Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91 after a long illness. He lived in Los Angeles.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. In 2005, Bradbury published a book of essays titled Bradbury Speaks, in which he wrote: “In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.”

He is survived by his four daughters, Susan Nixon, Ramona Ostergren, Bettina Karapetian, and Alexandra Bradbury, and eight grandchildren. His wife, Marguerite, predeceased him in 2003, after fifty-seven years of marriage.

Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, “Live forever!” Bradbury later said, “I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped.”

Ken Follett (born 5 June 1949) is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.

Our office wishing him 100 more happy birthday!

Click here to see the full bibliography

A NEW HORSE BOOK SERIES FOR CHILDREN AGED 9-12!

When Inger Frimansson starts her new series the two girls Eufrosyne and Ingeborg are the main characters. They are both crazy in horses and they both have very unusual names. What do you do with names like theirs? Well, you start the Unusual Names Club! Together they are strong and brave, both at the stable and in school. Frossan is not really happy with her name, Eufrosyne. But she has gotten used to having an empty seat beside her in school and to wander alone at recess. Then one day the principal comes into the class room with a new girl. Ingeborg – Bojan. She gets the seat next to Frossan, and their weird substituting teacher calls their corner in the classroom the department of strange names. Shortly they discover they do not only have a mean teacher, they also share their love for horses. Bojan rides her own horse, Golden Angel. Frossan is in the beginner’s group, but would so much like to ride Golden together with Bojan. But can she tell Bojan  she is a all new at the stable? Will Bojan want to be her friend if she tells her she is a beginner?

Inger Frimansson is one of Sweden’s most popular and sold psychological thriller authors. But in that case, she writes books for adults. With this series for children, she reveals her side as a driven author who in an easy way, with pin-point details and a high quality language takes us straight into the life of middle-school aged girls, horses and friendship.

 

HOT SWEDISH YOUNG ADULT NOVEL!

The Stronger is a touching, thrilling and suspenseful novel about two cousins newly arrived in Sweden, and about how hard it sometimes can be to fit in, to know where to lay your loyalties, and to stand up for what you think is right. Even if it means being bullied around with.

Jak and Aster arrive in Sweden on a truck. The summer night is bright and the refugee camp where they arrive, they are given food and new clothes. But to become a part of everyday life in the new country is not easy. The large family’s life in the small apartment on Bergsgatan is difficult and crowded. At school the teacher’s nagging them about the importance of quickly learning Swedish well. But it is not how they live or what happens at school that hoovers like a black cloud over Jak and Aster. It is Keller and his gang - the stronger. The ones who persecute and violate, the ones that make life to a living hell for Jak and Aster. One day Jak stands up for his cause, against Keller - something that will prove to have terrible consequences…

Inger Frimansson won the Swedish Crime Writer Academy's prize Spårhunden, Best Youth Detective Novel of the Year (2009) for this title. She has received many awards, but this one she was extra proud of. The fact that she manages to reach out to youngsters is important to her.