2011 Commonwealth Prize Shortlists Announced

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize has announced it's regional shortlists for the Best Book and Best First Book awards. Noted below are the author's home and where to source the book in Canada (if available).

Africa Best Book:

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone, Atlantic Monthly/PGC)
Men of the South by Zukiswa Wanner (South Africa, NB Publishers)
The Unseen Leopard by Bridget Pitt (South Africa)
Oil on Water by Helon Habila (Nigeria, Hamish Hamilton/Penguin)
Blood at Bay by Sue Rabie (South Africa, NB Publishers)
Banquet at Brabazan by Patricia Schonstein (South Africa, Jacana Media)

Africa Best First Book:

Happiness is a Four Letter Word by Cynthia Jele (South Africa)
Bitter Leaf by Chioma Okereke (Nigeria/ Virago UK)
The Fossil Artist by Graeme Friedman (South Africa)
Colour Blind by Uzoma Uponi (Nigeria)
Voice of America by E. C. Osondu (Nigeria/HarperCollins U.S.)
Wall of Days by Alastair Bruce (South Africa)

Canada and Caribbean Best Book:

The Sky is Falling by Caroline Adderson (Canada/Thomas Allen)
Room by Emma Donahue (Canada/ HarperCollins Canada)
The Master of Happy Endings by Jack Hodgins (Canada/Thomas Allen)
In The Fabled East by Adam Lewis Schroeder (Canada/D&M)
The Death of Donna Whalen by Michael Winter (Canada/Hamish Hamilton/Penguin)
Mr. Shakespeare’s Bastard by Richard B. Wright (Canada? HarperCollins Canada)

Canada and Caribbean Best First Book:

Bird Eat Bird by Katrina Best (Canada/Insomniac Press)
Doing Dangerously Well by Carole Enahoro (Canada/Random House)
Mennonites Don’t Dance by Darcie Friesen Hossack (Canada/Thistledown Press)
Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod (Canada/Biblioasis)
The Cake is for the Party by Sarah Selecky (Canada/Thomas Allen)
Illustrado by Miguel Syjuco (Canada/Penguin)

South Asia and Europe Best Book:

Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (UK/ HarperCollins Canada)
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore (UK/Fig Tree/Penguin )
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (UK, Random House)
The Long Song by Andrea Levy (UK)
Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido (UK, Bloomsbury UK)
Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett (UK, Knoff/)

South Asia and Europe Best First Book:

Serious Men by Manu Joseph (India/ HarperCollins Canada)
Saraswati Park by Anjali Joseph (India, Harper Collins U.K.)
The House with the Blue Shutters by Lisa Hilton (UK, Corvus)
Children of the Sun by Max Shaefer (Granta UK)
Grace Williams says it Loud by Emma Henderson (UK/Sceptre/Hodder)
Sabra Zoo by Mischa Hiller (UK/Telegram)

South East Asia and Pacific Best Book:

Reading Madame Bovary by Amanda Lohrey (Australia)
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (Australia)
Time’s Long Ruin by Stephen Orr (Australia)
Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones (New Zealand/Random House Canada)
Notorious by Roberta Lowing (Australia)
Gifted by Patrick Evans (New Zealand)

South East Asia and Pacific Best First Book:

21 Immortals by Rozlan Mohd Noor (Malaysia)
A Man Melting by Craig Cliff (New Zealand)
The Graphologist’s Apprentice by Whiti Hereaka (New Zealand)
The Body in the Clouds by Ashley Hay (Australia)
Traitor by Stephen Daisley (Australia/New Zealand)
A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill (Australia)

According to the Commonwealth Foundation website, the regional winners of the Best Book and Best First Book prizes will be announced on the 3rd March, with the final programme commencing on the 16th May at Sydney Writers’ Festival in Australia. The finalists from the four different regions of the Commonwealth will be brought together, and the two overall winners will be announced on the 21st May.

Friday Film Fest: Dance Me To The End of Love. . .

