In "Newsweek", Jennifer Egan, author of the National Book Award finalist Look at Me, chooses Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard as one of her "Five Most Important Books". Also featured is Invisble Man by Ralph Ellison, which reminded me that recently I happened to be switching tv channels in typical male fashion when I came across "Mission Impossible 3". I switched in just as the character played by Laurence Fishburne was saying something along the lines of: "He's like the invisible man. That's Wells, not Ellison." Which I thought was rather witty for a crappy action movie.
The "Rough Front" weblog - which looks at book cover art - is impressed with a recent cover for 1988 by Andrew McGahan.
The International Horror Guild award nominations have been announced and Shaun Tan's The Arrival is on the nominee list for Best Illustrated Narrative. Tan's book is many things, but horror? That seems a bit of a stretch.
Chloe Hooper introduces her new book, The Tall Man, on YouTube. Authors take note.
Back in April, Anne Summers launched Virginia Lloyd's new novel The Young Widow's Book of Home Improvement - which I think is one of the best book titles around - and you can now read the speech she gave. Lloyd indicates that she is scheduled to appear on Australian daytime television sometime in August. She'd better make sure her dancing style is up to scratch.
A while back I made a comment about how there seems to have been a big revival in that great old sf sub-genre space opera. Sean Williams thinks he's about to start a second wave with some new, big ideas. And let me tell you, as far as space opera is concerned, bigger is definitely better.
Sophie Masson loves libraries. Our family does too. When my son visted the local public library just down the street from his school, he was one of the few kids in his class with his own card. I found that rather disappointing.
