Newly Discovered Mozart Work Premiers in Austria

A recently discovered 18th-Century keyboard work believed to be one of the earliest by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had its premier performance in Austria by Florian Birsak on a harpsichord in the Salzburg Residenz.


The piece is about two minutes long and bears the title Allegro di Wolfgango Mozart. It was found in a volume of anonymous manuscripts given to Salzburg Archdiocese archivist Ernst Hintermaier, Austrian media report.

The discovery came in the 250th anniversary year of Mozart's birth, which was marked by festivities in his homeland and Mozart concerts worldwide. The reports did not name the person who donated them.

Mozart (1756-1791) was a child prodigy, composing his first symphony before the age of 10 and his first successful opera by the age of 12. Experts believe the newfound piece was written when he was between the ages of 6 and 10.

Before his early death he had created hundreds of solo and orchestral pieces, inspiring the many other composers, including Beethoven and Wagner.

We have the video "Amadeus", starring Tom Hulce as the tortured genius and F. Murray Abraham as his nemesis, which brought Mozart's music back into the limelight.

JWilbooks

Greatest Science Advances of 2006

Maths solution tops science class

By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News

A solution to one of the most difficult problems in mathematics was the most important advance of 2006, according to the prestigious journal Science.

Grigory Perelman's proof of the century-old Poincare Conjecture has caused a sensation, and not just because of the brilliance of the work.

In August, the Russian became the first person to turn down a Fields Medal, the highest honour in mathematics.

He also seems likely to turn down a $1m prize offered by a US maths institute.

Dr Perelman is said to despise self-promotion and describes himself as isolated from the rest of the mathematical community.

The best piece of mathematics we have seen in the last 10 years Terence Tao, UCLA

But his work has set the field alight with excitement - and controversy.

Terence Tao, professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, called Perelman's result "the best piece of mathematics we have seen in the last 10 years".

Timofey Shilkin, a former colleague of Perelman at the Steklov Mathematics Institute in St Petersburg, Russia, told BBC News: "He definitely deserves the Fields Medal - that is my personal opinion. I am completely sure he is a genius."

'Excellent mathematician'

He added: "I'm afraid he is quite a self-enclosed person. We know about him approximately the same as you know - not too much.

"I met him when he was a member of our group and our contacts were about once a week, but we had only short discussions.

"I know nothing about his personal life; I know only that he is an excellent mathematician."

The reclusive Dr Perelman left the Steklov Institute in January, and was last said to be unemployed and living with his mother in her apartment in St Petersburg.

For several years he worked, for the most part, alone on the Poincare Conjecture. Then, in 2002, he posted on the internet the first of three papers outlining a proof of the problem.

The Poincare is a central question in topology, the study of the geometrical properties of objects that do not change when they are stretched, distorted or shrunk.

The surface of the Earth is what topology describes as a two-dimensional sphere. If one were to encircle it with a lasso of string, it could be pulled tight to a point.

On the surface of a doughnut, however, a lasso passing through the hole in the centre cannot be shrunk to a point without cutting through the surface.

Checking the work

Since the 19th Century, mathematicians have known that the sphere is the only enclosed two-dimensional space with this property; but they were uncertain about objects with more dimensions.

The Poincare Conjecture says that a three-dimensional sphere is the only enclosed three-dimensional space with no holes.

Proof of the Conjecture eluded mathematicians until Perelman posted his work on the website arXiv.org.

This is a so-called pre-print server, where researchers upload study papers for informal feedback before they submit them to a peer-reviewed journal.

Feuding within the mathematical community now threatens to overshadow Dr Perelman's achievement.

The Russian had detailed a way to kick down the roadblock that had stymied a solution to the problem. It was then up to others to check his proof.

It was at this stage of the process - when mathematicians pored over Perelman's work to assess its accuracy - that much bad feeling started to rise to the surface.

'Complete proof'

In 2005, a Chinese team consisting of Huai-Dong Cao of Lehigh University and Xi-Ping Zhu of Zhongshan University published what they claimed was "the first written account of a complete proof of the Poincare Conjecture".

Cao and Zhu took on the task of checking Perelman's proof at the behest of their mentor Shing-Tung Yau, a Chinese-born professor of mathematics at Harvard University, US.

Shortly after the Cao-Zhu paper was published, Professor Yau gave a speech in which he was reported as having said: "In Perelman's work, many key ideas of proofs are sketched or outlined, but complete details of the proofs are often missing."

This drew the ire of others in the field, who said that Yau's promotion of his proteges' work went too far.

In a rare interview, Perelman told the New Yorker magazine: "It is not clear to me what new contribution did they make."

However, speaking to the New York Times newspaper in October, Professor Yau denied having said there were gaps in Dr Perelman's work.

Science magazine also named its "breakdown" of the year: the scandal involving South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk, whose report of the production of stem cells from a cloned human embryo was found to have been faked.

Science magazine's breakthroughs of 2006

• 1. The Poincare Conjecture . Reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman apparently solved the venerable mathematical problem.
• 2. Digging out fossil DNA . Researchers used new techniques to sequence more than one million bases of nuclear DNA from a Neanderthal.
• 3. Shrinking Ice . Glaciologists discovered that the world's two great ice sheets were indeed losing water to the oceans - at an accelerating pace.
• 4. From sea to land . Details emerged of a 375-million-year-old fish that fills an evolutionary gap between sea creatures and land animals.
• 5. The Ultimate Camouflage . A British-American team built a "metamaterials" cloaking device, that rendered an object invisible to microwaves.
• 6. Ray of Hope . Clinical trials show the drug ranizumab improved the vision of about one-third of patients with an age-related condition that causes degeneration in vision.
• 7. The road to speciation . Studies on the fruit fly and on butterflies aided our understanding of how species arise.
• 8. Beyond the light barrier . New microscopy techniques allowed biologists to get a clearer view of the fine structure of cells and proteins.
• 9. The Persistence of Memory . Neuroscientists provided insights into how the brain records new memories.
• 10. Small molecules . Researchers reported a new class of small RNA molecules that shut down gene expression.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/6201373.stm

Published: 2006/12/21 22:39:53 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Favorite Stars Based on Searches on Internet Movie Data Base

Internet Movie Database Releases Favorite Stars Searches of 2006

1. Johnny Depp
2. Angelina Jolie
3. Jessica Alba
4. Brad Pitt
5. Scarlett Johansson
6. Keira Knightly
7. Lindsay Lohan
8. Tom Cruse
9. Paris Hilton
10. Natalie Portman
l l. Jennifer Anniston
12. Rachel Adams
13. Christian Bale
14. Kate Beckinsale
15. Hilary Duff
16. Emma Watson
17. Jake Gyllenhaal
18. Orlando Bloom
19. Zac Efron
20. Tom Hanks
21. Heath Ledger
22. Daniel Radcliff
23. Bruce Willis
24. Reese Witherspoon
25. Kirsten Dunst

These are results from the actual search behavior of over 42 million fans, aggregated weekly.

"Love In the Time Of Cholera " Comes to the Screen

The first English-language adaptation of Love In the Time of Cholera, the story of a very long courtship in 1900's South America by Nobel Prize-Winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is in filming. The author had long resisted having any of his books made into movies because of his fear that Hollywood would not stay true to his material.

Independent producer Scott Steindorff wheedled the 78-year old author for more than two years to change his mind, ignoring the advice of much of Hollywood and even García Márquez's own agent in Spain, who believed that the famously cantankerous author would never sell.

His perseverance paid off. He earned the privilege of writing a $3 million check.

To guard against a sugarcoated screen version, Steindorff's Stone Village Pictures hired the sure-handed Mike Newell, who, even though he'd never been to South America, said he was accustomed "to traveling to strange places: Los Angeles."

Cast in the lead roles of Fermina and Florentino, whose courtship closely resembles the real-life saga of García Márquez's parents, are two acclaimed actors largely unknown to American audiences: Spain's Javier Bardem and Giovanna Mezzogiorno from Italy.

García Márquez succumbed to Steindorff's pressure, but he is withholding enthusiasm. He hasn't talked about the project since it was first announced two years ago, and since filming began four months ago, the author hasn't once visited the set, despite having a home and several siblings in Cartagena, the location for the movie.

Scriptwriter Ronald Harwood, who in 2003 won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The Pianist, adapted the book for the screen. Newell described comments Garcia Marquez wrote on the script sent him by the playwright as "pungent".

However, García Márquez, who tried his hand at film before becoming a best-selling author, isn't keeping himself entirely on the sidelines, either. He convinced Shakira, who hails from the nearby city of Barranquilla, to provide three songs for the film.

At the same time García Márquez was emptying Steindorff's pockets, he ceded for free the coveted rights to another highly cinematic novel, Of Love and Other Demons, to a first-time feature-length director from Costa Rica whom he met at a workshop in Cuba.

Production of Hilda Hidalgo's low-budget Spanish-language film will begin next year in Cartagena.

We have both Love in the Time of Cholera and Of Love and Other Demons in the Spanish language hardcover version.

JWilbooks

From the Houston Chronicle, based on an article by Joshua Goodman in the Associated Press.

Early Judy Garland records fail to sell at recent auction

A pair of records made by Judy Garland as a child from her first studio recording session have failed to sell at auction, said Levi Morgan, a spokesman for auctioneer Bonhams & Butterfields. The top bid Sunday for the acetate discs recorded in March 1935 was $22,500, failing to reach the minimum amount, The records were expected to fetch between $30,000 and $40,000.

"Clearly, there was interest, but perhaps Christmas shoppers didn't want to dig too deep into their pockets," Morgan said.

The records, which have never been heard in public, feature renditions of four songs sung by 12-year-old Garland in her early vaudeville shows including Bill from the Broadway musical Showboat. They also contain a medley of Good Ship Lollypop,Object of My Affections and Dinah.

The current owner , who remains anonymous, discovered the records in 1960 while clearing out the Beverly Hills home where Garland once lived. Whether the records were the originals or whether they were pressed for Garland's personal collection is not known. Morgan said Bonhams might work with private collectors to broker a deal for the records by the end of the year.

Born Frances Gumm, Garland's career began at age 2 and continued until her death in 1969. Her film credits include "The Wizard of Oz," "For Me and My Gal" and "Meet Me in St. Louis."


Bonhams & Butterfields: http://www.bonhams.com

From an article in Associated Press

JWilbooks

YOU are Time Magazines "Person of the Year"

"You" have been named as Time magazine's Person of the Year for the growth and influence of user-generated content on the internet.

The US magazine praised the public for "seizing the reins of the global media" and filling the web's virtual world.

Time has been giving its controversial awards since 1927, aiming to identify those who most affect the news.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and North Korea's Kim Jong-il were 2006 runners.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, his wife Melinda and rock star Bono won the accolade last year and recent winners also include President George W Bush in 2004, and "The American Soldier" in 2003.

The magazine said naming a collectivity rather than an individual reflected the way the internet was shifting the balance of power within the media through blogs, videos and social networks.

Time cited websites such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Wikipedia, which allow users to interact with the web by uploading and publishing their own comments, videos, pictures and links.

"It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes," Time magazine's Lev Grossman writes.

Time praised the tool that made such broad collaboration possible - the web.

"It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter," Mr Grossman said.

Time aims to pick "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill".

Previous winners have often sparked controversy - including Adolf Hitler in 1938 and, in 1979, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.

The link to this is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6187113.stm

Me! Me! Me!
JWilbooks

Nominees for the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards

Nominees for the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards announced Thursday in Beverly Hills, California.

MOTION PICTURES:

Picture, Drama: "Babel," "Bobby," "The Departed," "Little Children," "The Queen"

Picture, Musical or Comedy: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Dreamgirls," "Little Miss Sunshine," "Thank You for Smoking"

Actress, Drama: Penelope Cruz, "Volver"; Judi Dench, "Notes on a Scandal"; Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Sherrybaby"; Helen Mirren, "The Queen"; Kate Winslet, "Little Children"

Actor, Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"; Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Departed"; Peter O'Toole, "Venus"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"; Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland"

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, "Running With Scissors"; Toni Collette, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Beyonce Knowles, "Dreamgirls"; Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"; Renee Zellweger, "Miss Potter"

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"; Johnny Depp, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"; Aaron Eckhart, "Thank You for Smoking"; Chiwetel Ejiofor, "Kinky Boots"; Will Ferrell, "Stranger than Fiction"

Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza, "Babel"; Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"; Emily Blunt, "The Devil Wears Prada"; Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"; Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel"

Supporting Actor: Ben Affleck, "Hollywoodland"; Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"; Jack Nicholson, "The Departed"; Brad Pitt, "Babel"; Mark Wahlberg, "The Departed"

Director: Clint Eastwood, "Flags of Our Fathers"; Clint Eastwood, "Letters from Iwo Jima"; Steven Frears, "The Queen"; Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Babel"; Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"

Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, "Babel"; Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, "Little Children"; Patrick Marber, "Notes on a Scandal"; William Monahan, "The Departed"; Peter Morgan, "The Queen"

Foreign Language: "Apocalypto," USA; "Letters from Iwo Jima," USA/Japan; "The Lives of Others," Germany; "Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico; "Volver" Spain

Animated Film: "Cars," "Happy Feet," "Monster House"

Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, "The Painted Veil"; Clint Mansell, "The Fountain"; Gustavo Santaolalla, "Babel"; Carlo Siliotto, "Nomad"; Hans Zimmer, "The Da Vinci Code"

Original Song: "A Father's Way" from "The Pursuit of Happyness"; "Listen" from "Dreamgirls"; "Never Gonna Break My Faith" from "Bobby"; "The Song of the Heart" from "Happy Feet"; "Try Not to Remember" from "Home of the Brave"

TELEVISION:

Series, Drama: "24," Fox; "Big Love," HBO; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC; "Heroes," NBC; "Lost," ABC

Actress, Drama: Patricia Arquette, "Medium"; Edie Falco, "The Sopranos"; Evangeline Lilly, "Lost"; Ellen Pompeo, "Grey's Anatomy"; Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"

Actor, Drama: Patrick Dempsey, "Grey's Anatomy"; Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"; Hugh Laurie, "House"; Bill Paxton, "Big Love"; Kiefer Sutherland, "24"

