Shelfari

Omni Daily News

By Tom

What about the invisible plane?: Everyone's linking to the NYT's report on Wonder Woman's upcoming costume change, after 60 years in the red-gold-and-blue bustier, for a full-body suit that has, according to DC Comics, more international appeal. (See their slideshow for a previous, failed That Girl-era makeover.)

Remind me to include a ferret in my next entry: It was the Year of the Rodent at the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad writing, with Seattle's own Molly Ringle claiming the grand prize for a love scene ending in the words "world's thirstiest gerbil" and Linda Boatright winning the Western award with a spin on the old porcupine-walks-into-a-bar gambit.

As handsome does: Claire Howorth reports on a disappearing agent scandal, in which Harriet Wasserman, longtime agent for Saul Bellow and many others, apparently cashed her clients' royalty checks after losing Bellow as a client, and then vanished. (Ironically, in their review of her memoir of her time with Bellow, Handsome Is,Booklist called her "graciousness and integrity personified.") Understandably, her former client Ted Mooney sold his latest book, The Same River Twice, to Knopf without an agent.

The other Washington: And in the most crucial book news of the day, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, asked where she stood on the important legal matter of Edward v. Jacob, unsurprisingly declined to take sides.

Moving and shaking: Baker Warren Brown appeared on Today this morning with cakes from Illinois, Wyoming, Texas, and Delaware and pushed his United Cakes of America onto today's Movers & Shakers list.

Guest Blogger: Mark Charan Newton, "From Bookseller to Book Writer"

By Jeff VanderMeer

I first met Mark Charan Newton in Coventry, England, during a tour for one of my books from Pan Macmillan in, I believe, 2004 or 2005. Mark worked at the local bookstore, and had done a brilliant job of helping set up for the event. We had a great meal at an Indian restaurant. (If I remember right, it was Mark and George Mann and my wife Ann, editor of Weird Tales, so, present company excepted, there was quite a lot of talent in the room!)

During the meal, Mark mentioned that he was working on a novel. A lot of people are "working on a novel," so I must admit I made polite noises and didn't pay it much mind. But, then, over the years, it became clear that this guy was for real. He finished one novel, then another, kept plugging away, always improving and always fiercely determined. Now, that determination has paid off, with a multi-book deal both in the United Kingdom and North America. Nights of Villjamur, the first secondary world fantasy in Newton's Legends of the Red Sun series. The novel shares some affinities with the work of, among others, China Mieville, and will be published by Random House this week.

The novel has already received its fair share of good review in the UK, and on this side of the Atlantic, Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, writing, "Newton opens a complex epic fantasy series with this impressive debut. The ancient fortress city of Villjamur is filled with human and nonhuman inhabitants, many of them refugees seeking shelter from a predicted decades-long ice age. The untimely death of the mad emperor Jamur Johynn forces his unworldly elder daughter, Rika, to assume the throne as her sister, Eir, gains a perspective beyond her palace walls and the members of the council make their own power plays. War and religious conflicts as well as more personal matters of desires for power and immortality set the scene for acts of compassion and betrayal. Newton handles his multilayered world and diverse cast of characters with the assurance of an experienced author and balances his fantasy tropes with elements of horror and political commentary in vividly descriptive, compelling prose."

All of this week Mark will be guest blogging. Here's the first of his entries...

     
  

From bookseller to book writer
by Mark Charan Newton

Mark Charan Newton was born in 1981, and has a degree in Environmental Science. He has worked in bookselling, in editorial roles for pulp horror and medial tie-in fiction, and then original science fiction and fantasy, helping set up the Solaris imprint. His first novel isNights of Villjamur, published by Ballantine (Random House). He now lives and works in Nottingham, England.

I used to work for a British book chain, and in my particular store I had the enviable task of being the science fiction and fantasy buyer. For a fan, can there be any better job? I could parade up and down the shelves, flicking through the pages, seeing new books come in before anyone else, and talk with the passionate readers who would frequent the section.

There was one key benefit of my working in a bookstore "“ no matter how many wonderful books there were in my section, and after having my imagination spiked by reading China Miéville's The Scar, I found there was a particular kind of book that just didn't exist. It's difficult to say describe this genre lacuna. As a reader, there was a lack of true spark, be it thematically, or in the aesthetics of a secondary world. Surrounded by books, I couldn't find The One, so I decided to write that book.

