Omnivoracious

Paulo Coelho on Writing

Author Paulo Coelho has made a series of videos on writing. Here's the first one:

 

How I Wrote It: Alec Wilkinson, "The Ice Balloon"

“Before the twentieth century, more than a thousand people tried to reach the (north) pole,” Alec Wilkinson writes in his wiry new book, The Ice Balloon, selected as one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month for January. The odds of actually reaching the pole were terrible. About three-fourths of those explorers died. But a one-in-four chance of success didn’t deter Swedish explorer S.A. Andree, who in 1897 attempted the most unlikely means of reaching the North Pole: by hydrogen balloon.

What makes this more than another adventure story is Wilkinson’s exploration of mankind’s compulsion to reach the extreme points of the Earth, despite all the absurd and obvious risks. Wilkinson, a writer for The New Yorker, chronicles other horrifically failed efforts to reach the North Pole--some of which devolved into cannibalism.

We asked Wilkinson what drew him to Andree, a dreamy and enthusiastic explorer, who, when his balloon began to lose gas and bounce past polar bears along the Arctic ice, wrote in his diary that he and his two companions remained “dominated by a feeling of pride.”

“We think we can face death well having done what we have done.”

You’ve previously written about a man who crossed the Atlantic in a raft made of trash and, over the years, have profiled other eccentric and/or quixotic characters. Are you drawn to subjects who seem compelled to risk their lives for seemingly idiosyncratic goals, or at least pursue an uncommon lifestyle?

The most interesting people for me are the outcasts and the visionaries and the ones who have the resources of mind and character to challenge failure.  I don’t want to emulate them necessarily---I’m not sure I have the nerve---but I admire their vitality and their lives are often thrilling and instructing, even if, sometimes, in a cautionary way.  

Guest Post: Lev A.C. Rosen on Steampunk, the Importance of Being Earnest, and “Men of Genius”

An intriguing Steampunk release from earlier in the year was first-time novelist Lev A.C. Rosen’s All Men of Genius, which seems to have absorbed the lessons of classic Steampunk but also be fully aware of the modern variety. It’s aware of a need to be entertaining and of using the subgenre as social commentary, but also of creating compelling characters and situations. In the book, the budding genius-level inventor Violet Adams wants to attend the prestigious but all-male Illyria College, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. So what does Violet Adams do? She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry. What follows is part farce, part adventure, and fun on a lot of different levels—including killer automata, deadly legacies, and a lot of plot twists and complications.

Omnivoracious asked Rosen if he’d give us his take on Steampunk and how it relates to All Men of Genius. This is what he came up with…

Steampunk: Lev A.C. Rosen’s View

What is Steampunk? The question gets asked a lot by people just coming to the genre. Those familiar with steampunk tend to take a “I know it when I see it” approach, and that’s because like many developing genres (although the term has been around since the 80s at least, I think of it as a genre still in flux), it’s still drawing inspiration from and blending with other genres. Many books, films, and video games have steampunk elements. Does that make them steampunk? I think it depends on what steampunk means to the viewer.

Graphic Novel Friday: X-Man vs. X-Man

As if the title weren’t enough of a clue, X-Men: Schism spotlights a pivotal moment in X-Men history: a rift in ideology between its two biggest guns--Cyclops and Wolverine. In the wake of a mutant extinction-level event, perennial team leader and wet blanket, Cyclops, rallies the X-Men to an island dubbed “Utopia” in order to establish a sense of community. His plan, however, doesn’t account for any villain who might want to wipe out mutantkind in one fell swoop and who possesses enough skill to hit a target the size of a giant island. And that’s exactly what happens in Schism.

As danger looms, Cyclops sends the usual heavy-hitters across the globe to stop various enemies, leaving the island’s defense up to him, Wolverine, and the latest batch of young mutants who came to Uptopia to train to be X-Men. Therein lies the issue: Cyclops declares the new recruits fit for battle, while Wolverine declares the very idea to be ludicrous. Writer Jason Aaron presents both sides of the argument with equal footing, but it’s still difficult to take Wolverine’s position seriously. This is Wolverine, after all--the hot-tempered Canuck with the beserker rage and fangs; he’s the runt who’s always spoiling for a scuffle. Yet, here he tells Cyclops that maybe the better idea is to evacuate the island, because someone needs to think of the children. Really, it’s all an excuse to get Cyclops and Wolverine to clash, and Schism definitely delivers. This isn’t a shoving match or a harsh exchange of words soon mended by standing against a common enemy (although there are plenty of verbal barbs, especially on the subject of Jean Grey). No, here are two classic X-Men at each other’s throats. It’s an extended, bloody fight that ends a friendship and divides an entire race.

