Bookzen

A Desirable Residence by Madeleine Wickham, reviewed by KJR for Bookzen

2005-11-07T17:22:00.000+01:00

The London Sunday Telegraph is reputed to have called A Desirable Residence by Madeleine Wickham "witty and wise," and it is almost difficult to add a lot more about this fairly well-written, plot-driven novel about average, middle-class Brits in mid-life crises. As circumstances of their various crises draw them together, they seem to prey on each other, exascerbating their own and each other's crises further.

Real-estate problems, buying, selling, and renting, form the initial linkages, though other crises soon intervene, including adultery, school exams, fraud, indebtedness, money-laundering, thwarted ambitions, envy, loneliness and just plain boredom. The four young people, children of the adult figures, are sketched very well and their stories are perhaps the most compelling, told as they are with a view to the intensity of adolescent angst, ennui, searching and vulnerability. This novel is in no way profound or moving, nor a page-turner, though it is an interesting, enjoyable read, an accurate and insightful portrayal of the very real if ordinary, uncomfortable, awkward, and embarrassing messes most of us find ourselves in from time to time thoughout our lives.

As in real life, there are a lot of loose ends that go unexplained, and much of life's less flattering detritus is swept aside, where hopefully, as the characters plod on, it will lie out of sight, gradually to be passed over, if not forgotten. The ending is a bit like a fairy tale, though perfectly plausible and real enough, as if charity, forgiveness, atonement and repentence, practised in sincere measure, can turn back at least some of the tide.

Categories: book, bookzen, novel, a, desirable residence, madeleine, wickham, bookblog, blog, literary, reviews

Kepler's reopening! 11am Sat Oct 8 2005

2005-10-06T22:37:00.000+02:00

Yes isn't that wonderful! I have fond memories of that place and had been really sad to hear that the famous Kepler's had had to close recently. Some people have come forward and invested in this special bookshop in Menlo Park.

So this will be quite a party on Saturday, not to be missed!

A9 map

keplers.com
savekeplers.com

Read the article - Community Investment Rescues a Bookstore via...NYT

Technorati Tags: kepler, kepler's, menlo, park, palo, alto, bookshop, books

Google Hacks Review

2005-03-17T16:27:00.000+01:00

bloggzen - total immersion blogging technology innovation

Google Hacks,
Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching
By Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest
2nd Edition December 2004 O'Reilly

Reviewed for Bookzen by KJR

Mastering the information in "Google Hacks" is necessary for being a competent, educated person today, which means understanding how to take full advantage of information interconnectivity . Whether you are in business, academia, entertainment, or industry, whether you are in junior high school or a post-graduate program, whether you are an admin or a president, those of us who are connected expect our peers to be equally savvy. Not having a full grasp of "Google Hacks" is almost tantamount to applying for a job without knowing how to read.

Having said that, there are probably some seven-eighths of the world's population today that are either unaware of what I am talking about or unable to take advantage of the information riches available online due to economics (poverty), education (ignorance) or politics (repression). Included here also are those who might have the means, but don't know they have the need (oblivious). Google Hacks is a seminal, watershed book. Those who can master this information will be on one trajectory, while the others will be effectively excluded from living as full participants in the contemporary world.

Google Hacks symbolizes the alarming divide of rich vs. poor, smart vs. ignorant, connected vs. unconnected, the paradigm of a good future based on access to and understanding of information resources, vs .a bad future based on lack.

Innovative anthropologists, Gregogry Bateson, Caleb Gategno, Alvin Toffler, and Susan Sonntag, in the 1960's said that what you know would not be as important in the future as knowing how to learn what you need to know. Today's smartest anthropologists and economists, Carol Greenhouse, Arjun Appadurai say that the global flow of images, finances, technologies, and ideologies move us to "think beyond the nation," because national borders are less important to groups of people who share information across borders. Google embodies and facilitates these trends, and "Google Hacks" how to take advantage. So, read this book from cover to cover, and do it today, or at least leaf through "Google Hacks", to be sure you understand what's on every page.

"Google Hacks" is very accessible, covering basics of how to search the world's most powerful general purpose Internet search engine. The hundreds of "hacks" include topics such as how to compose a search, why to use different search engines, different types of searches, how to understand search results, and how to understand the trends underlying searches. It reviews using gmail as a networked filesystem, and how to index information with Google, including how not to. Search engine advertising is discussed in detail, even including how to write better ads. Curious about Usenet groups, how you can and cannot program Google, or using Google to mine more out of Ebay and Amazon? My personal favorite hacks are understanding the importance of and using misspelled searches, and calculating mindshare. What? Read the book!

