A Poll of Sellers On One Venue's Seller Forum

In the last few days, a question was posted on a Seller's Forum of one of the large bookselling venues: "What is your favorite book or novel?"

I tried to do a quick tabulation of the results here, but there are very few books that received more than one vote:

Magic Mountain 2
To Kill A Mockingbird 3
In Cold Blood 2
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich 2
Anything written by James Herriott 2
Moby Dick 2
Atlas Shrugged 2
Fountainhead 2 (So 4 total for Ayn Rand)
Watership Down 2
Count of Monte Christo 2
Pride and Prejudice 2
Jane Eyre 2
Gone With the Wind 3
Charlotte's Web 2
The Pink Motel 2
Dr. Suess books 2
War and Peace 2
Moby Dick 2
The Stand 2


There were a few more than 160 different titles or "Anything by certain author" choices.

I was amazed at the number of children's books chosen. This proves the need to get children into reading early, so that it stays with them all their lives.

There were few non-fiction titles chosen. Maybe the way the question was asked reduced the number who thought of non-fiction titles. Overwhelmingly the favorites were fiction. Religious titles were few.

The classics made a very good showing. Series novels by various authors also did well.

I think there are as many opinions of "Best Book" as there are sellers. If each had chosen just one book, as requested, the results probably would have been different.

What is your favorite book, fiction or non-fiction?

JWil

Golden Globes Shortlist of Foreign Language Film

The Golden Globes shortlist is out, and it includes 56 films, with multiple titles from Italy, France, China, Germany, Spain and India under consideration.

The Golden Globe foreign language nominees are :

9th Company Russia/Ukraine/Finland
After the Wedding Denmark
Ahlaam Iraq
Alatriste Spain
Along the Ridge (Anche libero va bene) Italy
Angel-A France
Apocalypto USA
Avenue Montaigne France
Black Book (Zwartboek) The Netherlands
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros Philippines
Bosta Lebanon
Children of Glory Hungary
Chronicle of an Escape Argentina
Cinema, Aspirins & Vultures Brazil
Climates (Iklimler) Turkey
Curse of the Golden Flower China
Days of Glory Algeria
El benny Cuba
Family Friend Italy
Family Law Argentina
Frozen Days Israel
The Golden Door (Nuovomondo) Italy
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams Bosnia and Herzegovina
Il Cai-mano Italy
Ice Cream I Scream Turkey
The Island Russia
King and the Clown South Korea
Lage Raho Munnabhai India
La Mujer de mi Hermano Mexico
The Last Train Germany
Letters from Iwo Jima Japan
Libertas Croatia
The Lives of Others Germany
Love for Share Indonesia
Mario's War (La guerra di Mario) Italy
The Missing Star (La stella che non c'e) Italy
Nomad Kazakhstan
Offside Iran
O Major Amor Do Mundo Brazil
Omkara India
Pan's Labyrinth Mexico
Playing the Victim Russia
Pretendiendo Chile
Prince of the Himalaya China
The Protector Thailand
Rang De Basanti India
Reprise Norway
Requiem Germany
Retrieval (Z Ozysku) Poland
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles China
Sweet Mud (Adama Meshuga'at) Israel
The Valet France
Vitus Switzerland
Volver Spain
Water Canada
The Yacoubian Building Egypt

Ironically, the American entries in the foreign language category will not be eligible for entry into the Oscars race because the rules don't recognize a film made in America as foreign even though it may be in a language other than English. Those films will be eligible in other Oscar categories, however.

JWil

The Christy Award for Christian Fiction Deadline Approaches

The deadline for submissions for the Christy Awards is December 6, 2006.

The Christy Award was established in 1999, after nearly a dozen Christian publishers confirmed the need for establishing a Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction. They named the award The Christy Award, in honor of Catherine Marshall’s novel Christy and of her contribution to growth of Christian fiction .

The Christy Award is designed to nurture and encourage creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview; bring a new awareness of the breadth and depth of fiction choices available, helping to broaden the readership; provide opportunity to recognize novelists whose work may not have reached bestseller status.

