Whitbread announcement stuns literary world

Whitbread

The Whitbread Literary Prize, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious honors to be bestowed on authors, is up for sale.

The Whitbread company, which has sponsored this prize since 1971, has undergone a radical transformation and no longer uses the Whitbread brand on any of its products. This month its Board of Directors announced that, with metamorphosis into the UK’s leading hospitality business, it is time to find a new sponsor. “[Our] number one priority is to find a like-minded organization that shares our vision for this award and is committed to developing and nurturing it.”

Smart Gifts

books

Need some ideas for that special reader on your list?

“Reader Perfect” suggestions cover many categories, formats and genres, as well as age groups.

Amazon.com gives you not only the Best Books of 2005, but also the
Top 50 Editors' Picks.

For the wee bookworms on your list, there's the age-appropriate Parents’ Choice Holiday Gift Guide.

And don't forget The New York Times Editor's Choice and the 100 Notable Books of the Year.

A book is a gift you can open again and again. ~ Garrison Keillor

The Artsy Smartsy Club

Henrietta the 266-pound chicken is back! In Daniel Pinkwater’s latest book, The Artsy Smartsy Club, Henrietta, Loretta Fischetti, Bruno Ugg and Henrietta’s owner, Nick, discover art on the sidewalks of New York. When they finally find the sidewalk artist, Lucy Casserole, they are led to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art with Henrietta, disguised as a nun, becoming the responsible adult. Their efforts lead to a new Hoboken festival dedicated to sidewalk art. For all you art lovers out there and those who are not, this book will have you laughing out loud. For ages 8 and up.

If not here, then Elsewhere

Liz Hall is killed in a car accident and when she awakes, finds herself in a place not unlike her earthly home. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is the story of a place where people go after death to carry on their existence. The main difference from Earth is that people age backwards, finally returning to earth as infants. Liz is not happy in Elsewhere. She wants to attend her prom, learn to drive and go to college. She spends much of her time peering through a telescope at her family and friends on Earth. But Liz eventually finds that Elsewhere is where she wants to be for the remaining fifteen years of her life. Life, she learns, no matter where, even in death, is best experienced in the present. Elsewhereturns many questions about existence on their heads and gets one thinking about what's really important.

Bodies in Motion and at Rest

The books are in for the next teen book group discussion! We are reading Bodies in Motion and at Rest, a collection of essays by Thomas Lynch. He is a funeral director from Milford, Michigan, so you’ve guessed it, he writes a lot about death and religion, which should make for a great discussion on Monday, January 9th from 7-8pm. So come sign up at the Downtown Library, receive your own copy to keep, and then join in on the discussion. On January 10th, Thomas Lynch will be speaking at the Neutral Zone from 7-9pm, and you can get your copy signed! A2 Public School students may be able to receive CR (Community Resource) credit for participating.

KidBits: Whaddya Know About Tooth Fairies

Well, what about tooth fairies? Want to know more? Try Dad, Are You The Tooth Fairy?; Fooling The Tooth Fairy; and Tooth Trouble.

KidBits: Happy Birthdays

Happy Birthday to You! Celebrate with Fairytale Cake; Oscar's Half Birthday; and Parent's Party Book.

John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth

What group will be remembered for being one of the most significant music creators of the twentieth century?
If you answered, the BEATLES, you'd be right. How many other music stars can put together a CD of just Number One Hits? Recently was the 25th Anniversary of John Lennon's death. Elizabeth Partridge, an award-winning author, wrote Lennon a photographic biography, with over 140 black-and-white photos bridging his life. There's also in-depth coverage of John's adolescence and stories from those who knew him best.

Celebrate the works of Emily Dickinson

Today, December 10, marks Emily Dickinson’s birthday. She is a renowned American poet born in Amherst, MA. For the most part, she was a very reclusive woman who was consistently suffering from health problems. During her lifetime, only seven of her poems were published; it wasn’t until after her death that her sister discovered the rest of her poems and published them gradually over 50 years. Rediscover, or experience for the first time, her beautiful poems and letters with these books:

Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, Poems and Letters, Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson’s Poems, Poems for Youth, and more.

What's on your wishlist?

If you're anticipating a visit from Kris Kringle, what are you hoping to find
under your tree?

A pony?
A toy train?
An Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle?

I hope you don't find a lump of coal!

(Leave a comment with your wishlist ... you never know when Santa might peruse the AADL blogs!)

Syndicate content
http://www.aadl.org/catalog/books?page=470
www.aadl.org
crawl=CC-MAIN-2013-48
36615
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:L3KATIDX7KWABOSSYNGNIPSFMCR7LIPW
<urn:uuid:5bc59954-dab5-4363-b7d5-c10cfa1b2f41>
2013-12-13T22:46:42Z
204.38.4.4
sha1:65AHSDILOPYH32BXS6LMEUJGZGIRWBVE
<urn:uuid:14a75ac0-0793-44dc-ac83-f223f355e238>
http://www.aadl.org/catalog/books?page=470
response
<urn:uuid:a822e41d-e455-4194-be22-f8b8048484c2>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-48
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Winter 2013
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf