Hot Off the Presses and Other Good Reads

There's a hale crop of winter books this year. Not all will make it to a library near you, because of the recent cuts. Around here we have an "interlibrary loan" system, where you fill out a form and your local library borrows it from another library who has a copy. I don't know how big this system is, but check to see if yours is part of one.

The Jefferson Bible has been printed at last:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/thomas-jefferson-revolutionary-bible-reissued

Jodi Kantor's sensationalist book about the Obamas is likely only the first in a string of election year stinkbombs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/07/obama-rahm-emanuel-barack?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Was the Arab Spring uprising foreshadowed in fiction? The International Prize for Arabic Fiction seems to show it was;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/12/arab-spring-foreshadowed-fiction

Here's the latest NY Times bestseller fiction list. There's always something of interest in there:
http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/combined-print-and-e-book-fiction/list.html

And I have to mention The Game of Thrones series, which has captured my attention and imagination for months now. GRR Martin has produced a series that truly blows my mind. There aren't any thoroughly good nor thoroughly evil people, just like real life, but there are entirely evil forces and impending doom on the horizon. I can't wait to see how this turns out. The books are so dense that you can't rip through them, which makes now a good time to start, as he's in the finishing stage of work in the sixth of the seven planned books.
http://georgerrmartin.com/

The boxset of the first 4 novels is a bargain:
http://www.amazon.com/George-Martins-Thrones-4-Book-Boxed/dp/0345529057/ref=pd_sim_b_21
with A Dance with Dragons available separately and the soon-to-be published Winds of Winter probably being released later this year.

This is my favorite thing about winter; long reads. I also recommend anything Margaret George writes. She takes history and fills in trivial fact and imagination to make a tiramisu for the mind. Her Autobiography of Henry VIII is a particularly wonderful romp. And there's always Dickens. I find different subtexts to Dickens every time I reread his books.

And of course this is the perfect time for reading all those classics you've never gotten around to reading. I'd planned to tackle Proust's RTP this winter; that'll have to wait for next year, there's not time now and I'm not going to read half as I always have.

So check out a book or two this winter. Remember your library needs your support and patronage. If we don't use it, we'll lose it.