Edgar Award shortlists announced

The shortlists for the Edgar Awards have been announced yesterday. Below i give you the nominated titles in three major categories:

BEST NOVEL

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

Gone by Mo Hayder

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

1222 by Anne Holt

Field Gray by Philip Kerr

 

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

 

Red on Red by Edward Conlon

Last to Fold by David Duffy

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen

Bent Road by Lori Roy

Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder

 

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

 

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle

The Dog Sox by Russell Hill

Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley

Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis

 

The winners will be announced on April 26th. To take a look at the full list visit The Edgar website

The Most Notable Books of Fiction of 2011

The New York Times have printed this year's list of the 100 most notable books in America. Since we are notable for only concerning ourselves with fiction here's a catalog of the titles that belong to this genre:

The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillio
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Free World by David Bezmozgis
Ghost Lights by Lydia Millet
Gryphon by Charles Baxter
House of Holes by Nicholson Baker
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
The London Train by Tessa Hadley
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles
My New American Life by Francine Prose
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas
Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta
The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht. Read my review here
The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

2011 National Book Award Winners Announced

The 2011 National Book Award winners were announced late last night. The winners in each category are:


Fiction:

Non-fiction:

Poetry:

Young People's Literature:

Alan Hollinghurst voted as author of the year in Britain

Alan Hollinghurst whose novel The Stranger's Child was omitted from the Man Booker Prize Shortlist has been voted by 750 book trade experts in the UK as writer of the year. His win has been announced in London on Friday night, along with the names of the other winners of the various categories of The Galaxy National Book awards. Here's the list in full:

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)
Outstanding Achievement award: Jackie Collins
Specsavers popular fiction book of the year: A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (Penguin)
More popular non-fiction book of the year: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury Press)
Crime and thriller of the year: Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)
Daily Telegraph biography of the year: Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin (Viking)
International author of the year: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
Food and drink book of the year: The Good Cook by Simon Hopkinson (BBC Books)
WHSmith paperback of the year: Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) Read my review here
National Book Tokens children's book of the year: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Audible.co.uk audiobook of the year: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, read by Dan Stevens (HarperAudio)
Galaxy new writer of the year: When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (Headline Review)

Booker Longlist Announced

This year's longlist for the Man Booker prize has been announced. Read the full list below:

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
Sebastian Barry On Canaan's Side (Faber)
Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail - Profile)
Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)
Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger's Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)
A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)
Alison Pick Far to Go (Headline Review)
Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
D.J. Taylor Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)

For more info visit the Man Booker Prize website

Dear You

I spend most of my time reading these days, and that’s only because I’ve just finished with the writing of a couple of novellas. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether they’ll be published anywhere in the near future.
Anyway, I’ve been reading a lot of Japanese literature for the past couple of weeks and there’s more to follow. Kenzaburo Oe, Yasunari Kawabata and Junichiro Tanizaki are the writers who filled my days up to now. I will “meet” a lot of new writers in the coming days (just as soon as I get my new books from Amazon).
Why do I read Japanese literature? Well, the truth is I’ve just started working on an idea of a novel whose main character is going to be a Japanese man. The story will be taking place in a city that I know too well, Chiang Mai in Thailand. I’ll write more when the time comes.
However, apart from the above I also found time to read The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien, while right now I’m just beginning The Simple Truth by David Baldacci. Oh well, books seem to be all that I can get life to offer me at this time of the year.
As one could expect nothing exciting happens nowadays, but that’s ok. Taking life easy and in serenity is what I do. But, maybe that will change when I move to some other place in the autumn. I just don’t know where yet.
And that wraps it up for now. Do enjoy the rest of the summer and keep on reading.

The Bookworm

Dear You 13

I didn’t write to you for quite some time now, but that’s only because my life in Cyprus tends to be quite different than that in Thailand; more boring actually.
Since coming back my energy has dropped to half all the way; meaning: I write half as much as I used to write in Chiang Mai, read half as much and think half as much. I don’t know if I should blame it on the hot weather, or simply on the fact that when here I’m hardly inspired to do anything. It’s not that there are too many distractions; the truth is I’m completely focused in what I want to do. The problem is that I have no-one who can really understand what I’m trying to do and lend me a helping hand.
Yes, I know that writing is the path of the lonesome, but it wouldn’t hurt if there was someone I could talk with about my work, as there were in Chiang Mai.
Anyway, I shouldn’t complain really since, apart from that, I lead a quite easy going and creative life.
As far as writing is concerned I’ve just finished re-writing a novella, and I will start working on another one today. The first one is the story of an unwilling hooker that worked in Piraeus, Greece in the seventies, while the second talks about a love affair that went terribly wrong, shredding to pieces the lives of all the people involved.
What do I read these days? In the last couple of weeks I’ve read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman and The Quest by Wilbur Smith (both excellent books, really) and I’ve just started Michael Connelly’s The Narrows. Probably J.R.R. Tolkien will follow with The Children of Hurin.
The novel I wrote last year, hopefully, will be published in Greece in October. Its current title is A Second Life, but most probably it will change.
Ok, that’s all for now. I hope you will enjoy the rest of the summer, while you keep on reading.
Cheers from the island of the sun.

