Book News

Those who link carnival food with corn dogs and gyros are missing out on almost sixteen centuries of outstanding Italian cuisine. Food fit for a banquet or a carnival (which comes from the Latin phrase for "removal of meat") is offered by Boston-area chef and food writer Franco Romagnoli in Cucina Di Magro: Cooking Lean the Italian Way (Steerforth Press, January 2003).

The American Booksellers Association is currently accepting nominations of booksellers' handselling favorites for the 2003 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (BSBY). All ABA member stores are eligible to vote for titles in the categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Illustrated Children's, Rediscovery, and -- new this year -- Paperback Book of the Year. The Paperback category is open to both fiction and nonfiction titles.

The nominees for this year's National Book Critics Circle Awards have been announced. The awards for the best book published in five categories -- fiction, nonfiction, biography/autobiography, poetry, and criticism -- will be presented at a ceremony on February 26 at the New School in New York City. The winners will be chosen by the 22-member National Book Critics Circle board.

Meet M (the Minotaur, for those who prefer full names). Having escaped the labyrinth, he now works as a line cook at Grub's Rib in North Carolina, where he manages, despite his poor eyesight and horns, to have only occasional accidents. He moves regularly but for the moment M lives in Lucky-U Mobile Estates, population 10, where he repairs weathered vehicles in exchange for rent. Mostly, though, he tries to keep a low profile.

Jason Starr, it would seem, is the perfect author to help kick off Vintage Crime/Black Lizard's ambitious 2003, 13th-anniversary campaign, "The Year of the Lizard."

On Monday, January 13, NBC News' Today Show announced that the seventh selection of its monthly "Today Book Club" is Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (Delta trade paperback, 0385337639; Dial hardcover, 038533611X). The title was a Top Ten 2002 March/April Book Sense 76 pick. Mary Higgins Clark, who appeared on the popular morning show with Lawson, chose the book.

Resolve to start the New Year right by nominating the books you most enjoyed handselling and recommending to your customers in 2002 for the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (BSBY). The 2003 BSBY Nomination Ballot is now available to all ABA member bookstores. (Stores do not have to be Book Sense participating stores to nominate titles.)

By Carl Lennertz

Dear Booksellers,

1) Sorry to come a nudgin' so soon after the holiday madness, but mid-to-late January and February hold deadlines for recommendations for several new 76s:

January 17 -- for a History 76 top ten (as part of a promotion with the History Channel!), and a possible Teen Readers 76 top ten

January 24 -- the March/April 76

February 7 -- a Poetry Month 76 top ten, plus a Mystery top ten and SF/Fantasy top ten

Based on the last four weeks of sales from over 350 independent bookstores across America.

When the critically acclaimed debut novel Three Junes won the National Book Award for fiction last November, a number of people were caught off guard. Count among them author Julia Glass.

"I didn't expect to win.… It was a complete shock," she said in a recent interview from her Manhattan home.

It may be a new year, but one thing that carried over from last year is Book Sense's Good Morning America book club streak. On Thursday, January 2, the popular morning show's "Read This!" book club made its seventh selection, and once again chose a Book Sense 76 pick.

Commodore Matthew Perry, an American Naval officer, is generally credited as the man who, with his 1854 expedition, opened Japan to trade with the West. However, author Giles Milton, who previously proposed (in Nathaniel's Nutmeg) that New York City might still be a Dutch colony but for the spice trade, would like to bring English sailor William Adams to readers' attention.

Katherine Paterson sobbed the first time she read Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (Scribner). Cynthia Ozick reread E.M. Forster's The Longest Journey (Vintage) twice a year because it educated her heart. Mark Twain inspired E.L. Doctorow to write from a child's perspective. Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights fueled Alice McDermott's passion for the storyteller.

The January/February 2003 Book Sense 76 -- with booksellers' recommendations -- has been posted at http://news.bookweb.org/read/1029. The printed flier will be shipped to stores beginning the first week of January.

These titles were selected from 2,000 nominations from independent booksellers across the country. To access an online nomination form and deadlines for future 76s, go to www.BookWeb.org/booksense/seventysix/2330.html.

Two top ten January/February Book Sense 76 picks will be featured in newly redesigned bookmark-shaped ads in The New Yorker in January. The ads feature a clearer typeface and a larger image of the recommended book.

The January 20 issue of The New Yorker, on sale January 13, will feature an ad in which Alayne Hopkins of Ruminator Books in St. Paul, Minnesota, recommends Samaritan by Richard Price (Knopf, 0375411151).