Every year publishers are invited to submit novels written from a Christian worldview and copyrighted in the year preceding the awards. Each novel is entered in one of several genre categories and/or the first novel category. Each category of novels is then read and evaluated against a ten-point criteria by a panel of seven judges composed of librarians, reviewers, academicians, literary critics, and other qualified readers.

For further information go to:

http://www.christyawards.com/about.html

JWil

American Music Awards Winners 2006

Winners at the American Music Awards:

The American Music Awards honor the best in pop/rock, country, soul/rhythm & blues, rap/hip hop, Latin, alternative, adult contemporary and contemporary inspirational music. Nominees are chosen based on record sales and winners were selected by a survey of about 20,000 listeners.

— Pop-Rock:
Male artist: Sean Paul
Female artist: Kelly Clarkson
Band, duo or group: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Album: All the Right Reasons, Nickelback

— Soul-R&B:
Male artist: Jamie Foxx
Female artist: Mary J. Blige
Band, duo or group: The Black Eyed Peas
Album: The Breakthrough, Mary J. Blige

— Country:
Male artist: Toby Keith
Female artist: Faith Hill
Band, duo or group: Rascal Flatts
Album: Greatest Hits Volume 2, Tim McGraw

— Rap/Hip-Hop:
Male artist: Eminem
Band, duo or group: The Black Eyed Peas
Album: Monkey Business, The Black Eyes Peas

— Adult Contemporary:
Artist: Kelly Clarkson

— Latin Music:
Artist: Shakira

— Alternative Music:
Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers

— Contemporary Inspirational:
Artist:Kirk Franklin

— Breakthrough:
Artist: Carrie Underwood

—T-Mobile Text-In Award (voted by public): Rascal Flatts

The Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rascal Flatts were double-winners at the 2006 American Music Awards.

The Black Eyed Peas were named favorite group in the rap/hip hop and soul/rhythm & blues categories. Clarkson captured trophies for pop/rock female and adult contemporary artist, categories presented before the televised presentations began in the performance-filled show.

Red Hot Chili Peppers were named favorite alternative artist and favorite pop/rock group. Rascal Flatts won favorite country group and the T-Mobile Text-In award, which is chosen by fans.

Blige accepted the female soul/rhythm & blues artist award from surprise presenter Britney Spears.

Oscar winner Jamie Foxx was named favorite male soul/rhythm & blues artist.

Nickelback took home the trophy for pop/rock album. Dancehall singer Sean Paul was named favorite male artist in the category.

Among country honors, favorite female artist went to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits Volume 2 was favorite album. Country singer and American Idol Carrie Underwood was named favorite new breakthrough artist.

Eminem was favorite male rap/hip-hop artist. Shakira won favorite Latin artist and Kirk Franklin captured the award for contemporary inspirational music.

Beyonce began the show, belting out her single Irreplaceable. The Pussycat Dolls also performed, as did Nelly Furtado.

Gwen Stefani made a stylish return to the music scene, performing the single Wind It Up from her forthcoming album, The Sweet Escape.

Rapper Jay-Z stepped out of retirement and back into the spotlight to perform the single Show Me What You Got from his new record, Kingdom Come.

Lionel Richie made a festive return to the American Music Awards. Introduced by daughter, Nicole Richie, he performed a medley that included his '80s party anthem, All Night Long.

Barry Manilow performed a medley of favorites from his latest collection, The Greatest Songs of the Sixties.

Some awards were announced off camera before the broadcast presentations, according to the Associated Press.

Gonna be some heartache tonight!

JWil

Rare Books by English Authors Auctioned

Rare works by Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope bring about £100,000 at auction.

According to BBC, the first edition books by 19th and 20th century authors - part of a sale of 3,000 books in Dorset - were quickly bid up by buyers from around the UK The three private collections sold in Dorchester had never been on the market before. They included an edition of Hardy's The Trumpet Major, which sold for £3,600 to a Dorset collector. In the UK, people like Hardy and his first edition enjoy a good market.