Series, Musical or Comedy: "Desperate Housewives," ABC; "Entourage," HBO; "The Office," NBC; "Ugly Betty," ABC; "Weeds," Showtime

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Marcia Cross, "Desperate Housewives"; America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"; Felicity Huffman, "Desperate Housewives"; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "The New Adventures of Old Christine"; Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds"

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"; Zach Braff, "Scrubs"; Steve Carell, "The Office"; Jason Lee, "My Name is Earl"; Tony Shalhoub, "Monk"

Miniseries or movie: "Bleak House," PBS; "Broken Trail," AMC; "Elizabeth I," HBO; "Mrs. Harris," HBO; "Prime Suspect: The Final Act," PBS

Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Gillian Anderson, "Bleak House"; Annette Bening, "Mrs. Harris"; Helen Mirren, "Elizabeth I"; Helen Mirren, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act"; Sophie Okonedo, "Tsunami, The Aftermath"

Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Andre Braugher, "Thief"; Robert Duvall, "Broken Trail"; Michael Ealy, "Sleeper Cell: American Terror"; Chiwetel Ejiofor, "Tsunami, The Aftermath"; Ben Kingsley, "Mrs. Harris"; Bill Nighy, "Gideon's Daughter"; Matthew Perry, "The Ron Clark Story"

Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Emily Blunt, "Gideon's Daughter"; Toni Collette, "Tsunami, The Aftermath"; Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy"; Sarah Paulson, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"; Elizabeth Perkins, "Weeds"

Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Thomas Haden Church, "Broken Trail"; Jeremy Irons, "Elizabeth I"; Justin Kirk, "Weeds"; Masi Oka, "Heroes"; Jeremy Piven, "Entourage"

JWilbooks

Monet Letters Sell for $1.7 Million

A collection of about 1,000 letters to French impressionist painter Claude Monet from his friends and admirers fetched more $1.7, more than double the estimated price at an auction Wednesday, Artcurial auction house told a reporter for Associated Press.

The letters, which date from 1874 until the artist's death in 1926, offer an intimate glimpse into a close circle of artists: Many are by Monet's fellow impressionist painters, including Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Mary Cassatt. Others were written by sculptor Pierre-Auguste Renoir and writer Guy de Maupassant. Much of the correspondence from Monet's fellow painters show their fascination and admiration for Monet's work. Monet was at the center of the impressionist circle. His painting, "Impression, Sunrise," gave the movement its name.

Monet carefully preserved the letters, and they became a family treasure, passed down through generations. The painter's great-grandson Michel Cornebois, Monet's sole direct descendent, placed them for auction with the auction house. Nearly 95 percent of the 332 lots in the auction were sold, Artcurial said.

An American bidder purchased 13 out of 15 lots of letters by American artist John Singer Sargent. Paris' impressionist museum, the Musee d'Orsay, bought the other two. Another American paid $19,560 for a letter by Rodin in which the sculptor mentions The Thinker, one of his most famous pieces. Besides the letters, the collection also included some notes in the handwriting of Monet and a few photos, including one of the painter by French photographer Nadar.

JWilbooks

Parton pledges $500,00 toward hospital and cancer center

Dolly Parton pledged $500,000 to a $90 million hospital and cancer center in her Smoky Mountains hometown honoring Dr. Robert F. Thomas, the country doctor who delivered her.

"I have wonderful, wonderful memories of Dr. Thomas. I know the grand vision of this hospital would have made him proud,” the country music star said of the physician who delivered her in 1946. "Daddy paid him with a sack of cornmeal," she laughed. "And I've always joked that I've been raking in the dough ever since. I felt like it was time to step up and do a little more."

Parton, 60, is honorary chairman of the Dr. Robert F. Thomas Foundation, which plans to raise $10 million for a 79-bed hospital and cancer patient center in Sevierville. She surprised the Covenant Health , hosts of a dinner to celebrate state approval of the new hospital with an appearance Tuesday

She pledged $500,000 from her Dixie Stampede dinner theater and the Dollywood Foundation, a charitable organization spun off from her Dollywood theme park. She also will perform a concert May 20 at a minor league baseball park in Sevierville, with proceeds going to the hospital.

We have Dolly's autobiography!
JWilbooks

Remembering John Lennon

Today is the 26th anniversary of John Lennon's death. This post is for comments on your memories of him, and if you remember what you were doing at the time of his death and want
to talk about that, you are welcome to do that.

JWilBooks

New photos of Marilyn Monroe surface in British exhibition

Limited edition prints have been released to selected galleries across the United Kingdome of the eight pictures from the collection of Eve Arnold, now 94. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer built a bond of trust with the star which shows itself in the intimate shots. Ms Arnold worked with Marilyn for over a decade.

"She trusted me and she was a joy to photograph. She liked my pictures and was canny enough to realise that they were a fresh approach to presenting her," Arnold said. "By seeing Marilyn through photographs - the only way most people ever saw her - it may be possible to get some idea of how she saw herself and perhaps to glean some insight into the phenomenon that was Marilyn Monroe."

The collection is being opened today at a Marilyn-themed evening event at the Meller Gallery in Witney, Oxfordshire and will be available only until Christmas. Only a handful of other galleries across the UK are showing the pictures as only 495 prints have been made of each one.

We have a copy of the Focus Magazine with Marilyn on the cover in December, 1951, Volume 1, Number 5. This pre-dated the Playboy cover by two years! We have other Marilyn items also, including Marilyn by Norman Mailer, My Story by Marilyn, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe by Anthony Summers, and an early 8 x 10 Glossy (unsigned).

JWilbooks

Samuel Beckett letters auction exceeds expectations

A collection of Samuel Beckett's personal correspondence , including letters and postcards signed in his spidery handwriting, has brought in the British equivalent of $476, 404 . The lot had been expected to reach the British equivalent of between $293,835-$391,780. Various early editions of some of his books and plays also sold at Sotheby's for more than $54,849 cumulative total.

The writings were sent to his friends, painters Henri and Josette Hayden, in which he writes in French about his health, family and works in progress. The correspondence, spanning over almost 40 years, are considered the most important series of letters by the author. Their envelopes and postcards bear postmarks from Paris, Dublin, London, Berlin, Stuttgart and Ussy-sur-Marne.

Beckett met the Haydens in 1943 while they were taking refuge from the Gestapo in the village of Roussillon d'Apt in Vichy France. After the Second World War, Beckett was awarded a croix de guerre medal for his work with the French Resistance.

Beckett was born in Dublin. His early education was at Portora in Enniskillen. He later attended Trinity College in his home city. He wrote in both English and French. In adulthood, he settled in Paris, where he died in 1989. Beckett is best known for his novel Waiting for Godot. Other works include Krapp's Last Tape and More Pricks Than Kicks. Early editions of these books were sold in Thursday's auction.

Interest in Beckett has been huge this year, the 100th anniversary of his birth, with major festivals celebrating his life and works staged here in the United States, UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Japan.
JWil Books

Top picks for movies from National Board of Review

The National Board of Review today announced it selections for Bests in a number of categories. National Board of Review is a group made up of film educators and other professionals with no official ties to the film industry. Inclusion in the NBR selections can help set the expectations for the awards season and top 10 lists that follow.

