Things just keep getting better for Jo Walton. Back in May, she won the Nebula for Best Novel with Among Others (Macmillan/Tor; pbk reprint released 1/3/12) and last night, she added the Hugo. As she writes on her blog, “I was surprised and delighted to win a Nebula, I am gobsmacked and awed to win a Hugo.”

She won against some pretty strong competition, including George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons and China Miéville’s Embassytown.

Among Others is about a 14-year-old girl, Morwenna, who recovers from a traumatic childhood with the help of a sympathetic school librarian and through books. It is heavily based on Walton’s own past, with some fantasy elements (in the book, the mother is literally a witch). As she tells Nancy Pearl in the following interview (thanks to Macmillan Library Marketer, Ali Fisher for pointing it out on Uncharted Pages), she couldn’t have published it while her mother was living, because “She would have sued.”

Walton initially wondered if it was legitimate to write an autobiographical fantasy, but characteristically decided to go ahead and do it anyway. She is a bit dismayed by the number of people who say the story reminds them of their own childhoods. Given that, of course, it has strong crossover appeal; VOYA said,  “Morwenna is a complex, quirky character who readers will quickly be drawn to as they join her on her quest of self-discovery.”

The full list of the winners is on the Hugo site.

Marking another step in the growing acceptance of ebooks, two titles published by digital imprints were among the dozen titles winning RITA awards from the Romance Writers of America at a ceremony in Anaheim over the weekend.

The winner for best Contemporary Single Title is Boomerang Bride by Fiona Lowe. Originally published as an ebook by Harlequin’s Carina imprint, it was released in paperback as well. Currently it is an ebook-only title, available via OverDrive and B&T’s Axis360 platform.

The winner for best Romance Novella, I Love the Earl by Caroline Linden, is published by HarperCollins/Avon’s digital imprint, Impulse. It is also available via OverDrive and Axis360.

The RWA Librarian of the Year is Mary Moore, Reference & Adult Services Manager, Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, Huntsville, Alabama. She is profiled on the RWA site.

In addition, nine unpublished manuscripts won the association’s Golden Heart Awards.

The longlist for the Booker Awards was just announced in London. Hilary Mantel is one of the 12 authors, for Bring up the Bodies, her followup to the 2009 Booker winner, Wolf Hall. The second in a planned trilogy, Bring up the Bodies is already a best seller in the US. It hit the NYT bestseller list at #3, a direct result of the boost the Booker gave to the author’s visibility.

For reasons we’ve never been able to pinpoint, the Booker has more effect on sales in the U.S. than our own National Book Awards. Most of the winners of the British prize have ended up on the New York Times best seller list.

The award is open to citizens of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Of the twelve writers just announced, nine are British, one Indian, one South African and one Malaysian.

The titles, with American publication information, are below:

Currently available in the US

Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis, Penguin Press, 4/12/12; Reviews, PW, starred;  The Millions

Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies, Macmillan/Holt, 5/8/12; Review links

Michael Frayn, Skios, Macmillan/Holt, 6/19/12; Reviews, Washington Post, by Michael Dirda; New York Times, by Michiko Kakutani; New York Times Book Review, by Alex Witchel; Seattle Times, by Michael Upchurch

Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Random House, 7/24/12; Review links

Upcoming US Publications

Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists, Perseus/ Weinstein Books, 8/14/12; Booklist review; LJ review by Barbara Hoffert

Will Self, Umbrella, Grove Press, 12/10/12

Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident, Bloomsbury US, 2/26/13; Review, The Independent; Profile of the author, The Guardian

Not Yet Scheduled

(publishers listed are British)

Nicola Barker, The Yips, HarperCollins/Fourth Estate; Review, The Guardian; Review, The Independent

André Brink, Philida, Random House/Harvill Secker

Deborah Levy, Swimming Home, And Other Stories, Publishing; Review, The Guardian

Alison Moore, The Lighthouse, Salt Publishing

Sam Thompson, Communion Town, HarperCollins/Fourth Estate; Review, The Telegraph

The shortlist of six authors will be announced on  September 11th, and the winner on October 16h.

