Pivotal Book Blog

One of the voices behind audio books

bronwynr — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:02:21 +0000

Bernadette Dunne
Bernadette Dunne has recorded more than 250 titles since her reading of Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha(Books on Tape, 1998) helped put her on the map. She’s voiced the works of everyone from actress Katharine Hepburn (Me: Stories of My Life) to National Book Award winner Richard Powers (The Echo Maker), for publishers including BBC Audiobooks America and Christian Audio. Her Audie Award-nominated narration of Elizabeth Cohen’s The House on Beartown Road (Blackstone Audio) was an L Best Audiobook of 2004. Librarian Ophelia Lo (Canton Public Library, MI) caught up with the Audie Award nominee for LJ’s Behind the Mike series.

How did you get your start as an audiobook narrator? Audiobook legend Flo Gibson gave me a job monitoring readers in her studio in the Washington, DC, area [in the late 1990s]. I had a golden opportunity to observe and learn from the best: Flo, Kate Reading, Grover Gardner, and Michael Russotto. » » »

Today’s must-read is a must for cricket fans

bronwynr — Thu, 21 May 2009 09:06:12 +0000

True colours

True colours. My life

By Adam Gilchrist

True Colours is his autobiography, and like the man himself it’s incomparable. With unflinching honesty, intelligence, compassion and humour, Adam takes you into the world of cricket that few outside of the Australian team have ever seen. From his early struggles to establish himself, through to the giant achievements of the Australian test and one-day sides, True Colours offers an extraordinary window on Adam, on cricket’s major stars and on the game itself.

Can you face reality reading on the beach?

bronwynr — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:08:30 +0000

(Photo: Hannah Whitaker/New York Magazine)

Could this be the summer we finally bury the notion that a beach read must be mindless to be fun? We find ourselves particularly drawn this season to nonfiction and a few realistic novels. Below, some of our top picks through July. Save August for Thomas Pynchon’s latest, Inherent Vice—“part noir, part psychedelic romp”—a mere 400 pages.

Today’s must-read is a collection of stories

bronwynr — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:08:00 +0000

Everything ravaged, everything burned

Everything ravaged, everything burned

by Wells Tower

The stories in this outstanding debut collection explore the troubled relationships of men down on their luck, in failed marriages, estranged from family, caught in imbroglios between sons and their fathers and stepfathers, and even, in Wild America, the subtle and ferocious competition between teenage girls.

Sydney Writers’ Festival The Big Read

bronwynr — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:16:12 +0000

Sydney Writers’ Festival The Big Read title for 2009 is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Arguably Fitzgerald’s finest work, this popular classic written in 1925 is often referred to as ‘the great American novel’ and the quintessential portrait of the Jazz Age, in all its decadence and excess.

To see how your Book Club can participate in The Big Read 2009 go to the Sydney Writers’ Festival website.

Read an extract

Today’s Must-read is an absorbing, addictive, dark thriller

bronwynr — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:20:42 +0000

The Girl who played with fire

by Steig Larsson

The thriller of the decade – Evene.fr. Warning – addictive thriller. All who taste it get hooked! – Pascale Frey, Elle.

When a writer delivers such a complex and fascinating portrayal like that of Lisbeth Salander all we can do is bow down in gratitude. It doesn’t get much better than this – Anders Wennberg, Gefle Dagblad.

… absorbing and exciting – highly recommended – The Literary Review.

National Black Book Festival Will Attract Wide Audience

bronwynr — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:16:20 +0000

Dozens of authors and thousands of readers will converge on Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center on May 16 and 17 for the National Black Book Festival.

Featured authors will include Roland S. Martin (Speak Brother! A Black Man’s View of America), Mary B. Morrison (Noire, Single Husbands) and Persia Walker (Harlem Redux, Darkness and the Devil Behind Me)

more …

Enter a different world in “Anathem” by Neal Stephenson

bronwynr — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:02:06 +0000

Anathem

by Neal Stephenson

Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world. ... more

Amazon price $19.97

Worst mothers in literature

bronwynr — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:01:35 +0000

If there is one person who personifies selflessness, un-wavering love and caring the first to come to mind should be your mother. She cradled you for your fist nine months and held your hand though all the challenges life could throw at you. Like with all true heroes books are littered with examples of hundreds of miracle moms from the classic Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter, who taught her daughter it’s not shameful to have pride in one’s self, to the more contemporary Mrs. Weasley the super poor super mom who took in Harry Potter like he was her own son.

However not all the mothers in literature come out smelling like roses. Abandonment, abuse, and adultery are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bottom of the barrel of fictional mothers. To help you forget that time your mom forgot your birthday BookFinder.com has compiled a list of the 10 worst mothers in fiction.

What to read next? – here is the answer

bronwynr — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:37:49 +0000

For the Reader’s Toolkit

I have been so disappointed in the last two books that I have read that I don’t want to spend any more time thinking about them – even the time to write a blog post. So I am going to alert you to a new tool that I discovered that may help you answer the perennial question: “What should I read next?”

What happens when you combine artificial intelligence with social networking (don’t stop reading – I promise that you won’t have to participate in any network)? The result is www.gnooks.com.