The Buzz...About Books

Edgar Awards: 2013 Winners Announced

The Edgar Awards, named after Edgar Allan Poe, celebrate crime writing in a number of different categories.

Fiction

Best Novel

Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Best First Novel

The Expats by Chris Pavone
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Best Paperback Original

The Last Policeman by Ben E. Winters
• eBook

Mary Higgins Clark Award

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan
• eAudiobook
• Large Print

Non-Fiction

Best Fact Crime

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
• eAudiobook
• Large Print

Best Critical/Biographical

The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O'Brien

Related Posts:

• "The Edgar" Nominees: The Best in Mystery

The Publishing Triangle Awards

The Publishing Triangle is an association of lesbians and gay men in the publishing industry. Every year the organization presents awards in a variety of categories. 

Fiction Awards

The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
Monstress: Stories by Lysley Tenorio
• eBook

The Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction
A Horse Named Sorrow by Trebor Healey

Nonfiction Awards

The Judy Kahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Are You My Mother?: a Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

The Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction
Eminent Outlaws: the Gay Writers who Changed America by Christopher Bram

Poetry Awards

The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry
Song and Spectacle by Rachel Rose

The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry
Looking for the Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco

2013 CBC Bookie Awards

Winners of the third annual CBC Bookie Awards were announced on April 17. The CBC asked the Canadian public to suggest award categories, propose finalists and vote for the winners of their favouite Canadian and international books and authors. Although no cash prizes were involved, each of the winners were sent a golden beaver certificate in the mail!

Check out some of the winners below!

The Overlookie Bookie Award for Most Underrated Canadian Book

 The Winner: Cosmo by Spencer Gordon

        
                             

The Brangelina Award for Most Attractive Book Cover

 The winner: The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus

   

Canadian Book You Would Most Recommend to Someone Who Doesn't Have Much Time to Read

The winner: The Stone Thrower by Jael Ealey Richardson

 The Up All Night Award for Most Spine-Tingling Canadian Book

The winner: Beach Strip by John Lawrence Reynolds

 

 

 

 

 

The Ron MacLean Award for Most Hilarious Canadian Book

The winner: Up and Down by Terry Fallis    

 

  Best International Book

The winner: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Canadian Book

The winner: The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

 

For a complete listing of the finalists and winners, visit the CBC website

 

 

2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners

On April 15 winners of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Letters were announced in the following categories:

Biography or Autobiography

Winner:
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

 

Finalists:

The Patriarch: the Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra

Fiction

Winner:
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print

 

 

Finalists:

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• eAudiobook
• Large Print

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

General Non-Fiction

Winner:
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

 

 

 

Finalists:

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

The Forest Unseen: a Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell

History

Winner:
Embers of War: the Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall
• eBook

 

 

Finalists:

The Barbarous Years: the Peopling of British North America: the Conflict of Civilizations 1600-1975 by Bernard Bailyn
• eBook

Lincoln's Code: the Laws of War in American History by John Fabian Witt

Poetry

Winner:
Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds

 

 

 

 

Finalists:

The Abundance of Nothing by Bruce Weigl

Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert

Prometheus Award Nominations

The Prometheus Award shortlist was announced earlier this month. This literary award honours science fiction and fantasy works "that stress the importance of liberty as the foundation for civilization, peace, prosperity, progress and justice".

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Toronto Public Library's One Book selection for 2013, was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1984 as an example of classic libertarian science fiction.

Best Novel Nominees:

Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell

Darkship Renegades by Sarah Hoyt

Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez
• eAudiobook

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

The Unincorporated Future by Dani and Eytan Kollin

The winner will be announced at LoneStarCon3, the World Science Fiction Convention held from August 29 to September 3 in San Antonio, Texas.

Women's Prize for Fiction: Inaugural Shortlist Announced

After UK telecommunications company Orange withdrew its sponsorship for The Orange Prize, the future of the award was uncertain. After receiving support from a group of benefactors, however, the prize was renamed The Women's Prize for Fiction and will continue to celebrate the literary contributions of female authors.

Women writers of any nationality who have published a novel in the UK in the previous year are eligible for the award.

These are the 2013 nominees:

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes

NW by Zadie Smith

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

The winner will be announced on June 5.

April is Poetry Month

The League of Canadian Poets created National Poetry Month in 1999 in order to celebrate and increase awareness of Canadian poetry. During this month a number of poetry award nominations are announced.