"Control Point" by Myke Cole: Black Hawk Down Meets the X-Men

Ever wondered what “Black Hawk Down meets the X-Men” might look like? According to bestselling author Peter V. Brett, that’s exactly what readers get in Myke Cole’s debut novel Control Point the first in his Shadow Ops series from Ace. The praise doesn’t end there, with another bestseller, Ann Aguirre, calling Control Point “hands down the best military fantasy I’ve ever read.”

In Cole’s novel, people are waking up with magical talents—- storm-summoning, raising the dead, and fire-starting—- and creating chaos because of it. Army officer Oscar Britton, a member of the military’s Supernatural Operations Corps, is tasked with bringing order “to a world gone mad.” But when he suddenly manifests a rare magical power, Britton must go on the run from his former bosses. As Britton evades capture and learns more about the world of magic, the stakes rise exponentially. Cole’s career seems almost as exciting (and perilous) as the events in Control Point. As a security contractor, government civilian and military officer, Cole has been involved in everything from counterterrorism efforts to cyber warfare and federal law enforcement. After three tours in Iraq, Cole was recalled to serve during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

With that career background, readers may be surprised to learn that Cole, as he told Omni in an exclusive interview, “grew up with solid nerd roots: from Dungeons & Dragons to comic books to mass-market fantasy. You should be seeing the Terry Brooks, Tolkien and D&D in Control Point every bit as much as you see the Black Hawk Down.”

Cole started writing as a kid, with fantasy a big influence: “My first ‘book’ consisted of transcribing the vinyl recording of Ralph Bakshi's old Lord of the Rings animated film when I had just learned to write competently. I never stopped writing from that point on. I got serious about writing for publication in roughly 1998.”

What Question Would You Ask John Green?

On Monday, January 30th, John Green is coming to Amazon for an interview. Needless to say, we're excited to talk to him-- but we've been talking amongst ourselves, and he's got such a vibrant and involved fan base, we thought we'd ask our readers a question first: what question would you like to ask John Green?

Leave a question (or two, or three) in the comments below. We'll collect them and ask as many as we can. Then we'll put the video up on Omnivoracious a week or so later. Please, don't be shy. How many chances do you get to interact with a bestselling, beloved author?

(Be sure to sign your first name, so we can credit you on the video.)

YA Wednesday: More Young Adult Award Winners

Earlier this week, the winners of the American Library Association (ALA)'s top children's and teens awards were announced at their annual midwinter conference. It's the most exciting day of the year for those of us who love kid's lit as the Caldecott, Printz, and Newbery are akin to the film industry's Oscars®.

However above and beyond these three awards, the ALA also recognizes a number of other authors/titles for their recent contributions to the young adult genre. While perhaps less recognizable they're no less important. These honors include:

The Stonewall Book Award recognizes English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience. One winner and four Honor books were announced:

• Winner: Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright   
• a + e 4ever by Ilike Merey
• Money Boy by Paul Yee 
• Pink by Lili Wilkinson
• With or Without You by Brian Farrey

 

The William C. Morris Award is given to exceptional debuts by first-time authors writing for teens. One winner and four finalists were announced:

• Winner: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (also won the Printz Award!)
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
• Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
• Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia Mccall
• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

 

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults between the ages of 12 and 18. One winner and four finalists were announced:

• Winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
• Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
• Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal
• Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy
• Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin

Last but certainly not least, Susan Cooper, author of the Dark is Rising sequence, received the Margaret A. Edwards award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.

Thanks to all for their amazing contributions to young adult literature and, of course, congratulations!

The Demi-Monde: A High Concept Sci Fi Thriller for Fans of Neal Stephenson

The just-released The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees comes complete with a frothing blurbalicious frenzy courtesy of Book Reporter: “A brilliant, high concept series that blends science fiction and thriller, Steampunk and dystopian vision. If Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler participated in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, the result might be something akin to [this novel’s] dark and ingenious madness.”