Technorati Tags: Bookzen Google Hacks O'Reilly Google Book review

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Guillermo Cabrera Infante

2005-02-23T21:53:00.000+01:00

NYT - G. Cabrera Infante, 75, a Cuban Novelist in Exile, Dies By WOLFGANG SAXON
"Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a Cuban novelist in exile whose lavishly textured prose conjured the country he knew before the revolution he once supported, died on Monday at a hospital in London, where he had lived for 39 years. He was 75".

His most famous book is Three Trapped Tigers 1967, about Havana nightlife before Castro.

Hunter S. Thompson

2005-02-23T16:14:00.000+01:00

The creator of Gonzo journalism wrote his own ending.

NYT - With an Icon's Death, Aspen Checks Its Inner Gonzo By KIRK JOHNSON
"Over the decades that Hunter S. Thompson lived and wrote here in the high Rocky Mountains of central Colorado, Aspen became an aerie for the rich and the beautiful - the very sort of place, right under his nose, that he was famous for fulminating against in his books. "Freak power in the Rockies," as Mr. Thompson once dubbed the spirit of his adopted home, gave way to Louis Vuitton".

NYT - Hunter S. Thompson, 65, Author, Commits Suicide By MICHELLE O'DONNELL
"Hunter S. Thompson, the maverick journalist and author whose savage chronicling of the underbelly of American life and politics embodied a new kind of nonfiction writing he called "gonzo journalism," died yesterday in Colorado".

The Guardian - Tributes for 'gonzo' writer Hunter S Thompson by Duncan Campbell
"He created a new style of journalism, bequeathed us the phrase "fear and loathing", was played on screen by Johnny Depp and Bill Murray, kept a peacock as a watchdog and claimed to have first seen President Bush passed out in a bathtub in a Texas hotel".

BBC - Hunter S Thompson commits suicide
"Hunter S Thompson, the American counterculture writer, has been found dead at his home in Colorado".
Tags: Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo
Flickr photo tags: Hunter+S+Thompson

Arthur Miller

2005-02-22T13:23:00.000+01:00

Arthur Miller is gone but his important legacy will continue to enlighten the world.

BBC - Broadway lights go out for Miller

One of the greatest dramatists married one of the greatest stars
Theatres on Broadway have darkened in tribute to Arthur Miller, the American regarded as one of the greatest dramatists of the last century.

The author of Death of a Salesman died at 89 of heart failure on Thursday evening, surrounded by family and friends at his home in Connecticut".

The Arthur Miller Society

Arthur Miller's major works

Code Louvre

2005-01-22T15:12:00.000+01:00

IMG_0377
Originally uploaded by cyberedge.

artzen - art culture info expo
francaiszen - la vie
bookzen - literary reviews

The makers of the film of the Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks, have permission to shoot inside the Louvre Museum. They will probably start shooting in May. The louvre is only funded by it's visitors which is the agrument for charging such exhorbitant fees for filming there. This has caused many filmamkers to use alternative chateaux...

Le Figaro - "Le Louvre exige plus de 50 000 euros par jour pour un tournage dans la cour Carree."

BBC - Louvre allows Da Vinci Code shoot

"The Dan Brown Code" by Dennis Neuenkirchen is a very interesting and amusing article, that questions the accuracy of Dan Brown's research about Paris. It is on one of the essential Parisian websites Bonjour Paris . Run by Sarah Gilbert herself a highly acclaimed novelist and writer.

Explore Da Vinci Code Secrets with Canals of France
Canals of France is offering 8-day itineraries that explore the controversial sites, history and brotherhood made famous by Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

Mind Hacks

2005-01-19T01:31:00.000+01:00

bloggzen - total immersion blogging technology innovation

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"Mind Hacks" Tips & Tools for Using your Brain in the World By Tom Stafford, Matt Webb - Reviewed for Bookzen by KJR

"Mind Hacks" is an excellent starting place for the exploration of the human mind, apparently a very popular interest right now. Curiosity regarding how we think seems in vogue, since so many are reading one of a group of recently published books on the subject. Including "Mind Hacks" there is "The Mind Map" by Tony Buzan and Barry Buzan, "Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell" The Undiscovered Mind" by John Horgan, "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins (PalmPilot creator) and Sandra Blakeslee, and from Steven Johnson, who wrote the Foreword to "Mind Hacks, " there is "Mind Wide Open. "

All of these delve into that uncharted land called how our grey matter works and how we can live better lives by knowing more about it. Each of these books has a delightfully different take on the subject, and "Mind Hacks" itself is full of references for further reading. Is it more than just a co-incidence that these books are all out right now, being talked about, blogged about, and voraciously read? Why this insatiable synchronicity of people wanting to know more about how we are made and how we think?

