Library Love Fest

Furious Love

If you attended our title presentation at ALA Midwinter in January, you may recall that I confessed to having an intense teenage crush on Richard Burton.  If you missed it, here's some auditory blackmail. 

Furious Love hits shelves on June 15th and there's a reason I'm ridiculously excited: for years, I haven't had anyone to talk to about Richard Burton and Liz Taylor.  Now, suddenly, there are stories in Vanity Fair and Time Magazine, coverage on Good Morning America, blog posts...it's the best excuse for my inner granny to come out at full force.  So what did I, a die-hard Taylor/Burton fan, think of Furious Love? 

Reader, I loved it.  Biography buffs, tabloid addicts, cinephiles, jewelry collectors, romantics...will all find something to sink their teeth into in this compulsively readable dual biography.  Burton's love letters to Taylor, many of which are excerpted, are incredibly intimate--I was visibly choked up by the end of the book, and wandered from cubicle to cubicle, telling anyone who would listen how sad it was, how tragic, that two people who loved each other so well could end up apart in the end.  But Furious Love isn't all tragedy--rather, it is the story of a flawed but timeless passion that began on a movie-set and changed the face of American culture forever.  Take a peek inside the book, check out some of the quoted love letters in Time, and know that summer flings--quite simply--pale in comparison.

-Kayleigh  

A New Anne Frank Movie

In case you missed it, yesterday Early Word reported that Disney has acquired the rights to a new film version of The Diary of Anne Frank, with David Mamet helming the project.  Our very own Francine Prose was mentioned in the article, as was her forthcoming book Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife (9780061578267).  Early Word reports: "One of Prose’s objections to the earlier versions is that they don’t show Anne’s growth as either a person or an artist; 'On the pages, she is brilliant, on the stage, she is a nitwit.' She also points out that they attempted to 'universalize' the story to broaden it’s appeal; few mentions are made of the family’s Jewishness and Anne was made to seem more hopeful. Says Prose about the movie, 'She sounds like an American girl. And why not? It’s an American movie.'" David Mamet is sure to challenge our assumptions about this beloved piece of literature, just as Francine Prose has done with her book.  Be sure to check out Booklist's starred review, in full, after the jump. 

Meanwhile, on The Roaring 20s...

...I'm blogging about some big-name, buzz-worthy titles.  Check out my posts on:

• Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain (complete with terrifying book trailers)
• Womenomics (including a great Colbert Report clip)
• a scandalous book trailer for Dennis Cooper's Ugly Man
• the religious controversy sure to be stirred up by debut novel You or Someone Like You 

And for those of you who are coming to ALA, there's a new headshot up, in the hopes that you'll recognize me at our booth.  Happy Friday!

-Kayleigh

 

Believe in The Believers!

The reviews keep pouring in for Zoe Heller's The Believers, a novel set in New York about a dysfunctional family (what other kind is there?) The latest rave is from Newsday which ran on Sunday, March 15th.  Heller is the author of What Was She Thinking? which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and adapted into the Oscar-nominated film, Notes On a Scandal.  Heller's novel The Believers is literary, accessible and hard to put down. Check it out when you get a chance. Here is a video of Ms. Heller in a post on The Roaring 20s.

-Virginia

The Magic Behind Coraline

Check out this fantastic look at Coraline: A Visual Companion, based on the New York Times-bestselling novel by Neil Gaiman.