Shelley Diaz, Associate Editor, SLJ

I just finished Robin Wasserman’s The Waking Dark (Knopf, Sept.). I haven’t read something this creepy in a long time! It will be a hit with fans of Stephen King’s Tommyknockers, and Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave. I will start Wein’s Rose Under Fire (Hyperion, Sept.), on my commute home. Code Name Verity was one of my favorite reads last year, and winner of the 2012 Edgar Allen Poe Award, among others. I’m sure this companion novel will be just as good.

Kate DiGirolomo, Editorial Assistant, LJ

This week seems to be a lesson in expectation vs. reality. I was kindly given a copy of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani (Riverhead, Jun.), with the hope that it would be my personal, long-awaited female equivalent of the movie Stand By Me, based on  the novella The Body by Stephen King. It’s early yet, and I’m still in that odd limbo of deciding if this is a book I’m reading because I enjoy it or because I’ve never really grasped the notion of stopping a book in the middle. If nothing else, the mysterious circumstances surrounding main character, Thea’s, banishment to the camp in the first place has sparked my interest. I’ve also just pulled The Great Gatsby (Scribner) off of my shelf to revisit. Admittedly this is not exactly the most original choice right now. However, I have a clear memory of giving an impassioned speech to my high school English class about my undying love for Nick Carraway. I’m interested to see if the feeling still holds true, or if they were just the ramblings of a crazy 17-year-old.

Molly McArdle, Assistant Book Review Editor, LJ

I’ve hit the halfway mark on First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School (Chicago Review Pr. Aug.), and am starting to think about what I’ll read next. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? Perhaps a book mentioned in First Class, one-time Dunbar principal Edward Christopher Williams’s 1926 novel When Washington Was in Vogue? In the meantime, my esteem for Alison Stewart’s lively, wide-ranging history of this seminal DC high school has not diminished. I loved reading about the school’s namesake, the great poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, whose childhood friend, Orville Wright, helped him self publish his first book of poems, Oak and Ivy, while Dunbar still worked as an elevator operator.

If a person got onto an elevator run by Paul Laurence Dunbar, that person likely got off the elevator woning a copy of Dunbar’s book. He had figured a way to pay back his debt: sell copies of his book to the people trapped in the elevator with him for a few minutes. It worked, and it helped Paul’s work go viral, insofar as things went viral in the nineteenth century.

Dunbar’s sports teams were, for many years, called “the Poets.”

Kathleen Quinlan, Events Coordinator, LJ & SLJ

Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck (New American Library) looks at the less glamorous side of the infamous Zelda Fitzgerald’s life: when she was committed to a psychiatric hospital in 1932. Zelda develops a close friendship with nurse Anna Howard, who in turn wonders which Fitzgerald is the true genius.

Meredith Schwartz, News Editor, LJ

I’m reading I See By My Outfit (Centro), by Peter S. Beagle, an unlikely nonfiction adventure in which the author of The Last Unicorn rides across the country on a motor scooter. If you can picture Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance starring Billy Crystal and Gene Wilder as wistful, klutzy BFFs, you have the idea.

Henrietta Thornton-Verma, Reviews Editor, LJ

I recently picked up Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt (Algonquin), which was released earlier this month. When things are stressful I reach for something enjoyable and easy, and contemporary women’s fiction usually fits the bill for me; this novel, though, is a little less contemporary than my usual fare, as it’s set in the 1950s. Leavitt portrays here a divorced single mom in crisis. Ava and her son Lewis are different from their Boston neighbors—the other families have married parents and are Christian where Ava and her son are Jewish. Ava also has the nerve to have a date now and then, an activity her prudish female neighbors look down upon. Their suspicion that the single mom cannot possibly care for her child is—maddeningly for Ava and the reader—confirmed when he goes missing. I hear from my colleagues that things turn out differently. I’m rooting for this mom and eagerly waiting the neighbors’ comeuppance; I’ll keep you posted. What I am not reading is Dan Brown’s Inferno (Doubleday). I took it home this weekend with plans to drop everything and devour it, but life got in the way…but there’s always next week.

New York can be gorgeous in the spring, and there’s plenty to see. Relatively near the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the now-perennial site of BookExpo America (BEA), is great shopping, the spectacular Highline Park, and the New York Public Library’s Schwarzman Building, with its fascinating exhibits. You might not see any of it though; changes are afoot at BEA, and they mean more…of everything. Along with a return to weekend hours—the show now runs from Wednesday, May 29, through Saturday, June 1, 2013, including LJ’s and SLJ’s warm-up Day of Dialog events—there is now a third author stage. Attendees will find almost 300 autograph signings on the three stages, as well as the relocated BEA Editors’ Buzz sessions, which cover children’s, YA, and adult books. The stages will also welcome the new “BEA Selects,” featuring indie publishers discussing their fall 2013 romance, mystery, literary fiction, and sf/fantasy titles.

You’ll want to take in the exhibits, of course, and the dozens of programs offered during the conference. Below are the offerings that are best for librarians—not all of them are particularly aimed at our profession, but eavesdropping on “the other side” can be illuminating. Though ebook questions feature heavily, we’re moving on from library availability concerns to debates surrounding secondhand ebooks, the effects on authors, and e-publishing of out-of-print titles. For a break from it all, do what the fun crowd did at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting: check out the Association of American Publishers (AAP) Library Family Feud. Featuring Simon Doonan on the author team, it’s a hotter ticket than any Broadway show.

Or take a load off at any point during the show at LJ’s Librarians’ Lounge, open Thursday through Saturday, at booth 757.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 29

8:30 a.m.–6 p.m.

School Library Journal Day of Dialog (Columbia University, Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive; registration required)

SLJ will host a full day of dynamic, fun programs for librarians and educators, including panels such as “Informational Picture Books,” “Middle School Drama and Trauma,” “Real World Horror in YA,” and “Visual Storytelling.” Award-winning author and illustrator Kevin Henkes will deliver the welcome keynote. Best-selling YA author Holly Black will be the lunch speaker. Register at slj.com/dayofdialog.

9 a.m.–6 p.m.