Then it got rejected from numerous publishers.

With experience on the frontline, I took a sideways step from bookselling into an editorial role, first working with pulp horror and media tie-ins, and then helping to set up genre imprint Solaris. I got to chat to some amazing authors, and travel the world to conventions, meeting legends of the industry. I was in geek heaven, but I still wanted to keep it very separate to my own writing, which continually got rejected "“ I'm aware nepotism exists in any industry, but if I cheated at getting published, I'd ultimately be cheating myself.

But the one thing that working in bookselling and publishing taught me was that you're not writing in a vacuum. Publishing, whether we like it or not, is a business - and publishers have to make money, which is not to say they can't be radical, but that there are costs involved, wages to pay, and margins are tight. Publishers must be sure that they're going to sell some copies of a book, and I was writing weird stuff, too weird for many tastes.

I had a face-to-face chat with my agent, who said "If you keep writing what you're writing, you'll never get accepted."

"What kind of thing should I write about?" I asked.

"Cities," he eventually replied. "There seems to be a trend towards building fantasy novels around cities."

I wasn't too proud to ignore such an observation - I understood that if I wanted to get published, I had to restrain my out-and-out weirdness and eccentricities "“ not to sell out, but just realise that what I was writing had to please more people than just myself. It's tough out there. For new writers, you get all sorts of statistics thrown at you about the chances of getting published. You're told not to even bother trying. Even as a bookseller I knew how few new authors were published each year, and from editorial work, just how many were submitting books.

I wrote that book on cities. It's called Nights of Villjamur, which was published last year in the UK, and is about to be published by Random House (Ballantine). I'm being treated as an equal by people whose name I remember from piling their books on tables. I'm a fan who made it to the inside. But what I found was interesting: the inner sanctum of authors were all fans, too, and it's what makes the genre such a pleasure. From editors to publicists, from reviewers to booksellers "“ everyone has such a passion for these books, more than you'd get for any other genre.

So now I can walk into a book store, and see my books on the shelf, or on piles on tables "“ or I can browse online and see the cover art staring back at me "“ and feel proud that I finally made it. And also, I know to pity the poor booksellers and delivery guys who have to lug around the heavy boxes that they came in.

2010 Locus SF/Fantasy Award Winners Announced

By Jeff VanderMeer

The 2010 Locus Awards winners were announced this past weekend in Seattle, Washington. Voted on by subscribers to Locus Magazine and non-subscribers who read SF and Fantasy, the awards are a kind of "People's Choice" award for genre fiction.

Winners in the novel categories included Cherie Priest, China Mieville, and Paolo Bacigalupi for, respectively a steampunk western/zombie novel, a breach of fantasy and noir fiction, and a dystopic view of a future that could be deemed anti-steampunk. Priest will soon have a sequel out, while Mieville has moved on to dealing with the complex issue of squid cults and Bacigalupi's ShipbreakerYA novel is receiving wide-spread acclaim (look for an interview here soon).

Voters took a moment to remember Kage Baker, who passed on recently, in the Best Novella category. Baker was among the field's most talented writers, and had a true knack for humor, as well. Neil Gaiman, who has produced much fine work, won best short story for a minor piece in a Jack Vance appreciation anthology. Meanwhile, Seattle's own Aqueduct Press won in the nonfiction book category.

Click here for the complete list of winners.

Tyler Dilts on Genre Fiction, His First Novel, and More

By Lynette Mong

We asked first-time novelist Tyler Dilts to tell us about his new mystery,A King of Infinite Space,which goes on sale today. Read on to find out what Tyler thinks about so-called genre fiction, literary snobbery, and how James Lee Burke inspired him to become a writer:

I don't like to admit it, but I used to be a literary snob. As I prepared to enter graduate school for a master's  degree in English, I believed I'd put genre fiction--mysteries, science fiction, the whole lot of it--behind me. Literature with a capital L, that was the stuff for me. But when I happened upon a review of James Lee Burke's novel In the Electric with Confederate Dead, everything changed. The article piqued my interest, and when I headed down to my local Bookstar (remember them?) I sought out the book. It only took a few paragraphs to turn me into a convert. I tore through the rest of Burke's novels, moved on to Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series, began to discover the hard-boiled classics, and haven't looked back since.

