Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

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 [...]

It’s been so long since I’ve posted that I had to dust off the blog’s dashboard before I could start. And, somehow, my fingers got stuck inside the computer monitor, and it was hours before the IT department could come to my desk and set me free. Very embarrassing.
The real problem has been a combination of late-summer [...]

Where were you when you heard that Canadian uber-fiction writer Alice Munro has withdrawn her latest collection of stories, Too Much Happiness, from consideration for the annual Giller Prize? (The Giller is the Canadian literary award that has more money attached to it than any other Canadian literary prize: $50,000, that is.) That Munro has [...]

Some reviewers and readers may find this hard to believe, but I will miss Dominick Dunne (”Dominick Dunne, Chronicler of Crime, Dies at 83,” by Enid Nemy, New York Times). He has always been a favored writer on my reading list. I would call him a guilty pleasure author except his writing and storytelling were [...]

It’s possible you’ve never heard of mystery writer Jay Bennett. Hell, I never met him. But Bennett—who died on June 27 at the age of 96 (”Jay Bennett, 96; wrote crime novels, scripts,” by Dwight Ott, Philadelphia Inquirer)—had a profound effect on my life. And now that a little time has passed, I’m realizing that [...]

Daniel Kraus, who usually patrols the video beat here on Likely Stories, was himself captured on video at ALA’s annual conference, at a reading he gave from his forthcoming novel, The Monster Variations. (He shot down my suggestion that I shoot video, then turned around and gave an exclusive to Greg Landgraf for AL Focus. He [...]

I have been swamped–SWAMPED–the past few weeks, editing newsletters, mining data, writing reviews, and preparing for and attending Annual Conference. I say that not to complain but to account for my near-absence from both the blogosphere and the twitterdome. This absence pains me, because the news has been full of my kind of blogfodder. As I am an [...]

You have to admire 23-year-old Lauren Conrad. TV star? Yes! Fashion designer? Yes! And now, a best-selling author of the YA novel, L.A. Candy. Despite her celebrity, Lauren faces the same pitfalls other writers do. As she noted in a recent interview (”‘Hills’ ex-star Conrad’s career is alive as writer,” by Alicia Rancilio, Chicago Sun-Times):
The [...]

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 [...]

Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go was far and away my favorite YA novel published in 2008, which is saying something considering the absolute murderer’s row of impressive YA novels unleashed last year. I’ve just finished the second book, The Ask and the Answer, and will have a review for it coming up in [...]