Orange Prize

The shortlist (final contestants) for this year's Orange Prize, the UK's annual book award for fiction written by women were announced yesterday.

The shortlist includes:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie



Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk



The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai



The Observations by Jane Harris



Digging to America by Anne Tyler

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut R.I.P.

Gore Vidal

Yesterday author Gore Vidal was announced as the first winner of the PEN/Borders Literary Service Award.

In giving Vidal the award, the committee said:

"The breadth and depth of Gore Vidal's brilliant work, his courage in speaking out, even at times when free speech has been at risk in our country, and his lifelong commitment to democracy, justice, reason, and common sense make him the ideal recipient of the inaugural PEN/Borders Literary Service Award."

Gore's most famous works includes the novels Creation and Lincoln.

The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan

The Guardian raved about this newthriller:

"Flanagan's plot, kick-started by the coincidences that great cities so conveniently arrange, moves with a hurtling rapidity that can only be called cinematic: The Unknown Terrorist reads like the book of the film it will surely become."

Reserve our copy here

"The Invisible Wall"

Today's New York Times "Books of the Times" selection is Harry Bernstein's "Invisible Wall", a story of the author's Jewish childhood in post World War II Lancashire, England.

Reminiscent of Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes", Bernstein's father struggles with alcoholism, leaving his mother to struggle to provide for the family, financially and spiritually.

The Times writes:

"In this, his first book, the 96-year-old Mr. Bernstein tells his story, so remote in time, almost as though it were a fable, occasionally addressing the reader directly. (“I have told you before,” he begins one sentence, characteristically.) The setting, beautifully rendered, recalls early D. H. Lawrence, with mill hands trudging off to work early in the morning, their iron-shod clogs raising sparks on the cobblestones. In Mr. Bernstein’s hands, the small events of family life and the daily dramas on the street take on a shimmering, timeless quality."

Today's Links

Geoffrey Chaucer's "Blog"

Business Plans and Profiles Index

Novelist Jennifer Egan discussing the new Oprah pick, Cormac McCarthy's "The Road".

Costhelper "find out what price other people are paying"

Cut off my Internet? No Way!

If you're a student at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India no YouTube, etc for you after 11:30 p.m..