Fun for Foodies!

Deemed “the Oscars of the food world,” by Time magazine, The James Beard Foundation Awards are the country’s most coveted honor for chefs; food and beverage professionals; broadcast media, journalists, and authors working on food; and restaurant architects and designers.
-from the JBF website

Awards are given for books, TV shows, restaurant design, journalism, &, of course, chefs! 2010 winners include:

• Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes from the Author of The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas (book)
• Serious Eats (blog)
• Tom Colicchio (outstanding chef)

Local eatery Mary & Tito's won the America's Classics Award for restaurants with timeless appeal, beloved in their regions for quality food that reflects the character of their community. Establishments musthave been in existence at least 10 years and be locally owned.

For a full list of 2010 winners, visit the JBF website.

Celebrate Bloomsday!

"Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The name derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses. Thursday, 16 June 1904 was the date of Joyce's first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, when they walked to the Dublin urban village of Ringsend."
-from the Wikipedia article

Bloomsday facts:

• it was started in 1954 by John Ryan (artist & entrepreneur) & writer Flann O'Brien
• in 1956, poets Ted Hughes & Sylvia Plath were married on Bloomsday
• in Mel Brooks' 1968 film The Producers, Gene Wilder's character is named Leo Bloom in an homage to the character created by Joyce
• punk band The Minutemen have a song called "June 16th" (on the album Double Nickels on the Dime)
• long-running show The Simpsons has an episode where the family goes to Dublin & Lisa mentions Bloomsday
• U2 have a song called "Breathe" that references events on June 16th (on the album No Line on the Horizon). Lyrics include: "16th of June 9:05, door bell rings, man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer, there's three things I need you to know...")

For information on celebrating Bloomsday locally, check out this listing. The New York times also has a Bloomsday article.

Hammett Prize Awarded

International Association of Crime Writers/North American Branch awards The Hammett Prize annually for literary excellence in the field of crime-writing, as reflected in a book published in the English language in the US and/or Canada. The winner receives a "Thin Man" trophy, designed by sculptor Peter Boiger.

This year's nominees were:

• Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott


• Devil's Garden by Ace Atkins (not in ABC Libraries' catalog)


• The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry


• The Long Fall by Walter Mosley


• The Way Home by George Pelecanos

Congratulations to the winner, Jedediah Berry's The Manual of Detection!

Getting Ready for The Unit

It's time to start reading The Unit for our online reading group! Don't forget to post comments & questions either on the blog or on the abc book banter forums.



About the author & the translator:

Ninni Holmqvist was born in 1958 and lives in Skåne, Sweden. She made her debut in 1995 with the short story collection Suit [Kostym] and has published two further collections of short stories since then. She also works as a translator. The Unit marks Holmqvist's debut as a novelist.

Marlaine Delargy works as a translator and adult learning support tutor. She has translated novels by Åsa Larsson and Johan Theorin, among others, and serves on the editorial board of the Swedish Book Review. She lives in Shropshire, England.

Bookreporter has a brief interview with the author. I also found a Swedish interview with her that Google translate is mostly able to translate on a site called Författarcentrum Författarförmedlingen.

Some things to think about as you delve into your reading:

If any of you have read Margaret Atwood or Marge Piercy, does this book remind you of their works? Is Ninni Holmqvist a modern George Orwell or Aldous Huxley?

Has anyone read Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which has a plot involving children raised to be organ donors?

Consider issues of translation as brought up in the Guardian article "Why translators deserve some credit".

We also found quite a lengthy study someone named Eric Repphun did called "Dysenchanted Worlds: Rationalisation, Dystopia, and Therapy Culture in Ninni Holmqvist’s The Unit" which might be of interest. We didn't want to read too closely, in case it contained spoilers, but it seems to compare Holmqvist & her novel with both other Scandinavian works & movies like Logan's Run & The Island.

Barbara Kingsolver wins Orange Prize for Fiction

Barbara Kingsolver has won the Orange Prize for Fiction for her book The Lacuna. Of The Lacuna, Library Journal says "This is her most ambitious, timely, and powerful novel yet." Barbara's Kingsolver's novel beat out Hilary Mantel's prize-winning Wolf Hall, Kathryn Stockett's popular The Help, & Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger to take the prize. The New York Times announced the win earlier this week.

What We're Reading

Inveterate mystery lovers, we've just finished a brand spanking new novel, the debut of author Elly Griffiths. The Crossing Places features archaeologist-turned-sleuth Ruth Galloway, who, "when not digging up bones or other ancient objects...lives happily alone with her cats in a remote area of England called the Saltmarsh." Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson enlists Ruth's help when he finds bones he thinks belong to a little girl who's been missing for a decade.

If you are looking for a fresh, new series, this would be a good novel to check out! Not a heavy or dark read, the mystery was well thought out & readers learn a bit about archaeology in the bargain.

Summer Reading List of Lists

Looking for a good book to read this summer? The blog Rebecca's Pocket is featuring a giant list of recommended reads for Adults, Children & Young Adults. Included in this list of lists are such gems as: Good Books That Almost Nobody Has Read; Top 50 Business Books, 'Animal Spirits' to 'What the Dog Saw'; Beach-Chair-Worthy Books; Your Daughters' Summer Vacation Reading List (Ages 4-12); & Summer Reading for Antsy Little Boys.