National Book Award Finalists announced

Here's a list of the finalists in the Fiction Category:
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The Winner in each of the four categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and People's Literature – will be announced at the 60th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 18.

More on the National Book Foundation website here>>>

How does the brain like e-books? Find out from the experts...

Writing and reading — from newspapers to novels, academic reports to gossip magazines — are migrating ever faster to digital screens, like laptops, Kindles and cellphones. Traditional book publishers are putting out “vooks,” which place videos in electronic text that can be read online or on an iPhone. Others are republishing old books in electronic form. And libraries, responding to demand, are offering more e-books for download.

Is there a difference in the way the brain takes in or absorbs information when it is presented electronically versus on paper? Does the reading experience change, from retention to comprehension, depending on the medium? Read on for various "expert" opinions.
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Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

Reprinted from the NY Times by Michael C. Weimar

Kate Lambert recalls using her library card just once or twice throughout her childhood. Now, she uses it several times a month.

The lure? Electronic books she can download to her laptop. Beginning earlier this year, Ms. Lambert, a 19-year-old community college student in New Port Richey, Fla., borrowed volumes in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series, “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold and a vampire novel by Laurell K. Hamilton, without ever visiting an actual branch.

“I can just go online and type my library card number in and look through all the books that they have,” said Ms. Lambert, who usually downloads from the comfort of her bedroom. And, she added, “It’s all for free.”
Eager to attract digitally savvy patrons and capitalize on the growing popularity of electronic readers, public libraries across the country are expanding collections of books that reside on servers rather than shelves.

The idea is to capture borrowers who might not otherwise use the library, as well as to give existing customers the opportunity to try new formats.

“People still think of libraries as old dusty books on shelves, and it’s a perception we’re always trying to fight,” said Michael Colford, director of information technology at the Boston Public Library. “If we don’t provide this material for them, they are just going to stop using the library altogether.”

About 5,400 public libraries now offer e-books, as well as digitally downloadable audio books. The collections are still tiny compared with print troves. The New York Public Library, for example, has about 18,300 e-book titles, compared with 860,500 in circulating print titles, and purchases of digital books represent less than 1 percent of the library’s overall acquisition budget.

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Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story - by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann were both at a crossroads in 1998--Sue was near menopause with a case of writer's block and Ann was a recent college grad with a case of depression. The two visited Greece, France, and Turkey, and in this dual-memoir, Kidd (who wrote The Secret Life of Bees after the trip) and her daughter each describe their introspective journeys and their relationships with each other. This fascinating book will provide food for thought for anyone who's at their own life intersection, especially mothers and daughters--and Bees fans will enjoy reading about that novel's early beginnings.

Huffington Post gets in the Book Club game with 1st selection: In Praise of Slowness

Take a deep breath and join the slowness movement!
Adriana Huffington of the popular blog The Huffington Post has started her own Book Club. The first Huffington Post Book Club pick is Carl Honoré's In Praise of Slowness. First published in 2004, it's an engaging exploration of the Slow Movement, and it encourages readers to take some time instead of speeding and multi-tasking through one stressful project to the next. A journalist, Honoré offers a detailed report of the Slow Movement's role in every aspect of life, from food to sex to relationships to work. The idea of slowing down isn't new, either. Great thinkers and writers have been talking about how important it is to take time for yourself and for reflection for a long time.


Read more about this book and quotes about slowing down and enjoying life more here

Herta Müller Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Herta Müller, the Romanian-born German novelist and essayist who writes of the oppression of dictatorship in her native country and the unmoored existence of the political exile, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.
Relatively unknown outside her native country, you can read more about her here>>>

Tudors retelling wins Man Booker Prize

The prestigious Man Booker Prize has been awarded to Hilary Mantel for "Wolf Hall," her historical fiction of Henry VIII's court. Mantel was considered the odds-on favorite going into tonight's ceremony in London -- yes, the British do take bets on who will win a book prize -- and beat out shortlisted authors A.S. Byatt, J.M. Coetzee, Adam Foulds, Simon Mawer and Sarah Waters. In addition to the honor of winning the award, Mantel will receive $83,500.

"Wolf Hall," scheduled for U.S. release Oct. 13, is said to be a minutely researched yet sweeping historical novel of the Tudor period. Told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, the book follows the courtly machinations that keep Henry VIII in power as he breaks with Rome to marry Anne Boleyn.

Disney to introduce online books for kids

The Walt Disney Company hopes an ambitious new digital service it plans to unveil on Tuesday will transform how children read its storybooks. The image shown here is from Disney’s digital book Web site, which will offer electronic replicas of hundreds of books for $79.95 a year. In what it bills as an industry-defining moment — though rivals are sure to be skeptical about that — Disney Publishing plans to introduce a new subscription-based Web site. For $79.95 a year, families can access electronic replicas of hundreds of Disney books, from “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too” to “Hannah Montana: Crush-tastic!”

DisneyDigitalBooks.com, which is aimed at children ages 3 to 12, is organized by reading level. In the “look and listen” section for beginning readers, the books will be read aloud by voice actors to accompanying music (with each word highlighted on the screen as it is spoken). Another area is dedicated to children who read on their own. Find an unfamiliar word? Click on it and a voice says it aloud. Chapter books for teenagers and trivia features round out the service.


More at the NY Times here>>>

If You Were "Literature Czar"...

Authors attending the National Book Festival 2009 discuss their plans and must-reads if they were to become "literature czar." Interviews conducted by Sam Litzinger. (John Johnston/The Washington Post)

Octavia Butler, Sci-Fi Award Winning Author, papers going to the Huntington Library

The papers of Octavia Butler, the stereotype-shattering science fiction writer, will be added to the collection in the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., which also houses the papers of Christopher Isherwood, Charles Bukowski and Jack London.

The Pasadena-born Butler, the daughter of a shoe-shiner and a maid, found her voice in science fiction when few women -- and fewer African Americans -- were writing in the genre. She won two Hugo awards, two Nebula awards and was the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur "Genius" grant.

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