While that description may be over the top, The Demi-Monde: Winter does seem destined to be one of January’s more original reads. The Demi-Monde< of the title is a sophisticated U.S. military computer simulation designed to provide a virtual training ground for urban combat. Thus, the world of the Demi-Monde is gripped by perpetual civil war. Stocked with infamous tyrants much as a trout pond is stocked with, erm, trout, the Demi-Monde features cyber-duplicates of Shaka Zulu, Ivan the Terrible, and even Aleister Crowley. (Poor Crowley—he’s so misunderstood.) The author has spent his life traveling the world, living for a time in Qatar, Tehran, and Moscow, and the novel reflects this experience. He’s also created his own religions for the Demi-Monde, including Unfundementalism, HerEticalism, HimPerialism, RaTionalism, and Confusionism.

As might be expected, things go terribly wrong and the President’s daughter winds up trapped in the Demi-Monde by two diabolical villains. A young jazz singer must then attempt a rescue before devastating consequences affect the real world.

There’s more than a hint of camp and the theatrical to The Demi-Monde, to go along with the action and twists and turn of plot. It should satisfy a lot of readers looking for an exciting, thick read this month.

Trend Stetting 11: Tend of Days

If you haven't been glued to the Weather Channel lately, you might not realize that we Seattleites can now count ourselves as proud survivors of Snowmageddon 2012—also known as the Slushocalypse and a Major Snow Event.

Whatever you call the weather in this town, it hasn't been kind to the U.S. Postal Service. So I'm afraid all the fun new grammar and style books I ordered haven't arrived yet, and you'll just have to endure another list. To make amends, I dug into the archives of one of the finest, snarkiest listmakers in the land: McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

That's right—this is a list of lists, at least partially. There are also funny non-lists in this list. Have I lost you yet? Remember, I was snowbound in my house for days. Be kind.

Here are 10 of my favorite McSweeney's pieces about language, in ascending order of awesomeness. (Note for delicate readers: The contents of this list are rated PG-13.)

10. Spelling Words with "K". "Words Rendered Funny by Spelling with 'K': Kamp, Kollege, Krunchy, Kat, Krazy."

9. Injudicious Uses of Exclamation Points in the Teacher's Video Company Catalog. "Laurence Olivier captures the hubris of the fallen king!"

8. Grammatical and Other Errors Recently Found in an Official Government Document, in Alphabetical Order. "Small, disadvantegeous businesses."

The Books Behind the 2012 Academy Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should tack a couple more words onto that mildly pretentious name of theirs... The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and books. This morning, the Academy announced their nominees for the Oscars, and books were well-represented. In fact, many of the nominated movies started out as books.

Take a look at the Best Picture category alone. Here's the full list of Best Picture nominees - movies that started out as books are in bold.

 

"The Artist"

"The Descendants"

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

"The Help"

"Hugo"

"Midnight in Paris"

"Moneyball"

"The Tree of Life"

"War Horse"

 

That's 6 out of 9, a whopping two-thirds. And that's just Best Picture. Below is a full tally of Oscar-nominated movies that originated from books (links to the books provided; let me know in the comments if I missed anything). These books are drawing A-level talent-- George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, and Martin Scorcese to name a few. Be proud, book lovers.

10 Rules for a Hitman to Live By

Tomislav Boksic (aka Toxic), the hero of Hallgrimur Helgason's new comic thriller The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning, had a record of 66 perfect kills. Then came the 67th—an undercover FBI agent—and suddenly he found himself in Iceland with a new identity. Oops. Avoid this kind of careless error by following Toxic's handy tips.

1. Don't miss the target. People tend to get a bit upset if they notice you're trying to kill them.
2. Don't waste a bullet. You have to think about the environment, too—you really shouldn't add an unnecessary gunshot to an already noisy city.
3. Morning is for murder. Nobody expects a bullet for breakfast.
4. Don't kill a priest. He who kills a man of the church will be killed by a church.
5. Don't confuse killing and murder. Murder is for amateurs, killing is for the professionals.
6. If you have to take on another person's identity, never let it be a priest's. With that collar around your neck, your sex appeal is gone.
7. When you're dating, don't talk about your job—unless you're overseas. Foreign girls are crazy about guys who kill Americans.
8. Embrace every new passport they give you. It's always nice to get a new life now and then.
9. Don't kill the wrong guy. Or you'll end up in Iceland.
10. When in Iceland, stop the killing. There are so few of them.

