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(Has anyone ever gone over to your bookshelf, picked up a book, and said, “What is this doing here?” This series of blog posts explains some of the more curious findings on one Booklister’s home shelves.) First off, what a title, right? I think I read about this lesser-known Ramsey Campbell shocker in Stephen King’s [...]

It’s time to get your bets down on the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ladbrokes, the U.K. gambling company that posts odds on just about everything, sees the favorites this way: Syrian poet Adonis is the favorite at 4-1, with Swedish author Thomas Transtromer at 9-2, Thomas Pynchon at 10-1, and Haruki Murakami [...]

Next year will be a major celebratory time in Great Britain. On February 6, 2012, the Queen will have sat upon the throne for 60 years, surpassed in that capacity only by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. To be published in January, a new biography, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, by Sally [...]

According to this story at Digital Spy, David Baldacci’s novels featuring Secret Service agents turned private investigators Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are being turned into a television series, with NCIS’ Shane Brennan producing. This could be a good show, provided they spend a goodly amount of time on the characters. The King/Maxwell novels vary wildly in [...]

I’ve always said it will be time to quit this job when I don’t feel at least a tingle as a new season’s books starting arriving. Spring 2012, a trickle of books  a few weeks ago, has turned into a steady stream, and everywhere I turn, there’s something new I can’t wait to read. Meg Rosoff is [...]

Shadowbox-style animation, lively/spooky music, and limited text over Ouija-esque backdrops do justice to Apothecary, by Maile Meloy, a YA novel of “magic elixirs, transformational disguises, and everyday cunning.”

Although Booklist has enthusiastically reviewed books by the newly designated MacArthur “genius” long form journalist Peter Hessler, most recently, Country Driving: A Journey through China from Farm to Factory, this year’s MacArthur Fellows include only one instantly recognizable literary name, that of poet Kay Ryan, a former poet laureate. I’ll never forget the first time I [...]

Earlier this year, my esteemed colleague Dan Kraus wrote a manifesto (My 2011 YA Wishlist) outlining the seven things we need to see less of in teen fiction. Well, in the spirit of making this a regular feature around here, here’s another report from what we’ll be calling the Booklist Book Crimes division. Think of it [...]

This week, book trailers and cat videos combine to bring you what might be BTT’s strongest week yet. We at Booklist are imagining the possibilities if every book box were this enlightening, or – better yet – if Maru, The Most Famous Internet Cat himself, were delivered to our doorstep with his contemplative forthcoming biography. [...]

Today, September 13th,  has been declared Roald Dahl Day in honor of the author’s birthday, and this year also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of James and the Giant Peach. Penguin Young Readers Group has rolled out an interactive site, filled with activities, games, and opportunities to send a “Peach-gram” that will help keep [...]