What I discovered that summer was that I had been wrong about genre writing. James Lee Burke and those other extraordinary writers I discovered that summer showed me that mysteries could be every bit as literary as any other kind of novel. In grad school I even discovered a considerable body of literary criticism on Hammett and Chandler that helped me to reconcile the conflict between my affections for literary and genre fiction. The two categories, I was thrilled to discover, were not mutually exclusive (no matter how strongly many of my professors argued that they were). From Burke's lyrically elegiac descriptions to Chandler's searingly vivid depictions of Los Angeles, there is no arguing the literary merit of the best of the mystery genre.

As I was studying literature, I was also beginning to take my own fiction writing more seriously. I dabbled in short fiction in the Raymond Carver mode for a surprisingly long while before it occurred to me to try my hand at mysteries. But when I did, I never looked back.

When I'm asked about the beginnings of A King of Infinite Space, I can't help but think about the review that sent me out in search in James Lee Burke and the discoveries that followed. Would I have ever come across them without it? I don't the answer to that question. I probably would have, but I'm glad I don't have to find out.

Old Media Monday: Reviewing the Reviewers

By Tom

New York Times:

• Sunday Book Review cover: Scott Turow on Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross: "'Mr. Peanut' requires considerable decoding. This can be annoying, a
  little like going to a dinner party where all the guests seem bright
  and amiable but insist on speaking another language. Yet over all, the
  novel is an enormous success "” forceful and involving, often deeply
  stirring and always impressively original.... In many ways it would have taken less courage to present a sympathetic portrait of Osama bin Laden than it did to write this novel, which flouts the treasured conceptions
  of love and marriage many of us depend on to make it through the day. 'Mr. Peanut' is most harrowing in its bleakly convincing portrayal of
  the eternal contest that often passes for a marriage, with each partner
  holding the other responsible for his or her deepest unhappiness."
• Kakutani on The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell: "He's meticulously reconstructed the lost world of Edo-era Japan, and in
  doing so he's created his most conventional but most emotionally
  engaging novel yet: it's as if an acrobatic but show-offy performance
  artist, adept at mimicry, ventriloquism and cerebral literary
  gymnastics, had decided to do an old-fashioned play and, in the
  process, proved his chops as an actor."
• Garner on Denial: A Memoir of Terror by Jessica Stern: "Reading 'Denial' is like ingesting a novel from a particularly damaged Joyce Carol Oates protagonist come to life; Ms. Stern can seem like a potent distillate of every Oates character ever put to paper.... It is possible to take Ms. Stern very seriously indeed, though, and to
  consider 'Denial' a profound human document without considering it a
  profound literary one. It lacks allusiveness and distance. It is hot to
  the touch in ways that are both memorable and disturbing."
• Chrystia Freeland on More Money Than God by Sebastian Mallaby: "Today's populist mood has not deterred Sebastian Mallaby. In 'More
  Money Than God,' his smart history of the hedge fund business, Mallaby
  does more than explain how finance's richest moguls made their loot. He
  argues that the obsessive, charismatic oddballs of the hedge fund world
  are Wall Street's future "” and possibly its salvation. Mallaby's contrarian argument is sure to delight his subjects, and not only because he is so openly on their side."

Washington Post:

• Jess Walter on The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern: "As a metaphor for the modern incongruity of ancient religious
  tradition, a frozen rabbi could be embarrassingly heavy-handed, but an actual frozen rabbi?
  That's just funny. Page after page, Stern embraces every outrageous
  possibility, in lush, cartwheeling sentences that layer deep mystery
  atop page-turning action atop Borscht Belt humor."
• Juliet Eilperin on Shell Games by Craig Welch: "Craig Welch's 'Shell Games' has the most unlikely of central characters: the massive geoduck clam.... Pronounced 'gooey-duck,' the valuable shellfish and the humans who cannot resist
  plundering it make for a compelling tale that is at once ridiculous and
  tragic.... Welch has clearly done his homework, which has allowed him to write an
  engrossing tale of both human excesses and the attempts of a few brave
  souls to curb them. Everyone, not just the denizens of Puget Sound,
  has a stake in this battle's outcome."

