Friday, June 19, 2009

Independent Booksellers book prize shortlist goes to customer vote
Eclectic shortlist chosen by retailers opened to bookbuyers for final adjudication
Alison Flood in the guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 June 2009

An epistolary novel set in Guernsey is up against a study of how music works on the brain; a Booker prize winner is competing with a memoir of old age. This is the Independent Booksellers book prize, featuring a line-up handpicked by hundreds of independent bookshops from their bestselling titles, and launching this week as part of a week-long celebration of the role of independents.
The award pits Mary Ann Shaffer's novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society against Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia, Diana Athill's memoir Somewhere Towards the End against Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger.

"They're not the supermarkets' or the chains' choices – they're our choices," said Vivian Archer of the Newham Bookshop in east London. "It's a good, independent mix – and quite a literary mix, which is great."
Also in the 10-book line-up are Sebastian Barry's Costa-wining The Secret Scripture, Kate Summerscale's Samuel Johnson winner, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, and Clarissa Dickson-Wright's memoir Spilling the Beans. "It reflects what independents have been selling well," said Eleanor Lowenthal, owner of Pages of Hackney. "Patrick Gale won last year – he was a bestseller, and also critically acclaimed, and the list this year reflects that too. They're all good quality titles, and very sellable." Customers can vote for their choice at independent bookshops around the country until 28 August, with the winner to be announced in September.
Read the rest here.

1 comment:

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