 

Media Monday

The National Book Critics Circle and the American Library Association both had book award events this week-- one to name their shortlists, the other to name their winners. Those lists can be found elsewhere on this blog. In the meantime, there is a lot of other books media to talk about.

 

New York Times

• Charlies Isherwood reviews Ben Jonson: A Life by Ian Donaldson, about Shakespeare's more famous (at the time they were alive, anyway) fellow writer and compatriot. In his review, Isherwood points out "Jonson was the more celebrated and multifariously accomplished figure during his time and in the years immediately after his death in 1637, but his plays are produced relatively rarely today — only 'Volpone' and 'The Alchemist' are widely known — and his poetry is read more rarely still. Shakespeare has emerged as the great genius of the age, the author of plays that will hold the stage as long as there are stages to hold, and a cycle of sonnets that are almost equally prized." Mark a point for posterity. Today you might only be a shy, fairly famous and prolific poet and playwright, but be assured that hundreds of years from now you may be celebrated as a genius. But if Shakespeare's the genius and Jonson earns murmurs and whispers that he was overrated during his time, why should we read about Ben Jonson today? For starters, Isherwood calls the book "deeply researched but happily readable." Two, Jonson-- who was and remains a literary giant in his own right (not overrated, just overshadowed)-- led a life that was worlds more interesting than Shakespeare's, whose "comparative invisibility during his lifetime has certainly posed intractable problems in the centuries since his death, as the eternal and tedious arguments over the authorship of his plays illustrate. Had he the foresight to make himself the colorful and combative public figure Jonson was — jailed several times, famed for insobriety, sometime friend and sometime foe of the mighty names of his age — we would not be plagued by the rankling theories of the Oxfordians that still clamor today." And finally, this behavior helped to establish the writer as a presence in English life-- Jonson was "Britain’s first literary celebrity.”

• After pointing out that Ben Marcus has only written four books in his 20-year career, reviewer J. Robert Lennon describes Marcus's work as having "earned him critical praise and a small army of devoted fans," and as having, until now, "forsaken the conventional trappings of narrative." But, Lennon tells us, "The Flame Alphabet, his first new book in a decade, has the feel of an event. And though it is recognizably by the same author, it is also something of a surprise. It has a plot, and a protagonist, and at times it even threatens to become a thriller."

• A book that will most certainly be subject to personal taste is That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion by Rachel Herz. Why would anybody want to read that? you might ask. Reviewer Robin Marantz Henig gives the following analysis: "Disgust, Herz writes, is one of 'the six basic human emotions' (along with happiness, sadness, anger, fear and surprise) that any healthy adult 'can experience and recognize.' She says emotional disgust is the only one, among living creatures, that’s unique to humans, and the only one that has to be learned." Rather than list all the disgusting things in this book, I will give you a link to the review, in which you may peruse the various disgusting foods, etc. yourself. For those brave (or just curious) enough to read the review, they may find these gross details generate a reaction that's deeper than they'd anticipated. As the review puts it, disgusting is in the eye of the beholder, and "disgust is not an automatic reaction, like fear; it’s 'an unfolding and cognitive emotion.'”

2012 Children's Book Award Winners Announced

 

This morning I got up at 5 a.m. to see (via webcast) the 2012 winners of the biggest awards in children's publishing--the American Library Association (ALA) awards.  The film industry has their Golden Globes^® and their Oscars^®, and we have the Caldecott and Newbery Medals, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Michael J. Printz Award.  Unlike most other book awards, the major children's book awards given by the ALA have no lists of finalists or nominees.  It's a surprise every single year (with plenty of speculation beforehand) and I kind of love the secrecy.  This year's announcement had both the unexpected and the "ah, of course" books on the lists (including some 2011 Best of the Month titles)--you just never know who is going to win what. Congratulations to this year's winning and honored authors and illustrators:

 

2012 Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:

• Winner!: A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka
• Honor: Blackout by John Rocco
• Honor: Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
• Honor: Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell

 

2012 Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature:

• Winner!: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
• Honor:  Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
• Honor:  Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

 

 

2012 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:  

• Winner!: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
• Honor:  Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman
• Honor:  The Returning by Christine Hinwood
• Honor:  Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
• Honor:  The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

 

2012 Coretta Scott King Author Award recognizing an African American author of outstanding books for children and young adults:

• Winner!: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson
• Honor:  The Great Migration: Journey to the North by Eloise Greenfield
• Honor: Never Forgotten by Patricia McKissack

