Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Nook, vook, blook, p-book, wovel, poegel . . . am I forgetting anything?
Some in the publishing industry say that, thanks to e-readers such as the Kindle, people are reading more books (”E-Book Fans Keep Format in Spotlight,” by Brad Stone, New York Times). Who, exactly, says this? Well, the manufacturers of the Kindle, but that’s [...]

I have a confession to make. I was among the many who thought romance novels were silly. Formulaic, pure fluff. Damsels in distress. Ladies in long dresses and painful bodices. Men in puffy shirts. Then I became Booklist’s romance editor. I scrutinized the wonderfully varied array of romance novels that arrived in the mail. I attended a Romance Writers of America [...]

Seven months ago, four Booklist editors were shown up by the book-themed board game It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. Seeing how our scattered egos were approaching reassembly, it was time for another round of humiliation. That’s just how we roll.
Thus: Bookchase. The box claims as its audience everyone from “people who have never [...]

When I started Book Trailer Thursday back in 1986, I was just a lad with an Apple IIe and a dream. Who could’ve guessed that 1,825 posts later, BTT would be the revered institution that it is today?
Okay, so I’ve only been doing BTT for a few months, but the response has still been darn [...]

I know something happened this week–everybody was talking about it. Writing about it, even. Something, something . . . some guy published a book? Oh, yeah! Dan Brown thrilled the world by finally–finally–giving us The Lost Symbol. The New York Times, which really is getting the hang of this breaking-the-embargo thing, wrote, puzzlingly, that Brown [...]

On Thursday, September 10, Daniel Kraus gave a thumbs-up to a 30-second spot touting Laurie Ann Levin’s God, the Universe, and Where I Fit In. On Saturday, September 12, Bonita Rodriguez posted the following comment:
This is a good one; we viewed it in lit class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuALxOAL0Ok
The link leads to a trailer for Eva’s Confessions: The MOOD [...]

Are there statistics about library patrons who listen to NPR? I have the feeling there’s a big overlap. My ears pricked up this morning when Susan Stamberg began describing the favorite cafe of a writer I much admire, Eduardo Galeano, who lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. Stamberg’s conversation with the brilliant and controverisal writer is worth a listen.  And here’s [...]

In case you were unable to attend the first-ever Booklist Online Forum, “Books and Blogs: Made for Each Other?” in Chicago this month, panelist Mary Burkey recorded the proceedings and very generously shared the audio with me. You can listen to it here.
Librarian, blogger, and good guy Rick Roche also posted a wrapup on his blog, ricklibrarian.
Got [...]

Who doesn’t love dueling book covers? Not me! (That is, I don’t not love them–although I really could have said this more clearly, couldn’t I?) Anywho, Kaite Mediatore Stover, our “She Reads” columnist and Book Group Buzz blogger, brought the following to my attention:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Still Life, by Joy Fielding, was published by Atria in March, while Keeper of [...]

Fiction is often a conduit to the underlying forces driving the chaos of unfolding events. While watching the turmoil over the contested presidential election in Iran, I keep thinking about the first novel to be published in English by the Iranian writer Shahriar Mandanipour,

 Censoring an Iranian Love Story, which received a starred review in Booklist in the [...]