CATEGORIES

Our Tuesday Survey on 20 July 2010 posed the following question:

Who is your favourite (or most unfavourite) villain in a book?

Some of the responses that we received via Facebook and Twitter were:

Voldemort, Big Brother, Nurse Ratched, Hannibel Lecter – and many more…

What do you think?  Add your suggestions to the comments below…

Melbourne Writers Festival has launched an online program, TweetWriter, that ‘lets anyone be a published author’. Users supply their Twitter username and their information is used ‘to produce a very personalised book cover through selecting words at random from the user’s recent tweets to create a book title, and using their profile background image as the book cover image. The book also features a personalised blurb and book reviews from other people the user follows on Twitter.’ See www.mwf.com.au.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16816/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

Hawke: The Prime Minister (Blanche D’Alpuget, MUP) is number one on the highest new entries chart, after a flurry of media attenion as reported by Media Extra last week. The bestseller chart again sees Stephenie Meyer’s The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Hachette) at the top, followed by Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium Trilogy’ (Quercus). Danielle Steel’s latest novel Family Ties (Bantam) slips in at fifth place. Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert, Bloomsbury) has returned to the charts in ninth place, thanks no doubt to the new film adaptation starring Julia Roberts. Diet books are back on the agenda and top this week’s fastest movers chart with The Sweet Poison Quit Plan (David Gillespie, Viking) coming first, followed by Flat Belly Diet (Liz Vaccariello, Rodale)–Weekly Book Newsletter.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16809/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

Historian, author and University of Queensland librarian Dr Jeff Rickertt has been awarded the 2010 State Library of Queensland John Oxley Fellowship, worth $20,000.

The fellowship will assist his research and writing of a biography of Ernest Lane, entitled Ernie Lane, Australian Labor’s Resolute Rebel.

‘The fellowship is one of four annual awards presented by the State Library to acknowledge the work of individuals and community organisations dedicated to recording and documenting Queensland history,’ said state librarian Lea Giles-Peters.

She also named Professor Kay Saunders the winner of the $5000 John Oxley Library Award; Jeff Moore from the North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum recipient of the $5000 John Oxley Library Community History Award, and Professor Christine Bruce winner of the $5000 Library Board of Queensland Award.

This story first appeared in our sister publication Australian Library News (http://www.librarynews.com.au/).

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16802/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

The Indigenous Literacy Project (ILP) celebrated the launch of its Book Buzz early literacy project in the New South Wales community of Wilcannia on Tuesday 27 July.

Hosted at St Therese’s primary school, the launch ‘was a wonderful community event orchestrated by two very dedicated Fred Hollows Foundation/ILP staff–Debra Dank and Maddy Bowers,’ said ILP spokesperson Karen Williams.

‘The Governor of NSW, Her Excellency Marie Bashir arrived courtesy of the Flying Doctor service and spoke enthusiastically about the importance of books and the many wonderful opportunities that learning to read opened up for the children in their lives and careers ahead,’ Williams told the Weekly Book Newsletter. ‘[ILP Chair] David Gaunt talked about the scope of the project and hopes to inspire a love of reading from the earliest age.’

Three students from St Therese’s presented and read books they had written during a workshop with ILP Ambassador and popular children’s author Andy Griffiths. ‘Multiple sets of Book Buzz were presented to the schools and children and toddlers and the day ended up in the classroom where the children read and sang to us in English and Barkindji,’ said Williams.

This year’s Indigenous Literacy Day will be held on Wednesday 1 September and includes The Great Book Swap. Schools who register have the chance to win a visit from Griffiths. For more information see www.indigenousliteracyproject.org.au.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16812/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

The longlist for this year’s £30,000 (A$52,000) University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced.

Among the titles shortlisted for the biennial prize for ‘the best published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author under 30′ are Jasper Jones by Australian author Craig Silvey (A&U) and The Rehearsal by New Zealand author Eleanor Catton (A&U).

The full longlist is online here. The shortlist will be announced in early September and the winner will be announced on 1 December 2010.

The winner of the 2008 award was Australian author Nam Le for The Boat (Penguin).

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16783/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

The shortlist for the $20,000 2010 John Button Prize has been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

* Quarterly Essay35: Radical Hope: Education and Equality in Australia (Noel Pearson, Black Inc.)
* The Politics of Suffering (Peter Sutton, MUP)
* The March of Patriots (Paul Kelly, MUP)
* ‘Tensions escalate over Rudd’s kitchen cabinet’ (Laura Tingle, Australian Financial Review).

The judging panel, chaired by Morag Fraser, remarked for the second year in a row on ‘the lack of strong writing on climate change’. However, the panel was not surprised that writing on Indigenous issues featured strongly on the shortlist, with Fraser calling it ‘the great unresolved issue of Australian society’.

Last year’s winner of the award was The Tall Man (Chloe Hooper, Penguin).

The winner of the 2010 award will be announced at the Melbourne Writers Festival on 3 September.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16784/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

The program for this year’s Brisbane Writers Festival, which runs from 1 to 5 September, has been announced.

E C Osondu, the 2009 winner of The Caine Prize for African Writing, will give the festival’s opening address.

‘Less than a year ago a colleague unwittingly gave me a gift that would end up underpinning my vision for the 2010 Brisbane Writers Festival,’ said festival director Jane O’Hara. ‘The gift was ten stories written by the winners of The Caine Prize for African Writing, a literary prize awarded each year for the best original short story by an African writer. I devoured all ten stories and with a renewed passion embarked on a journey to find out more.’

