"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
~ Douglas Adams
"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
~ Dr. Suess
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
~ Anton Chekhov
The Bookseller reported that the film rights to Lauren Beukes’ award winning novel, Zoo City have been sold to South African filmmaker, Helena Spring. Beukes said: “Every novelist dreams of a movie deal—but you actually want more than that. You want to find a producer of great vision and integrity and experience who fundamentally gets […]
Penguin Books South Africa and Little Brown in the UK graciously allowed us to publish the following article written by Paula McLain about fact vs fiction in her book, The Paris Wife, which explores the relationship between Ernest Hemmingway and Hadley Richardson. In Ernest Hemingway’s introduction to his memoir, ‘A Moveable Feast’, he writes, “If […]
Trolling the internet for interesting book news I have come across a disturbing trend in mainstream book review media. More and more the book reviewers seem to choose titles that are extremely highbrow and literary and in many cases inaccessible for most of the people on the street. The Guardian in the UK released a list […]
On 21 November 2011, Anne Inez McCaffrey passed away at her home in Ireland. The world of Fantasy will never be the same. Anne McCaffrey brought us the worlds of Pern, and the dragons that lived therein and an entire generation of readers will mourn her passing. io9.com had this to say: Anne McCaffrey wasn’t […]
Today, South African media is taking to the streets to protest the battering-ram speed of the Secrecy Bill being pushed through. In my heart, I want to believe that this will get stomped on by the Constitutional Court but it seems far too audacious to hope for that much right now. At the least, we can be […]
The Christmas decorations are going up – though thankfully the carols haven’t started echoing through the malls – and the seasonal shopping madness has begun! There are close and distant family members who require gifts, and while buying for our nearest and dearest is easy, those we don’t know as well that can be a […]
To follow up on our posts here and here about the National Book Awards, the winners have been announced! The official website of the National Book Foundation states that the 5 winners were chosen from a wide selection: In 2011, there were 1,223 books submitted for the National Book Awards. The number of books by […]
Some days I like to pretend that I’m Jason Statham in Crank, and that I will die if my heart rate drops to normal levels. It is on days like that that I crank up the music to 11. Today, of course, is just such a day: it’s 11/11/11, after all. To celebrate, NPR’s All […]
While this year’s 11th of November is special because of the year and the resulting number palindrome, it has long been a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers. According to the Wikipedia article, Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces who have died […]
The creator of the popular Discworld series, Terry Pratchett, was diagnosed with dementia last year. He has just released his latest book Snuff. Is Snuff the last of the Discworld series? Or will Pratchett fight against dementia for another novel? The Daily Mail has discussed his health here: When author Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with dementia, he was […]
