Friday, February 22, 2008
Congratulations, Unca Joe!
Unca Joe has been nominated for a Nebula! He’s in good company, as the list looks like this:
Odyssey, Jack McDevitt, (Ace, Nov06)
The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman, (Ace, Aug07)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon, (HarperCollins, May07)
The New Moon’s Arms, Nalo Hopkinson, (Warner Books, Feb07)
Ragamuffin, Tobias Buckell, (Tor, Jun07)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Out of This World: Great Sci-Fi and Fantasy
I hate it when they call it Sci-Fi (sigh, sorry, that’s my Science Fiction fan coming out… TV and movies are “Sci-Fi”; literature is “Science Fiction”! Grr! Gah!)
Anyway.
Uncle Joe got a great mention on NPR the other day. Way to go, Unca Joe!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Here’s one for the Ballmorians
Thursday, July 05, 2007
I :heart: Ursula LeGuin
Here is yet another reason why I love Ursula LeGuin.
Thus spoke Lorena on 07/05/07 at 08:29 AM in Books, Links, Cool Stuff
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Friday, May 04, 2007
Happy birthday, Alice!
How did I not know that today is Alice Liddell’s birthday? My favorite illustrations will forever be the ones by John Tenniel (with Arthur Rackham being a close second, and one of my favorite overall artists); but the ones that Cory Doctorow posts about here are gorgeous.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Joe Haldeman book signing
From 2 to 3:30 PM on Saturday, December 23, Joe Haldeman will be signing his latest books at Goerings Book Store, 3433 West University Avenue Gainesville , FL 32607 Tel. 352-378-0363.
Hope to see some of you there!
Thus spoke Lorena on 12/20/06 at 09:48 PM in Books, Gainesville
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006
A Brief History of the Dead
Speaking of books-on-iPod; months ago I had bought and listened to A Brief History of the Dead
Part of the plot revolves around the idea that when people die, they don’t initially go to Heaven or Hell (or wherever, or turn into nothing, or whatever-- bear with me). They go to a city in-between, and there they remain as long as there is anyone on earth alive who remembers them.
Then a plague wipes out all but three people on the earth, who happen to be at an Antarctic research station.
Then two of them die.
So half of the book takes part in this city that is only populated towards the end by everyone that the one person left alive remembers. Her parents. Her boss. Her ex-lover. A crazy person she’s seen in the street.
And I tell you-- for months now, I just can not stop thinking about who would be in my city.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Congratulations, Uncle Joe!
Uncle Joe won a Nebula this weekend, for Camouflage
Friday, March 10, 2006
And Tango Makes Three
A while ago, in a discussion about banned books, my mom recommended this book:
Well, I recently bought it for the son of a friend of mine, for his 5th birthday, and… and? I can not recommend this book enough. I read it before wrapping it up, and just absolutely loved it. I want to meet that zookeeper and give him the hugest hug (hey, I am going to NYC next week...)! Technically, the book was lovely with absolutely beautiful illustrations. But the story was just as lovely, about two previously lonely male penguins who wanted so much to be like the other penguins in the zoo that they tried to hatch a rock. The zookeeper took an egg from another couple who had two eggs (and had previously shown themselves not able to raise two eggs at the same time) and gave these two male penguins a chance. That chance resulted in an amazing family. I’m telling you, the love just poured out of these pages. Good call, mom!
Oh, and my friend’s son’s comments on the book? He wants to go to New York and see the penguin family!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
100 Best First Lines from Novels
The American Book Review’s 100 Best First Lines from Novels. Here are some of my favorites from that list-- none of which were published in my lifetime. Guess I like the classics.
9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
16. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. —J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
27. Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. —Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605; trans. Edith Grossman)
37. Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. —Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
47. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. —C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
48. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. —Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
53. It was a pleasure to burn. —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
59. It was love at first sight. —Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Joe Haldeman book reading and signing
Sticky!
My uncle, Joe Haldeman, will be reading from and signing autographs of his new book, Old Twentieth, at Goerings Book Store this Thursday, December 22nd, 2005, at 8:00 PM.
This event is free and open to the public, and we’d love to see some of you there!
Goerings Book Store
3433 West University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32607
Tel. 352-378-0363
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000
How many of them have I read (in bold)...? I am ashamed to say that I’ve never heard of a small handful of them. How long has it been since I worked in a bookstore? Jeez. I feel like a Neanderthal.
Thus spoke Lorena on 09/27/05 at 07:11 AM in Books
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Thursday, April 07, 2005
Joe Haldeman to speak
Joe Haldeman will be speaking at the Headquarters Library in Gainesville, 401 E. University Ave., on Saturday, April 9 at 2pm. His talk is titled “The War in the Gulf as Science Fiction.”
If you are so inclined, please go support him. Tim and I won’t be able to make it because we have a previous committment, so y’all will have to go and be rowdy in our place!
Thus spoke Lorena on 04/07/05 at 08:29 AM in Books, Gainesville
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Thursday, March 24, 2005
Knitticisms
Hee. My mom, always encouraging of my hobbies, sent me the cutest book: Knitticisms… and Other Purls of Wisdom.
It’s filled with stories, with unfashionable photos and snarky commentary worthy of James Lileks, and with chapter titles such as Purls Before Swine: Infallible Excuses for Buying More Yarn.
If you have a sense of humor about everything from having to frog project after project to being so addicted to yarn projects that people fear to sit on your couch in case of needles… this book will appeal to you.
Thanks, mom!
Thus spoke Lorena on 03/24/05 at 07:55 AM in Books, Crafts
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Thursday, March 17, 2005
My name in books
(Click to make bigger)
Amaztype will take any name you put into it and make a collage from books found on Amazon.com that contain that name. Sure; more than just my family has this name, but check how my father and uncle’s books are featured!
Thus spoke Lorena on 03/17/05 at 06:37 AM in Books, Links
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Saturday, March 05, 2005
Andre Norton in Hospice care
This just makes me so very sad. It’s hard, sometimes, to feel so connected to the greats in an industry, as they get older and start passing on. You want them all to stay alive forever, and to keep producing more wonderful things… but you know that’s not the way of it.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
The Toy In Daddy’s Pants
I think a lot of us can agree that a large number of romance novel covers are pretty silly and are just asking to be ridiculed. So that’s exactly what I did. I bought a few of them at the used book store and got to work on them. The artwork almost writes its own jokes.
including
For the Love of Scottie McMullet
and
The Sheriff of Gay County
I think I just hurt myself laughing.
Thus spoke Lorena on 02/24/05 at 08:23 PM in Books, Links
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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
The 2005 Locus All-time Fantasy Story Poll
In which I name-drop pretentiously--
If you are interested, voting for the the 2005 Locus All-time Fantasy Story Poll has begun. Anyone can vote, but anonymous ballots will not be counted, so you do have to leave a name and email address.
Why is this important to me? My Uncle has three stories that have been nominated. Also nominated are my friends Jack, Neil, George, the immeasurably talented Jane, and two people who we miss greatly: Roger and George. Not surprisingly I see that my uncle’s friend Stephen has quite a few on the list.
Sigh. Not to mention other people I know casually, and names I grew up reading.
This is going to make for some rather hard choices.
Thus spoke Lorena on 02/15/05 at 07:19 AM in Books
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Monday, February 07, 2005
Mmmmm cupcakes
Some of you who know me locally may have had some of my cupcakes. I make them from The Cake Mix Doctor book, only… as cupcakes, instead of cakes. Well… guess what? She’s got a new book coming out soon… and you know what that means!
Who wants cupcakes?!
Thus spoke Lorena on 02/07/05 at 07:00 AM in Books
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