years ago. Ah well, I started the Hood trilogy with Scarlett (book 2) and enjoyed them all thoroughly anyway. I'm lovin' this novel!

Imagination Library

More than 40,000 free books have been donated to children in Scotland by a foundation headed by country singer Dolly Parton.
The singer was in Glasgow on Sunday to mark the success of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which aims to give looked after children free books every month until they are five.
Children in Scotland have benefited from 40,092 books, with more set to follow.
The Scottish Government has been working with the Scottish Book Trust and the Dollywood Foundation to bring the singer's Imagination Library to Scotland. Scottish Government funding will enable the Imagination Library to provide 12 free books every year for all 3,341 looked after children in Scotland.
Children's minister Angela Constance, who met Parton in Glasgow, said: "I am delighted to be able to personally thank Dolly Parton for working with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Book Trust to ensure that Scotland's most vulnerable children are able to benefit from her innovative Imagination Library.
"Research shows that children whose parents and carers who spend time reading and talking with them frequently have better language skills than those who do not. That is one of the underlying principles of our Play Talk Read campaign. The provision of books from the Imagination Library will have a positive impact and help looked after children discover the joy of reading."

Go The F**k To Sleep

The F-bomb plea on the minds of every parent at one point or another is the title of a buzz magnet of a book parody written in kid-friendly rhyme. Beware, parents, it's decidedly unworthy of a bedtime readaloud.
Not yet out, the 32-pager from a tiny Brooklyn publisher has hit No. 1 on Amazon.com and has sold more than 100,000 copies in pre-orders since it surfaced less than a month ago. After bootleg copies leaked, Akashic Books moved up publication from October to June 14, for Father's Day. Here's a sample: "All the kids in day care are in dreamland. The froggie has made its last leap. Hell no, you can't go to the bathroom. You know where you can go? The f**k to sleep."

Pinkerton's Secret

Allan Pinkerton's story opens in Chicago on the eve of the American Civil War. After battling con men, train robbers, and vicious gunmen, Pinkerton senses that change is in the air. Already committed to the abolitionist cause and the Underground Railroad, he allies himself with John Brown's radical antislavery crusade. Upholding the law with one hand, he unapologetically breaks it with the other.
Kate Warne joins the Pinkerton Agency and quickly takes her place as Allan's closest confidante. He asks Kate to join him, and she embraces his cause in all its contradictions and extremes. Together they save the life of Abraham Lincoln on his inaugural journey to Washington, root out Confederate spies within the Union government, and establish the nation's first Secret Service.

The Bloody Red Baron

"Time has moved on in the Anno Dracula world, and a World War has
started. Dracula, fiend that he is, is fighting for Germany. At least
by proxy, anyway, as shapeshifting vampires like the Red Baron really
don't need too much in the way of planes.
Edwin Winthrop is the protagonist here, and the new agent must lead
the charge to stop The Bloody Red Baron and friends. G-8 and mates
would be very handy, here.
Others must try and counter the pen of the vampire Edgar Allan Poe, also working for Germany."
Hey PT, if you enjoyed Abe as a vampire hunter you'll probably love this gripping WW1 tale!

The Golden Mean

"Aristotle wrote much about happiness – but if we are to believe Annabel Lyon, his own lessons were lost on himself. In her debut novel, The Golden Mean, the acclaimed short-story writer shows us life through the great philosopher's eyes, and the view is largely cloudy. Cursed with both “a freakish brain” and a wit “as dry as mouse droppings,” this is a man for whom contentment exists only in the abstract." This was a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. If you relish Classical Studies this brilliant first novel will be right up your alley!

King Raven Trilogy

King Raven Trilogy: Book I
Robin Hood: The Legend Begins Anew
"For centuries, the legend of Robin Hood and his band of thieves has captivated the imagination. Now the familiar tale takes on new life, fresh meaning, and an unexpected setting.
Hunted like an animal by Norman invaders, Bran ap Brychan, heir to the throne Elfael, has abandoned his father's kingdom and fled to the greenwood. There, in the primeval forest of the Welsh borders, danger surrounds him—for this woodland is a living, breathing entity with mysterious powers and secrets, and Bran must find a way to make it his own if he is to survive.
Like the forest itself, Hood is deep, dark, and at times savagely brutal—yet full of enchantment and hope. Internationally-acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead has created a lyrical rendering of a time-honored story that will lead you down strange pathways into another time and place."

A Week In December

"Sebastian Faulks's latest novel, set in one week in December 2007, is very ambitious. It aspires to be a state-of-the-nation book, a satirical comedy of metropolitan literary life, a sweeping, Dickensian look at contemporary London, a serious examination of Islam and the reasons for radicalism among young Muslims, a thriller, a satire on the Notting Hill Cameroonians and a detailed look at the sharp financial practices that led to the collapse. There's London football, reality TV, cyber porn, a love story or two. As if all that weren't enough, it is a roman a clef, which has already provided fun for metropolitan journalists as they speculate about the identity of the various characters."

The Good Man Jesus

"Philip Pullman’s The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ was bound to become something of a hornet’s nest. Known for his dislike of organised religion and the unflattering portrait of God in his trilogy His Dark Materials, Pullman has been branded as a latter-day anti-Christ by those who evidently feel that the Christian spirit is best served by threat and unreflective antagonism.
Written at the prompting of one of Pullman’s admirers, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams - who asked Pullman during a public debate why having tackled God he had neglected to write about the figure of Jesus - the Pullman version of the Gospel stories is inevitably, well, unchristian. What it is certainly not, however, is anti-Jesus – which is the book’s main point."

Sarah's Key

What happened at the Velodrome? The Vélodrome d'Hiver (or Winter Velodrome) was an indoor stadium situated on the rue Nélaton, near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Famous cycling races were held here. The building was generally referred to by its contracted name : "Vel' d'Hiv". In June 1942, the French government of Vichy working under Nazi orders planned to arrest 30,000 foreign adult Jews with the help of 9,000 French policemen. Arrests started at dawn on July 16th. The round up's code name was ironically poetic: "Operation Spring Breeze". 13,000 Jewish people were arrested that day (including 4,000 children, most of them born in France). According to all accounts one can read, inside the Vel d'Hiv was sheer hell. People went crazy, committed suicide, died, women gave birth. Some people, but only very few, were able to escape.

The Book of Negroes

"Aminata Diallo, an 11-year-old child, is taken from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle — a string of slaves. Eventually, she arrives in South Carolina where she begins a new life as a slave. Years later, she finds freedom, serving the British in the American Revolutionary War and having her name entered in the historic "Book of Negroes." This book, an actual historical document, is an archive of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the United States in order to resettle in Nova Scotia, only to discover that this new place becomes one that is also oppressive and unyielding. Aminata eventually returns to Sierra Leone — passing ships carrying thousands of slaves bound for America."

Honest Abe The Vampire Killer!

"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, published by Grand Central and available everywhere Tuesday, March 2, is not just the Lincoln biography we’ve all been waiting for. It’s also the funniest, most action-packed and weirdly well-researched account of the Civil War you’ll probably read in a long time. Every chapter is filled with familiar and semi-familiar names from that dark period in the nation’s history—like William Seward, George B. McClellan and Jefferson Douglas—and some surprising guest stars like Edgar Allan Poe, who visits Lincoln while researching a lesbian vampire story, the greatest work of fiction Poe never actually got around to writing. Political history can sometimes be a little dry, but not with lines like “Senator Charles Sumner lay unconscious on the Senate floor, face-down in a pool of his own blood.” Grahame-Smith could be poised to become the Howard Zinn of vampire-related alterna-history. Either that or he’ll just have another runaway bestseller on his hands, rivaling his Jane Austen mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

The Wordy Shipmates

The Wordy Shipmates is a 2008 book by Sarah Vowell that chronicles the 17th. and 18th. century history of Puritan colonists in Massachusetts, United States. The book delineates a dichotomy between the puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and those who settled Plymouth, Massachusetts. The thesis of the work is that the early Puritans were bibliophiliac advocates of education, thus being "wordy shipmates."

