Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman has won this year's Kiriyama Book Prize for fiction. The $30,000 prize is given annually "to recognize outstanding books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia." While I doubt Murakami needs the money, anything that brings attention to this great writer is OK by me. … Continue reading Murakami Takes the Prize

You can't pin that Oprah down. On the heels of Sidney Poitier's "spiritual autobiography" The Measure of a Man, daytime's queen has chosen something completely different for her next book club selection: Cormac McCarthy's postapocalyptic novel The Road.Of the reclusive novelist's latest outing, Powells.com said, "McCarthy takes such B-movie plot devices as an apocalyptic future, … Continue reading On The Road Again

When it was first announced, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had no cover, just an ugly, ugly black placeholder. Perhaps that was just a ploy so that today Scholastic could trumpet the actual cover and get fans all riled up trying to decode its hidden meanings. (The full cover, front and back, is below.) … Continue reading Harry Three Ways