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October 17, 2007

Surprise Booker Prize Winner Announced

Anne Enright's The Gathering, a dark novel about three generations of an Irish family hiding a bitter secret, was the surprise winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, announced today in London. Most literary observers considered Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach and Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip to be the favorites to win the prize, which rewards the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

Posted by hplreadingcorner at 4:22 PM

October 11, 2007

Doris Lessing Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

The British novelist, essayist and short story writer Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize in Literature today, becoming the 11th woman to receive the award. The Nobel committee lauded the "skepticism, fire and visionary power," of Lessing's work, which is known for its humanism, experimentalism and concern for social inequity. Lessing is also known for her uncompromising, independent personality, which was very much in evidence when she told journalists she "couldn't care less" about winning the award.

Posted by hplreadingcorner at 2:04 PM

October 8, 2007

Burn, Baby, Burn

On this date in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire blazed through nearly four square miles in the city, leveling more than 18,000 structures and killing at least 300. You can commemorate the 186th anniversary of the disaster by checking out the dramatic, albeit mostly fictional, Hollywood account of the inferno, the 1937 film In Old Chicago, starring Tyrone Power and Don Ameche. They play the sons of Mrs. O'Leary, who has gone down in legend as the owner of the cow who purportedly started the conflagration. However, those looking for a historically accurate account of the fire might want to turn to Richard Bales' book The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, which exonerates the unfortunate bovine once and for all. Meanwhile, readers of all ages will enjoy Jim Murphy's award-winning The Great Fire, which includes historical accounts and numerous sepia-tinged photographs of the aftermath of the blaze.

Posted by hplreadingcorner at 12:00 PM

October 5, 2007

Oprah's Latest Pick: Love in the Time of Cholera

Continuing her trend of selecting complex, highly literary novels (McCarthy's The Road, Eugenides' Middlesex, etc.) Oprah Winfrey newest book club selection is Love in the Time of Cholera by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Márquez. The novel chronicles a love triangle decades in the making and, like most of the author's works, is set in an unnamed Latin American country. When the book was first released in 1988, the The New York Times review called it "radiant," saying it is both "an old-fashioned love story" and "an anatomy of love in all its forms."

Posted by hplreadingcorner at 10:23 AM