The Monstrosity Gazette: A Weekly Smattering of All Things Literary...

Bookish Quote of the Week:

The free access to information is not a privilege, but a necessity for any free society. … One of my favorite things to do as a young man was wander through the stacks of my hometown library.

-Ed Asner

Today in Literary History:

On this day in 1932 John Updike was born. In a writing career of almost fifty years and as many books, the five Rabbit novels (counting the 2000 novella, Rabbit Remembered) stand out as a bell tolling, at decade intervals, for Harry Angstrom and America. Two of them won Pulitzers; one of them was reviewed as a book "that one can set beside the work of Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Joyce and not feel the draft."

For more, visit Today in Literature.

Bizarre Link of the Week:

Former library president admits stealing nearly $100K
The former president of Blue Mountain Community Library in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, admitted March 9 to stealing nearly $100,000, in a plea agreement under which his wife will be allowed to enter into a first-offender program. Over nine years, Richard Leidich used the public library’s funds to support himself, his wife, and his various business interests, pilfering $99,212 from it before he was caught....
Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call, Mar. 9

Book I'm Eyeing this Week:

Gillespie and I
by Jane Harris
Harper Perennial (January 31, 2012)

Summary in a Sentence: 

From the Orange Prize-nominated author of "The Observations" comes a sweeping literary novel of one young woman's friendship with a volatile artist and the controversy that consumes him.

Read the Reviews:

Savidge Reads |  nomadreader

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Quote of the Week

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.

—Walter Cronkite

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1817, Jane Austen died, at the age of forty-one. She had been increasingly ill over the previous year and a half, probably from a hormonal disorder like Addison's Disease. Austen's devoted older sister, Cassandra, inherited all the author's papers, from which she expurgated some but not all of Jane's enduring wit and one-liners.

For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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Book I'm eyeing this week:

This must be the place

by Kate Racculia
Published by Henry Holt, 2010

Summary in a Sentence:

Mona Jones, having created a simple and withdrawn life with her daughter Oneida and the four eclectic boarders at the Darby-Jones boardinghouse in Ruby Falls, New York, receives a visit from the distraught Arthur Rook who brings along a box of his deceased wife's mementos and a never-mailed postcard addressed to Mona which reveal details about Mona's friendship with the woman and a buried secret that changes their lives.

Read the reviews: 

Pudgy Penguin Perusals |  Book Magic | The Burton Review

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Quote of the Week

My lifelong love affair with books and reading continues unaffected by automation, computers, and all other forms of the twentieth-century gadgetry.

-Robert Downs

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1862, while rowing on the Thames at Oxford, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) began to tell the three Liddell sisters the story that would become Alice in Wonderland. Alice, the ten-year-old middle sister, was so taken with the improvised story that she badgered Dodgson to complete it; when he had it done two and a half years later he presented it to her, with his own illustrations and bound in leather, as a Christmas gift.

For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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Segment in which I shamelessly pimp Etsy:

Defining the Life of a Librarian Artful Hardware Pendant

by COGnitivecreations

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Book I'm eyeing this week:

The Passage
by Justin Cronin
Ballantine Books, 2010

Summary in a Sentence:

FBI agent Brad Wolgast vows to protect six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte after a government military experiment she was involved in goes bad, unleashing a toxic virus that turns humans into bloodthirsty monsters.

Read the Reviews:

Presenting Lenore | S. Krishna's Books | Hey Lady! Whatcha readin'?

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Quote of the Week

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. 

—Charles W. Eliot

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1594, Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew was entered in the Stationers' Register. Much of the main plot seems to come from a 1550 popular ballad called "Here Begynneth a Merry Jest of a Shrewde and Curste Wyfe, Lapped in Morrelles Skin, for her Good Behaviour." By the endeth, this contribution to the shrew-taming canon was merry from only one perspective. . . .

For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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Book I'm Eyeing This Week:

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin
by Josh Berk
Hardcover: Feb 2010
256 pages

Summary in a Sentence:

When Will Halpin transfers from his all-deaf school into a mainstream Pennsylvania high school, he faces discrimination and bullying, but still manages to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a popular football player in his class. 

Read the Reviews:

Alison's Book Marks |  Life is a patchwork quilt | Readingjunky's Reading Roost

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

"An ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy."

-Augustine Birrell

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1931, Dorothy Parker stepped down as drama critic for The New Yorker, so ending the "Reign of Terror" she endured while reviewing plays, and that others endured while being reviewed by her. Parker was a drama critic for only a half-dozen years in a 50-year career, but her Broadway days brought her first fame and occasioned some of her most memorable lines.

For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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Book on my Radar this week:

In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise
By George Prochnik
Hardcover, 352 pages
Doubleday

Summary in a Sentence:

Investigates how modern society came to be so loud, explores what silence has to offer, and discusses the benefits of pursuing quiet.

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Quote of the Week

Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. 

—Lady Bird Johnson

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Today in Literary History...


On this day in 1928 Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, as Marguerite Johnson. Angelou has said that her remarkable and varied life -- prostitute, dancer, actor, writer, activist, educator, academic -- has been made possible by a "remedy of hope" made from reading, courage, and "insouciance."

For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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Bookish Photo Love:

© 2006 Jennifer B. Bodine.

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Book on my Radar:

Life in Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine
By Scott Korb
Hardcover, 256 pages
Riverhead

Summary in a Sentence: 

A generally historical, fun look at life during the time of Jesus.

~ Check out this interview with Scott Korb on Diana Joseph's blog.

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.

-Emily Dickinson

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Today in Literary History:

On this day in 1556 Thomas Cranmer, one of the "Oxford Martyrs," was burned at the stake. Cranmer's promotion of the English Bible and his authorship of The Book of Common Prayer are his most significant connections to Christian literature, but for fiction readers he is known through his connection to Ray Bradbury's book-burning novel, Fahrenheit 451.