In more classical studies, "Mind Hacks" would be filed under physical and cultural anthropology. And though you will be introduced to words like limbic, cortex and cerebellum, keeping track of technical medical terms is not essential for understanding and learning much from this book. While it seems written for popular audiences, and uses everyday examples to illustrate how we as human beings tend to think, and why, "Mind Hacks" is helpfully structured to take you just as deep as you want to go.

As to whether the mind can be hacked, just ask a songwriter, movie producer or ad exec; though by "hacks," the authors really mean examples, and there are hundreds. For instance, why do we tend to see faces when we look at clouds? Why do we scrutinize other peoples' faces so intently? Why, if we see six of the same thing, do we tend to see the seventh object as the same, too, even if it isn't? Why do we smell chalk when we think of Dick, Jane, and that "silly, silly Spot?" What do we really find irresistibly interesting and what bores us to death? Did left-handed people evolve differently and why do they have more traffic accidents? Why are some people better at math? Why do sunglasses make the world more interesting visually? (It's all in the mind.) Why do people respond differently to the same instructions? And by implication, what is the best way to design a web page? All of this is covered in "Mind Hacks" including which sectors of the brain are responsible, and how the research was done.

"Mind Hacks" is a good starting place for exploring your mind, partly because it would fit nicely with some of the other books mentioned here and in the book itself, but also because Mind Hacks is at the center of an expanding culture of exploration and investigation of mental phenomena,including blogs about "Mind Hacks" and related phenomena (just technorati "Mind Hacks" for instance.) There are the sites of the book's publisher O'Reilly for starters and a page relating to topics covered in "Mind Hacks" about why posting flickr zeitgeist might be a distraction for people who actually want to read your blog, and there is the excellent "Mind Hacks" blog itself mindhacks.com, which does not seem to be accessible from the O'Reilly site. Both authors have their own blogs - Idiolect by Tom Stafford and Interconnected by Matt Webb.

"Mind Hacks" suggests that you can read it sequentially or dive in randomly.
Either way it is an accessible book about some of the curiously strange ways in which we think, remember, and respond, based on how we evolved and what was then and is now most important to us as biological organisms. Even better, it is totally overflowing with examples and simple exercises -- the "hacks" -- that you can do by yourself or with friends. Better yet, buy the book and give a "Mind Hacks" party! Ask your guests to open the book randomly, exclaim on the particular mental characteristic explained on that page, and then put everyone through the exercise or group discussion implied. Like, "How do you prefer your first cup of morning coffee, and how do you feel if you don't get it that way?" Pavlov got it right more than a hundred years ago.

And speaking of Pavlov's dogs, there is much in "Mind Hacks" to suggest that we humans share many of our emotions, thoughts and feelings with other animals, whose brain structures evolved similarly and whose reactions in research are so similar.

Untamed by Steve Bloom

2005-01-18T01:14:00.000+01:00

fotozen - private view
ecozen - animals ecology philanthropy

This is the most wonderfull resource, absolutely essential, a unique record of life on earth.

by Steve Bloom " />
Untamed by Steve Bloom
For more than ten years, wildlife photographer Steve Bloom traveled all over the world, roaming through the jungles of Borneo, the African savannahs, and the frozen banks of Antarctica to assemble this dazzling collection of photographs of animals in their natural environments. With an international range that is rare in books of animal photography, the 200 photographs in Untamed bring to life a vast panorama of animal diversity, and of the landscapes, climates, and habitats in which they live.

'Touching' wildlife captured on film
Ten years ago photographer Steve Bloom set out to visit all the world's continents and capture nature on film.via...BBC

See a video on Steve, shown on CNN, Discovery and National Geographic.

T S Eliot Prize for Poetry

2005-01-17T22:05:00.000+01:00

Hungarian-born George Szirtes' collection of poetry has picked up the £10,000 TS Eliot Prize.via...BBC

The Poetry Book Society awards the annual T S Eliot Prize for Poetry.

