Coming in September.

Anathem is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world.

Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.

Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

Sir Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children has won the Best of the Booker prize, as voted for by the public.

wonderful -- Midnight's Children is a glorious novel

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Rushdie wins Best of Booker prize

not the best recording but so it goes

RIP Esbjörn

YouTube - Esbj�rn Svennson Trio

Esbjorn Svensson (April 16, 1964 - June 14, 2008) was a jazz pianist and founder of the jazz band Esbj�rn Svensson Trio, commonly known as E.S.T.

RIP to a great musician who I had the privilege of seeing play in concert and made me cry at the beauty of the performance -- a great loss

Esbj�rn Svensson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Artist Beryl Cook, known for her colourful and comic paintings of larger-than-life ladies, has died at the age of 81.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Painter Beryl Cook dies aged 81

Some writers complain that semicolons are subversively ambiguous, that they vaguely imply a connection between two statements without having to specify what that connection is.

Punctuated (Pause) With a Semicolon

Entries for an art contest at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC. The rule was that the artist could use only one sheet of paper.

Dan Van Malsen : photos : Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC- powered by SmugMug

TORONTO (AP) — Oscar Peterson, whose flying fingers, hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations made him one of the world's most famous and influential jazz pianists in a career that spanned seven decades, has died. He was 82.

Oscar Peterson's Christmas Album was recommended by Barry Ritholtz in a post I memed earlier in the month. I bought it and I've been enjoying it this season. I was saddened to hear this news.

The Associated Press: Jazz Piano Legend Oscar Peterson Dies

J K ROWLING has made an emotional return to the cramped Edinburgh flat where she wrote the first book in the Harry Potter series.

The author, who has notched up almost 400m book sales, broke down in tears as she recalled the hardship she endured while living there as a single mother with her baby daughter Jessica.

Rowling in tears on return to Harry’s lowly birthplace - Times Online

I spent the month of November in New York, and for part of that time I hung out at the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), doing research for a book I’m writing on the ’60s TV show “The Fugitive.” When I wasn’t reading reviews and cover stories in old issues of TV guide, I was going to galleries, listening to concerts and seeking out movies that would probably not make it up to Delaware County. The movie I found was “Starting Out in the Evening,” described in the reviews as a “small film,” which means not only that there are no special effects, but that almost nothing happens (a point of criticism on the part of some reviewers).

Stanley Fish on Art and meaning and in sense looking at a mess he helped create as a critic by writing "Is There a Text in This Class?" and thus debunking authoritive meaning - oh the irony

Stanley Fish - Think Again - Opinion - New York Times Blog