 LJ Day of Dialog for Publishers, Vendors, and Librarians (McGraw-Hill Conference Center, 1221 Avenue of the Americas; registration required)

This year’s LJ Day of Dialog includes five big panels, starting with the ever-popular Editors’ Picks, featuring editors from HarperCollins, Random House, Penguin Group (USA), and more. Other choices include Poetry Opens Doors, Collection Development 2020, The Art of Science Books, and Great Voices in Fiction. Register at lj.libraryjournal.com/dayofdialog.

9:30–10:20 a.m.

Your Next Readers Are on Twitter (Rm. 1E07)

Drawing on case studies of successful authors, Twitter’s Andrew Fitzgerald (@magicandrew) will show how authors and publishers can build engagement through Twitter.

9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. plus cocktail reception

Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) (Rm. TBA)

This one-day conference is collocated with BEA. Registration is through APA. Included is a session called “Library Downloads” on “trends in how libraries are acquiring digital audio.”

11–11:50 a.m.

Hosting a Global Book Tour Using Google+ —Learn To Market & Host a Virtual Book Tour (Rm. 1E11)

Promoting a book, finding new readers, and hosting book tours can all be done using Google+. Learn how to host a virtual video “hangout” and broadcast and promote it to the world. Hear ideas about types of events and how to set them up on Google+ step by step.

1–1:50 p.m.

Building Community Through Podcasting (Rm. 1E02/03)

Podcasting is one way in which stakeholders in reading can build community. Learn the ins and outs of podcasting: how to develop an idea; the time, equipment, and cost involved; the audience potential; and how to promote. You’ll hear real-world stories of how panelists have used podcasting to create real-life communities and to promote projects about which they are passionate.

1:45–2:45 p.m.

BEA Keynote: Shaping the Future of the Book:

Insight from Leaders Who Are Transforming How We Read (Rm. 1E14/1E15/1E16)

Booksellers, publishers, and others aligned with the book industry are seeking new ways to engage readers, build community, and encourage reading at every age. Ingram Content Group CEO John Ingram will moderate a panel of thought leaders who are helping to shape the future of the book through innovation, new business models, and determination.

4:15–5:30 p.m.

BEA Editors’ Buzz (Rm. 1E14/1E15/1E16)

A panel of editors discuss six of the fall’s biggest potential breakouts. Editors from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Overlook, Macmillan, Crown, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins, present Wendy Lower’s Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields, Eric Lundgren’s The Facades, Amy Grace Lloyd’s The Affairs of Others: A Novel; Sheri Fink’s Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, Katy Butler’s Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, and Jennifer Senior’s All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood.

6:30 p.m.

 Annual BEA Librarians Dinner

(Yale Club, 52 Vanderbilt Ave., Grand Ballroom; registration required) Presented by AAP, this year’s program has John Searles (Help for the Haunted) as emcee, presenting Martha Grimes (Double Double: A Dual Memoir of Alcoholism); Nancy Horan (Under the Wide and Starry Sky); Meg Wolitzer (The Interestings); Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch); and Erica Jong (Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition). By invitation only; register your interest here.

THURSDAY, MAY 30

10–10:50 a.m.

“Do Kindle Owners Really Read More?” (And Other Nagging Questions About Ebooks, Reading, and Amazon.com) (Rm. 1E02–1E03)

Simba Information’s (Trade E-Book Publishing 2013) Michael Norris will present exclusive cross-tabulated data on Kindle users culled from the company’s ongoing study of the ebook sector. You’ll learn about trends in usage, reading, and buying—as well as where the Kindle stands in relation to competing devices. Data on print book and ebook consumption patterns will tie everything together.

10–11:50 a.m.

Authors and Librarians, Get Ready for the

Feud…Library Family Feud! (AAP) (Rm. 1E11)

With AAP Library Committee chair Chris Vaccari as game show host to two “families.” The Librarian family features Christopher Platt and Betsy Bird (both NYPL), Erin Shea (Darien PL, CT), Elissa Miller (District of Columbia PL), and Jamie Watson (Baltimore Cty. PL). The Author family consists of Simon Doonan (The Asylum: A Collage of Couture Reminiscences), Stephanie Evanovich (Big Girl Panties), John Rocco (Super-Hair-O and the Barber of Doom), Jill Shalvis (It Had To Be You), and Obert Skye (Pinocula).

FLOOR RELIEF The Librarians’ Lounge promises to be a welcoming place to kick back, network, and catch author signings. Photo by Kevin Henegan

11–11:50 a.m.

All’s Fair? Book Reviews & the Missing Code of Ethics (Rm. 1E10)

The Society of Professional Journalists’ guidelines are widely accepted in the newspaper industry, but book reviewers have no comparable code. Should there be one? What should its rules be? How would it affect bloggers and moonlighting critics—novelists writing about fellow novelists, say, or experts assessing competitors? Would such a code effectively restrain practices that can taint current reviews? NPR’s Maureen Corrigan, New York Times Book Review’s Parul ­Sehgal, plus an author and agent (TBA), will tackle these questions and others as part of an ongoing National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) survey into ethics.

12:15–1:45 p.m.

 BEA Librarians Author Lunch (AAP) (Rm. 1E14–1E15; registration required)

Alene Moroni (King Cty. Lib. Syst., WA) and Stephanie Chase (Seattle PL) host authors Lee Smith (Guests on Earth), Koethi Zan (The Never List), Jayne Anne Phillips (Quiet Dell), Louise Penny (How the Light Gets In), and Bill Bryson (One Summer: America, 1927). By invitation only; register your interest here.

1–1:50 p.m.

Goodreads 201: Advanced Tips for Helping Readers Discover Your Books (Rm. 1E10)

With more than 15 million members, Goodreads, recently purchased by Amazon, is the world’s largest site for readers, book recommendations, and discovery. Patrick Brown, Goodreads director of community, will discuss strategies for promoting books to this growing, passionate universe.

2:15–3:30 p.m.

 AAP Annual Librarians Book Buzz–Part I. (Rm. 1E16)

Hear what book publishers are excited about for the forthcoming season. Panelists represent Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, Hachette Book Group, Harlequin, John Wiley & Sons, Macmillan, Penguin Group (USA), and Sterling.

3:30–4:20 p.m.

