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A shout-out to former Booklister John Green, quoted in Publishers Weekly (“To Blog or Not to Blog?” by Sue Corbett) on the subject of blogging authors: But just as e-mail and comments have replaced those sacks full of letters popular authors once got, the written blog is already considered very 2006. Green has already cast aside [...]

The winners of the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award were announced last night in New York. As always with the NBCC, there were a few surprises. Those wacky book critics. (Hey, don’t look at me – I’m a book reviewer.) But unpredictability is what makes the NBCC worth watching. How much fun would it be if they just [...]

I’m a little late on this very interesting New York Times article (“Authors Find Their Voice, and Their Audience, in Podcasts,” by Andrew Adam Newman), but if I’m behind in my reading, maybe you are, too. The short version is that some unpublished authors are narrating their own novels and making them available as podcasts — [...]

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2007 has announced the winners for the “Europe and South Asia Region” (that covers a bit of ground): Best Book Award The Perfect Man, by Naeem Murr (Random) Best First Book Award In the Country of Men, by Hisham Matar (Dial) The “Canada and Carribean Region” winners were: Best Book Award [...]

The shortlists for the 2007 British Book Awards — excuse me, the Galaxy British Book Awards — have been announced. Each category has a different corporate sponsor (unless all the businesses are actually owned by the same goliath conglomerate), making the Whitbread-Costa name change look as quaint as Wrigley Field. Richard & Judy Best Read [...]

She’s a passionate writer with a story to tell. And kudos to HarperCollins for spotting her talent and plucking this first-time author from slush-pile obscurity! From Radar (“HarperCollins Books Jenna Bush,” by Jeff Bercovici): First daughter Jenna Bush has landed the book deal she was fishing for, with HarperCollins announcing this morning plans to publish Ana’s Story: [...]

When I started working at Booklist, my mind was blown when I saw this book come in:   And now my mind is blown again: But in a good way. I mean, if you spend your working days both championing intellectual freedom and trying to track down the parents of those kids who plugged up the drinking fountain, you’ve gotta [...]

First there was fear of the scrotum. Now there is fear of the vagina. In Cross River, NY, three high-school students were suspended for using the word “vagina” while reading from…wait for it…The Vagina Monologues. From the Chicago Tribune (“Girls suspended for V-word“): The excerpt from “Monologues” was read Friday night, among various readings at [...]

The scale of the misery in Baghdad is almost beyond comprehension. The daily death tolls don’t often register with me an any meaningful way — and I suspect I’m not alone. But for all of us, there are moments when a particular detail makes it easier to identify with the horror. From The New York Times [...]

After meeting a bunch of deadlines on Thursday, I was looking forward to a low-key day in the office on Friday, maybe even a slightly-longer-than-usual lunch. Instead I spent the day at home with my feverish 11-month-old. His criteria for good books are radically different from mine — texture and taste – as are his methods for [...]