Posted January 28, 2010

Lost, the television show with the big cult following, begins its final season Tuesday, and fans will be tuning in hoping for some answers to the many questions raised by the show’s crazy plot — or at least another thrill ride. The show made news at the start of season two when fans, getting a glimpse of Flann O’Brien’s novel The Third Policeman, rushed to buy the novel in droves. (The character Desmond had apparently been reading it.) Producers of the show cited it as an influence in interviews, stoking the flames of fan passion. And, thrilled to see fans obsessively engaging with the show, the show’s creators have had fun working in literary allusions ever since. Below is a partial list of notable books that have been referenced on the show in one way or another. (An exhaustive list is available online.)

Taking it a step further, the script writers even went so far as to work into their storyline a novel written by one of the show’s obscurer characters, an early casualty of the show’s famous plane crash. The “manuscript” was subsequently discovered by and seen in the hands of the characters Hurley and then Sawyer. It was published (in the real world) as Bad Twin by Gary Troup.

Also, paralleling the popular fan pastime of spinning out theories to solve the show’s riddles, there are many books that ponder the deeper meanings of Lost’s story. Savor the final season, Lost fans!

Lost’s Literary Allusions:
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Carrie by Stephen King
Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Lancelot by Walker Percy
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda
VALIS by Philip K. Dick
Watership Down by Richard Adams

2010 Edgar Awards

Posted January 28, 2010

The 2010 Edgar nominees were announced last week, so mystery and crime fiction fans will have their hands full checking out all the worthy nominees. We were especially excited to see Chicago author Bryan Gruley nominated for his debut novel Starvation Lake, a murder mystery set in a small town in Michigan. “Gruley’s outstanding debut effortlessly incorporates his inside knowledge of both the newspaper business and his hockey avocation into a tale of violence and betrayal that will remind many of Dennis Lehane,” notes Publishers Weekly. So pick up Starvation Lake or consider reading some of the other nominees:

Best Novel Nominees:
The Missing by Tim Gaureaux
The Odds by Kathleen George
The Last Child by John Hart
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
A Beautiful PlaceTo Die by Malla Nunn

Best First Novel by An American Author nominees:
The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
Bad Day For Sorry by Sophie Littlefield
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

Best Critical/Biographic Nominees:
Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James
The Line-Up: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler
Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak
The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Ben Vincent

Robert B. Parker 1932-2010

Posted January 21, 2010

Popular crime novelist Robert B. Parker passed away earlier this week in his home in Massachusetts. He was 77 years old. A prolific writer, he was the author of more than 50 novels. He is best known for his series featuring Spenser, the tough-talking Boston P.I. with a soft side. The series started in 1974 with the The Godwulf Manuscript and continued until today with the most recent installment being The Professional. He is also the author of the Jesse Stone series.

Check out additional titles by Robert B. Parker at the Chicago Public Library.

Get Financially Fit in 2010

Posted January 19, 2010

When the New Year rolls around, many of us make resolutions, and one of the most common is to get financially fit. With a difficult year behind us, we’re more aware than ever of the importance of financial health, and there are plenty of resources to help you meet this year’s resolution. Whether you are closing in on retirement, wanting to invest, looking to save or just learning about financial independence, there is something for you. Check out the popular personal finance books listed below. Also, check out our Popular Topics pages on Credit and Debt Management and Personal Investing for additional resources on managing your personal finanaces.

Get a Finanacial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties by Beth Kobliner
The New Savage Number: How Much Money Do You Really Need to Retire? by Terry Savage
One Year to An Organized Financial Life by Regina Leeds and Russell Wild
The Smartest Retirement Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin
10,000 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget by the writers of Wise Bread
Bank On Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future by Pamela G. Yellen
Financially Every After: The Couples’ Guide to Managing Money by Jeff D. Opdyke
Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands by Elisabeth Leamy
IRAs, 401(k)s & Other Retirement Plans: Taking Your Money Out by Twila Slesnick & John C. Suttle
Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security by Charles Farrell
Start Over, Finish Rich: 10 Steps to Get You Back on Track in 2010 by David Bach
J.K. Lasser’s Guide for Tough Times: Tax and Financial Solutions to See You Through by Barbara Weltman
The Little Book of Main Street Money: 21 Simple Truths That Help Real People Make Real Money by Jonathan Clements
The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio: How To Build and Grow a Panic-Proof Investment Portfolio by David Gardner and Tom Gardner
The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It by Dave Kansas

Miep Gies, 1909-2010

Posted January 14, 2010

The world lost a hero with the passing at 100 of Miep Gies, who protected Anne Frank during World War II and helped to preserve her diary. If you’ve somehow never read the diary of Anne Frank, consider it strongly recommended. The evergreen classic is one of the truly essential reads. (The movie adaptation was nominated for best picture and took home three Oscars.)