Another private collector and dealer from Dorset snapped up a rare first edition of Hardy's Under The Greenwood Tree, published in 1872, for £550, a first edition of Hardy's Wessex Tales, published in two volumes, for £900, and a 16-volume set of The Wessex Novels in original green cloth bindings for £50

A volume of Hardy's own copy of Virgil's Opera Omnia with a very early Hardy signature dated 1859 sold for £900 to a London dealer. Hardy was 19 when he signed it, so it was very early for Hardy collectibles.

A Charles Dickens business card, advertising his services as a shorthand writer of 10 Norfolk Street, Fitzroy Square, fetched £1,800. Before he started to write his novels, Dickens was a clerk in a London city office which is where he got a lot of his insight into solicitors and office clerks which he wrote about in his novels.

Thomas Hardy was born in the Dorset hamlet of Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, in 1840 and based a number of his works on his home county.

Four years ago, a set of first editions by Hardy raised £30,000 at the auction house near the author's home.

And England swings like a pendalum do!

JWil

Artists Auction Sets New Record

BBC reports a new record was set for Andy Warhol's work, when his 1972 portrait of China's Chairman Mao sold for $17.36m (£9.19m) at Christie's in New York.

Two other portraits of classic Warhol subjects - Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy - sold for over $30m in total.

Willem de Kooning's Untitled XXV fetched $27.1m. A work by abstract expressionist Clyfford Still, 1947-R-No 1, reached $21.2m, more than three times its estimate, and another new record.

Records were also set for works by Richard Diebenkorn, Louise Bourgeois, Arshile Gorky and Gerhard Richter.

The $240m sale set new records for 19 artists and caps a two-week period in which Christie's and rivals Sotheby's took $1bn between them.

Mao was sold by the Zurich-based Daros collection and was bought by Hong Kong collector Joseph Lau.

Before the sale, more attention had been focused on Orange Marilyn, a 1962 picture, which took $16.2m, and Sixteen Jackies, which made $15.6m. Sixteen Jackies is a black and blue series of the wife of President John F Kennedy on the day of his assassination in 1963.

As well as Untitled XXV, another de Kooning - Woman (Seated Woman I) - broke a record. At $9.6m, it became the most expensive of the artist's works on paper.

"Tonight's sale caps an incredible two weeks at Christie's where we have seen record totals and unprecedented depth in the market in all fields," the auction house's chief executive, Edward Dolman, told news agency AFP.

Darn! I got beat out again!

JWil

Winners of the 2006 National Book Awards

The Winners of the 2006 National Books Awards are announced on November 15, 2006 in New York City, New York. The National Book Award is one of the most important literary prizes in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950

Prizes are awarded in each of four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature. The winners in each category are selected by five-member, independent judging panels. Judges chose from 1,259 books submitted by publishers. They each receive a $10,000 cash prize and a crystal sculpture. The National Book Foundation administers the awards.

This year's winners are:

Non-Fiction
Timothy Egan
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Houghton Mifflin)

Fiction
Richard Powers
The Echo Maker (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Poetry
Nathaniel Mackey
Splay Anthem (New Directions)

Children's Literature
M.T. Anderson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party (Candlewick Press)

At the ceremony, Poet Mark Doty presented the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Adrienne Rich.

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, presented Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein with The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

Did you pick any winners?

JWil

Johnny Depp Nets Three Nominations in 33rd Annual People's Choice Awards

Johnny Depp, who plays Captain Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean films, has been nominated for Favorite Male Movie Star and Best Male Action Star. He shares the third nomination with his Pirates co-star Keira Knightley for Favorite On-screen Couple.

Halle Berry has received two nominations: Favorite Female Movie Star and Favorite Female Action Star.

Jennifer Aniston, formerly of the tv hit Friends , also received a double nomination. She is challenging Berry for Favorite Female Movie Star. Aniston shares a nomination with Vince Vaughn for their film The Break-Up.
Vaughn was also nominated for Favorite Leading Man, competing against Aniston's ex-husband Brad Pitt.

Deal or No Deal goes up against American Idol and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the favourite competition and reality show category.

The People's Choice Awards, voted for by the American public, will be held in Los Angeles on January 9.

