Borders Awards
The Borders' Original Voices picks for the year are:

Fiction
Mark Dunn's ELLA MINNOW PEA

Non-fiction
Michael Pollan's BOTANY OF DESIRE

Children's picture book
Helen Ward's THE TIN FOREST, illustrations by Wayne Anderson

Young adult book
L.M. Elliott's UNDER A WAR-TORN SKY

From Publishers Lunch:
New Saroyan Prize Launched
The Stanford University Libraries have joined with the William Saroyan Foundation to launch the Saroyan Writing Prize for newly published works of fiction. The biennial prize of $12,500 is "meant to encourage new or emerging writers rather than recognize established literary figures."
Read the rest here: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020417/170218_1.html

Good piece about a successful independent bookstore in Miami that specializes in mysteries called, appropriately enough, Murder on Miami Beach. Check it out:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-limurderstoreapr10.story

April 10, 2002

"Online Sales of Used Books Draw Protest
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Authors are rebelling against new efforts by Amazon.com to spur sales of used books, a practice that has become a major source of revenue for Amazon but pays nothing to writers or publishers."

Read the entire article at the NY Times online, subscription (free) necessary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/10/technology/10BOOK.html?todaysheadlines

More on Oprah...

For the legions of fans who are sorry she is ending her book club, hope is at hand. There is a website set up to help fans send emails to Oprah, thanking her for the book club and begging her to reconsider. Check out: Oprah, Don't Pull the Plug on Your Book Club! http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=13108&CFID=1134690&CFTOKEN=71988688

Read more about it at Holt Uncensored
http://holtuncensored.com/members/index.html#goodbye

On a brighter note, the Today show jumped right into the fray, announcing they are starting a book club. It will begin in June, hosted by Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. They are planning on asking the big name authors for suggested titles by lesser known authors, hopefully avoiding the already popular bestsellers and Franzen-like debacles. They will start in June and have a thirty minute discussion once a month at 8:30 a.m. Get more details:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/735977.asp

Sounds like a winner to me.

Interesting Blogs

Moby Lives: Weekly news and commentary about books and writers. In-depth articles with a point-of-view. Intelligent. Interesting. Posted daily. http://www.mobylives.com/

Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies. http://marylaine.com/exlibris/

Library Stuff: Steven Cohen's daily weblog of ... library stuff. Brief commentary, mix of news stories and useful websites for librarians, readers, researchers. http://www.librarystuff.net/

I am thrilled to report that Richard Russo won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for EMPIRE FALLS, and David McCullough won his second Presidential Pulitzer for biography for JOHN ADAMS! Here's the news report:

Pulitzer Announces 2002 Winners in Letters and Drama

On Monday, April 8, winners of the Pulitzer Prize in literature were
announced, recognizing work in fiction, drama, history, biography, poetry,
and general nonfiction. Among those honored were Richard Russo, whose
novel, Empire Falls (Knopf), a poignant story about a "decent man encircled
by history and dreams" in a down-and-out town in Maine, was recognized for
distinguished fiction by an American author. Also winning was David
McCullough, for his epic biography of the second president of the U.S.,
John Adams (S&S). It was McCullough's second presidential-related Pulitzer;
previously, he had won for Truman in 1993.

Also cited for this year's prizes were Topdog/Underdog (Theatre
Communications Group), by Susan-Lori Parks, for drama; The Metaphysical
Club: A Story of Ideas in America (FSG), by Louis Menand, for history;
Practical Gods (Penguin Books), by Carl Dennis, for poetry; and Carry Me
Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights
Revolution (S&S/Touchstone), by Diane McWhorter, for general nonfiction.

Been meaning to post this for a few weeks. From the NY Times report on the Rock 'n Roll
Hall of Fame induction:

" Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers introduced Talking Heads, saying that hearing the band gave him a new sensation:

"I wanted to have sex with a lot of librarians." "

Big news of the day:

"To the Dismay of Publishers, Oprah Winfrey Ends Her Book Club

Oprah Winfrey announced today that she would no longer host monthly "book clubs" on her television talk show, saying that she could no longer find enough compelling books."

Read the rest of the article from the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/business/media/_05CND-BOOK.html
Subscription (free) required.

Bel Canto Wins 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award
Ann Patchett has won the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Bel Canto. The prize awards the writer $15,000, making it the largest juried award for fiction in the U.S.

Congratulations to Dennis Lehane! MYSTIC RIVER won the 2002 Dilys Award from The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) as the book member bookstores "most enjoyed selling" this past year.

Heard some rave reviews on the advance copy of THE BLUE EDGE OF NOWHERE by Jonathan King. Publication date is March 28...

From Publishers Lunch, 03.18.02

"Feast and Famine at Libraries
Two articles paint a contrasting picture on the state of libraries. Cerritos, CA prepares to join a wave of cities with high-tech new libraries that also serve as gateways to the electronic world and even community centers, as they celebrate the opening of a "$35-million futuristic building clad in titanium and hard-wired for interaction." Meanwhile, though, the Boston Globe laments how "funding shortages are keeping Massachusetts near the bottom of state-by-state rankings of school libraries." Many schools have no librarian at all and collections are aging and even outdated. Plus, "Research published in this month's issue of American Libraries magazine shows that based on 1990 Census data, 57 percent of professional librarians (including those in schools and in public libraries) will reach retirement age between 2005 and 2019."

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/076/metro/School_libraries_lacking+.shtml
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-000019493mar17.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dpe%2Dcalifornia

There is a great website that one of my readers steered me to called The Readers Refuge:

http://www.geocities.com/lettore59/index.html

There are lots of reviews and interesting essays. Go check it out!

Found an interesting article entitled "Public Hanging: the Death of the Book Review " from a Canadian website called The Danforth Review. It's long but very interesting reading to anyone who has wondered about the credibility of a review and/or a reviewer.

http://www.danforthreview.com/features/essays/death_of_the_book_review.htm