Ebooks from Libraries: Good for Authors? (Rm. 1E10)

Is ebook lending here to stay? Is it beneficial to authors, libraries, and publishers as well as to library patrons? Can it lead to valuable exposure, “discoverability,” and, ultimately, more sales? What concerns should authors and agents have about library ebook lending? Featuring ALA president Maureen Sullivan; OverDrive president and CEO Steve Potash; Jack Perry from 38enso Inc., a consulting firm focusing on digital publishing transitions; and representatives of the Authors Guild.

3:30–4:20 p.m.

How To Measure Digital Marketing Success (Rm. 1E07)

Which digital marketing channels are the most effective? A panel will address this topic from the point of view of publisher and author marketing, discussing options, and the metrics they use to implement their strategies.

3:30–4:20 p.m.

 Rising Industry Insiders: What Those New to the Publishing Industry Think About Its Future: Students in the NYU M.S. in Publishing Program Speak Out (Rm. 1E16)

Graduate students in the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies Publishing: Digital and Print Media program discuss the future of the publishing industry. Topics will focus on life inside the publishing office from the vantage point of those new to the industry. What do they think of their bosses’ social media strategies? What would they do differently if they were in charge?

Friday, May 31

9:30–10:20 a.m.

Digital Book Resale: What Does It Mean? How Would It Work? (Rm. 1E07)

The potential resale of ebooks is of significant interest to the publishing industry, especially in light of recent court cases and patents filed by both Amazon and Apple. This panel—discussing topics such as who actually owns the ebook, what the patents enable, the nature of digital rights management (DRM) and enforcement of copy protection, customers’ rights, and the issues surrounding selling “used” ebooks—is aimed at publishers, authors, and book stores but will be of interest to ­librarians.

11–11:50 a.m.

Backlist to the Future: How Will e-Releasing Out-of-Print Works Change Reading & Publishing? (Rm. 1E09)

Learn why some publishers are releasing an author’s collection of titles and why ­ebook companies are buying up backlists. Find out how digital technology is affecting the publishing business. Lively discussions will cover the benefits of straddling the choices of print versus ebook and what having both formats available means.

11–11:50 a.m.

Building MetPublications: A Guided Tour of How the Metropolitan Museum of Art Redefined Art Publishing & Created Broad Digital Access to Its Publications, Backlist & Collections. (Rm. 1E10)

In October 2012, the Metropolitan Museum of Art launched MetPublications, an online resource offering in-depth access to its renowned published works, covering close to 700 titles from 1964 to the present. It includes robust searching, downloading, previewing, and print-on-demand capabilities, as well as connections to Met online features including the museum’s online collection database. Staff members who were involved from the beginning will give a guided tour of the yearlong process that went into this significant addition to art history scholarship.

11–11:50 a.m.

Perspectives in Publishing: An Author’s Transition from Traditional to Self- Publishing (Rm. 1E16)

Guy Kawasaki and Leigh Haber, books editor for O magazine, discuss Kawasaki’s transition from traditionally published to self-published, with discussion of the importance of social media and how authors can follow his approach.

11:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.

Where Goeth the Book: The Multimedia Future of Books (Rm. 1E08)

An in-depth review of the multimedia future for books as EPUB3, HTML5, and platforms like Inkling offer content creators an ever greater number of options for expressing content in digital formats. A panel of experts will discuss the realities of both creating and clearing content for use on a variety of platforms.

1–1:50 p.m.

Libraries + Tumblr = Connecting Readers + Writers (Rm. 1E09)

More libraries are using tools like Tumblr to help readers discover their next great read. Learn how various stakeholders can collaborate on this exciting platform better to connect readers and writers. Moderated by LJ assistant book review editor Molly McArdle.

2–3:30 p.m.

AAP Annual Librarians Book Buzz, Part II (Room 1E11)

The second installment of what publishers are excited about for the forthcoming season. Hear representatives from HarperCollins, Perseus Books Group, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Workman, and W.W. Norton.

2–2:50 p.m.

Self-Publishing: Disruptor or Defender of the Book Business? (Rm. 1E16)

As James McQuivey (Digital Disruption) has noted, publishers are taking advantage of digital technologies to undercut competitors, get closer to customers, and disrupt business as usual. Panelists from Author Solutions and Carina Press offer commentary.

3–4:20 p.m.

Trending Sales with BookStats: How Publishers Identify Macro & Micro Shifts in the Marketplace (Rm. 1E14/1E15)

Have nonfiction ebooks started to gain traction? Has downloadable audio overtaken physical media, and what does that mean for the audio market? Is print still holding its own? Questions like these and more are answered by BookStats, a joint venture of AAP and the Book Industry Study Group. Industry thought leaders will demonstrate how they use BookStats to aid in strategic planning, company acquisitions, list planning, title acquisitions, company benchmarking, and more.

3:30–4:20 p.m.

The Translator & the Editor: A Fraught Relationship (Rm. 1E07)

What is the role of an editor in a work of translation? Often translators feel a responsibility to the original text that precludes strong editorial intervention, but the editorial culture of the author’s original country of publication may not allow for an editor to improve the book. If an editor who doesn’t know the original language invites a second translator as an external editor, this can create further tension. As more international literature moves from the realm of small and university presses to the major commercial publishers, this situation needs to be addressed. Organized by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

3:30–5 p.m.

4th Annual Librarian Shout ’n Share @ Book Expo (Javits Center, Rm. 1E11)

 Cosponsored by AAP and LJ

Hear about the books librarians from across the country found on the BEA show floor. Hosted by King County’s Alene Moroni. Panelists include Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York, and editor of the Adult Books 4 Teens blog for School Library Journal; Douglas Lord, Connecticut State Library, longtime LJ book reviewer and LJ Books for Dudes columnist; Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Library, OH; and Kaite Stover, Kansas City Public Library, MO, a writer for Booklist and Nove­List and recipient of 2012 Public Library Association Allie Beth Martin Award.

Mahnaz Dar, Associate Editor, LJ
I’m reading Behind the Burly Q: The Story of Burlesque in America by Leslie Zemeckis and Blaze Starr, which also marks my debut review assignment for LJ! Having watched Natalie Wood singing “Let Me Entertain You” in the 1962 film Gypsy more times than I care to admit and seen my share of modern-day burlesque, I was excited to see this book on top of my colleague Molly McArdle’s pile of performing arts books that were being assigned for review. The book is a lot of fun so far and is based on a documentary of the same name, chock-full of bawdy stories and funny quotes. The Minskys (as in Minsky’s Burlesque) make an appearance, as does Gypsy Rose Lee, as well as performers I had never heard of, such as Sherry Britton. Behind the Burly Q, while fun, doesn’t overly romanticize the experiences of its stars. And yes, before you ask, photographs are included!

