Reviews And Publicity

We're big fans of Douglas Lord's Books for Dudes column over at Library Journal. Recently he reviewed a good stack of our unputdownable books, many of which left him cranky from lack of sleep.

We've picked a few choice passages from his reviews to share with you here.

THE VARIATIONS by John Donatich (available in February from Holt)

"When you see me dragging a** around work and looking kind of cranked off at the dinner table, know it’s because this book kept me up long, long after bedtime."

CHILDREN OF WRATH by Paul Grossman (available in February from St. Martin's Press)

Lord called it "an immensely satisfying, all-around winner." And said, "It was compelling enough to keep me up hours past my bedtime and once even to cause me to fall prey to that classic bedtime blunder: falling book-clutched-in-hands, glasses-on-face asleep. This was, of course, followed by the classic wake-up-90-minutes-later-completely-disoriented-and-drooling."

JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY by Christopher Golden & Mike Mignola (available in March from St. Martin's Press)

"Mignola, the artist known for the “Hellboy” graphic novel series, and the prolific Golden, whose credits include the YA horror novel STRANGEWOOD, jointly crafted this enjoyable, steampunky YA title." He also warned, "if, like me, you decide that a large cup of coffee at 8:30 pm on a Wednesday is Just. The. Thing. You. Want., well, look no further: you’ll enjoy cranking through this and wake up with a Thursday book’n’caffeine hangover."

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Brad Parks (available in March from Minotaur)

Lord said it's, "breezily enjoyable," and admitted, "I skipped two prime nap times and stayed up three hours past bedtime one night, accompanied only by chocolate, tea, and my special blue blankie."

Check out the full article on LibraryJournal.com to see what else Lord recommends.

The 2012 RUSA reading list is in!

Between the noshable hors d'oeuvres, the wine, and the charming company, we had a riotous time at the announcement ceremony in Dallas. Yes, we were whooping and hollering when they listed books we love!

Don't believe me? Boom: proof.

Library Journal reported, "Some of the announcements were greeted by quite a bit of excitement, especially from Robin Nesbitt (on Twitter, @robnesb) of Columbus Metropolitan Library; Alene Moroni (@surlyspice) of King County Library System, WA; Talia Sherer (@macmillanlib) of Macmillan Library Marketing; and Stephanie Chase (@acornsandnuts) of Mutnomah County Library." So, yeah, we were excited.

Now, on to the books!

2012 Reading List

ADRENALINE
Shortlisted:

NOW YOU SEE ME by S. J. Bolton
YOU'RE NEXT by Gregg Hurwitz

MYSTERY
Winner:

THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X by Keigo Higashino

Shortlisted:

KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT by Colin Cotterill
A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by Louise Penny

SCIENCE FICTION
Shortlisted:

THE QUANTUM THIEF by Hannu Rajaniemi

See the complete list of RUSA winners, short lists, and read-alikes here.

2012 Notable Books List

NONFICTION:

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman

See RUSA's complete list of Notable Books here.

We're very excited to see two beautifully written novels published by Macmillan on the shortlist for the Man Asian Literary Prize, THE SLY COMPANY OF PEOPLE WHO CARE by Rahul Bhattacharya and RIVER OF SMOKE by Amitav Ghosh.

Seven books were shortlisted this year, rather than the usual five, due to the incredibly strong list of candidates.

Chair Judge Razia Iqbal responded to their choice with, "The judges were greatly impressed by the imaginative power of the stories now being written about rapidly changing life in worlds as diverse as the arid borderlands of Pakistan, the crowded cityscape of modern Seoul, and the opium factories of nineteenth century Canton. This power and diversity made it imperative for us to expand the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist beyond the usual five books."

The Man Asian Literary Prize was founded in 2007. It is an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year.