Bookdwarf

Sorry for the silence. This is a busy time at work—we’re preparing for the Holidays here, coming up with our list of what we call The Holiday Hundred. It’s usually a mix of new and older books from the year that we think are some of the best. Of course, people will quibble with the [...]

Jerome Weeks, formerly the Dallas Morning News Book reviewer, now has a blog through Artsjournal called Bookdaddy. Great name.

Alex Beam writes in today’s Globe about the new Sony Reader, a portable electronic “book”. So far the reviews have been mixed. Somehow I don’t think the old fashioned book is in any danger of extinction. Too many people love holding a real book in their hands, turning each page, savoring the smell and look. [...]

This week we’re discussing Sidney Thompson’s Sideshow over at the Co-op. We’re going over almost every story and expect to see the author appear as well as some podcasts.

From the NY Post: DANIELLE Steel. Launching her Elizabeth Arden fragrance Danielle, she told me: “I was involved in designing the bottle and packaging. I don’t know about what’s in it. I barely cook, so what do I know about making perfume? It’s called a floriental and it’s for the mass market, not Bergdorf’s. For [...]

Anyone attempting to write a biography of Augustus faces a monumentous task. Not only are sources limited during the era, but the information that is available is often biased. Not to mention the fact that so many important events occurred during such a short period of time. Everitt manages to take all this in stride [...]

There seems to be a glut of books by big named authors this Fall. Wait, haven’t we already read this before? Right, the Los Angeles Times put out an article several weeks ago and now the New York Times has a similar one. The same authors are mentioned again: Thomas Pynchon, Michael Connelly, John le [...]

Garrett County Press asked favorite artists to “color in” pages from Kevin Stone’s latest project, The Pat Robertson and Friends Coloring Book. The artists, who range from Philadelphia designers to Bangkok street artists, were given simple instructions: pick your favorite page and have fun. Here are the results. This one is my favorite:

Ed has posted the first of five installments of a round table discussion of Richard Power’s new book The Echo Maker, which was just nominated for the National Book Award. I can’t speak for the other books, not having read them, but this book by Powers is definitely deserving of the award. It’s one of [...]

The Autumn 2006 Read This! finalist has been announced. Keep checking for daily posts on the winner and the other finalists.

Slate’s running an article on overlooked books picked by Booksellers and bloggers. Yours truly is there amongst some other fine folk.

This is pretty cool. It’s the translator’s notes on translating The Mystery Guest by Gregoire Bouillier. Is Hollywood going to ruin one of the books I loved this year? This list of dos and don’ts from the Events coordinator of Powells is both hilarious and true. Seriously people. Listen to the advice. I’m not sure [...]

Orhan Pamuk wins the prize this year. Some find this year’s recipient puzzling. It makes sense to me. The Nobel judges have been giving the prize to those in conflict with their government for several years. And though Pamuk might seem young, he has many good books under his belt and Gabriel Garcia Marquez was [...]

Pinky’s Paperhaus has a nice-looking new home. And Beatrice has some new roommates. Ron’s asked Scott of Slushpile, Dibs, Dj from Bookburger, and Rod Lott from Bookgasm to post on his site. Alex Beam shares his secrets of un-reading with Globe readers. “Books are expensive, and most of them are not very well written anyway. [...]

The National Book Award Finalists have been announced. Fiction Mark Z. Danielewski, Only Revolutions (Pantheon) Ken Kalfus, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country (Ecco/HarperCollins) Richard Powers, The Echo Maker (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Dana Spiotta, Eat the Document (Scribner/Simon & Schuster) Jess Walter, The Zero (Judith Regan Books/HarperCollins) Non-Fiction Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America [...]

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I’ve just watched the announcement online. It seemed sort of unceremonious.

In celebration of Columbus’s sighting of land supposedly on this day in 1492, I don’t have to work today. Perhaps I should be celeb rating it old school style, contracting the black plauge or performing some obscure religious rite. Instead, I will be spending it finishing up Cormac McCarthy’s latest novel The Road, which so [...]

Marish Pessl’s debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics received a lot of press when it arrived on the shelves this August. Many of the reviews seemed favorable. Some have called the book overly clever and nothing but a literary trick. This week, my favorite local paper The Weekly Dig posted their own review. The [...]

After reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma this past summer, I wanted to do a bit more reading about sustainable living. Luckily, Pollan has posted a reading list on his website, which included Gussow’s This Organic Life, written in 2001. Joan Gussow does not beat around the bush. She manages to live almost entirely off [...]

The shortlist for the Giller Award (the National Book Award of Canada if you will) has been announced: Rawi Hage De Niro’s Game Vincent Lam Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures Pascale Quiviger The Perfect Circle Gaétan Soucy The Immaculate Collection Carol Windley Home Schooling The winner will be announced on November 7th. I have to admit [...]