Just thought I’d remind you that yesterday’s Review of the Day, Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip, was the Overall Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. We hadn’t yet published our review when the award was announced because the book isn’t going to be published in the U.S. until August and weren’t able to get to it until the June issue. (Deep breath.) It’s a starred review!

I wasn’t planning to mention the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, but when I looked up the Booklist review of the winner, I changed my mind. Add to that the underdog story of a little-known Norwegian author knocking off heavyweights like Cormac McCarthy (full disclosure: I am part Norwegian, and I enjoy lefse) — and add to that the fact that the award is said to be the “world’s richest prize for a single work of fiction” — well, I’m only human. From Bloomberg (”Norway’s Petterson Wins EU100,000 Irish Book Award,” by Fergal O’Brien):

June 14 (Bloomberg) — Norwegian writer Per Petterson won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, billed as the world’s richest prize for a single work of fiction, for “Out Stealing Horses,” defeating big-name authors including Julian Barnes, J.M. Coetzee and Cormac McCarthy.

Petterson was picked for the 100,000 euro ($133,000) award from a list of eight finalists for his novel about a tragic summer in the life of 15-year-old Trond and his memories of those events as an old man. The winner was announced at a ceremony in the Dublin City Hall today.

“At least two of my heroes were on the list,” Petterson said in an interview after receiving the award, adding that he has been reading Coetzee and McCarthy for years. “I knew it was tough competition.”

Let me just say, too, that I applaud the hyping of ever more lucrative literary prize pots. Why not? When you do the math, most novelists work for less than minimum wage.

With the 2007 American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. fast approaching, I thought I’d put together a handy guide to the programs and events where attendees will find Booklist and Booklist Online (ahem) editors.

The 2000 Printz: A Reunion - Booklist Books for Youth Forum
Friday, June 22, 8:00-10:00 p.m.
Washington Renaissance Hotel, Ballroom East

Join the Books for Youth staff as we listen to Walter Dean Myers, Laurie Halse Anderson, David Almond, and Ellen Wittlinger speak about the impact that the Printz Award has had on their work and on YA literature as a whole. Author and Booklist columnist Michael Cart and Booklist’s Books for Youth Editor Stephanie Zvirin will offer introductory remarks. Immediately following the forum, we’ll continue the celebration next door at YALSA’s fiftieth anniversary reception. The festivities begin at 10 p.m. in the Renaissance Hotel’s Ballroom West.

Ilene Cooper Book Signing
Saturday, June 23, 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Convention Center Exhibit Floor, Booth 1700

Meet Children’s Books Editor Ilene Cooper as she signs copies of one of her latest books, The Golden Rule, at the Abrams booth.

Alex Award Winners 2007
Saturday, June 23, 4-5:30 p.m.
Convention Center, Room 140 A/B

At the presentation of the Alex Awards, two authors who have previously won the Alex - Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, and Ron Rash, author of The World Made Straight - will be featured speakers. Booklist YA Editor Gillian Engberg will also talk briefly about the history of the Alex Awards, which are sponsored by Booklist.

Trend Setters in Teen Literature
Sunday, June 24, 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Convention Center, room 140

Hear YA authors and editors speak about new directions in YA books. Booklist Books for Youth Editor Stephanie Zvirin and Booklist YA Editor Gillian Engberg will each moderate a panel discussion during the program.

LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage: Keir Graff
Sunday, June 24, 3:30-4:00 p.m.
Convention Center Exhibit Floor, Aisle 2600

Booklist Online Senior Editor Keir Graff will read from his new novel, My Fellow Americans (Severn House). He will then answer questions, sign books, and quietly go back to work.

Booklist Online Users Group
Sunday, June 24, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Renaissance Mayflower, Massachusetts Room

Booklist Editor and Publisher Bill Ott, Booklist Online Managing Editor Mary Ellen Quinn, and Booklist General Manager Mary Frances Wilkens will offer an in-depth demonstration of Booklist Online that is sure to be interesting whether you’re already a BOL user or not. Attendees will have ample opportunity to ask questions and share their own thoughts.

He Reads . . . She Reads: The Booklist Readers’ Advisory Program
Sunday, June 24, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Renaissance Washington, Auditorium

Adult Books Editor Brad Hooper will moderate a discussion between David Wright and Kaite Mediatore Stover. The well-known readers’-advisory experts will bring their popular Booklist column "He Reads…She Reads" to life as they banter about gender-based reading tastes. Their point-counterpoint booktalks will explore all variety of recreational reading, from genre fiction to narrative nonfiction. Stop by for a lively discussion of what men and women like to read and why.

Reference Books Bulletin: Is Print Reference Dead?
Monday, June 25, 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Grand Hyatt Constitution, Room C-D

Come listen as the experts discuss whether the print reference collection is a thing of the past, or whether it still has a place in the increasingly electronic world of reference. Speakers include Denise Beaubien Bennett, Reference Librarian, Marston Science Library, University of Florida; Ruth Fischer, Partner, R2 Consulting; Sue Polanka, Head of Instruction, Paul Lawrence Dunbar Library, Wright State University. Carolyn Mulac, Booklist/RBB Editorial Board Chair, will moderate.