Los Angeles Times:

• Caitlin Roper on Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky and The Shallows by Nicholas Carr: "Be wary of the Internet's effects, Carr warns us. He makes a convincing
  case that we are altering our brains with every ping and click-though.
  Shirky, on the other hand, celebrates the possibilities the Internet
  affords, for civic engagement, for collaboration, for emotional
  support, for innovation. Who is right? I'd suggest that both of them
  are."
• Sara Lippincott on 101 Theory Drive by Terry McDermott: "In '101 Theory Drive,' Terry McDermott gets us a lot closer to the
  problem of how the brain records experience. The intrepid McDermott, a
  former national reporter for The Times with no background in
  neuroscience, does this by embedding himself in the lab of Gary Lynch,
  a leading memory researcher and one of the field's most radical
  practitioners.... Hard-drinking, cigar-chomping and potty-mouthed, Lynch "” described by
  one colleague as 'the hippie of neurobiology' "” is nothing if not good
  copy.
• Tim Rutten on The Overton Window by Glenn Beck: "Suffice to say that, the subtitle notwithstanding, there is nothing
  even remotely thrilling about this didactic, discursive "” sporadically
  incoherent "” novel. The image of a train wreck comes quickly to mind,
  though this book actually has more the character "” and all of the
  excitement "” of a lurching, low-speed derailment halfway out of the
  station."
  

Globe and Mail:

• Sarah Barmak on Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis: "Imperial Bedrooms reads like a rehash of Ellis's whole career,
  without the spark of his earlier efforts.... If Less Than Zero had a documentary rawness, Imperial Bedrooms
  is a banal Hollywood thriller, complete with a whodunit and predictable
  plot twists "“ something Clay might have written. Appropriately
  self-referential as that may be, when the book turns violent, one's
  reaction is to glaze over."
• Claudia Dey on The Lovers by Vendela Vida: "Utterly compelling, The Lovers is never without humour and
  intrigue. Vida's Yvonne is sensuous, wily and as vulnerable as a child.
  Unhinged by sorrow, she is independent in her actions and courageous in
  her admissions. Vida's prose is spare, fluid and urgent, a dark and
  graceful reportage of the heart. There is no excess here; the text is
  nearly bereft of adjectives."
• Christine Fischer Guy on Annabel by Kathleen Winter: "Annabel is less about chromosomal anomaly than it is about human
  potential, for cruelty and neglect and ignorance as much as for
  tolerance and generosity and strength. What Winter has achieved here is
  no less a miracle than the fact of Wayne's birth. Read it because it's
  a story told with sensitivity to language that compels to the last
  page, and read it because it asks the most existential of questions.
  Stripped of the trappings of gender, Winter asks, what are we?"

The Guardian:

• William Skidelsky on The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit: "One of the delights of Segnit's book is the way it combines an air of
  empirical exactitude with something more loose-limbed and poetic. Here
  she is on chocolate and cardamom: 'Like a puppeteer's black velvet
  curtain, dark chocolate is the perfect smooth background for cardamom
  to show off its colours.' No doubt there are more rigorous ways to
  explain the compatibility of these ingredients, but I doubt they'd be
  half as satisfying. Ultimately, discussions of flavour (as opposed to
  taste, which is a much narrower thing) have to rely on metaphor, since
  the main way we identify flavours is by comparing them with other
  things."
• Veronica Horwell on The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal: "De Waal has a mystical ability to so inhabit the long-gone moment as to seem to suspend inexorable history, personal and impersonal.... This story compels telling; but it is such
  a bald summary of a work that succeeds in several known genres: as
  family memoir, travel literature (De Waal's Japan is the nearest thing
  to being there, and over decades), essays on migration and exile, on
  cultural misperceptions, and on De Waal's attempt to define his
  relationship with his own kaolin creations. His book is also a new
  genre, unnamed and maybe unnameable. A thing-book, perhaps, or a Wunderkammer "“ cabinet of marvels.... Oh, and this is a beautiful and unusual book, as a physical object. Somebody really cared."