It's February, it's cold and Valentine's Day is coming.  Ignore all the mushy stuff and immerse yourself in this hot duo instead.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Lloyd Jones' novel Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance as it triggered an immediate interest in everything to do with the tango.  It mixes a contemporary love story with one set during the First World War, and not only does this fiery dance feature in both tales, but Jones manages to convey a real sense of the changing history of the tango and how, for example, jazz influenced the traditional music, not without some controversy. And these are very unconventional partnerships, brought together by a love of the dance. I immediately went out and bought several CDs by musicians mentioned in the novel, loaded them onto my iPOD and it's now my favourite music to listen to during wintry commutes. For a complete seductively visual feast, you must rent Carlos Saura's 1998 film Tango.  (You can watch the trailer here. ) It's the story of a director trying to make a film about the history of tango but as with many of Saura's films, reality and illusion often get mixed up. The music and dancing is just superb and showcases all sorts of tangos, done in groups, in trios, with different gender mixes, and of course very sensual duets. Red wine would be a good accompaniment. Beats a corny American rom-com any day.

Snow Day. . .

Well, maybe for you.  I have to trudge down to the convention centre later today and set up our booth for the Ontario Library Association Conference - to all those resilient librarians who are coming to the show, safe travels and we'll see you there.  For those lucky enough to be able to stay at home - what a great day to hunker down on the couch with a cozy blanket and a good book.  It's definitely better to view the cold and snow from indoors, or inside some fictional pages.  If I could stay at home, here's what I'd be taking down from my shelves and re-reading.

Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat.  
This was one of my fall Dewey picks and a book completely outside of my usual reading habits, but I absolutely loved it. Set in the far north in a utopian city called New Venice, ice and snow are a constant, but often beautiful part of everyday life. Part steampunk and part fantasy with a very modern sensibility and commentary on contemporary global problems, above all the novel is a great adventure story. Think Philip Pullman for adults (more sex and drugs), and add in suffragettes, a mystical Polar kangaroo and even zombies (former polar explorers who perished trying to find the North Pole and are damned if anyone else will get there).  But most of all, I loved the clever play with language and the sophisticated humour. Can't wait for the sequel.

Alex Good reviewed the book on his blog here.  I found this paragraph particularly interesting.

If I could supply another label of my own to go with some of the others that have been thrown at it, I would like to call Aurorarama a great Canadian novel. Not just because the hero hails from Nova Scotia, or because New Venice itself seems to be located somewhere in our icy waters, but for the book's sensibility. The ménage of Old World and native peoples, the "poletics" of British understatement and noblesse cross-bred with French passive aggression, the survivalist/garrison mentality of New Venice, and the various nods to polar explorers (those giants of our own national unconscious), combined with all of the richness of its mythical thinking, give Valtat's work as much the feel of an imaginative guide to CanLit as an alternative pre-modern history. I think it perfectly fair and justified that we claim this Frenchman writing in English and published in the U.S. as one of our own.

Henning Mankell's YA series:

Most people know Mankell as a great crime writer and count me as a fan too.  But I became completely entranced by his series of YA books set in a small Swedish town and following several years of Joel Gustafson's teenage life.  He's had to grow up fast. His mother abandoned the family and his father, a former sailor has become an alcoholic as a result. Joel has to take care of him and himself as well. But the one thing Joel has is a great imagination - both a gift and a curse.  He can see the magic in the woods surrounding him, in the way that light and shadows fall on the snow, and he makes friends with an odd assortment of characters, usually those shunned by the community. As Joel gets older, he has to evaluate his imaginative gifts and decide if he wants to embrace them, or if they will hold him back from the realities and challenges of impending adulthood.  The writing is superb and very moving.  All the books work as stand-alones, but if you want to read them in chronological order, here is the list:

A Bridge to the Stars

Shadows in the Twilight

When the Snow Fell

Journey to the End of the World

True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal
Oh, how I love this short but so compellingly creepy novel,  and a lot of that has to do with the continuous snow that keeps falling on this small community throughout, adding a really sinister touch. It's the story of a complicated relationship between an elderly children's book illustrator and the young woman who comes to help her with errands, and slowly insinuates herself into her life. Even the dog is a bit mad.  Definitely a stay-in, shivery type of book.