JWil

One Billion Trees Project

Wangari Maathai, Africa's Nobel laureate, has begun the billion trees project, which she hopes will grow to include people from all over the world participating in this effort. She hopes through this project to fight poverty and climate change. Maathai won the Nobel in 2004, and was both the first African woman and the first environmental activist to win.

This project will have participants plant one or more trees, which are then tracked on her website. Photographs are sent periodically to show that the tree is still alive.

href= 'www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign'

Get out your shovel and plant a tree today!

Jwil

Winners of the 2006 Country Music Awards

List of CMA winners as determined by the 6,000 members of the CMA.

Entertainer of the Year: Kenny Chesney
Single: Believe, Brooks & Dunn
Album: Time Well Wasted, Brad Paisley
Song: Believe, Craig Wiseman and Ronnie Dunn
Female Vocalist: Carrie Underwood
Male Vocalist: Keith Urban
Vocal Group: Rascal Flatts
Vocal Duo: Brooks & Dunn
Musical Event: When I Get Where I'm Going, Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton
Musician: Randy Scruggs
Music Video: Believe, Brooks & Dunn
Horizon Award: Carrie Underwood

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kenny Chesney won entertainer of the year at the 40th Annual Country Music Association Awards Monday night. Chesney, who also won the honor two years ago, gave an acceptance speech that sounded like, well, Country Music.

"This year has in ways been the most emotionally satisfying year and also the most emotionally draining year of my life. There have been so many ups and downs, it's been like a huge emotional roller coaster ride." said Chesney. He went through a high-profile marriage and rapid divorce from Renee Zellweger last year.

Brooks & Dunn's Believe won three trophies, including single and song of the year. The gospel-tinged Believe was co-written by Ronnie Dunn and Craig Wiseman, who also co-wrote Tim McGraw's smash Live Like You Were Dying. Both won song of the year honors for Believe. Brooks & Dunn also won vocal duo award, a category they have won every year since 1992, except in 2000, when Montgomery Gentry won.

Aussie country star Keith Urban won male vocalist of the year for the second year in a row. He was absent from the festivities because last month he entered a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse. And as usual when one of their own finally reaches the outer limits of drug or alcohol addiction and enters a rehabilitation program , the attendees gave a standing ovation to Urban when his name was announced. Ronnie Dunn accepted the award on Urban's behalf, and read a letter from Urban in which he thanked his friends, family, and wife Nicole Kidman

Rascal Flatts took the vocal group award, to top off what what the group's singer Gary LeVox described as an "amazing year."

"I thank God for giving us a stage to stand on and perform on every night," LeVox said.

Brad Paisley, who was shut out last year despite six nomination, won album of the year for Time Well Wasted. He and Dolly Parton also won musical event of the year for their spiritual song When I Get Where I'm Going. It was Parton's first CMA award since 1996.

Other multiple nominees included Chesney and Underwood with four each, and Rascal Flatts and Parton with three each. All three of Parton's nods were for her vocals on Paisley's When I Get Where I'm Going. The song was one of three spiritually themed tunes up for awards, the others being Brooks & Dunn's Believe and Underwood's Jesus Take the Wheel.

George Strait was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Strait, 54, broke onto the charts in 1981.

He sure was a heart-throb in his big white hat!

JWil

Puddly Awards

The Puddly Awards, which consists of a pair of yellow galoshes with a gold band, are compiled from Powells Books by reader polls asking its customers to name the best book read in the past year. This year's winners of the Golden Galoshes are The Kite Runner (Fiction) and The Year of Magical Thinking (Nonfiction).

Neil Gaiman, whose Anansi Boys placed second in Fiction, and whose novels American Gods and Good Omens also made the top fifty, was the most listed author. The only other authors to appear more than once on the list are Terry Pratchett (for Thud! and Good Omens) and Gregory Maguire (for Wicked and Son of a Witch).

