There are two things that you need to know about Laurie R. King's novel "The Beekeeper's Apprentice." One, it was named one of the "100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
No matter where you look in life, you'll find hierarchies. Take literature, for example. It's a truism that anything achieving popular success, no matter how well reviewed, automatically ranks below something that gets rave reviews but is perceived to be "literary."
Eight years ago, when the first Get Lit! literary festival was held in The Met, there weren't that many people in the audience at any one time. And the people reading? Talented they were, no question. But there wasn't a household name among them.
Movies have always had a relationship with food. Some of us can't imagine watching a film without a tub of popcorn in our lap and a large (diet) drink on the side.
Doesn't seem as if it's been a full year, but Get Lit!, Eastern Washington University Press' annual literary festival, is here again. And amid all the activities offered for adults by the 2006 edition of the event, there's always time for teens – and those even younger.
Quick: Raise your hand, all who think that Get Lit! is only for brainy types who believe there's no greater treasure than the written word. Ignore the inherent truth of the statement. Just judge the rest of it.
Tell Jerry Newport your birth date, and he's likely to surprise you. "He can tell you how many seconds old you are," says Radha Mitchell, star of the film "Mozart & the Whale," which opens today in Spokane, Spokane Valley, Coeur d'Alene and Pullman.
If you happen to see people reading verse on the streets of Spokane late Monday afternoon, don't be afraid. Unless, of course, you're afraid of poetry.
It's a cliché that a woman doesn't begin to become truly interesting until she turns 40. But as my wife – who is a year or two past that age – always says, "It's not that stereotypes are never true. It's just that they're not always true."
John Irving isn't just any judge of literature. He's been a best-selling author since 1978, when his fourth novel, "The World According to Garp," hit the bookshelves and ended up being a finalist for the American Book Award.
Chris Crutcher is known nationally as a no-nonsense author of serious-themed novels for young adults. Name the issue, and Crutcher has been addressing it for the past 23 years in such books as "Running Loose," "Stotan!" "Athletic Shorts" and, most recently, "The Sledding Hill" (HarperCollins, 240 pages, $15.99).
I've been running occasional references to Get Lit! 2006, the eighth annual Eastern Washington University Press literary festival, which will be held April 19 through 23. Here are two of the latest news items:
Louden Swain is crazy. OK, that may be a little extreme. But how else would you describe a guy who, against the advice of virtually everyone else in his life, decides to end his high school wrestling career by moving down from the 154-pound class – "where," he says, "I'm already lean" – to 147?
It's nice to have a passion. And sometimes it pays. It certainly does for Spokane resident Megan Albertus, who for the third time has won The Spokesman-Review's Oscar Contest.
It's too bad that so many people know Robert Bly only as the author of "Iron John." While there's nothing wrong with the book, which served as the focal point of the men's movement that began in the late 1980s, it's only a small part of what the Minnesota-born poet has accomplished in his life.
They keep adding authors to the schedule of Get Lit! 2006, the eighth edition of Eastern Washington University's celebration of all things literary. It's not as if the headliners are exactly unknown.
It comes at about minute 26. The scare, that is. Minute 26 marks the moment in the short film "What's in the Barn?" that is most likely to make you jump. That, at least, is what several audience members did who saw the film during its premiere at the recent Spokane International Film Festival – which made it arguably the most entertaining of the 20-odd shorts that played SpIFF 2006. Not a bad achievement for four Spokane filmmakers and a movie that began as nothing more
Oscar just doesn't seem to gleam as much as he used to. What with the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, MTV Movie and People's Choice Awards all getting not just media attention but a fair share of air time, Oscar has lost a bit of his luster.
I've received letters, e-mails and phone calls asking about the 2006 Spokesman-Review Limericks Contest. So, yes, we are holding it for the eighth straight year.
Kathleen Tyau is one of those writers who earned a lot of fame and fortune right away. OK, just kidding. Irony isn't always the best way to make a point.
Get Lit! isn't exactly around the corner. It's out on the porch, though. And quickly approaching. Eastern Washington University's annual literary festival will be held April 20-23 in Spokane (at The Met) and Cheney. Latest to join the menu of readers is Scottish novelist Alexander McCall Smith, best known as author of the "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. Smith, a native of Zimbabwe whose 2004 novel was "The Sunday Philosophy," will give a talk titled "On Being a Serial Novelist" on April 23 at 3 p.m. at The Met. He augments an already impressive lineup that includes Marilynne Robinson (Pulitzer Prize for her 2004 book "Gilead: A Novel"); Yusef Komunyakaa (Pulitzer Prize for his 1993 poetry collection "Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems"); and Nancy Pearl (Seattle librarian and author of "Book Lust").
Former Spokesman-Review reporter Jim Lynch is one of six winners of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's 2006 Book Awards. Lynch's novel "The Highest Tide" (Bloomsbury USA, 272 pages, $23.95) drew particular praise from the PNBA Committee for the author's ability to portray both the problems faced by a teenage boy and his love of the Olympia tidal flats. " 'The Highest Tide' has captured the turbulence of teen angst amidst the wonder of the natural world," the committee said.
