30 most-ordered summer fiction titles (indie bookstores)

from EarlyWord.com: Most-Ordered Summer Fiction — Edelweiss The top 30 most-ordered fiction titles, with a pub date before Aug 1, through Edelweiss in the past 60 days, as of 4/20/11. Edelweiss creates electronic catalogs used by publishers sales reps primarily with independent booksellers. it does not represent all publishers; those that are represented are listed on the [...]

‘Tis the season (for book awards)!

First the NBCCs, then the Orange Prize Longlist, now the American Academy of Arts & Letters literary awards. I am in list heaven! And no, I’m not going to try and read all these books and authors, too, alongside my Orange Prize Longlist reads and selected NBCC winning books. I’m nuts, but not quite that [...]

What book groups read in 2010

The top 25 book group discussion books of 2010, based on reports by book clubs, according to ReadingGroupGuides.com. I highlighted the titles I’ve read in a lovely shade of maroon: 1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett 2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by [...]

Orange Prize Longlist Announced!!

I wait for this all year… From Orange Prize website: ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION ANNOUNCES 2011 LONGLIST Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist announcement: 12 April Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist readings: 6 June Awards ceremony: 8 June London, 16 March 2011: The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written [...]

The ten most boring books

According to a columnist for the Guardian U.K., these are the ten most boring books ever written: 1. Robert Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy 2. Robert Musil: The Man Without Qualities 3. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled 4. Malcolm Lowry: Under the Volcano 5. Virginia Woolf: The Waves 6. James Joyce: Finnegans Wake 7. Thomas Wolfe: Look [...]

Best selling books of all time – Pt. 2

Here’s the next section of best-selling books to mull over. Part One of the list can be found here. These have sold between 30 and 50 million since their publication: The Hite Report by Shere Hite – 48 million Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White – 45 million The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter [...]

Best selling books of all time – Pt. 1

I can’t resist a good book list. Surprised? This one’s courtesy of Wikipedia, but let’s pretend it has  no reputation for potential unreliability, because I want to have some fun with this without any associated guilt. I don’t get out often, so this is pretty much the highlight of my life. Don’t take that away [...]

Particularly Good Crop of Summer Reads to Choose From

I wish I had free time to choose my own reading over the summer, especially considering the truly great line-up of books coming out lately, but with the potential for starting grad school in the fall I’ve decided to complete the theme of “going for broke” and review as many books this summer as I [...]

Waterstone's Bookshop List: Best 25 Contemporary Novelists

Waterstone’s Bookshop (UK) celebrated its 25th anniversary by producing a list of the 25 contemporary writers they believe most likely to achieve enduring fame. How exciting to be one of these people right now, eh?: 1. Jo Pratt – food stylist and writer 2. Naomi Alderman – debut novel Disobedience 3. Robyn Young – author [...]

Top 10 Reads for 2006

Verrry difficult this year, as it is every year, but the more I looked at my list of books read in 2006 the more clear my Top 10 List became. Though I read a lot of really great books, the ones that stood out as stellar were really pretty obvious choices. The books I chose [...]