The Top 50 are:

1. The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini

"In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence — forces that continue to threaten them even today." New York Times

2. Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman

"Gaiman is witty and engaging, but his power is more as a storyteller than as a stylist, and I think what his fans find so appealing about his stories is that they are comforting, no matter how scary, like a good bedtime tale." Minneapolis Star Tribune

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J. K. Rowling

"This installment...while still salted with patches of humor and romance, is the most harrowing yet....At the beginning of this book, all hands are pointing toward 'Mortal peril'....Undoubtedly, that is where they will continue pointing until the resolution of the final book in this remarkable series." San Jose Mercury News

4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke

"For all of her flights of postmodernist fancy, for all her stories about 'black towers' and magical books and hidden bridges that connect England to Faerie, Clarke has delivered a book of universal truths and unexpectedly heartbreaking acuity." Dallas-Ft. Worth Star Telegram

5. Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger

"[A] highly original first novel....[A] soaring love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes....[L]eaves a reader with an impression of life's riches and strangeness rather than of easy thrills." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

6. Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

"[A] compelling labyrinth of stories that gracefully unfolds in layers, as if the novel were a Russian nesting doll....But this is also a book about love's poetic power to heal the wounds of the past and offer second chances." Miami Herald

7. Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami

"[W]hile anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it's the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves." Laura Miller, New York Times Book Review

8. The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova

"Kostova may have outdone Stoker or even, for that matter, Hollywood's numerous Dracula reincarnations with her chilling revelation of what motivates her blood-thirsty monster. Before the sun sets, grab this book and take a long and satisfying drink." USA

9. Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson

"[R]eligious, somewhat essayistic and fiercely calm....Gilead is a beautiful work — demanding, grave and lucid." James Wood, New York Times Book Review

10. The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion

"[A]n utterly shattering book that gives the reader an indelible portrait of loss and grief and sorrow, all chronicled in minute detail with the author's unwavering, reportorial eye....[P]rovides a haunting portrait of a four-decade-long marriage, an extraordinarily close relationship between two writers." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

11. The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown

"[A] dazzling performance...a delightful display of erudition....Brown delivers a crackling, intricate mystery, complete with breathtaking escapes and several stunning surprises. It's challenging, exciting, and a whole lot more." Jim Fusilli, Boston Globe

12. American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

"[A]mbitious, gloriously funny, and oddly heartwarming....A magical mystery tour through the mythologies of all cultures, a unique and moving love story — and another winner for the phenomenally gifted, consummately reader-friendly Gaiman." Kirkus Reviews

13. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer

"[B]eautifully designed second from the gifted young author....[A] riveting narrative....[A] brilliant fiction works thrilling variations on, and consolations for, its plangent message: that 'in the end, everyone loses everyone.' Yes, but look what Foer has found." Kirkus Reviews

14. Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell

"The various pieces of David Mitchell's mysterious puzzle combine to form a haunting image that stays with the reader long after the book has been closed." Washington Post

15. A Million Little Pieces
by James Frey

"One of the most compelling books of the year... Incredibly bold... Somehow accomplishes what three decades' worth of cheesy public service announcements and after-school specials have failed to do: depict hard-core drug addiction as the self-inflicted apocalypse that it is." New York Post

16. Saturday
by Ian McEwan

"Mr. McEwan has not only produced one of the most powerful pieces of post-9/11 fiction yet published, but also fulfilled that very primal mission of the novel: to show how we — a privileged few of us, anyway — live today." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

17. Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides

"Middlesex isn't just a respectable sophomore effort; it's a towering achievement, and it can now be stated unequivocally that Eugenides' initial triumph wasn't a one-off or a fluke. He has emerged as the great American writer that many of us suspected him of being." Jeff Turrentine, Los Angeles Times

18. Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

"In this luminous offering, [Ishiguro] nimbly navigates the landscape of emotion — the inevitable link between present and past and the fine line between compassion and cruelty, pleasure and pain." Booklist

19. On Beauty
by Zadie Smith

"[A] boisterous, funny, poignant, and erudite novel that should firmly establish Smith as a literary force of nature." Booklist

20. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

"This original and affecting novel is a triumph of empathy; whether describing Christopher's favorite dream...or his vision of the universe collapsing in a thunder of stars, the author makes his hero's severely limited world a thrilling place to be." New Yorker