 For more, please visit Today in Literature.

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Pic of the Day:

"Man on Ladder" by Quint Buchholz

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Book on my Radar:

The Solitude of Prime Numbers
by Paolo Giordano
Pamela Dorman Books (March 18, 2010)
288 pages

Summary in a Sentence:

Alice and Mattia thought they were kindred spirits, soul mates meant only for each other, but when Mattia is offered an opportunity that takes him far away, Alice is left bereft and alone, until a chance encounter years later reunites them and Alice must decide if she is willing to trust Mattia with her heart once more.

Read the Reviews:

MostlyFiction | Bibliophile By The Sea

The Monstrosity Gazette: A Weekly Smattering of All Things Literary...

"The closest we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library."


—Ashleigh Brilliant

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Today in Literary History:

On this day in 1939, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was published. Although Steinbeck believed that he had succeeded in his "very grave attempt to do a first-rate piece of work," he was so convinced that his "revolutionary" book would be unpopular and unread that he tried to dissuade his publisher from having a large first printing.
For more literary history, please visit Today in Literature.

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Literary Pic of the Week:

© 2005 Wilbur Pierce

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Book on my Radar:

Burning Bright: Stories
by Ron Rash
Ecco (March 2010)
224 pages

Summary in a Sentence:

A collection of short fiction from Southern writer Ron Rash that depict characters living in Appalachia from the time of the American Civil War to the early twenty-first century.

Read the Reviews: Between the Covers | The Dusty Hum

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Bookish Quote of the Day:

"Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors."

—John F. Kennedy

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Today in Literary History:

On this day in 1967 Alice B. Toklas died, at the age of eighty-nine. Toklas spent her last twenty-one years without Gertrude Stein, but with the same idiosyncratic devotion to Stein's genius as she had throughout their thirty-three years together. This did not protect her from those managing Stein's estate, and at eighty-seven she was evicted from the flat which the two had shared for decades.

For more literary history, please visit Today in Literature.

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Literary Pic:

 

© 2008 Wilbur Pierce

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Book on my Radar:

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

Book I: The Mysterious Howling

by Maryrose Wood

Balzer + Bray (February 23, 2010)

272 pages

Children's Fiction (Grades 4-6)

 

Summary in a Sentence:

Fifteen-year-old Miss Penelope Lumley, a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is hired as governess to three young children who have been raised by wolves and must teach them to behave in a civilized manner quickly, in preparation for a Christmas ball.

Read the reviews: A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy | Welcome to my Tweendom

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Bookish Quote of the Week:

"A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life."

-Henry Ward Beecher

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1749 the publication of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones was announced in "The General Advertiser," along with an apology: "It being impossible to get Sets bound fast enough to answer Demand for them, such Gentlemen and Ladies as please, may have them sew'd in Blue Paper and Boards, at the Price of 16s. a Set, of A. Millar over against Catharine-street in the Strand."

For more literary history, please visit Today in Literature.

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Literary Pic:

© 2005 Wilbur Pierce

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Book on my Radar:

The Wives of Henry Oades
by Johanna Moran
Ballantine Books (Feb. 9, 2010)
384 pages
Historical Fiction

Summary in a Sentence:

Henry Oades and his family move to New Zealand in the late 1800s, where he has accepted a job, but when his wife Margaret and the children are kidnapped during a Maori uprising and presumed dead, Henry moves back to California where he marries Nancy, a young widow, and the couple is just starting to settle down when Margaret and the children show up, and Henry, Nancy, and Margaret are all charged with bigamy.

Read the Reviews: The Crowded Leaf | Jenn's Bookshelves | Devourer of Books

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Bookish Quote of the Day:

"Disparage no book, for it is also a part of the world."

-Nachman of Breslov

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1852 Nikolai Gogol died at the age of forty-two. His unique style is a comic-tragic-absurd hybrid which has led to him being labeled the Hieronymous Bosch of Russian Literature. Having come under the sway of a fanatical priest late in life, and then been subjected to the treatments of several quack doctors, Gogol's last days mirrored one of his bizarre stories all too closely.

For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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Literary Pic of the Week:

 

"Bookworm" by Norman Rockwell, 1926

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Book on my Radar:

Ruby's Spoon
by Anna Pietroni
Spiegel & Grau, 2010
384 pages

Summary in a Sentence:

Isa Fly arrives in Cradle Cross, England, in 1933, and many of the town's residents feel an instant pull towards the mysterious young woman, but a group of tight-knit women are suspicious of Isa and accuse her of being a witch, setting in motion a shocking series of events that will change the town and its people forever.

Read the Reviews: Farm Lane Books | The B Files

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Bookish Quote of the Week:

"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them."

 —Lemony Snicket

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Today in Literary History:

On this day in 1975 P. G. "Plum" Wodehouse died, aged ninety-three. Given the hundred books and the three-dozen musicals, it seems reasonable to believe the account of Wodehouse's final moments which has him collapsing while trying to pick up the pen and papers his wife had thrown across his hospital room. On this day in 1946 George Orwell published "In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse," in which he tries to rescue the author from his stickiest and most famous spot of trouble.

For more literary history, please visit Today in Literature.

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Literary Pic of the Day:

 

Man Reading by Rembrandt van Rijn

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Book on my Radar:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
Crown (Feb. 2010)
384 pages
Nonfiction: Medicine/Diseases

Summary in a Sentence:

Examines the experiences of the children and husband of Henrietta Lacks, who, twenty years after her death from cervical cancer in 1951, learned doctors and researchers took cells from her cervix without consent which were used to create the immortal cell line known as the HeLa cell; provides an overview of Henrietta's life; and explores issues of experimentation on African-Americans and bioethics.