Booker Prize

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced on September 9.


"Now in its 40th year, the prize aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. The Man Booker judges are selected from the country's finest critics, writers and academics to maintain the consistent excellence of the prize."

This year's titles are:

• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga*
• The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Berry
• Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
• The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
• The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
• A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

(* available from PCLS)


The winner will be announced October 14. For a list of past winners click here.

Pulitzer Prize

The 2008 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week. Here are a few of the winners:

Fiction:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

General Nonfiction:
The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander

History:
What God Hath Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe

Biography:
Eden's Outcasts by John Matteson

National Book Critics Circle Winners

The winners of the National Book Critics Circle winners have been announced. Here are a few of the winners:

Fiction:
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

General Nonfiction:
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experiments on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet Washington

Biography:
Stanley, The Impossilble Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal

Autobiography:
Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

Tournament of Books

It's almost time for The Morning News 2008 Tournament of Books. The Tournament of Books, now in it's fourth year, is a March-Madness style contest where books go head to head in a fight for one of the strangest literary prizes ever--a live chicken.

Here are the contenders for this year's prize:

Run by Ann Patchett
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Petropolis by Anya Ulinich
Ovenman by Jeff Parker
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem
New England White by Stephen L. Carter
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
Shining at the Bottom of the Sea by Stephen Marche
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke


You can view the list of judges here.

This literary prize with a sense of humor kicks off Friday, March 7.

(Image courtesy of themorningnews.org)

ALA's Notable Books

The Notable Books Council of the American Library Association recently released its list of outstanding books for 2008.

Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation's readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. (From the Notable Books Council press release)

Fiction
Away by Amy Bloom
Five Skies by Ron Carlson
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
Finn: A Novel by John Clinch
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes by Tess Uriza Holthe
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Complete Stories by David Malouf
Out Stealing Horses by Per Pettersen
Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor

Nonfiction
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
The Canon by Natalie Angier
Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
Oil on the Brain by Lisa Margonelli
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Poetry
A New Hunger by Laure-Anne Bosselaar
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus by X.J. Kennedy

National Book Critics Circle Awards

The National Book Critics Circle Awards have been announced. Awards are presented for the finest books and reviews published in English during the past year. Here is the list of the 2007 finalists. For a listing of previous winners and finalists click here.

The winners will be announced March 6, 2008.

New York Times Notable Books

The New York Times has announced its list of Notable Books for 2007. The Pasco County Library System has the following titles from the list:

Fiction

The Abstinence Teacher (Tom Perrotta)
Bearing the Body (Ehud Havazelet)
Bridge of Sighs (Richard Russo)
Call Me By Your Name (Andre Aciman)
Exit Ghost (Philip Roth)
Falling Man (Don DeLillo)
A Free Life (Ha Jin)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
House of Meetings (Martin Amis)
In the Country of Men (Hisham Matar)
Knots (Nuruddin Farah)
Later, At the Bar: A Novel in Stories (Rebecca Barry)
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (Vendela Vida)
The Ministry of Special Cases (Nathan Englander)
Mothers and Sons: Stories (Colm Toibin)
On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid)
Remainder (Tom McCarthy)
The Septembers of Shiraz (Dalia Sofer)
Then We Came to the End (Joshua Ferris)
Tree of Smoke (Denis Johnson)
The View from Castle Rock (Alice Munro)
What is the What (Dave Eggers)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union (Michael Chabon)

Nonfiction

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic (Joseph J. Ellis)
Brother, I'm Dying (Edwidge Danticat)
Circling My Mother (Mary Gordon)
The Diana Chronicles (Tina Brown)
Edith Wharton (Hermione Lee)
How Doctors Think (Jerome Groopman)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Rajiv Chandrasekaran)
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Tim Weiner)
Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah)
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Jeffrey Toobin)
Ralph Ellison: A Biography (Arnold Rampersad)
Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography (David Michaelis)
Thomas Hardy (Claire Tomalin)
Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton (Sara Wheeler)

National Book Award Winners

The winners of the National Book Awards were announced on Wednesday. The Pasco County Library System has the winners in the Fiction and Nonfiction categories:

• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
• Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by
  Tim Weiner

To see a listing of all the National Book Award finalists and winners since the award's inception in 1950 click here.

And the Winner Is...

Anne Enright was awarded the Man Booker prize for her bleak family drama The Gathering. In addition to the monetary reward, Anne Enright is guaranteed a boost in sales and worldwide recognition.


If you're in the mood for lighter fare, try National Book Award Finalist Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End. From the book jacket:

"No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks."

National Book Awards

The finalists for the 2007 National Book Awards have been announced.

"The mission of the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America."


An independent panel of five writers will select the winners in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature.

For more information on the awards and the National Book Foundation visit their website.

The winners will be announced November 14.

Booker Prize Shortlist

The Booker Prize shortlist was announced on September 6. The six titles are:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Animal's People by Indra Sinha

Here is the shorlist announcement, followed by a brief synopsis and author bio for each title.

The winner will be announced on October 16.

Quill Book Awards

The Quill Awards celebrate the best books of the year in 19 categories including: Debut Author of the Year, Romance, Religion/Spirituality, Sports, Cooking, Humor, General Fiction, and Biography/Memoir. The Quills Voting board, which is comprised of 6,000 booksellers and librarians, will select the best title in each category. Winners will be announced September 10.

Click here for a list of the nominees.

After the winners are announced, readers will have the chance to cast their vote for Book of the Year. Voting will be open from September 10 to October 10. To cast your vote, go to www.quillsvote.com

Booker Prize

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious literary prizes, was announced August 7. The Booker Prize is awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland. The PCLS currently owns the Davies, Hamid, Jones, and McEwan titles.

The shortlist will be announced on September 6 and the Prize will be announced on October 16.