Interesting piece by Elinor Lipman in the NY Times about those blurbs from famous authors on the backs of books. Check it out here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/12/books/12LIPM.html

Authors write their own five-star reviews
By Daniel Foggo
(Filed: 11/08/2002)

Some of Britain's bestselling authors are giving their own novels glowing reviews on Amazon, the internet booksellers, by pretending to be readers.

Read the complete story here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/08/11/nauth11.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/08/11/ixhome.html

1965 Library Book Finally Returned

.c The Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. (July 30) - A book expected back to the library during Lyndon Johnson's presidency has finally been returned.

Someone slipped a copy of ``Miss Abby Fitch-Martin'' in a library book drop Sunday, more than 13,500 days past its due date.

``The theory is someone was cleaning out a relative's house that passed away and found the book,'' said Barbara Hansen of Lincoln City Libraries.

The 178-page hardback book was withdrawn from circulation years ago.

``Miss Abby Fitch-Martin,'' the true tale of a New England clan that adhered to a family code of ``Pedigree, Prudence, Pride and Purse,'' was checked out by a patient at Bryan Memorial Hospital in 1965 through the now-defunct Hospital Book Service.

The due-date card stamped Feb. 17, 1965, was still in the back pocket but the index card listing the borrower has long disappeared.

A blue-and-white bookmark provided one of the first clues the book had long been out of circulation. It listed four branch libraries that no longer exist.

Hansen said the library would not try to collect the late fee of about $3,400.

Independent Booksellers Pick Top Reading Group Books
BookSense has announced the top 10 vote-getters
for their 2002-2003.

1. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, by Barbara Kingsolver
2. THE RED TENT, by Anita Diamant
3. GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, by Tracy Chevalier
4. HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, by Andre Dubus III
5. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, by Arthur Golden
6. THE SPARROW, by Mary Doria Russell
7. THE HOURS, by Michael Cunningham
8. THE ANGLE OF REPOSE, by Wallace Stegner
9. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee
10. PLAINSONG, by Kent Haruf

The Anthony Awards - winner to be announced in October at Bouchercon

Best Novel:

FLIGHT - Jan Burke
TELL NO ONE - Harlan Coben
MYSTIC RIVER - Dennis Lehane
DEVIL WENT DOWN TO AUSTIN - Rick Riordan
REFLECTING THE SKY - S. J. Rozan

Who is Eric Kraft and why should you care? Well, maybe because "Newsweek called him "the literary equivalent of Fred Astaire dancing: great art that looks like fun." Time saw him as "luminously intelligent." The New York Times found his novels "full of mystery and wonder." And 10 days ago in Newsday, book critic Richard Gehr praised him as a "buoyant and brilliant presence" on the occasion of his eighth and most recent novel." Intrigued? Find out more about one of the literati's favored sons and read the rest of the article here:

http://www.newsday.com/features/books/ny-page32803642jul31.story?coll=ny%2Dfeatures%2Dheadlines

From the NY Times, May 16, 2002

MAKING BOOKS
Novelists Court the Braces Set
By MARTIN ARNOLD


Two of the most widely anticipated children's books that will be out there this fall have been written not by traditional children's novel writers (or even by writers who unwittingly produce juvenile work), but by authors known for their popular and acclaimed adult books.

These awaited "chapter books" — that's what children's novels are called to distinguish them from other children's books — are by Carl Hiaasen and Michael Chabon. Mr. Hiaasen normally writes best-selling witty novels of the political flimflam of environmental rape in Florida and other mayhems, and Mr. Chabon's last adult fiction was a comic novel about the struggle for personal liberation. Both men are very serious about their children's novels, and in fact join a long tradition of writers who have knowingly wandered from the adult to the juvenile.

Read the entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/16/books/16BOOK.html

From Reuters:
Bridget Jones Settles Down but Romance Isn't Dead
Wed May 15,12:56 AM ET
By Joanne Russell

LONDON (Reuters) - They've been touted as turbo-charged romance, analyzed as fictional self-help, and panned as pure froth.

Chick lit books -- a publishing phenomenon spawned by Helen Fielding's hugely successful "Bridget Jones's Diary" -- dominated best-seller lists in the late 1990s.

With their candy-colored covers, these comic tales of twenty- and thirty-somethings seeking Mr. Right sold in their hundreds of thousands.

