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The Royal Society’s prestigious annual science book prize has short listed six books for the science book prize. The award includes prize money of £10,000. The previous recipients of the award include names like
Bill Bryson, Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene. The shortlist was chosen by a team of jury headed by the Open University scientist and head of the destined Beagle 2 Mars probe, Colin Pillinger. The winner is to be announced on 15th of May.

The six contenders are:

Homo Britannicus
By Chris Stringer who is a professor at the Natural History Museum and one of Britain’s foremost experts on human origins.

In Search of Memory
By Eric R Kandel, a Kavli professor at Columbia University, New York. Recipient of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2000.

Lonesome George
By Henry Nicholls, writer for Nature and Science. A PhD in evolutionary ecology.

One in Three
By Adam Wishart, who is also a writer and television director.

Stumbling on Happiness
By Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University.

The Rough Guide to Climate Change
By Robert Henson, writes and edits for the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The winner would be difficult to choose as the list, on one hand includes authors like Eric Kandel, a Nobel prizewinner, whose memoir, In Search of Memory, traces the scientist’s career from childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna to his wide-ranging investigation of the psyche. In Homo Britannicus, Chris Stringer, describes the human invasion of Britain from the first steps of about 700,000 years ago.

Books like Robert Henson’s Rough Guide to Climate Change, and Henry Nicholls’s Lonesome George deals with environmental issues. Lonesome George unravels the tale of a 200lb giant tortoise, aged somewhere between 60 and 200. In Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel merges the latest scientific research, philosophy and case studies to give us a psychological analysis that examines and studies the never ending human quest to be happy and also its failure. Adam Wishart is also short listed for One in Three, the story of his father’s fight against cancer and his deal with the disease.

Source: Guardian

Image credit: Penguin/Amazon/Walmart/Amazon/Amazon/Amazon

The well known English poet and journalist James Fenton has been honored with the 2007 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.

Fenton, 57, is a former professor of poetry at Oxford University. He earned his B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1970. In 1994 he was appointed as a Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. Fenton is one of Britain’s best-known poets. Fenton has worked as a journalist, a poet, a literary critic and a professor. The medal will be given to him by Queen Elizabeth II herself, this summer.

The monarch’s gold medal was founded in 1933 by the queen’s grandfather, King George V. The prize does not carry any cash award with it. The medal is awarded only to the poets from Britain or the Commonwealth of its former colonies. The winner is chosen by a team of eminent scholars. The award is announced on April 23, which is believed to be the birthday of William Shakespeare.

His works

• Our Western Furniture (1968)
• Put Thou Thy Tears Into My Bottle (1969)
• Terminal Moraine
• The Memory of War
• Out of Danger
• Children in Exile: Poems 1968-1984 (1985)
• The Snap Revolution (1986)
• All the Wrong Places: Adrift in the Politics of the Pacific Rim (1988)
• Out of Danger (1994)
• Leonardo’s Nephew (1999)
• The Strength of Poetry (2001)
• An Introduction to English Poetry (2002)

Source: USAToday

Image Credit: JamesFenton

The orange prize for new writers also includes Clare Allan, an author who made out of a psychiatric hospital. Clare Allan, who had spent almost a decade in the mental health system, short listed for her debut novel ‘Poppy Shakespeare‘ which is based on her based personnel life and experiences.

Pakistan’s Roopa Farooki and Canadian Karen Connelly are also the nominees for the prize. The awards are to be announced in June. Allan has gained a degree of MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia after leaving hospital. Channel 4 has already secured the rights to Poppy Shakespeare, which also made in to the main list for the Orange Prize for fiction.

Farooki, who was born in Lahore and now lives in London, has been short listed for her debutant novel ‘Bitter Sweets’. She is a graduate from New College; Oxford. Connelly has been nominated for ‘The Lizard Cage’ which revolves around a Burmese protester who is sentenced to military confinement by the country’s government.So, next to you pick books for your personnel library, be sure you check them out!

Source: BBC

Image credit: Randomhouse/Amazon/Fantasticfiction

The long-awaited biography of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, written and compiled by Carl Bernstein, the investigative reporter of Watergate fame, will be released on June 19. A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a 650 page book. Knopf who also published Bill Clinton’s memoir, My Life, has announced the first printing to include some 350,000 copies.

The chairman and editor in chief of Alfred A, Knopf, Sonny Mehta said, ‘Hillary Clinton is one of the most compelling figures in the world today, and Carl Bernstein’s stunning portrait shows us, for the first time, the true trajectory of her life and career. I believe his book will stand as the most detailed, comprehensive, and revealing account we have of a woman who helped define one presidency and may well step into another.”

