Bluestalking

Book Trailer: The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis

Trailer: The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

Book Links from 2011: A brief retrospective

I don't keep very good track of all the book and literary-related articles I read through the year, nor the videos I watch, either. Maybe that would be a good 2012 resolution, since by the end of the year I've ingested so much great stuff I wish I could share the best of the best of it with you all. It's a busy, hectic, over-informed world out there; we're all bound to have missed some outrageously good stuff when we're off doing other things.

What I've collected here is no reflection on my 2011 book-related reading. I'm at a loss as to how to go about finding it all again. I suppose I can't, though, without trolling through my "history" on all the computers I've used.

Quick answer: That isn't going to happen.

So, alas and alack, a mere shadow of highlights from the literary world in 2011 is the best I can do.  Hope you enjoy these bits.

 

One of my fave YouTube videos of 2011, from World Book Day:

 

 

Edinburgh International Book Festival, "The Book I Bought Today:"

 

 

Favorite laugh-out-loud book trailers of 2011:

 

 

 

 

Sebastian Barry, on On Canaan's Side and his nomination for the Booker:

 

 

Julian Barnes on winning the Man Booker Prize for The Sense of An Ending:

 

 

Téa Obreht on winning the Orange Prize for The Tiger's Wife:

 

 

Edna O'Brien, "I'm sorry books don't have the same cachet as a pair of jeans:"

 

 

From Mashable: 50 + Sites for Book Lovers.

Articles from The Atlantic:     A Tumultuous Year in Books

                                                            The Phenomenal New York Review of Books

 

The incredible, amazing 2011 upstart the Los Angeles Review of Books

From the Huffington Post: Stereotyping You By Your Favorite Book of 2011

If you care about serious writing and don't know The Millions, you should.

2012: Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Dickens!

 

Dickens' 200th Birthday... Well... Discussed by Sock Puppets (I am so sorry)

 

 

 

The "new" Charlotte Bronte manuscript.

 

In Memoriam: Writers Lost in 2011

(By no means a comprehensive list)

Vanity Fair: Slideshow - In Memoriam of Christopher Hitchens.

 

Vaclav Havel

Russell Hoban

Diana Wynne-Jones

Brian Jacques

Anne McCaffrey

Reynolds Price

Josephine Hart

Christa Wolf

 

So much richness, so little time. What have I missed? Anything you would add?

 

Book Sequel: Six-Word Memoirs

Blog Disclaimer: I wasn't given a copy of this book, and haven't even seen it physically. I'm just a fan of the six-word memoir. I saw the trailer and wanted to pass it on as something worth taking a look at.