I See You Everywhere, by Julia GlassThe Fire: A Novel by Katherine NevilleThe Longest Trip Home: A Memoir, by John GroganThe Memorist, by M.J. RoseSongs for the Missing: A Novel, by Stewart O’NanBetween Here and April, by Deborah Copaken KoganConfessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff, by Fred PearceConspiracy of Silence, by Martha PowersThe Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits, by Les StandifordThe Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah VowellA Mercy: A Novel, by Toni MorrisonThe Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the […]
Awards
What Happened to Books in Canada?
Gil Adamson’s THE OUTLANDER won the First Novel Award now presented by Amazon.ca and Books in Canada: “part historical novel, part western Gothic, and part adventure story, it’s an astonishing portrayal of crime and retribution, and survival and love.” (It’s published by House of Anansi in Canada, and Ecco in the US.) But the real story, as the Globe and Mail points out, is the publishing hiatus at BiC, which has reviewed Canadian books since 1971. It “has not produced an issue since its January-February number this year, and now its proprietor is saying he has no intention of reviving […]
Who Won't Win the Nobel? An American
Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Horace Engdahl has tipped his hand when it comes to considering an American for the Nobel prize for literature. He told the AP in an interview, “Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world … not the United States.” Our writers are ”too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture.” He added, ”The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature.” […]
Patrick Ness Wins Guardian Children's Prize
Patrick Ness’s YA novel THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, “about a world where thoughts are audible,” won the Guardian’s children’s book award. The judges praised the “breathtaking quality” of the writing. “It’s challenging but not bleak – an excitingly different book.”Guardian
MacArthurs for Adichie, Ross
The latest group of MacArthur Fellows include Nigerian-born novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author most recently of the splendid Half of a Yellow Sun, and music critic and author of The Rest is Noise Alex Ross. Adichie tells the Washington Post, “I really appreciate the recognition.” She adds, “I can write and get well paid for it for the next five years, which is the best possible position for a writer to be in.” Post
Another Fall Preview
The Seattle Times highlights “40 upcoming books looks from mid-September forward” though “like a bird-parent pushing the strongest fledglings out of the nest first, many of this fall’s books have already been released — and reviewed by The Seattle Times.” The editors write: “There’s a tradition in publishing that says the reading public gets distracted during an election season — best to stay away from ‘major’ book releases. Like so much else, this crumb of conventional wisdom has been swept under the rug.” Their Perfect Timing award goes to Michael Lewis for his December 1 release, PANIC: the Story of […]