The Prize - described by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion as "the Prize most poets want to win" - was launched in 1993 to celebrate the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and to honour its founding poet.

The £10,000 prize money is kindly donated by Eliot's widow, Mrs Valerie Eliot.

George Szirtes- Blog post 16.01.05 "If people understood each other's suffering a little better and made less noise about their own, the climate might improve somewhat. The odd energy and melancholia of the human world."

George Szirtes books and publications

New York City: Photographs from The New York Times

2004-12-14T22:20:00.000+01:00

fotozen - private view

New York City: Photographs from The New York Times
Since it first published a photographic halftone in 1896, The New York Times has engaged some of the world's best photojournalists to record the life and times of a uniquely vigorous town. This book of postcards presents 30 photographs from The New York Times Photo Archives.

NYT 10 Best Books 2004

2004-12-14T19:13:00.000+01:00

FICTION

Gilead By MARILYNNE ROBINSON

The Master By COLM TOIBIN

The Plot Against America By PHILIP ROTH

Runaway By ALICE MUNRO

Snow By ORHAN PAMUK

War Trash By HA JIN

NONFICTION

Alexander Hamilton By RON CHERNOW

Chronicles: Volume One By BOB DYLAN

Washington's Crossing By DAVID HACKETT FISCHER

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare By STEPHEN GREENBLATT

- Take part in a NYT discussion about the 10 Best Books of the Year

- NYT 100 Notable Books of the Year

Google World Library

2004-12-14T17:58:00.001+01:00

This is very exciting

bookzen - literary reviews

Radcliffe Camera photo by planethalder on flickr

Google Is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database By John Markoff and Edward Wyatt NYT

"Google, the operator of the world's most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web".

sfgate's Best Books 2004

2004-12-14T17:40:00.000+01:00

Hosted by ImageShack.us" />

sfgate.com has just published thier list of the best books of 2004

It is a very long list, with short a synopsis of each book, here are a few that caught my eye -

Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939 by Virginia Nicholson
Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology by Adam Gopnik
A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, 1854- 1967 by Rachel Cohen

BookCrossing programmer Dan Clune still missing after one month, reward rises to $10,000

2004-12-09T01:52:00.000+01:00

Bookcrossing has asked all thier members to spread the word but when I looked on Technorati this I only found 8 mentions in blogs, so please re-blog about this and pass the info on, thank you!

Dan Clune disappeared from the Long Bridge Bar and Grill (Sandpoint, Idaho) on November 6, 2004 just before 2AM, he was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and blue knit ski cap.

Danny's story will be on COURT TV Catherine Crier Live Friday December 10th at 5:00pm ET/PT

Please help find him http://www.finddanny.com/

Simply Duveen Dahlink

2004-12-03T13:46:00.000+01:00

Two important art books for christmas about the inimitable Duveen.

bookzen - literary reviews

Duveen : A Life in Art by MERYLE SECREST

The Art of the Art Deal: A Portrait of the Old Master New York Times review By ROBERTA SMITH
There are dozens of paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and scores in the National Gallery in Washington that art-world insiders once called Duveens.

Forget that these works were painted by the likes of Gainsborough, Botticelli, Velazquez or Rembrandt. All had been sold, usually to the collectors who donated them to the museums, by the hugely successful, publicity-prone art dealer Joseph Duveen. Passing through Duveen's extensive empire seemed to give the pictures an afterglow that wasn't entirely a result of his penchant for overcleaning. via...NYT

Duveen The Story of the Most Spectacular Art Dealer of All Time By S.N. Behrman Introduction by Glenn Lowry

A startling number of masterpieces now in American museums are there because of the shrewdness of one man, Joseph Duveen, art dealer to John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, and William Randolph Hearst. In a series of articles originally published in The New Yorker, playwright S.N. Behrman evokes the
larger - than - life Duveen and reveals the wheeling and dealing, subterfuge, and spirited drama behind the sale of nearly - but not quite - priceless Rembrandts, Vermeers, Turners, and Bellinis.via...NYT Books

Salon Nautique de Paris - Prix Litteraire

2004-12-03T10:10:00.000+01:00

Not to be missed, all the great French sea dogs will be there. Find a boat for your holidays and the best boating book to read in your cabin...

francaiszen - la vie

4-13 December 2004 the 44th Salon Nautique de Paris is gaining impetus with new attractions, a new area dedicated to Fishing (Village de la Peche) which will delight well-informed fisherman and initiate youngsters, not to mention the show's main attractions.