The new poet laureate, Natasha Trethewey was profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition and on PBS NewsHour yesterday. She has published four books, including Beyond Kartrina (U. of Georgia Press, 9/1/10) and the upcoming Thrall (HMH, 9/18/12).

She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her third book of poetry, Native Guard, (HMH, 2006).

The winners of the 45th Horn Book – Boston Globe Awards were announced at the BEA yesterday. Horn Book’s editor in chief Roger Sutton said that the winners are “frequently unusual or under-the-radar choices. Because of the small judging panel, there’s always an excellent chance for surprise. Each year, the judges uncover some amazing treasures that I think will delight adult readers as much as the intended audience of children and young adults.”

PICTURE BOOK AWARD WINNER

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)

“When young Annabelle finds a small box containing a never-ending supply of yarn of every color, she does what any self-respecting knitter would do: she knits herself a sweater. Then she knits a sweater for her dog. She continues to knit colorful garments for everyone and everything in her snowy, sooty, colorless town—until an archduke gets greedy.”

PICTURE BOOK HONOR WINNERS

And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press)

And the Soldiers Sang by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Gary Kelley (Creative Editions)

FICTION AWARD WINNER

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab)

“Lewis Michaux opened the National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem at the end of the Great Depression with an inventory of five books and a strong faith that black people were hungry for knowledge. For the next thirty-five years, his store became a central gathering place for African American writers, artists, intellectuals, political figures and ordinary citizens. In a daring combination of fiction and nonfiction and word and image, thirty-six narrative voices are interwoven with articles from the New York Amsterdam News, excerpts from Michaux’s FBI file and family papers and photographs.”

FICTION HONOR WINNERS

Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet (Candlewick Press)

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney/Hyperion)

NONFICTION WINNER

Chuck Close: Face Book, written and illustrated by Chuck Close (Abrams Books for Young Readers)

“Chuck Close’s art is easy to describe and especially attractive to children because he creates only portraits—in almost every possible medium with an intriguing trompe l’oeil effect. This book explores how his life story and so-called disabilities relate directly to his style. In this Q&A–style narrative, Close himself answers with a clear voice without a hint of famous-artist self-aggrandizement or angst.”

NONFICTION HONOR WINNERS

Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keeffe Painted What She Pleased by Amy Novesky, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (HMH/Harcourt Children’s Books)

The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O’Connell & Donna M. Jackson, photographs by Caitlin O’Connell and Timothy Rodwell (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children)

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the winners of the Audies in 30 categories last night. Tina Fey’s recording of her book, Bossypants (Hachette Audio) was named the Audiobook of the Year. The AudioFile list of winners and nominees includes links to reviews and audio clips.

In the category of “Narration by the Author,” Libba Bray won out against tough competition from John Lithgow, Ellen DeGeneres and Tina Fey for her reading of her YA novel, Beauty Queens (Scholastic AudioBooks). The AudioFile reviews says,”As narrator, Bray puts her theatrical background to good use, changing accents, register, and pitch so smoothly and consistently that listeners will forget there’s but a single narrator”

The big winner in this year’s James Beard Cookbook Awards is a big book; Modernist Cuisine was named the Cookbook of the Year, as well as winner in the  Cooking from a Professional Point of View category. Just before the announcement, several publications, including the Wall Street Journal‘s SpeakEasy blog, covered the news that, despite its size (five volumes, 47 lbs) and cost ($450), it’s sold over 45,000 copies (a check of WorldCat reveals that few of those sales were to public libraries).

Below is the list, with book trailers where available.

