Category Archives: Award Winners

Inspired by all the “Best Books of 2010” lists, we decided to crunch some numbers ourselves, in particular for biographies.  Below are the “best” biographies published in 2010 and ranked according to how often they were checked out from the SCPL during the last 12 months.  We were a bit surprised by what made the list – are you?

At the top of the list is The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created Alice in Wonderland by Jenny Woolf (B CARROLL).   This is no doubt a result of the popularity of the Alice in Wonderland film by Tim Burton/Walt Disney Pictures which was released earlier this year.  We often find spikes in circulation of books that are related what is showing at the theater – always a nice way to enrich the experience of a good movie.

It is less obvious to us why this next book is also at the top of the list: Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw by Tom Nolan (B SHAW).  We know our collection of jazz and swing music CDs is well used, so perhaps many of our music lovers found this biography.  It also received an in-depth review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review and Library Journal called it “a well-written, highly entertaining, and informative biography.” 

Last night the National Book Award winners for 2009 were announced and there are a lot of interesting titles to check out! A few of the winners:
Fiction: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Nonfiction: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles
Young People’s Literature: Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice by Phillip M. Hoose
There’s more information, including all the finalists for each category, on the National Book Foundation website. Please always feel free contact us if you would like help placing an item on hold or if we can help you request a title.
marlise

Fans of audiobooks may want to check out the latest nominees and winners of the Audie Awards which are sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA). A complete list is available here with reviews and sound clips. Categories range from Humor (The Learners by Chip Kidd) to Mystery (Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri) to Business/Educational (The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffery Gitomer).
I’m not surprised Neil Gaiman won Audiobook of the Year (for The Graveyard Book) – he’s one of those rare authors who is a wonderful reader as well. Do you have an audiobook to recommend? Leave your picks as a comment!
marlise

The National Book Critics Circle announced its awards last evening. Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Osar Wao won the fiction award and Edwidge Danticat’s Brother; I’m Dying was awarded the prize for autobiography. Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington won for non-fiction and Tim Jeal’s Stanlely: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer was honored for biography.
Mary