3rd Prix Litteraire Salon Nautique - le Point

The sea, maritime adventures, tales of great voyages, the islands or maritime regions…there are so many subjects for novels, travel diaries and other books!

The French Nautical Industries Federation (FIN), the Syndicat National de l'Edition (SNE), and the magazine le Point have joined together to pay tribute to works whose subjects centre around the sea. A judging panel, composed of personalities from the world of water sports and publishing, will award a prize to a novel and a finely illustrated book.

List of competitors

The winners will receive their prize at a ceremony held on Wednesday 8 December at 6.00 pm in the Forum des Navigateurs.

The Literacy Site

2004-11-26T17:46:00.000+01:00

This is a new addition to the Animal rescue site's good causes, please help and spread the word.

About The Literacy Site

Remember the magic of your first book? Perhaps you were nestled in the arms of a parent, or sharing a giggle with a friend. Whatever your first memory of a book, books are a powerful tool; they stir the senses, inspire the imagination and spark a love of reading that can last a lifetime. But what of children who have no books? The Literacy Site gives you a way to share the magic of books and promote the love of reading among children who might otherwise never discover the joy of their first book.

Your click on the red "Give Free Books" button at The Literacy Site generates books for children in need, funded by site sponsors and provided through our award winning charity partner, First Book. In the last three years, First Book has distributed over 20 million books to children in hundreds of communities.

The number of books we put in children's hands depends on the number of visitors who click the "Give Free Books" button on The Literacy Site. Please click every day, and encourage friends and family members to do the same.

Christmas Preview Evening

2004-11-19T23:44:00.000+01:00

Not to be missed!

Hatchards 187 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LE 020 7439 9921

invite you to a special CHRISTMAS PREVIEW EVENING
on Thursday 2nd December 2004 6.00-8.00pm

Browse through our extensive range of Christmas books and enjoy our festive
entertainment.

There will be high-profile authors in all departments including:

Annabel Goldsmith, Gyles Brandreth,
Flora Fraser, Robert McCrum,
Michelle Paver, P.B. Kerr,
Michael Dobbs, Ken Follett, William Boyd, P.D. James,
Monica Ali, Tracey Chevalier,
Robert Lacey, Adam Zamoyski, Peter de la Billiere,
James Muirden

-----------

Sting will be signing copies of his candid autobiography Broken Music at Waterstone's, 24-26 Birmingham High Street, B4 7SL on Tuesday the 23rd of November at 1pm.

Please note that due to time constraints Sting will only be signing copies of the promoted title and no other merchandise. We are unable to take reservations for this event. Free, no ticket required. Please ring 0121 633 4353 for more details.

Places of Peace and Power by Martin Gray Reviewed by KJR for Bookzen

2004-11-19T17:27:00.000+01:00

ecozen - animals ecology philanthropy

Places of Peace and Power is a book about the ancient sacred sites around the world and why they are so interesting. Enjoyable and stimulating on many levels, this is a travel journal describing the process of researching, traveling to, and searching out a variety of the world's oldest, sacred religious sites; yet it is also an exploration of various forms of Eastern religion and meditation practice; as well as a guide to a variety of obscure historical notes and esoteric philosophies.

Martin Gray's overall thesis about why ancient sites are important today is based on a series of visions he had while on his journey to the sites known to the ancients for millennia. Gray believes that by using a kind of telepathic mental, spiritual, and cognitive power, humanity will figuratively join hearts and minds to create a force field that will empower us to make it through the social, political, and environmental crises that loom just over time's horizon. And humanity wll not be entirely alone in this effort. Aiding us to overcome our current low coping threshold will be the earth itself. Planetary energy fields, according to Gray's visions, emanating from the sacred places of power, will act as acupuncture points, to transform a critical mass of "seekers," igniting a chain reaction of enlightenment that will echo round the globe.

Gray's thoughts about his "unified being awareness and the age of global awakening" are not entirely new. Some of this is similar to the so-called 100th monkey theory of distance learning, which holds that as a critical mass of members of a species learn a new coping strategy, others in the species simultaneously learn it, too, possibly through a kind of shared telepathy. Gray's idea about humanity sharing a vision, his "unified being awareness," is also much like the planetary awakening foretold by Arthur C. Clarke in his novel "Childhood's End." It is even shares concepts with the events foretold in newspaperman and Internet guru Dan Gillmor's book, "We the Media," also reviewed on this site. According to Gillmor, as a critical mass of bloggers, chatters, and mobile photo phone users establish and maintain alternative communications channels that criss-cross the globe, we are shifting our perceptions of social and political events, as well as our perceptions about ourselves.