I Think I Love You. . .

Sorry - I know you are going to have that song in your head all day now, but this book trailer for Allison Pearson's new novel is a lot of fun to watch and at any rate should take your mind momentarily off the winter weather.    I Think I Love You is the story of two young girls, Petra and Sharon, who are absolutely crazy about David Cassidy and planning to sneak off to see him in concert. Also in attendence is a young writer who works for the pop star's fan magazine.  Decades later, the characters all meet again on a trip to Las Vegas where the two friends - now in their forties - finally get to meet their teen idol.  But will it still mean as much?

I think we can all relate. In the trailer many of my U.S. Random House colleagues - including designer Chip Kidd and Julia Child editor Judith Jones -  confess their own teenage crushes.  For me - my tween crush was Donny Osmond. Yes, I'm embarrased to admit that I even had purple socks in his honour.  And then I moved on to Simon Le Bon.  And Cary Grant.  It's still Cary.

Eye on the Tiger. . .

Congratulations to John Vaillant who has won the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction  for his book The Tiger:  A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. The award is Canada's richest literary prize for non-fiction, with $40,000 going to the winner.  Film rights have already been optioned by Brad Pitt.  Read more about Vaillant's win here.

2011 Best Translated Book Longlist Announced. . .

One of my favourite new literary prizes has just announced its longlist.  The Best Translated Book Award judges not just the translation, but the literary quality of the work itself and as such it's a terrific reading recommendation list for some of the best recently translated international fiction.  There are authors representing 19 countries, writing in 12 languages.  I've read several of the books on the longlist and completely endorse their inclusion:  I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson, translated by Charlotte Barslund, (one of my fall Dewey picks), The Jokers by Albert Cossery, translated by Anna Moschovakis (which was one of my top 10 favourite reads from my NYRB Classics Challenge), The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal (another favourite writer of mine),  To The End of the Land by David Grossman, translated by Jessica Cohen (also a fall Dewey pick, just loved this novel), and The Literary Conference by Cesar Aira, translated by Katherine Silver (so surreally funny).

Read the full 25 title longlist here.  The shortlist will be announced  on March 24th and the winner on April 29th. Three Percent will bebloggin about each of the books in detail over the next few weeks.

Is Nothing Sacred? . . .

It was just a matter of time . . .

You can check out the cheeky book trailer here.

Marvellous Melville House. . .

As I'm making my sales calls this wintry month selling the Summer 2011 lists while Fall 2011 is hitting my desk with a large thump,  the stacks of paper and catalogues and drop-ins can be overwhelming.  But one of the independent presses that I'm really proud to represent, just keeps infusing this cynical sales rep with electric (and ecclectic) jolts of amazing creative energy, passion and originality that completely recharges me.  This is THE press to watch in 2011 - they have one of the most incredible lists coming, starting with their new Neversink Library that, like NYRB Classics, is devoted to bringing forgotten classics back into print and commissioning new translations of some terrific international fiction.  I can feel a whole new reading challenge coming on. And don't the covers look amazing?

Here's the Neversink Library's inaugural list:

After Midnight by Irmgard Keun, translated by Anthea Bell.  I'm a huge fan of this author who was writing in Germany in the 1930s.  I've read and can wholly recommend two of her other novels - The Artificial Silk Girl and Child of All Nations and if you love Hans Fallada, you simply must read her. Look for a major Keun revival this year.

The Train by Georges Simenon, translated by Robert Baldick.  I've recently been reading both Maigret novels and his dark and compelling romans dur.  I can't wait to read this thriller about a man escaping from the Nazis who meets a mysterious woman on the train.

The Eternal Philistine by Ödön von Horváth, translated by John G. Wagner.  Another neglected work written during the Weimar years, described as "a brutally funny look at the human comedy on the eve of Europe's descent into Fascism".  .

The Late Lord Byron by Doris Langley Moore.  Out of print for decades, this biography of bad boy Byron focuses on the immediate aftermath of his life using a lot of literary detective work.