The New Yorker:

• James Wood on Mitchell's Jacob de Zoet: "He may be self-conscious, but he is not knowing, in the familiar,
  fatal, contemporary way; his naturalness as a storyteller has to do not
  only with his vitality but also with a kind of warmth, a charming
  earnestness. This is why he can so speedily get a fiction up and
  running, involve the reader in an invented world. One would be hard
  pressed to separate the quality of his sentences from the quality of
  the human presence.... Yet it is because Mitchell's dialogue is so brilliant and vital that the captious critic wants something . . . more.... Had Mitchell chosen to set his new novel in fifteenth-century Spain or
  eighth-century Britain, he doubtless could have done so with equal
  facility and success. But the result would be, essentially, fantasy"”and
  his new novel, though closer to the present day, is a kind of fantasy,
  too. Or, rather, it is a brilliant fairy tale; and even nightingales,
  as a Russian proverb has it, can't live off fairy tales."

Harper's (subscription only):

• Joshua Cohen on An American Type by Henry Roth: "Just off Manhattan's Union Square is the Center for Jewish History, which houses the Roth Papers. Box 25 is the tomb for this tome. To rummage through its pages is to realize that what's being marketed to us as inviolable literature is, in the state Roth left it, more like an open-source document, a memory cache or, to speak in terms appropriately paleotechnic, a genizah, that Hebrew word for a burial place for sacred texts no longer fit for use.... It is not my belief that these pages should have been published without intervention; rather, it is my belief that these pages should not have been published at all."
• J. Hoberman on Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber: "A movie, for Farber, wasn't a window onto another world; it was more like a chunk of this one. There's an epistomological undercurrent to his enterprise. Farber's singularity as a critic was not predicated on his telling us what to think about movies. He showed us how to think about movies--how he thought about movies--and how pleasurable that lesson could be."

--Tom

Omni Daily News

By Tom

"The universal periodic table of the human condition": On the eve of possibly the most-anticipated literary novel of the summer (yes, it's good), The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Wyatt Mason profiles David Mitchell, whose native modesty masks only slightly a vast and endearing ambition:

"I can't bear living in this huge beautiful world," Mitchell said,
gesturing to the rolling green hills and the glittering calm sea, "and
not try to imitate it as best I can. That's the desire and the drive.
But it's maybe closer to hunger or thirst. The only way I can quench it
is to try to duplicate it on as huge a scale as I can possibly do. I
want to capture that," he said, turning in a circle on the
sand and gesturing beyond the beach and the hills, "all the way around
the world and all the way to your home and all the way around and back.
I want to do all of that here and transmit it through ink."

Life, the universe, and everything: According to early announcements about his upcoming book, The Grand Design, his "first major release" in nearly a decade (coming in September), Stephen Hawking has even greater ambitions for his new work:

According to Hawking, we are very close to an understanding, not just
of the workings of our universe, but of its very beginnings. Drawing on
forty years of Hawking's own research and a recent series of
extraordinary astronomical observations and theoretical breakthroughs,
Hawking and Mlodinow examine the evidence for the existence of a
'unified theory'--a single theory that can describe and explain all the
forces of nature.

Now we know it's a phenomenon: Stieg Larsson gets the honor of a New Yorker parody, courtesy of Nora Ephron:

Someone might still be following him"”but who? There was no real way to
be sure even when you found out, because people's names were so
confusingly similar"”Gullberg, Sandberg, and Holmberg; Nieminen and
Niedermann; and, worst of all, Jonasson, MÃ¥rtensson, Torkelsson,
Fredriksson, Svensson, Johansson, Svantesson, Fransson, and Paulsson.

Moving and shaking: What's caused Olivia Munn's new book, Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek, to jump into our Movers & Shakers list this morning? Dave Itzkoff's NYT profile last Friday? Her recent elevation from the G4 network to "Senior Asian Correspondent" on The Daily Show?

End-o'-the-Week Kid-Lit Roundup

By Paul

Quick links from around the kid-lit blogosphere:

A nice piece of ALA swag. The big ALA Annual Conference is still in progress, and this is one of the cooler bits of swag, courtesy of the Horn Book (click to enlarge):

A follow-up to Percy Jackson. Cynopsis Kids had news this week on the new "Heroes of Olympus" series set for this fall: "A follow-up to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the series takes readers back to Camp Half-Blood and features new characters, as well as some from the Percy Jackson series. The first title in series, The Lost Hero, will be available from October 12, 2010. Fans can check out the newly unveiled cover for The Lost Hero as well as the first two chapters of the book on www.camphalfblood.com." (The password isn't too hard to find.)