2012 James Beard Foundation Book Awards

Cookbook of the Year
Modernist Cuisine, by Nathan Myhrvold with Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, (The Cooking Lab)

Cookbook Hall of Fame
Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking (RH/Vintage) and More Home Cooking (Harper Perennial)

American Cooking 
A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen, by Hugh Acheson
(RH/Clarkson Potter)

Baking and Dessert
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, by Jeni Britton Bauer, (Workman/Artisan)

Beverage
Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, & Formulas, by Brad Thomas Parsons, (RH/Ten Speed Press)

Cooking from a Professional Point of View 
Modernist Cuisine., by Nathan Myhrvold with Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, (The Cooking Lab)

General Cooking
Ruhlman’s Twenty, by Michael Ruhlman. (Chronicle Books)

Focus on Health
Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen, by Heidi Swanson, (RH/Ten Speed Press)

International
The Food of Morocco, by Paula Wolfert, (HarperCollins/Ecco)

Photography
Notes from a Kitchen: A Journey Inside Culinary Obsession, Artist/Photographer: Jeff Scott, (Tatroux)

Reference and Scholarship
Turning the Tables: Restaurants and the Rise of the American Middle Class, 1880-1920, by Andrew P. Haley
(The University of North Carolina Press)

Single Subject 
All About Roasting, by Molly Stevens, (W.W. Norton & Company)

Writing and Literature
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton, (Random House)

Kansas City librarians used the lack of a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as an opportunity to create the “Publitzer Prize for Fiction” (the play on the name indicates that the public chooses this prize).

Library Director Crosby Kemper III explains:

The three nominees were announced yesterday. The winner will be announced tomorrow.

Take that, Pulitzer Board!

What has your library done to combat the mistaken impression that this was a lousy year for fiction? Let us know in the comments section.

The nominees for the Edgars in the Best Fact Crime category demonstrate how much the category of narrative nonfiction has grown in the last few years. Fact Crime, once dominated by lurid tales of bloody murders, now features books that look at history through the lens of crime. A prime example is the winner, announced last night, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (RH/Doubleday; Thorndike large print). It is also a 2011 ALA Notable Book and was included on many of the year’s best books lists. Most libraries are still showing holds, despite heavy buying.

The winner in the Best Novel category is Mo Hayder, for the fifth book in her Jack Caffery series, Gone, now available in trade paperback.

Grove/Atlantic is in the process of publishing this British author’s books in trade paperback in the U.S. The first in the series, Birdman (9780802146120), will be published in May (also in audio by Dreamscape). The second, The Treatment (9780802146137; Dreamscape audio) is coming in July. Downloadable audio available on OverDrive.

Author Web site: MoHayder.net

Gone Mo Hayder Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: Grove Press – (2012-02-14) ISBN / EAN: 0802145701 / 9780802145703

The full list of nominees and winners is here.

Thousands of children have discussed, considered and voted and the 2012 winner of the Irma Black Award is  — What Animals Really Like, written and illustrated by Fiona Robinson

What Animals Really Like Fiona Robinson Retail Price: $15.95 Hardcover: 24 pages Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers – (2011-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 081098976X / 9780810989764

Each year, the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Irma Black Award) is presented to an outstanding book for young children—a book in which text and illustrations are inseparable. The Irma Black Award is a children’s choice award in that children are the final judges of the winning book. This year, over 9,000 children internationally read or heard aloud all four finalists.

The winning book receives a gold seal. The other three finalists are honor books and receive a silver seal, both designed by Maurice Sendak.

The silver award winners are:

YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! Peter Brown Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Hachette/LBYR  – (2011-09-05) ISBN / EAN: 0316070300 / 9780316070300

I Want My Hat Back Jon Klassen Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Candlewick Press – (2011-09-27) ISBN / EAN: 0763655988 / 9780763655983

All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel Dan Yaccarino Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 0375866426 / 9780375866425

The award will be presented on May 17^th at an 8:30 am in a ceremony at the Bank Street College of Education, New York, NY.  The keynote speaker this year is Paul O. Zelinsky, an Irma Black Honor winner for Dust Devil, the sequel to Swamp Angel.  Teachers and librarians are invited to attend. RSVP here.