Less well-known is the fact that Gies herself wrote a memoir (with writer Alison Leslie Gold), Anne Frank Remembered: the Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family. Meanwhile, acclaimed author Francine Prose recently published a book, Anne Frank: the Book, the Life, the Afterlife, which considers Frank’s writing as literature and also addresses some of the controversial issues surrounding the book, such as the question of whether the use of the book in the classroom helps to gloss over the horrors of the Holocaust. The diary certainly shouldn’t be relied on as the only document of its time, but it is surely one of the most touchingly human.

American Idol Season Premiere

Posted January 12, 2010

Television blockbuster American Idol returns for its ninth season tonight, so it’s the perfect time to look back at what the show has yielded so far. We’ll get to the many music CDs in a moment, but first let’s recap some of the books. Ever-controversial judge Simon Cowell published a book back in 2003 and was later discussed in a high-profile book about the state of network television, Bill Carter’s Desperate Networks. Randy Jackson published a book on diet and health not long ago. Paula Abdul, the departing judge, is of course well-known for her music career. And new judge Ellen Degeneres has also penned a couple books, in addition to being known for her TV and film career.

But the show has also generated musical hitmakers aplenty, and as every fan knows, it wasn’t always the official winners who had the best post-Idol careers. We stock some of the show’s compilation CDs, but the following is a sampling of the smash albums from Idol alumni:

Clay Aiken (Season 2, runner-up)
On My Way Here

David Archuleta (Season 7, runner-up)
David Archuleta

Kelly Clarkson (Season 1, winner)
All I Ever Wanted

David Cook (Season 7, winner)
David Cook

Chris Daughtry (Season 5, fourth place)
Daughtry

Fantasia (Season 3, winner)
Fantasia

Jennifer Hudson (Season 3, seventh place)
Jennifer Hudson

Mandisa (Season 5, ninth place)
Freedom

Jordin Sparks (Season 6, winner)
Battlefield

Ruben Studdard (Season 2, winner)
Love IS

Carrie Underwood (Season 4, winner)
Play On

In Memoriam, 2009

Posted January 7, 2010

As we did last year, we’d like to take a moment as we turn the pages of the calendar to reflect on the many talented writers we lost this year. These writers will be missed, but thanks to their fine contributions they will not soon be forgotten. The following list is incomplete, and we mean no disrespect to any authors we have inadvertently omitted.

J G. Ballard
James Brady
Jim Carroll
Dominick Dunne
David Eddings
Philip Jose Farmer
Horton Foote
Marilyn French
Elmer Kelton
E. Lynn Harris
Stuart Kaminsky
Irving Kristol
Claude Levi-Strauss
John Leonard
Frank McCourt
John Mortimer
James Purdy
William Safire
Budd Schulberg
John Updike
Donald Westlake (late 2008)

Don’t Miss This: 1949

Posted January 5, 2010

We’re heading back to the past again. This time we are looking at 1949, the year South Pacific opened and became an enormous hit on Broadway, and Death of a Salesman won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. But what else from 1949 is worth another look?

Adam’s Rib
This charming romantic comedy by George Cukor was ahead of its time. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn star as husband and wife and sparring attorneys. He is defending a philandering husband, and she in turn decides to defend the wife, who attempted to kill her husband and his lover. The tensions of the courtroom spill into the domestic sphere in this smart and hilarious film.

The Third Man
Carol Reed’s The Third Man is one of the most artful of the film noir genre. Pulp writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives in post-WWII Vienna to visit his friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find out that he has been killed in an accident. What follows is a game of cat and mouse, a femme fatale and a labyrinthine storyline with some unforgettable twists. The menacing expressionist cinematography alone makes this film worth watching.

1984 by George Orwell
Orwell’s seminal dystopian novel depicts a totalitarian state where everybody is under surveillance. If you ever wondered where the phrase “big brother is watching you” came from, you’ll find it here; Big Brother is the dictator of Oceania and resembles Joseph Stalin.

The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
Considered one of Algren’s best works, The Man with the Golden Arm tells the story of Frankie Machine, a card dealer and morphine junkie on a downward spiral. Set in post-war Chicago, it’s a classic novel and a dark and realistic depiction of poverty and addiction. The book was adapted into a film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Frank Sinatra.