Best Film: Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood, Producer

Best Director: Martin Scorsese for The Departed

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress: Helen Mirren in The Queen

Best Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou for "Blood Diamond"

Best Supporting Actress: Catherine O'Hara for "For Your Consideration" .

Breakthrough Performance By An Actor: Ryan Gosling

Breakthrough Performance By An Actress: Tie: Jennifer Hudson and Rinko Kikuchi

Best Original Screenplay: Zach Helm for Stranger Than Fiction"

Best Adapted Screenplay: Ron Nyswaner for The Painted Veil.

Best Directorial Debut: Jason Reitman for Thank You for Smoking.

Best Foreign Film: Volver

Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth

Best Animated Feature: Cars

Top Ten Films:

Letters From Iwo Jima

The Departed

Blood Diamond

The Painted Veil

Flags of Our Fathers

The History Boys

Little Miss Sunshine

Notes on a Scandal

Devil Wears Prada

Babel

Shortlist of Best Foreign Films:

Curse of the Golden Flower

Days of Glory

Pan's Labyrinth

Water

Shortlist of Best Documentaries:

51 Birch Street

Iraq in Fragments,"

Shut Up and Sing

Wordplay

Top Independent Films:

Akeelah and the Bee

Bobby

Catch a Fire

Copying Beethoven

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Half Nelson

The Illusionist

Lonesome Jim

Sherrybaby

10 Items or Less

Thank You for Smoking

And a good time was had by all.

JWil Books

---

Ancient Moon Computer Workings Revealed by Scientists

The delicate workings at the heart of a 2,000-year-old analogue computer have been revealed by scientists.

The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered more than 100 years ago in a Roman shipwreck, was used by ancient Greeks to display astronomical cycles.

Using advanced imaging techniques, an Anglo-Greek team probed the remaining fragments of the complex geared device.

The results, published in the journal Nature, show it could have been used to predict solar and lunar eclipses.

The elaborate arrangement of bronze gears may also have displayed planetary information.

"This is as important for technology as the Acropolis is for architecture," said Professor John Seiradakis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and one of the team. "It is a unique device."

However, not all experts agree with the team's interpretation of the mechanism.

Technical complexity

The remains of the device were first discovered in 1902 when archaeologist Valerios Stais noticed a heavily corroded gear wheel amongst artefacts recovered by sponge divers from a sunken Roman cargo ship.

A further 81 fragments have since been found containing a total of 30 hand-cut bronze gears. The largest fragment has 27 cogs.

Researchers believe these would have been housed in a rectangular wooden frame with two doors, covered in instructions for its use. The complete calculator would have been driven by a hand crank.

Although its origins are uncertain, the new studies of the inscriptions suggest it would have been constructed around 100-150 BC, long before such devices appear in other parts of the world.

Writing in Nature, the team says that the mechanism was "technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards".

Although much of it is now lost, particularly from the front, what remains has given a century's worth of researchers a tantalising glimpse into the world of ancient Greek astronomy.

One of the most comprehensive studies was done by British science historian Derek Solla Price, who advanced the theory that the device was used to calculate and display celestial information.

This would have been important for timing agricultural and religious festivals. Some researchers now also believe that it could have been used for teaching or navigation.

Although Solla Price's work did much to push forward the state of knowledge about the device's functions, his interpretation of the mechanics is now largely dismissed.

A reinterpretation of the fragments by Michael Wright of Imperial College London between 2002 and 2005, for example, developed an entirely different assembly for the gears.

The new work builds on this legacy.

Eclipse function

Using bespoke non-invasive imaging systems, such as three-dimensional X-ray microfocus computed tomography, the team was able to take detailed pictures of the device and uncover new information.

The major structure they describe, like earlier studies, had a single, centrally placed dial on the front plate that showed the Greek zodiac and an Egyptian calendar on concentric scales.

IMAGING TECHNIQUES 1.Three dimensional X-ray microfocus computed tomography: Developed by X-Tek Systems and similar to medical CAT scans, it allowed 3D images of the fragments to be reconstructed. Crucial for reading text hidden by centuries of corrosion. 2.Digital optical imaging using polynomial texture mapping: Developed by Hewlett Packard, a new method for increasing the photorealism of surface textures in digital pictures. Revealed faint surface details. 3.Digitised conventional film photography: High-quality images allowed the fragments to be studied without being handled.

On the back, two further dials displayed information about the timing of lunar cycles and eclipse patterns. Previously, the idea that the mechanism could predict eclipses had only been a hypothesis.

Other aspects are less certain, such as the exact number of cogs that would have been in the complete device. The new research suggests 37 gears could have been used.

However, what is left gives an insight into the complexity of the information the mechanism could display.

For example, the Moon sometimes moves slightly faster in the sky than at others because of the satellite's elliptic orbit.

To overcome this, the designer of the calculator used a "pin-and-slot" mechanism to connect two gear-wheels that introduced the necessary variations.

"When you see it your jaw just drops and you think: 'bloody hell, that's clever'. It's a brilliant technical design," said Professor Mike Edmunds.

Planetary display

The team was also able to decipher more of the text on the mechanism, doubling the amount of text that can now be read.

Combined with analysis of the dials, the inscriptions hint at the possibility that the Antikythera Mechanism could have also displayed planetary motions.

"Inscriptions mention the word 'Venus' and the word 'stationary' which would tend to suggest that it was looking at retrogressions of planets," said Professor Edmunds.

"In my own view, it probably displayed Venus and Mercury, but some people suggest it may display many other planets."

One of those people is Michael Wright. His reconstruction of the device, with 72 gears, suggests it may have been an orrery that displayed the motions of the five known planets of the time.

"There is a feature on the front plate that could have made provision for a bearing with a spindle, that carried motion up to a mechanism used to model the planets of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as well," he told the BBC News website.

"That's how I see it and my reconstruction shows it works well."

Intriguingly, Mr Wright also believes the device was not a one-off.

"The designer and maker of the device knew what they wanted to achieve and they did it expertly; they made no mistakes," he said.

"To do this, it can't have been very far from their everyday stock work."

Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The Antikythera Mechanism will be explored in an episode of Unearthing Mysteries on BBC Radio 4 on 12 December

JWil Books

Poetry Archive Online Initiative Celebrates First Birthday

BBC reports that The Poetry Archive is adding historic voices to solidify and increase its value as a resource for poetry researchers, students, and teachers. Recordings of Dylan Thomas, Ted Hughes and others have been recovered.

The free archive was launched in 2005 by UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and recording producter Richard Carrington.

Other additions include Siegfried Sassoon reading his poem, Everyone Sang, plus three works by Philip Larkin.

Numerous requests for Thomas have prompted the addition of two of his works - A Refusal to Mourn the Death, By Fire, of a Child in London, and In My Craft or Sullen Art.

Walter de la Mare also makes his debut, reading Thomas Hardy - a poem celebrating a visit its author made to Hardy's Dorset house in June 1921.

In all 14 poems by eight authors have been added to the website. The total archive contains more than 300 recordings.

