2013 Edgar Awards Announced
May 7, 2013
MWA is the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction. Each Spring, Mystery Writers of America present the Edgar® Awards, widely acknowledged to be the most prestigious awards in the genre. Click here to see the nominees and winners in every category. Click on the book title to place a hold in the LION catalog.
Best Novel Winner:
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
Also nominated:
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman
Sunset by Al Lamanda
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley
Best First Novel Winner:
The Expats by Chris Pavone
Also nominated:
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 500 by Matthew Quirk
Black Fridays by Michael Sears
Best Fact Crime Winner:
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
Also nominated:
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, MD
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
The People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry
Spring is a busy time for publishers…and readers. Not only are these months a prime time for memorable bestselling books to be released, this is also a time when debut authors take their plunge. May will see the sure-to-be-bestseller releases of Dan Brown’s Inferno and Khaled Hosseini’s And The Mountains Echoed as well as 2 highly-anticipated debut novels from award-winning authors.
(Click on the links to place your hold on the book at the Essex Library.)
Inferno by Dan Brown releases on May 14. You’ll likely remember Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code if you were born before 2003. Dr. Langdon returns for more adventure, this time centering on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces à Dante’s Inferno. Mysteries and riddles abound for the Harvard professor of symbology who battles a chilling adversary as he races to find the answers.
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini releases May 21. You may remember the author’s previous books: The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. With his new book, Hosseini presents a story inspired by human love, how people take care of one another and how choices resonate through subsequent generations. He explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.
In May we’ll also see A Constellation Of Vital Phenomena, the debut novel of Anthony Marra, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University with an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Marra’s stories have already wowed readers, in the process winning the 2012 Whiting Writers’ Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Atlantic’s Student Writing Contest. Ann Patchett called his debut novel “simply spectacular”.
Another May debut we’re looking forward to is You Are One Of Them by Elliott Holt. Holt has also won a Pushcart Prize. “Holt’s “prose crackles,” says Michael Cunningham, who runs the fiction section of Brooklyn College’s M.F.A. writing program, which she is graduating from this spring. (2010) “She understands that, in fiction, the sounds of words matter as much as their meanings.”
2013 Edgar Awards Nominees Announced
January 23, 2013
Each Spring, Mystery Writers of America present the Edgar Awards, widely acknowledged to be the most prestigious awards in the genre. Below are some of the Nominees for the 2013 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, published or produced in 2012. The Edgar Awards will be presented to the winners on May 2, 2013.
(Click on the title to put on hold at the Library.)
Best Novel:
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Gone Girl 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:
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
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, MD
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
The People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists Announced
January 15, 2013
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Awards promote the finest books in 6 categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir/Autobiography, Biography, and Criticism. Books may be by any author from any country; the only requirement is that they be published in the U.S. within the previous calendar year. The Awards will be announced on February 28th in New York.
This year’s finalists for Fiction:
HHhH by Laurent Binet
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Magnificence by Lydia Millet
NW by Zadie Smith
Non-Fiction:
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll
Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon
Autobiography:
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
My Poets by Maureen N. McLane
House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton
In the House of the Interpreter by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Biography:
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro
All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen
Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra
Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography by Lisa Jarnot
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
Overlooked Titles From 2012
January 9, 2013
We have posted on the Best Books of 2012; there are many lists that are produced each year by reputable editors and they make for very worthy reading. 
However, there are generally a few books that slip through the cracks and our conscience is nudging us to present at least a handful of those ‘overlooked’ books. To our astonishment, Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, What Happened To Sophie Wilder by Christopher Beha and Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead all got overlooked by the Best Of’s list-makers.
The release of Semple’s book in August was a highly anticipated event within the library world and our copy has rarely sat on the shelf for more than a day since its arrival. It deserves a wider readership and perhaps will get one now that the film rights have been bought and the movie will be produced by Nina Jacobson (‘The Hunger Games’) and Megan Ellison (‘Zero Dark Thirty’). Though Beha’s and Shipstead’s books have received less fanfare, they should also merit readers’ attention.
The folks at Flavorwire have put together a list of 25 Notable Books Unfairly Overlooked by ‘The New York Times’ which they describe as “an alternative, or an addendum” to the Times’ list. Take a look and see which others will find their way to your to-be-read pile. Click on the book jacket to place a hold on the book.
Slate’s Overlooked Books Of 2012
December 6, 2012
The New York Times annual Notable Books list is generally held as the go-to list for folks looking for the best books of the year to read. Slate’s Book Review critics don’t have much quarrel with the Notables selection, except for 20 books that didn’t make the cut. Here’s their list of books you may not have heard about but definitely should have, including their reasons why it’s a good read.
Put holds on books in our catalog here.
Far From The Tree By Andrew Solomon
December 3, 2012
We’re big fans of Andrew Solomon here at the Library. He has written articulately on disparate subjects for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum and Travel And Leisure. His book, The Noonday Demon, won the 2001 National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It has provided solace and wisdom to many suffering from depression. Joyce Carol Oates in her review for The New York Times wrote: ”The Noonday Demon” is a considerable accomplishment. It is likely to provoke discussion and controversy, and its generous assortment of voices, from the pathological to the philosophical, makes for rich, variegated reading.” He is also an impassioned advocate of reading. His opinion in The New York Times, The Closing Of The American Book sets out some pretty good arguments for the benefits of reading for pleasure.
Solomon’s latest book– Far From The Tree, released in November, is an exploration of families with children with “horizontal identities”; a term Solomon uses for children who are very different from their parents. Author Julie Myerson writes in her review of the book in The New York Times Book Review: “It contains a spark of real surprise, and it’s probably testament to the warmth and kindness with which he’s explored the stories of so many others that you find yourself catching your breath, suddenly apprehensive for him, as his life appears poised to come undone. To reveal more would spoil something, but suffice it to say that you end this journey through difference and diversity with an even stronger conviction that life is endlessly, heart-stoppingly, fragile and unknowable.” We believe this latest book will be at least as well-received as The Noonday Demon, if not more so.
Note: The editors of The New York Times Book Review have selected Far From The Tree as one of its 10 Best Books of 2012.
The New York Times Announces Their 100 Notable Books of 2012
December 1, 2012
Every year, editors at The New York Times Book Review select their choices for the year’s notable books in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. For many, this is what becomes the year’s reading list as it contains exceptional debuts, novels from tried-and-true authors and a reliable collection of intellectual curiosity-satisfying non-fiction. All of which are certain to be fodder for urbane cocktail party conversations in the years to come. What did they leave out, in your opinion?
Kirkus Reviews Announces Their Best Fiction Of 2012
November 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews has posted their list of Best Fiction of 2012; 100 books that “encompass a range of categories. Debuts, story collections, thrillers, mysteries, translations, science fiction, fantasy, romance, historical fiction—there’s something for every taste.” You’ll find that this list varies from Amazon’s Best Books of 2012 and not only because the Kirkus list is all fiction. The Kirkus team definitely has an eye for fiction that may not garner the widest attention but is deserving of an appreciative reader. You can find the Kirkus list of titles in the Essex Library catalog here.
Amazon Announces Their Best Books of 2012 List
November 27, 2012
Every November, the Amazon Books editorial team announces their picks for the best 100 books of the year. This list contains adult fiction and non-fiction books with a few Young Adult fiction titles included. There aren’t any surprises here, we think. All of the titles will be familiar to those who watch weekly book reviews during the year. It is a good round-up of books worth reading if you’re looking for your next book. Most, if not all, may be found at the Essex Library. You can search for the title and place a hold in our catalog here.
