RSS 2.0 FeedTHE BEST OF THE BEST 2010
Sat, Jan 01, 2011
Once again, we are proud to ring in the new year with the very best of the previous year's listening.
Cover Story
Columns : EDITOR'S PICK OF THE MONTH
Young Adult/Children's
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
SoundCommentary is a Review Source on the Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database, www.childrenslit.com.
*South Wind Through the Kitchen by Elizabeth David
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Brit Elizabeth David lived and kept house in France, Italy, Greece, Egypt and India, learning the local dishes and cooking them in her own kitchens. Her first book, Mediterranean Food, appeared in 1950. In 1951 French Country Cooking was published and in 1954, after a year of research in Italy, Italian Food. This was followed by Summer Cooking (1955), French Provincial Cooking (1960) and Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen (1970). In 1973 Mrs David severed all connection with the business trading under her name and concentrated on study and experiment for English Bread and Yeast Cookery, for which she won the 1977 Glenfiddich Writer of the Year Award. An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, a selection of her journalistic work, was published in 1984 and Harvest of the Cold Months, her book on the use of ice and the making of ices was edited by Jill Norman and published posthumously in 1994. She was honoured with many prizes, made Chevalier de l'Ordre du Merite Agricole by the French in 1977, awarded the OBE in 1976 and the CBE in 1986. Honorary doctorates were conferred on her by the universities of Essex and Bristol. In 1982 she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She died on 22 May 1992.
*I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Nora Ephron is the author I Feel Bad About My Neck as well as Heartburn, Crazy Salad, Wallflower at the Orgy, and Scribble Scribble. She recently wrote and directed the hit movie Julie & Julia and has received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally . . . , Silkwood, and Sleepless in Seattle, which she also directed. Her other credits include the script for the current stage hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore with Delia Ephron. She lives in New York City with her husband, writer Nicholas Pileggi.
*Sourland by Joyce Carol Oates
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys; Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestseller The Falls, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. In 2003 she received the Commonwealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature, and in 2006 she received the Chicago Tribune Lifetime Achievement Award.
Featured Stories
Confucius in a Nutshell by Neal Wenborn
Sat, Jan 02, 2010
Neil Wenborn is a full-time writer and publishing consultant. He is the author of several biographies and is co-editor of the highly respected History Today Companion to British History.
Lost Empire by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Clive Cussler is the author of many New York Times bestsellers, most recently The Silent Sea and The Spy. He lives in Arizona. Grant Blackwood, a U.S. Navy veteran, spent three years aboard a guided-missile frigate as an operations specialist and pilot-rescue swimmer. The author of the Briggs Tanner series, Blackwood is the coauthor of Spartan Gold. He lives in Colorado.
The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
JIM GORANT has worked as a magazine editor and writer for twenty years and is currently a senior editor at Sports Illustrated. His work has appeared in such magazines as Men's Health, GQ, and Outside. He is also the author of Fanatic: 10 Things All Sports Fans Should Do Before They Die.
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born in central Russia. After serving in the Crimean War, he retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. He wrote two of the great novels of the nineteenth century, War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
Room by Emma Donoghue
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the bestselling Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Landing, Life Mask, Hood, and Stirfry.Her story collections are The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Kissing the Witch, and Touchy Subjects. She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio. She lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two small children. For more information, go to www.emmadonoghue.com.
Meditation: The Buddhist Way by Jinananda
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Jinananda was born in Bedford, England. He has written The Middle Way-The Story of Buddhism and karma and Rebirth-In a Nutshell for Naxos Audiobooks. He has taught meditation and Buddhism since 1987 and has been the Chairman of the West London Buddhist Centre since 2005.
The Ivory Dagger by Patricia Wentworth
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Patricia Wentworth was born in India and after writing several romances turned her hand to crime. She wrote dozens of bestselling mysteries before her death in the late Sixties, and was recognised as one of the mistresses of classic crime fiction.
Exploration Fawcetrt: Journey to the Lost City of Z by Lt. Col. P.H. Fawcett
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was born in 1867 in Devon, England. At the age of nineteen he was given a commission in the Royal Artillery. He served in Ceylon for several years where he met and married his wife. Later he performed secret service work in North Africa. Fawcett found himself bored with Army life and learned the art of surveying, hoping to land a more interesting job. Then in 1906 came the offer from the Society: His ticket to adventure
Blind Descent by James M. Tabor
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
James M. Tabor’s last book was the internationally award-winning Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering’s Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters. The writer and on-camera host of the acclaimed national PBS series The Great Outdoors, Tabor was also co-creator and executive producer for the 2007 History Channel special Journey to the Center of the World. Tabor is a former contributing editor to Outside magazine and Ski Magazine; his writing has also appeared in Time, Smithsonian, Barron’s, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many other national publications.
