Le Guin Wins Another Nebula Award

Portland's own treasure, Ursula K. Le Guin, was awarded a Nebula Award for best novel of 2008 on Saturday, April 25th, for the book Powers, the third book of The Annals of the Western Shore saga (following Gifts, Voices). The Nebula Awards® are annual awards presented by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to celebrate excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing.

In Powers, a young slave named Gav finds that he has amazing powers of recollection: he can remember a page of text after seeing it only once, and sometimes, he can even "remember" things that haven't happened yet. Gav's world is turned brutally upside-down when his sister is killed by a member of the household he has been taught to trust, and, blinded by sorrow, he runs away from the only world he has ever known, embarking on a journey of transformation and discovery.

Ursula Kroeber was born in 1929 in Berkeley, California, where she grew up. She went to Radcliffe College and did graduate work at Columbia University. She married Charles A. Le Guin, a historian, in Paris in 1953; they have lived in Portland, Oregon, since 1958. Ursula K. Le Guin writes both poetry and prose, and in various modes including realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy, young children's books, books for young adults, screenplays, essays, verbal texts for musicians, and voicetexts. She has published seven books of poetry, twenty-two novels, more than a hundred short stories (collected in eleven volumes), four collections of essays, twelve books for children, and four volumes of translation. Few American writers have done work of such high quality in so many forms.

Most of Le Guin's major titles have remained continuously in print, some for more forty years. Her best known fantasy works, the six Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in America and England, and have been translated into sixteen languages. Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered epoch-making in the field for its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity. Her novels The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home redefine the scope and style of utopian fiction, while the realistic stories of a small Oregon beach town in Searoad show her permanent sympathy with the ordinary griefs of ordinary people.

Three of Le Guin's books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and among the many honors her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, SFWA's Grand Master, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award.

Cold Beer on Warm Days

Yesterday was deliciously sunny and warm, and you know what that made me think about: tall cold mugs of beer. Mmmmmm. And that made me think about the new novel by Tom Robbins. Why would that be, you might ask. Because his new book, his first novel since 2003, is called B is for Beer. His editor describes it as a "hallucinogenic hymn to beer, children, and the cosmic mysteries that sustain us all." It's a small tome -- just over 100 pages -- and is subtitled A Children's Book for Grown-ups, A Grown-up Book for Children.

At the book's launch party, Robbins thanked the crowd for coming to "what amounts to just another typical children’s book about beer.” Hmmmm. Can't say that I've run across a lot of those in my book career. “There’s no such thing as a bad beer, but there are bad beer drinkers,” he said. In B Is for Beer, he didn’t just want to explain the history of beer to his audience, he also wanted to explore the mystery and wonder of it, its sociological implications, and the way alcohol can be used to “rearrange the furniture of the brain,” and its ability to occasionally “elevate conversation” despite alcohol’s limitations.

The book offers a Beer Fairy and beautiful language. Robbins writes that Seattle’s drizzle is a “soft rain that could be mistaken for a mean case of witch measles,” and leaves “a damp gray rash on everything, as though the city were a baby that had been left too long in a wet diaper and then rolled in newspaper.” This is what the back cover of the book has to say:

"Once upon a time (right about now) there was a planet (how about this one?) whose inhabitants consumed thirty-six billion gallons of beer each year (it's a fact, you can Google it). Among those affected, each in his or her own way, by all the bubbles, burps, and foam, was a smart, wide-eyed, adventurous kindergartner named Gracie; her distracted mommy; her insensitive dad; her non-conformist uncle; and a magical, butt-kicking intruder from a world within our world. Populated by the aforementioned characters—and as charming as it may be subversive—B Is for Beer involves readers, young and old, in a surprising, far-reaching investigation into the limits of reality, the transformative powers of children, and, of course, the ultimate meaning of a tall, cold brewski."

In an interview several years ago, Robbins told of a review of one of his books in the New York Times in which the writer said something like, "Robbins needs to make up his mind between whether he wants to be funny or serious." And he remembers thinking "I'll make my mind up when God makes up his."

