These from Ann Herendeen, author of Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander, forthcoming April 2008:
What was the best book of the year?
As a writer whose first book is set in 1812, and whose second book is set in—1812—I don’t keep up with current books as I should. And even if I did, I couldn’t claim to be qualified to pronounce on which is the “best.” So I will say that of the books published in 2007, the ones I would most like to read (may I have a fiction and a nonfiction choice, please?) are:
Fiction: The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt (Bloomsbury)
Nonfiction: The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War by Graham Robb (Norton)
What was the best movie?
This is even harder. None of this year’s movies really did it for me. After plowing through the lists, the movie that I hadn’t even heard of but that sounds compelling is There Will be Blood, described in IMDB as “A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century Texas prospector (Daniel Day-Lewis) in the early days of the business.” Besides Day-Lewis, who really made me sit up and take notice with My Beautiful Laundrette, it also stars Ciaran Hinds, who I thought made a wonderful (and not your usual romantic lead) Captain Frederick Wentworth in Persuasion.
What was the best song/album?
Can’t do “best,” and I don’t really do albums anymore. The song I liked: Mary J. Blige “Work That” (love the video, too.)
Favorite Blog?
This is the easy one: MarkSimpson.com
He calls himself (or used to) “the skinhead Oscar Wilde,” but he’s much better than that.
The post that turned me on to him is from Feb. 15 2006 in which Simpson begs to differ with news reports that female bisexuality is common whereas male bisexuality is rare-to-nonexistent.
Who was the person of the year?
Sam Harris. Why? Here are quotes from a talk he gave at the Atheist Alliance conference in Washington D.C. on September 28th, 2007, in which he discussed why “atheism” is perhaps not necessary as an identity:
“All we need are words like ‘reason’ and ‘evidence’ and ‘common sense’ and ‘bullshit’ to put astrologers in their place, and so it could be with religion.
It seems to me that intellectual honesty is now, and will always be, deeper and more durable, and more easily spread, than ‘atheism.’”
What is your New Year’s resolution?
To complete the transition from “librarian who writes in her spare time” to “writer.”
Any predictions for 2008?
I’m not good at this. I confidently predicted, back in 1977 or 78 (or whenever the “midi-skirt” had its brief moment of fame), that the miniskirt was gone for good. All I can say for sure is that the earth will get warmer.
