2009 Pen Faulkner Award Announced

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill has won the $15,000 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The four finalists, who each receive $5,000 are: Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, A Person of Interest by Susan Choi, Lush Life by Richard Price and Serena by Ron Rash.

2009 Agatha Nominees Announed

Best Novel:
Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry
I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Best First Novel:
Through a Glass, Deadly by Sarah Atwell
The Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis
Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris
Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet )
Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan
Nonfiction:
African American Mystery Writers: A Historical & Thematic Study
by Frankie Y. Bailey
How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson
Anthony Boucher, A Bibliography by Jeff Marks
Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories
by Dr. Harry Lee Poe
The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher by Kate Summerscale
Best Short Story:
"The Night Things Changed" by Dana Cameron, Wolfsbane & Mistletoe
"Killing Time" by Jane Cleland, Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine
November 2008
"Dangerous Crossing" by Carla Coupe, Chesapeake Crimes 3
"Skull & Cross Examination"by Toni Kelner, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine February2008
"A Nice Old Guy" by Nancy Pickard, Ellery Queen Mystery MagazineAugust 2008
The Agatha Awards honor the "traditional mystery." The award is named after Agatha Christie to honor books like hers. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that: contain no explicit sex,contain no excessive gore or gratuitous violence,usually feature an amateur detective,take place in a confined setting and contain characters who know one another. Novels and stories featuring police officers and private detectives may qualify for the awards, but materials generally classified as "hard-boiled" are not appropriate.The 2008 Agatha Awards will be given for materials first published in the United States by a living author during the calendar year 2008 (January 1-December 31), either in hardcover, as a paperback original, or e-published by an e-publishing firm.

2009 Lincoln Prize

Two books are sharing the 2009 Lincoln Prize, awarded by the Lincoln and Soldiers Institute at Gettysburg College for "the finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln or the American Civil War soldier or a subject relating to their era."
The winners are Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson and Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy and the Civil War by Craig L. Symonds. McPherson won the Lincoln Prize in 1998 for For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, and Symonds was a finalist in 1993. Each author wins $25,000 and a bronze cast of Lincoln.

Edgar Allan Poe 200th

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birth. New books celebrating his mastery of storytelling are: Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd, On a Raven's Wing ed. by Stuart M. Kaminsky, and In the Shadow of the Master: Classic Tales by Edgar Allan Poe and essays by Jeffrey Deaver, Nelson DeMille and others, ed. by Michael Connelly. In a recent interview, Michael Connelly discusses the book and his own work. Connelly talks about his novel The Poet, which he says "is completely influenced by Poe. As I explain in my In the Shadow of the Master essay, the novel was a means of literary homage and theft. Several lines of Poe’s poetry were used as clues in the book. They were beautiful and eerie: “I dwelt alone in the world of moan.” Until these lines are revealed late in the book as coming from the pen of Edgar Allan Poe, I got the credit for them! It was wonderful." Connelly's next novel, The Scarecrow, is coming out in May 2009. Reporter Jack McEvoy and FBI Agent Rachel Walling are reunited for the first time since The Poet.

2009 Edgar Award Nominations Announced

The Mystery Writers of America has announced the nominations for its annual Edgar Awards. The winners will be announced during the 63rd Annual Edgar® Awards Banquet to be held on Thursday April 30, 2009.
BEST NOVEL:
Missing by Karin Alvtegen; Blue Heaven by C.J. Box ; Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno; The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes;The Night Following by Morag Joss; Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz .
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR:
The Kind One by Tom Epperson; Sweetsmoke by David Fuller; The Foreigner by Francie Lin; Calumet City by Charlie Newton; A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock.
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL:
The Prince of Bagram Prison by Alex Carr; Money Shot by Christa Faust; Enemy Combatant by Ed Gaffney; China Lake by Meg Gardiner; The Cold Spot by Tom Piccirilli.
BEST FACT CRIME:
For The Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz; American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum; Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It To The Revolution by T.J. English; The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Hans van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez; The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale.
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL:
African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey; Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories by Leonard Cassuto; Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction by David Geherin; The Rise of True Crime by Jean Murley; Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Dr. Harry Lee Poe.

