It's Superconference time again. . .

Sorry for the lack of blogging this month - we've all been busy with sales conferences, upcoming trade shows and trying to get a ton of reading done. Our biggest library show of the year - the Ontario Library Association Superconference - is happening at the end of this week. If you are attending, do check out our session on Thursday, January 29th at 3:45 (Session#619). We'll be talking about our favourite upcoming Adult books. We'll try and post our lists on this blog next week. And we'll all be at our respective publishers' booths in the trade show during both days of the conference, so do stop by and say hello.

Graphic Novel Collection resource. . .

My American colleagues at Random House U.S. have just created this marvellous catalogue of graphic novels and manga published by the various imprints we represent (Pantheon, DC Comics, Vertical, Titan Books, Villard and Del Rey). All the different series are highlighted and described, (and at the back of the catalogue all the volumes are listed), plus they are organized into YA and Adult categories. Any adult ones that are suitable for mature YA readers are starred. There are also some great collection development tips provided by Robin Brenner, a reference and teen librarian at the Brookline Public Library, and editor of the teen graphic novel review site No Flying No Tights.

You can access this catalogue online here (just scroll down to the bottom of the page) and either browse the PDF online or print it out. There's some great stuff here for public and school libraries alike.

The Charles Taylor Prize For Literary Non-Fiction Shortlist Announced!

The shortlist for The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction was just announced and I'm pleased as punch that one of our authors made the list- Ana Siljak for Angel of Vengeance: The 'Girl Assassin', the Governor of St. Petersburg, and Russia's Revolutionary World'.

Angel of Vengeance is one of three shortlisted titles selected by a jury comprised of previous Charles Taylor Award winner Warren Carriou; Globe and Mail national affairs columnist and officer of the Order of Canada Jeffrey Simpson; and recipient of the Governor General’s Award Shirley Thomson.
From the Jury on Angel of Vengeance:

RANGING FROM THE COURTS of St. Petersburg to peasant huts, this meticulously researched book tells the dramatic and little-known story of one woman’s act of political desperation and her very public trial. It is also a much broader portrait of ideological struggles in nineteenth-century Russia, revealing the devastating conflict between a society that could not find a way to change and those who demanded that it must. The author provides added contemporary resonance to the story by masterfully penetrating the minds of terrorists.

The other titles that have been shortlisted are Sugar: A Bittersweet History by Elizabeth Abbott (Penguin Canada) and Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917 – 1918, Volume Two by Tim Cook (Viking Canada)

The winner will be announced at an awards luncheon Monday, February 8, 2009.

For more information about the prize you can visit the official website.