Blogging Librarian

- Winner for Bollinger prize for comic fiction announced
Paul Torday, a 60 year old first-time novelist, has won the 2007 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for his book Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Call No.: English TOR). He will be presented with a bottle of champagne and 52 volumes of the Everyman Wodehouse edition. He would also have one of famous Gloucester Old Spot pigs named after his novel.

- Winner for Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction announced
M John Harrison’s Nova Swing (Call No.: English HAR-[SF]) won the 2007 Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction. He was awarded £2007 and a commemorative engraved bookend. Other shortlisted novels were Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s End of the World Blues, Lydia Millet’s Oh Pure and Radient Heart, Jan Morris’ Hav, Adam Roberts’ Gradisil (Call No.: English ROB-[SF]) and Brian Stableford’s Streaking.

- Winner for Ondaatje prize announced
Hisham Matar has won the fourth Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje prize for his debut novel, In the Country of Men (Call No.: English MAT). The £10,000 award is given to the book which “best evokes the spirit of a place”. The award is open to fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

- Shortlist for the £30,000 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction
The shortlist of six non-fiction titles have been announced for this year’s award. This year’s shortlist was dominated by books with political themes. The list is as follows:

• Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma (Atlantic Books) (Call No.: English 364.15240892 BUR)
• Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Bloomsbury) (Call No.: English 956.704431 CHA)
• Having it so Good: Britain in the Fifties by Peter Hennessy (Allen Lane)
• Daughter of the Desert by Georgina Howell (Pan Macmillan)
• Brainwash by Dominic Streatfeild (Hodder and Stoughton)
• The Verneys by Adrian Tinniswood (Jonathan Cape)

Technorati Tags: book awards, books