2007 Michael L. Printz Program and Reception
Monday, June 25, 8:00-10:00 p.m.
Convention Center Ballroom

Booklist Books for Youth Editor Stephanie Zvirin will present, with Printz Award Committee Chair Cindy Dobrez, the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award at the always entertaining Printz Program and Reception. This is a ticketed event. The Printz Award is sponsored by Booklist.

I’m almost done with Blonde Faith, the new Walter Mosley — it’s an Easy Rawlins, not a Sexistential novel — and it strikes me again how unique his character names are. Easy (Ezekiel Rawlins) and Mouse (Raymond Alexander) are part of the mystery-lover vernacular by now, of course, but with supporting characters, Mosley likes to get a little out there. There’s Easy’s adopted kids, Jesus (”Juice”) and Feather, and so many more. For your consideration:

Joguye Cham

Chevette Johnson

Porky the Pimp

LaTerry Klegg

Easter Dawn Black

Christmas Black

Pericles Tarr

Saul Lynx

Hannibal Orr

Leafa Tarr

Gara Lemmon

Jackson Blue

Mel Marvel

Charles Mung

Tourmaline Goss

Faith Laneer

Let me be clear that I like his character names. Not like a guy named Keir could say anything, anyway.

Update: How could I forget Pretty Smart and Faith Neverman?

So the Audies were announced way back on June 4. But with winners in 32 categories, can you blame me for procrastinating? Anyway, here are links to those that received reviews in Booklist. There’s a PDF with the full list here.

Fiction, Unabridged

Rise and Shine, by Anna Quindlen, read by Carol Monda (Recorded Books)

Mystery

Echo Park, by Michael Connelly, read by Len Cariou (Hachette)

Thriller/Suspense

The Dead Yard, by Adrian McKinty, read by Gerard Doyle

Classics

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, read by Sissy Spacek (Caedmon)

Biography/Memoir

Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt, read by Frank McCourt (Simon & Schuster)

Business Information/Education

The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson, read by Christopher Nissley (Hyperion)

Children’s Titles for Ages 12+

Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel, read by David Kelly and a full cast (Full Cast Audio)

Solo Narration - Male

Peter and the Shadow Thieves, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, read by Jim Dale (Brilliance)

Solo Narration - Female

Telegraph Days, by Larry McMurtry, read by Annie Potts (Simon & Schuster)

Achievement in Production

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale, read by Cynthia Bishop and a full cast (Full Cast Audio)

Culture maven Carlos Orellana hipped me to a defunct British TV show (Channel 4) called “Black Books.” The horrifyingly unreliable Wikipedia describes it thusly:

Black Books was a British sitcom broadcast on Channel 4 starring Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig, written by Dylan Moran, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley and produced by Nira Park. The show has twice won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy (2001 & 2005) and won a Bronze Rose at the Festival Rose d’Or of Montreux in 2001.

The series is set in the eponymous “Black Books”, a small, independent, second hand book shop in the Bloomsbury area of central London owned by foul-mouthed, eccentric, misanthropic Irish drunkard Bernard Black (played by Moran). The show is based around the lives and often surreal antics of Black, his assistant Manny (Bailey), and their friend Fran (Greig).

The series revolves around Bernard’s misanthropic loathing of the outside world in general and the people who live there in particular, represented mainly by his customers. Bernard displays little enthusiasm for or interest in retail (or, indeed, anything outside drinking, smoking and reading) and refuses to interact with the outside world. Many episodes revolve around Manny and Fran’s attempts to force him to do just that, however - as they themselves are remarkably ill-equipped to interact with the world outside the shop - their efforts usually result in chaos, sucking them back into Bernard’s nihilistic view of everything and everyone.

The series is notable for its surreal and off-beat sense of humour, particularly when regarding the state of the shop; it is frequently depicted to be in an unhealthy state of dirtiness, with sea-water molluscs living on the water pipes and, when it is in a particularly bad state, dead badgers blocking the way. The series also uses a great deal of surreal wordplay.

You can watch the first episode (and more) on YouTube. A little uneven, I’d say, but lots of promise. They’ve got the first season on Netflix — in my queue.

Update: Several people have mentioned that they were either a) annoyed by my unfairness to Wikipedia, or b) surprised by my change of heart. Yet another reminder to me that individual blog entries exist in a context-free zone. Most readers a) have not read everything I’ve ever written, and b) are not privy to my facial expressions as I type. I can’t blame anyone for misinterpreting my lame attempt at irony. For the record, I’m a Wikipedia fan and am even on the record defending it. (My colleague Mary Ellen Quinn wrote the counterpoint. Or I did and she wrote the point. Either way.)