21. Freakonomics
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

"It might appear presumptuous of Steven Levitt to see himself as an all-purpose intellectual detective, fit to take on whatever puzzle of human behavior grabs his fancy. But on the evidence of Freakonomics, the presumption is earned." Jim Holt, New York York Times

22. Case Histories
by Kate Atkinson

"[A] compelling narrative drive....Playful humor, an impressive technique, and an offbeat detective with a penchant for weeping are the most obvious pleasures of a page-turner that succeeds in being both brainy and thoroughly entertaining." Booklist (Starred Review)

23. The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss

"Even in moments of startling peculiarity, [Krauss] touches the most common elements of the heart....In the final pages, the fractured stories of The History of Love fall together like a desperate embrace." Washington Post

24. Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell

"An entertaining psychology book....Blink is not a glib handbook of how to think, or a guide of what to think. But it will make you think about how you think, when you think in a blink." Seattle Times

25. Life of Pi
by Yann Martel

"If Canadian writer Yann Martel were a preacher, he'd be charismatic, funny and convert all the non-believers. He baits his readers with serious themes and trawls them through a sea of questions and confusion, but he makes one laugh so much, and at times feel so awed and chilled, that even thrashing around in bewilderment or disagreement one can't help but be captured by his prose." The Nation

26. Thud!
by Terry Pratchett

"The asides and the general goofiness and the imagination run amok are the point, every time and this time, too....All in all the only thing to be said about a Discworld novel is: Read it. You'll like it." Washington Post

27. The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

"Sue Monk Kidd's eccentric, inventive, and ultimately forgiving novel is reminscent of the work of Reynolds Price in its ability to create a truly original Southern voice." Anita Shreve

28. The Tender Bar
by J. R. Moehringer

"Funny, honest, and insightful, The Tender Bar finds universal themes in an unusual upbringing and declares a real love of barroom life without romanticizing it too much." Booklist (Starred Review)

29. Devil in the White City
by Erik Larson

"Another successful exploration of American history....Larson skillfully balances the grisly details with the far-reaching implications of the World's Fair." USA Today

30. Broken for You
by Stephanie Kallos

"A seventy-six-year-old woman who's just learned that she has a brain tumor takes in a thirty-four-year-old woman who's just been dumped by her boyfriend. Can this be funny? Yes. Painfully funny, beautifully written, and completely original. I love this novel." Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief

31. Wicked
by Gregory Maguire

"Maguire has taken this figure of childhood fantasy and given her a sensual and powerful nature that will stir adult hearts with fear and longing all over again. It's a brilliant trick — and a remarkable treat." Times-Picayune

32. Team of Rivals
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

"In nearly 800 pages...Goodwin vividly evokes Lincoln's struggles to avoid war, his resolve to fight hard once war became inevitable, and his unflagging effort to hold fast the fragile union." St. Petersburg Times

33. The Highest Tide
by Jim Lynch

"Jim Lynch has written a breathtakingly beautiful first novel. At its core is a fabulous metaphor, rising from the ocean to wrap around his painful story with all the brilliance and mystery of life. That is a big statement. Lynch can carry its weight and then some." Martha McPhee, author of Gorgeous Lies

34. The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri

"[Q]uietly dazzling....[A] wonderfully intimate and knowing family portrait...a debut novel that is as assured and eloquent as the work of a longtime master of the craft." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

35. Assassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell

"Vowell could make a trip to the DMV interesting....Part travelogue, part history text and part memoir, Assassination Vacation is more fun than it has any right to be — a bizarre road trip into some of the most searing moments of the nation's past with one of our most amusing storytellers at the wheel." Stephen Kiehl, Baltimore Sun

36. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond

"In a world that celebrates live journalism, we are increasingly in need of big-picture authors like Jared Diamond....In his extraordinarily panoramic Collapse, he moves his wide lens to yet another telling phenomenon: failed nations, of both the distant and the recent past." Robert D. Kaplan, Washington Post

37. Eldest
by Christopher Paolini

"Once again, the expected fantasy elements are well in place, and the characters and their relationships continue to develop nicely. The ending promises an even more cataclysmic battle ahead." Booklist

