20-Word Fiction: Listen to Your Teachers

Greetings from the Hartford Public Library here in Hartford, Conn., which is not actually where we are blogging from but we expect they have every novel from Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, which have been translated into English.

Speaking of Turkey, today's image is of the famed Hagia Sophi, a state museum in Istanbul, Turkey, where actress Ashley Judd visited yesterday (we learned this from one of her tweets) which started as a Byzantine church before being converted to a mosque by the Ottomans.

Here is today's 20-word fiction which we are writing while listening to Brahms........:

"My religion professor said to be a true intellectual, one must read the Holy Bible and the Koran. Maybe so."

http://www.hplct.org/

Celebrating International Literacy Day with Gillian Flynn

Welcome to our blog readers in Croatia, Estonia, and France....

Today we celebrate International Literacy Day, and this list features titles we have not read before or perhaps did but fell asleep in the process. A children's author highly recommended I read more Ray Bradbury. So, we are putting a Bradbury novel on the list, but not the one he suggested, as is our usual fashion, like Matthew Broderick's title character in the film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off,' we are a bit rebellious around here!

And, now the list....

1) Cosmopolis. Don DeLillo. 2003 (pict. top)

2) Me and Orson Welles. Robert Kaplow. 2008.

3) The Leftovers. Tom Perrotta. 2011.

4) Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn. 2012 (pict. center)

5) Submarine. Joe Dunthorne. 2008.

6) God's Pocket. Pete Dexter. 1983.

7) Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. 1953.

8) Tender Is the Night. F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1934 (pict. bottom)

9) The Naked and the Dead. Norman Mailer. 1948.

10) The Museum of Innocence. Orhan Pamuk.* 2008

*-originally published in Turkish

http://www.internationliteracyday.com

http://www.denverlibrary.org (Denver Library)

Ten Novels to Re-Read: The Great Gatsby, et al

As beach-reading season is winding down, we thought we'd take a look at some great, vintage novels which are worth of a second, third or even a fourth look.

Many of these novels are listed in the Modern Library's best novels.

Here is the list:

1. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) #2 on the Modern Library list

2. "Lord of the Flies" by William Goldig (1954) #41 on the ML list

3. "The Black Book" ("Kara Kitap") by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey. 1990. English version published in 1994)

4. "Less Than Zero" by Breat Easton Ellis (1985)

5. "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk (1996)

6. "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay McInerny (1984)

7. "Deliverance" by James Dickey (1970) #42 on the Modern Library List

8. "1984" by George Orwell (1949) #13 on Modern Library List

9. "Franny and Zooey" by J.D. Salinger (1961)

10. "Catch 22" by by Joseph Heller (1961) #7 on the Modern Library List

http://www.modernlibrary.com

http://www.malaprops.com/ (Indy bookstore in Asheville, NC)

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/ (Indy bookstore in Durham, NC)

http://www.boulderbookstore.net/ (Indy bookstore in Boulder, Colo.)

Quote of the Day- Jose Saramago

Today, we conclude our quotes from famous figures associated with each of the 16 countries represented in the Euro Cup 2012 with a quip from the Portuguese novelist Jose Saramgo (1922-2010).

Portugal advanced to the quarterfinals today with a 2-1 win over Denmark; they will join Germany who defeated the Netherlands 2-1 in advancing from the dreaded group of death.

Saramago was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, which in recent years has gone to Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk and the late British playwright Harold Pinter.

The Portuguese writer was a communist politically which forced him to live a portion of his life in exile in the Canary Islands, joining the likes of the late Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, who lived in Russia, and the late American novelist William Burroughs, who lived in Morocco (but lived the later years of his life in Lawrence, Kansas)  as writers who lived in exile for either political or personal reasons.

Saramago's most famous novels include "Baltasar and Blimunda" (1982), "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" (1991), which was very controversial, and "Blindness" (1997).

Here is his quote:

"As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved_ it's the citizen who changes things."

Quote of the Day- Elif Shafak

We are quoting famous Turkish people this month since October 29th is Turkish Republic's Day. I happen to be a Turkish-American, and unlike novelist Elif Shafak, whom I am quoting today, I actually try to avoid ethnic politics. But, as it is, a Facebook called "Armenians for Jesus" put me in their group without asking me first! The central conflict is not only my ethnicity, but also the fact that I am a human secularist!

While researching this piece, I was surprised to learn that Shafak, who turns 40 on Oct. 25, is actually a year younger than I am. She is not to be confused with Elif Batuman, a Turkish-American writer who published an excellent personal narrative called "Possesed..." about Russian writers last year.

Shafak has written essays, but she is primarily known as a novelist. She has arguably been the most controversial arts figure in Turkey since the late filmmaker/novelist Yilmaz Guney whose works in the 1970s and early 80s (he died in his late forties in France at a relatively young age) usually had very overt pro-Kurdish secterian views.

For her part, Shafak has encountered legal problems in Turkey for her her highly controversial 2006 novel "The Bastard of Istanbul," which unlike her contemporary Orhan Pamuk's works, was originally written in English.

Shafak decided to tackle the Turkish-Armenian controversy directly and she politically expressed her desires to see Turkey recognize those disputed events as a genocide.

Since I have had my own quicksand moments, such as the Armenians for Jesus Fiasco, I will refrain from my views on the matter here, which is certainly not inherent in my nature!

But, we will quote Shafak with a line from her latest novel "The Forty Rules of Love," which is ironically a best-seller in Turkey:

"Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we were the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough."

Happy Republic's Day (Turkey)

Today is the 87th anniversary of the founding of The Republic of Turkey. I once participated in a Republic's Day parade as a child back in 1978 in the industrial town of Zonguldak Eregli on the western Black Sea coast. (I was actually born in Roanoke, Va., but I lived in Turkey-my late father's country for two years as a child).

The scene above is likely from one of the four Princess Islands near Istanbul. They include Kinali, Burgaz, Heybeli and Buyukada.

The Turkish author made Heybeli Island more famous since some of his stories have taken place there. The island was the subject of controversy due to a propsed closing of an ehtnic Greek papal school. Heybeli is also home to one of Turkey's largest naval academies.

My family has long resided on Buyukada, the largest of the islands (there is also the tiny island of Sedefadasi adjacent to Buyukada, which is primarily a hangout for seagulls). Buyukada was, at last report, home to the Lale Sinemasi (Cinema), which is one of the last remaining outdoor cinemas in Turkey.

I believe I watched several action films starring Turkish movie idol Cuneyt Arkin there as a child (There was another outdoor cinema on Buyukada which closed some 10-15 years ago). In 2008, I saw a screening of "The Other Boleyn Girl" with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson there.

No cars are allowed with the exception of police and emergency vehicles on any of the islands.