The Griffin Poetry Prize

The largest award for a single volume of poetry, the Griffin Poetry Prize presents winners in two categories annually. Winners will be announced on June 13.

Canadian

Personals by Ian Williams

Sailing to Babylon by James Pollock

What's the Score: 99 Poems by David W. McFadden

International

Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan, translated by Fady Joudah

Liquid Nitrogen by Jennifer Maiden
        (Not currently available at Toronto Public Library.)

Night of the Republic by Alan Shapiro

Our Andromeda by Brenda Shaughnessy

Gerald Lampert Memorial Award

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award recognizes the best first volume of poetry by a Canadian.  It is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets.

Charms Against Lightning by James Arthur

I See My Love More Clearly From a Distance by Nora Gould

The Lease by Mathew Henderson

Notebook M by Gillian Savigny

repeater by Andrew McEwan

Sumptuary Laws by Nyla Matuk

Pat Lowther Memorial Award

This award celebrates a book of poetry written by a Canadian woman.  Also sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets, it is named after British Columbia poet Pat Lowther, who was murdered by her husband in 1975.

The Book of Marvels: a Compendium of Everyday Things by Lorna Crozier
• eBook

A Grain of Rice by Evelyn Lau
        (Not currently available at Toronto Public Library.)

Monkey Ranch by Julie Bruck

Slow Curve Out by Maureen Scott Harris

Song and Spectacle by Rachel Rose

Soul Mouth by Rachel Bowering

Raymond Souster Award

The collections nominated for this award must be written by members of the Canadian League of Poets and published in the previous year. Created to honour legendary Canadian poet Raymond Souster, it will be presented for the first time in 2013.

Between Dusk and Night by Emily McGiffin

the Flicker tree: Okanagan Poems by Nancy Holmes

Hummingbird by John Wall Barger

The New Measures by A.F. Moritz

no ordinary place by Pamela Porter

Wayworn Wooden Floors by Mark Lavorato

The winners of the Gerald Lampert, Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster Awards will be announced on June 8.

The Funny Thing Is..: Stephen Leacock Medal Finalists announced

The only Canadian literary award for humour, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal fittingly announced its shortlist on April Fool's Day.

Nominees for the 2013 award are:

Born Weird by Andrew Kaufman
• eBook
Angie Weird goes on a quest to reunite her siblings at the request of her dying grandmother who wants to remove the curses she inadvertently gave them.

Dance, Gladys, Dance by Cassie Stocks
• eBook
A ghost becomes a life coach for a young woman who has lost her creative spark.

I'll Seize the Day Tomorrow by Jonathan Goldstein
Goldstein's chronicle of the year before his 40th birthday.

Up and Down by Terry Fallis
• eBook
A man starting a new career with an international public relations firm is shocked when his idea to hold a contest to select citizen astronauts is given the green light by NASA.

Words to Live By: a Memoir by William Whitehead
Whitehead tells the story of his life including his childhood in Saskatchewan, careers in science and the arts, and his longtime relationship with Timothy Findley.

The winner will be announced on April 25.

Related Programs:

Save this Book! With Terry Fallis
Monday April 8, 7 PM, Leaside Branch

William Whitehead: Words to Live By
Saturday May 4, 2 PM, Lillian H. Smith Branch

"The Edgar" Nominees: The Best in Mystery

Mystery Writers of America have announced its Nominees for the 2013 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, published or produced in 2012.

BEST NOVEL
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman
Sunset by Al Lamanda
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley

 

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay
Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
The Expats by Chris Pavone
The 500 by Matthew Quirk
Black Fridays by Michael Sears

 

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Complication by Isaac Adamson
Whiplash River by Lou Berney
Bloodland by Alan Glynn
Blessed are the Dead by Malla Nunn
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

BEST FACT CRIME
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers' Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D.P. Lyle
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
The People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman by Richard Lloyd Parry

 

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective Transformed by John Paul Athanasourelis
Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O’Brien
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero edited by Otto Penzler

Charles Taylor Prize Finalists Announced

The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction was founded in 2000 to honour Canadian literary non-fiction.  The finalists were announced on January 9th.

 

On this year's shortlist are:

The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca by Carol Bishop-Gwyn

Warlords: Borden, Mackenzie King, and Canada’s World Wars by Tim Cook

Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page by Sandra Djwa

Leonardo and The Last Supper by Ross King

Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy by Andrew Preston

 

The winner will be announced on March 4, 2013.