Several books are being written about Sen. Clinton, but what makes this particular book special is the Bernstein’s art of digging up information from the past. In 1970, he teamed up with Bob Woodward, as the Washington Post reporters and exposed the Watergate scandal which brought down President Nixon. The series of articles by them also won the the Pulitzer Prize. They worked together on two books, All the President’s Men and The Final Days, on President Nixon. Bernstein’s other books include His Holiness, a biography of Pope John Paul II, and Loyalties: A Son’s Memoir.

Knopf stated that the biography of Sen. Hillary will not leave anything. It will cover everything and anything from Clinton’s “complex relationship with her disciplinarian father” to “her courtship with Bill Clinton and the amazing dynamic of their marriage, during the most trying of circumstances and times.’

Bernstein has been working on this book from eight years during which he had interviewed more than 200 people. Bernstein’s book will arrive two months before another Clinton biography in row, which has been written by the New York Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta, Jr.

Source: USAToday

David Halberstam, the author who won Pulitzer Prize for his reports on the war was killed in a car crash yesterday. He was 73. Halberstam was a passenger in a car that was broadsided by another vehicle. The accident occurred around 10:30 a.m., in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco. Halberstam was declared dead at the scene, cause of death appearing to be internal injuries.

Halberstam was being driven from the University of California, Berkeley, where the author had given a speech about the craft of journalism and what it means to turn reporting into a work of history to an interview he had scheduled with Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle.

Jean Halberstam, his wife, said she would remember him for his “unending, bottomless generosity to young journalists.” She said that he was working on his new book, “The Game,” which dealt with the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, often remembered as the greatest game ever played.

Halberstam was born on April 10, 1934, to a surgeon father and teacher mother in New York City. His father was serving the military which led David to move around the country a lot. He attended the Harvard University, and was also the managing editor of the Harvard Crimson newspaper. He launched his career at the Daily Times Leader, a small newspaper after graduating from Harvard in 1955. In 1962 he went to Vietnam to cover the war crisis there for The New York Times. In 1963, he received the George Polk Award for his reporting at the New York Times. At the age of 30, in 1964 he won a Pulitzer Prize again for his reporting from Vietnam.

Sen. John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, who knew Halberstam from Nantucket said, ‘He was a brilliant journalist who set the standard during the war in Vietnam for courageous and accurate reporting. He was wonderful company, and I always learned something when I talked with him. I’m very sad to hear we’ve lost him.‘

In 1967, he quit daily journalism and took to writing. He authored 21 books covering diverse topics from the Vietnam War to the auto industry, from civil rights to baseball. His book “War in a Time of Peace’, a 2002 best-seller, was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

Authorities say the accident is still under investigation.

His books
• The Noblest Roman. (1961)
• The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy. (1968)
• The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era. (1965)
• One Very Hot Day. (1967)
• Ho. (1971)
• The Best and the Brightest. 1972)
• The Powers That Be. (1979)
• The Breaks of the Game. (1981)
• The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal. (1985)
• The Reckoning. (1986)
• Summer of ‘49. (1989)
• The Next Century. (1991)
• The Fifties. (1993)
• October 1964. (1994)
• The Children.(1999)
• Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made. (1999)
• War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals. (2001)
• Firehouse. (2002)
• The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship. (2003)
• Bill Belichick: The Education of a Coach. (2005)

Source:CNN/Time

Image credit:Walmart/Paulagordon

Lauren Baratz-Logsted has written several novels including How Nancy Drew Saved My Life. She is also the editor of the critically acclaimed This is Chick-Lit, a response to the collection This is NOT Chick-Lit. Lately, we conducted an email interview with her, which we’re presenting before you.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting to know more about Lauren, her books and her life.

1. You started writing when you were twelve, pretty young age huh! Can you please tell us a little about how you started and what sort of response are you getting now?

Lauren: When I was 12, through the positive response of my English teacher to my work, it first occurred to me that I might have stories to tell that people would want to hear. But it would be 20 years before I’d quit my day job at the age of 32 to take a chance on myself as a writer. It took nearly eight more years, with seven books written during that time, until I received my first offer from a publisher. But I’ve had seven books published since 2003, with more to come, so I guess for now the responses I’m getting are good.

2. From where do you get sufficient ideas for writing? Is it because of the atmosphere at home, since your spouse too is also into the same profession?

