Off the Shelf: Questions About New Books? We've Got the Answers
By Sharon Saye on May 29, 2012 from Off the Shelf
The Library provides free copies of a monthly handout entitled “BookPage.” Each month in approximately 32 pages, the newest additions to the book world are covered in articles, interviews and reviews.
The June issue kicks off with a cover story on Richard Ford and his latest book, “Canada.” Beginning in Montana in 1960, it follows 15-year-old Dell Parson as he is left on his own when his parents are arrested and imprisoned for bank robbery. Dell is taken in by a friend of his mother in Saskatchewan and falls under the spell of an American whose choices of violence don’t bode well for Dell. As Ford puts it in the interview, “Realistic fiction has as one of its moral goals to bring us closer to life and make us value it more and see it more clearly. And that is what I’ve grown to want to do.” According to the editors of BookPage, this novel "achieves that goal.”
The June issue also includes interviews with Robert Goolrick on his new book, “Heading Out to Wonderful” and Patrice Kindle on her latest, “Keeping the Castle.”
Columnists Sam Barry & Kathi Kamen Goldmark offer information for would-be writers on questions involving everything from grammar to submission guidelines. Bruce Tierney highlights what he considers some of the big mysteries for the month including “The Demands” by Mark Billingham, “The 500” by Matthew Quirk, and “Don’t Ever Get Old,” by Daniel Friedman.
Christie Ridgway does the same for romances, and Sukey Howard provides great books to listen to in her “The Spoken Word” column. Best-selling author, Debbie Macomber continues with “Why I Love Audiobooks” in her article.
Books Clubs can find new selections, children can browse through four pages of reviews and interviews, and cooks can read reviews of “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier,” by Ree Drummond, “Martha’s American Food” by Martha Stewart and “Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts” by Alice Medrich.
And this does not include the dozens of reviews from Jess Walton’s “Beautiful Ruins” to Hilary Mantel’s “Bring Up the Bodies.” The library does not purchase everything mentioned in “BookPage,” but it does add most of the books. It is an easy way for a reader to keep up with the publishing world and mark books for future reading. Copies of “BookPage” are available at both the front and back circulation desk.
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