LGBT challenge - Link for July reviews and prize draw

It’s July and the LGBT reading challenge 2011 continues!

This month, courtesy of Serpent's Tail, one of you will have the chance to win a copy of Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas.

To participate in the prize draw, all you have to do is:

• Read a book - fiction or non-fiction - whose author is LBGT, whose topic is LGBT and/or whose characters (even minor ones) are LGBT
• Share your review (or opinion, if it sounds less intimidating!) by clicking here

Easy, isn't it?

IMPORTANT! Please note that you need to have signed up for the challenge to be eligible for the prize draw. If you haven't signed up yet, you can do it here (full instructions here). If you can't remember whether you have or haven't signed up, you can check whether your name is listed here.

Happy reading!

"Italy in Books" - Link for July reviews and prize draw

It’s July and the “Italy in Books” reading challenge 2011 continues!

This month, courtesy of Hersilia Press, two of you will have the chance to win a copy of Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer by Luigi Guicciardi.

To participate in the prize draw, all you have to do is:

• Read a book set in Italy or about Italian culture & language
• Share your review (or opinion, if it sounds less intimidating!) by clicking here

Easy, isn't it?

IMPORTANT! Please note that you need to have signed up for the challenge to be eligible for the prize draw. If you haven't signed up yet, you can do it here (full instructions here). If you can't remember whether you have or haven't signed up, you can check whether your name is listed here.

Buona lettura!

LGBT challenge - June winner

5 book reviews this month!

Did you miss them? Don't worry, follow this link and catch up with all the bookish goodness!

And if you’ve just come across the LGBT reading challenge 2011, you can find all the information you need by clicking here. Joining couldn’t be easier!

And now, the long-awaited moment of the prize draw!

The lucky reviewer who, courtesy of Little Island, will receive a copy of Flick by Geraldine Meade is:

Lucy, who read and reviewed Carol by Patricia Highsmith.

"Italy in Books" - June winners

20 reviews: people seem to read more in summer!

Did you miss the reviews? Fear not, follow this link and catch up with all the bookish goodness! And if you’ve just come across the Italy in Books reading challenge 2011, you can find all the information you need by clicking here. Joining couldn’t be easier!

And now, the long-awaited moment of the prize draw!

The lucky reviewers who, courtesy of Constable & Robinson, will receive a copy of Roma by Steven Saylor are:

Dorla, who read and reviewed The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi & Juliet, who read and reviewed The Passion by Jeanette Winterson.

Help! My wish list #29

One more title from my ever-expanding reading wish list.

** The cover image is for illustrative purposes only. If you are a publisher and would kindly like to offer me a copy of this book for review, I will change the cover so as to reflect the edition received. **

Seven Days in the Art World
By Sarah Thornton

Amazon's product description: The art market is booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description and a kind of alternative religion for atheists. Art receives the sort of breathless media attention that was once reserved for celebrities and royals. But the art world is still opaque to outsiders. In Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton takes us on an unusual journey, exploring the most puzzling aspects of buying, selling, creating and exhibiting contemporary art. In a series of beautifully paced, fly-on-the-wall narratives, we witness the drama of a Christie's auction, the high jinks of Takashi Murakami's studios, life in a notorious art school seminar, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the back rooms of the Turner Prize and the watery wonderland of the Venice Biennale. Thornton's exceptional access never compromises her critical eye, making this book more than just a glancing survey or a simple gossipfest. Instead, she offers a rigorously researched and often funny account of the global marketplace-cum-playground of an ever-expanding number of artists, collectors, dealers, curators, and critics.

Why I want to read this book: I love art and this sounds like a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes...

Book review: Why Girls Are Weird

By Pamela Ribon

Reviewed by Natazzz

A few years ago I discovered the blog Pamie.com by writer Pamela Ribon, which I have been reading ever since. Here she shares personal accounts of her life as a writer, as well as what she gets up to in her spare time. The blog is quite popular and was already around ten years ago, when having a personal blog was still something unique. During those early years Ribon decided that her blog and the traffic it created might be an interesting topic for a novel and that's when Why Girls Are Weird was born.

Why Girls Are Weird (2003) tells the story of Anna Koval, who decides to start a personal blog. To make it more interesting, and mainly to entertain herself, she starts making things up. For example, that she is still together with her ex-boyfriend, whom she broke up with ages ago. Little does she realize that thousands and thousands of people are reading her blog every day, and believing her every word. She soon starts to receive tons of e-mails from her followers, whom she gets into complicated correspondence with. After all, it's not easy trying to remember what is her real life and what is her blog life. This only gets more complicated when she decides to meet a few of her readers, not to mention when her ex-boyfriend finds out she's been writing about him.

This novel is a collection of blog posts and e-mail correspondence, connected and brought to life by an accompanying story of Anna's daily life. I thought it made for a very interesting read. I love the different formats that were used, the general topic of the story behind one girl's blog and her online life versus her real life. It also helped a lot that both the Anna in the blog and the Anna behind the scenes are interesting, funny characters. She gets up to lots of stuff that seemed very recognizable. Not that I have ever made up a blog and spread lies about people, but some of the things she worries about and the trouble she gets into because of her blog are things that anyone can relate to.

After reading this novel I haven't figured out just exactly why girls are weird, although weird is a label that can certainly be applied to the main character. If you are looking for a modern themed novel, that will make you laugh as well as cringe, you should definitely check this one out.

My favourite quotes

We need only observe that, however vast any person’s basic reading may be, there still remain an enormous number of fundamental works that he has not read.

From the essay "Why Read the Classics?" by Italo Calvino

What are your favourite quotes? Send them in and I'll share them with the readers of Book After Book!