"We often read reports in the newspapers and elsewhere saying that the audience for poetry is in decline," said Motion.

"The very large number of people who have used the archive during the last 12 months prove otherwise."

The archive also aims to ensure current leading English-speaking poets are recorded reading their work for future generations.

JWil Books

Norman Rockwell's "Breaking Home Ties" Finds a New Home

The new owners of the Norman Rockwell painting "Breaking Home Ties" paid $15.4 million to take it home.

The artist sold the painting to his Vermont neighbor, cartoonist Donald Trachte in 1960. Mr. Trache made a copy of the painting and hid the original in behind a fake wall in his home. After his death, his sons noticed a strange gap in one of the walls of their father's home. When they pushed against it, the wall slid open to reveal the Rockwell and other paintings.

Mr. Trachte had never told anyone about the fake painting that was displayed as the original in his home, even after several experts pointed out inconsistencies between the reproduction of the painting on the front of "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1954 and the assumed original in Mr. Trachte's possession. The differences were blamed on poor preservation and sloppy restoration until the dicovery of the original solved the mystery.

Mr. Trachte divorced his wife and mother of his children in the early 1970's, and his sons conjecture that he may have been trying to keep his wife from claiming the painting in the divorce, thereby saving them for his children.

Even in 1970, the painting would have brought enough to make both wealthy. How stingy!

JWil Books

A Poll of Sellers On One Venue's Seller Forum

In the last few days, a question was posted on a Seller's Forum of one of the large bookselling venues: "What is your favorite book or novel?"

I tried to do a quick tabulation of the results here, but there are very few books that received more than one vote:

Magic Mountain 2
To Kill A Mockingbird 3
In Cold Blood 2
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich 2
Anything written by James Herriott 2
Moby Dick 2
Atlas Shrugged 2
Fountainhead 2 (So 4 total for Ayn Rand)
Watership Down 2
Count of Monte Christo 2
Pride and Prejudice 2
Jane Eyre 2
Gone With the Wind 3
Charlotte's Web 2
The Pink Motel 2
Dr. Suess books 2
War and Peace 2
Moby Dick 2
The Stand 2


There were a few more than 160 different titles or "Anything by certain author" choices.

I was amazed at the number of children's books chosen. This proves the need to get children into reading early, so that it stays with them all their lives.

There were few non-fiction titles chosen. Maybe the way the question was asked reduced the number who thought of non-fiction titles. Overwhelmingly the favorites were fiction. Religious titles were few.

The classics made a very good showing. Series novels by various authors also did well.

I think there are as many opinions of "Best Book" as there are sellers. If each had chosen just one book, as requested, the results probably would have been different.

What is your favorite book, fiction or non-fiction?

JWil

Golden Globes Shortlist of Foreign Language Film

The Golden Globes shortlist is out, and it includes 56 films, with multiple titles from Italy, France, China, Germany, Spain and India under consideration.

The Golden Globe foreign language nominees are :

9th Company Russia/Ukraine/Finland
After the Wedding Denmark
Ahlaam Iraq
Alatriste Spain
Along the Ridge (Anche libero va bene) Italy
Angel-A France
Apocalypto USA
Avenue Montaigne France
Black Book (Zwartboek) The Netherlands
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros Philippines
Bosta Lebanon
Children of Glory Hungary
Chronicle of an Escape Argentina
Cinema, Aspirins & Vultures Brazil
Climates (Iklimler) Turkey
Curse of the Golden Flower China
Days of Glory Algeria
El benny Cuba
Family Friend Italy
Family Law Argentina
Frozen Days Israel
The Golden Door (Nuovomondo) Italy
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams Bosnia and Herzegovina
Il Cai-mano Italy
Ice Cream I Scream Turkey
The Island Russia
King and the Clown South Korea
Lage Raho Munnabhai India
La Mujer de mi Hermano Mexico
The Last Train Germany
Letters from Iwo Jima Japan
Libertas Croatia
The Lives of Others Germany
Love for Share Indonesia
Mario's War (La guerra di Mario) Italy
The Missing Star (La stella che non c'e) Italy
Nomad Kazakhstan
Offside Iran
O Major Amor Do Mundo Brazil
Omkara India
Pan's Labyrinth Mexico
Playing the Victim Russia
Pretendiendo Chile
Prince of the Himalaya China
The Protector Thailand
Rang De Basanti India
Reprise Norway
Requiem Germany
Retrieval (Z Ozysku) Poland
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles China
Sweet Mud (Adama Meshuga'at) Israel
The Valet France
Vitus Switzerland
Volver Spain
Water Canada
The Yacoubian Building Egypt

Ironically, the American entries in the foreign language category will not be eligible for entry into the Oscars race because the rules don't recognize a film made in America as foreign even though it may be in a language other than English. Those films will be eligible in other Oscar categories, however.

JWil

The Christy Award for Christian Fiction Deadline Approaches

The deadline for submissions for the Christy Awards is December 6, 2006.

The Christy Award was established in 1999, after nearly a dozen Christian publishers confirmed the need for establishing a Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction. They named the award The Christy Award, in honor of Catherine Marshall’s novel Christy and of her contribution to growth of Christian fiction .

The Christy Award is designed to nurture and encourage creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview; bring a new awareness of the breadth and depth of fiction choices available, helping to broaden the readership; provide opportunity to recognize novelists whose work may not have reached bestseller status.

Every year publishers are invited to submit novels written from a Christian worldview and copyrighted in the year preceding the awards. Each novel is entered in one of several genre categories and/or the first novel category. Each category of novels is then read and evaluated against a ten-point criteria by a panel of seven judges composed of librarians, reviewers, academicians, literary critics, and other qualified readers.

For further information go to:

http://www.christyawards.com/about.html

JWil

American Music Awards Winners 2006

Winners at the American Music Awards:

The American Music Awards honor the best in pop/rock, country, soul/rhythm & blues, rap/hip hop, Latin, alternative, adult contemporary and contemporary inspirational music. Nominees are chosen based on record sales and winners were selected by a survey of about 20,000 listeners.

— Pop-Rock:
Male artist: Sean Paul
Female artist: Kelly Clarkson
Band, duo or group: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Album: All the Right Reasons, Nickelback

— Soul-R&B:
Male artist: Jamie Foxx
Female artist: Mary J. Blige
Band, duo or group: The Black Eyed Peas
Album: The Breakthrough, Mary J. Blige

— Country:
Male artist: Toby Keith
Female artist: Faith Hill
Band, duo or group: Rascal Flatts
Album: Greatest Hits Volume 2, Tim McGraw

— Rap/Hip-Hop:
Male artist: Eminem
Band, duo or group: The Black Eyed Peas
Album: Monkey Business, The Black Eyes Peas

— Adult Contemporary:
Artist: Kelly Clarkson

— Latin Music:
Artist: Shakira

— Alternative Music:
Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers

— Contemporary Inspirational:
Artist:Kirk Franklin

— Breakthrough:
Artist: Carrie Underwood

—T-Mobile Text-In Award (voted by public): Rascal Flatts

The Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rascal Flatts were double-winners at the 2006 American Music Awards.

