Archive for the Category »Novels «

Sam’s Selection – featured author this month

stiegLarssonPicStieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå.

He is best known for writing the “Millennium series” of crime novels, which was published posthumously. Larsson lived and worked much of his life in Stockholm. he died suddenly at the age of 50 from a heart attack, after climbing seven flights of stairs at his office because of a broken lift.

At his death, Larsson left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death.

The first was published in Sweden in 2005 as Män som hatar kvinnor (“Men who hate women”), published in English as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was awarded the Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel in 2005. His second novel, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire), received the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2006. The third novel in the Millennium series, Luftslottet som sprängdes (“The air castle that was blown up”), published in English as The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, was published in the United States in May 2010.

The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird has produced film versions of the Millennium series, co-produced with The Danish film production company Nordisk Film and TV company, which were released in Scandinavia in 2009.

Stieg Larsson acknowledged that a significant number of his literary influences were American and British crime/detective fiction authors.

Topping the list were Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie, Val McDermid, Dorothy Sayers, Elizabeth George and Enid Blyton. One of the strongest influences originates from his own country: Pippi Longstocking, by Sweden’s much-loved children’s author Astrid Lindgren. Larsson explained that one of his main recurring characters in the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander, is actually fashioned on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as he chose to sketch her.

You can watch an interview online about Stieg Larson and the publishing phenomenon he became on the Charlie Rose U.S. website.

Digi-tale – teenagers online and books

digitalePicWorld Book Day 2011 generated a number of new sites about books and reading, as you would expect.

One we like is Digi-tale – a great web site for teenagers about books and reading. Sounds dull? It isn’t.

You can find a unique new short story from Louise Tennison that you can read online for free…‘How to make any Twit fall in love with you’. There’s the great Snogometer and opportunities to tweet your favourite books too.

There are videos on books and a great selection of recommended reads to get you thinking about books. There are even some vampires and werewolves wandering the web site too.

There is the opportunity to write a short story of your own and some great prizes.

Check out Digi-tale and see books you haven’t discovered yet.

Welcome to our Library Blog

Getting the most from books as a family

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library…

Jorge Luis Borge – Argentine writer, poet and essayist.

 

These are the new web pages for the Community Library at Marham designed to stimulate your interest in good writing and to help the imaginations of the younger members of our community to grow.

Whether you like new fiction, old favourites or your children are passionate about great stories, meeting authors or finding new picture books – we will feature them all here on our pages.

We will have our regular features too. Sam’s Selection – what’s interesting at the moment in our library. Our featured author post, as well as news of library events around and about in the County.

Of course, we won’t forget parent and carer reading and intend to feature some great web links to help you and your family become a ‘reading family’ too.

We are moving some of our furniture and books to make for a more accessible space in the library. Watch these pages for news of new projects and events around books and family reading.

See you in the library…