Josh Hadro, Executive Editor, LJ
I have some ambitious plans to finish China Miéville’s Kraken ASAP, and then start Douglas Rushkoff’s new book, Present Shock. I’m generally a fan of Rushkoff’s media criticism, and I’ve been paying attention to his commentary since he managed to link together The Simpsons, graphic novels, and Gary Panter’s Rozz-Tox Manifesto in his remarks at ComicCon in 2008 (the subject of my very first blog post for LJ!). Not a quote from his books (as far as I know), but something Rushkoff said then has stayed with me: “I’d rather live in a world where The Simpsons is mainstream than a world where Father Knows Best is mainstream.” And that’s in a way what Panter’s Rozz-Tox Manifesto is all about.

Stephanie Klose, Media Editor, LJ
I often, paradoxically, have a hard time getting around to reading books that have received glowing praise (which is why Wolf Hall is still sitting unopened in one of my many teetering TBR piles). Jo Walton’s Nebula– and Hugo–winning Among Others has long been one of those books I’ve heard is great but never read. I’ve had an ARC since late 2010 that I’ve brought on vacations, moved around the apartment from my favorite reading chair to my nightstand to the kitchen table, carried with me on dozens of commutes, and never quite got around to starting until yesterday. Now, of course, I’m kicking myself for all of the wasted time I could have spent immersed in Walton’s splendid prose and beautifully constructed world, featuring fairies who live in industrial ruins and a troubled young woman who loves science fiction novels.

Molly McArdle, Assistant Book Review Editor, LJ
I just started a book I’ll be reviewing for LJ‘s education section First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School School. I am a DC history nut (yes, we exist) and this book is right up my alley. It starts with antebellum movements for “normal” schools (i.e., schools that prepare students to become teachers) for black DC residents, moves on to the brutal 1856 beating of Senator Charles Sumner

in the Capitol building, to the alley culture of post–Civil War DC. All that and I haven’t even gotten as far as reading about Dunbar, once the country’s premier secondary school for black students and now an exemplar of the problems urban public schools face. I’m fine with journalist Stewart taking her time, though; this history is lively and so full of juicy quotations from letters and newspaper articles that it almost feels gossipy.

Chelsey Philpot, Associate Book Review Editor, SLJ
I am very excited to have finally received a library copy of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright. It feels like a brick in my purse when I walk around town, but being able to dive into Wright’s research and words during my commute makes the weight worth it. (Plus, nonfiction is always a nice balance to the YA dystopian novels I’m also reading.)

Meredith Schwartz, News Editor, LJ
I’m reading Gender on Planet Earth by Ann Oakley. I’m not sure what I think of it—her offhand reference to mounting evidence that video games cause violence (which is by no means a foregone conclusion according to the research that I’ve seen) threw me, and now I find myself doubting her assertions without having time to verify them. And sometimes, as when she turns “manslaughter” into “man’s laughter,” I roll my eyes. But if nothing else it gives me a lot to think about. And I don’t know if it’s parody or exemplar that the cover is pink and features a shoe.

Henrietta Thornton-Verma, Reviews Editor, LJ
Mother’s Day brought out the melancholy in me as usual, and I took out my well-worn copy of Letters from Motherless Daughters: Words of Courage, Grief, and Healing by Hope Edelman. The letters come from bereaved daughters of all ages who each have something to say that touches me. Edelman’s Motherless Mothers: How Mother Loss Shapes the Parents We Become has been perfect over the years too; it’s a heartfelt and often handy guide for mothers whose expected parenting role model is gone.

I also took down from the shelf Hugh Leonard’s Dear Paule. Leonard (1926-2009) was an Irish dramatist and diarist whose weekly musings were published in Ireland’s Sunday Independent newspaper. The book is a series of letters he wrote to his late wife after she died suddenly. They were published in his column, further endearing a man who was thought of as a great, but curmudgeonly, wit, to the Irish people. My parents are mentioned in the book and it is to that passage I turned this weekend. Leonard mentioned that he received many letters from people struggling with grief of their own, one of which was from my Dad.

“Perhaps the most heartfelt is from a man who says he sleeps on his late wife’s side of the bed so he won’t have to look at her empty pillow.”

Mahnaz Dar, Associate Editor, LJ
Poetry, a venerable and established tradition, has seemed, well, not super relevant to my life. Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam has shattered that perception. It’s a fascinating look at the poetry-slam scene over the past two decades, and even though I’m only a couple of chapters in, it’s changed how I see poetry. Author and poet Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, who was big on the scene herself, frames it as a vibrant (and even debauched), living thing: full of colorful characters and laced with an edgy, in-your-face tone. Basically, Aptowicz’s work does for poetry what Please Kill Me did for punk rock.

And, because I can’t stray too far from my YA roots, I’m rereading Francesca Lia Block’s I Was a Teenage Fairy. This is Block at her best, bringing a fairy-tale sensibility to the harsh, gritty world of LA.

Shelley Diaz, Associate Editor, SLJ
I’m starting The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender for my “Book Bites” Book Club. I’ve heard it compared to Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, so I’m hoping for great things. Our book club tries to match a restaurant to each month’s pick, so if anyone has suggestions in the New York area, speak up!

Kate DiGirolomo, Editorial Assistant, LJ
The character R from Warm Bodies still has my utter devotion as I end another week of loyally toting Isaac Marion’s novel around wherever I go (as a bibliophile’s security blanket, if you will). Perhaps devotees of the zombie genre will balk at the clichéd “monster falls in love with girl” trope, but I’ve not read anything else that so thoroughly examines the nuances of humanity (and what better a lens than a character who laments the loss of his?). With its dark humor and an unexpected emphasis on the value of writing, I will be truly sad to get to the last page. It’s quickly become a book that I wish I had thought to write. Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite.

[The Epic of Gilgamesh] was written over four thousand years ago on clay tablets by people who tilled the mud and rarely lived past forty. It’s survived countless wars, disasters, plagues, and continues to fascinate to this day, because here I am, in the midst of modern ruin, reading it.