The Black Eyed Peas were named favorite group in the rap/hip hop and soul/rhythm & blues categories. Clarkson captured trophies for pop/rock female and adult contemporary artist, categories presented before the televised presentations began in the performance-filled show.

Red Hot Chili Peppers were named favorite alternative artist and favorite pop/rock group. Rascal Flatts won favorite country group and the T-Mobile Text-In award, which is chosen by fans.

Blige accepted the female soul/rhythm & blues artist award from surprise presenter Britney Spears.

Oscar winner Jamie Foxx was named favorite male soul/rhythm & blues artist.

Nickelback took home the trophy for pop/rock album. Dancehall singer Sean Paul was named favorite male artist in the category.

Among country honors, favorite female artist went to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits Volume 2 was favorite album. Country singer and American Idol Carrie Underwood was named favorite new breakthrough artist.

Eminem was favorite male rap/hip-hop artist. Shakira won favorite Latin artist and Kirk Franklin captured the award for contemporary inspirational music.

Beyonce began the show, belting out her single Irreplaceable. The Pussycat Dolls also performed, as did Nelly Furtado.

Gwen Stefani made a stylish return to the music scene, performing the single Wind It Up from her forthcoming album, The Sweet Escape.

Rapper Jay-Z stepped out of retirement and back into the spotlight to perform the single Show Me What You Got from his new record, Kingdom Come.

Lionel Richie made a festive return to the American Music Awards. Introduced by daughter, Nicole Richie, he performed a medley that included his '80s party anthem, All Night Long.

Barry Manilow performed a medley of favorites from his latest collection, The Greatest Songs of the Sixties.

Some awards were announced off camera before the broadcast presentations, according to the Associated Press.

Gonna be some heartache tonight!

JWil

Rare Books by English Authors Auctioned

Rare works by Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope bring about £100,000 at auction.

According to BBC, the first edition books by 19th and 20th century authors - part of a sale of 3,000 books in Dorset - were quickly bid up by buyers from around the UK The three private collections sold in Dorchester had never been on the market before. They included an edition of Hardy's The Trumpet Major, which sold for £3,600 to a Dorset collector. In the UK, people like Hardy and his first edition enjoy a good market.

Another private collector and dealer from Dorset snapped up a rare first edition of Hardy's Under The Greenwood Tree, published in 1872, for £550, a first edition of Hardy's Wessex Tales, published in two volumes, for £900, and a 16-volume set of The Wessex Novels in original green cloth bindings for £50

A volume of Hardy's own copy of Virgil's Opera Omnia with a very early Hardy signature dated 1859 sold for £900 to a London dealer. Hardy was 19 when he signed it, so it was very early for Hardy collectibles.

A Charles Dickens business card, advertising his services as a shorthand writer of 10 Norfolk Street, Fitzroy Square, fetched £1,800. Before he started to write his novels, Dickens was a clerk in a London city office which is where he got a lot of his insight into solicitors and office clerks which he wrote about in his novels.

Thomas Hardy was born in the Dorset hamlet of Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, in 1840 and based a number of his works on his home county.

Four years ago, a set of first editions by Hardy raised £30,000 at the auction house near the author's home.

And England swings like a pendalum do!

JWil

Artists Auction Sets New Record

BBC reports a new record was set for Andy Warhol's work, when his 1972 portrait of China's Chairman Mao sold for $17.36m (£9.19m) at Christie's in New York.

Two other portraits of classic Warhol subjects - Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy - sold for over $30m in total.

Willem de Kooning's Untitled XXV fetched $27.1m. A work by abstract expressionist Clyfford Still, 1947-R-No 1, reached $21.2m, more than three times its estimate, and another new record.

Records were also set for works by Richard Diebenkorn, Louise Bourgeois, Arshile Gorky and Gerhard Richter.

The $240m sale set new records for 19 artists and caps a two-week period in which Christie's and rivals Sotheby's took $1bn between them.

Mao was sold by the Zurich-based Daros collection and was bought by Hong Kong collector Joseph Lau.

Before the sale, more attention had been focused on Orange Marilyn, a 1962 picture, which took $16.2m, and Sixteen Jackies, which made $15.6m. Sixteen Jackies is a black and blue series of the wife of President John F Kennedy on the day of his assassination in 1963.

As well as Untitled XXV, another de Kooning - Woman (Seated Woman I) - broke a record. At $9.6m, it became the most expensive of the artist's works on paper.

"Tonight's sale caps an incredible two weeks at Christie's where we have seen record totals and unprecedented depth in the market in all fields," the auction house's chief executive, Edward Dolman, told news agency AFP.

Darn! I got beat out again!

JWil

Winners of the 2006 National Book Awards

The Winners of the 2006 National Books Awards are announced on November 15, 2006 in New York City, New York. The National Book Award is one of the most important literary prizes in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950

Prizes are awarded in each of four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature. The winners in each category are selected by five-member, independent judging panels. Judges chose from 1,259 books submitted by publishers. They each receive a $10,000 cash prize and a crystal sculpture. The National Book Foundation administers the awards.

This year's winners are:

Non-Fiction
Timothy Egan
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Houghton Mifflin)

Fiction
Richard Powers
The Echo Maker (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Poetry
Nathaniel Mackey
Splay Anthem (New Directions)

Children's Literature
M.T. Anderson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party (Candlewick Press)

At the ceremony, Poet Mark Doty presented the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Adrienne Rich.

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, presented Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein with The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

Did you pick any winners?

JWil

Johnny Depp Nets Three Nominations in 33rd Annual People's Choice Awards

Johnny Depp, who plays Captain Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean films, has been nominated for Favorite Male Movie Star and Best Male Action Star. He shares the third nomination with his Pirates co-star Keira Knightley for Favorite On-screen Couple.

Halle Berry has received two nominations: Favorite Female Movie Star and Favorite Female Action Star.

Jennifer Aniston, formerly of the tv hit Friends , also received a double nomination. She is challenging Berry for Favorite Female Movie Star. Aniston shares a nomination with Vince Vaughn for their film The Break-Up.
Vaughn was also nominated for Favorite Leading Man, competing against Aniston's ex-husband Brad Pitt.

Deal or No Deal goes up against American Idol and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the favourite competition and reality show category.

The People's Choice Awards, voted for by the American public, will be held in Los Angeles on January 9.

JWil

One Billion Trees Project

Wangari Maathai, Africa's Nobel laureate, has begun the billion trees project, which she hopes will grow to include people from all over the world participating in this effort. She hopes through this project to fight poverty and climate change. Maathai won the Nobel in 2004, and was both the first African woman and the first environmental activist to win.

This project will have participants plant one or more trees, which are then tracked on her website. Photographs are sent periodically to show that the tree is still alive.

href= 'www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign'

Get out your shovel and plant a tree today!

Jwil

Winners of the 2006 Country Music Awards

List of CMA winners as determined by the 6,000 members of the CMA.

