Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

I haven’t read Jenna Bush’s Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope (HarperCollins), but I was intrigued by Ben McGrath’s description in the New Yorker (“First Book“): The book has a spare, verging-on-hardboiled prose style ("’How did your parents die?’ Ana asked. ‘They were sick," Berto said. ‘Mine, too.’"), and suggests that Jenna may yet have a future [...]

Since 2001, when his Joe Pickett mystery series debuted with Open Season, C. J. Box has earned accolades and fans in ever-growing numbers. Not only was Booklist one of the earliest publications to take note of his exciting talent (Bill Ott wrote a double-length, rave review), Box went on to have a track record here [...]

I can’t seem to leave the New York Times site today. For instance, have you heard of “libel tourism”? Me neither. Rachel Donadio explains (“Libel Without Borders“). And David Brooks ponders how Jack Kerouac’s On the Road went from being “a burst of rollicking, joyous American energy” to “the book you want to read if you find Sylvia [...]

More from the front lines, where reviewers and writers are going toe to toe. In this instance, Nicole Mones, author of The Last Chinese Chef (2007), takes issue with Heidi Julavits’ review of same (“The Kitchen God’s Girlfriend,” New York Times). Her, ahem, beef? That Julavits, the anti-snark, is being snarky. And also inaccurate.

Joe Keenan has won the 2007 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his novel My Lucky Star. The runners up? Bob Newhart (I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This!) and Merrill Markoe (Walking in Circles before Lying Down). That’s a lot of TV talent for a book prize.

In an essay that doubles as an advertisement for the book he just edited, The Best American Short Stories, 2007, Stephen King foretells the impending demise of the short story. From the New York Times (“What Ails the Short Story“): The American short story is alive and well. Do you like the sound of that? Me too. I only wish [...]

More literary brawling, but all in good fun. Mostly. From the San Francisco Chronicle (“Literary Death Match exudes attitude. But beer in the face? That’s so slapstick.” by Edward Guthmann): When Literary Death Match started, it was supposed to be a lark. Todd Zuniga and Elizabeth Koch, editors of the literary journal Opium, wanted to [...]

As summarized on Galleycat (“Called Out By Her Reviewer, A Panned Author Answers Back“), Carolyn See and Porochista Khakpour are getting into it: One of the first bits of advice writers are given as their books make their way into the world is “don’t engage with the reviewers.” A quick glance at the letters section [...]

So now Little, Brown won’t be publishing Tintin in the Congo at all (“Little, Brown Cancels Tintin in the Congo,” by Lynn Andriani, Publishers Weekly): Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, which had been planning to publish Tintin in the Congo, a book criticized for its racist, Colonial-era depictions of Africans, has quietly pulled the [...]

I guess this is the publishing world’s version of reality TV shows (“Amazon Launches Debut Novel Contest,” Publishers Weekly): Amazon is getting into the author-writing contest arena, launching the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award today in cooperation with Penguin and Hewlett-Packard. Amazon will accept submissions through November 5 and the winner will have his or [...]