Dear You 11

Here I am writing to you for the first time ever from Nicosia, Cyprus. What do I have to say? Nothing much really. I’m just trying to get back into my beautiful routine; meaning: reading, writing, drinking (not much). So far I’m well into the number one and three parts, and I think I will start writing again soon too. But first of all I have to read again all the short stories I’ve rewritten recently in order to spot any mistakes and thus get my manuscript ready to ship to Greece for yet another rejection by a publisher. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that by Wednesday, by which time, if everything goes well and my muse comes calling back, I will start working on my new novel again.
Now -the other important issue- the weather, is much better than I expected. It’s not as hot for Cyprus standards (currently just 340 C) and the nights remain pleasantly cool.
As for the dilemma I’ve mentioned in my last post I’ve figured that already out since I’ve started reading Michael Connelly’s “The Overlook”.
How about my flights home? Well, they worked quite fine apart from a short delay at Dubai airport, where the authorities for some reason decided to close one of the airstrips and so all the planes had to take off and land at the other one. Dubai is one of the busiest airports in the world and I just wonder what have happened to make them close the strip.
Oh, I’ve almost forgot what happened to me onboard the Cyprus Airways flight. Well, it took me too many tries and a long time to convince the flight attendants that I am a… Cypriot. You see I boarded the plane carrying a big plastic bag full of books in English and because of that they’d never even dare imagine me being a Cypriot. I had to talk to them more than three times in Greek before getting them to finally address me in that language. Well, I guess that’s bound to happen in a country where no-one seems to read.
Ok people, that’s all for today.
Greetings from the land of the sun.

Dear You 10

This is a very sad but yet happy man that writes to you today from Chiang Mai. Sad, because tomorrow morning I’ll be leaving my beloved city for Cyprus; happy, because I just found out that my last novel will probably come out in Greece by the end of the year, by a big time Greek publisher.
Will I miss Chiang Mai? Well, I cannot say for certain. The last time I was here I said I would return never again, but yet a hundred days later I was on my way back; and that is that. What I usually say that I like about this city is the slow pace of life. The truth is though, that I follow exactly the same pace back home. In the end, maybe I just need to move from the one place to the other, every now and then, to find inspiration and make the changes that I often need in my life.
Did I get here what I came for? I think I did. I wish I got or rather did more though; meaning I wish I wrote more. But, nevertheless, writing 55 thousand words in less than two months is not so bad I’d dare say; and reading 19 books is not bad either.
Talking on a more personal level I did meet a few very interesting and quite inspirational people here. No! Not Thai ladies. That’s not why I come here. I do have some female Thai friends I go out with and have fun every now and then though. The main problem that an “eccentric” so-called writer has to face when hanging out with Thai ladies is that when you tell them that you need some time for yourself, they really don’t seem to understand what you are talking about. I do agree with them on one thing though: “Thinking too much is bad for you!” But yet again, how can you stop your self from thinking?
Anyway, it’s time to move on to another subject, and this is quite important. The quiet nights at the pub came to an end as the EURO 2008 cup matches began. The funny thing is that most of the people watching the games, cheering, getting drunk and aggressive are English, whose team did not qualify!
Oh well, I think I’ll leave things at that. If all goes right and I don’t get stuck in Bangkok or Bahrain I shall write to you again on Friday from Nicosia.
Until then, take care and read well.

p.s. I’ve got over my flu
p.s.s I’ve finished reading Michael Connelly’s “Blood Work” and started with the “Void Moon”. Jeffery Deaver with “The Sleeping Doll” will follow.

Dear You VIII

It looks like that for the first time in years I came to know what “A writer’s block” is all about. I haven’t been able to write anything for a few days now, but I can’t really say that it bothers me. The thing is that I’ve probably “burned” myself up. What do I mean by that? Well, for the past eleven months I’ve been writing and rewriting almost non-stop, producing: a novel and a half, two novellas and two short story collections. All in all I’ve written well over two hundred thousand words, which in my mind’s eye is quite astonishing.
So, since I cannot write, what do I do? Nothing much really. I read a lot (I’ve read Michael Connelly’s “Echo Park” in just one day and started with “Blood Work”), I try to enjoy a bit of free reign walking around and drinking a bit, I “play” at my facebook and try to create a decent page at Red Room, and, of course, I go through the English translations of my stories yet again.
As you can see nothing exciting goes on in my life right now, and somehow I like things just the way they are.
Probably my “writer’s block” will not leave me by the time I go back to Cyprus, but hopefully I will be able to finish the book I’m working on by the end of June.
Anyway, that is all for now.
Keep reading and drinking!