Entertainer of the Year: Kenny Chesney
Single: Believe, Brooks & Dunn
Album: Time Well Wasted, Brad Paisley
Song: Believe, Craig Wiseman and Ronnie Dunn
Female Vocalist: Carrie Underwood
Male Vocalist: Keith Urban
Vocal Group: Rascal Flatts
Vocal Duo: Brooks & Dunn
Musical Event: When I Get Where I'm Going, Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton
Musician: Randy Scruggs
Music Video: Believe, Brooks & Dunn
Horizon Award: Carrie Underwood

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kenny Chesney won entertainer of the year at the 40th Annual Country Music Association Awards Monday night. Chesney, who also won the honor two years ago, gave an acceptance speech that sounded like, well, Country Music.

"This year has in ways been the most emotionally satisfying year and also the most emotionally draining year of my life. There have been so many ups and downs, it's been like a huge emotional roller coaster ride." said Chesney. He went through a high-profile marriage and rapid divorce from Renee Zellweger last year.

Brooks & Dunn's Believe won three trophies, including single and song of the year. The gospel-tinged Believe was co-written by Ronnie Dunn and Craig Wiseman, who also co-wrote Tim McGraw's smash Live Like You Were Dying. Both won song of the year honors for Believe. Brooks & Dunn also won vocal duo award, a category they have won every year since 1992, except in 2000, when Montgomery Gentry won.

Aussie country star Keith Urban won male vocalist of the year for the second year in a row. He was absent from the festivities because last month he entered a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse. And as usual when one of their own finally reaches the outer limits of drug or alcohol addiction and enters a rehabilitation program , the attendees gave a standing ovation to Urban when his name was announced. Ronnie Dunn accepted the award on Urban's behalf, and read a letter from Urban in which he thanked his friends, family, and wife Nicole Kidman

Rascal Flatts took the vocal group award, to top off what what the group's singer Gary LeVox described as an "amazing year."

"I thank God for giving us a stage to stand on and perform on every night," LeVox said.

Brad Paisley, who was shut out last year despite six nomination, won album of the year for Time Well Wasted. He and Dolly Parton also won musical event of the year for their spiritual song When I Get Where I'm Going. It was Parton's first CMA award since 1996.

Other multiple nominees included Chesney and Underwood with four each, and Rascal Flatts and Parton with three each. All three of Parton's nods were for her vocals on Paisley's When I Get Where I'm Going. The song was one of three spiritually themed tunes up for awards, the others being Brooks & Dunn's Believe and Underwood's Jesus Take the Wheel.

George Strait was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Strait, 54, broke onto the charts in 1981.

He sure was a heart-throb in his big white hat!

JWil

Puddly Awards

The Puddly Awards, which consists of a pair of yellow galoshes with a gold band, are compiled from Powells Books by reader polls asking its customers to name the best book read in the past year. This year's winners of the Golden Galoshes are The Kite Runner (Fiction) and The Year of Magical Thinking (Nonfiction).

Neil Gaiman, whose Anansi Boys placed second in Fiction, and whose novels American Gods and Good Omens also made the top fifty, was the most listed author. The only other authors to appear more than once on the list are Terry Pratchett (for Thud! and Good Omens) and Gregory Maguire (for Wicked and Son of a Witch).

The Top 50 are:

1. The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini

"In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence — forces that continue to threaten them even today." New York Times

2. Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman

"Gaiman is witty and engaging, but his power is more as a storyteller than as a stylist, and I think what his fans find so appealing about his stories is that they are comforting, no matter how scary, like a good bedtime tale." Minneapolis Star Tribune

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J. K. Rowling

"This installment...while still salted with patches of humor and romance, is the most harrowing yet....At the beginning of this book, all hands are pointing toward 'Mortal peril'....Undoubtedly, that is where they will continue pointing until the resolution of the final book in this remarkable series." San Jose Mercury News

4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke

"For all of her flights of postmodernist fancy, for all her stories about 'black towers' and magical books and hidden bridges that connect England to Faerie, Clarke has delivered a book of universal truths and unexpectedly heartbreaking acuity." Dallas-Ft. Worth Star Telegram

5. Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger

"[A] highly original first novel....[A] soaring love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes....[L]eaves a reader with an impression of life's riches and strangeness rather than of easy thrills." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

6. Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

"[A] compelling labyrinth of stories that gracefully unfolds in layers, as if the novel were a Russian nesting doll....But this is also a book about love's poetic power to heal the wounds of the past and offer second chances." Miami Herald

7. Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami

"[W]hile anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it's the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves." Laura Miller, New York Times Book Review

8. The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova

"Kostova may have outdone Stoker or even, for that matter, Hollywood's numerous Dracula reincarnations with her chilling revelation of what motivates her blood-thirsty monster. Before the sun sets, grab this book and take a long and satisfying drink." USA

9. Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson

"[R]eligious, somewhat essayistic and fiercely calm....Gilead is a beautiful work — demanding, grave and lucid." James Wood, New York Times Book Review

10. The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion

"[A]n utterly shattering book that gives the reader an indelible portrait of loss and grief and sorrow, all chronicled in minute detail with the author's unwavering, reportorial eye....[P]rovides a haunting portrait of a four-decade-long marriage, an extraordinarily close relationship between two writers." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

11. The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown

"[A] dazzling performance...a delightful display of erudition....Brown delivers a crackling, intricate mystery, complete with breathtaking escapes and several stunning surprises. It's challenging, exciting, and a whole lot more." Jim Fusilli, Boston Globe

12. American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

"[A]mbitious, gloriously funny, and oddly heartwarming....A magical mystery tour through the mythologies of all cultures, a unique and moving love story — and another winner for the phenomenally gifted, consummately reader-friendly Gaiman." Kirkus Reviews

13. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer

"[B]eautifully designed second from the gifted young author....[A] riveting narrative....[A] brilliant fiction works thrilling variations on, and consolations for, its plangent message: that 'in the end, everyone loses everyone.' Yes, but look what Foer has found." Kirkus Reviews

14. Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell

"The various pieces of David Mitchell's mysterious puzzle combine to form a haunting image that stays with the reader long after the book has been closed." Washington Post

15. A Million Little Pieces
by James Frey

"One of the most compelling books of the year... Incredibly bold... Somehow accomplishes what three decades' worth of cheesy public service announcements and after-school specials have failed to do: depict hard-core drug addiction as the self-inflicted apocalypse that it is." New York Post

16. Saturday
by Ian McEwan

"Mr. McEwan has not only produced one of the most powerful pieces of post-9/11 fiction yet published, but also fulfilled that very primal mission of the novel: to show how we — a privileged few of us, anyway — live today." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

17. Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides

"Middlesex isn't just a respectable sophomore effort; it's a towering achievement, and it can now be stated unequivocally that Eugenides' initial triumph wasn't a one-off or a fluke. He has emerged as the great American writer that many of us suspected him of being." Jeff Turrentine, Los Angeles Times

18. Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

"In this luminous offering, [Ishiguro] nimbly navigates the landscape of emotion — the inevitable link between present and past and the fine line between compassion and cruelty, pleasure and pain." Booklist

19. On Beauty
by Zadie Smith

"[A] boisterous, funny, poignant, and erudite novel that should firmly establish Smith as a literary force of nature." Booklist

20. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

"This original and affecting novel is a triumph of empathy; whether describing Christopher's favorite dream...or his vision of the universe collapsing in a thunder of stars, the author makes his hero's severely limited world a thrilling place to be." New Yorker

