I'm baaaack.

Yes, yes I've been neglecting the blog. So sue me. Or cut my blog pay in half. Does that feel better? Besides you should really use this blog the same way I do -- as a handy set of links to the more responsible bloggers in the blogroll. That said, I have been reading -- quite a bit. Not as much as I hoped over the Thanksgiving break, but something. I read "The Last Queen," a historical novel about Juana of Spain, sometimes referred to as Juana the Mad, known to us devotees of Tudor Trash as the older sister of Katharine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. It wasn't great art but it was a good read and provided a plausible explanation for why she never really inherited the throne she should have inherited.

But the best reading I've done recently has all been set in the 19th century -- The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue, another work of historical fiction using real people as characters. The novel centers on a scandalous divorce and it pulls off a nice trick -- multiple perspectives, all of them plausibly providing the individual characters' motives and feelings.

The Sealed Letter is in the collection at the FKCC Library and they've got it at the Monroe County Library too.

The other thing I've been doing is Christmas shopping and this year I'm trying to do as much as possible at my local independent bookstore, Voltaire Books. I'm sure Amazon will get some traffic in my family -- those wishlists are awfully handy for faraway relatives -- but these days anything we can do to keep the remaining indies with us is well worth it.

It's Book Fair Time!!!!

Yes, it's that time of year -- Miami Book Fair time! I don't make it to this event every year but I always regret it when I don't. For avid readers, it's an amazing opportunity to hear all kinds of writers, including old favorites and new discoveries, live and in person and at an insanely reasonable cost -- it used to be free; now they charge a whopping $5 for the whole weekend. Sure, there's the cost of getting to Miami for us outlanders but gas has come way down (thanks, global recession!) and I, at least, have no shame in freeloading off friends for the sake of great literary access. Now if only I can keep the book purchases to a bare minimum ...

New this year is a requirement to order tickets ahead of time for all events in the Chapman auditorium -- you can find out about that and lots more at the Book Fair website, above.

Historical fiction ... it's hot!

This year's National Book Award nominees have been announced -- and an astounding three out of five in the fiction category are panelists who will be appearing at the Key West Literary Seminar in January. Wow. Peter Mathiessen, Marilynne Robinson and relative newcomer Rachel Kushner all made the short list. That's impressive. And there are still spots open in the second all-star weekend, so check it out. In other KWLS-related news, check out Littoral, the seminar's blog, if you don't already do so. Arlo Haskell has managed to do what many have tried and none fully pulled off before: he's publishing a high-quality Key West-centered literary journal. Single-handed. The web is a good thing, at least when it's being used for good and not to propagate thinly veiled racist political slander.

Update: Even as I was writing the above post, the New York Times' excellent book blog, Paper Cuts, was linking to Littoral. Yea Arlo! Yea Key West! We're in the big time now.

Red Sox Quote of the Day, vol. 6 (Please Dice-K, Please! Edition)

This is from a nice tribute to Red Sox manager Tito Francona from a former player, Doug Glanville, in a New York Times op-ed piece. The nice guy may not finish first this year but he's certainly turned things around at Fenway ... and it's nice to see the Sox finally achieve success this way, as opposed to some of the other options out there. "It is rare to find a “players’ manager” who could also outmanage the best tacticians of the game. He could and did, by sweeping Tony LaRussa and the Cardinals in the 2004 World Series. LaRussa is renowned for his managerial prowess and cutting-edge techniques, but Francona was a step ahead of him. He had figured out a way to combine chalkboard expertise with his innate feel for people."

Red Sox Quote of the Day, vol. 5 (not panicking yet edition)

"Somebody was going to be down, 2-1," said Mark Kotsay, who had two of the Sox' seven hits. "This team has got a lot of character. I don't think anybody in here is in a panic mode or worried. We're at home. We'll come out tomorrow and play hard and hopefully tie this back up." -- as quoted by Amalie Benjamin in today's Globe. Good attitude, dude. Now make it so.