Coming in the fall will be The President by Georges Simenon, Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov, The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by W.H. Davies, and The War with the Newts by Karel Capek.

Then there's Melville's International Crime series.  Oh, my god - the covers of these books are incredible.  Check them out here at Caustic Cover Critic and then read their interview with Melville's talented new art director, Christopher King, here.  I'm working my way through them - love the new series by Jakob Arjouni, featuring Turkish wise-crack private eye Kemal Kayankaya and the Frankfurt underworld.  Kismet is the one to start with and one of my spring Dewey picks, along with the fun and sinister Craigslist Murders by Brenda Cullerton.

Last but not least, they are doing something this summer that I'm still chuckling about - it's an absolutely brilliant idea.  For most publishers (and authors, I suspect), it's a nightmare when two books come out in the same season with the same title.  Well, Melville has embraced this challenge and this summer are publishing, not one, not two, but FIVE books in their Art of the Novella series, all by different authors, all titled The Duel.  Dueling Duels.  I love it!

Here's the list.  Let the battle of the books begin.  I'm getting up at dawn on five summer days and reading them all.

The Duel by Giacomo Casanova, translated by James Marcus
The Duel by Anton Chekhov, translated by Magarita Shalina
The Duel by Joseph Conrad
The Duel by Heinrich Von Kleist, translated by Annie Janusch
The Duel by Aleksandr Kuprin, translated by Joshua Billings

And then there's The Lake, the new novel by the awesome Banana Yoshimoto and Conversations with Mr. Prain by Joan Taylor, which was brought back into print because of indy bookseller demands, and right now I'm giggling my way though Spurious by Lars Iyer.  So much great reading ahead . . .

Elementary, my dear reader. . .

BlogTO has a great peek into the Toronto Reference Library's Arthur Conan Doyle Room that houses one of the world's great collections of the author's works along with various other Sherlockian treats. And the room is decorated in the style of 221 Baker Street! Great photos accompany the piece, taken by Dennis Marciniak.  Read the article here.   I've never visited myself, but I am slowly working my way through The Complete Sherlock Holmes this year and will definitely go when I'm done.

HarperCollins Authors at the 2011 OLA Superconference

HarperCollins will be located this year at booths #731/733 at the Metro Convention Centre for the OLA Super Conference. We have a lot of exciting in-booth giveaways and events planned, including the following author appearances:

Thursday February 3rd:

10:30-11:30 Tom Earle, author of The Hat Trick
1:30-2:30 Vicki Grant, author of Not Suitable for Family Viewing
2:30-3:30 Lesley Livingston, author of Tempestuous

Friday February 4th:

9:30-10:15: Jenn Kelly, author of Jackson Jones
10:15-11:00: Rachna Gilmore, author of The Trouble With Dilly
11:00-11:45: Tish Cohen, author of The Truth About Delilah Blue and Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama
1:15-2:00: Dan Vyleta, author of The Quiet Twin

Please stop by the booth and meet these fantastic Canadian authors and have a book signed (while supplies last).

For those still reading, here comes the contest- the first person to come to the HarperCollins Booth each day of the OLA Show (Thursday February 3rd and Friday February 4th) and say the secret phrase 'I LOVE THE DEWEY DIVA BLOG' will win a fabulous prize!

I look forward to seeing you at OLA!

2011 Edgar Award Shortlists Announced

The shortlists for the 2011 Edgar Awards were announced today.