21. Freakonomics
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

"It might appear presumptuous of Steven Levitt to see himself as an all-purpose intellectual detective, fit to take on whatever puzzle of human behavior grabs his fancy. But on the evidence of Freakonomics, the presumption is earned." Jim Holt, New York York Times

22. Case Histories
by Kate Atkinson

"[A] compelling narrative drive....Playful humor, an impressive technique, and an offbeat detective with a penchant for weeping are the most obvious pleasures of a page-turner that succeeds in being both brainy and thoroughly entertaining." Booklist (Starred Review)

23. The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss

"Even in moments of startling peculiarity, [Krauss] touches the most common elements of the heart....In the final pages, the fractured stories of The History of Love fall together like a desperate embrace." Washington Post

24. Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell

"An entertaining psychology book....Blink is not a glib handbook of how to think, or a guide of what to think. But it will make you think about how you think, when you think in a blink." Seattle Times

25. Life of Pi
by Yann Martel

"If Canadian writer Yann Martel were a preacher, he'd be charismatic, funny and convert all the non-believers. He baits his readers with serious themes and trawls them through a sea of questions and confusion, but he makes one laugh so much, and at times feel so awed and chilled, that even thrashing around in bewilderment or disagreement one can't help but be captured by his prose." The Nation

26. Thud!
by Terry Pratchett

"The asides and the general goofiness and the imagination run amok are the point, every time and this time, too....All in all the only thing to be said about a Discworld novel is: Read it. You'll like it." Washington Post

27. The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

"Sue Monk Kidd's eccentric, inventive, and ultimately forgiving novel is reminscent of the work of Reynolds Price in its ability to create a truly original Southern voice." Anita Shreve

28. The Tender Bar
by J. R. Moehringer

"Funny, honest, and insightful, The Tender Bar finds universal themes in an unusual upbringing and declares a real love of barroom life without romanticizing it too much." Booklist (Starred Review)

29. Devil in the White City
by Erik Larson

"Another successful exploration of American history....Larson skillfully balances the grisly details with the far-reaching implications of the World's Fair." USA Today

30. Broken for You
by Stephanie Kallos

"A seventy-six-year-old woman who's just learned that she has a brain tumor takes in a thirty-four-year-old woman who's just been dumped by her boyfriend. Can this be funny? Yes. Painfully funny, beautifully written, and completely original. I love this novel." Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief

31. Wicked
by Gregory Maguire

"Maguire has taken this figure of childhood fantasy and given her a sensual and powerful nature that will stir adult hearts with fear and longing all over again. It's a brilliant trick — and a remarkable treat." Times-Picayune

32. Team of Rivals
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

"In nearly 800 pages...Goodwin vividly evokes Lincoln's struggles to avoid war, his resolve to fight hard once war became inevitable, and his unflagging effort to hold fast the fragile union." St. Petersburg Times

33. The Highest Tide
by Jim Lynch

"Jim Lynch has written a breathtakingly beautiful first novel. At its core is a fabulous metaphor, rising from the ocean to wrap around his painful story with all the brilliance and mystery of life. That is a big statement. Lynch can carry its weight and then some." Martha McPhee, author of Gorgeous Lies

34. The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri

"[Q]uietly dazzling....[A] wonderfully intimate and knowing family portrait...a debut novel that is as assured and eloquent as the work of a longtime master of the craft." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

35. Assassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell

"Vowell could make a trip to the DMV interesting....Part travelogue, part history text and part memoir, Assassination Vacation is more fun than it has any right to be — a bizarre road trip into some of the most searing moments of the nation's past with one of our most amusing storytellers at the wheel." Stephen Kiehl, Baltimore Sun

36. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond

"In a world that celebrates live journalism, we are increasingly in need of big-picture authors like Jared Diamond....In his extraordinarily panoramic Collapse, he moves his wide lens to yet another telling phenomenon: failed nations, of both the distant and the recent past." Robert D. Kaplan, Washington Post

37. Eldest
by Christopher Paolini

"Once again, the expected fantasy elements are well in place, and the characters and their relationships continue to develop nicely. The ending promises an even more cataclysmic battle ahead." Booklist

38. The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls

"Jeannette Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of the most chaotic, heartbreaking childhoods ever to be set down on the page. This deeply affecting memoir is a triumph in every possible way, and it does what all good books should: it affirms our faith in the human spirit." Dani Shapiro, author of Family History

39. Good Omens
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

"What's so funny about Armageddon? More than you'd think...Good Omens has arrived just in time!" Detroit Free Press

40. The Plot against America
by Philip Roth

"[Philip is] the ideal narrator for this sinuous and brilliant book, with its extreme sweetness (new in Roth), its black pain, and its low, ceaseless cackle." New Yorker

41. Until I Find You
by John Irving

"With Jack Burns, Irving has created his most complex protagonist....And in the long, winding, complex and moody narrative that is Until I Find You, Irving has fashioned a real heart-stopper of a story — and one of his finest novels to date." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

42. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
by Christopher Moore

"[A]s in Moore's other books, the jokes, ranging from the sublime to the sophisticated to the utterly sophomoric, make the book. What Lamb lacks in theological sophistication it more than compensates with mirth....simply impossible not to laugh." John Green, Booklist

43. Son of a Witch
by Gregory Maguire

"[A] tale that adroitly mixes drama, humor, and political satire into a well-knit examination of good and evil — and leaves several doors open for future journeys over the rainbow into this cleverly constructed dystopia." Library Journal

44. A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson

"Bryson...achieve[s] exactly what he'd set out to do, and, moreover, [he does] it in stylish, efficient, colloquial and stunningly accurate prose....[S]eems destined to become a modern classic of science writing." Ed Regis, New York Times

45. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship
by Ann Patchett

"To say that Truth and Beauty is a memoir about [a] friendship, while true, doesn't begin to do justice to the extraordinary bond the two writers shared or Patchett's refined reflection upon it." Sarah Gianelli, The Oregonian

46. The March
by E. L. Doctorow

"[N]ever before has [Doctorow] so fully occupied the past, or so gorgeously evoked its generation of the forces that seeded our times....Doctorow's masterpiece uncovers the roots of today's racial and political conundrums..." Booklist (Starred Review)

47. My Sister's Keeper
by Jodi Picoult

"Picoult's timely and compelling novel will appeal to anyone who has thought about the morality of medical decision making and any parent who must balance the needs of different children. Highly recommended." Library Journal

48. The Way the Crow Flies
by Ann-Marie MacDonald

"[P]erhaps MacDonald's most impressive accomplishment is her uncanny ability... to vividly re-create the wonder, humor, and fears of childhood." Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist

49. Small Island
by Andrea Levy

"Small Island is a great read, delivering the sort of pleasure which has been the stock-in-trade of a long line of English novelists. It's honest, skilful, thoughtful and important. This is Andrea Levy's big book." The Guardian

50. A Breath of Snow and Ashes
by Diana Gabaldon

"Triumphant....Her use of historical detail and truly adult love story confirm Gabaldon as a superior writer." Publishers Weekly

All for a pair of yellow galoshes!

JWil