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Thanks for dropping by.......and welcome to the
website for Raven Books. You'll find a variety of
books, book-related
news, a daily posting celebrating writers and writing, and plenty of
suggestions for what to read next. We hope you enjoy browsing! (This
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March 9th Today
is
the
birthday of poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, born in Kent,
England, in 1892. Her family was immensely wealthy and she grew
up in a castle with 365 rooms and 52 staircases. She wrote from
an early age and by the age of 18 had
Although Sackville-West is best remembered for her novel The  Edwardians (1930),
she arguably had greater influence through
her horticultural writing. At the time, gardening was considered
a
hobby exclusive to men but after restoring a castle estate, Sissinghurst,
with her husband in the 1930s, Sackville-West spent much of her time in
the garden and wrote a weekly gardening column for the London
Observer. In 1948 she became a founder member of the National
Trust's garden committee, and in 1954 the Royal Horticultural Society
formally recognised her immense contribution. Sissinghurst
is now owned by the
National Trust and boasts the most visited gardens in England. Rose Tremain In a silent valley stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic so haunted by his violent past that he’s become incapable of all meaningful action, letting his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin. Meanwhile, his sister, Audrun, alone in her modern bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel, dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted her life. Into this closed Cévenol world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but disillusioned antiques dealer from London. Now in his sixties, Anthony hopes to remake his life in France, and he begins looking at properties in the region. From the moment he arrives at the Mas Lunel, a frightening and unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion. Two worlds and two cultures collide. Ancient boundaries are crossed, taboos are broken, a violent crime is committed. And all the time the Cévennes hills remain, as cruel and seductive as ever, unforgettably captured in this powerful and unsettling novel, which reveals yet another dimension to Rose Tremain’s extraordinary imagination.   Eating
Animals,Jonathan Safran Foer Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told-and the stories we now need to tell. |
 Beg, Borrow, Steal Sometimes
a
book
calls out to you in a voice as strong as a summer breeze. You
lift it up, caress its inviting cover...
 And I Quote.... Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood ~ T.S. Eliot  Eoin Colfer and P.J. Lynch, both nominated for the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award, will be at The Ark in Temple Bar on Wednesday March 10th at 6pm hosted by iBbY. The Morning News Tournament of Books kicked off today with Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin facing down Nami Mun's Miles From Nowhere. The Belgian Comic Strip Centre in Brussels is hosting Moomin: Tove Jansson's Dreamworld until August 29th. YA authors may gear their novels toward mid- to late-adolescents, but adults are snapping up the books, often about misfit teens or fantasy worlds. What did Lewis Carroll have against milliners? ‘Mad as a Hatter’: The History of a Simile. Upstairs, he stops for a moment, just to let the tension build, and then he begins again... Read The Knocking by David Means. |
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Poetry Corner |
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Song On May Morning,
John Milton Now the bright morning Star, Dayes harbinger, Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her The Flowry May, who from her green lap throws The yellow Cowslip, and the pale Primrose. Hail bounteous May that dost inspire Mirth and youth, and warm desire, Woods and Groves, are of thy dressing, Hill and Dale, doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early Song, And welcom thee, and wish thee long. |
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