2008 National Book Critics Circle Awards

Fiction Finalists:
Roberto Bolaño, 2666.
Marilynne Robinson, Home.
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project.
M. Glenn Taylor, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart.
Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kittredge.
Autobiography Finalists:
Rick Bass, Why I Came West.
Helene Cooper, The House On Sugar Beach.
Honor Moore, The Bishop’s Daughter.
Andrew X. Pham, The Eaves Of Heaven.
Ariel Sabar, My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq.
Biography Finalists:
Paula J. Giddings, Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching.
Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family In An American Century.
Patrick French, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul.
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.
Brenda Wineapple, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Nonfiction Finalists:
Dexter Filkins, The Forever War.
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the Civil War.
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side.
Allan Lichtman, White Protestant Nation.
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776.
Poetry Finalists:
August Kleinzahler, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City.
Juan Felipe Herrera, Half the World in Light.
Devin Johnston, Sources.
Pierre Martory (translated by John Ashbery), The Landscapist.
Brenda Shaughnessy, Human Dark with Sugar.
Criticism Finalists:
Richard Brody, Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life Of Jean-Luc Godard.
Vivian Gornick, The Men in My Life.
Joel L. Kraemer, Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds.
Reginald Shepherd, Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry.
Seth Lerer, Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History: Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter.
The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974 at the Algonquin, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization consisting of some 700 active book reviewers who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns. It is managed by a 24-member all-volunteer board of directors.

Best Selling Author Steve Berry @Warren Newport Public Library

Steve Berry, the creator of the Cotton Malone thrillers, will be at the Warren Newport Public Library next Thursday,February 5, at 7:00 p.m. His books, including his current best seller, The Charlemagne Pursuit, will be available for purchase and signing.

Pulitzer Winner Novelist John Updike Dead

John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, died Tuesday January 27. He was prolific, creating more than 50 books, including novels, short stories, criticism, and a memoir. Updike won many literary prizes, including two Pulitzers, for Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest. A collection of essays, Hugging the Shore, received the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. In 2003, Updike received the National Medal for Humanities at the White House. His two series,the "Bech" and the "Rabbit" books, are his most known. His Witches of Eastwick (1984), about three 20th-century sorceresses, was made into a successful film by George Miller, starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer. His last 2 books were Terrorist, about an angry young American Muslim who becomes involved in a plot to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel and The Widows of Eastwick, a sequel to his best selling Witches of Eastwick. Of his writing, Updike once commented that his aim was to "give the mundane its beautiful due".

Oscar Nominations Go to Films Adapted From Books

Oscar nominations have been awarded to several films adapted from books. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was nominated for best picture, best director (David Fincher), best actor (Brad Pitt), best supporting actress (Taraji P. Henson) and best adapted screenplay. Slumdog Millionaire, based upon Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A, was nominated for best picture, best director (Danny Boyle) and best adapted screenplay. The Reader, based upon Bernhard Schlink's novel, was nominated for best picture, best director (Stephen Daldry), best actress (Kate Winslet) and best adapted screenplay. Revolutionary Road, based upon the novel by Richard Yates, was nominated for best supporting actor (Michael Shannon), best art direction and best costume design.

Creator of Rumpole Sir John Mortimer Dead

John Mortimer, widely known for his Rumpole series, died last Friday at 86. Mortimer was a verstille writer, known as a playwright (part of the "new wave" with John Osborne and Harold Pinter), screenwriter, novelist, and journalist. Mortimer also was a practicing barrister and Queen's Counsel, a fierce free-speech advocate, a divorce lawyer and a criminal attorney. Like his character Horace Rumpole, Mortimer accepted only defense briefs. His Rumpole is probably best known through Leo McKern's portrayals on television. In court, Mortimer was like Rumpole. He enjoyed needling judges. And they often responded in kind. During one closing argument, Mortimer apologized to the jury because they'd had to sit "through the most boring trial ever to have been held in the criminal court." The judge began his own summation by noting, "It may surprise you to know, members of the jury, that the sole purpose of the criminal law in England is not to entertain Mr. Mortimer." In later years, Mortimer created a trilogy of blackly comedic political novels, the Rapstone Chronicles.

Borders Original Voices 2008 Awards

The winners of the 2008 Borders Original Voices Awards, which honor "fresh, compelling and ambitious written works from new and emerging talents" are :
Fiction: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. The committee commented: "A haunting story of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people trying to find and retain their humanity in the midst of war and siege."
Nonfiction: The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner. "Part travelogue, part self-help, part anthropological study, the best part of this entertaining and informative book is Weiner's rich, clever writing." Young Adult: I Am Apache by Tanya Landman. "An engaging, well researched book that any young adult--or any adult for that matter--will find compelling, thanks to its unorthodox storyline and passionate, vengeful protagonist."
Picture book: Those Darn Squirrels! by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. "The quirky, colorful illustrations perfectly complement the imaginative text, making this a book that kids and parents will cherish and want to read again and again." Each winner receives $5,000, and the books will be featured in Borders stores.

