The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 11 Sep 2011 06:54 AM PDT Will it be fourth time lucky for author Julian Barnes? THE current odds-on favourite to win this year's Man Booker Prize made it onto the shortlist, announced on Tuesday, once again for his novella The Sense Of An Ending. He is not the only previous nominee for the prize; Carol Birch, shortlisted for Jamrach's Menagerie, was also longlisted for her work in 2003. Two of the four first-time authors from the longlist also survived the cut from 13 books to six. They are Stephen Kelman for Pigeon English, and A.D. Miller for Snowdrops. Two Canadian writers – Patrick deWitt for The Sisters Brothers, and Esi Edugyan for Half Blood Blues – round out the rest of the list announced by Dame Stella Rimington, chair of the panel of judges, at a press conference in London. Dame Stella commented: "Inevitably, it was hard to whittle down the longlist to six titles. We were sorry to lose some great books. But, when push came to shove, we quickly agreed that these six very different titles were the best." Here's a brief introduction to the six shortlisted novels for the 2011 Man Booker Prize: The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes (Publisher: Jonathan Cape/Random House) – Tony Webster has lived a quiet and rather dull life. Out of the blue, he receives a bequest and a note from ex-girlfriend Veronica's mother, saying that she has his ex-best friend Adrian Finn's diary. The note triggers memories of his younger days when he and Finn first become friends, and a fateful weekend, which caused him to break up with Veronica. When Adrian and Veronica start dating soon after, Tony angrily ends his friendship with Adrian, who eventually commits suicide. But as Tony tries to recollect the weekend that ended two relationships, he realises that his memories might not reflect what really happened. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (Granta) – Notorious assassins Eli and Charlie Sisters are headed for California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling and violent experiences in the Darwinian landscape of gold-rush America. Then they get to California, and discover that Warm is an inventor who has come up with a magical formula, which could make all of them very rich. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate Books) – Jaffy Brown is a young boy when he is knocked unconscious by a Bengal tiger in London's East End. He is saved by the tiger's owner, Charles Jamrach, importer and purveyor of wild and extraordinary animals, who offers him a job at the Menagerie. Soon, he is given the opportunity to take part in a voyage of a lifetime: a trip to hunt down and bring back a dragon. Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) – In 1940 Paris, 20-year-old black German citizen Hieronymous Falk, a rising jazz star, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero's bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. He discovers there's more to the journey than he thought when old friend Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero's fate was settled. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (Bloomsbury) – Newly arrived in London from Ghana with his mother and sister, 11-year-old Harrison Opoku lives the life of a new emigrant trying to settle into a new school, innocently unaware of the inner-city dangers around him. Equally fascinated by the local gang and the pigeon that visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of his new life in England. But when a boy is murdered, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own – and in doing so, he unwittingly endangers the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to try and keep them safe. Snowdrops by A.D. Miller (Atlantic) – Over the course of one Moscow winter, a young Englishman is seduced and drawn into the world of new Russia: a land of hedonism and desperation, corruption and kindness, magical dachas and debauched nightclubs; a place where secrets – and corpses – come to light only when the deep snows start to thaw. The winner of the £50,000 (RM240,000) prize will be announced on Oct 18 in London. – Tan Shiow Chin |
| Posted: 11 Sep 2011 06:53 AM PDT I WAS delighted to come across Saplings, one of Noel Streatfeild's books for adult readers, in a bookstore in Kuala Lumpur recently. Streatfeild is, of course, the author of Ballet Shoes, the beloved and famous story of three orphans who are raised as sisters and attend a stage school in London during the Second World War. I knew Streatfeild had written books for grown-ups but I had never read any as they are no longer in print, or so I believed. You can imagine my surprise and delight when I saw Saplings on display, re-issued by Persephone Book, an independent publisher (persephonebooks.co.uk) in Britain. Like Ballet Shoes and several of Streatfeild's other children's books, Saplings is about a family of children and set during WWII. However, unlike her children's fiction, Saplings looks quite seriously at the emotional and psychological effects the war had on families, particularly their youngest members. The story is told from the point of view of the four children and, if you've read the author's best children's books, you know she writes with an acute awareness of the way children feel. Therefore, although written for adults, I believe this book will also appeal to her younger fans. If you are interested in reading Streatfeild's romance novels, another independent publisher, Greyladies (greyladiesbooks.co.uk), has published five titles that were written by Streatfeild under the pseudonym Susan Scarlett. The books are Clothes-Pegs (set in a London fashion store), Peter And Paul (about glamorous twin sisters Petronella and Pauline), Pirouette (a ballerina is torn between the stage and the love of a good man), Love In A Mist (a little boy's role in a Hollywood film causes unrest among his family members) and Summer Pudding (love among the haystacks in wartime England). It's interesting to see how the plots of these novels are echoed in Streatfeild's children's fiction – she wrote many books about children who train as actors and dancers, and fans will recall that The Painted Garden is about an English child who wins a part in a Hollywood movie. Streafeild's love for beautiful clothes and her sensitivity to a child's need to be dressed well and in the right clothes, are also apparent, not only in books like Clothes-Pegs and Peter And Paul (the sisters work at a London boutique), but in how she described in great detail the outfits of the little girls and boys. Who can forget, in Ballet Shoes, the family's consternation over Pauline's too-tight brown velvet dress, and their extreme pleasure when she attends her next audition in a new black velvet frock? Of course, Streatfeild also wrote a book called Party Frock. I would dearly love to order all the books, but they cost £12 pounds each (RM57) at Greyladies. From October, Persephone Books will also start charging £12 for their books – until then, they are £10 pounds each (RM48). That doesn't include postage, though – which will be hefty if you use a Malaysian address. If you're wondering why I'm plugging books for adults in this column, as I've said before, I think children and teenagers have a wider reading range than most adults. Most avid readers will tell you that they devoured all kinds of books as children. They didn't care who the books were written for. They were just interested in good stories. I read lots of very racy and violent books as a tween – my lovely liberal parents didn't mind at all – but if there any parents getting nervous reading this, let me assure you that the books published by Persephone Books and Greyladies are all most, most respectable. ■ Daphne Lee reads to wonder and wander, be amazed and amused, horrified and heartened and inspired and comforted. She wishes more people will try it too. Send e-mails to the above address and check out her blog at daphne.blogs.com/books. |
| Posted: 11 Sep 2011 06:52 AM PDT FOR the week ending Sept 4, 2011: Non-Fiction 1. A Doctor In The House: The Memoirs Of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad 2. The Power Of X: Enter The 10 Gods by Joey Yap 3. Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother by Amy Chua 4. The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking 5. No Excuses!: The Power Of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracy 6. Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going by Han Fook Kwang, et al 7. The Laws Of Courage by Ryuho Okawa 8. A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard 9. The Twelfth Insight: The Hour Of Decision Reckoning by James Redfield 10. Unsinkable: How To Bounce Back Quickly When Life Knocks You Down by Sonia Ricotti Fiction 1. A Game Of Thrones (A Song Of Ice And Fire series) by George R.R. Martin 2. I Don't Know How She Does It (movie tie-in) by Allison Pearson 3. The Single Girl's To-Do List by Lindsey Kelk 4. Room by Emma Donoghue 5. Fall Of Giants by Ken Follett 6. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht 7. Priceless by Nicole Richie 8. Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn 9. The Confession by John Grisham 10. Family Ties by Danielle Steel n Weekly list compiled by MPH Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur; mphonline.com. |
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