The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Andrea Camilleri is an internationally bestselling author. He lives in Rome. Stephen Sartarelli is an award-winning translator and poet. He lives in France.
* The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
WALLACE STEGNER (1903-1993) was the author of many books of fiction and non-fiction, including the National Book Award-winning The Spectator Bird (1976) and Crossing to Safety. Angle of Repose won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971.
*Turbulence by Giles Foden
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Giles Foden was born in 1967 in England and spent his youth in Malawi. Between 1990 and 2006 he worked as an editor at The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. His 1998 book,The Last King of Scotland, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was later made into a feature film. His second novel, Ladysmith, is set in South Africa during the Boer War. He is a journalist, contributing regularly to the Guardian and book review editor for Conde Nast Traveller Magazine.
The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics.
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His debut novel, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. His second novel, Absurdistan, was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, as well as a best book of the year by Time, The Washington Post Book World, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and many other publications. He has been selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, and Travel + Leisure and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in New York City.
*Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
David Sedaris is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Public Radio International's This American Life. He is the author of the books When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, and Barrel Fever.
Lover Mine by J. R., Ward
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
J.R. Ward is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. She lives in the South with her husband.
*The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by Davi d Mitchell
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
David Mitchell is one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 2003. His first novel, Ghostwritten, won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and his second, number9dream, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lives in Herefordshire, England.
*The Enchanter by Vladimir Nabokov
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
The Enchanter is the last novel that Vladimir Nabokov wrote in his native language. It contains themes found in his more mature and better known fiction.
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Philippa Gregory is the author of several New York Times bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen’s Fool, The Virgin’s Lover, The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Other Queen, and now The Cousins’ War books which include The White Queen and The Red Queen. She lives in England.
*Ceremonies in Dark Old Men by Lonne Elder III
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Actor/playwright Lonne Elder III died in 1996. This is his best known work.
*The Dark Age by Traci Harding
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Australian novelist Traci Harding has ten books published, including two complete trilogies - The Ancient Future trilogy and The Celestial Triad. The Alchemist's Key is a stand-alone book published in 1999 while Ghostwriting is a collection of 6 haunting tales.
The Garden of Betrayal by Lee Vance
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Lee Vance is a graduate of Harvard Business School and a retired general partner of Goldman Sachs Group. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Will Adams worked as a shop salesman, painter & decorator, warehouse porter and microfiche technician, before joining a Washington DC-based firm of business history consultants. He wrote a series of corporate histories and biographies for them, taking time off between projects to travel in search of exotic settings for his stories. More recently, he worked for a London communications agency, but he now concentrates on writing fiction full-time. He lives in Essex, England.
They're Watching by Gregg Hurwitz
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
GREGG HURWITZ is the author of several novels, including Trust No One, and has been a finalist for the ITW Best Novel and the Ian Fleming Gold Dagger. He lives in Los Angeles.
The Valcourt Heiress by Catherine Coulter
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Catherine Coulter is the author of the New York Times-bestselling FBI thrillers The Cove, The Maze, The Target, The Edge, Riptide, Hemlock Bay, Eleventh Hour, Blindside, Blowout, Point Blank, Double Take, TailSpin, KnockOut, and Whiplash. She lives in northern California.
Romancing Miss Bronte by Juliet Gael
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Juliet Gael was raised in the Midwest and obtained her M.A. in French literature before pursuing graduate film studies at USC and English literature at UCLA. She has lived abroad for more than fifteen years, primarily in Paris, where she worked as a screenwriter. She now makes her home in Florence, Italy.
Dark is the Moon by Ian Irvine
Fri, Jan 01, 2010
Ian Irvine is a marine scientist who has developed some of Australia's national guidelines for the protection of the oceanic environment, as well as an author of bestselling fantasy novels and futuristic eco-thrillers. Check out his website: www.ian-irvine.com
The Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Thu, Jan 01, 2009
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) was the author of more than sixty books, including the immensely popular Tarzan adventures.