Book Buzz aka Resolution, Week #2

Apparently, the book to be reading is Geraldine Brooks's People of the Book. This week I read a positive review about the book in USA Today, a not-so-positive one in The New York Times, and heard a less-than-complimentary review on NPR. Amazon has it listed as one of its “Best Books of January,” and it appears on Amazon’s bestseller list at #23. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough after hearing about the book because I’m fifth in the library’s queue.

I was a bit surprised to see Andrew Morton’s Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography is the top selling book on Amazon. I’m not surprised readers are interested in gossip and speculation. I am surprised that anyone still cares about Tom Cruise. He’s just so passé.

A potentially interesting read from The NY Times this week is Bernard Schlink’s novel Homecoming (translated from German by Michael Henry Heim). According to the review, the book wrestles with the question of history, specifically how modern-day Germany reconciles itself with its past. Readers of this blog will already know a similar question of heritage consumes me.

Finally, I must mention the slew of awards for young adult and children’s books:

• John Newbery Medal: Laura Amy Schlitz, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
• Randolph Caldecott Medal: Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret
• Coretta Scott King Awards: Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton; Ashley Bryan, Let it Shine
• Theodor Seuss Geisel Award: Mo Willems, There Is a Bird on Your Head!
• Michael L. Printz Award: Geraldine McCaughrean, The White Darkness
• Margaret A. Edwards Award: Orson Scott Card
• Mildred L. Batchelder Award: VIZ Media, Miyuki Miyabe, Brave Story
• Robert F. Sibert Medal: Peter Sís, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
• Pura Belpré Awards: Yuyi Morales, Los Gatos Black on Halloween; Margarita Engle, The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
• Schneider Family Book Awards: Andrea Stenn Stryer, Kami and the Yaks; Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Reaching for Sun; Ginny Rorby, Hurt Go Happy
• Barbara Gittings Book Award: Ellis Avery, The Teahouse Fire
• Israel Fishman Book Award: Mark Doty, Dog Years: A Memoir
• BCALA Literary Awards: Stephen L. Carter, New England White; Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison: A Biography; Chantal Ellen, The Rise: Where Neighbors Are Sometimes More; Deborah Willis, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits
• American Indian Youth Literature Awards: Tim Tingle, Crossing Bok Chitto; Joseph Medicine Crow, Counting Coup; Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Of course, the book I must read is The Wall. I’ve also added The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian to my list because the book is raking in awards.