Lauren: It’s definitely nice that my husband, Greg Logsted, also writes. His first book, Sock Puppets in Love, will be released from Simon & Schuster sometime next year. Our seven-year-old daughter loves to write too, so it’s a great creative atmosphere here. But in terms of where I get ideas from, I always like to say that I see the world in 250- to 350-page chunks. A few times a year, I’ll be walking through my life, observing things, I’ll see something, and the Idea Fairy will alight on my shoulder, whispering, “Hmm, I think there’s a whole novel in that.”

3. What special efforts do you put together that make your readers incline to your work?

Lauren: I try to write stories that will make people laugh or feel some deep emotion or think. I try to tell stories that readers will find fresh on some level. I hope my readers will be entertained but I believe my readers are intelligent, that they don’t need to be hit over the head with everything.

4. What message do you want to convey through your writings, if any, or is it an outcome of your sheer passion to understand people and life? How has the ‘discovery’ been until now?

Lauren: While disguises and betrayal are two common themes running through my books, each book also has its own specific message. Some examples: The Thin Pink Line, about a Londoner who fakes an entire pregnancy, is also about how all too often in life we pursue things more because everyone else is doing it than as a result of clear thought; Vertigo, my Victorian erotic suspense novel about a society wife who becomes wrapped up in a heated correspondence with an imprisoned murderer, is also about being trapped in worlds not of our own making; Angel’s Choice, about a Yale-bound high school senior who gets pregnant, is also about learning to act rather than reacting to everything life serves up. As you can see, it’s always something different and I’m always discovering.

5. In your opinion, what is the best story that you have written? Is that piece your favorite?

Lauren: That’s funny, it’s a three-way tie between the books I mentioned in the last answer: The Thin Pink Line, because it has the most original plot; Vertigo, because the writing still pleases me in ways most of my writing doesn’t; Angel’s Choice, because the editor who bought it called it “an important book” - words I never imagined hearing about my writing, not in a million years.

6. Lauren, would you please name some of your all time favorite books/novels and authors too?

Lauren: All-time favorite: Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Other favorites: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald; Ahab’s Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund; The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Margaret George; About a Boy, Nick Hornby; Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte; nearly all of Shakespeare. Recent loves: This Human Season, Louise Dean; The Year of Fog, Michelle Richmond.

7. What do you do when you are not writing?

Lauren: Read a lot, enjoy my family a lot. Every now and Then I get to go out and shoot pool, and that makes me happy too.

8. Where do you see yourself after five years? I mean any dreams or plans, for the coming future?

Lauren: I hope I still have a career as a writer. I love what I do, I love writing in so many different areas - comedy, drama, adult, children’s books, stories, essays - and I only hope the market decides I’m one of the authors worth keeping. I’ll certainly try my best.

9. As a writer, what have been some of your most memorable experiences in the industry, good and bad? What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from your tryst with life?

Lauren: There are so many memories! Let’s see, for bad I think I’ll pick the time when I was about to turn in Crossing the Line to the publisher. It wasn’t saved to disk - I know! I’m crazy! - and I decided to do a global change, turning all the en dashes into em dashes to save their copyeditor the work. I don’t know what I did, but the screen blinked and my 350-page novel was reduced to one single nearly blank page with one single em dash on it, perfectly centered. Thank God I only panicked internally and didn’t touch anything. I just went outside and waited on the stoop for my technologically intelligent neighbor to come home from work. Then I begged him to please make my book come back. In terms of good, I’ll select something from my recent e-mailbag. A reader wrote of Vertigo that she was going through a really bad patch in life, then she picked up my book and it made the bad disappear for a while. I know I don’t write the most important books in the world, but making someone else’s life on this planet a little easier doesn’t seem like such a too-small thing. Oh, and then there was the letter in my e-mailbag, again concerning Vertigo, in which the writer asked if I could arrange for her to have sex with the prisoner, Chance Wood - now that was a fun letter. Finally, what have I learned? That life is incredibly short, even though it may not always seem so, and you have to pursue your dreams because - to the best of my knowledge - this isn’t a dress rehearsal.

10. Lauren, please share one thing that changed your life, if any?

Lauren: Getting pregnant with my daughter. In late spring of 1999, I’d been married nearly 10 years, during which time I’d never thought I’d be lucky enough to get pregnant. Then - poof! - I was pregnant. While home sick the first few months, the thought occurred to me, “What if some insane woman were making this whole thing up: the pregnancy, the complications, everything?” Thus was born The Thin Pink Line, the dark comedy about a woman who makes the whole thing up. It was the sixth novel I ever wrote and the first to sell to a publisher. So one surprise pregnancy gave my two miracles: my amazing daughter and my career.