Best Novel:

Caught by Harlan Coben (Penguin Group USA - Dutton)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Group USA, Hodder in Canada)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books)
I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins - William Morrow)

Best First Novel:

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates - Forge Books)
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books)
The Serialist: A Novel by David Gordon (Simon & Schuster)
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
Snow Angels by James Thompson (Penguin Group USA - G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Best Paperback Original:

Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House - Bantam)
The News Where You Are by Catherine O'Flynn (Henry Holt in U.S./ Random House Canada)
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)
Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks in U.S.- published as 'Darkness Rising' in the U.K., #4 in the Liebermann series)
Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press in U.S. Macmillan UK in Canada)

Best Fact Crime:

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press - Bison Original)
The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in Jim Crow South by Alex Heard (HarperCollins)
Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery by Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr and the International Hunt for his Assassin by Hampton Sides (Random House - Doubleday)
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)

Best Critical Biography:

The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez (Grove Atlantic - Grove Press)
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran (HarperCollins)
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder (Wiley)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvouz with American History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)

Mary Higgins Clark Award Shortlist:

Wild Penance by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group - Berkley Prime Crime)
Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books in US/Bantam in Canada)
Down River by Karen Harper (MIRA Books)
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in U.S./McClelland & Stewart in Canad)
Live to Tell by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins - Avon)

Best Juvenile:

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon (Candlewick Press)
The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)
The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel & Friends)
Griff Carver: Hallway Patrol by Jiim Krieg (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill)
The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Best Young Adult:

The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Random House Children's Books - Alfred A. Knopf)
7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando (Random House Children's Books - Delacorte Press)
The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price (Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers)
Dust City by Robert Paul Weston (Penguin Young Readers Group - Razorbill)

For the shortlisted authors in the remaining categories, visit this website. The winners will be announced April 28th 2011.

Fascinating Debut Novel. . .

With my current interest in fiction set in Germany, this new debut novel - The History of History by Ida Hattemer-Higgins - looks fascinating and I hope to get to it soon.  The Guardian just ran this piece calling Hattemer-Higgins "one to watch", and it sent me to the author's website where she writes about her inspiration for the book which she describes as, "a single scream, one long lament for the tragedy of unbearable memory."  She worked as a tour guide at the concentration camp memorial of Sachsenhausen and her encounter with a tourist searching for his family's history triggered an emotional response that led to her writing this novel about memory and amnesia, both on a personal and national level.

NYRB Contest Winner. . .

Thanks to everyone who entered my NYRB contest - it was a lot of fun seeing which books on their fabulous spring list people were most interested in reading.  I wish I could have rewarded you all, but there can only be one winner.  So congratulations to Natalie F. 
Just for fun, I compiled all your votes for the books you most wanted to read.  Every single book on the spring list got multiple votes which just goes to show how astute an editorial eye NYRB has - they really do publish books for every reading taste.  The backlist requests covered numerous titles, but the one most often requested was Richard Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, which is also one of their biggest books (not sure if there is a correlation). The top three most anticipated books from the spring list were:

#3.  Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Donald Rayfield
A new translation of this great Russian classic.

#2.The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach
A fascinating true story about three paranoid schizophrenics who all believed they were Christ and were brought together to live for two years to argue and debate amongst themselves

And overwhelmingly,
the #1 favourite was . . . 
 

 
Fair Play by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal
The story of two women, both artists who live, work, love, and argue from opposite sides of a large apartment building. Jansson is one of my favourite NYRB authors - no one is better at writing about complicated women's relationships.

The Eagle of the Ninth

The Eagle of the Ninth has been made into a big Hollywood movie starring heartthrob Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, and Donald Sutherland. The movie is directed by Kevin MacDonald, best known for The Last King of Scotland.

The movie is simply titled The Eagle, but it is based on the classic tale by Rosemary Sutcliff which was published more than fifty years ago. The epic story is set in Roman Britain and it centers on a young soldier named Marcus. After he is badly injured in an attack, he is sent to recover at his uncle’s home where he learns more about the mysterious disappearance of his father twenty years before. Marcus’ father was the commander of the Ninth Legion, a company of 5,000 men that marched into northern England and was never seen again. Marcus decides to set out on a dangerous quest to find out what happened to his father, the Ninth Legion, and the golden eagle which was their standard. The movie opens on Feb. 11, 2011 and it’s in English and Gaelic, with subtitles.

Click here to view the trailer.

It's About Time. . .

It's Friday, there's another snowstorm coming this evening - we all could use a little of this.  It's a quick clip of Colin Firth accepting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Enjoy.