Humanity's coping with the ecological and political disasters confronting us is also the basis for much of classic science fiction, from William Gibson to Frank Herbert to H.G. Wells. Gray is almost like a latter-day Buckminster Fuller, whose message is that humanity must and will cope successfully, with mother earth's help. In a refreshing way, though Gray's thesis is spiritual, he is not offering an apocalyptic vision or simply saying "god will provide," nor is he turning his back on society's problems as has been the tendency of late. His message is similar to that of the Gaia movement. As Gray himself notes, even Carlos Casteneda, writing about mystical power in the don Juan books, discusses similar concepts about the energy our earth has to offer us. Perhaps the universality of Gray's concepts only goes to prove his point that the "unified being awareness" is already occurring.

Despite its currency in the culture, Gray's thesis will still be implausible, possibly laughable to many, as he himself admits. Nevertheless, the book is greatly enhanced by Gray's down-to-earth good sense and straight-forward narrative. Gray is credible and sounds authentic, like someone who is truly well-educated, with the common sense of a man who has been successful in business. He is an anthropologist, a professional-level photographer, and has travelled around the world several times (largely on a bicycle, no less!), meditating and listening to the messages the places of power have to offer.

According to Gray, you will know well enough by now, reading this review, whether this book is for you. If you have had a hankering about visiting a particular cathedral or mountain hot spring or runic dolman, you might want to read this book. If you have stood at the rim of the Haleakela volcano in Maui and felt the earth's energy surge through you, if you have looked out at the jungles from atop a pyramid in Mexico and felt the awesome vision of the architects who built them, or if you have heard unseen heavenly choirs while standing in the small stone stall where Saint Francis of Assisi sold cloth as a young man, things I myself have experienced, or even if you just have wondered how the people of the earth are going to surmount the gordian knot of troubles that face us, you will find in Martin Gray a kindred spirit.

Mr. Gray also gives slide shows about the places of power and the visions he received there. His book and more information, including photographs, are available online at sacredsites.com and nomadics.net

55th Annual National Book Awards

2004-11-18T19:27:00.000+01:00

The National Book Foundation
Non Fiction
WINNER:
Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
(Henry Holt & Company, LLC)

Young People's Literature
WINNER:
Pete Hautman, Godless
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Poetry
WINNER:
Jean Valentine, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003
(Wesleyan University Press)

Fiction
WINNER:
Lily Tuck, The News from Paraguay
(HarperCollinsPublishers)

Read the New York Times' Review
South America Epic Wins the National Book Award By EDWARD WYATT

Blogexplosion

2004-11-14T16:28:00.000+01:00

This seems to be working, it can be addictive...

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Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

2004-11-11T22:35:00.000+01:00

Reviewed by KJR for Bookzen

"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf is a thoughtfully written, often amusing indictment of Western culture in general and of the inappropriate, suffocating, snobby stuffiness of upper class English culture in the twentieth century, the mid-1920's in particular. "Mrs. Dalloway" is told through a headlong rampage of free associations, non-sequitors and streams of consciousness from its half dozen characters and omniscient narrator, all woven together to tell what went on in the lives of these people on one day. It is the day, and evening, that Clarissa Dalloway plans the final preparations and gives her big party. In telling the story of this one day, of course, the narrator tells us more or less everything of any significance about each of the characters: their fears, failings, disappointments, illusions, and longings.

In the hindsight of fully eighty years since it was written, "Mrs. Dalloway" seems contemporary for its audio-visual cinematic quality. Whole parts of the book are mere sights and sounds, loosely tethered to the story, more as omens, as examples of the randomly ordered forces of nature at work in the world. In this regard, the novel is very modern and naturalistic, self-consciously so.

Insanity, respectability, rank and power, boredom, personal worth and the meaning of life are brought up repeatedly. With such a juxtaposition of disparate ideas, we are tempted to smile at the comic poetry of description; yet we are uneasy with the frantic pace of manic depression so clearly evident. There is too much being thrown up at us, and little of it is grounded. As it describes humanity's relentless pace toward obvious and meaningless oblivion, Mrs. Dalloway reminds me of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" or "Fall of Amerika." The momentum and cynicism of the free associative stream of consciousness is clearly very close to Dylan Thomas's "A Child's Christmas in Wales" and to James Joyce's "Ulysses." There is here a craziness, however, zany, perfect, articulate and implacable, that is haunting, and unsustainable, like the madness of Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano."