Mystery Author Donald E. Westlake Dead

Donald E. Westlake, the creator of over 100 books and 5 plays, died New Year's Eve of a heart attack. He was 75. Since his first book was published in 1960,Westlake had written under his own name and several pseudonyms, including Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt and Edwin West. Most of his books shared one feature: They were set in New York City, where he was born. Later in his career, Westlake limited himself to two pen names. He used his own name to write about a comical criminal named John Dortmunder. As Richard Stark, he wrote a series about a criminal named Parker. More than 15 of his books were made into movies. Westlake also wrote a number of screenplays, including The Grifters which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1991. His next novel, Get Real, is scheduled for release in April. He typed all his manuscripts on a portable manual typewriter. Westlake received three Edgar Awards and the title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.

Nobel Prize Winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dead

An actor, essayist, screenwriter, poet and director as well as a dramatist, Harold Pinter died last Wednesday of cancer. In more than 30 plays,includingThe Birthday Party,The Caretaker,The Homecoming and Betrayal, Pinter captured the anxiety and ambiguity of life. The adjective Pinteresque has become part of the cultural vocabulary as a byword for strong and unspecified menace. Pinter was outspoken in his views on repression and censorship, at home and abroad. He used his Nobel Prize acceptance speech to critize American foreign policy, stating that the United States had not only lied to justify waging war against Iraq, but that it had also “supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing military dictatorship” in the last 50 years. He once said “The play is a comedy because the whole state of affairs is absurd and inglorious. It is, however, as you know, a very serious piece of work.”

New Movies From Books

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, opens December 25. Brad Pitt is the voice of Benjamin Button, a man who ages in reverse. Marley & Me, based on the best selling book by John Grogan, opens December 25. A couple (Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson) learn life lessons from a lovable yet rambunctious dog. The Spirit, based on the comic book series by Will Eisner, opens December 25. Frank Miller adapted and directed this tale of a cop (Gabriel Macht) who returns from the dead to fight crime. Revolutionary Road, based on the novel by Richard Yates, opens December 26. A couple (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) struggle to overcome their personal problems while raising children in a 1950s Connecticut suburb.

Poet Elizabeth Alexander to Read at Inauguration

President-elect Obama has asked Elizabeth Alexander to compose and read a poem at his inauguration next month. As the Washington Post observed, "It is the first time that 'poetry's old-fashioned praise,' as Robert Frost called it, will be featured at the ceremony since Bill Clinton's second swearing in back in 1997." Alexander, a professor at Yale University, has written several books, including four poetry collections. Her most recent, American Sublime , was a finalist for the 2005Pulitzer prize. "I'm just so honored to have been asked to present and to compose a poem for this momentous occasion," Alexander told the Guardian. "What we have seen is a man who understands that words bring power, who understands the power of language, the integrity of language, that it's not just idle. To be asked to turn my own words to this occasion and for this person is all but overwhelming."

Best Business Books 208

Business Week has named its best business books of 2008:
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R. Morris;
The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder;
The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D. Ellis;
Hell's Cartel: I.G. Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys;
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely.

New York Times 10 Best Books of 2008

The editors of the New York Times Book Review have selected the following titles:
Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories by Steven Millhauser
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Dark Side by Jane Meyer
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
Nothing to be Frightened of by Julian Barnes
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
The World is What It is: Authorized Biography of V.S.Naipaul by Patrick French

2008 World Fantasy Awards

Life Achievement to: Leo & Diane Dillon, Patricia McKillip.
Novel to: Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay;
Novella to: Illyria by Elizabeth Hand;
Short Story: "Singing of Mount Abora" by Theodora Goss; Anthology to: Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural by Ellen Datlow, Editor;
Collection to :Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman.

Studs Terkel, Voice of Chicago, Dies

The author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago symbol died last Friday. He was 96 years young. "My epitaph? My epitaph will be 'Curiosity did not kill this cat,'" he once said. "Studs Terkel was part of a great Chicago literary tradition that stretched from Theodore Dreiser to Richard Wright to Nelson Algren to Mike Royko," Mayor Richard M. Daley said Friday. "In his many books, Studs captured the eloquence of the common men and women whose hard work and strong values built the America we enjoy today. He was also an excellent interviewer, and his WFMT radio show was an important part of Chicago's cultural landscape for more than 40 years."

Author Michael Crichton Dead at 66

Michael Crichton, the visionary physician author, died Tuesday. He wrote numerous books, including, The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Airframe, and Sphere. He started writing as a means to pay his way through medical school, but he switched to writing full time because "the writing was more interesting than the medicine." He also created the popular TV series ER. In the New York Times, Charles McGrath described Crichton as "a kind of cyborg, tirelessly turning out novels that were intricately engineered entertainment systems. No one--except possibly Mr. Crichton himself--ever confused them with great literature, but very few readers who started a Crichton novel ever put it down."