Bookdwarf

I meant to keep better track of all the books I’ve read this year, but I managed to lose track already. I thought I’d give a quick report of the last two books I’ve finished. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel is every bit as good as the reviews made it out to be. One of [...]

I arrived in DC on Wednesday afternoon, with some time for kill sight-seeing. Here are some pictures I took while exploring the Mall. That night I attended the Emerging Leaders meeting and met Jessica Stockton for the first (and definitely not the last) time as well as many other really nice people. Thursday I spent [...]

Hello again. Sorry that I’ve been remiss in posting about Book Expo. There’s no free wifi in the DC Convention center, so we can only post back at the hotel, but with all of the parties at the end of the day, who has to time to write? Regardless I will fill in the blanks [...]

The ABA announcd the 2006 Books Sense Book of the Year Awards at last night’s Tenth Annual Celebration of Bookselling. Here were the winners: Nonfiction: Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Roughcut) by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner Fiction: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Children’s Illustrated: Zen Shorts by [...]

In Virgina Woolf’s classic essay “A Room of One’s Own,” she recounts a luncheon at Oxbridge where the excellent food and the flushed wineglasses have led to a place where there is “no need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself. We are all going to heaven and Vandyck [...]

Today was the first official day of BEA. Navigating the aisles was treacherous as booksellers vied for galleys and freebies. The frustrating/funny thing about BEA is that many of the people that you want to talk to have more important people to snag, and the people who want to talk to you are those you’re [...]

Not a sexy post title, no, but Ed has written about yesterday’s events. Go here to get his opinion.

The Washington Convention Center is bustling this morning as publishers arrive to set up their booths, and booksellers take place in educational programs arranged through the American Booksellers Association. I spent an interesting hour listening to a panel on “Shop Local: Forming Business Alliances in your Community.” It’s a topic that we at Harvard Book [...]

Today was the educational day of BEA, where booksellers, publishers, and everyone else attend seminars on topics ranging from handselling books to getting the most out of your website. I sat through a lecture by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, called ‘Long Tail Prescriptions for the Book’. He argues that blockbuster movies, music, and [...]

From my colleague Amanda: Hello from Book Expo America! I’m Amanda from Harvard Book Store, and I’d like to thank my colleague Bookdwarf for letting Harvard Book Store use her blog to report on our booksellers’ experiences at Book Expo America (BEA). Our goal is to let readers know about the literary, publishing and bookselling [...]

I’m heading down to DC tomorrow morning for Book Expo America, the yearly giant convention where all the book people let their hair down—if they have hair. This year I’m bringing my new laptop and will be blogging daily to keep you updated on what’s happening. I’ll be meeting up with old friends and making [...]

I’m not sure what to make of this article by Tyler Cowen on Slate in which he claims that shopping at independent bookstores is nothing more than posturing. We do it to be cool basically, but the chain stores really do things better. Obviously, I disagree with much of the article, but I’m more curious [...]

I’d like to congratulate Bookdwarf favorite Laila Lalami, of Moorish Girl, whose story ‘The Fanatic’ from her excellent Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits is one of 5 nominees for the Caine Prize for African Writing, also known as the African Booker ($15,000). Congratulations to her! The winner will be announced on July 10th.

Based on the life of the author’s great-grandfather, The Leopard tells of proud Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina (in Sicily), during the time of the Risorgimento, or the movement for unification in the 1860s. A man of great appetites, Fabrizio moves through a time where he is the head of his family and a natural [...]

Readers may be aware of my growing fondness for Rupert Thomson after I read his excellent Divided Kingdom last year. I vowed to make my way through his previous books. So far I’ve read The Insult and The Book of Revelations. Soft makes my fourth Thomson novel. I’d say that this is not his best [...]

I don’t know why all of these Mitchell links cropped up today, but here they are: From the Written Nerd, I learned about an exclusive new story available on the Random House website featuring characters from Black Swan Green. From Bookslut, I learned about this audio interview with Mitchell when he here in the states. [...]

Around the blog world you can hear the cries of pain from various bloggers who’ve been inundated with email lately from perhaps well-meaning publicists who don’t take the time to read the blogs they’re emailing. I’m not sure if I feel the same sort of animosity that Ed does—I just delete the emails about books [...]

And the winner is Beloved by Toni Morrison. This feature won’t run until the May 21st issue (but you can read A.O. Scott’s essay already), but I thought it worth mentioning now. You can see the list of other nominees here. The list of judges is equally fascinating.

George Saunders just stopped by my store to sign copies of his new book of stories In Persuasion Nation. He’s reading over at Brookline Booksmith this evening at 7. If you’re bored today, go over to the LBC website where we’re discussing My Sister’s Continent this week. Also the podcasts of author interviews has gone [...]

Head on over to the LBC website for some delicious discussion this week of Jeff Ford’s novel The Girl in the Glass. The new issue of Boldtype went up this morning. This month’s topic is Taste and there’s an interview with George Saunders. Has anyone read his new book? This is amazing—the Brown Bookstore shall [...]