Literature Recent Picks
NOVEMBER 2009
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Oxford dictionary of quotations, edited by Elizabeth Knowles, 2009.
"A major new edition of the most authoritative dictionary of quotations available brings you the wit and wisdom of past and present - from the ancients of East and West to the global village of the 21st century. Find that half-remembered line in a browser's paradise of over 20,000 quotations for all occasions, comprehensively indexed for ready reference. Whether you lean towards the words of Jane Austen: 'Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure', or the advice of Paris Hilton: 'Dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to blend in', the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations provides the ultimate answer to the questions 'Who said that? (and when, and why)'. Drawing on Oxford's unrivalled dictionary research programme and unique language monitoring, almost 1,000 new quotations have been added to this seventh edition from over 500 authors, from Mary Wollstonecraft and Sarah Palin to Herman Hesse and William Hazlitt. These include classic quotations from established names for which new evidence of current usage has been found, such as 'The worth of a soul cannot be told' (the African writer and former slave Olaudah Equiano) and 'Work first - love next' (American writer and feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman), as well as earlier quotations used by well-known literary authors from around the English-speaking world, e.g. the maxim of Confucius for a ruler, 'If you desire what is good, the people will be good' (quoted by Thoreau), and the view of the Phrygian Stoic philosopher Epictetus that 'Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men' (cited by Laurence Sterne). 'When a thing has been said and well said, have no scruple: take it and copy it' - Anatole France". (Amazon.co.uk)
NOTE : THIS BOOK IS REFERENCE ONLY
Why not Catch-21? : the stories behind the titles, Gary Dexter, 2007.
"Why Not Catch 21? is an expansion on Gary Dexter's long-running Sunday Telegraph column. Each of its 50 chapters focuses on the origins of one of the great titles of world literature, presenting a bite-sized piece of literary history, with fascinating details of the work's genesis and composition. The emphasis is on titles that are literally inexplicable without this background knowledge. Includes these titles, among others: 1. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 3. Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault 4. Fanny Hill by John Cleland 5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 7. Moby Dick by Herman Melville 8. My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse 9. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell 10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 11. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis 12. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain 13. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss 14. Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry 15. Ulysses by James Joyce 16. Utopia by Thomas More 17. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett 18. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward." (Amazon.co.uk)
Making an elephant : writing from within, by Graham Swift, (2009)
"As a novelist Graham Swift delights in the possibilities of the human voice, imagining his way into the minds and hearts of an extraordinary range of characters. In Making an Elephant the voice is his own. As generous in its scope as it is acute in its observations, this highly personal book is a singular and open-spirited account of a writer’s life.
Swift brings together a richly varied selection of essays, portraits, poetry and interviews, full of insights into his passions and motivations, and wise about the friends, family and other writers who have mattered to him over the years. Kazuo Ishiguro advises on how to choose a guitar, Salman Rushdie arrives for Christmas under guard, and Ted Hughes shares the secrets of a Devon river. There are private moments, too, with long-dead writers, as well as musings on history and memory that readers of Swift’s novels will recognize and love.
A journey through place and time, Making an Elephant is a book of encounters, between a son and his father, between an author and his younger selves, between writer and reader, and between friends. It brims with charm and candour, and tells of alertness to experience and a true engagement with words, in short, with what it means to feel that writing and reading are an essential part of living." (Amazon.co.uk)
I wandered lonely as a cloud--and other poems you half-remember from school, edited by Ana Sampson.
"Do you remember the famous opening lines, 'Tyger tyger, burning bright'? Or 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' But would you be able to name the poems or the poets? The English language is jam-packed with wonderful verses that we've all heard at some point, but probably forgotten. "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud" will remind you of all those long-forgotten poems that you were taught at school, together with mini-biographies and introductions. This title includes: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - Coleridge; "If" - Rudyard Kipling; "Dulce et Decorum Est" - Wilfred Owen; "Song of Myself" - Walt Whitman; "Digging" - Seamus Heaney; and "Not Waving But Drowning" - Stevie Smith. Complete with an index of famous lines as well as authors, any poetry enthusiast will love the collection of best-loved poems alongside the lively commentary. "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud", is a perfect addition to any poetry lover's collection." (Amazon.co.uk)
William Golding : the man who wrote Lord of the flies : a life, John Carey.
"The first authorized biography of one of the foremost novelists of the twentieth century. William Golding was born in 1911 and educated at his local grammar school and Brasenose College, Oxford. He published a volume of poems in 1934 and during the war served in the Royal Navy. After wards he returned to being a schoolmaster in Salisbury. "Lord of the Flies", his first novel, was an immediate success, and was followed by a series of remarkable novels, including "The Inheritors", "Pincher Martin" and "The Spire". He won the Booker Prize for "Rites of Passage" in 1980, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983, and was knighted in 1988. He died in 1993." (Amazon.co.uk)
Driving like crazy : 30 years of vehicular hell-bending, P.J. O'Rourke.
""Driving Like Crazy" chronicles P. J. O'Rourke's thirty-year-long love affair with cars - combining his classic pieces with new, previously unpublished work, it is an inimitably humorous and pleasurable celebration of cars, speed, and the open road. P. J. O'Rourke, 'the funniest writer in America', harbors a guilty pleasure - ever since growing up the son of a car dealer in Ohio, he has been crazy about cars. In "Driving Like Crazy", he revels in his love for all things vehicular. From a thousand-mile expedition across Mexico, to a trek through Kyrgyzstan in the back of a Soviet army surplus truck; from an alcohol-fuelled weekend in North Carolina, to an eventful journey from Islamabad to Calcutta; and, from Buicks to Land Rovers to Harley-Davidson's, P. J O'Rourke gets behind the wheel to take us on a hell-bending tour of some of the worlds most scenic - and most treacherous - roads. Along the way he muses on everything from the peculiar joys of NASCAR, to what type of car handles best, to the mind-boggling misdemeanors it is possible to perform in the front (and back) seat. Spanning over thirty years, and combining O'Rourke's classic journalism with original, previously unpublished pieces, this is P. J. at his Gonzo best: a must-read for his many fans, and for anyone who shares his hopelessly passionate devotion to the car. Fasten your seatbelts; you're in for a bumpy ride". (Amazon.com)
Lonely Planet's guide to travel writing : expert advice on travel writing from the world's leading travel publisher, Don George.
"Essential reading for anyone who has ever dreamed of making a living out of their passion for travel. Covers writing for newspapers, magazines, travel guidebooks, and travel literature. Includes vital resources in the US, UK and Australasia." (Amazon.co.uk)
The magician's book : a skeptic's adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller.
"THE MAGICIAN'S BOOK is the story of one reader's long, tumultuous relationship with C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. Enchanted by its fantastic world as a child, prominent critic Laura Miller returns to the series as an adult to uncover the source of these small books' mysterious power by looking at their creator, Clive Staples Lewis. What she discovers is not the familiar, idealized image of the author, but a more interesting and ambiguous truth: Lewis's tragic and troubled childhood, his unconventional love life, and his intense but ultimately doomed friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien. Finally reclaiming Narnia 'for the rest of us', Miller casts the Chronicles as a profoundly literary creation, and the portal to a life-long adventure in books, art and the imagination." (Amazon.co.uk)
New Zealand
The world's your lobster, Joe Bennett.
Floating worlds : essays on contemporary New Zealand fiction , edited by Anna Jackson and Jane Stafford.
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