But, six years after Bridget Jones went public in shopping malls and airport bookshops round the world, have publishers grown weary of the "city girl meets boy" format?

"The perception now is that chick lit is dead and people are looking for the next direction," said Simon Trewin at PFD literary and talent agency in London.

"I don't think it's dead at all. There are millions of people out there who really love reading (it)."

Book sales in Britain topped one billion pounds ($1.4 billion) last year, largely thanks to films of "Bridget Jones's Diary" and JK Rowling's Harry Potter (news - web sites) saga, which gave the books an even bigger audience.

"Bridget Jones's Diary" is a loose contemporary reworking of Jane Austen's classic novel "Pride and Prejudice." It documents the love-life of a neurotic singleton -- better known as a spinster in Austen's day -- who, in between counting calories and guzzling wine, dreams of finding her ideal man.

After Bridget's dizzy musings became international currency, a rush of books about the thirty-something lifestyle hit bookstores, like Jane Green's "Straight Talking" and Adele Parks' "Playing Away."

FROM BONKBUSTERS TO MUMMY LIT

While fantasy adventure novels now storm ahead in the book charts, chick lit still does well, industry experts said.

"There is less (chick lit) in the publishing program than immediately after Bridget Jones, but nonetheless there is still an audience for them so they're still out there," said Lesley Miles, marketing director at Waterstone's bookshops.

But why is chick lit so popular?

"It is interesting as a social phenomena...why did Bridget Jones touch a particular nerve with so many people? Are people finding it harder to commit? Are they finding it harder to find the right person?" asked novelist Sue Gee whose latest book, "Thin Air" focuses on what it's like to be seventy-something. But chick lit has plenty of critics -- particularly those who feel it trivializes the lives of women.

"Mostly it's not terribly well written, but worse than that it pushes the idea that relationships with men are the most important thing, that what you should be aiming for is to find 'the one'," said novelist Patricia Duncker, who teaches literature and writing at the University of Wales.

Novels about finding Mr. Right will always have a readership, but Trewin said publishers want well-written books from novelists who have a distinctive voice.

"It's not a question of saying 'we need to find half a dozen chick lit books and let's fill that slot," he said. "What they're saying is 'is this book brilliant and do we feel passionate about it?'...They want to publish books, not genres."

Yet there are clear fashions in popular fiction.

In the 1980s "bonkbusters" reigned supreme as readers snapped up sizzling tales of sexual intrigue from the likes of Jackie Collins.

Then came Joanna Trollope's books about the complexities of family relationships in rural Britain, dubbed "aga sagas" -- to Trollope's horror -- after a brand of traditional cooking ranges that feature in fashionable country kitchens.

In the 1990s "lad lit" became the new buzz word after Nick Hornby wrote "High Fidelity," a novel about a music-obsessed thirty-something man who is unlucky in love.

And "mummy lit" is seen by some as the next big thing as writers such as Green, who published "Babyville" last year, shift readers' attention to the subject of motherhood.

"Chick lit, lad lit, aga saga, bonkbuster -- the coinages are rather more interesting than the texts really," said Duncker, whose novels include "Hallucinating Foucault" and "The Deadly Space Between."

BEYOND SINGLETONS AND MOTHERHOOD

Less hyped but equally lucrative, other fiction genres -- such as family sagas -- sell consistently well.

"There is a market for what are called 'clogs and shawls' books which are sagas of working class life or about life in the war," said literary agent Caroline Sheldon.

"(They)...all sell extremely well, often much better than chick lit, but they don't get nearly so much coverage... Most of the authors would be over 50 but are extremely commercially successful, earning substantial salaries."

Trewin said publishers are always looking for good thriller writers and novels for the over 35s are in short supply.

"What we're looking for is the book that is going to appeal to a readership from 35 to 60," he said. "The grown up reader who is maybe more settled in their life now and wants a read that isn't all about boyfriends, temporary jobs and flatshares."

The Literary Consultancy, a fee-paying editorial assessment service which offers feedback for writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, receives roughly 60 fiction manuscripts a month.

Founder Rebecca Swift said some budding writers imitate successful trends, but "by the time a lot of them have written it the trend has gone slightly out of fashion because the market has become saturated."

Trewin receives about 2,500 manuscripts a year. "The books that really work are where you think the author has written them because they really want to get this story across," he said.

"They're not writing a book because they've got an overdraft to pay off."

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.