03/22/09 - Literary News - Lots of Award Nomination Announcements

New York Times Bestseller List

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. HANDLE WITH CARE, by Jodi Picoult
2. ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham
3. PROMISES IN DEATH, by J. D. Robb
4. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
5. ONE DAY AT A TIME, by Danielle Steel

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. THE YANKEE YEARS, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
3. OUT OF CAPTIVITY, by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, Tom Howes and Gary Brozek
4. THE LOST CITY OF Z, by David Grann
5. DEWEY, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter


Literary News

2009 Hugo Award Nominations

The nominees for the 2009 Hugo Awards are in. A complete list of nominees is located on the Hugo Awards site.

Up for Best Novel are:

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award finalists announced

The annual award is presented for the best science fiction novel of the year, and selected from a list of novels whose U.K. first edition was published in the previous calendar year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The finalists are:

• Song of Time, Ian R. MacLeod (PS Publishing)
• The Quiet War, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
• House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
• The Margarets, Sheri S. Tepper (Gollancz)
• Martin Martin's on the Other Side, Mark Wernham (Jonathan Cape)

The winner will be announced on April 29.

Finalists for the 2009 John W. Campbell Award

The John W. Campbell Award is for best new writer. The finalists are:

• Aliette de Bodard*
• David Anthony Durham*
• Felix Gilman
• Tony Pi*
• Gord Sellar*

* indicates second year of eligibility.

Former President George W. Bush to write book
Wed Mar 18, 8:27 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former U.S. President George W. Bush will write a book about some of the decisions he made during his eight years in office, which will be published by the Crown Publishing Group in 2010.

Washington lawyer Robert Barnett told Reuters the book was tentatively called "Decision Points." He declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.

Irish poet Seamus Heaney wins literature prize
Wed Mar 18, 4:15 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) – Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney won the David Cohen Prize for Literatur e on Wednesday for what the chair of judges called "the self-renewing force of his writing."

The biennial prize, funded by the John S. Cohen Foundation, honors a living writer from the British Isles for a lifetime's achievement in literature.

Doctorow among international book prize nominees
Wed Mar 18, 3:19 pm ET
NEW YORK – "Ragtime" novelist E.L. Doctorow and Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul were among the 14 finalists announced Wednesday for the Man Booker International Prize, given every two years for lifetime achievement by a fiction writer who writes in English or whose work is widely available in English translation.

Screenwriter Millard Kaufman dies at 92
Tue Mar 17, 4:15 am ET

LOS ANGELES – Screenwriter Millard Kaufman, who co-created the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, was nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays for "Take the High Ground!" and "Bad Day at Black Rock" and won a cult following as a first-time novelist at the age of 90, has died, a spokeswoman said. He was 92.

Kaufman died Saturday of heart failure, said Laura Howard, spokeswoman for McSweeney's Publishing, which published his novel "Bowl of Cherries" in 2007.

Kaufman's writing credits also include "Never So Few," "The Warlord," "The Klansman" and "Convicts 4," as well an episode of the TV series "Police Story" and the TV movie "Enola Gay."

Writing Prompt - Dialogue Prompt

911 Writer's Block from WEbook is a fun tool to use as a writing prompt. Click the different buttons for different prompts, such as:

• Characters
• Settings
• Endings
• Kill a character

For this week's writing prompt, I am using option number 4, dialogue, on 911 Writer's Block.

Write a story that uses the following piece of dialogue. It may be an important part of the plot, or it may be a passing comment.

"Trust me. You'll be picking 'em up off the floor before this is over"

Share what you come up with.

Scott Sigler's Contagious Book Review

Contagious is the sequel to Scott Sigler's book Infected: A Novel. You will want to read the first book before reading Contagious. Scott Sigler does not waste anytime rehashing what already happened; he just gets right into the action. "Scary" Perry Dawsey is back, but this time he is working with the good guys. Well, maybe not exactly working with them, but they at least have the same goal.

If you have a weak stomach or are easily offended by language then this book is not for you. It is fast-paced and action packed. I know that is cliche, but it perfectly describes Sigler's book. Sigler is not afraid to kill off good guys and let the bad guys seize control. You cannot predict what will have next.

There is a lot of medical and military action in the book, which requires careful explanation so the reader understands what is happening. Siglar is a master at providing the reader with enough explanation to make the story plausible, but not so much detail that the momentum is lost.

Contagious was just a fun and exciting read.

The one problem with the book was the errors missed during editing. There were enough errors that it started to annoy me. Some of the formatting errors may have been the Kindle edition. I'd be interested in hearing from those who read the paper copy if there were the same formatting errors.

Overall I give the book 8 out 10.