Josh Hadro, Executive Editor, LJ
I’m reading Kraken by China Miéville. An RA librarian suggested the book after I raved about Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker (my favorite read of 2013 so far). Apparently, what I’m drawn to these days is “a semi-magical London featuring an underground criminal society trying to save an unsuspecting city from an imminent existential threat.” I wonder how many more titles there are that hit those same notes. Suggestions welcome!

Stephanie Klose, Media Editor, LJ
I’ve been holding on to a copy of Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains since it came out in the summer of 2011, but only started it this morning on the train. Set in Edinburgh in 1926, the book follows the aristocratic titular character as she takes a job as a lady’s maid (and secret detective) to a woman who claims her husband is trying kill her. My only consolation for having denied myself the pleasure of this Dorothy L. Sayers–meets–The Diviners delight for so long is that there are already two more books in the series ready and waiting for when I knock this one out.

Molly McArdle, Assistant Book Review Editor, LJ
I just started reading Home, Marilynne Robinson’s follow up to her novel Gilead. Gilead was the first of Robinson’s novels I ever read; it came out my freshman year of college in Grinnell, Iowa. Robinson lives in Iowa City, and when Gilead came out she made the drive east to my school to do a reading. She has a measured, calming way of speaking, neither precisely loud nor quiet; and as she read, her prose seemed to me as clear as a glass of cold water. I bought the book and inhaled it. Both Gilead and Home are set in the same a small Iowa town, and that first year at Grinnell, as kid from the middle of DC, the Midwest was a mystery I couldn’t parse. Robinson’s novel was one of the first things that reconciled me to Iowa, that forced me to recognize and (at least try) to understand the place. It is wonderful, now, to go back there with Home, especially from the safe cocoon of a subway car.

Chelsey Philpot, Associate Book Review Editor, SLJ
This weekend, I’ll be camping out in the park and reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Flappers and Philosophers in preparation for the premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby as well as A LOT of new June and July YA novels.

Meredith Schwartz, News Editor, LJ
I just started reading James Boyle’s The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind, available for free under a Creative Commons license, because I heard him give a very funny—and true—speech at the recent Association of College and Research Libraries meeting. He spoke about the importance of openness in light of how bad people are at predicting the consequences of new developments.

Henrietta Thornton-Verma, Reviews Editor, LJ
Did you like The Poisonwood Bible? Then try Suzanne Joinson’s somewhat similarly themed but more literary A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar, which I’m reading now. One of our Best Historical Fiction picks of last year, the tale alternates between present-day London, where a young woman has inherited the contents of a stranger’s flat, and 1923 Kashgar, where two English sisters are braving the deprivations of western China—one to write the guide of the book’s title and the other to convert the heathens. No plot spoilers here, but the ladies on the Silk Road come into an inheritance that provides one of the most startling openings to a novel I’ve read in a while.

I’m also reviewing Pól Ó Murchú’s A Grammar of Modern Irish for LJ (I’m from Ireland and am an Irish speaker). The book is mainly for language students—it’s far too much for, say, tourists to Ireland who just want to learn a few phrases, as the grammar details are extremely thorough. At $24.95 it is relatively cheap and could find a market in public libraries and genealogy classes for its chapter “Irish surnames and their Bearlóirizations” (Anglicizations). There I learned, for example, that Ní Dhroighneán, the Irish version of my last name, is one of a few that were translated by Saxon tribes.

Wilda Willams, Fiction Editor, LJ
I’m reading Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Chris Pavone’s debut espionage thriller The Expats was named Best First Novel by An American Author. [Pavone participated in the espionage thriller panel at  at last year's  LJ Day of Dialog program.}. Ben Winter's dystopian mystery The Last Policeman was honored as the Best Paperback Original.

On the nonfiction front, Paul French's Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of China. took  the Edgar for Best Fact Crime, while James O'Brien's The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics won in the Best Critical/Biographical category.

Best-selling author Karin Slaughter garnered the Edgar for  Best Short Story with her "The Unremarkable Heart," which she described as "the meanest story she has ever written." She also praised the short story form as a great tool for teaching writers how to write.  [Her story  can be found in the anthology Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance.] Poet Patricia Smith received the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for her short story “When They Are Done With Us” from Staten Island Noir. Continuing the short story theme, indie publisher Akashic Books earned the Ellery Queen Award for its contributions to the mystery publishing industry, including re-energizing the mystery short story with its Noir series. Honored as Grand Masters were Ken Follett and Margaret Maron. For a full list of the winners and nominees, go to http://www.theedgars.com/,

“Our starting lineup gives an indication of the editorial scope of the imprint,” says Morrow executive editor Dan Mallory who heads the new initiative. “It’s an exciting collection of brand new content, international bestsellers not previously available in the United States, and newly digitized backlist classics. It runs the gamut from police procedurals to literary suspense, historical mysteries to action thrillers.” Among the classics Witness will release  are digital versions of Agatha Christie’s short stories, including all the “Hercule Poirot” short stories as digital singles, which will eventually be combined in a single omnibus edition with a foreword by Charles Todd.

The new imprint extends HarperCollins’s successful Avon and Harper Voyager  “Impulse” ebook publishing platform, and Danielle Bartlett, associate director of publicity, notes the possibility possibility of Witness titles going into print. “To date, more than 60 percent of Impulse titles have a print format, with thousands of printed copies sold for each of those books.”

As digital publishing expands, will the traditional literary awards follow suit? Mystery’s most prestigious prizes, the Edgar Awards, will be announced tonight at a gala banquet at New York’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. Yet none of the nominees are digital originals.Time will tell if the Mystery Writers of America, which sponsors the Edgars, will join the digital bandwagon, but the International Thriller Writers organization is already ahead of the game. Their 2013 Thriller Awards include an ebook original category. The five nominees are:

Jon Land – Pandora’s Temple (Open Road E-riginal)
CJ Lyons – Blind Faith (Minotaur Books)
Alexandra Sokoloff – Huntress Moon (Alexandra Sokoloff)
Allen Wyler – Dead End Deal  (Astor + Blue Editions)
Allen Wyler – Dead Wrong (Astor + Blue Editions)

Robin Nesbitt, director of technical services for Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML), OH, told LJ that CML decided to explore Hoopla initially because the service offered all three media types (video, audiobook, and music), Midwest Tape is a company they trust, and the customer experience, she said, “is seamless.”