Robbins, who has lived in La Conner, Washington, since 1970, is the author of Another Roadside Attraction, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and Still Life with Woodpecker, among other works of fiction.

International "Buy Indie" Day

Happy May Day! Besides being May Day, today is also International "Buy Indie" Day, the day everyone is encouraged to go to one of their local independent bookstores and buy at least one book -- paperback, hardback, audiobook, whatever works for you! "Buy Indie" Day was started by Joseph Finder, an author and writer who is tired of seeing his local independent bookstores go out of business.

We'd love to see you at Broadway Books to celebrate "Buy Indie" Day. Roberta is there this morning, and I'll be there this afternoon until 7 pm. Come on down and see us! We both love to talk books, so if you want a recommendation on something to read for yourself, or for a gift, just ask. There are so many incredibly wonderful new books arriving at the store each day this time of year it's hard even for us to keep up -- but we try!. And just like I think we should all try to make Earth Day every day, I'm not opposed to "Buy Indie" Day happening more than once a year. ☺

A President Who Reads Serious Novels??

Want to read what our president is reading? In a recent interview, President Obama mentioned that briefing notebooks are beginning to wear on him, so in the evenings he has started reading the novel Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill. The book was named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times last year -- in fact, one of the paper's reviewer described it as stunning, "with echoes of The Great Gatsby. Wow. Another called it "the wittiest, angriest, most exacting, and most desolate work of fiction we've yet had about life in New York and London after the World Trade Center fell." O'Neill writes regularly for The Atlantic Monthly and has written two previous novels and a family history. Join President Obama and stop by Broadway Books to pick up your own copy! Maybe you can chat about it with him next time he's in town.

Last Chance for Half-Priced Poetry!

Yes, it's true. Today is the last day of April, which means it's also the final day of our annual Let's Get Potty for Poetry sale. Just to remind you: when you buy one book of poetry at regular price, you can buy a second book of poetry (of equal or lesser price) at a 50% discount! If you buy two books, you can buy two at half price, three gets you three, and so on. Doesn't this sunny blue-sky day just make you feel like sitting outside reading poetry? I know it does me! In fact, I think a little Nikki Giovanni is just what I'm in the mood for. Join me? We have lots more to choose from -- including the books from both Matthew and Michael Dickman, the Portland poet sensations. This sale won't come around again for another year, so don't let the day slip away without restocking your poetry shelves.

John Daniel Reading Tonight!

We hope you can join us at Broadway Books tonight to hear John Daniel read from his new collection of essays, The Far Corner: Northwest Views on Land, Life, and Literature. John is one of my favorite writers, and an all-around terrific person, so you're surely in for a good time tonight. Signed copies of The Far Corner (and Rogue River Journal) would make great gifts for friends and relatives. [And you can go next door after the reading to catch the end of the Blazer game on their flat-screen TVs. It's really too much for the poor old ticker to watch the entire game and all of that crappy officiating!]

Picture Book Hall of Fame

After more than four weeks of voting by booksellers at independent bookstores across the country, the American Booksellers Association recently announced the first three inductees to the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame. Here are the 2009 inductees:

• Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
• Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey
• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, by Mo Willems

The ten other finalists who were not selected for induction this year will appear on the Hall of Fame ballots for 2010, along with additional titles selected by next year's jury. Here are those ten finalists:

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault and Lois Ehlert
• Corduroy, by Don Freeman
• Curious George, by H.A. Rey
• Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann
• The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper
• Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Napping House, by Audrey Wood
• Stellaluna, by Janelle Cannon
• The Story of Ferdinand the Bull, by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson

As the daughter of a former elementary school librarian, I've always had a serious fondness for picture books, and I'm a fan of most of the books on these two lists. Some of my other favorite picture books include Officer Buckle and Gloria (Peggy Rathmann), all of the Olivia books (Ian Falconer), and the books by Jon Muth. And I could go on and on; it's so hard to narrow my list of favorites in this category.

Congratulations to this year's inductees!