 

2012 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award:

• Winner!: Underground by Shane W. Evans
• Honor: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

 

 

2012 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book:

• Winner!:  Tales for Very Picky Eaters  by Josh Schneider
• Honor:  I Broke My Trunk! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems
• Honor:  I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klaussen
• Honor: See Me Run by Paul Meisel

 

 

2012 Pura Belpré Award honoring a Latino writer whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience:

• Author Winner!: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
• Honor: Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle
• Honor: Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller by Xavier Garza

 

• Illustrator Winner!: Diego Rivera: His World and Ours by Duncan Tonatiuh
• Honor: The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred illustrated by Rafael Lopez
• Honor:  Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match / Marisol McDonald no combina illustrated by Sara Palacios

 

Quite a list, no?  Did some of your favorites win a medal or honor this year or do you have some that would have made the cut if you were judging?  I'd love to hear your thoughts. --Seira

Give Your Characters a Voice: Writing Strong Dialogue

Ever finish a book and feel like you were losing some of your best friends? Or ever get addicted to a series just because you had to see what happened to the characters, plot be damned? Finishing a book can be ruthlessly traumatic because the characters you have spent so many cozy hours getting to know will never say anything new ever again. You know these characters better than you know most people. You know exactly what they would say in any given circumstance. And, most interestingly, you could write whole books of fan fiction with your favorite characters—and other fans could tell you when you mislabeled bits of dialogue.

Because when your dialogue is strong enough, and each character has a unique voice, readers not only feel like they’ve known your characters their whole life—they fall in love with them. It’s the inspiration behind fan art and fan fiction. It’s the source of daydreams and cosplay. It’s the font of almost all book quotes, and it’s the only thing that remains (mostly) the same when a movie is made.

Strong dialogue defines memorable characters. So what can your characters say to make readers fall in love with them?

DO Keep It Real—Only Better

“There are, ah, problems with the boy, yes. But the problems are unique to his situation in my care. Were he under yours, I’m sure they would, ahhhh, vanish.”

“Oh. You have a magic boy. Why didn’t you say so?” The priest scratched his forehead beneath the white silk blindfold that covered his eyes. “Magnificent. I’ll plant him in the [censored to protect the innocent] ground and grow a vine to an enchanted land beyond the clouds.”

“Ahhhhh! I’ve tasted that flavor of sarcasm before, Chains.” The Thiefmaker gave an arthritic mock bow. “That’s the sort you spit out as a bargaining posture. Is it really so hard to say that you’re interested?”

The Eyeless Priest shrugged. “Suppose Calo, Galdo, and Sabetha might be able to use a new playmate, or at least a new punching bag. Suppose I’m willing to spend about three coppers and a bowl of piss for a mystery boy. But you’ll still need to convince me that you deserve the bowl of piss. What’s the boy’s problem?”

“His problem,” said the Thiefmaker, “is that if I can’t sell him to you, I’m going to have to slit his throat and throw him in the bay. And I’m going to have to do it tonight.”—The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

This scene is a brilliant introduction of character and concept. You gain truckloads of information about the plot, the city Camor, the priest, the Thiefmaker, and Locke Lamora himself, even though the latter is not in scene. Much more than listing their exploits or statistics, or using adjectives like sneaky and sly. In addition, you cannot predict a single response in this witty back-and-forth. Substantially different from standard salutations, you are forced to hang on every word the Thiefmaker and the priest say, because these two charismatic characters are so inventive that their interactions, while natural feeling, are anything but rote.

Finalists Announced for the National Book Critics Circle Awards

Finalists for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle awards were announced today at Artists Space in New York.

Among this year’s presenters were recent NBCC finalists and winners Jennifer Egan (fiction), Siddhartha Mukherjee (nonfiction), Elif Batuman (criticism), Kathleen Graber (poetry), Yunte Huang (biography), Darin Strauss (autobiography), and Parul Sehgal (Nona Balakian Citation).

