World Book Night America

Gianna, her pimpin' UT Press car, and her book pick
to give away for World Book Night.

Today is the International Day of the Book, also known as St. George's Day, and now also known as World Book Night.  The idea is basically the same--share your love of books and reading by giving away books.  World Book Night America distributed 1,000,000 books to 50,000 givers to be distributed to people all over the country.  These were books donated by publishers and include some great reads--The Poisonwood Bible, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, even The Hunger Games.  Gianna was selected as a giver, and here's what she did with her 20 books to give away.

Gianna:

Gianna picked up her books
from BookPeople in Austin

Well it's here. World Book Night (except that it's day right now). Like most people who were chosen as givers I thought long and hard about where I wanted to hand out my twenty books. That’s not really true; I knew almost immediately where I would send my books.

books, bookmarks,
and candy for US soldiers

Books for Soldiers  is an organization that allows soldiers from all over the world to request books, or movies, or, as is often the case, just a letter. We often have the image of soldiers receiving piles of mail from their large supportive families and communities. That isn’t always the case. I took a long time trying to find the right soldier and in the end settled on a guy who was posted under ‘forgotten soldiers’ – meaning soldiers that get very little in the way of mail. Well good old, let's just call him David, who is part of a 100-person unit, will be helping me pass out copies of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. It’s a book I only recently read but quickly shot to the top of my favorite book list.

Oh, and I threw some candy in the box as well…give the people what they want is what I say. 

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 5

Apologies for the hiatus--my life got a bit crazy this week.  It's time to get back on track, though.  Without a public outlet Gianna might send me nudey pictures or something.  I don't want to have to jab an icepick in my eye.

Day 5: Favorite First Novel

The first novel holds a special place in the book world.  It stands as a declaration of talents and potential to come, and many a master writer began with an audacious debut. 

Gianna:

Two words. The Notebook. I think it stacks right up there with other first works: Gone With the Wind, Dr. Zhivago, and The Bell Jar.

Before I unveil my second choice I wanted to mention a few first novels that I have loved that have come out just this year. What these 3 books have in common are there relatively young authors. Little shits.

Bright’s Passage by Josh Ritter is such a wonderful book – its not perfect – but it’s a loaded first novel, he clearly has a gift for language and storytelling. I highly recommend this book and I just learned that Ritter is coming to BookPeople in Austin for a signing on October 5th.

Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner. If you read a more romantic or charming book this year let me know. This is an old fashion love story from beginning to end. Liz said this book made her believe in love again…well Russian love. [I'm not sure what "Russian love" is.  I do think Cossacks are hot, though.]

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht. This author is the youngest recipient of the Orange Prize, which she won for this insanely good novel. This book will be on year-end best lists to be sure. Obreht writes well beyond her years; she is an amazing talent.

My favorite debut novel is a book that just blew me away in 2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I was absolutely engrossed in every page of this book and when I had to put it down I was miserable. If you love books you know that is a good feeling. This won the National Book Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (just like The Notebook!).

Liz:

A couple of honorable mentions before naming a favorite--

Special Topics in Calamity Physics was one of those audacious debut novels which received front page New York Times Book Review coverage, and additional press because the author, Marisha Pessl, is attractive.  Yes, beautiful people can write engrossing fiction too.  I read this book and loved it before I ever saw a picture of the author, for the record.  It's a coming of age novel about a new girl with a mysterious past trying to fit in at a new school and finding a special teacher who helps her.  More importantly, though, Blue (the main character) is a whip-smart, precocious, pop culture encyclopedia who loves a parenthetical aside, and the book--written in her voice--snaps with witty banter and trivial minutiae.  Some people hate her voice; I love it.

Moondogs by Alexander Yates--one of the best debuts this year.  Set in the Philippines, an American plans to travel to the islands to reunite with his businessman father and do some scuba diving.  Before he arrives in the Philippines, though, his father is kidnapped by cab drivers (and part time cockfighters) who want to kidnap an American in order to sell him to Islamic fundamentalists.  They are inept kidnappers and having no luck in the cockfighting ring since their rooster, Kelog (named after the corn flakes box rooster), is blind.  The Manila police charge their squad of super-cops to find the businessman, and among their ranks are a shape-shifter and a man who can shoot anything from any distance.  If he focuses on a dog on a neighboring island which he can't even see, he can hit it with a bullet.  Moondogs is a fun, well-written, gangster novel about immorality in the Philippines and a declaration of great books to come from author Alexander Yates.

My favorite first novel should not come as much of a surprise.  I once suggested that the author should marry me, after all.  The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead is a brilliant novel.  Period.  The story explores the historical conflict between faith and science through rival methods in the field of elevator inspection.  How Whitehead came up with this story, I have no idea, but one shouldn't ignore an author who can make elevator inspectors so fascinating.  Around the same time that this book was published, film maker Darren Aronofsky released his incredible movie Pi, and in my mind these two works stand as companion pieces to one another.  Spending time with either will challenge you, intrigue you, make you smarter, and allow you to believe in, if not higher powers, the incredible talents of two geniuses.