Boston in Bloom

May 13, 2007

Every spring since 1984 the James Joyce Ramble has honored the Irish writer with a race like no other. Along the 10-kilometer course in Dedham, actors in period garb read from Joyce's work.

Next month a new festival, Bloomsday Boston, will celebrate Joyce's "Ulysses," one of the most famous books in literature. The novel, based on Homer's "Odyssey," follows Leopold Bloom, a Jewish salesman , and Stephen Dedalus, a teacher , as they wander the city of Dublin on June 16, 1904 .

The festival on June 16 at Boston College's Bapst Library , in Newton, will feature Irish music and food made famous by Joyce as well as actors and local personalities re-creating scenes from the epic novel. The celebration also will offer film screenings and a panel discussion about the relationship over the years between Irish and Jewish residents of Boston.

Fittingly, Bloomsday Boston is a collaboration between Boston College, founded by the city's Irish community, and the New Center for Arts and Culture , founded by leaders of the Jewish community. Participants are invited to dress in period costumes. More information at ncacboston.org .

A new edition of "Walden," by Henry David Thoreau, was judged to have the best cover in the New England Book Show last week . To depict the passing of the seasons, Yale University Press designers used photographs of five leaves progressing from green to red against a black background.

Other winners of design awards include "100 Caterpillars: Portraits From the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica," by Jeffrey C. Miller, Daniel H. Janzen, Winifred Hallwachs (Harvard University ); "Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius," by C. Michael Mellor (National Braille ); and "The 150 Best American Recipes," edited by Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens (Houghton Mifflin).

Among the award-winning children's books is the graphic novel "The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea," by Anne Sibley O'Brien (Charlesbridge). O'Brien used the brush style she learned at the University of Seoul, and the book incorporates details from an older rendering of the legend illustrated with woodblocks.

British writer Jim Crace's latest novel , "The Pesthouse , " sets a love story against the backdrop of a toxic world. He will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge. Tickets, $5, are available at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

"Falling Man," by Don DeLillo (Scribner)

"Jesus of Nazareth," by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) (Doubleday)

"Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8," by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen (St. Martin's )

Eric Wilska of the Bookloft, in Great Barrington, recommends "The Blade Itself," by Marcus Sakey (St. Martin's ): "The perfect vacation read. Not high art by any means, but a heck of a compelling story and so well written. Marcus's debut novel is being rightly compared to Dennis Lehane. Only [the protagonists] are Chicago Irish pals, not Boston. And one of these 'pals,' Evan, is as bad as they get."

Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.