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Archive for awards
Today’s guest post by the one, the only, Will Durst:
WILL DURST’S 2013 POLITICAL ANIMAL AWARDS
Hey! You! Yes, you. Sorry. Just trying to get your attention to impart an important warning here. For the next couple weeks, it’s imperative all you good folks out there stay alert and keep your wits about you. Remove the earbuds, no texting while walking and you’d be well advised to brandish a stainless steel umbrella on the street because its awards season and golden- plated statuettes are being tossed about like manhole covers during an underground methane explosion. We’ve made it through the Golden Globes and the Screen Actor Guild Awards, with the Grammies and Oscars right around the corner, so this seems the perfect time to weigh in with the barnacle on the belly of the awards ship: the 15th annual Will Durst Political Animal Awards.
THE BEST IMPRESSION OF REANIMATED HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN AWARD. And the winner is… oh, forgive me, that’s right, we’re all winners here. The award goes to Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell.
BEST DIRECTION OF A COMEDY. To Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades.
THE HE SHOULD SWITCH TO DECAF AND REALLY SOON AWARD: Vice President Joe Biden.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE AWARD: Still picking shrapnel out of his widow’s peak, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.
THE CLOCK IS TICKING LOUD ENOUGH TO PIERCE EARDRUMS ON A COUPLE DIFFERENT CONTINENTS AWARD. 3 way tie! Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro & Bashar Al- Assad.
THE YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN AWARD. To former Governor Sarah Palin, Fox News’ gain is Alaska’s loss.
HEART OF A PLUCKED CHICKEN AWARD. To Nevada Senator Harry Reid for avoiding the alteration of Senate filibuster rules given the opportunity.
THE IT’S BETTER TO BE LUCKY THAN GOOD AWARD. For the 2nd year in a row, POTUS Barack Obama.
THE YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES WERE UP THIRTY MINUTES AGO AWARD. It’s a tie: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Lindsay Lohan.
THE WHY DOESN’T ANYBODY RETURN MY CALLS ANYMORE AWARD: Karl Rove, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
THE YOU CAN KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN AWARD. Former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown.
THE TAKING SIBLING RIVALRY TO A BRAND NEW LEVEL AWARD. The Harbaugh boys.
THE H.G. WELLS DATING SERVICE AWARD. Manti Te’o.
THE HEAD IN THE SAND LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. The coveted Ostrich goes to executive vice president of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre.
THE BEAT A DEAD HORSE UNTIL WE’RE ALL COVERED IN A FINE RED MIST AWARD. Another tie: Senators Lindsay Graham & John McCain who remain determined to get to the bottom of Chuck Hagel’s role in Benghazi.
THE GEORGE HAMILTON TANNING AWARD. For the 4th consecutive year, Speaker of the House John Boehner.
POP GOES THE WEASEL AWARD. Lance Armstrong.
THE SISYPHUS AWARD. Marco Rubio, who has been handed sole responsibility for dragging the entire Republican Party across the immigration reform line.
THE OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES AWARD. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for suggesting the GOP “stop being the stupid party.”
THE RIP VAN WINKLE AWARD. To Hillary Clinton for the well deserved two year nap she’s about to take.
And finally, THE CONTINENT OF ATLANTIS AWARD. For the fastest most complete disappearance in political history, Mitt Romney. They must have powered him down, folded him up and placed him back into the original packaging.
5 time Emmy- nominee Will Durst’s e- book “Elect to Laugh!” published by Hyperink, is now available at Redroom.com, Amazon and many other fine virtual book retailers near you. Or go to willdurst.com for more info.
The Book Booth is a weekly feature at The Political Carnival, relating news, notes, and reflections from the world of books and publishing. SeattleDan, along with his wife, SeattleTammy, are operators of both an on-line bookstore, as well a brick and mortar in small town Washington State. Both have been in the book business since shortly after the Creation, or close to 6000 years now.
In our little town, many home are now decorated with ghouly trimmings in hopes that the Great Pumpkin will soon be here. But, wandering around the drug store today, I was taken by the aisles of Christmas stuff now on display? What’s up with that? As a retailer, I know we like to get a jump on things, but I’m hot hauling out the Christmas books and displays until Thanksgiving. Damn, I’m one noble human being.
On to book news. The Booker-Man Award was announced. Hilary Mantel won for her novel, Bring Up the Bodies, which is part of an on-going saga centered on Thomas Cromwell, the man behind King Henry VIII, at least for a while. Our friends at Biblio.com have the story.
I read her Place of Greater Safety, which I enjoyed very much, which told the story of the French Revolution in dramatic fashion.
