The finalists for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award have been announced and two Random House, Inc. books are among them.

Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs and Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor join literary heavyweight Barbara Kingsolver (The Lacuna) and two others who are nominated for the award, which was founded by writers in 1980 and partially named after William Faulkner.

Previous Random House, Inc. winners in recent years include: Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (2009), Everyman by Phillip Roth (2007) and The March by E.L. Doctorow (2006).

We just got word of another important list of awards for our books: The Amelia Bloomer Project list, a yearly round-up of strong feminist works. Here is what the project is all about:

“In an effort both to alert readers to society’s opposition toward women’s equality and to highlight progress toward this vital goal, the 2010 Amelia Bloomer Project members selected 54 books notable for feminist content, quality of writing, and appeal to young readers.”

And congratulations to the authors, editors, and contributors to the following books!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Delacorte Press)

Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis (Alfred A. Knopf)

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn (Alfred A. Knopf)

The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam (Spiegel & Grau)

The Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins (Delacorte)

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (Random House)

-Dave

The New York Times Book Review has announced their Top 10 Books of 2009 and three wonderful Random House, Inc. titles have made the list!

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

A Gate at the Stairs by Laurie Moore

The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

Be sure these titles are available as your patrons will surely be asking for them! View the full list here.

Members of our library mktg dept. attended the AASL conference last week and the buzz from the librarians revolved around the lack of women authors on this year’s Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2009 top ten list. 

I just scanned the list myself, and while I am THRILLED to see Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places  on the fiction round-up – I completely agree that it’s shocking to see such male domination.  And they completely missed Jeannette Walls’  Half Broke Horses (Scribner) and A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book!

What do you feel PW missed?  Which female authors do you think should be in the top ten list?

-Erica

Did you know there were Video Book Awards? I confess, I did not. But three intriguing videos are finalists for Kirkus Reviews 2009 Book Video Awards. The Award “challenges student filmmakers to create video trailers based on three upcoming young-adult novels to be published by Random House Children’s Books. ”

The three finalist books are: Very Lefreak, The Maze Runner, and Fallen.

Vote for your favorite here and be sure to add these books to your YA collections.

-Marie

Our exciting week here at Random House just keeps getting better!!

Wonderful news this afternoon from the Pulitzer Prize Board:  Random House, Inc. books were awarded 2009 Pulitzers in three of the five Letter categories.

Fiction

OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)

Biography

AMERICAN LION: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)

General Nonfiction

SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday)

Congratulations to our authors and to their publishers and editors, whose pride and accomplishment we all can share.

In the eleven years since Random House, Inc. came together as a merged company eighteen of our books have won Pulitzers–a feat unmatched by another trade-book publishing company.

-Erica

ForeWord is pleased to announce the finalists in the 2008 Book of the Year Awards. More than 1,400 books were entered in 61 categories. These were narrowed to 668 finalists from 376 publishers. These books represent some of the best work coming from today’s independent press community.

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers, selected from our readership. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor’s Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at BookExpo America at the Javits Center in New York City on May 29.

Congratulations to the Random House distributed publishers whose titles have been selected as finalists!

Osprey finalists for Foreward’s Book of the Year Award

Other Press  finalists for Foreward’s Book of the Year Award

Rizzoli finalists for Foreward’s Book of the Year Award

Welcome Books finalists for Foreward’s Book of the Year Award

-Erica

Congrats to Knopf Publishing Group author, Joseph O’Neill!

His novel, Netherland, has won the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Award judge Rendall Kenan says, “["Netherland"] is about the new and continuing immigrant story, about New Americans and the making of new American traditions, which has always been New York’s function in the world. O’Neill has created a powerfully entertaining novel, but also a new emblem for our time.”

Past PEN/Faulkner winners include Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow and the late John Updike.

-Marie

I was thrilled to watch Kate Winslet win the Oscar for her performace in THE READER.  And when I recently read an article in which she describes her well worn copy of Bernard Schlink’s haunting novel, I instantly knew I would read those same passages and for a moment be connected to the brilliance that is Kate Winslet.

-Erica

The Cybils–a series of awards given out by bloggers of children’s and young adult books–has announced their 2008 nominees in the Graphic Novel category.  See the nominees here and check them against your shelves! We’re honored that these include 4 titles from Random House, Inc.:

Janes in Love (the follow-up to the classic “Plain Janes”)
Emiko Superstar
Out of Picture 2: Art from the Outside Looking In
Y: The Last Man: Volume 10 – The Whys and Wherefores (a staff favorite around the building here)

-David