Costa Award Shortlists 2012

The shortlists for this year's Costa Awards have been announced yesterday. For the first time two graphic books are included them: Dotter of Her Father's Eyes (a great book, which I have read but did not get to review yet) in the biography category and Days of the Bagnold Summer in the best novel one. The winners will be revealed on January 2. Here are the full lists:

Novel Award shortlist

Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies
Stephen May - Life! Death! Prizes!
James Meek - The Heart Broke In
Joff Winterhart - Days of the Bagnold Summer

First Novel Award shortlist

JW Ironmonger - The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder
Jess Richards - Snake Ropes
Francesca Segal - The Innocents
Benjamin Wood - The Bellwether Revivals 

Biography Award shortlist

Artemis Cooper - Patrick Leigh-Fermor: An Adventure
Selina Guinness - The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of a House, a Farm and a Family
Kate Hubbard - Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household
Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot - Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes

Poetry Award shortlist

Sean Borodale - Bee Journal
Julia Copus - The World’s Two Smallest Humans
Selima Hill - People Who Like Meatballs
Kathleen Jamie - The Overhaul

Children’s Book Award shortlist

Sally Gardner - Maggot Moon
Diana Hendry - The Seeing
Hayley Long - What’s Up with Jody Barton?
Dave Shelton - A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

The Most Important Books of the Fall

 

I have received an eBook containing excerpts from 33 of the most important books of the fall, according at least to their publishers and Book Expo America. So here's what to look for in the coming months:

Peter Heller - THE DOG STARS. 7th of August.
Matthew Dicks - MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND. 21st of August.
Hanna Pylvainen - WE SINNERS. 21st of August.
M.L. Stedman - THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS. 31st of July.
Sarah Maas - THRONE OF GLASS. 7th of August.
David Levithan - EVERY DAY. 28th of August.
Junot Díaz - THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER. 11th of September.
Shani Boianjiu - THE PEOPLE OF FOREVER ARE NOT AFRAID. 11th of September.
Amanda Coplin - THE ORCHARDIST. 1st of September.
Jasper Fforde - THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER. 4th of September.
Jessica Khoury - ORIGIN. 4th of September.
Kevin Powers - THE YELLOW BIRDS. 11th of September.
Lawrence Norfolk - JOHN SATURNALL'S FEAST. 4th of September.
Lance Weller - WILDERNESS. 4th of September.
J.R. Moehringer - SUTTON. 25th of September.
Dennis Lehane - LIVE BY NIGHT. 2nd of October.
Eric Devine - TAP OUT. 11th of September.
Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian - BURN FOR BURN. 12th of September.
Libba Bray - THE DIVINERS. 18th of September.
Ned Vizzini - THE OTHER NORMALS. 25th of September.
James Meek - THE HEART BROKE IN. 2nd of October.
Mark Helprin - IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW. 2nd of October.
Scott Hutchins - A WORKING THEORY OF LOVE. 2nd of October.
Rhoda Janzen - DOES THIS CHURCH MAKE ME LOOK FAT? 2nd of October.
Teresa Rhyne - THE DOG LIVED. 1st of October.
Bee Wilson - CONSIDER THE FORK. 2nd of October.
Neil Young - WAGING HEAVY PEACE. 2nd of October. An autobiography.
Iris Anthony - RUINS OF LACE. 1st of October.
Diana Athill - MAKE BELIEVE. 5th of October.
Janet Gurtler - WHO I KISSED. 1st of October.
Barbara Kingsolver - FLIGHT BEHAVIOR. 1st of November.
Bill Roorbach - LIFE AMONG GIANTS. 13th of November.
John Kenney - TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. 8th of January 2013.

According to the aforementioned eBook the following titles will hit the shelves as well:

Michael Chabon - Telegraph Avenue. 11th of September.
Zadie Smith - NW. 11th of September.
Tom Wolfe - Back to Blood. 23rd October.
Ian McEwan - Sweet Tooth. 23rd of November.
T.C. Boyle - San Miguel. September.
Howard Jacobson - Zoo Time. October.
Alice Munro - Dear Life. October.
Michael Ennis - The Malice of Fortune. A thriller starring Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli. October.
James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge - Zoo. 3rd of September.
John Grisham - The Racketeer. 23rd of October.
Lee Child - A Wanted Man. 25th of September.
Michael Connelly - The Black Box. 25th of November. To read an extended excerpt follow this link
Jo Nesbo - Phantom. September. You can buy the British edition that's already out from here.
Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis - Invisible Murder. October.
James M. Cain - The Cocktail Waitress. September. A long lost manuscript from one of the hard-boiled classic authors.
J.K. Rowling - The Casual Vacancy. 27th of September. Harry Potter's creator is back, but without him.
D.T. Max - Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story. 30th of October. A biography David Foster Wallace.

The following books are autobiographies:

Salman Rushdie - Joseph Anton. September.
Chinua Achebe - There Was a Country. October.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Total Recall. October.

Finally, October will bring us the fist volume of a new tetralogy of novels by  Lemony Snicket titled Who Could That Be At This Hour.

The Samuel Johnson Prize shortlist announced

The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlist has been announced. The selected books are:

Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter
Caravaggio by Andrew Graham Dixon
Liberty's Exiles by Maya Jasanoff
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Bismarck: A Life by Jonathan Steinberg
Reprobates by John Stubbs

The winner of the prize will be announced on the 6th of July

The Samuel Johnson Prize longlist announced

The Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction longlist has been announced. A list dominated by biographies. The shortlist will be revealed on the 14th of June, while the winner's name will come out of the magic hat on the 6th of July. Here's the list in full:

Tolstoy by Rosamund Bartlett
Afghantsy by Rodric Braithwaite
Through the Language GlassThrough the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher
The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal
Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter
Caravaggio by Andrew Graham Dixon
Liberty's Exiles by Maya Jasanoff
Capitalism 4.0 by Anatole Kaletsky
Scott-land: The Man Who Invented a Nation by Stuart Kelly
People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry
The Bridge by David Remnick
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Bismarck: A Life by Jonathan Steinberg
Reprobates by John Stubbs
Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock
Bomber County by Daniel Swift
Sex Before the Sexual Revolution by Simon Szreter and Kate Fisher
Amexica: War Along The Borderline by Ed Vulliamy