In saying that the work itself is the deft creation of a human being on the verge of madness, I do not intend any criticism of the book or of Virginia Woolf. There is too great a tendency, given her unhappiness and eventual suicide, to declare that Virginia Woolf was unbalanced and that her imbalance shows through in her works. I would say rather that she clearly describes here a world that is mad. She proposes further, that those who try to square the contradictions and horrors of modern life, of loneliness, injustice, war, human frailty and chance, may seem completely mad, but only to those too stupid, insensible or caught up in the madness to notice what is really going on.

This last point forms the indictment of Western culture at the core of this book. It is an indictment of our failures, not necessarily with a suggestion of solutions. It is an indictment of our inability as educated, civilized human beings to be comfortable with our own needs and feelings. It is an indictment of our preference for denial and ignorance, of our preference for form over substance. She herself wrote in her diary about two years before the book's appearance, when it was still entitled "The Hours":

19 June 1923--I want to give life and death, sanity and insanity;
I want to criticize the social system, and to show it at work at its most
intense. . . . Am I writing The Hours from deep emotion? Of course the
mad part tries me so much,

Salgado

2004-11-09T22:03:00.000+01:00

fotozen - private view

londonzen - park life

artzen - art culture info expo

ecozen - animals ecology philanthropy

Salgado - reviewed by KJR for bookzen

Finally after twenty years, Sebastiao Salgado's images are being published, as described in an excellent article in the New York Times. Considering himself a photojournalist of the world's less fortunate, the Brazilian photographer uses the camera to bring information to others. He says of photography,that it is only a language: what is more important, is what is being discussed. Though Salgado, like Atget, Cartier Bresson, Ansel Adams, Lee Miller, Robert Frank, and Stieglitz, can say this since the language his Leica produces in his hands is highly articulate.

Reportedly, this book Sahel:The End of the Road, was not published earlier because agents and publishers who saw the images were reduced to tears, and felt that no one would want to buy such a book. Salgado, who has taken photos in Vietnam, India and Africa, responded that it is our moral obligation to understand the fate of the others! So much for spin, design over content, ignoring what is really going on, and Fox News. Perhaps, quite tellingly, the book is not being published in the heartland, but by that bastion of eccentricity (thank god!), The University of California Press, as a joint project between the departments of photography and journalism at Berkeley. Not surprisingly those bystanders to the War on Terror, France and Spain thought the book important enough to be published way back in the mid-eighties. (Is there a connection between that event and recent international headlines?)

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The Instituto Terra, a non-profit organization created by Sebastiao Salgado and Lelia Wanick Salgado, proposes a highly innovative approach to Brazil's deforestation crisis.

How to help
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Power: Auction at Bloomberg, Nov 17th 2004 - An auction of
prints by world-class photographers

Mighty names from the world of art and documentary photography have donated 60 power-inspired prints for a charity auction on Wednesday 17 November at the Bloomberg auditorium in the City.

For the second year running, PhotoVoice has invited world-class photographers to contribute to this prestige event whichwill raise money for its projects around the world.

Among the contributors are Sebastiao Salgado, Juergen Teller, Sarah Moon, and Philip Jones Griffiths. Particularly compelling are images of George W. Bush (Larry Downing/ Reuters), Kevin Spacey outside the Old Vic (Nobby Clark) and Yann Arthus Bertrand’s magnificent ariel shot of the Kenyan Savannah. Thomas Hoepker (Magnum Photos) has donated his iconic image of Muhammed Ali from 1966.

Wednesday 17th November 6.30-9pm £10 donation

Bloomberg L.P
39-45 Finsbury Square London EC2A 1PQ

Guardian First Book Award 2004

2004-11-04T18:11:00.000+01:00

Readers groups help pick first book award for five novices. The five are a mix of genres, in keeping with the £10,000 award's choice from fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Guardian shortlist
- Ground Water by Matthew Hollis is a collection of poems
- Natasha by David Bezmozgis is a book of short stories
- Susanna Clarke is shortlisted for her novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
- Rory Stewart's non-fiction is represented by The Places in Between, and Mutants
- Armand Marie Leroi On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body
via...the Guardian