Bookbits for January 22nd, 2013
Awards! The Costa Book Awards category winners were announced at the beginning of the month: Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes by Mary and Bryan Talbot (Biography), Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Novel), The Innocents by Francesca Segal (First Novel), The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie (Poetry) and Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner (Children’s Book). Significant details are that for the first time ever, a woman wins in each category, and also that a graphic novel has won. The overall winner will be announced next Tuesday. The 2012 T. S. Eliot Prize (for poetry) went to Sharon Olds for Stag’s Leap.
- Still pining for 2012? Brainpickings put all their Favorite Reads in one manageable place. Thanks for the link, Joke!
- Or looking firmly ahead at 2013? The Guardian is right there with you, and has all the literary highlights lined up for you (via Sigrid).
Interview! The Guardian spoke with William Dalrymple, whose latest book The Return of a King is out this month. They also spoke to Olwyn Hughes, sister-in-law to Sylvia Plath.
- In case you are making traveling plans to the USA, be sure to include one of the 16 best bookstores as collected by Travel and Leisure magazine (via Steven).
- Robert Langdon returns! On May 14th, to be exact, when Dan Brown’s newest thriller Inferno hits the shelves.
- P. G. Wodehouse fans (and I’m sure you are legion): my apologies. I am dreadfully tardy with the news that the Blandings books has been turned into a BBC 6-parter. The first two episodes have aired already, but you can still catch the next four every Saturday (and see the iPlayer app to catch up). Thanks to Sigrid for the link, which was well in advance; I’ve just been lagging!
- Quiz! The Guardian commemorates the inauguration of Barack Obama with an American Presidents in Literature quiz. I scored a paltry 7/15 and earned the stinging Guardian judgement of “No, you can’t. You make W look like Umberto Eco.” Ouch!
- And finally, to offset all this dismal grey weather we’ve had, the RGB colorspace atlas (via designboom.com and Hans):
