What’s New @ AFPLS

World Book Day, designated by UNESCO as a “worldwide celebration of books and reading,” is celebrated in over 100 countries accross the globe. In the UK and Ireland this annual event has sparked the World Book Day team to come up with a list of books, both fiction and non-fiction, that not only entertain but also provide further food for thought and discussion. They asked publishers large and small to submit titles they felt worthy of being talked about and have whittled down a list of 50 from the thousands of suggestions they received. Now, I know this is yet another list of books, but what is really interesting about this one is that a lot of the books don’t even sound familiar to me. It’s a list of things we here on the other side of the pond might not have come up with ourselves and so provides the opportunity to discover both new titles and authors at the same time. Exciting, right?!

The full list, Spread the Word: Books to Talk About, will be voted on by the public and narrowed down to a shortlist of 10 titles, with a final winner announced on March 5, 2009. To see the list and get in on the voting visit the site here. Then check the AFPLS catalog to see which of these titles have been hiding in our very own stacks!

Thanks to About Contemporary Literature for the article and links.

For more information about World Book Day and its origins, visit this page from UNESCO, here.

The National Book Foundation annually celebrates the best of American Literature by offering the National Book Award in the areas of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People’s Literature. This year over 1200 book titles were submitted by publishers for consideration, but the finalists have been narrowed down to just 5 from each category. National Book Award Week will begin on November 17th, with winners announced on November 19th, so there is still time to read a few of the nominated titles and decide who you’d like to see walk away with the prize! To see the full list of nominees from this and previous years, click here. You can even download a PDF of all finalists and winners from 1950 to the present. Then check the library’s catalog here to see which titles are available in our system!

The Library of Congress has named Stevie Wonder it’s recipient for the 2008 Gershwin Prize! According to Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, the Gershwin Prize [named for legendary American song-writing duo George and Ira Gershwin] was created “to honor an artist whose creative output transcends distinctions between musical styles and idioms, bringing diverse listeners together, and fostering mutual understanding and appreciation.” The award was founded in 2007 and it’s first recipient was Paul Simon. The presentation of the 2008 award will take place in February and is sure to be accompanied by a televised concert at some point.

AFPLS has many albums and some videos of both Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. Check the catalog here for some of the following titles to celebrate these two prolific song-writers in their own words!

• Songs in the key of life [sound recording]
      Wonder, Stevie
• Talking book [sound recording]
      Wonder, Stevie
• For once in my life [sound recording]
      Wonder, Stevie
• Graceland [sound recording]
      Simon, Paul
• Soul & inspiration [sound recording]
      Simon, Paul
• Surprise [sound recording]
      Simon, Paul

The Man Booker Prize, sort of the Pulitzer Prize for British fiction, has announced it’s long list of nominees. AFPLS owns about half of the titles on the list, including:

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

The Lost Dog by Michelle De Kretser

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

You can check the AFPLS catalog here to see which titles are available at your local library. This is a great opportunity to read some of the world’s best new fiction!

If you love using your kitchen, are big on the dining scene in Atlanta or even if you just catch an occassional episode of Top Chef then you should be happy to know that the biggest cooking awards, the James Beard Foundation Awards, have been awarded for 2008. For a list of all the winners, click here. Below are the book and article winners that are accessible through AFPLS:

Cookbook of the Year
The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Feamley-Whittingstall

Cookbook Hall of Fame
Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Asian Cooking
My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking by Niloufer Ichaporia King

Baking & Dessert
Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extradordinary Flavor by Peter Rainhart

Cooking from a Professional Point of View
The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine by The French Culinary Institute with Judith Choate

Healthy Focus
The EatingWell Diet by Jean Harvey-Berino with Joyce Handley & the Editors of EatingWell

Reference
A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Oyster Eating in North America by Rowan Jacobsen

Writing on Food
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Website, Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition
Epicurious.com
Tanya Steel

The winning articles, listed from this link, can be found in the following publications: The Times-Picayune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, Saveur, New York Magazine, Angeleno, EatingWell, The Atlantic, and Wine & Spirits Magazine. You will need the most current Galileo password to use these links to the publications.

You can check the AFPLS catalog here to see which of the winning books are available at your local library. Go here to read about the 2007 Beard Award winners. Happy cooking!

Each year the New York Public Library honors outstanding journalism by awarding the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. The award itself, now in it’s 21st year, strives to honor the unique role journalists play in drawing public attention to important issues. The winning titles must be full length books that are “outgrowth[s] of the author’s work as a journalist.” The 2008 finalists have now been released and I’m pleased to say that A-FPLS owns all five titles on the list! So, check the catalog here for available copies of the following important journalistic works before the winner is selected on May 20th:

• Jonathan Cohen, Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis - and the People Who Pay the Price
• Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
• Robyn Meredith, The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us
• Charlie Savage, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy
• Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

Thanks to Library Journal online for the info!

The Pulitzer Prize was awarded last week. Awarded by Columbia University, Pulitzer’s have been awarded since 1917 for the best in American writing. There are many awards given in journalism and you can read full-text online versions of the winning pieces from 1995 to current by searching the Pulitzer archive. Awards are also given in drama, literature, music and many related subtopics. Here are a few notable winners available through AFPLS:

The Oscars were handed out last night, and the big winners were:

Best Picture No Country for Old Men

Best DIrector Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Actor Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Actress Marion Cotillard, La View en Rose

Best Supporting Actor Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Best Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

The above award-winning films either are not out yet on DVD or are too new for the library to have copies yet. However, AFPLS does have copies of previous films by all the award-winning actors, as well as directors. You can check the AFPLS catalog here. For actors, do a “words or phrase” search by their name and you’ll get a complete list of their films owned by AFPLS.

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded each year to the best work written by an author from the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. In 2008 this literary award will be celebrating its 40th anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion the organization has announced that it will launch a Best of the Booker award. This honor will go to the best overall novel to have received a Booker Prize since it was first awarded in April of 1969. And to make this event even more special, for the first time the public will have a vote! The public will choose from a shortlist put together by pannel judges which will be available in May. This will be the perfect opportunity to read or re-read some of these notable books and make your vote really count! For more information about this upcoming event, visit the news section of the Booker award website here. Then, check our catalog here to find award-winning titles to check out!

Thanks to About Contemporary Literature for the heads up on this event.

The film version of Philippa Gregory’s bestseller The Other Boleyn Girl opens next Friday. Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman star as the Boleyn sisters and Eric Bana will bring the role of King Henry VIII to the screen. USA Today has an interview with the two actresses about their onscreen sibling rivalry, which you can read here.

If you’d like to read ( or reread!) The Other Boleyn Girl, you can check the AFPLS catalog here to see if copies are available at your local branch.