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Best Imaginary Countries in Books

A good mythical country is not a place that doesn’t exist. It’s a place that does exist but you weren’t aware of it, either because you didn’t look at the map carefully, haven’t spent enough time in that particular part of the subarctic Eurasian hinterlands, or simply got confused by the exotic-sounding name. 

1. Costaguana - The setting of Nostromo, Joseph Conrad’s acid 1904 political novel about a revolution-torn, resource-cursed country plagued by the meddling of cynical and idealistic Westerners. Since it combines aspects of Colombia, Peru and most of all Panama (none of which Conrad ever visited, interestingly), its location is thought to be somewhere along the coastline of northern South America. 

2. San Lorenzo - An impoverished, densely populated Caribbean island run by a psychopathic dictator known as Papa. Not Haiti, surprisingly, but the home of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1963 cold war satire about scientific hubris and the end of the world, Cat’s Cradle. 

3. Uqbar – You don’t know where it is and you never will, because the men who created it, a benevolent conspiracy of master-scholars in either seventeenth-century London or Lucerne, didn’t want you to. However, you could read “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” the lead story in Jorge Luis Borges’ Ficciones, which tracks down the conspiracy’s origin in the missing pages of a pirated encyclopedia, and soon leads to the discovery of an even larger conspiracy: an invented universe. 

4. Absurdsvanϊ– Before Gary Shteyngart’s 2007 novel, Absurdistan, few Americans outside Washington DC or the Halliburton headquarters in Houston had heard of this post-Soviet mini-republic (the “Norway of the Caspian,” as it was once briefly known) damned by an unfortunate name but potentially redeemed by geostrategic value.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Insane City by Dave Barry

A dark comic masterpiece—the first solo adult novel in more than a decade from the Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times–bestselling author.

Seth Weinstein knew Tina was way out of his league in pretty much any way you could imagine, which is why it continued to astonish him that he was on the plane now for their destination wedding in Florida. The Groom Posse had already sprung an airport prank on him, and he’d survived it, and if that was the worst of it, everything should be okay. Smooth sailing from now on.

Seth has absolutely no idea what he’s about to get into. In the next several hours, he and his friends will become embroiled with rioters, Russian gangsters, angry strippers, a pimp as big as the Death Star, a very desperate Haitian refugee on the run with her two children from some very bad men, and an eleven-foot albino Burmese python named Blossom. And there’re still two days to go before the wedding.

As it turns out, it’s not smooth sailing, it’s more like a trip on the Titanic. And the water below him is getting deeper every minute. By the end, amid gunfire, high-speed chases, and mayhem of the most unimaginable sort, violent men will fall, heroes will rise, and many lives will change.

Seth’s, not least of all.

Celebrating 75 Years in Film!

Although 1939 is considered the "golden year" of classic Hollywood, 1938 was a banner year for enduring movies, as well, and 2013 marks the 75th anniversary of these great films.  Here are a few of the most influential movies marking their 75th anniversaries this year.

BringingUp Baby Howard Hawks directs Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in this beloved screwball comedy about a madcap heiress and the leopard who helps her entangle a handsome paleontologist. Although it failed to earn a single Oscar nomination in 1939, "Bringing Up Baby" has become a true standard of the comedy genre. Who can resist Hepburn, Grant, and a supporting cast that includes Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, and May Robson?

YouCan't Take It with You  The Best Picture winner in 1939 would be this sentimental comedy from Frank Capra, which stars Jean Arthur, Jimmy Stewart, and Lionel Barrymore as the leads in another cast packed with treasures. Spring Byington was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the matriarch of the eccentric Sycamore clan, and the movie earned seven nominations in all, with a win for Capra's direction joining the Best Picture award.

Jezebel  Bette Davis beats Vivien Leigh to the Civil War ball by a year with this costume melodrama from director William Wyler. Along with Davis, who won Best Actress for her role, the film stars Henry Fonda, George Brent, and Fay Bainter (who won for Best Supporting Actress), while Max Steiner provides the Oscar-nominated score.

