The Man Booker Prize shortlist

 Peter Carey; Parrot and Olivier in America

Emma Donoghue: Room

Damon Galgut: In a Strange Room

Andrea Levy: The Long Song

Tom McCarthy: C

Howard Jacobson: The Finkler Question

So far the bookies are favouring The Room - what do you think?

 

 

Senior Bookclub Choice

 The current choice is A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving

You can Listen Again to John Irving talking to James Naughtie about A Prayer for Owen Meany on Radio 4's Bookclub.

John Irving on BBC Radio 4

Supplementary books are:

Andrea Levy: The Long Song - now on the Man Booker Prize shortlist
Marina Lewycka: We Are All Made of Glue
Harry Thompson: This Thing of Darkness
Barbara Demick: Nothing to Envy (Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction)

Eoin Colfer - Live Webcast - 2:00 - 2:45 pm BST on Tuesday 20th July 2010

The new Artemis Fowl book, Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex is being published just in time for the summer holiday.

If you're free you can join in the live webcast on Tuesday 20th July 2010 from 2:00 - 2:45 pm. And in any case I'll do mu utmost to get copies the instant it is released, so put in your reservation now. If there are more people wanting to read it than I have copies I will select the lucky borrowers by a draw.

To find out more and register to take part go to Eoin Colfer Live. I have registered the Library so if anyone is free to join me they will be very welcome.

Orange Prize

So Lacuna has beaten Wolf Hall to the prize. I was wondering which of my TBR pile to attack next, but if it's that good my decision has been made for me.

BBC News - Orange Prize

The other books on the shortlist were:

Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Lorrie Moore - A Gate At The Stairs
Attica Locke - Black Water Rising
Monique Roffey - The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
Rosie Alison - The Very Thought of You.

Essex Book Award - Jane Mitchell at Essex SLS HQ

     Jane Mitchell made the journey from her home in Ireland to Essex, in spite of fears that volcanic ash might prevent her travelling, to talk to the groups from schools all over Essex who had almost unanimously chosen her book Chalkline as their best book of the year. Six boys from KEGS were able to attend

     She gave an excellent talk on how she writes in general , as well as how Chalkline came into being. It was while she was travelling in Rajasthan that she first got her idea about a boy kidnapped to be trained as a soldier for the Kashmiri separatists. Her advice to all who are themselves interested in becoming authors was, firstly to read as much as possible, and then to start writing straightaway and not wait until they think they're ready to write their first book. 

     One of the questions put to her after her talk was, "What was your favourite book, when you were young", and, amongst other titles, she particularly recommended "The Boy with the Bronze Axe", by Kathleen Fidler. First published in 1968 this is still in print, an indication of its lasting value, and I have now acquired a copy for the Library. 

Carnegie Medal shortlist

If you're interested in having your say go to the shadowing website www.ckg.org.uk/shadowing

Click on the Reading Groups link to find the KEGS page and then you can post your reviews on the blog, take part in the poll and look at the barometer to see how popular your favourite book is. 

And read one or all of the books and come along to the meetings in the Library on Mondays and Thursdays, from 12.20 to 12.45, to let us know what you think of them. You can bring a packed lunch to eat to save time.

Red House Children's Book Award.

The Winner ...

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Winner announcement

This is an award chosen by children themselves, so it's likely to be popular.

New Book for the Senior Reading Group

Our new book is the Man Booker prize winner Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, "an irresistible combination of history and fiction", a "dazzling recreation of the life of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's marriage fixer".

If you have time you could also choose to read one of the following, or instead if you find the size of Wolf Hall a little daunting.

Marina Lewycka: We are all made of glue

David Nicholls: One day

Sebastian Barry: Secret scripture

Barbara Kingsolver: Lacuna

Stieg Larsson: one of the "Girl Who... " novels

Essex Book Award - Last week

This Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th, will be your last chance to vote for the books you have read.  We still need your votes even if you haven't managed to read all the titles. Please come to one of the meetings, or if you can't make it come and collect a voting form to fill in.

There will be one final meeting in school to announce the winner - the date will be announced later. And then a chance to go to the School Library Service Headquarters to meet the winning author.

Essex Book Award - Linda Newbery at Great Baddow High School

Thanks to Great Baddow School Librarians for inviting us to Linda's talk, which taught us a lot about the writing process, and how to get your books published - most importantly "nearly every writer starts by being a reader".