Book Clubs - Meet the Author

As part of its monthly book club, the Guardian hosts a live discussion between the author of the book in question and UCL professor of English, John Mullan. Some of the featured writers are: Margaret Atwood, Graham Swift, and Ruth Rendell. Click here to hear the Guardian Book Club podcasts.

At the Inkwell, we run a variety of book clubs. See our website for the list of clubs, dates & times we meet, and reading selections. Betsy Doud moderates the Classics Book Club, and like the Guardian, has reached out to make her club more interactive. The club is reading A Death in the Family by James Agee for the April 25th club meeting. We will have a special guest, Deedee Agee, the daughter of the author. Betsy said, "James Agee's daughter, Deedee, has agreed to come down from Hingham to be part of our discussion of A Death in the Family. I had seen on one of the web pages that she lived in the Boston area, and just decided to contact her. She said she would be happy to be part of the discussion, and is going to read a remembrance that she herself had written about her father." What a wonderful way to enrich the reading experience!

Big Brother is Watching...George Orwell

"It may have taken a little longer than he predicted, but Orwell's vision of a society where cameras and computers spy on every person's movements is now here." This quote is from a recent Daily Mail article. The comments to the story are funny and true. Click here to read the full article with comments.

Pulitzer Prize Winners 2007 Announced

Winners for Literature and Drama

Fiction: The Road by Cormac McCarthy (published by Knopf)
History: The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (published by Knopf)
Biography: The Most Famous Man in America by Debby Applegate (published by Doubleday)
Poetry: Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey (published by Houghton Mifflin)
General Nonfiction: The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright (published by Knopf)
Drama: Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire (published by Theatre Communications)
To view all the Pulitzer winners click here.

Random House swept the awards this year with 4 out of the 6 categories. (Knopf and Doubleday are part of Random House.) Right now, the Inkwell has The Road, The Race Beat, The Most Famous Man in America, and The Looming Tower in stock, but they won't last long. Any time a major award is announced the titles sell out, and it generally takes three weeks for them to be reprinted. We are particularly pleased that David Lindsey-Abaire won for Rabbit Hole since we brought a group tour to see the play in Boston at the Huntington Theatre in December.

The other finalists for Fiction were Alice McDermott for After This and Richard Powers for The Echo Maker. To view the other category finalists click this link.

Weekend News to Amuse

Our Own Worst Enemies
The L.A. Times had a story about people reading their embarrassing teen diary excerpts at a bar in Brooklyn for "Cringe Night." Just last week, I was tearing up pages from my old diary as my boyfriend was doing his best to read them. Some things are best left forgotten, or at least shredded. Unfortunately, in the future, we may not be able to completely dispose of our maudlin My Space/blog entries so easily.

In the Kennedy Kitchen Author Interview
This Wednesday, the Inkwell is hosting executive chef Neil Connolly for an author talk and book signing. His new cookbook, In the Kennedy Kitchen, features the best recipes that he served to the Kennedy's at their Hyannisport Compound where he was their personal chef for twelve years. Join us on April 18th at 6:30 p.m. to sample some of Chef Connolly's treats. The Cape Cod Times recently interviewed Neil about cooking for the Kennedy clan and his new cookbook. Click this link to read the article.

Charlie Rose - Video Interview
with Thomas L. Friedman
Charlie Rose conducts some of the most enlightening and comprehensive interviews around. This link is for his interview with Thomas L. Friedman, author of the bestselling The World is Flat. In The World Is Flat, Friedman brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, he explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; how governments and societies can, and must, adapt; and why terrorists want to stand in the way. More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.