2008 Tournament of Books

The Morning News announces the list of contenders in their third annual Tournament of Books, a literary March Madness.

Run by Ann Patchett
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Petropolis by Anya Ulinich
Ovenman by Jeff Parker
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem
New England White by Stephen L. Carter
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
Shining at the Bottom of the Sea by Stephen Marche
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke

I haven't read any of these, but many are on my TBR list, including Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, The Savage Detectives, New England White (which I'm hoping to listen via audio), Then We Came to the End (edited by friend and former SMP colleague, Reagan Arthur), Tree of Smoke (last year's National Book Award winner in fiction), and On Chesil Beach.

Since I have An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes from the library, as we speak, I'm saved the worry of wondering where to start.

Read more here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Edna St. Vincent Millay

Today is the birthday of Edna St. Vincent Millay. My friend Caryl, an English major, introduced me to St. Vincent Millay when we were sophomores in college. I'm not a big fan of poetry but there is something about St. Vincent Millay's poems that strike a nerve with me. Now, as then, I am attracted to her bohemian lifestyle. She was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

You can read a poem, as well as more about St. Vincent Millay here.

(photo by Carl Van Vechten)