Author Archive
This year’s National Book Award winners were announced Wednesday night at a dinner in New York City. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles, won the $10,000 National
Book Award for Nonfiction. The fiction prize went to Irish-born writer Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin, a novel about New York in the 1970s. Keith Waldrop’s Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy took the poetry award and the award for Young People’s Literature went to Phillip Hoose for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, the true story of an African American teenager who challenged segregation in 1950s Alabama.
The Finalists included:
Fiction
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Nonfiction
David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press)
Poetry
Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press)
Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Viking Penguin)
Carl Phillips, Speak Low (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Young People’s Literature
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
David Small, Stitches (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)
All titles are available in LINKcat.
November 19th, 2009
Molly
It’s that time of the year when “Best of” lists abound. Here’s another one! Find new titles to read from the library or get a start on holiday shopping with the top picks for 2009 from the editors at Amazon.com:
- Let the Great World Spin: A Novel by Colum
McCann.
- Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder.
- Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel.
- Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin.
- Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl.
- Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad.
- The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson.
- The City & The City by China Mieville.
- Stitches: A Memoir by David Small.
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba.
See the Top 100 Editors’ Picks.
November 16th, 2009
Molly
November is National Adoption Month.
The library has many books that deal with a variety of aspects of adoption, from domestic to international adoptions to preparing your family and overcoming unforeseen challenges. Visit our National Adoption Month booklist for newer titles.
November 12th, 2009
Molly
Celebrate the 9th Annual NIH American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month. The purpose of this month is to honor and recognize the original peoples of this land. Wisconsin’s history is rich and several American Indian areas of significance are located here. Featured historic properties in Wisconsin for American Indian Heritage Month 2009 include:
- Black Hawk Powwow Grounds, Jackson County, WI The powwow grounds, in Jackson County, Wisconsin, have been used as a ceremonial and social event center, as well as a dance-ring or powwow ground, since at least the late 1800’s and possibly well before.
- McCord Village, northern Wisconsin
Settled around 1890-1900 by Potawatomi, Ojibwe and related American Indians, the population of McCord was composed of inter-tribal marriages and offspring of Midewiwin and Big Drum societies from the Potawatomi and Ojibwe nations, and also some medicine people from the HoChunk and Menominee Nations.
- Saint Joseph of the Lake Church and Cemetery, Menominee, WI
Community center for the South Branch Menominee and a place for the preservation and continuation of their traditional life-ways.
For reading lists of American Indian fiction, American Indian videos, books about Native Peoples of Wisconsin, books by American Indian authors and illustrators, as well as selected internet resources, please refer to our American Indian Heritage Month web page.
November 5th, 2009
Molly
Tales from Planet Earth (TfPE) showcases environmental films from around the world in a three-day festival and several other community engagement events in Madison, November 6-8, 2009. This free festival of environmental film takes place primarily around downtown at MMoCA and First United Methodist Church, and on campus at Memorial Union, and the UW Cinematheque.
The theme for this year’s festival is Justice and the films are organized through four primary strands: Landscapes of Labor, Precious Resources, Strange Weather and In the Company of Animals. All events are free to the public. The complete schedule and map of theaters is available on the festival website.
Some films previously featured at the festival include Everything’s Cool, Flock of Dodos, MicroCosmos, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and The Return of Navajo Boy, all available at the library.
If you are looking for more environmental resources, visit Greening Our World, a list of library materials that focus on earth friendly living.
November 2nd, 2009
Molly
Publisher’s Weekly has announced their take on the year’s best books. Find their picks at the library:
The Publisher’s Weekly article includes full reviews of each of the featured titles.
October 30th, 2009
Molly
Send in your submissions today to the Wisconsin People & Ideas/ Wisconsin Book Festival 2010 poetry and short story contests and prepare to be showered with fame, fortune, and glory!
Anyone can submit a short story or batch of three poems—anyone! Both the poetry and short story contests are open to all Wisconsin residents, including students, and submissions for the 2010 contests will be accepted until December 15, 2009, at 5:00 pm. Prizes include up to $500 cash, publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas, a one-week stay at Edenfred (the creative arts residency of the Terry Family Foundation in Madison), and more.
The top three winners in both the poetry and short story contest are also invited to read their work at the Wisconsin Book Festival in 2010. Visit the contest web page for complete contest rules and submission guidelines. The Wisconsin People & Ideas/ Wisconsin Book Festival 2010 poetry and short story contests are supported by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, Wisconsin Public Television, Abella Studios, and Avol’s Bookstore.
Madison Public Library is a supporting donor organization for the Wisconsin Book Festival.
October 29th, 2009
Molly
First novels hold the promise and excitement of the unknown. Will you discover the next Jane Austen or J.D. Salinger in the pages of a first novel? Or maybe you’ll find a new favorite author!
Find lists featuring first novels for adults and youth reviewed in Booklist this past year, including A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff. A Fortunate Age is described as an epic first novel that captures the spirit of Generation X, telling the universal story of the starting-out years of a group of college friends living in Brooklyn during the 1990s.
October 27th, 2009
Molly
October is National Eat Better, Eat Together Month. This is a great time to celebrate family meals. Find books at the library like Sandi Richard’s Dinner Survival: Cooking for the Rushed that will help the whole family get on track, eating healthy and spending time together.
Dinner Survival features Richard’s unique and time-conscious approach to developing 10 weeks’ worth of menus including full-color photos, grocery lists and tips for how to make a healthy dinner every night.
October 15th, 2009
Molly
Herta Müller is the new recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. A Romanian-born German novelist, Müller’s works depict the dispossessed, in particular her life under dictatorship in her Romanian homeland.
Find titles by Müller at the library, including:
And Hilary Mantel wins the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Wolf Hall, her fictionalized account of Thomas Cromwell, clerk and later successor to Cardinal Wolsey during the reign of Henry VIII.
Other titles by Mantel available at the library include:
Details about the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the 2009 Shortlist can be found on the official site.
October 9th, 2009
Molly
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