"Are Children's Publishers Destroying Rainforests?" Ouch: "In a recent report, the Rainforest Action Network said most of the top 10 children's publishers have released at least one picture book containing paper fiber linked to the destruction of Indonesian rainforests."

Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures. PW Comics Week reviewed a recent installment in this fun series for 8- to 12-year-olds, Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures . ("Meet 12-year-old Alison Dare, a youngster with a flair for action and adventure who has a world famous archeologist for a mother (Dr. Alice Dare), a librarian and masked super hero (The Blue Scarab) for a father, and an international spy and master of disguise for an uncle.")

The LA Times interviews Daniel Handler. There's a disproportionate amount of funny stuff in this short Q&A, including Handler's take on "the trend toward casualness": "It makes me unhappy. To some extent, it's on purpose, so I don't know if I would call it unfortunate in the sense of unlucky. There's a casual agenda, and I think it's winning. The pros of formality are forethought put into word and action, spiffier clothing and fetishization of everyday occurrences." (via Educating Alice)

"Die Wilden Fußballkerle" (a.k.a. the "Wild Soccer Bunch"). If you have some newly minted (or even already rabid) young soccer fans thanks to the World Cup, you should check out this middle-grade series, which--while very popular overseas--has taken a long time to reach the U.S.

"Me? No." Tony and Angela DiTerlizzi discuss the origin of Meno the Space Elf's name and generally crack wise:



(via Children's Illustration) --Paul

Omni Daily News

By Lauren Nemroff

A mother's lasting tribute: According to PW, the paperback edition of Mary Tillman's Boots on the Ground, a tribute to her son Pat Tillman, the former NFL player and Army Ranger killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, will be released on July 31.  Blurb, the San Francisco-based publisher who is releasing the work two weeks before the release of the new documentary, The Tillman Story, will donate part of the proceeds from the sale of each book to The Tillman Foundation, a veterans' assistance organization. 

Horrid Henry goes from book to stage to screen: The breakout children's chapter book series, Horrid Henry, by author Francesca Simon and illustrator Tony Ross will hit the big screen in a live-action 3-D flick in 2011.  Ranked second in popularity among UK kids (after Potter, of course), H.H. has already morphed into a t.v. show, stage production, and video game.

Moving and shaking:  No Way Down: Life and Death on K2, journalist Graham Bowley's heart-stopping account of the tragic 2008 climbing accident on K2 (among the world's most challenging ascents) gets reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and quickly makes tracks up our Movers and Shakers list.

 

Graphic Novel Friday: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes

By Alex Carr

If there is a way to flip through Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes without a sheepish grin, then I salute you. Eisner award winner Adam Hughes' ability to draw impossibly sexy superheroines and villainesses is unparalleled in a genre full of improbably proportioned and outfitted women. Hughes is unabashed in his appreciation of the female form, no matter how curvaceously distorted that form can sometimes appear (see his Power Girl covers). It's pinup art with the occasional dash of Art Nouveau, and this DC-centric collection gives fans a flushed look at his early work all the way through his latest cover for a Blackest Night tie-in.

The book is organized in chronological order with full pages devoted to the covers where Hughes provides the most commentary opposite pages where he lays bare preliminary sketches, failed attempts, and alternate takes. Thumbnails of more covers are also included where the runs maybe weren't of particular note (Valor?) or were too great in number to allow full pages. Looking back at his covers for Justice League America and Legionnaires, I'm reminded of what a capable comics artist Hughes is when he is using more traditional methods. It has a very playful, goofy, expressive vibe to it (with a touch of Kevin Maguire, especially on those JLA covers). I only wish there were also a collection of all his interiors and in this style.

It quickly shifts to perhaps Hughes' most favorite subject: Wonder Woman. His extended stint covering the adventures of the Amazonian Princess made his artwork synonymous with the character, a pairing so natural that it's maybe second only to George Perez's run. What's fun about this collection is that Hughes does not shy from being his own critic. About the striking cover to Wonder Woman #141, where Diana and Superman share a moment, he admits, "At this stage of the run, I'm still not sure about how to handle the more metallic parts of Diana's uniform"¦Adam is slow on many levels." What gives me pause on this cover isn't any perceived flaw in her chest-plate or even the star-spangled Underoos. It's that slight crinkle in Wonder Woman's eyebrow as she pulls Superman close; a tinge of emotion in a character often portrayed as statuesque. When wearing her battle armor, she keeps her guard up, but Hughes gives her room to also let loose with a full range of smiles, from coy to beaming. You can watch Hughes' artwork evolve in this section along with his Photoshop prowess, growing closer and closer to some sort of unrealistic realism.