Kirk Blankenship, electronic resources librarian at Seattle Public Library, WA, agreed. “It’s really slick and definitely meets the standards of what people expect from an app,” he said, adding, “We’re really happy with how it’s rolling out.”

While streaming media has been available to consumers for years through services such as Netflix, Audible, and Pandora, it wasn’t attainable in the library market.

Jeff Jankowski, vice president of Midwest Tape, explains that Hoopla’s model differs from what he calls the “one user one copy model” in that the latter requires a huge initial investment, putting emphasis on collection development and buying the right materials for the community. “It makes sense in the physical world, but less for digital,” he says.

Libraries that use Hoopla’s pay-per-circulation model provide their patrons with access to the service’s collection of media. Users can either go directly to Hoopla and sign in with their library card or begin at their library’s own website, which will direct them to Hoopla’s site to browse the offerings. When a patron checks out a video, audiobook, or album of music, his or her library pays a fee of between $0.99 and $2.99. The result, says SPL’s Blankenship, is that libraries “only pay for what people are actually using.”

Jankowski explains that this model makes it in Midwest Tape’s interest to work with libraries to market the service and make it as easy and appealing to use as possible since, he says, the company “doesn’t get paid until someone finds us and checks something out.” He puts the per-circ fees into context by explaining that a physical copy of an audiobook can cost libraries $90–100. If the normal borrowing time is three weeks, that audiobook could potentially circulate just 17 times a year. A $90 audiobook that circulates 17 times a year has a per-circ cost of $5.29.

In addition to taking some collection development pressure off libraries, a pay-per-circ model like Hoopla’s allows an unlimited number of patrons to check out an item simultaneously.

The difficulty with this sort of system is that it can be tricky to factor fluctuating costs into a tight budget. Most libraries will work around this by limiting the number of times individual patrons can check out Hoopla materials each month—Columbus limits it to eight, Seattle to 20—and basing the budget on the highest possible usage. “We have a yearly budget divided by month and can look any time to see where we are,” explained Marilyn Zielinski, technical services manager at Toledo-Lucas PL in Ohio. She added, “If we don’t spend the monthly cap, we can reallocate those funds.”

Deciding how to spread funds between streaming or downloadable and physical media is a difficult decision for most libraries, but one that Hoopla has not complicated so far for the test libraries. CML’s Nesbitt was adamant that patrons who don’t have the tools or inclination to use streaming media will not be left behind: “We didn’t raid the physical budget.” Toledo-Lucas’s Hoopla budget came out of what they would have spent on other electronic media, though Zielinski shares that “as e-materials become more popular, we are reexamining the number of physical copies we purchase.”

Toledo-Lucas does not allow patrons to use the service at the library itself for bandwidth reasons, while Seattle allows users to take advantage of what Blankenship calls the library’s “pretty robust” wireless network to stream video, audiobooks, and music on some library computers or patrons’ own devices.

Blankenship, Nesbitt, and Zielinski all praised the service’s ease of use. While the Toledo-Lucas librarians have had some calls from first-time users, Zielinski says, their questions were easily sorted out over the phone.

The only question the beta testers have at this point is whether Hoopla will continue to add content patrons want.

Jankowski shared that the company is expanding its available materials as quickly as possible, and is in final contract negotiations with a number of content providers. By the end of summer, he says, Hoopla is on track to have 9,000 audiobooks, 300,000 albums, and 7,000 videos.

When navigating collections of that size, of course, he noted the biggest challenge is discovery. Midwest Tape is working with its test libraries to develop discovery tools so patrons have immediate access to the newest materials and are able to tailor their browsing experience to their own needs.

At this point, only patrons of the test libraries (Columbus Metropolitan Library, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Harford County Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library, Orange County Library System, Seattle Public Library, and Toledo-Lucas County Public Library) can check out materials, but a free trial is available to anyone. The company’s target date to move out of beta mode is July 1.

Mahnaz Dar, Associate Editor, LJ
This week finds me returning to an old favorite—Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie. Though gruesome and deliciously pulpy in places, the story provides an unflinchingly honest glimpse at the bullying and ostracism that is so common among adolescents. While King’s narrative is fairly simple, this tale of bloody revenge has remained culturally relevant for over 25 years.

Shelley Diaz, Associate Editor, SLJ
Newbery Honor-winner Margarita Engle reimagines the coming of age and artistic awakening of Latin American poet, abolitionist, and women’s rights pioneer Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (Tula) in her novel in verse, The Lightning Dreamer. Best known for Sab (1841), which predated Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Tula’s work emphasized racial, religious, and social equality. Engle’s lyrical, short novel captures a young woman’s yearning to be accepted as a writer—without regard to her sex—bringing to mind Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.

In the following passage, Tula tries to appease her matchmaking mother, but struggles to be true to herself:

Now, when she calls me profesora,
I smile and claim that I am not smart
and plain, like a female professor.
If she calls me masculine, I wear
my best lace, flutter a flowery silk fan,
and keep myself silent, wishing
that I could openly state my truth:
I don’t want to be a man,
just a woman
with a voice.

Reading The Lightning Dreamermakes me want to revisit Sab in Spanish.

Kate DiGirolomo, Editorial Assistant, LJ
I’ve been reading Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion in my every spare moment. That said, I fully admit to being one of those “this movie was a book first?!” people, in this particular case. I wouldn’t say I’m fond of the zombie genre (I typically prefer my entertainment without devoured brains), but Marion is proving far too witty and compelling to resist. You have to respect a book that makes you wish that men could wax prolific about the complexities of life and love as well as does R., a slowly rotting corpse with a penchant for listening to Frank Sinatra (but only on vinyl).

Guy L. Gonzalez, Director of Content Strategy and Audience Development, LJ & SLJ
I’m reading Fish, an anthology of short stories ed. by Carrie Cuinn & K.V. Taylor, published by Dagan Books. I rarely discover books via social media, but Cuinn followed me on Twitter and I was intrigued by her bio and tweets, checked out Dagan Books website, and was hooked by the simple description of Fish: “What secrets belong only to a fish? Dive in and find out.” If the rest of the anthology is as clever and confounding as Polenth Blake’s opener, “Thwarting the Fiends,” I may have found a new favorite publisher.