And if you haven't yet seen The King's Speech - go this weekend!

Celebrities Read Too. . .

Mobylives posted this link to Flavourwire's peek into the bookshelves of the rich and famous.  I'm gobsmacked at Karl Lagerfield's library.  Rod Stewart?  Who knew? I'd like to have Woody Allen's entire living room.  Greta Garbo?  Her library looks like it's been stocked by a designer to impress, not a reader, which makes one wonder what she did all that time in seclusion.  Diane Keaton?  Let's add your library to the many reasons that we love you. Anyways, have a look here.

In Which I Become Too Small For My Stitches. . .

So one of my many New Year's Resolutions was to try and improve my knitting skills and maybe even attempt a sweater.  I'm absolutely adoring Nicky Epstein's book Knitting Block by Block - so many great patterns and it's very easy to expand them into something bigger, beyond just a square.  I loved her Reversible Hourglass block so much that I turned it into a scarf.  So far so good. 

But then I thought I'd try a matching hat.  I wanted one with cables and found a pattern that I liked in Melissa Leapman's Cables Untangled.  I've tried circular needles and don't really like them, so measured the gauge and with some trepidation knitted away on straight needles.  Finished it, ran to the mirror, and . . . sigh. . . this was the result.

Maybe when the instructions said to cable away until it was 8 inches from the beginning, it meant from the beginning of the hat, not the beginning of the cable?  At any rate,  I appeal to all those experienced knitters out there. Can this hat be saved or do I have to find someone with a very large head?  Or (sniff, sniff) unravel it all and start again? Smaller needles perhaps?  Help!

Newbery Medal Winner announced. . .

Congratulations to Claire Vanderpool who has won the 2011 Newbery Medal for her novel Moon Over Manifest.  See the full list of Honour Books here and the complete list of ALSC winners here.  I'm thrilled that it includes Anne-Laure Bondoux's A Time of Miracles translated by Y. Maudet, which won the Batchelder Award for best translated fiction.  She's been a long time Dewey favourite.

One Crazy Summer wins the 2011 Scott O'Dell Award

The editor in chief of The Horn Book announced today on his blog that One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia has been awarded the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for 2011.

Set over in the summer of 1968 in Oakland, California, the story is about three sisters who are sent to summer camp run by members of the Black Panthers. It is both a lesson in history and a touching story about three girls trying to reconnect to the mother who abandoned them years ago.

NYRB Giveaway. . .

I promised a giveaway to celebrate finishing my 50 book NYRB challenge and I'm going to let YOU choose your own prize.  I mentioned that NYRB Classics has an amazing spring list which I'm listing below.  Pick the three books that you'd most like to read from the Spring list, plus two books from their backlist (browse it here) and a lucky winner will get all five plus a snazzy NYRB totebag.  Send me an e-mail at mscott@randomhouse.com  with NYRB in the subject line,  and a list of the 5 books. I'll throw all the names into a hat and pull out the winner. This contest is open to those living in Canada and the U.S. only.  For Canadian readers, please note that several NYRB titles are not available for sale in Canada and so I can't include it in your prize.  If the title doesn't show up on www.randomhouse.ca  then it isn't available in Canada.  Deadline for entering is January 15th, 2011.  NOTE:  This contest is now closed.

So without further ado, here's some of the amazing NYRB books to look forward to this spring. I guarantee there's something for everyone:

The Traveller's Tree by Patrick Leigh Fermor
An exploration of the Caribbean islands by one of the twentieth century's greatest travel writers.

The Doll by Boleslaw Prus, translated by David Welsh
An ambitious classic of Polish literature, a story of money, love and class set in the 19th century Warsaw.

The Ice Trilogy by Vladmir Sorokin, translated by Jamey Gambrell
Contains Bro, Ice and 23,000 - the three parts of Sorokin's trilogy recounting the escapades of the Brotherhood of Light, a group of homicidal fanatics in gritty, violent, contemporary Moscow.

Irretrievable by Theodore Fontane, translated by Douglas Parmee
The story of a couple, happily married for twenty-three years until a certain tension starts to creep in and they slowly start to drift apart.

