One of the reasons I jumped at the chance to attend the recent NerdCon: Stories convention was the opportunity to meet a number of authors that I have admired for years. One of those authors is Paolo Bacigalupi. I first encountered Mr. Bacigalupi’s writing in 2010, after his book, The […]
Founded in 1933, Kirkus has been “an authoritative voice in book discovery” for over 80 years. The associated Kirkus Reviews magazine gives industry professionals a sneak peek at the most notable books prior to their publication, and releases book reviews to consumers on a weekly basis. The Kirkus Star icon […]
The National Book Critics Circle has announced the finalists for their 2015 awards, as well as the recipients of three annual awards. Take a look! AUTOBIOGRAPHY The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick Bettyville by George Hodgman Negroland by Margo […]
There are two conventions prevalent at the turn of the New Year of which I am highly skeptical: “Best Of” end-of-the-year lists and New Year’s resolutions. “Best Of” end-of-the-year lists because how can anyone say that their highly subjective and often dubious rankings of all the books that have been […]
Recently, the New York Times came out with their list of 100 Most Notable Books for 2014, and the literary world took notice. I certainly will admit to taking notice. I immediately ran down the list and counted up how many of the books on the list I had read. […]
We’ve all seen the adage, “So many books, so little time!” I myself find this to be so very true – there are indeed many, many wonderful books available to most of us, too many to be read in one lifetime. So where does someone who loves books draw the […]
Over this past year, I have reviewed 73 books for LitStack. Many of these books have been absolutely fantastic; a few not so much. I’ve read a number of other books, too, but was not able to write a review for them (often they were library books I couldn’t keep […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.