Stephanie Klose, Media Editor, LJ
I’m reading Harry Houdini’s The Right Way To Do Wrong: A Unique Selection of Writings by History’s Greatest Escape Artist, originally published in 1906. It is, essentially, a how-to guide for crime and deception (including the sorts of illusions for which Houdini was famous). He is surprisingly—and delightfully—free with trade secrets, explaining how to accomplish feats from sword swallowing to card games to jewel heists carried out via sofa delivery. Bold, brash, self-absorbed, and aggressively, astonishingly clever, Houdini is now my number one fantasy dinner party seatmate—I’m wracked with despair that no one is ever going to tell me a story starting thus: “About 22 years ago, during one of my many engagements at Kohl and Middleton’s, Chicago, there appeared at the same house a marvelous ‘rattle-snake poison defier’ named Thardo.”

Molly McArdle, Assistant Book Review Editor, LJ
I just finished Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk, which was as funny and earnest as I remembered. The book takes place over the course of Thanksgiving Day during which Billy Lynn, a member of an Army infantry squad made famous by footage of a particularly bloody Iraq War skirmish, and his squadmates are honored guests at a Dallas Cowboys game. Billy thinks a lot about God, prayer, and religion throughout the book, but his closest glimpse of the divine is his brush with—guess who—Beyoncé. Behind the halftime show stage where Destiny’s Child is performing, he sees “a magnificent female creature” appear and realizes it is the pop star herself. As her costume is changed

her eyes meet Billy’s. Excuse me, he wants to say, go on, go on, she’s so focused and fierce in the in the moment that he’s sorry to impinge even to this small extent. Carrying the show in front of forty million people makes her one of the top human beings on the planet, and what strength of nerve that must take, what freakish concentrations of soul end energy. She’s not even winded! A yogic mastery of the mind-body balance. She inhabits some distant astral plane, yet her eyes do something when they meet his, for an instant he seems to register there. In that split second Billy searches for something in her look—not mercy, exactly, nothing so grand as compassion, maybe just a bare acknowledgement of their shared humanity, but she’s already turning…and disappears.

Up next is John Jeremiah Sullivan’s 2004 memoir of his father, Blood Horses. I loved his more recent essay collection Pulphead, which was the second book I reviewed for LJ and one of my picks for our 2011 More of the Best list.

Meredith Schwartz, News Editor, LJ
I am reading Rebecca MacKinnon’s Consent of the Networked. It is a fascinating look at how the structure and policies of Internet companies shape public discourse. MacKinnon highlights how, for all the much vaunted (and often real) democratizing effects of social media, at bottom there really isn’t a digital commons. There are, instead, privately owned spaces governed by terms of service, not laws, which are set by people who are not accountable to their constituencies and who are themselves governed by a patchwork of incompatible legal frameworks whose boundaries their services cross.

I stumbled upon Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh’s modern retelling of Alf layla wa layla, the monumental collection of folk stories known in English as One Thousand and One Nights, while compiling LJ‘s latest Classic Returns column. I read Mary Gaitskill’s introduction, al-Shaykh’s foreword, and skimmed through some of the stories. Before I knew it, I had finished half of them. Like Shahrazad’s captive king, I was hooked.

I spoke with the London-based al-Shaykh by phone recently and asked her about the role of women in the book, how she selected 19 stories from hundreds, and the process of translation.

M.M.: There are hundreds of stories in this tradition but you were able to narrow it down to 19 in this collection. What made you choose the stories you did?
H.al-S.: At the beginning, I felt as if there were so many jewels, that every story was a jewel. I couldn’t choose! Every time I read one story, I’d say, “That’s it! That’s it!” I’d read another and would be like, “That’s it!” I was collaborating on a theater project with director Tim Supple to adapt stories for a play, after we examined the many stories we decided that we should have a plot. All the beauty of all these stories would lead to nowhere if we didn’t have a theme. We chose stories that were dark, complex, violent, and explicit. They talk about the wiles of women and what made them crafty, their misfortune and who bestowed that misfortune on them. I chose the stories about misogynists, men who either killed their wives or their lovers. I understood that the behavior of these manipulative women was the second nature of the weak, [that] they were oppressed. I chose stories that go inside that oppressiveness. The theme [of the collection] is the oppressed and the oppressor.

M.M.: Tell me a little bit more about your work in the theater. Were these stories produced for the stage?
H.al-S.: I was contacted by Tim Supple, who’s worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and did A Midsummer Night’s Dream in different Indian dialects. He wanted to do One Thousand and One Nights next and he contacted me. He had read some of my novels and my lecture “The New Shahrazad,” which I gave at Sweet Briar College in 2000. He said, “Do you want to work with me?” and I said “yes.” I read 6,000 pages—3 different editions of One Thousand and One Nights. (Each edition has 2,000 pages.) It took two years. We did the play in Arabic and English. It was staged at the Luminato Festival and Edinburgh Festival two years ago. I just wrote the stories and he dramatized them.

M.M.: Women are so strong in this collection, exerting their strength through the narrative mastery that Shahrazad wields; or the physical domination the second dervish’s beloved (who castrates him) exhibits; or the fiscal power the three sisters, the mistress of the house in particular, have.
H.al-S.: I was astonished to realize that women were so strong, opinionated, and witty in those forgotten medieval societies. They were treacherous even to their gender, like in the stories “The Three Sisters” and “The Mistress of the House”.

The actual story is that the three sisters went on a trip and the two [older] sisters were so jealous of the younger sister. She had fallen in love with a man, a merchant, and while they were all on a trip to a ship to go and sell their goods, the older sisters drowned her husband. It became so complicated, this story—a magician came, and a witch came, the two sisters had a spell put on them, she bewitched them to become dogs. I thought, I don’t like it—it’s too complicated. I loved the character of the younger sister, the titular “mistress of the house.” She was so bold and so strong, and looked down on her other sisters because they were so weak.

They [married twice and] allowed [both] husbands [to] squander their inheritance. They returned home penniless. The mistress of the house took them back on the condition that they [would] never marry again, but live, like her, without a man and become, like her, interested in trading and becoming a merchant. When I had to create a character of the man [the mistress of the house would] fall in love with and marry, I chose to make him a bird, a djinn who can change…into a human being. I took this idea from another story that was about a father who didn’t want his seven daughters to get married so he built them a castle hanging in the air. The girls had to dress up as birds when they needed to leave the castle.