 

Fiction

• Stone Arabia: A Novel by Dana Spiotta
• Open City: A Novel by Teju Cole
• The Marriage Plot: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
• Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman

 

Nonfiction

• Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan
• Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff
• The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick
• To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild
• A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman

 

Criticism

• Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos
• Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews by Geoff Dyer
• The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc. by Jonathan Lethem
• Karaoke Culture: Essays by Dubravka Ugresic by
• Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music by Ellen Willis

 

"Go The F**k To Sleep" Author Adam Mansbach

A year ago, Adam Mansbach was a respected author, poet, and musician known for his thoughtful novels, lectures, and raps. Fast forward a bit, and he's the guy who got the F word into a children's book title. That book grew from Mansbach's satiric Facebook post one morning after his two-year-old daughter refused to go to bed. Mansbach told Facebookers to look for his forthcoming book, "Go the ___ to Sleep." It was a joke that became a book that became a #2 Amazon best seller six months before it was even published. (It's still ranked in the top 100.)

In this exclusive Amazon interview, Mansbach discusses the unexpected success of his best-selling pseudo-children's nighttime book, Go the F**k To Sleep.

Help an Amazon Customer Out - Books for Men

Today I stumbled across the Amazon Books customer discussions at the bottom of the Amazon.com Books page. I decided to read a few of the comments and quickly realized that there are some really interesting and insightful discussions going on.

One of the posts read: "I'm looking for books for my husband. He read, and enjoyed, the Eric Larson Books, Lost in Shangri-La, the Horatio Hornblower and Patrick Obrian Aubrey Maturin series, Unbroken,... he likes books that read close enough like fiction, but also have something he can learn. He doesn't really like mystery and is a little tired of WW2. Any ideas? Thanks!"

I know some guy books, I thought. So I put up a quick list. But now I have a creeping suspicion that it wasn't quite the right list for this person. Maybe I jumped the gun and should have given it more thought.

Another customer offerered a better (and shorter) list:

Why "The Orphan Master’s Son" Tops Our List of January’s Best Books

When we heard in late December that Kim Jong-il had died, the news reports felt like an intrusion by the fictional world that many of us at the Amazon Books editorial office had been compulsively descending into each night, a reminder that the surreal, brutal universe Adam Johnson evokes in The Orphan Master’s Son continues to unfold just across the Pacific.

Some of us had devoured the book in the same week, and mornings we'd crane our necks over our cubicle walls to compare progress, discuss the lines that rang in our ears (“If a man and his story are in conflict, it is the man who must change”) and favorite characters: beyond the surreptitious audacity of protagonist Jun Do, I was fascinated by his interrogator-torturer who believed himself to be a “biographer,” while Chris was taken with film actress Sun Moon's lovely sadness. When it came time for our "smackdown" meeting and vote on the top 10 Best Books of the Month for January, it was nearly upstaged by the irreverent humor and life-affirming wallop of John Green's hugely anticipated The Fault in Our Stars, but in the end, Johnson's novel edged it out for the spotlight slot.

As any 30 Rock or Team America fan knows, the grand delusions of North Korea’s Dear Leader were ripe for parody, and Johnson almost went that way—until he read the heart-wrenching, emotionally lobotomized testimony of gulag survivors and felt seized by a need to tell the average citizen's story.

Edgar Award Nominees Have Been Announced

Each year, in honor of Edgar Allen Poe's birthday, Mystery Writers of America presents its prestigious Edgar Awards to the best mystery fiction books, nonfiction books, and television productions. The winners will be announced April 26. Among this year's nominees are: 

Best Novel

• The Ranger by Ace Atkins
• Gone by Mo Hayder
• The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
• 1222 by Anne Holt
• Field Gray by Philip Kerr

Best First Novel

• Red on Red by Edward Conlon
• Last to Fold by David Duffy
• All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen
• Bent Road by Lori Roy
• Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder

Best Fact Crime

• The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
• Girl, Wanted by Steve Miller
• The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal

Young Adult

• Shelter by Harlan Coben
• The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson 
• The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall 
• The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines 
• Kill You Last by Todd Strasser

To see all the nominees in all fifteen categories, visit TheEdgars.com.
Winners will be announced on April 26 at a banquet in New York.

Exclusive Interview With "Wicked" Series Author Gregory Maguire

We're happy to share this chat with the charming author of the Wicked Years series, which includes Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and, most recently Out of Oz. Though best known for Wicked (which was the basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name), Maguire talks with Amazon Books editor Chris Schluep about his many years of writing children's and fantasy books prior to the break-out success of Wicked. It's interesting to hear how that series evolved - not by design, but at the urging of readers who wanted to know: what happens next?

Learn more about all of Maguire's books at his Amazon.com author page.