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

As Larry Rohrter reports in the New York Times, “A Chilean Writer’s Fictions Might Include His Own Colorful Past“: At the same time, some of Mr. Bolaño’s friends in Mexico, where he lived for nearly a decade before finally settling down near Barcelona, Spain, are questioning another aspect of the life story he constructed for [...]

The Costa awards judges finally chose a winner, although it seems they had some reservations about their choice. Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture earned the title of “Book of the Year” and earned the author a 25,000 pound reward. But Matthew Parris, chair of the judges, had this to say: Indeed, almost all the judges agreed Barry’s [...]

Your Herman Rosenblat update, courtesy of Arts Beat: An independent publisher said it had completed an agreement to publish a novel tentatively titled “The Apple,” based on a movie screenplay that was, in turn, adapted from Herman Rosenblat’s falsified Holocaust memoir, “Angel at the Fence.” Got that? Personally, I’m waiting for the video game, which [...]

I feel like one of those news anchors who follows a bus crash story with a humorous segment on a waterskiing squirrel, but–in case you missed Stephen Colbert telling Elizabeth Alexander that he literally has a mountain in his pants:

Donna Seaman just came by my office to tell me that John Updike has died. From an e-mail sent by Nicholas Latimer, VP, Director of Publicity at Knopf: It is with great sadness that I report that John Updike died this morning at the age of 76, after a battle with lung cancer. He was [...]

Oh yeah, the National Book Critics Circle has awards to give out too: Fiction Finalists 2666, by Roberto Bolaño (Farrar) Home, by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar) The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon (Riverhead) The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, by M. Glenn Taylor (West Virginia University) Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout (Random) Poetry Finalists Sleeping It Off in Rapid City, [...]

In case you aren’t in Denver or missed the live webcast this morning, the winners of some of ALA’s most prestigious awards have been announced. And the awards go to: Newbery Medal The Graveyard Book, written by Neil Gaiman & illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins) Caldecott Medal The House in the Night, written by Susan Marie Swanson & [...]

I’ve been too busy getting ready for ALA’s Midwinter Meeting to post, but I would be unforgivably remiss if I didn’t draw your attention to our BRAND-NEW BLOG, Bookends. So consider your attention drawn, and give it a read, already–I’m off to the convention center. More details about this exciting new development be coming soon.

After much praise, a spot on our 2008 Editors’ Choice List, and a National Book Award nomination, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains won the Scott O’Dell award. She gets $5,000 in addition to bragging rights. Founder Scott O’Dell, best known as author of Island of the Blue Dolphins, wanted to give an award for young adult [...]

Barack Obama: the forty-fourth president of the United States of America. Elizabeth Alexander: the fourth poet to read at a U.S. president’s inauguration. Graywolf Press will be releasing Alexander’s poem, “Praise Song for the Day,” as a chapbook on February 6. Which is good, because, in this humble scribe’s opinion, the poem works better on the [...]