Granta- Best of Young British Novelists-4 (2013)

Im a big fan of Granta magazine.I knew Granta for many years but have not read the book till last year. I subscribed the magazine last year and so far i have received 4 books and all are awesome. I always keep Granta in my bag , where ever i go i take it too. Now the much awaited Granta's Best Young British Novelist list has been released and i was really surprised to see diverse group of writers from different backgrounds.

Here is the list:

1. Naomi Alderman
2. Tahmima Anam
3. Ned Beauman
4. Jenni Fagan
5. Adam Foulds
6. Xiaolu Guo
7. Sarah Hall
8. Steven Hall
9. Joanna Kavenna
10. Benjamin Markovits
11. Nadifa Mohamed
12. Helen Oyeyemi
13. Ross Raisin
14. Sunjeev Sahota - Comment by Salman Rushdie
15. Taiye Selasi
16. Kamila Shamsie
17. Zadie Smith
18. David Szalay
19. Adam Thirlwell
20. Evie Wyld 

Among the above listed authors i knew Zadie Smith and Xiaolu Guo. Good to see many women in the list and from different ethnic background. Sunjeev Sahota - name sounds Indian but im not sure. There is one Bangladeshi origin author(Tahimima Anam) and one Pakistani author (Kamila Shamsie). Hope these writers will enrich the world of literature.

Here is the 2003 Best of Young Novelist List -3:
1. Sarah Waters
2. Monica Ali
3. Andrew O'Hagan
4. Dan Rhodes
5. Rachel Seiffert
6. Toby Litt
7. Rachel Cusk
8. Alan Warner
9. Nicola Barker
10. David Mitchell
11. Susan Elderkin
12. Stephen Gill
13. Peter Ho Davies
14. A.L. Kennedy
15. Ben Rice
16. David Peace
17. Hari Kunzru
18. Philip Hensher
19. Robert McLiam Wilson
20. Zadie Smith
21. Adam Thirlwell 

Here is the 1993 Best of Young British Novelist List -2:
1. Iain Banks
2. Louis de Bernieres
3. Anne Billson
4. Tibor Fischer
5. Esther Freud
6. Alan Holinghurst
7. Kazuo Ishiguro
8. A.L Kennedy
9. Philip Kerr
10. Hanif Kureishi
11. Adam Lively
12. Adam Mars-Jones
13. Candia McWilliam
14. Lawrence Norfolk
15. Ben Okri
16. Caryl Philips
17. Will Shelf
18. Nicholas Shakespeare
19. Helen Simpson
20. Jeanette Winterson

Here is the 1983 Best of Young British Novelist list -1:
1. Martin Amis
2. Pat Barker
3. Julian Barnes
4. Ursula Bentley 
5. William Boyd
6. Buchi Emecheta
7. Maggie Gee
8. Kazuo Ishiguro
9. Alan Judd
10. Adam Mars-Jones
11. Ian McEwan
12. Shiva Naipaul
13. Philip Norman
14. Christopher Priest
15. Salman Rushdie
16. Lisa St.Aubin de Teran
17. Clive Sinclair
18. Graham Swift
19. Rose Tremain
20. A.N. Wilson

Granta had a knack of finding good writers.The above lists gives us some wonderful authors .The issue 121 of Grant published a list of   "The Best Of  Young Brazilian Novelists", will put the list soon.

Robert Frost's 10 Favorite Books

I have not read much of Robert Frost , but one poem i still remember from my school days is "The Road Not Taken". I liked this poem very much .

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

I read in some site about his favorite books , and here is that list:

1. The Odyssey by Homer

2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

3. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

4. The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

5.The Oxford Book of Verse

6. Modern American and British Poetry - Louis Untermeyer

7. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

8. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

9. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

10. Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Among the above ten books i have read only "Walden" by David Thoreau and some stories of Edgar Allan Poe.I need to read some of the above books.

*Poem taken from poemhunter .

The Art of the Brick

My first visit to ArtScience Museum @ MarinaBaySands was an unforgettable one , thanks to "The Art of the Brick" exhibition.  Many times in newspaper i saw the advertisement of this show but i never showed any interest to it. But when i saw big advertisement board at MarinaBaySands i got little interest and checked what was this show about.

Yellow-Nathan's most famous work

Thanks to a free ticket, i was bit hesitant first then thought anyhow it was free , let me go and check. Thank God! I would have missed a great piece(s) of art. I was surprised to see all the intrinsic sculptures designed and built using LEGO bricks. The sculptor is Nathan Sawaya, his life is an example of how one can make hobby or interest to something profitable ,even as business.

Swimming half - Nathan allows us to imagine the remaining half

Simply amazing to see the transformation of the little bricks to something awesome.The moment i went inside the 4th floor where the exhibition is being held i was asked by photographer to stand before the the expo advertisement and she took some photos of me in various angles.It happens everywhere in Singapore.The museum is also providing guide for group of visitors.

Rain:

Hands -(Not sure about name)

Peace by Pieces

Mask

Untitled

Hanging On the Edge

Disintegration

Thinking Man

Dinosaur

ArtScience Museum

 

The Writer

Skulls (in different colors)

Pantheon

Untitled

Music (not sure about the name)

Different Heads(forgot the names)

Miscellaneous Men (forgot the names)

Man & Woman(Romance)

Some more men

Elevation

Globe

Apples

Some more

and more

 Personalities (Hitchcock,Hendrix etc)

At last

Thats me..

There was an ipad where we can take picture of us and brickcature(not sure about name and spelling ).

Overall, i had great time watching and taking picture of these wonderful work by Nathan.

Quotes by Nathan was painted everywhere. Check those below