Tuesday, June 07, 2005

For Your Browsing Pleasure

  • Claire Tomalin will be live online tomorrow at the Guardian. If you can't make it you can email a question.
  • Lionel Shriver wins the Orange Prize for We Need to Talk About Kevin. I haven't read the book, though I've heard it was good even before she won. I find it kind of weird that she has a boy's name. Yeah, I know, women co-opt boys' names all the time, but Lionel? I'd think that would be one better left alone. (If your name is Lionel and you're a girl I'm sorry for making fun, but you have to admit, it is weird and since you've probably been teased a lot already you're used to it and my little poke is probably inconsequential)
  • A book that I'd like to get my mitts on, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, also won a prize
  • If you like George Orwell this new book sounds really interesting. I read both Animal Farm and 1984 when I was a teenager and liked them both. A few years ago I re-read 1984 and it was even creepier than it was the first time. I'm planning on reading Orwell's essays sometime but, well, let's just say the to-read book shelf currently has a large overflow pile on the corner of my desk. Someone needs to invent a device that will allow me to read while I sleep.
  • Finally, the Village Voice has some recommended beach reads