11. What advice would you like to give to the budding authors?

Lauren: I always say the same thing to this question. Keep putting one writing foot in front of the other and always remember: the only person who can ever really take you out of the game is you.

Last but not the least, I would thank Lauren for sparing her valuable time with us, for the interview; also I’d like to wish her luck for her future endeavors.

The Diagram award for oddest book title of the year has gone to ‘The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification’ by Julian Montague. The book secured 1866 votes out of a total of more than 5500 votes. The second place was secured by the ‘Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan’, authored by Sharon Clott with 1365 votes and the third to come was the book named ‘Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence’ by David Benatar with 685 votes.

During the announcement of the winner, The Bookseller said: “Stray Shopping Carts joins a noble pantheon of Diagram winners, perhaps closest in spirit to those rural guides How To Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art (1989) and Weeds in a Changing World (1999)”. Amazon, the online retailer has described the winner as “one of the most complete and well thought-out works I have ever encountered”. Montague said he was surprised to have won the accolade.

Last year the award went to ‘People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About it’. This strange yet spirited competition has been running since 1978. The nominations are filed by the publishers, booksellers and librarians from around the world. The votes are caste online, the winners are chosen from the short listed books.

Source: News

Image credit: Esquire, Hnabooks and Bennettandbloom

‘The Camel Bookmobile’ may be a different for a novel, but if you read the book, you’ll find the title appropriate. The novel is written by Masha Hamilton and is inspired by an African library program, which has taken up a role and delivers books through camels to the nomadic tribes in Kenya.

The protagonist is an American woman, Fiona Sweeney, who wants to do something for others. And she decides to go to Africa and start a mobile library there. And she starts her library journey in northeastern Kenya, where tribes know nothing more then hunger, poverty and diseases. The library due to the small number of donated books, rules that if anyone fails to return the books, it would stop its functions there. The heroine of the novel during her work struggles amidst cultural clashes and a drastically changed social scenario. The library itself too faces a lot of problems as the people get divided into two sects; one favoring modernization, others fearing books as a tool that will destroy the traditional values. And the unexpected happens, as a young man-”Scar Boy”-refuses to return the books. The library stops its visits but Fiona starts to look for the things lost.

The camel bookmobile, in a way inspires us and shows that how even one person can change a lot many other lives. The nomadic and tribal culture is beautifully portrayed. The endless struggle and the ever fresh spirit of Africa and its people has been beautifully described. It is certainly a captivating saga.

Source: Harpercollins and USAtoday

After writing loads of song lyrics, Geri Halliwell is all set to write some children’s books. The former spice girl has signed a deal with Macmillan Children’s Books for writing a six part series. Her daughter, Bluebell Madonna, who is eleven months old, is no doubt her inspiration. The series will revolve around Ugenia Lavender, a 9-year-old protagonist.

Geri says, ‘Writing for me feels like home. I’ve always written - at school I loved writing stories and creating mini-worlds where anything can happen. As a Spice Girl I wrote lyrics for many of our hits and have continued to do so in my solo career’. C.S. Lewis, Enid Blyton and Oscar Wilde influence her. The publication of the collection will take place somewhere between May and October 2008.

Source: Celebrity Babies

Image credit: Clipland

William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770 - April 23, 1850) who is well known for his poetry launched the romantic age in English Literature. The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years is considered to be his best and classical work. Wordsworth was also the Poet Laureate of England from 1843 until his death.

Now, the king of romantic poems is again in news as a pop video and rap version is in the making on his famous poem on daffodils. The new Daffodil version was welcomed openly by the Wordsworth Trust. The spokeswoman for Cumbria tourist board said, ‘Wordsworth’s Daffodils poem has remained unchanged for 200 years, to keep it alive for another two centuries we want to engage the YouTube generation who go for modern music and amusing video footage on the web.” The rap does not feature any change in the meaning and substance of Daffodils but the terms or phrases have been changed somewhere. Here’s a sneak peek:

The original:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

The rap:
I wandered lonely along as if I was a cloud
That floats on high over vales and hills
When all at once I looked down and saw a crowd
And in my path there was a host of golden daffodils
So check it!
The kind of sight that puts your mind at ease
I saw beside the lake and beneath the trees...

Source: Guardian

Image credit: NNDB