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach
A fascinating true story about three paranoid schizophrenics who all believed they were Christ and were brought together to live for two years to argue and debate amongst themselves.

Songs of  Kabir, translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
A collection from the Northern India philosopher, satirist and oral poet Kabir, who lived from 1398-1518.

We Think the World of You by J.R. Ackerley
A new unexpurgated edition of this dark "fairy tale for adults", as Ackerley described it.  From the author of My Dog Tulip.  And yes, this also features a German shepherd.

Fair Play by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal

The story of two women, both artists who live, work, love, and argue from opposite sides of a large apartment building.  Jansson is one of my favourite NYRB authors - no one is better at writing about complicated women's relationships.

Dancing Lessons for The Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by Michael Henry Heim
An elderly rake recounts his life story to a group of sunbathing women who remind him of lovers past.  The whole novel unfolds in one single sentence (don't panic, it's not that long -the book, not the sentence).

The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer
A surreal, black comedy about the mother of countless children from several marriages and her relationship with a successful screenwriter.

Fatale by J.P. Manchette, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith
Aimee is a drop-dead gorgeous professional killer who has set her eyes on a backwater town where she plans to manipulate old grudges and play people against each other. A modern detective novel filled with farce and anarchy.

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Donald Rayfield
A new translation of this great Russian classic.

When the World Spoke French by Marc Fumaroli, translated by Richard Howard
From the death of Louis XIV to the Revolution, French was the universal language in Europe. A series of portraits of political and intellectual foreigners who conversed in French regardless of their native language.

New Year, New Books. . .

The buzz has already started on a bunch of upcoming books.  Read about some Spring 2011 highlights here and here and here and here   (and the two excellent books pictured above are definitely already Dewey picks for me!)

NYRB 50 Book Challenge Wrap-up. . .

Hooray, I did it!  Took a bit longer than I'd estimated, but if you only knew how many reading challenges I set myself up for and abandon halfway, I can't help feeling pretty chuffed with myself.  (List of books read is covered here.)

The worst thing about doing this 50 book challenge is that I've barely scratched the surface of NYRB's terrific backlist (and they keep churning out fanastic new books every year).  Including the NYRBs that I'd previously read, I estimate that I've now read about 75-80 in total.   But I now have over 200 at home in a bookcase. Sigh. And yet, I'd never want them to slow down, because of course the BEST thing about doing this challenge is all the great writers and books I've been introduced to, as well as finally being able to dust off a bit of the gargantuan to-be-read pile.  I was already full of admiration for their editorial and acquisition savvy and fifty books later, this has only increased. And wait until you see their spring list! The biggest surprise was how funny so many of the novels were and how distinctive and original the narrative voices were. My biggest regret is that I didn't tackle as much of their non-fiction list as I'd have liked to, especially some of the travel writing.  And I could have read more women writers - only managed twelve out of the fifty -  although the make-up of NYRB's list is certainly dominated by men. Nevertheless it's been a very worthwhile experience and of course I'll continue to read and blog about NYRB books, although it may be a while before I commit myself to another public reading challenge. Still, I've got my eye next on Melville House's novellas series, classic and contemporary (and another unread couple of shelves at home).
Here are my top ten favourites from this NYRB challenge with links to my reviews  (to add to my previous top ten listed here before I started)

1. Troubles by J.G. Farrell.  I was crushed when we lost Canadian rights on this terrific novel that also won the Lost Booker Prize last year.  You can still get it in Canada from Orion, just not the NYRB edition.  At any rate, regardless of the publisher, just read it!

2. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G. B. Edwards.

 3. Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman, translated by translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler and Anna Aslanyan

4. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson

5. Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker

6. The Jokers by Albert Cossery, translated by Anna Moschovakis

7. Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi, translated by Richard Aczel

8. Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephan Benatar

9. Inverted World by Christopher Priest

10. Original Letters From India by Eliza Fay

And NYRB fans, stayed tuned for a contest and giveaway later this week!