"The Casual Vacancy" ~ J. K. Rowling: She's Not A Bit Casual !!!

Well, here she is...Queen for the May!  We're all biting our nails, aren't we?  We want a copy of that new book in the worst way.  She looks like she knows something we don't know.  She thinks it's funny, don't you think?

I think she likes torturing us.  I think her book has to do with torturing people.  Just my guess.  I don't know...

Here's a preview below.  It's all I could find digging around this evening...

Overview :

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the town's council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations.

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults.

Who Is Ms Rowling for those who've been living under a rock for the past 10 years or more:
J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, are distributed in more than 200 territories, translated into 73 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films. She has also written two small volumes, which appear as the titles of Harry’s schoolbooks within the novels. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages were published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in March 2001 in aid of Comic Relief. In December 2008, The Tales of Beedle the Bard was published in aid of the Children’s High Level Group, and quickly became the fastest selling book of the year

As well as an OBE for services to children’s literature, J.K. Rowling is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, France’s Légion d’Honneur, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and she has been a Commencement Speaker at Harvard University USA. She supports a wide number of charitable causes through her charitable trust Volant, and is the founder of Lumos, a charity working to transform the lives of disadvantaged children

Ms Rowling with her children.  She has three children now.

For further information about J.K. Rowling, please visit her new website: http://www.jkrowling.com

Ms Rowling's Charities: (A brief overview)

J.K. Rowling supports a number of charities and causes through her charitable trust, Volant. In the main, Volant offers assistance to projects that are related to alleviating social deprivation, with an emphasis on women’s and children’s issues.
www.volanttrust.com

In 2010, J.K. Rowling donated £10 million for the foundation of a new clinic at the University of Edinburgh. In addition to conducting major research into neuroregeneration, the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will support patients with multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. The facility is named after her mother, who died of multiple sclerosis aged 45, and will open officially in 2013.

Breaking ground at the Anne Rowling Clinic

J.K. Rowling co-founded the Children’s High Level Group (CHLG) with Baroness Emma Nicholson MEP, in 2005. She was moved to do so by an article reporting that children were sleeping in caged beds, in institutions in the Czech Republic. A special edition of J.K. Rowling’s book The Tales of Beedle the Bard was auctioned for CHLG in 2007, raising £1.95 million, and the following year this title was published in aid of the charity, quickly becoming the fastest-selling book of the year. In 2010 the charity became Lumos, and changed its remit slightly: it now works to end the systematic institutionalisation of children across Europe and help them find safer, more caring places to live.

American Honorary Degrees :
Dartmouth College, Harvard

Evidently the British Poll~Top Reasons Why Americans Love The English:
Here are some of them~
The Accent
The Queen
Prince William and Kate
The Beatles
Coldplay
Keane
Kate Winslet
Audrey Hepburn
James Bond
Orlando Bloom
Dame Judith
The Cars
Thatched Roofs
The Coswolds
Tea
Crumpets
Simon Cowell
Shakespeare
Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
The Brontes
J. K. Rowling
The History
The Way of Life
Tolkien

I can do nothing further while we're awaiting "The Casual Vacancy" other than to tell you that I've heard rumors that this book is akin to such books as McCall's and Mark Haddon's.

McCall's are these books about the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency seen on HBO.


And Mr. Haddon's is this curious book.  With these editorial comments:

Arthur Golden
I have never read anything quite like Mark Haddon's funny and agonizingly honest book, or encountered a narrator more vivid and memorable. I advise you to buy two copies; you won't want to lend yours out.
—author of Memoirs of a Geisha

Ian McEwan

Mark Haddon's portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a superb achievement. He is a wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gifts of empathy.
—author of Atonement and Amsterdam

Here's a link to Little Brown & Co.'s website. LB&Co. will be publishing the book: http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/TheCasualVacancy

You'd think you'd learn more about the book here, wouldn't you? LOL

Okay, this is all I have so far!  Thanks for stopping by!  Please let me know what you think or if you've heard anything else about "The Casual Vacancy."

Oh, one more thing...I've heard that even the publicity people are only getting copies of the book just prior to its release...bearly  prior to its release!!   So, the wait for September, 2012 is on....

Deborah/The Bookish Dame