Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

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 [...]

Here’s a quick ‘n dirty look at who won/was nominated for what in the last week:
Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader, 2008) won the 2009 Baccante literary prize. She will be recognized at a ceremony on September 26th in Matera, Italy.
Author/illustrator Gail Gibbons (Tornadoes, 2009) will receive the prestigious Regina Medal on April 7, 2010 for [...]

The results are in for the 2009 Indies Choice Book Awards:
Best Indie Buzz Book (Fiction)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (The Dial Press)
Best Conversation Starter (Nonfiction)
The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell (Riverhead)
Best Author Discovery
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
Best Indie Young Adult Buzz [...]

-terer. And I’m not twitting you. You can follow my unvarnished, 140-character musings on life, the universe, and everything (related to books, that is) at http://twitter.com/Booklist_Keir. I still have mixed feelings about this stuff–I really do fear that we’re getting so glued to our social media that we are losing our ability to think, reflect, [...]

Now this is smart: a used books merchant doing read-alikes. A while ago, I got an e-mail from AbeBooks touting their “End of the World Literature – Post-Apocalyptic Fiction” list. While it includes many titles that I included on my “Core Collection: Before and after The Road,” there are titles that I either missed or [...]

A few recent news stories that have stuck in my head . . . .
At a time when independent bookstores seem like an endangered species–when even the chains that have displaced them are closing branches (see Bill Ott’s Back Page)–it’s comforting to read about an old-fashioned bookshop that is still thriving. In the Guardian, Jeanette Winterson (The [...]

Usually I don’t pick on self-published authors–they already have enough of an uphill battle without me piling it on. But, of the many many many press releases I receive on a daily basis, this one just made me . . . well, I’ll say “smile.” Under the subject heading “AUTHOR RETIREMENT CLEARANCE SALE!!!” I received this [...]

Maybe I’m just a soft-hearted guy who’s more interested in books and movies than in news about how much money books and movies earn, but NPR’s segment yesterday (”The Making of a Posthumous Best-Seller“) about Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo left me cold. The focus of the piece wasn’t so much about the book or its author as [...]

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun, 2006) is a genius (”25 Receive $500,000 ‘Genius’ Fellowships,” by Patricia Cohen, New York Times):
Ms. Adichie was celebrating her birthday and taking a bath when the phone call came. “I was thrilled and grateful,” she wrote in an e-mail message from Lagos. “I like to say that America [...]

OK, let’s see: there’s booksfree.com… BookSwim… Paperspine… and the newest “Netflix for Books,” NovelAction.com, which adds, ahem, a novel twist: instead of just sending them money and getting books on loan, you send them money and books. When I was growing up, there was something like that, but I forget what it was called.
Oh, yeah: [...]