Fiona Robinson’s hilarious picture book What Animals Really Like (Abrams, 2011), which delivers a subtle message about the dangers of stereotyping, is this year’s winner of the Irma S. Black & James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature.

The Independent Book Blogger Association asks you to vote for your favorite independent blog.

You can vote for one blog in each of four categories (you must be a member of Goodreads to be eligible to vote). The finalists will then be judged by a panel of industry members. The winners will be given a trip to BookExpo America.

Unfortunately, if your favorite book blog isn’t a candidate (we’re sorry that neither Overbooked nor Lesa’s Book Critiques entered), it can be tough to sort through all 800 entries. You might want to consider these library sites:

Wake County Public Libraries Book-a-Day Blog — in North Carolina

Reviews for You — from Half Hallow Hills Community Library (NY)

YAthink? — Burbank Public Library’s Teen Blog

The Pulitzer Awards were overshadowed this week by a category which had no winner; fiction. For those that don’t know the inner workings of the Pulitzer decisions, this gave a false impression that, as the Huffington Post first reported, “This year, nobody was good enough.”

Among those who were shocked by the decision were the three members of  the fiction jury. On NPR’s Morning Edition, juror Susan Larson spoke for all of them, saying they were “shocked … angry … and very disappointed” and that any one of the three was worthy of the prize. Juror Michael Cunningham (who won for The Hours in 1999) told The Daily Beast that “there’s something amiss in a system where three books this good are presented and there’s not a prize.” Under that system, the jurors give a short list to the Pulitzer Board, which chooses the winner. When the board could not come up with a majority, no prize is awarded.

Why does it matter? As Ann Patchett points out in the NYT, the Pulitzer “gives the buzz that is so often lacking in our industry.” And that buzz translates into sales, as Publishers Weekly documents.

In today’s NYT Ann Patchett decries the Pulitzer Board’s decision to not award a winner in fiction this year. It’s worth reading just to find out what her favorite books were this year (in addition to being a writer, she is a bookseller). This one short essay is peppered with great lines. Here’s just two, to entice you to read the full piece:

1) With book coverage in the media split evenly between Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games, wouldn’t it have been something to have people talking about The Pale King…?

2) Unfortunately, the world of literature lacks the scandal, hype and pretty dresses that draw people to the Academy Awards, which, by the way, is not an institution devoted to choosing the best movie every year as much as it is an institution designed to get people excited about going to the movies.  The Pulitzer Prize is our best chance as writers and readers and booksellers to celebrate fiction.

On NPR’s Morning Edition, Pulitzer fiction juror, Susan Larson says that the jurors were “shocked .. angry … and very disappointed” that there was no winner. She says they jury would have been happy if any one of the three finalists had been been chosen.

How can that be? It seems the Pulitzer Board reviews the juror’s votes and makes the final decision. Since there wasn’t a majority, they decided not to award a prize this year.

The book that rose the highest on Amazon after yesterday’s announcement of the Pulitzer Prize winners was the winner for poetry (Note: there was no winner for fiction this year).

Here’s how they stack up:

THE WINNER FOR POETRY

#97 (from #38,923)

More about the Life on Mars from Minnesota Public Radio

Life on Mars: Poems Tracy K. Smith Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 88 pages Publisher: Graywolf Press – (2011-05-10) ISBN / EAN: 1555975844 / 9781555975845

THE WINNER FOR GENERAL NONFICTION

#141 (from #904) 

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern Stephen Greenblatt Retail Price: $16.95 Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2012-09-03) ISBN / EAN: 0393343405 / 9780393343403

THE WINNER FOR HISTORY

#277 (from # 6,736)

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention Manning Marable Retail Price: $18.00 Paperback: 608 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2011-12-28) ISBN / EAN: 0143120328 / 9780143120322

THE WINNER FOR BIOGRAPHY

#298 (from  #5,567)

George F. Kennan: An American Life John Lewis Gaddis Retail Price: $39.95 Hardcover: 800 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2011-11-10) ISBN / EAN: 1594203121 / 9781594203121