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And the wnner is…Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala. Zadie Smith was robbed, there’s no doubt about it.  What more can I say? Read the full coverage of round one, match seven at the Tournament of Books via The Morning News.

David Brancaccio will be at Town Hall tonight at 8 PM. He will be moderating a discussion about the role of the media in our democracy. Brancaccio is the host of PBS’s NOW since Bill Moyers retired.

Eric’s Pick: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem Date: April 24, 2006, 8 PM Location: TBD Stanislaw Lem died on Monday at the age of 84. A Polish science-fiction writer, he is best know for his book Solaris. The book has been made into two movies: one in 1972 and another in 2002. Read more about Stanislaw [...]

And the winner is…No Country for Old Men. I had no strong feelings either way for match five. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy was up against Whitney Terrel’s The King of Kings County. Read the full coverage of round one, match five at the Tournament of Books via The Morning News. And [...]

From Cataloger at Work, I found two gems: A panel discussion that included Nancy Pearl on Reader’s Maps: Blending Fiction and Nonfiction Readers’ Advisory Through Reading Itineraries Overbooked: A Resource for Readers; from their site: A web site for ravenous readers. Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about literary & genre fiction as well as [...]

I’m a little behind on the 2006 Tournament of Books. In the third match, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go beat out The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole by Stephanie Doyon. There was never a doubt in my mind that Ishiguro would win this match. Read the full coverage of round one, match three at [...]

Today Christian, Trish and I went to the Seattle Animal Shelter to find a cat to join our family. The apartment just felt too empty with Suiki gone. After looking at all the available cats through their little metal cages, we decided to spend some time with Ernie and I immediately fell in love with [...]

I finally made it through Richard P. Feynman’s first memoir Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!. I think the subtitle says it all: “the outrageous exploits of the world’s most outspoken Nobel Prize-winning scientist.” And that’s exactly what it is. Every story is told with such excitement, enthusiasm, and lots of exclamation points. Feynman begins his [...]