Pygmalion  This English adaptation of the play by George Bernard Shaw features Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard as the Cockney flower girl and her difficult mentor, with direction by Anthony Asquith. Both Hiller and Howard earned Oscar nominations for their parts, and the movie also scored a Best Picture nod, but its only win was for Best Screenplay. Wilfrid Lawson gives a terrific performance as Eliza Doolittle's opportunistic father, Alfred.

Happy Birthday, Gary Paulsen

Mr. Paulsen is one of today's most popular writers for young readers.  You might have enjoyed Lawn Boy, a recent Texas Bluebonnet nominee or his most recent, Liar, Liar.  I read Hatchet in elementary school and was simultaneously enthralled and repulsed by its thrilling plot. A thirteen year old boy is stranded in the Canadian wilderness after his plane crashes.   Highlights of his fight for survival include learning to build a fire, eating turtle eggs, and creating an array of weaponry.  If you've got a tween boy, he will be in awe of this hero.

Mr. Paulsen himself isn't too shabby, either.  He ran away from home and joined the circus at age fourteen.  He's worked as a ranch hand, a magazine proofreader, and an Alaskan dog sled racer.  And he's consumed a steady diet of books since a librarian gave him a book to read and his own library card.  To Mr. Paulsen, reading is the ultimate adventure: "I owe everything I am, and everything I ever will be to books."

Get a Clue!

We welcome the return of Sherlock Holmes, the world's most renowned and beloved detective!

TheHouse of Silk by AnthonyHorowitz

Sherlock Holmes is the greatest detective in literary history. For the first time since the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a new Holmes story has been sanctioned by his estate, whetting the appetites of fans everywhere. Horowitz truly pulls off the wonderful illusion that Arthur Conan Doyle left us one last tale, occurring in 1890 London.

The Sherlockian byGraham Moore

Literary researcher and newest inductee into the Baker Street Irregulars, Harold White, is thrilled when the world's leading expert on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle announces that he's found the author's fabled 'missing diary.' When the man is found murdered, it's Harold who must find the killer and the once again missing diary. 

Brothers of Baker Street byMichael Roberston

The first Sherlock Holmes letter barrister Reggie Heath answered cost him his fortune, all of his Baker Street Chambers clients, and Laura Rankin, the love of his life. But, he intends to get it all back by representing the driver of one of London's famous Black Cabs, who has been accused of killing to American tourists. Meanwhile, the letters to Sherlock keep piling up. 

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by LaurieR. King

Long retired, Sherlock Holmes quietly pursues his study of honeybee behavior on the Sussex Downs. He never imagines he would encounter anyone whose intellect matched his own, much less an audacious teenage girl with a penchant for detection. Miss Mary Russell becomes Holmes' pupil and quickly hones her talent for deduction, disguises, and danger. But when an elusive villain enters the picture, their partnership is put to a real test.

Romances on Fire!

Chasing Fire by NoraRoberts

Rowan 'Swede' Tripp is a smoke jumper. She knows how dangerous it can be, having watched in horror the summer before as her partner overshot the landing site and landed in a burning tree. Lately he had been appearing to her in her dreams warning her of coming danger. Was he warning her about her job or her romantic relationship with rookie smoke jumper, Gulliver Curry?

All Summer Long by Susan Mallery

Clay Stryker made a lot of money as an underwear model, but now he's left that life behind and returned to settle down in his hometown of Fool's Gold, Calif., where he plans to buy a ranch and live his life alone. He has no plans to risk his heart again and fall in love. But then he meets firefighter Chantal Dixon, who approaches him with a surprising proposal.

Sizzle and Burn by JayneAnn Krentz

Raine Tallentyre inherited her Aunt Vella's house. She also inherited all the secrets that the house held.  Then a private investigator shows up on her doorstep offering to trade answers about her family's mysterious past for her help in solving the murder case by using the voices she hears in her head. As much as she doesn't want to, Raine finds herself trusting him with her body and soul.

Just Breathe by SusanWiggs

Cartoonist Sarah Moon tackles life's real issues in her syndicated comic strip. As her cartoon alter ego, Shirl mirrors her own life, but when Sarah's for her future are shattered by her husband's infidelities, what would will Shirl do?  Especially when hot firefighter Will Bonner enters the picture?