nomadreader

Happy Sunday, everyone! I've been sick most of the week with a sinus infection, but I'm almost feeling back to normal. This afternoon Mr. Nomadreader and I are going to see the Oscar shorts (animated and live action). We went last year and had a fantastic time, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this year's crop measures up. Tonight, we'll be cooking dinner at home, something we rarely do together given our disparate schedules. Then I'll be watching the BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Film Awards tonight on BBC America. Julie Orringer & Karen Russell Recap Thursday afternoon, I was able to see the New York State Writers Institute seminar featuring Julie Orringer and Karen Russell. Last week I reviewed both of their novels . The crowd was quite good. The tradition at UAlbany is to have an upper-level English course whose content comes from the Visiting Writers series, so there is usually a contingent of semi-enthusiastic under...

The backstory: Karen Russell is one of The New Yorker 's 20 Under 40 and she'll be in Albany tonight for the New York State Writers Institute with Julie Orringer . My recap of the event will post Sunday. U pdate: Swamplandia! was longlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize , a finalist for the 2012 Carnegie Medal , and a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize . My thoughts: Although I had high expectations for this novel, I had no specific expectations. I knew very little about it, and I had the pleasure of being transported into this quirkily delightful family immediately. The book is narrated by Ava, a thirteen-year-old girl who knows little of the world beyond her home. Despite Russell using a vocabulary beyond Ava's means, her voice is authentic, and I was drawn to her. The first surprise in this novel was how funny it is: "We leased an expensive billboard on the interstate, just south of Cape Coral: COME SEE "SETH," FANGSOME SEA SERPENT AND ANCIENT LIZARD...

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine to highlight an upcoming release we can't wait to read. My pick this week is  Swamplandia!  by Karen Russell Here's how the publisher describes it: From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection  St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves  (“How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell’s . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire”— Los Angeles Times Book Review ) comes a blazingly original debut novel that takes us back to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, and introduces us to Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine. The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, formerly #1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. Ava’s mother, the park...