Dear You VII

As my days in Chiang Mai are fast coming to the end I’ve started thinking that I should extend my stay here for at least two more weeks. I haven’t made up my mind yet though. The thing is that while here I have my life completely under control and can work without much trouble towards my goals; something I really can’t do back home.
I’ve just finished writing the first part of my new novel -which will count forty to fifty thousand words- and hopefully by tomorrow I’ll start with the second. The story keeps changing direction every now and then, the “tragic” touches are increasing by the page, but the end is well written into my mind and probably nothing will change it. The only thing I can say for the time being is that it’s not going to be a happy end.
As for my readings, well, nothing really changed since the last time I wrote to you, since Michael Connelly is still the writer who keeps me company. I’ve just finished with one of his “Harry Bosch” novels called “Lost Light” and started “Echo Park”.
Weather-wise it’s been brilliant for the last five days; all in all maybe we got maybe an hour’s worth of rain. However the low season is low as ever and only really tasteless places like Spicy and Hot Shots seem to get some serious business these days.
Ok, that wraps it up for today.
Have a nice day from the land of smiles and keep reading.

Chok Tee

p.s. As time goes by I seem to miss more and more my classic readings: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Kazantzakis and so on. Well, maybe I should to something about it when I get back to Cyprus

Dear You V

We finally caught a glimpse of the sun today. And by today I mean just for an hour this afternoon, since before and after we had a few short spells of showers or fon tok, if you prefer it in Thai.
The last few days have not been too busy for me, since after finishing with the rewriting of my short story collection I needed some time to “chill out” and gather my thoughts, so I did little more than reading. I’ve just finished David Baldacci’s “Split Second” and started Michael Connelly’s “The Closers”. They are both exciting reads as usual.
Since yesterday afternoon I’m back on (my writing) truck. I’ve started writing yet another novella in Greek, which is all about the break up of a couple and the tragic consequences in their lives. It’s supposed to be a quite simple and plain story about people and emotions, but I intend to finish it with a “Bang” that will blow the whole narration apart. I’ll tell you more when the time comes.
As you can understand I’m in a good mood, but I’m a bit upset as well, because the story I’m writing now came out of the blue and so I didn’t quite get the chance to start working on the translation of one of my previous novels in English. Oh well, as they (don’t) say: “second things first”.
And that wraps it up for today.
Cheers from the rainy city of Chiang Mai

Dear You IV

This is just a short note to let you know that i've just finished the first of the many things that i've set out to do since coming to Chiang Mai; that is: rewriting a collection of my old short stories (33 in total). I can say that i feel quite happy about that, but i really do not know what to do next. I still have a lot of rewriting waiting for me, as well as research for a screenplay, and last but not least lots of translations and a new novel that's right now "cooking" in my head. Oh, well, i guess time will show me the way, as it always does.
As for life here, we do get our portion of heavy rainfall, but not as heavy as one would expect. The city is still peaceful and quiet and almost with no tourists.
That's all for today.

Dear You III

Life in Chiang Mai goes on peacefully as ever; however now people are openly complaining about the lack of tourists. If the number of tourists visiting the city, remains as low for one more year, lots of establishments will go out of business. But, besides that, and strangely enough, more and more new restaurants and guest houses seem to spring up day after day.
As for me personally, well, I spend my time rewriting my old Greek short stories and taking some mental notes for future works. I’m currently reading a couple of my old novels and try to figure out a way of translating them into English without losing much of their “meaning”.
Talking about writing, the last ten and a half months have been quite hectic for yours truly, since during the given time period I’ve written or rewritten a big novel, a couple of novellas and two collections of short stories – all in Greek I’m afraid. The only problem for the time being is that I have no publisher, but that’s ok, I’ll get over it.
I’ve just started reading David Baldacci’s The Christmas Train, while before that I took a dive into Michael Connelly’s A Darkness More Than Night.
I spend my nights eating out, mostly Thai food at P.M. Restaurant at Loi Kroh Soi 3, and playing pool and drinking beer at John’s Place, right here in Moon Muang Road.
And that wraps it up for today. If anything new and exciting comes up I’ll let you know.
Drink well and be merry, my friends.

Dear You II

Dear You,
It looks like the rainy season has already arrived here in the north of Thailand. For more than a week we daily get at least one rain shower in Chiang Mai, while the skies are cloudy all the time. However, luckily, we did see a bit of the sun today, but it is a bit windy. If the wind grows any stronger that means that we’ll have rain by tonight.
As for the way of life here, it’s peaceful as ever; more peaceful than ever rather, since the tourist industry, at least in Chiang Mai, has taken a plunge. You don’t see too many “young and restless” people going around anymore, and a number of businesses are facing financial problems. More and more “For Rent” or “For Sale” signs appear by the day.
Of course the Greek restaurant, Zorba’s, managed to go out of business, even before the “crisis” started. “No good food and very expensive” is what people used to say about it. The closing down of that place is such a shame, since many other restaurants that specialize in foreign cuisine, have been doing well over the years.
Talking of food, I can say without any hesitation, that Chiang Mai is a “hungry man’s” paradise. There’s a huge number of Thai or foreign restaurants and fast food franchises here. For some, of course, the best option is to grab a plate of delicious freshly cooked meal at one of the many road food stalls. If you come to this city, you’ll never miss “mama’s cooking”, that’s for sure!
Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to sign off for now, since I’ve still got some work to (yep, boring stuff, like writing and translating), but I promise to write again as soon as possible.
Until then,
Be well and keep smiling