I’ll be speaking at a meeting of The Women’s Network at Northern Essex Community College on March 25 from noon to 1 p.m.. The Women’s Network is celebrating Women in History Month and I’m honored to be their speaker. The meeting will be held in the Technology Center on the college’s Haverhill campus, 100 Elliott St. Admission is free.

Reservations and more information are available from Ginny Anderson at the Women’s Network, 978-556-3736 or ganderson@necc.mass.edu.

I finally have a fan page on Facebook. It will make staying in touch with everyone so much easier. It links to my blog, has videos, photos, book quotes, and all the typical Facebook bells and whistles. You can check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brunonia-Barry/52129873356

Enjoy!

The Lace Reader has been selected by iTunes as one of the best fiction audiobooks of 2008. 

Here’s the list of the other titles that also won:

Best Fiction Audiobooks of 2008
·        The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
·        The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
·        Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey
·        The Given Day by Dennis Lehane 

Congratulations again to narrator Alyssa Bresnahan. This is the second time this month that The Lace Reader has been selected as one of the best audiobooks of 2008 (Library Journal also picked it about two weeks ago).

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I won’t be able to attend the festivities at Green Mountain College today. I was so looking forward to being there and meeting everyone. I hope that I can visit the campus sometime in the very near future.

I’m back from Italy. What a wonderful week we had. It was a non-stop media blitz interrupted by some of the best food on the planet. The folks at Garzanti (my Italian publisher) were so gracious. I’ll be posting more details from the trip soon.

This Thursday, January 29th, I’ll be at Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT. I attended Green Mountain many years ago and they were kind enough to invite me to give the keynote address (”Creativity & A Sense of Place”) at their 175th anniversary event on Women in Leadership. You can learn more about the event by clicking here.

I arrived in Milan yesterday (a full day before my luggage) and will be here until Wednesday morning when we move on to Rome. I spent the first evening with my Italian editor, Elisabetta Migliavada. I had never met her before but had heard wonderful things which were all true. I feel very lucky to be working with her. 

Today,  I did several interviews including radio and a variety of print and online media. Francesca Rodella, from my Italian publisher, Garzanti, has done an incredible  job of getting dozens of interviews all lined up. I find that the Italian journalists ask very different (and very good!) questions. As a special treat, I was able to listen to passages of  The Lace Reader read in Italian in the melodious voice of my translator, Chiara Serafin. 

Ciao!

Brunonia

Library Journal just named “The Lace Reader” one of the Best Audiobooks of 2008 saying:

Narrator Alyssa Bresnahan “seamlessly” interweaves this best seller about a family that reads the future in lace.

Congrats to Alyssa for such magnificent performance. To see the entire list, click here.

Brunonia

BTW – Back in July 2008, Library Journal also gave the print version a Starred Review.

I was reminded of that often quoted line from The Lace Reader when I saw this picture so I thought I’d pass it along.

Enjoy!

Frost-covered spider's webs hang from a roof line in Godewaersvelde, France, as temperatures continue to drop. (AFP/Philippe Huguen)

The past year was challenging for most of us on so many levels.

For me, it was also the realization of a long-held dream with the publication of The Lace Reader and the subsequent book tour that lasted four months and allowed me to meet some wonderful people along the way. It’s inspiring to travel around the country and experience the intelligence and kindness of strangers. These person-to-person contacts convince me that there’s much that we can accomplish together.

Here’s to a 2009 that’s better for all of us.

Brunonia

News Update

The Lace Reader has been chosen by Barnes and Noble as their January “New Reads” book club pick. I will be on line every day starting on the 5th. If you’d like to join the discussion, click here.  

Also, The Lace Reader has been chosen by Book Bloggers as one of the top 10 books of 2008. Below is their contemporary fiction list. To see the books in other categories, click here.

Contemporary Literature

All About Lulu by Jonathan Evison 
Gardens of Water by Alan Drew 
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson 
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen 
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein 
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry 
Matrimony by Joshua Henkin 
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton 
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan 
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I confess. I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping. I went out yesterday, but the stores were over crowed due to the  post snowstorm frenzy, and I have such a strong aversion to crowds, that I gave up and came home early.  

It’s not that it’s a difficult task for me to accomplish. Everyone is getting books. Books are what everyone always gets from me.

Crowds or no crowds, I have to admit that I do love shopping on Christmas Eve. It’s something we always did with my dad, We’d shop and then visit friends, dropping off gifts house to house. In retrospect, I’m sure the whole thing was really just a way to get my brother and me out of the house so that my mother could finally get something done. Still, it was a very special day with my father, and we looked forward to it.

Family arrives tonight if more snowstorms don’t ground their flights. Tomorrow, I will drag my niece around with me to all the local bookstores. Maybe we’ll stop and pick up my brother as well.

Have great holidays!

Brunonia

I have about ten more gifts to go, but here are the book titles I’ve selected so far:

Home by Marilynne Robinson

The Cure for Grief by Nellie Hermann

Best American Short Stories 2008 – Edited by Salman Rushdie

The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III

City of Refuge by Tom Piazza

The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent

American Transcendentalism by Philip F. Gura

American Lion by Jon Meacham

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin

Second Sight by Rickey Gard Diamond

Dewey by Vicki Myron

I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass

The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie

Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan

The Other by David Guterson