The Elegant Variation

L.A. EVENT - GOLDBERG ON A BENDER

So to speak.  Well, "with" a Bender is probably more accurate, as Tod Goldberg and Aimee Bender join forces for a reading in the Palisades Thursday night. 

Who: Tod Goldberg & Aimee Bender

When: This Thursday at Village Books in Pacific Palisades, 7:30pm (1049 Swarthmore Ave.
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 tel: 310-454-4063)

What: Tod & Aimee reading their short stories inside the charming Village Books

Why: Well, at base, book sales. But the larger issue is that we're all about glorifying the written word and stuff.

How: Tod suspects they''ll probably rock-paper-scissor it to see who goes first.

SPURLING WINS WHITBREAD

Beating the odds (but really, when was the last time book prize oddsmakers got it right?), Hilary Spurling snaps up the Whitbread Book of the Year award for Matisse the Master.

Spurling, who spent 15 years writing and researching her two-part biography of the French Impressionist, was chosen over the four other Whitbread winners.

She said she was "gobsmacked", adding: "My money was placed elsewhere."

With The Accidental at 5/4, so were lots others, we expect ...

BELLWETHER PRIZE AWARDED

The Bellwether Prize, funded by Barbara Kingsolver to promote novels of "social responsibility" has gone to Marjorie Kowalski Cole's debut novel Correcting the Landscape.

The Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded in even-numbered years, consists of a $25,000 cash payment to the author of the winning manuscript, and guaranteed publication by a major publisher. The Bellwether Prize is the only major North American endowment or prize for the arts that specifically seeks to support a literature of social responsibility. Its intent is to advocate serious literary fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships. The prize is awarded to a previously unpublished novel representing excellence in this genre. The Prize was founded and is fully funded by Barbara Kingsolver.

Now, we're usually not the types to pick on this sort of thing because heaven knows it's scarcely a level playing field out there - but apparently, at least as far as the brief history of the Bellwether Prize is concerned, men are not writing about social justice.  Yes, we know three awards is scarcely dispositive but we're just saying ...

ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS

The Blue Valley school board (it's in one of those Red States) has opted to leave "three disputed novels" on their curriculum for at least a few more years.

The Blue Valley school board on Monday said that parents who challenged Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon and The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy had failed to prove that the books violated the district’s policy for choosing learning resources.

The Conroy and Morrison books were affirmed in 5-1 votes, with board member Dan French casting the dissenting vote. Boy’s Life was approved 5-0. French disqualified himself because he had not read the book. Board member Clint Robinson was absent.

“While personally we can deplore the language and some of the content, the fact is that these books consider the reality of life that we live in,” said board member Steve Klika. “If we don’t educate our children to understand what life is all about, how are we going to prepare them for the future?”

C'EST NORMAL

We've been meaning to post this photo we took (via our phone) in Paris of a 24 hour book vending machine:

If you get in a bit closer, you can see some of the titles on offer:

For that middle-of-the-night literary craving that just won't wait ...  A bargain at two euros!

TEV GIVEAWAY - OUR ECSTATIC DAYS

Steve Erickson's remarkable and involving Our Ecstatic Days - which we recently talked up in our LAist interview - has just been issued in paperback.  We're happy to offer up a copy to the first lucky reader to drop us an email.

UPDATE: Congratulations to winner Nate Nieman, and thanks to all who wrote in!

WHAT OUR SMARTER FRIENDS ARE UP TO

Maud Newton lends her literary cred to the American Prospect (we've been waiting for the full story to be available online but go and check out the opening), and Laila Lalami reviews Vikram Seth for the Boston Globe.

CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED

The Caldecott and Newbery Award winners have been announced.

Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins, is the 2006 Newbery Medal Winner, for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. The 2006 Caldecott Medal winner for the most distinguished American picture book for children goes to The Hello, Goodbye Window, illustrated by Chris Raschka and written by Norton Juster.

BEHIND DOOR NUMBER TWO

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the fate that met 888 titles from the Smithsonian Institute Pres when it became a HarperCollins imprint.

It was around that time that Mr. Pfitzer started to become seriously anxious about his book. Under the terms of the new deal, about 250 old Smithsonian titles were added to HarperCollins' backlist, but an additional 888 Smithsonian books — including Mr. Pfitzer's — met a less happy fate. "On a tip from a friend," he says in an e-mail message, "I checked the SIP Web site in the summer of 2005 and discovered a list of books designated as 'Smithsonian Publications to be transferred to HarperCollins,' and a second list marked 'Publications which SHALL NOT be returnable to W.W. Norton or HarperCollins after July 31, 2005.' My book was in the second list."

Linda St. Thomas, a spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution, says most of the authors of the unlucky 888 books were given a choice in early 2005: They could either purchase the rights to their books (and buy the leftover copies), or the books would be remaindered and taken out of print. However, in cases like Mr. Pfitzer's, where the book was less than three years old, the Smithsonian's contractual obligations prevented the books from being remaindered. So Mr. Pfitzer and approximately 30 other authors were thrown into limbo.

WE ALWAYS THOUGHT NYC AND LONDON WERE MADE UP

According to "the world's leading provider of bibliographic information" (according to whom?), Los Angeles is the third most popular setting for fiction, right behind New York and London.  But on a state-by-state breakdown, California came in first.

Deconstructing more than 13,000 works of adult fiction published in the U.S., Bowker found that 1,550 of those with an identifiable location were set in England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland. New York topped the list of cities, followed by London, Los Angeles (including Hollywood), Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

In addition to London, the other non-U.S. city to make the top 10 fictional settings was Rome. California was the setting for more novels than any other state, followed by Texas, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina.