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.

We begin this weekend’s edition by noting the passing of another literary icon, Carlos Fuentes. Probably best known on our side of the border for his novel, The Old Gringo, he also authored The Death of Artemio Cruz and his highly ambitious Terra Nostra, and his most recently publshed work, Destiny and Desire. Any work by Fuentes is fervently recommended.

Yet more from the Pulitzer Prize contremps, eight authors weighed in at the New York Times Magazine on their choices. Two votes went to David Foster Wallaces’s The Pale King.

An interesting short article from the U.K.’s The Guardian on the influences, or lack of them, on contemporary writers. I’m not at all convinced that this is a good thing.

I don’t suppose that I am alone in my love for historical fiction. The following list, again, is from the Guardian, and is weighted toward the European. I would have included Gore Vidal. Vidal’s novel, Julian, is a brilliant reconstruction of the late Roman Empire. And his novels on American history, Burr, 1876 and Lincoln are all very, very good. And a salute to Mr. Vidal, one of the last remaining public intellectuals left from his generation.

Who doesn’t love a flow chart? Here’s a great one on books

And here’s a phone app for your iphone I bet you never thought you needed!

Finally, we have a profile of Shakespeare and Company, the English language bookstore in Paris that was founded by Sylvia Beach, who was also the original publisher of James Joyce’s Ulysses back in the day. The store still exists. I have very fond memories of visiting the store and buying one of Ross McDonald’s Lew Archer novels. I devoured the book, while drinking gin avec schweppes at an outdoor cafe. I kept returning to the bookstore, where i bought all the remaining McDonald novels they had, and to the same cafe, where I learned to love the mystery novel. Ahh, the memories.

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.

It isn’t quite May, actually, but it will be soon enough. I hope the April Showers will bring out your May Flowers!

Last Monday was World Book Night and here in the States, over 500,000 books were given away. The copies we had were donated to a homeless shelter in Aberdeen, Washington which services at-risk children. Publishers Weekly has the story here.
And SeattleTammy posted a Daily Kos diary as well.

April 23rd also marked the birthday of the Bard of Avon. It also marked the 396th anniversary of his death. I hope everyone celebrated in an appropriate manner, though I wouldn’t suggest murdering your step-father or mother, or unfaithful wife, or King, or what have you as a good way to do so. Huffington Post had a quiz on quotes from the plays.

Had you been in the market for a typewriter, this one, alas, is no longer available. Which reminds me that I could have purchased the visitor’s dugout from Seattle’s old Kingdome for about the same amount. Capote’s typewriter? Baseball dugout? The choice is hard.

The fallout from the brouhaha over the Pulitzer Prize continues. The Guardian’s Robert McCrum weighs in (again) on whether this maters or not.

The movie The Raven has opened with John Cusack playing Edgar Allen Poe.
Mr. Cusack was honored earlier in the week with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In that he is portraying one of the father of American Literature, it seems very cool that the star is in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop,

Once again, if you are looking for book recommendations, you can’t go wrong by checking out what booksellers across the land have to say about some new releases at IndieBound.

Nor can you go wrong by checking out SeattleTammy’s glowing review of Mark Kram’s Like Any Normal Day, at our blog. I’ve started the book myself, and it is very, very good.

What’s 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.

Well, the big news this week in the book world was the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction or lack thereof. For the first time since 1977, no prize was given in the fiction category. Huffington Post had some of the details.

Of course, the failure to give a book award meet with consternation. Like the Oscar is for movies, the Pulitzer is for books. That is, it means sales.

As Publisher’s Weekly notes, the winners in the other categores are going back to press.

Robert McCrum of the Guardian suggested that perhaps the Pulitzer committee follow the model of the British Orange Prize and expand it’s shortlist.

As for myself, I think any of the nominated books would have been worthy. It would have been nice to honor the late David Foster Wallace, whose novel, Infinite Jest is proving to be a enduring modern masterpiece. I haven’t read the novel yet, but Karen Russell’s debut novel Swamplandai was well-reviewed and esteemed by reviewers I respect. Nor have I read Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams; but I have read his early short story collection Jesus’ Son. And I thought his novel Tree of Smoke, a winner of the National Book Award, one of the best novels of the past decade, if not one of the best I’ve ever read. He was certainly Pulitzer worthy.

Ahh, Paris! It has been far too many years since I’ve been there. But the darker side of Parisian life and Parisians is explored here, in a report from NPR by writer Amy Thomas.

For all the Harry Potter readers out there, you need to check out this website. Enjoy!

I grew up reading the cartoons of Jules Feiffer in the Calendar section of the LA Times. It always seemed sophisticated. And he was always funny. So it I was delighted to see he is still going strong and is planning a graphic novel, Kill My Mother, due out next year. Publisher’s Weekly has the story.

Finally, SeattleTammy found this cool website. What fictional character shares your birthday. As it turns out, I have the same birthday as The Count from Sesame Street. How cool is that?

What’s on your nightstand?