J. D. Salinger Dies

"Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger has died at age 91 in New Hampshire.
The author's son, in a statement from the author's literary representative, says Salinger died of natural causes at his home. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.
The Catcher in the Rye with its immortal teenage protagonist - the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield came out in 1951 during the time of anxious, Cold War conformity.
Salinger wrote for adults, but teenagers all over the world identified with the novel's themes of alienation, innocence and fantasy.
In later years, Salinger become famous for not wanting to be famous, refusing interviews."

Genesis-Not the Band!

"The king of underground comix made a triumphant return to publishing with undoubtedly his most radical project to date, a thoroughly faithful cartoon interpretation of The Book of Genesis. This is Crumb’s first official book-length work, and it does not disappoint in the least, drawing in even the most ardent religion skeptic with his unmatched eye for the most minute detail as only he can create. From ‘Creation’ to ‘The Death of Joseph’, no stone goes unturned in this phenomenal adaptation, which in some parts feature imagery as graphic and scandalous as his most sex-fueled inkgasms in Zap Comix. This is being hailed as the best thing Crumb has done in his illustrious 40-odd year career, and from the moment you crack open this must-own for any and every fan of this unheralded American icon, you will know why."

Assegai

"Assegai is Wilbur Smith's thirty second novel, it follows The Triumph of the Sun in which the author brought the Courtney and Ballantyne series together. Assegai tells the story of Leon Courtney (son of Ryder Courtney) and is set in 1906 in Kenya. The events in the story are linked to and precede the outbreak of World War One."

Anne's First Edition

A first-edition copy of the Canadian classic Anne of Green Gables was sold by Sotheby's New York Friday afternoon for $37,500. This is a live auction record for the famous debut novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery that originally retailed for $1.50.

Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Since publication, Anne of Green Gables has sold more than 50 million books. Also, this book is taught to students around the world.

Anne is really popular in Japan and the influx of tourists from Tokyo I witnessed by the coach-load when I was doing the shrines and theatre production in Charlotetown and Cavendish. Anne crosses all boundaries and is dearly loved worldwide. Wish I had my own first edition!

Anne Blythe & Co.

The Dark Side of Anne with an E...

"A rediscovered work of fiction by L.M. Montgomery, handed to the publisher on the same day she died in 1942, could change the way Canadians think about the famous author of "Anne of Green Gables" and her writing. "The Blythes Are Quoted" is the last book in a series that began with "Anne of Green Gables," set in Prince Edward Island and first published in 1908. It takes the story of Anne and Gilbert Blythe, and their six children and housekeeper Susan Baker 20 years beyond anything previously published "and some of its subject matter is darker than we might expect," the publisher says.
The intriguing book, which hasn't before now been published in its entirety, is divided into two sections, one set before the First World War and one after." Apparently it's full of surprises...

Return of Winnie-the-Pooh

Last week, Dutton Children's Books released "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood," the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which were first published in the 1920s. Over the years the Pooh Properties Trust has received many unsolicited proposals for a sequel, but it only recently approved British writer David Benedictus as the author of the first new Pooh book in nearly 80 years.I just got my hands on a copy and can't wait to start reading it. Here's a review from the New York Times.

Forbidden Fruit

So, what's the best way to get youngsters to read books other than writing splendid ones like Rowling and Pullman? You guessed it, ban them or at least forbid them to be read. Here's an interesting article concerning Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Harry Potter, Huck Finn, Holden Caufeild and Lyra Belaqua have all come under the scrutiny of book banning and burning in recent years and young folks really wanted to check them out for just that reason.Now it's Boo Radley under the cosh. Start screaming about banning Dawkins and Hitchens a bit more, make their names household words, please. You go Boo Radley and get some press!