Heads up to lovers of lesbian fiction – the date for the fourth annual Lone Star LesFic Festival is Saturday, March 31, 2012! The new site in Austin, Texas is the Crystal Auditorium at Nature’s Treasures.
This event is free to the public! A few hints – the expanded program will include: discussion panels, question & answer sessions, and book signings with the authors.
Check back for more information about confirmed authors and Festival activities.
I've sadly neglected this blog, I fear. Amazing how Facebook and Twitter seem to have taken over . . . Seems that when I do write an entry, it's about books.
Once again I don't really want to call this a list of my favorite books of 2011, because not all of these were books that entertained or gave me pleasure. So this is a list of ten books, alphabetical by author, that had a particular impact on me in 2011.
The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins.
The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge, by T.J. English. The author focuses on a single decade in New York's history, 1963-1973, by telling the stories of three men (one wrongly accused of murder; one a member of the Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army; one a bent NYPD officer).
ASH: A Secret History, by Mary Gentle. Jane Fletcher recommended this book to me several times, and it was every bit as good as she said it would be.
Hypothermia, by Arnaldur Indridason. Not sure why, but I still like the Icelandic crime authors the best!
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug, Cocaine, by Howard Markel.
Kraken, by China Miéville.
Heartstone, by C.J. Sansom. Book 5 in the Matthew Shardlake series.
Up the Walls of the World, by James Tiptree Jr. This is a book I re-read every so often. It had been a few years, so it was time.
Among Others, by Jo Walton.
Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson.
I read a lot of good books last year. Some of them made me cringe, some made me cry, some made me laugh, some made me hopeful, others made me fearful. I love that books can do that!
This year my reading goals are different. I have a backlog of really long books, and this year I want to get through a bunch of them. My Friday Reads posts are likely to be quite boring as I work my way through them from week to week, but I'm looking forward to it!
It's been a long time since I've posted here. I spend a bit of time on Twitter and Facebook now, and since I don't feel like i have a whole lot to say, those tend to be a better forum for what I do say, if that makes sense.
Right now I'm reading Chasing the Devil: On Foot through Africa's Killing Fields by Tim Butcher. In 2009 I read another book by Tim Butcher: Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart, which was a fantastic book. Here's the cover blurb from Blood River:
When "Daily Telegraph" correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to cover Africa in 2000 he quickly became obsessed with the idea of recreating H. M. Stanley's famous expedition – but travelling alone. Despite warnings that his plan was 'suicidal', Butcher set out for the Congo's eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. Making his way in an assortment of vessels including a motorbike and a dugout canoe, helped along by a cast of characters from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy, he followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers. Butcher's journey was a remarkable feat, but the story of the Congo, told expertly and vividly in this book, is more remarkable still.
When I heard Tim Butcher had written another book (Chasing the Devil), I couldn't wait to read it. As with Blood River, the author has followed in a famous man's footsteps, this time Graham Greene, who with his cousin Barbara undertook a 350-mile journey by train, by foot, and by boat across Sierra Leone and Liberia. Greene's book about this experience, called Journey Without Maps, was published in 1936. Mr. Butcher re-created this journey in 2009, some 75 years after Greene, and only a few years after the end of Liberia's brutal civil wars–which Mr. Butcher viewed firsthand as a correspondent for the Telegraph.
Because so much of Chasing the Devil is about the paradoxes of an Africa that is both changed and unchanged since Greene's visit, I decided to read Journey without Maps as well.
Next up: The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe, by Peter Godwin, who also wrote Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa and When A Crocodile Eats the Sun.
As some of you probably know, author L.A. Banks has been diagnosed with advanced cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.
Like many in the entertainment community, L.A. Banks is self-employed and without health insurance. Last year she appeared with President Obama at a town hall meeting to speak about health insurance reform. You can see her speech here.
From the auction website:
The romance community has gathered as a group to honor and support a beloved friend, mentor, leader, and author named Leslie Esdaile “LA” BANKS. We represent published and aspiring authors, editors, agents, readers, friends & fans, military veterans, artists, marketing & promotional professionals, publishers, several different conferences, and RT BOOK REVIEWS magazine.
On Tuesday, June 21st at 9PM EST, you can click on the Button above to be taken to the front page of our LA Banks Auction eBay Store where you can see the entire listing with all the up-to-the-minute auction data or you can click on any Blue eBay Number below to be taken directly to that specific auction page where you can place your bid. If you are a professional in the publishing industry, you might enjoy our conference and marketing packages or perhaps you’d prefer all of the fun stuff. If you’d rather enjoy being a fan-girl or fan-guy, there are autographed books, movies, challenge coins, and rare collectibles galore.
There’s been some interesting discussion recently involving the visibility of women in sff. In light of this, I decided to take a look at my own reading habits. I went over the list of books I’ve read in the past few years and created two lists: male authors and female authors. Then I counted the number of sff books in each of those lists.
The Bold Strokes author event in Nottingham is a little over a month away!
I love to travel, and years of saving up frequent flyer miles means I’m able to go to this event. (Of course, with the summer we’re having here in Texas, I might have been able to pay for the plane ticket with the money I won’t be spending to air-condition my house while I’m away!)
The next month will be insanely busy: Getting all of my work done, figuring out what to take while still allowing enough room in my luggage for the books that I am sure to buy, making a list of books to buy, etc.
Also, trying to figure out what to do with my hair. It’s down to the middle of my back and I am so tempted to cut it! I haven’t had the short hair dream in years, which is usually a good indication that there won’t be tears if I do make a big change.
Signed copies of Romantic Interludes 1 and 2 are open for bidding at the Help Write Now auction!
Over the past two weeks, record-breaking storms have killed over 300 people and destroyed countless homes, neighborhoods, and towns. Tornadoes tore across the south, fires raged across Texas and Oklahoma, and flooding continues to affect communities all over the country.
Help Write Now: A Writing Community Auction to Benefit Southern Storm Relief is raising funds to help these storm victims. Auction proceeds will benefit the Red Cross disaster relief fund.
Blogger is choking, so the Help Write Now auction has been postponed until Monday. More information here.
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Signed copies of Romantic Interludes 1 and 2 are open for bidding on Monday at the Help Write Now auction!
Over the past two weeks, record-breaking storms have killed over 300 people and destroyed countless homes, neighborhoods, and towns. Tornadoes tore across the south, fires raged across Texas and Oklahoma, and flooding continues to affect communities all over the country.
Help Write Now: A Writing Community Auction to Benefit Southern Storm Relief is raising funds to help these storm victims. Auction proceeds will benefit the Red Cross disaster relief fund.
Signed copies of Romantic Interludes 1 and 2 are open for bidding at the Help Write Now auction!
Over the past two weeks, record-breaking storms have killed over 300 people and destroyed countless homes, neighborhoods, and towns. Tornadoes tore across the south, fires raged across Texas and Oklahoma, and flooding continues to affect communities all over the country.
Help Write Now: A Writing Community Auction to Benefit Southern Storm Relief is raising funds to help these storm victims. Auction proceeds will benefit the Red Cross disaster relief fund.
