BOOK Southern Africa

@PenguinbooksSA Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-12

Tracey — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:30:00 +0200

Penguin Books SA Alistair Morgan- SLEEPER’S WAKE: At the moment I am reading … Before She .. http://tinyurl.com/kq6gve # RT @tweetmeme | Penguin Books Blog http://tinyurl.com/kq6gve # Penguin Books SA author of the month- Alistair Morgan Author Of SLEEPER’S WAKE http://www.penguinbooks.co.za/news/267/ # Penguin Books SA Shaun Tomson SURFER’S CODE Launches: FRIDAY 10 JULY POR.. http://tinyurl.com/n9qp3b # RT @tweetmeme Shaun Tomson SURFER’S CODE Launches | Penguin Books Blog http://cli.gs/LJALg # Shaun Tomson- SURFER’S CODE Launches http://www.penguinbooks.co.za/events/266/ # Penguin [...]

@BOOKSA Twitter Weekly Updates 2009-07-12

Ben - Editor — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:05:00 +0200

@K80LOU @louisgreenberg Sounds as though you’re having a splendid time. Wish I was there! # RT @brodiegal Off to talk about The Joburg Book, on Radio Today (1485AM), at 9am. Oops b # @laurenbeukes Eish! No *Zi*dane in 2010, but hopefully Messi, Ronaldo, Gerard, Podolski, Torres, Henri, Kaka… in reply to laurenbeukes # RT @guardianbooks News: Hemingway revealed as failed KGB spy http://bit.ly/qeoGd # @laurenbeukes Seriaas? Seriaas! in reply to laurenbeukes # @laurenbeukes “Is good good good is good is nice” - which I think is for Chicken [...]

Sunday Read: Two from GuernicaMag.com

Ben - Editor — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:47:58 +0200

Alert! Since the Caine Prize was awarded this year to a short story published by GuernicaMag.com - it was EC Osondu’s “Waiting” - BOOK SA got the notion to take a closer browse through the online zine, and found several SA-related items that were worth a second look. We present two of them here for your Sunday peruse. The first is a photo essay on Beaufort West by Mikhael Subotzky; the second, a work of short fiction by the editor-in-chief of the Cream City Review - a journal that the editor-in-chief of BOOK SA remembers with [...]

Afterword

Ted — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:18:22 +0200

Janet wheeled herself down the hallway and into the study of the old villa. Repairmen were pulling vines from the dark walls and were nailing down new floorboards where the rain of decades, particularly the flood of January 1941, had warped and eroded the old ones. A young man with a very large smile was leaving the room with a file under his arm. “Excited, ma’am?” he asked. She touched Omar Touré’s hand affectionately. “Is that the rhino report?” “Yes, ma’am.” She would have preferred it if they didn’t call her ma’am, but Ethel Goodleigh had told her [...]

Why ebooks should cost $9.99

Arthur Attwell — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:06:32 +0200

Ebook pricing is so contentious at the moment. Every day another publisher or author chimes in with a strong view, often at odds with consumer expectations that ebooks should cost less than print. For some time, Amazon has been selling many of its Kindle ebooks at $9.99, even when publishers earn more than that from each sale – Amazon absorbs the loss, artificially forcing down the prices of ebooks in order to build the market in line with consumer expectations. Recently, Barnes& Noble began using a standard $9.95 price too, following Amazon’s lead. This benchmark price that Amazon and Barnes & [...]

A morning with a mother

De Waal — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:11:46 +0200

A morning with a mother The warm mother-smell from the milk in straight rays from the udder holds the boy as he watches over the shoulder of the mosotho milker. New dung sends a clean, sharp message from the floor; out of the kitchen curls the fatherly reassurance of mieliepap; eggs develop their transparencies into a delicious solid white in the hot, bubbling grease. It must have rained in the night on the top of the rant, it smells of his mother’s cool hand. Pipe smoke bites through the morning; oupa is starting up the tractor, paraffin and petrol, and the type of [...]

Kok en skinker: Meer as net ’n kookboek

Vera — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:53:27 +0200

As jy regtig wil, dan kán jy. Dit is kosliefhebber Dirk Nagtegaal se kos-filosofie. In sy eerste kookboek, Kok en Skinker, deel hy sy geliefkoosde, beproefde familieresepte en gee hy wynwenke. Karla Janse van Vuuren het met hom gesels. ’n Kookboek wat nie net jou mond laat water met watertand-resepte en kleurvolle foto’s nie, maar wat ook so prakties is dat jou vingers jeuk om te begin kook, is ’n plesier vir elke tuiskok. Dirk Nagtegaal [...]

Fond Farewell to Monica Fairall

Sophy — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:25:50 +0200

Monica Fairall was Miss South Africa, SAfm broadcaster, and - famously in literary circles - the lover of poet Douglas Livingstone. (She was also his literary executor.) She passed away last month at the age of 60, after a battle with cancer. Here are obituaries from the Sunday Times and The Witness, followed by a tribute from Patrick Collyer: Monica Fairall, a former Miss South Africa and well-known SAfm broadcaster who died in Durban at the age of 60, caused an uproar when she took part in the 1968 [...]

Andrew Foley Tests the Limits of The Imagination of Freedom

Tshepo — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:09:39 +0200

The political history of humankind in modern times can be characterised essentially as the struggle for freedom. Concomitantly, much of the most significant contemporary literature has concerned itself with the idea of human freedom. In The Imagination of Freedom, Andrew Foley (pictured here with author Michiel Heyns) explores the work of a number of writers who have responded, from a liberal viewpoint, to critical moments in contemporary political history when such freedom has come under severe threat. These writers have used the power of [...]

Press Release: Van Schaik Turns 95

Sophy — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:39:27 +0200

Press Release At 95 years, Van Schaik Bookstore proves that books are a solid investment With 45 stores throughout South Africa and an online store, supplying textbooks and reference books to students and professionals, Van Schaik Bookstore has good reason to celebrate 95 years in business this year, and its position as the leading specialist academic book chain in South Africa. Van Schaik opened in 1914 with a small bookstore, specializing in Christian literature, magazines and stationery in Church Street, Pretoria. The [...]