Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

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 [...]

Everyone coming to Chicago for ALA’s Annual Conference this week undoubtedly has a full schedule already–but here’s a late-breaking, must-attend event: a launch party, sponsored by Time Out Chicago, for Bill Ott’s brand-new book, The Back Page.
Bill, who is of course Editor and Publisher of Booklist, will be interviewed live on stage by Frank Sennett, Editor-in-Chief of Time Out [...]

I am so sick of “death of publishing” articles, so tired of talking about the ridiculously oversimplified “print versus web” argument that I could spit. (But I won’t, because Mama Graff didn’t raise no spitter.) So what did I do last night? Why, I hied myself down to “The Future of the Book: A Conversation on [...]

When Judith Krug died on April 11, the children’s and young adult literature communities lost both a tireless supporter and a defender. As the director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom and the founder of Banned Books Week, Judith was on the front lines helping libraries keep books in their collections, everything from Harry Potter to [...]

A new, old idea. The old part: books by subscription. The new part: limited editions based on the number of subscribers. Tiny (but scrappy) Chicago publisher featherproof now has its first imprint, paper egg. (Bring back uppercase letters, say I . . . wait a minute . . . bring back copyeditors who enforce consistent [...]

Just asking: when did tome become synonymous with book? I ask because, in a Chicago Tribune article about the Kindle yesterday, the writer stated how many “tomes” the device could carry. Talk about a tin ear for the English language. My trusty Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (though a print artifact, only marginally a tome) [...]

If you’re in or around Chicago, be advised that the Chicago Underground Library has, ahem, gone . . . overground (”Library of obcure Chicago literature opens,” by Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune):
Underground Library co-founder and director Nell Taylor describes some of the collection’s more esoteric items:
Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks chapbooks ?
“It’s a group of about five or [...]

Though I try to keep an eye on the poetry beat, my efforts are woefully inadequate. Today I’ll do better. In Donna Seaman’s review of Kevin Coval’s Everyday People in the December 1 issue of Booklist, it caught my eye when Donna noted that the white, Jewish, suburban-raised hip-hop poet’s works contain “beef jerky and sandalwood incense.” And if [...]

 
Since I’m surrounded by crime fiction writers, I guess the moment is right to reveal that a piece of my own crime fiction, the short story, “Untitled,” was the second runner-up in Time Out Chicago’s “Chicago Crime Writers Competition.” The first round was judged by Random House/Vintage Books editorial staff, and Michael Harvey (The Fifth Floor, 2008) selected [...]

There are a lot of crap book trailers out there, but this one works really well. Yes, I may be partial because it’s set in Chicago, but no, I don’t know the author, even though I’ve just discovered that I’ll be reading with him at the Book Cellar on Wednesday, September 17.

I had mixed feelings [...]