Monday, January 23, 2012
And we hope they were delicious
 According to the Horn Book Blog, the 2012 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction has been given to Jack Gantos's book Dead End in Norvelt. When informed of this honor, the stunned Mr. Gantos apparently announced he was planning to celebrate by "eating a bunch of snacks". We approve. Labels: Awards
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Congratulations...?
 It's that time of year again, dear readers: time for the 19th annual Literary Review "Bad Sex in Fiction" Award. This year's prize was given to David Guterson's novel Ed King, which they describe as a "re-imagining of the Oedipus myth in the second half of the twentieth century". The winning paragraphs are simply too grody for me to re-post, but if you're interested you can read them here. Just don't eat lunch first. Labels: Awards
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Getting out the vote
 According to The Comics Beat, you can check out Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s Eisner Award-nominated comic book Afrodisiac for free. The book is currently between printings, so its publisher has posted it online. (Clearly, they know "free" is the easiest way to court my vote.) Labels: Awards, Comic news
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Real award, (thankfully) fictional sex
 The 18th annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award was announced a few days ago, and the dubious honor was given to Irish author Rowan Somerville for The Shape of Her, which apparently includes the following line (and you might want to brace yourselves): "Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her." Oh. My. Goodness. Note: Today's review selection (Wendelin Van Draanen's Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher) will appear this evening on the main site. Labels: Awards, Such wrongness
Friday, November 05, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
"Best of 2010" already?
 The 2010 Hugo Awards for outstanding science fiction or fantasy works were given out this week. The best novel award was a tie this year—China Miéville's The City & The City and Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl. Congratulations to the winners! Labels: Awards, Fantasy, Sci-fi
Friday, April 02, 2010
Randomness
Huh. Apparently, there's an award given out each year for the oddest book title, and this year's winner is...  Who knew? But now I kind of want to read it. Labels: Awards
Friday, February 20, 2009
Life of Pi, the movie
 According to Variety, Ang Lee is in talks to direct Life of Pi, an adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Yann Martel. The book, which I have not read, is described as the story of "a youth who is the lone survivor of a sunken freighter and winds up sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a hungry Bengal tiger". Man. That sounds like the set-up of a bad joke, doesn't it? Labels: Awards, Movie Adaptations
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Literary fundraising
 The Shirley Jackson Awards, honoring outstanding work in the genres of psychological suspense, horror, and the "dark fantastic", is currently holding an online lottery to raise money for their award. For those of you who aren't familiar with the name, Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was the author of several horror novels, including such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. She also wrote one of the most unforgettable* short stories of the 20th century: 1948's "The Lottery" (thus the lottery-style fundraiser). This event is running through February 23rd, so be sure to check out the prize list soon--there's some good stuff on there! *Seriously. You might want to forget it, but no dice. Labels: Awards, Events, Horror
Friday, February 06, 2009
Reading between the lines
 Publishers Weekly has posted a list of the winners of the 2009 "Off the Cuff" awards, and it's worth taking a gander at--for the publishing gossip, if nothing else. ( Blueberries for Sal went out of print this year! And Hachette screwed up the print run for the Twilight books!) The winners are selected by children's book retailers, and I think they give a much more accurate reflection of what books will actually enter into the realm of "classic kid books" than some of the more high-falutin' awards out there. Labels: Awards
Thursday, October 16, 2008
National Book Awards
 Once again they have announced the finalists for the National Book Awards, and once again, despite spending the entire freaking year reading and reviewing books, I haven't read a single featured title. The last time I actually read a NBA-approved book? Yeah, that would be 2005's The Penderwicks. Sigh. Labels: Awards
Thursday, May 15, 2008
It's manga awards season!
The results of the 32nd Kodansha Awards are out, and they've selected some really great-looking stuff this year. (The Kodansha Awards have made plenty of solid picks in the past: both Tramps Like Us and Nodame Cantabile are previous Kodansha winners.) I've read scanlations of the first few chapters of this year's very cute shojo pick, Kimi no Todoke, but I'm totally unfamiliar with their general manga choice, Moyashimon--a situation that must be rectified immediately. According to Wikipedia, Moyashimon is the story of Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year agricultural university student with the bizarre ability to communicate with micro-organisms. In addition to the story's cast of nutjob human characters, readers also get to know Tadayasu's micro-organism buddies, including Aspergillus oryzae, the main micro-organism character (a fungus used in the production of soy sauce and miso), and Lactobacillus homohiochi, the "bad guy" of the series (a fructivoran that makes sake go bad). Doesn't that sound awesome? And, just to make things even cooler, look how cute all the micro-organisms are:  Neither Kimi no Todoke nor Moyashimon are currently licensed in the U.S., but you can read scanlated versions of both series via IRC, and you can watch the Moyashimon anime online. Labels: Awards, manga
Friday, October 12, 2007
Awards season
 Well, the National Book Awards finalists have been announced, and—surprise!—we've read exactly one of 'em. (And it's a picture book: Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret, in case you were wondering.) Why, National Book Awards selection committees, why must you sneer at all the fun books? Labels: Awards
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According to the Horn Book Blog, the 2012 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction has been given to Jack Gantos's book Dead End in Norvelt. When informed of this honor, the stunned Mr. Gantos apparently announced he was planning to celebrate by "eating a bunch of snacks". We approve.
