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In light of the historic news we are all waiting to hear from our Supreme Court, it might be a good time to focus some attention on the Lambda Literary Foundation and it’s recently announced list of Awards finalists. The Lambda Literary Awards recognize “the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books of the year [...]

Today I released the second of three editions of the All the Best Books Compilation (ABBC) at my other blogging home, Williamsburg Regional Library’s Blogging for a Good Book. The spreadsheet now includes mentions of over 2200 books, compiled into 12 genre and subject categories, noting all of the books mentioned by 120 different authoritative [...]

I’m continuing coverage of the best books of 2012, not just as noted in one source, but as mentioned in many authoritative sources, then organized into a spreadsheet on Williamsburg Regional Library’s ABBC: the All-the-Best-Books Compilation. The link will take you to my other blogging home Blogging for a Good Book, where you can download [...]

A meeting themed around best books of the previous year provides a great opportunity for readers to try a title that they want to read but can’t otherwise fit into the pile. It’s also a great discovery session: As discussion proceeds, everyone who attends discovers more titles to add to their own to-read list. Here [...]

The Virginia Commonwealth University’s MFA program in Creative Writing is using the classroom setting to create young writers who then turn into first novelists. The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award is a competitive program that puts its student writers through competitive paces. The program is only open to ten students. In addition to working on [...]

Anyone who believes writers are only in it for the cash should probably start writing fiction for a living. The readers, authors, publishers, and many other volunteers of Queensland, Australia are here to prove this point wrong. In April of this year, the announcement of the demise of the Queensland Literary Awards was met with [...]

Have a book group that likes to read outside the box? Look at the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards for some intriguing selections. This year included a new category, Visionary Fiction. There are some other categories that book group selectors should take a closer look at as well: Performing Arts, Architecture, and Anthologies. The popular [...]

It was the last page for one of Britain’s most prestigious prizes for fiction written by women. Last month, Orange, the British telecommunications company, announced it would no longer fund the Orange Prize for Fiction. A new sponsor has not been announced. Last week debut novelist Madeline Miller, considered a long shot among the six [...]

If you’re wondering where all the publishers of Scandinavian mysteries are getting their scoop on the best novels to translate and ship across the pond, perhaps they’re looking here. Here’s a listing of five of the top awards given to Scandinavian writers of mysteries. Quite a few haven’t been translated, but as long as the [...]

The Mystery Writers of America have announced their Edgar Awards for 2012 for the best writing from 2011.  They are: BEST NOVEL:  Gone by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press) Nominees:  The Ranger by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons);  The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur Books);  1222 [...]

Over at Books & Such blog, Rachel Kent asks this question. It’s a good one to ask in light of the recent news surrounding book awards. In the U.S., the Pulitzer board couldn’t name a clear winner from three very deserving nominees. In Australia, the Queensland Premier has announced no winners for the Queensland Literary [...]

On the eve of the announcement for the call for entries for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the Queensland Premier announced the cessation of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. Both awards are two of Australia’s most valuable and noteworthy awards for literary achievement. Due to budget cuts, the Queensland Premier’s government is no longer funding [...]

Last week I began to analyze the most popular literary fiction titles of 2011 as compiled in the ABBC All-the-Best-Books Compilation. Today, I’ll finish the countdown, examining the top four titles. In fourth place, with 30 mentions to date is Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. It’s the story of what happens when Tony [...]

The end of compilation is in sight as I continue to combine all of 2011′s best-books-of-the-year lists and awards into one spreadsheet that shows every book that was mentioned by every major source and documents how many times each of those works has been mentioned. Here at Book Group Buzz, I’ve been analyzing some of [...]

A few weeks ago, I looked at the best received biographies and memoirs of 2011. This week, let’s examine other narrative nonfiction. These results come from the All-the-Best-Books Compilation (ABBC) that you can download in full from my other blogging home, Williamsburg Regional Library’s Blogging for a Good Book, where we’ve just posted version 3.0, [...]

Let’s continue looking at the top vote-getters in the 2011 ABBC, today examining the speculative fiction category. I’ll focus on the top four, perhaps returning to this category at a later date, as it seems to be receiving more attention than ever in this year’s best-of-the-year lists and awards. As usual, the latest full ABBC [...]

Facilitators looking to add some international flavor to their reading groups should have a look at the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. This prestigious award will be presented at the annual Jaipur Literature Festival. The award’s short list was announced last October and on January 21, the second annual prize will be given in [...]

I just discovered a Canadian book award that I think I’ll be following closely from now on. The ReLit Award recognizes the best new work in three categories, Fiction, Poetry, and Short Story, released by independent publishers. The award was founded by Kenneth J. Harvey, a biblio-Renaissance man, and the prize is given at the [...]

I’ve posted the link to the first edition of my 2011 All the Best Books Compilation (ABBC). This is my fourth year of compiling all of those different best books lists and awards into one convenient sortable spreadsheet where you can see how many different mentions each book received from over 150 authoritative sources. The [...]

I’ve begun my annual task of collecting all of the best-of-the-year lists and awards into one sortable spreadsheet. This is my fourth year compiling this massive labor of love-hate, and I almost chose to let it go this year, but once the lists started to come out, I just couldn’t resist. The analytical side of me loves [...]