More award news – and further proof that Philip Roth doesn’t actually win everything he’s nominated for: Chinua Achebe has won the Man Booker International Prize. From Bloomberg (”Nigerian Author Achebe Wins Man Booker International,” by James Pressley):

June 13 (Bloomberg) — Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, the author of “Things Fall Apart” and “Anthills of the Savannah,” won the Man Booker International Prize, defeating an illustrious list of contenders including Ian McEwan, Carlos Fuentes, Philip Roth and Salman Rushdie.

First bestowed on the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare in 2005, the 60,000 pound ($118,600) prize is awarded every two years to recognize “a living author who has contributed significantly to world literature.”

A three-judge panel including South African author Nadine Gordimer honored Achebe, 76, for inaugurating the modern African novel, citing the many writers inspired by his depictions of how colonialism influenced culture and civilization on the continent.

It’s been a good week for Nigerian letters.

Out yesterday, playing pool with my father, who is visiting. Today? Ranting on the Booklist Book Club. And, of course, blogging. There’s my favorite book award, for instance, which announced its nominees in the category of Debut Author yesterday morning (”Quills Debut Author Nominees Picked,” Publishers Weekly):

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (Farrar/Sarah Crichton)

No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories, by Miranda July (Scribner)

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession, by Daniel J. Levitin (Dutton)

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield (Atria)

Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, by Rob Sheffield (Crown)

So the New York Times has a book blog. Who knew? Well, Dan Kraus, Associate Editor of American Libraries, knew, and he duly alerted me. The blog, “Paper Cuts,” written by Dwight Garner, Senior Editor of the Book Review, may be worth reading, if the second post (”Book Ads: The Golden Age, 1962-1973“) is any indication:

We’re going to begin this project with a look at the country’s golden age of book advertisements, which ran from roughly 1962-73. Why those dates? The books - and the ads for them - were terrific: fresh, pushy, serious and wry, often all at the same time. There was a new sense of electricity in the culture and in the book world.

Dig it, hepcats. If you don’t have time to view the whole slideshow, at least stop to look at the ad for one Cormac McCarthy, so often in the news of late.

(Those of us on the middle coast will just have to try to ignore the caption’s seeming dig at “Midwestern book sections” and their “cliché-strewn” quotes.)

In an essay on Macleans (”Is that my baby on the screen?“), writer Rebecca Eckler explains her decision to sue film director Judd Apatow. She believes that his film, Knocked Up, appropriates material from her book, Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be. Although I didn’t read the book and I haven’t seen the movie, the similarities Eckler describes do sound striking and specific:

The movie Knocked Up features a woman named Alison who becomes pregnant after getting drunk. While she gets drunk going out celebrating a promotion at work, I got drunk, and knocked up, celebrating at my engagement party. Both my book and the movie feature one night of passion and the nine months that follow. Fine. Whatever. But what got me was the fact that “Alison” was an up-and-coming television reporter; in my book I was an up-and-coming newspaper reporter.

There were other similarities that hit close to home. In my book, I have a best-friend- with-screaming-children named Ronnie, who I go to often for advice. In the movie version, Alison has a sister, named Debbie, with screaming children, who is her sounding board. Both “Alison” and I did numerous pregnancy tests. What also got my back up was that Ben, the man who gets Alison knocked up, is not only Jewish, but from Canada, like my man. (I still can’t figure out why the fact that someone was Canadian would add value to any movie.)

She also describes a particular off-color joke from her book and a similar joke that appears in the movie.

What Eckler doesn’t have is proof that Apatow read her book, even though it was published before Apatow sold his idea, a timeline that favors her claim. And because her story was out in the public sphere, she may be able to make a stronger case than an unpublished writer who claims her idea was stolen. The unpublished writer, however, may be able to prove a chain of events by which her material reached the desk of the alleged thief.

Despite the similarities between book and movie, however, I can’t help but think that Eckler’s experience isn’t all that unique. The setup is the most striking part, but from there on the events are, if not common to many expectant women, common to the vernacular of the Hollywood screenwriter (friend with screaming kids, awkwardness about having sex while pregnant, etc.). Furthermore, Eckler seems to place undue significance on the fact that the movie’s screenplay (do unpublished screenplays have covers now?) used the same image as her book’s cover: a pacifier wrapped around the stem of a martini glass. Unless film directors are now designing screenplay covers and movie posters now, that would seem to indict the art department, not the screenwriter.

Eckler may be right. Apatow may have read her book and mined it for ideas. But from everything I’ve read on the subject, it’s remarkably hard to prove infringement — you can’t copyright a scenario, only a specific expression of it, if I have it right. Eckler acknowledges that her suit is a long shot but says she’d feel worse if she didn’t try to do anything. Sounds to me like the legal maneuvering, barely begun, has already made her feel miserable enough. I’m not saying she’s not entitled to try to prove her case, or that it’s OK for filmmakers to steal from books. But some battles you lose merely by taking part.

Just ask the guys who sued Dan Brown.