And for those of us who enjoy literary gossip, the Guardian passes along this list of past “fun” at the Booker Awards.
Hey, are you bogged down in term papers? Finding it hard to find the write words in Academia? Well, the writers program at the University of Chicago is here to help!
It is a week for anniversaries.First, it was 161 years ago that Moby Dick was published to the yawns of the public and to the scathing reviews of the critics. The Christian Science Monitor offers this appreciation of Herman Melville.
And fifty years ago we had the October Missile Crisis, which for those of us who lived through it, offers some vivid memories. Again from The Guardian, we have a quiz regarding books that feature nuclear holocaust. Don’t worry if you don’t get the right answers. It’s a hard test.
In the realm of media interviews, NPR had this feature on Daniel Martinez, whose The Boy Kings of Texas has been nominated for a National Book Award.
You know who wasn’t the only guest talking to Jon Stewart. J.K. Rowling also appeared on the Daily Show to talk about her new adult novel, The Casual Vacancy.
Years ago, when I worked for the Pickwick Bookshop in Beverly HIlls, we had customers who were interior decorators, who, in fact, would buy books, lots of books, based on the jacket colors. Random House has now made it easier for those folks. H/T to the lovely SeattleTammy for finding this link.
In the Show Biz to Books department, Johnny Depp has partnered with HarperCollins with his own publishing imprint. To his credit, it looks to be an ambitious project and good luck to him.
Not so lucky was the Bookends bookstore of New Jersey, who had sixty autographed copies of Pete Townsend’s memoir, Who Am I, stolen.
For those of you who like literary biography, Publishers Weekly has a very interesting article concerning the medical problems of the Brontes, W.B.Yeats, James Joyce and George Orwell.
And we wouldn’t have a complete Book Booth without a list from Flavorwire. This week it is writers who like other writers.
Have a grand weekend. And please let us know what is on your nightstand!
The Book Booth is a weekly feature at The Political Carnival, relating news, notes, and reflections from the world of books and publishing. SeattleDan, along with his wife, SeattleTammy, are operators of both an on-line bookstore, as well a brick and mortar in small town Washington State. Both have been in the book business since shortly after the Creation, or close to 6000 years now.
As we expected, the Nobel Prize in Literature was announced this week. What we didn’t expect was the winner. You may remember I (and most of the oddsmakers) thought Haruki Murakami of Japan would take it home. Instead a writer from a different Asian nation, Mo Yan won. I know of his work, but I cannot say I’ve ever read him. From the descriptions of his work, he does sound a bit reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but perhaps one of our readers can talk about his novels. In any event, Arcade Publishing is rushing his novel The Garlic Ballads into print and should be available on November 1st.
My friend, sales rep extraordinaire, George Carroll also has this interesting article on Yan’s newest novel, Pow, which will be released by Seagull Books.
Not to be outdone by the folks at the Nobel Committee, the National Book Award finalists were also announced this week. Again, I can’t say I’ve read any of these books (still working on 2007 here), but the link has a nice display of the jacket art for the nominees. The winners will be announced and feted on November 14th.
And some awards need to be declined. City Lights Books tell us that their leader, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has declined the Hungarian Pen Award due to the insufferable practices of the Hungarian government which largely funds the award.
Speaking of poets, Brainpickings found some sage advice from Ezra Pound, he who nicknamed T.S. Eliot Old Possum. The end of this article also provides links to other authors, like Kerouac, Steinbeck and Sontag, who proffer their own wisdom on writing and writers.
For mystery lovers, Publishers Weekly reports on this years Bouchercon, held in Cleveland. SeattleTammy attended this event several years ago and had a wonderful time, meeting many, many of the authors in attendance. (I could only attend the drinking afterwards that year. I have some vague memories of enjoying myself.) If the convention is ever held near you, check it out.
Robert Atwan, editor of the Best American Essays, picks his top ten most important essays written since 1950, and I really cant argue with his choices. I remember how important Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp was to me as a young aesthete. Also by way of Publishers Weekly.
Michael Popek talks about finding old recipes in some of the used books he has refurbished over the years as a bookseller over at The Huffington Post. It is amazing what you can find in old books. We are always finding receipts, bookmarks, and one time a good customer pointed out the marijuana leaf that was stuck between the pages of a copy of All About Horses that we had in stock. As I told her at the time, there is always a bonus in buying books from us!
We’ll wrap it up with list from the folks at Flavorwire of the top 15 scathing reviews of now classic novels. They are funny in retrospect, but Clifton Fadiman, what were you thinking when you reviewed Faulkner?
So tell us what books you have on your nightstand for your weekend reading pleasure?
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