Amazon and Barnes & Noble both posted their February “books of the month”–and both booksellers agree with the Indie Next list in selecting Herman Koch’s THE DINNER and Karen Russell’s VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE (as long as you have read her splendid SWAMPLANDIA! first). The WSJ also echoes the positioning of Koch’s book as “the European GONE GIRL” today. Additionally, Amazon picks: Wise Men, Stuart Nadler (their “spotlight” selection) Schroder, Amity Gaige After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story, Michael Hainey A History of Future Cities, Daniel Brook Autobiography of Us, Aria Beth Sloss How Literature Saved My Life, […]
People, Etc.: Mantel Wins Overall Costa Prize
Hilary Mantel won the Costa Book of the Year Prize Tuesday afternoon for BRING UP THE BODIES, making her the first author to win the Booker and Costa for the same book. Judging chair Jenni Murray said the unanimous decision took “less than an hour”, telling the Guardian: “One book simply stood head and shoulders, more than head and shoulders … on stilts, above the rest. We had a really good discussion, like being at a high-powered book club, and I said, ‘OK, let’s have a vote on Bring up the Bodies’ and every hand went up.” Accepting the prize, […]
People, Etc.
Juliet Pickering will move to Blake Friedmann in the UK on February 4 as a book agent. She was most recently at AP Watt (now part of United Agents). Pickering’s client list is moving with her. At NetGalley, Stuart Evers has been hired as UK community manager, based in London, and Steve Manes joins the development team. The electronic galley service’s community recently passed 100,000 members. At parent company Firebrand, Steve Rutberg has been hired as director of marketing and sales. He has held positions at WoltersKluwer Health, Taylor & Francis, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Prentice Hall, and McGraw-Hill. Additionally, Annie Johnston […]
S&S Will Publish Salinger “Oral Biography” in September
Simon & Schuster announced it will publish THE PRIVATE WAR OF JD SALINGER, a new “oral biography” co-written by film producer Shane Salerno and David Shields, in September. The project began life as a documentary more than eight years ago (and which Deadline first wrote about in 2010), and the resulting film, which includes interviews with more than 150 subjects, will air in January 2014 on PBS’s American Masters program and appear in limited theatrical release in September. In a press release S&S publisher Jonathan Karp said: “We are honored to be the publisher of what we believe will be […]
Awards: Applegate Takes Newbery, Klassen Wins Caldecott
The ALA presented their many Youth Media Awards this morning on the closing day of their winter meeting in Seattle (Thanks to the organizers for the live webcast of this year’s presentation.) The Newbery medal went to Katherine Applegate for THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN (HarperCollins Children’s); the Caldecott went to Jon Klassen for THIS IS NOT MY HAT (Candlewick). Among other honorees, TK won the Nick Lake Michael L. Printz Award for IN DARKNESS (Bloomsbury Young Readers) and Tamora Pierce won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.” For the complete list of […]
People, Etc.: Former ICM Head Jeff Berg’s New Agency, Resolution
Former chairman of ICM Jeff Berg, who left the company last fall after a protracted battle with other executives, will launch a new agency, Resolution, this week. Deadline reports the new agency has set up a Los Angeles office and will grow “to an anticipated staffing level of 35 agents plus support staff in LA, 25 agents in NYC, and 10 agents in Nashville” over the next six months. Among those set to join Resolution are book-to-film agents Rich Green, moving over after 9 years with CAA, and Shari Smiley, who operated her own outfit for the past year after […]