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This is the Nashville writer’s fourth novel, and her first to win major awards (the PEN/Faulkner and the Orange Prize for fiction). The president of an impoverished South American country, beset by internal crises and the constant threat of coup d'etat, hosts a dinner party for various...

Following his death in a car crash last year, sweeping critical acclaim for his final novel (Austerlitz) and now the release of his last work, a 128 page poem (After Nature), mean that WG Sebald joins the ranks of countless other writers by achieving fame posthumously. Not that he ever courted...

During all police investigations it is necessary to visit a strip club. Most dogs are immortal. If being chased through town, you may take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade at any time of the year. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French Bread...

The books that we are exposed to as kids have a great effect on how we perceive writing – especially fiction – as adults; our tastes, our fancies, our little quirks. If our interest is not piqued at an early age, it’s very possible that we will never read for pleasure. Obviously, the people...

Another new member - and we are remiss in saying Hello. So, hello. Your cp reads a bit like mine would if I'd written it. Well... apart from the age, and the location, and the job. (Basically, it's very different, isn't it? I do work out like it's going out of fashion, though.)...

I've been having a look at several movie-related discussion sites, and none of them seem to get even halfway into the ideas that the Coen Bros really present - from "Hey, wow, I love these guys" to "God, why can't they make a decent movie?". There's not just not a single glimpse of what they're...

I've been thinking that one reason why some new members refrain from posting is that they may feel The Book Forum is a bit... well, insular. That said, I'd like to welcome the latest registered member - Gracewings - and put him/her slightly on the spot. There's no right or wrong answer...

I've started this kind of thread elsewhere on the Net, and it's usually yielded interesting results. So - what's a good soundtrack to read something by? This will mainly depend on what you're reading, of course. Many people will choose silence, but let's see what kind of responses we get...

Not terribly literary - and very OT - but is anyone else interested in the World Cup this year? I tend to take a very disinterested approach to football generally, but I do get into the World Cup when it rolls around. This is less to do with the actual sport, and more to do with the fact...

Wow. What was all that about, then? I go away for a few days and all Hell breaks loose. Then the flames burn out – or, more accurately, get doused – and nothing happens for ages. And now the survivors stand up, dust themselves off, and go back to work. Wish I’d been at ground zero...

Lurkers and very occasional users of the world unite! ... and have good cake on their birthdays, too. Tobytook

This will be my own next buy, out in paperback in the UK on June 5th. (It was released in America last month.) As I've said before, elsewhere in The Forum, Irving is about as close to a modern Charles Dickens as it gets. Sometimes that can be a good thing, and sometimes not. Recently...

As Dawn appears to have opened the floodgates for this kind of thing, I'll add my own modest torrent: A helpful family member managed to format my C Drive some time ago, so I had to reinstall Windows (I’m using '95 - no hilarious Stone Age comments, please; it's [ahem!] a financial...

This just hit me, leaning back as I was, having a look around the shelves and counting up the non-fiction books. What about books like On The Road - well, pretty much all of Kerouac's oeuvre - and others in that vein. Autobiographies and biographies that are (in some part) fictionalised, or...

A fittingly weighty piece of news to get this section of The Book Forum going. A hoo-hah blew up in UK literary circles this week about the future of the Booker Prize. (For users not familiar with the Booker, just think Pulitzer and dress it in Commonwealth clothes.) Following the...

Saturday birthday - very cool, no work. (Well, I assume not.) Enjoy the day. If you fancy, maybe you'll come out of the shadows and join us on the boards? By the way: like your bio, mate. How does one go about gardening children and dogs? Sounds like fun. Tobytook

One for Darren, I think: Any projected launch date for the Reviews facility? I periodically click on it from the Homepage but thus far I've been presented with the "coming soon" message. And to open the thread up to everyone: Let's get a show of hands as to how many would actually post...

Here's one for non-UK residents. The forum software displays GMT but the UK still practices Daylight Saving (i.e putting the clocks forward and back at the beginning and end of the summer). At the moment, then, we're an hour in front of "Forum time". Of course, users in other countries...

What's the opposite of pommie? Ozzie? Aussie? I don't know, whatever! (Do Australians really say "pommie", by the way, or is that as old as British people calling Americans "yanks"?) Happy birthday. A teacher, eh? Just like I used to be. Perhaps it's easier if you're younger...