Some bookish moments I had this month:
- Three Pines Alert: One of my favorite book podcasts, Currently Reading, announced that they are going to take a deep dive into Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache books over the next few months. They haven't yet announced when they will begin. But they are going to have a series of special episodes where they just discuss one of the books, beginning with the first in the series and working their way through to the last book released. If you are a fan of these books you might want to tune in for these special episodes.
- A Book Village: The New York Times had a story about a town in New York that turned itself into a book village. Main street has eight independent book stores. The town only has 400 residents. But the town hosts several book festivals a year that attract people from all over. The inspiration was the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye which is a book mecca for readers.
- A Really Long Book: Egyptian archaeologists announced that they discovered a 16 meter long ancient papyrus in Saqqara, a necropolis of the ancient city of Memphis. It contains texts from the Book of the Dead and could shed new light on ancient Egyptian beliefs. (This combines my love of archaeology and books!)
- Poet Laureate: A small village in Virginia has named its own poet laureate. Every village should have a poet laureate.
- TS Eliot Prize: Poet Anthony Joseph has won the 2022 TS Eliot Prize for his collection Sonnets for Albert, an autobiographical collection about growing up with an absent father. Joseph is a Trinidad born poet, novelist, academic and musician.
- PEN Longlist Announced: PEN America announced the longlist for its literary awards. I hadn't heard of most of these works. The prize categories span fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, translation, and other categories.