But what kind of Adam Hughes collection would this be without the famous Power Girl #1 cover, which Hughes claims is the "best cover I've ever produced for DC (or anyone)"? The pencils on the opposite page, however, are what drew me in. Not only are they more relaxed, but Power Girl looks happy and human rather than coolly regarding the reader as she does on the finished cover. I'll take a moment to reiterate how great it would be to see him do interiors, preferably in pencil and ink. His sense of humor comes through not only in the commentary and introduction but especially in these looser sketches. 

After getting his walking papers from Wonder Woman, Hughes moved on to yet another iconic run, Catwoman, and his attention to expression is on full display. Selina Kyle howls and gnashes her teeth; she flees the scene with madcap mania; and she looks back longingly at the reader on the cover to her last issue. Yes, she poses and struts, too, but when you're clad in a mixture of latex and leather, why not? That's the fun in a book like this: you get to have your cheesecake and eat it too.

--Alex

Omni Daily News

By Lauren Nemroff

Gaiman's Graveyard collects the Carnegie: British author Neil Gaiman, best known for his science-fiction and fantasy novels and short stories for adults and young readers, has just been awarded the 2010 Carnegie Medal for The Graveyard Book. The Carnegie is the most prestigious literary prize for Children's books in the United Kingdom.  With this win, Gaiman becomes the first author to win both a Newbery Medal and a Carnegie Medal for the same book.  He was awarded the Newbery in 2009.  Gaiman was particularly thrilled to win this prize noting:

"...[The Carnegie] was the first literary prize I was ever aware of as a kid. When I was seven I got the Narnia books for my birthday. I had read a couple before, but I got the box set, and I got to The Last Battle and it said winner of the Carnegie medal. I thought wow," said Gaiman. "It was a couple of years later that I bought A Wrinkle in Time and became aware of the Newbery. They are the first literary awards of any kind I was ever aware of and I've got both of them - it's amazing. When I won the Hugo my 14-year-old self exulted, but if you can make yourself aged seven happy, you're really doing well "“ it's like writing a letter to yourself aged seven."

Seasonal picks from this summer's hot authors:  A trio of this summer's hottest authors (Justin Cronin, Lisa Scottoline, and Paula Froelich) offer up some "book slump"-busting choices for the Today show.  Cronin, author of The Passage--a summer 2010 blockbuster read and our Best Books of the Month spotlight pick--offered a few surprising picks which included Larry McMurtry's beloved novel Lonesome Dove (which celebrates its 25th anniversary) and Alan Furst's latest WWII espionage thriller, Spies of the Balkans.

New Reviews for Hepburn (Kate) bio and Bret Easton Ellis novel:  Janet Maslin reviews Imperial Bedrooms, the new novel from Bret Easton Ellis, and finds curious and not altogether praiseworthy parallels to Ellis' 1980s bestseller Less Than Zero.  She seems to admire Chip Kidd's striking jacket designs for both booksd. For another review, check out Donna Tartt's exclusive guest review. She calls it the "most Chandleresque of Bret's books."

Speaking of another Chandler, Hollywood biographer Charlotte Chandler spent decades interviewing and earning the trust of the notoriously private Katharine Hepburn for I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography, a revealing, and according to customer reviews, controversial accounts of the the legendary star of the silver screen.  According to Kevin Thomas, whose review of the book appears in today's LA Times, Chandler is a master of the art of the extended interview: 

Typically, Chandler gets her interviewees to provide her with more substance than they gave to their own memoirs, and she also gathers insights into Hepburn from Cukor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Cary Grant, James Stewart, Christopher Reeve, Laurence Olivier and Ginger Rogers, among others.

Moving and shaking:  Prolific Brit journalist and longtime India sojourner, William Dalyrimple discusses his new book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India on NPR's Talk of the Nation.  His fascinating remarks on the country's diverse spiritual cultures and practitioners elevate the book on our Movers and Shakers list.