September 22, 2015
Each year the American Library Association awards one work of fiction and one work of nonfiction an Andrew Carnegie Medal. This year the longlists of both categories have been announced. Where are your gaps? Want to fill them? Then just click on the titles below and reserve your copies with EPL today! Continue reading “Andrew Carnegie Medals announced!”
September 17, 2015
The longlist for the 2015 National Book Award nominees was released today and though there were a lot of familiar faces to be found (Clegg, Pearlman, Hanagihara) we were happy to see some surprises as well. Who could have predicted the appearance of Karen E. Bender’s Refund? Or the inclusion of Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson? Haven’t read them? Well here’s your chance. Reserve your own copies by clicking on the links and covers below: Continue reading “National Book Award 2015 Nominees: Fiction”
September 16, 2015
I don’t think anyone was too surprised to see Ta-Nehisi Coates’s massive breakaway hit Between the World and Me appear on this year’s longlist of nonfiction National Book Award nominees. There were some pleasant surprises, however. Sy Montgomery, long known for her children’s nonfiction titles, did well with her recent The Soul of an Octopus (which is NOT for kids). Meanwhile Sally Mann’s memoir Hold Still made an appearance as well. Have you read all the nominees? Click on the titles below to reserve your copies from the EPL system: Continue reading “National Book Award 2015 Nominees: Non-Fiction”
September 15, 2015
Day Two of the ever-so-slowly released National Book Award nominee longlists. Poetry got real play today with titles well known and appreciated, titles forthcoming and appealing, and titles obscure and alluring. How many have you read? Here are the books. Be sure to follow the links to reserve them in the EPL system: Continue reading “National Book Award 2015 Nominees: Poetry”
September 14, 2015
As you may or may not know, this year the National Book Awards have paired with The New Yorker to exclusively reveal each of the ten book longlists in the categories of Young People’s Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction. The first of these, “Young People’s Literature” has been released and the surprise is seeing how many of the titles the five personal panel of judges selected are written not for children at all but young adults. With the sole exceptions of Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish and Gary Paulsen’s This Side of Wild, all the titles listed for young people are for readers between the ages of 12-18. Curious? Check out some of these titles from the Evanston Public Library system by following the links below: Continue reading “National Book Award 2015 Nominees: Young People's Literature”
February 4, 2014
Are you a librarian? Are you faced with A Series of Unfortunate Events ? Have you handled them with integrity and dignity? You may just be the perfect candidate for a new award to be presented at the ALA (American Library Association) Midwinter conference. Children’s author David Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) who feels that “librarians have suffered enough” is establishing “The Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity” – a $3,000 prize to be given annually to a deserving librarian from Snicket’s “disreputable gains, along with an odd, symbolic object from his private stash, as well as a certificate, which may or may not be suitable for framing.” Read more about this award here and nominate your favorite deserving librarian by visiting this ALA website.
Laura
January 2, 2014
In 2002 American author Danielle Steel was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, France’s top cultural honor. Now she can add the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, to her accolades. Other Americans who have won the Legion of Honor include Douglas MacArthur, Julia Child, Walt Disney, Alan Greenspan and Bob Dylan. In an earlier comment, Ms. Steel said: “Well, I always go back to the classics. I love French literature. Colette is a special favorite of mine.” You can read more in this NYT article. And check out the EPL catalog for her many novels.
Laura
September 25, 2013
The 24 MacArthur “genius” grants awarded today are given to “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” Among the winners are authors Karen Russell, whose 2011 novel Swamplandia was a finalist for the Pulitzer Award; Donald Antrim, associate professor at Columbia University and author of The Verificationist; and playwright and member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company Tarell Alvin McCraney. The winners are awarded a “no strings attached” grant of $625,000. For more about these winners as well as the the other honorees, check out today’s articles in NPR and the New York Times.
Laura
July 11, 2013
The 2013 National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal were given to two dozen recipients in a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday. President Obama, who awarded these most prestigious arts awards, said that the honorees “have taught us about ourselves and about our world.” The winners included authors Joan Didion and Ernest J. Gaines, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, director/producer George Lucas, soprano Renee Fleming, trumpeter Herb Alpert, comedian Elaine May, and artist Ellsworth Kelly. Check here to read more about the the awards and the rest of the winners.
Laura
November 15, 2011
Here’s another list of award winning reads…but you can help choose the finalists yourself! GoodReads is a free online community of readers, where you can create and share lists, join discussion groups, get reviews and chat with authors. We have an Evanston Good Reads page, and a separate page for our African American Literature Discussion group.
This year’s GoodReads Choice Awards are currently open for voting. You can vote for your favorites in fiction, historical fiction, mystery, romance, fantasy, history, memoir, YA and children’s books, and for the overall Favorite Book of 2011.
Even if you don’t vote, this site is a great way to discover terrific new books you might not have seen!
Lesley W.
