Alice McDermott will be our guest speaker for the 8th Annual National Library Week Author Visit. She will offer a talk entitled “On Writing Fiction,” which will include lecture and conversation on fiction writing, the writing life, and the place of literary fiction in ordinary life.

McDermott is the author of five novels, including That Night, which was nominated for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Charming Billy, for which she won the National Book Award; A Bigamist’s Daughter; At Weddings and Wakes; and, most recently, Child of My Heart.

McDermott has also published numerous short stories, articles, and book reviews. She is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and is currently the Richard A. Macksey Professor of Creative Writing at The Johns Hopkins University.

Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy [FIC BIN, LP]
Two young girls form a lasting friendship in a small Irish village. They go off to college in big-city Dublin and face the challenges of growing up.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle [FIC DOY] Working class, 10-year-old Paddy Clarke is a mischievous lad trying to make sense of his changing world.

A Green Journey by Jon Hassler [FIC HAS]
Retired English teacher Agatha McGee follows her dream of traveling to Ireland in search of the romance she never had time for.

Mary McGreevy by Walter Keady [FIC KEA]
Beautiful redhead Mary McGreevy revokes her vows as a nun and returns to the small village where she grew up. She wants to be a farmer and to have a child - but not to get married.

Variety of historical tales of Ireland by Morgan Llywelyn [FIC LLY]
Wild Decembers by Edna O’Brien [FIC OBR, LP] - Set in scenic Western Ireland, a brother and sister work their farm in peace until a man from Australia moves in next door and everything changes.

After Rain: Stories by William Trevor [FIC TRE]
Twelve stories by a master of revealing the quiet dignity of ordinary lives.

Trinity by Leon Uris [FIC URI]
Uris brings Irish history to life as he shows the lives of those living in subjugation in 19th Century Ireland.

Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams [FIC WIL, LP] The stories of Nicholas and Isobel are seemingly separate tales of love and loss set in the unique Irish landscape.

Her works, which are imaginative and engrossing, include:

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (1994) [305.4 BRO] - A complex picture of Muslim women’s lives that goes beyond the Western assumption of women’s oppression and isolation from public life.

Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over (1997)

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (2001) [FIC BRO, CAAS, LP] - Describes the 17th Century Plague carried from London to a small English village. Fascinating story of those who stay and those who flee.

March: A Novel (2005) [FIC BRO, LP] - Imagines the Civil War experiences of the idealistic Mr. March, the absent father of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Excellent!

Booker Prize
The Sea by John Banville

Commonwealth Prize
Small Island by Andrea Levy

National Book Award for Fiction
Europe Central by William T. Vollmann

National Book Award for Non-Fiction
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion [B DID]

Orange Prize
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver [FIC SHR]

PEN/Faulkner Award
War Trash by Ha Jin [FIC JIN, LP]

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson [FIC ROB, LP]

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction Ghost Wars by Steven Coll [958.104 COL]

Mystery Awards

Agatha Award for Best Novel
Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear [MYS WIN]

Agatha Award for Best First Novel
Dating Dead Men by Harley Jane Kozak [MYS KOZ]

Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery Novel
California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker [MYS PAR]

Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Mystery Novel
Country of Origin by Don Lee [MYS LEE]

Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel
The Killing of Tinkers by Ken Bruen

Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel
Dating Dead Men by Harley Jane Kozak [MYS KOZ]

If You Liked the Kite Runner, You May Want to Try...

Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
[FIC OND, CAS, LP]

Caravans by James Michener
[FIC MIC]

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
[FIC ABU]

The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
[FIC DUB, CAS, LP]

The Last Life by Claire Messud
[FIC MES]

Lie Down with Lions by Ken Follett
[FIC FOL, CAS]

The Mulberry Empire by Philip Hensher
[FIC HEN]

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
[FIC LAH, LP]

If you haven’t yet read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini [FIC HOS, CAS, LP], be sure to check it out!

Website for Readers

Hennepin County Library, located in Minnesota, sponsors a good site for finding books based on the types of books you like to read. This part of their site is called If You Like Lists and offers readalikes for popular titles you may already have enjoyed. It also offers numerous lists of titles based on subjects and genres, such as amateur sleuth mysteries, family sagas, world literature, psychological suspense, to name just a few. It is worth a look. Just go to:

Hennepin County Library

 

Previous Issues of Book Notes

September/October 2004
November/December2004
January/February 2005
March/April 2005
May/June 2005
July/August 2005
September/October2005
November/December2005
January/February 2006