M.M.: He was the least destructive of all of the men in the story.
H.al-S.: There were many men in the stories, human beings, who were wise, fair, and nice. But I couldn’t fit them in [to this collection], they didn’t go with the stories. I wanted to show how romantic [the djinn] was, how he had such scruples, to give [my version] a breath of fresh air.

I think it’s so important to show how women were really bold. They just enjoyed sexuality, they enjoyed freedom, and they fought against oppression—whether against family members or husbands or society itself. And they were also very funny, and very creative. And the humor! They weren’t at all deprived of humor.

M.M.: Many of the stories you selected deal with romantic relationships, and most of those come to a violent end. What do you think this collection says about the intersection of violence and sexuality?
H.al-S.: Hundreds of years ago there was violence, and we have the same violence today! I wanted to show how the violence of years ago echoes today with honor crimes, which are against women. All that without the influence of religion, [which isn't in the stories at all]. Violence and sexuality were aspects of life then.

Since One Thousand and One Nights was oral folk tales, the audience wanted to know what life was about—they didn’t have newspapers, media, nothing. They depended on storytellers to capture the fullness of daily life. That includes violence, justice, injustice, the romantic, all aspects of life. They were trying to understand how to live, and what living is about. And it’s very sad that in the Arab world, many thought that One Thousand and One Nights was folklore, tales, and that’s it—not a literary treasure. These stories were told so people could learn lessons about humanity, even from bad deeds or omens.

M.M: What did you add to the stories?
H.al-S.: I added the connections among the stories. For example, I made the fisherman’s brother the porter. I changed so many things, I don’t recall. I had the pain of the mistress of the house, that was my invention, as was the connections among all the stories. And when Harun al-Rashid, the caliph, says I want so-and-so to marry each other, I made all the girls say no. In the original stories, they marry whoever the caliph told them to marry.

I connected the stories together by adding episodes, happenings, here and there. For example, I made a fisherman’s brother a porter in the “Porter and the Three Ladies.” I invented as I said before the djinn husband in “The Mistress of the House.” I added from scratch the story of the shopper’s tale. Most important…was my creation of the story, “The Reaction of the Caliph,” in which the five sisters challenged the Caliph and nearly died defending their freedom of choice. When he ordered them “to get married,” that “I will not allow you to live on your own without men looking after you,” the girls said no until they finally won [their freedom]. In the original stories, they were so submissive and did what they were told. I must have changed and invented a few episodes in some stories, I don’t recall!

MM: I loved that part.
H.al-S.: Me too.

Every writer has changed these stories, and I have changed them, and I’m sure someone else in I don’t know how many years will change them. These stories refuse to die—they are always expanding and shrinking, they have an organic life of their own. Usually, Arab women writers look down on Shahrazad, saying “Oh, she became a prisoner of the Shah, the bloodthirsty king.” No, in my opinion, she was stronger, he became her prisoner. He needed her stories; he depended on her to humanize him. She wasn’t doing it to save her life, but to educate him. That was what she set out to do, to humanize him.

M.M.: How was the process of translation?
H.al-S.: I wanted to adapt the Arabic and give the text to a translator like I always do with my novels, short stories, and plays. But the director [Tim Supple] said: “I want them in your voice, just write them in the English you’re familiar with, you’re comfortable with.” And this is what I did instead of giving them to a translator.

This is the first time I’ve written in English. I needed to do the Arabic and the English exactly the same. It was so difficult because of the idioms and the proverbs—what works in Arabic does not work in English. It felt like rewriting. So I would change the Arabic first and then I would translate it back into English. I was very happy and secure in the language.

The biggest challenge was the poetry, the poems. It was very difficult for me to find the voice—how am I going to construct these poems? There were many poems I wrote myself. Writing in English was liberating, I felt no shame, no taboos. I found that I could do the same in Arabic. If thousands of years ago they could write like this—it’s very explicit and erotic in Arabic by the way—then I could do it. If storytellers and later writers were bold enough at that time, why am I holding back? I was very bold; I was surprised that my publisher in Lebanon didn’t censor it.

M.M.: Were you consciously thinking of the stories’ first European translator, Antoine Galland? Especially as you were translating it into English for a presumably Western audience.
H.al-S.: He made me think, why not? There are no magic carpets in the whole One Thousand and One Nights, no Ali Baba, and no Aladdin! Galland added them. In a way I’m happy that Galland and others hailed the magical One Thousand and One Nights and adapted it. It made the Arabic intelligentsia ask themselves: “Why do we look down on these stories? Maybe there is something special in this folkloric thing.” Ultimately they become fascinated by it and reclaimed this treasure.

[19th-century English translator Sir Richard Francis] Burton changed the stories—everyone changed them—and it’s fine. You can always find a better translation. Penguin published three years ago an amazing, amazing translation. It was all there. Even as I’m talking to you, someone in his office is leaning on top of his desk and trying to translate these stories and adding new things. These stories…just want to have more [artistic] children. And why not?

On Thursday, April 25, the Library of Congress announced the creation of the Prize for American Fiction, as well as its first recipient, novelist Don DeLillo. This new lifetime achievement award in literature replaces one first given to Herman Wouk in 2008, then subsequently given as the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for fiction to John Grisham, Isabel Allende, Toni Morrison, and Philip Roth. In its press release, the Library of Congress said that the new Prize for American Fiction seeks to honor “strong, unique, enduring voices that—throughout long, consistently accomplished careers—have told us something about the American experience.”

In a 1988 review of DeLillo’s Kennedy assassination novel, Libra, which appeared in the New York Review of Books, Robert Towers called DeLillo “chief shaman of the paranoid school of American fiction,” and the term has stuck. DeLillo said in his 1993 interview with the Paris Review, “I’m not particularly paranoid myself. I’ve drawn this element out of the air around me, and it was a stronger force in the sixties and seventies than it is now. The important thing about the paranoia in my characters is that it operates as a form of religious awe. It’s something old, a leftover from some forgotten part of the soul.”

The relatively reclusive DeLillo, who regularly declines requests to appear or speak in public, will accept the award at the 13th annual National Book Festival in Washington, DC, an event that last year drew over 200,000 visitors.