38. The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls

"Jeannette Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of the most chaotic, heartbreaking childhoods ever to be set down on the page. This deeply affecting memoir is a triumph in every possible way, and it does what all good books should: it affirms our faith in the human spirit." Dani Shapiro, author of Family History

39. Good Omens
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

"What's so funny about Armageddon? More than you'd think...Good Omens has arrived just in time!" Detroit Free Press

40. The Plot against America
by Philip Roth

"[Philip is] the ideal narrator for this sinuous and brilliant book, with its extreme sweetness (new in Roth), its black pain, and its low, ceaseless cackle." New Yorker

41. Until I Find You
by John Irving

"With Jack Burns, Irving has created his most complex protagonist....And in the long, winding, complex and moody narrative that is Until I Find You, Irving has fashioned a real heart-stopper of a story — and one of his finest novels to date." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

42. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
by Christopher Moore

"[A]s in Moore's other books, the jokes, ranging from the sublime to the sophisticated to the utterly sophomoric, make the book. What Lamb lacks in theological sophistication it more than compensates with mirth....simply impossible not to laugh." John Green, Booklist

43. Son of a Witch
by Gregory Maguire

"[A] tale that adroitly mixes drama, humor, and political satire into a well-knit examination of good and evil — and leaves several doors open for future journeys over the rainbow into this cleverly constructed dystopia." Library Journal

44. A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson

"Bryson...achieve[s] exactly what he'd set out to do, and, moreover, [he does] it in stylish, efficient, colloquial and stunningly accurate prose....[S]eems destined to become a modern classic of science writing." Ed Regis, New York Times

45. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship
by Ann Patchett

"To say that Truth and Beauty is a memoir about [a] friendship, while true, doesn't begin to do justice to the extraordinary bond the two writers shared or Patchett's refined reflection upon it." Sarah Gianelli, The Oregonian

46. The March
by E. L. Doctorow

"[N]ever before has [Doctorow] so fully occupied the past, or so gorgeously evoked its generation of the forces that seeded our times....Doctorow's masterpiece uncovers the roots of today's racial and political conundrums..." Booklist (Starred Review)

47. My Sister's Keeper
by Jodi Picoult

"Picoult's timely and compelling novel will appeal to anyone who has thought about the morality of medical decision making and any parent who must balance the needs of different children. Highly recommended." Library Journal

48. The Way the Crow Flies
by Ann-Marie MacDonald

"[P]erhaps MacDonald's most impressive accomplishment is her uncanny ability... to vividly re-create the wonder, humor, and fears of childhood." Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist

49. Small Island
by Andrea Levy

"Small Island is a great read, delivering the sort of pleasure which has been the stock-in-trade of a long line of English novelists. It's honest, skilful, thoughtful and important. This is Andrea Levy's big book." The Guardian

50. A Breath of Snow and Ashes
by Diana Gabaldon

"Triumphant....Her use of historical detail and truly adult love story confirm Gabaldon as a superior writer." Publishers Weekly

All for a pair of yellow galoshes!

JWil

MTV Award Winners Announced

The MTV Awards was hosted this year by Justin Timberlake in Copenhagen. A crowd of 30,000 was expected to attend, but the performers had an audience of only 3,000 because of the extreme cold. Kanye West was very gracious when he received an award for Best Hip Hop act, but when he lost Best Video to Justice Vs. Simian, he returned to the stage to say "Best Video should have been mine!"

The Winners are:

Best Male Artist: Justin Timberlake
Best Pop Act: Justin Timberlake
Best Female Artist: Christina Aguilera
Best New Act: Gnarls Barkley
Best Song, "Crazy": Gnarls Barkley
Best Album, "Stadium Arcadium": Red Hot Chili Peppers
Best Group: Depeche Mode
Best Alternative Act: Muse
Best U.K. and Ireland Act: The Kooks
Best R & B Artist: Rihanna
Best Hip Hop Act: Kanye West
Best Video: Justice Vs. Simian
Best Rock Act: The Killers


You can't keep a good girl down! Go, Dolly!

JWil