Also attending the festival is 2003 winner of the Caine Prize, Yvonee Adhiambo Owuor. Among the other international guests are Val McDermid, Jake Adelstein, Ian Brown, Jaspreet Singh, Simon Winchester, Joe Bageant, Jostein Gaarder, Elif Batuman, Jean-Francois Vernay and Norman Doidge.

Local authors attending include Matt Condon, Robert Forster, William McInnes, Jessica Watson, Jessica Rudd, Benjamin Law, Michael Robotham, John Birmingham, Blanche d’Alpuget, Anh Do and Bettina Arndt.

See www.bwf.org.au for details of the full program.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16808/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

The winners of this year’s Publishers Association of New Zealand Book Design Awards were announced in Auckland on 22 July.

The winners were:

* Gerard Reid Award for Best Book, sponsored by Nielsen Book Services: Cameron Gibb for The Life & Love of Trees (Lewis Blackwell, PQ Blackwell/Hachette New Zealand)
* HarperCollins Award for Best Cover: Sarah Laing for Magpie Hall (Rachael King, Random House New Zealand)
* Pindar Award for Best Typography: Grant Sutherland, Mission Hall (interior), Robyn Sivewright, Afineline (typesetting), Neil Pardington (cover) for Art at Te Papa (ed by William McAloon, Te Papa Press)
* Random House New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book: Cameron Gibb for The Life & Love of Trees (Lewis Blackwell, PQ Blackwell/Hachette New Zealand)
* Hachette New Zealand Award for Best Non-illustrated Book: Keely O’Shannessy (cover), Katrina Duncan (interior) for Mirabile Dictu (Michele Leggott, Auckland University Press)
* Pearson Award for Best Educational Book: Book Design Ltd for Year 9 Graphics (Paul Bourdot, Cengage Learning)
* Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children’s Book: Michael Greenfield for Old Hu-Hu (Kyle Mewburn, illus by Rachel Driscoll, Scholastic New Zealand).

The 2010 judges were Peter Gilderdale, head of graphic design at AUT University, Graham Beattie of Beattie’s Book Blog and freelance magazine and book designer Sharon Grace. They said they ‘ultimately had no hesitation’ in choosing The Life & Love of Trees as best book, adding that it ‘had an x-factor that was hard to deny’.

Also announced at the awards was the 2010 Awa Press Young Designer of the Year, for a designer under 35, which went to last year’s runner-up Keely O’Shannessy. Judges Dexter Fry and Katy Yiakmis said O’Shannessy was the ‘stand-out winner’ of 2010 and that her designs ‘effortlessly hit the nail on the head every time’.

The awards are run by PANZ ‘to promote excellence in, and provide recognition for, the best book design in New Zealand’. This year’s premier award was recently renamed in honour of Gerard Reid, who died earlier this year.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16804/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.

Australian authors Christos Tsiolkas and Peter Carey are on the longlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.

The longlist of 13 titles, announced overnight in the UK, includes Tsiolkas’ The Slap (A&U) and Carey’s Parrot and Olivier in America (Hamish Hamilton).

The full longlist, chosen from a total of 138 books (14 of which were called in by the prize judges), is:

* Parrot and Olivier in America (Peter Carey, Hamish Hamilton)
* Room (Emma Donoghue, Picador)
* The Betrayal (Helen Dunmore, Fig Tree)
* In a Strange Room (Damon Galgut, Atlantic Books)
* The Finkler Question (Howard Jacobson, Bloomsbury)
* The Long Song (Andrea Levy, Headline)
* C (Tom McCarthy, Jonathan Cape)
* The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (David Mitchell, Sceptre)
* February (Lisa Moore, Random House)
* Skippy Dies (Paul Murray, Hamish Hamilton)
* Trespass (Rose Tremain, Chatto & Windus)
* The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U)
* The Stars in the Bright Sky (Alan Warner, Jonathan Cape).

Carey has won the prize twice already, for Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001. He was also longlisted for Theft in 2006 and shortlisted for Illywhacker in 1985.

Tsiolkas’ publisher at Allen & Unwin, Jane Palfreyman, told the Weekly Book Newsletter that The Slap being longlisted for the prize was ‘almost impossibly perfect’.

‘Sales of the trade paperback edition here are still incredibly strong but I’m sure this news will spike sales again and boost further interest in rights,’ she said. ‘We just made a really good Italian sale last week to Neri Pozza and I’m sure more territories will come on board now to join the fourteen territories who’ve already bought rights to The Slap.’

‘The book has had brilliant reviews and sales in Canada and the US and is now a critical success and runaway bestseller in the UK,’ said Palfreyman. ‘We couldn’t be more thrilled for Christos, nor more proud of his remarkable achievements.’

The chair of judges Andrew Motion said the longlist consisted of ‘thirteen exceptional novels–books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality, without reference to the past work of their authors’.

‘Wide-ranging in their geography and their concern, they tell powerful stories which make the familiar strange and cover an enormous range of history and feeling. We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain.’

The shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 7 September in London and the winner of the £50,000 (A$87,000) prize will be announced on Tuesday 12 October.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/07/16782/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced under licence from Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2010, Thorpe-Bowker.