The Agatha Award Nominees

The Agatha Award Nominees have been announced! The awards will be presented at Malice Domestic in Bethesda, MD on April 28, 2012.

Best Novel:
The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews
The Diva Haunts the House by Krista Davis
Wicked Autumn, by G.M. Malliet
Three Day Town, by Margaret Maron
A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny

Best First Novel:
Dire Threads (A Threadville Mystery), by Janet Bolin
Choke, by Kaye George
Learning to Swim: A Novel, by Sara J. Henry
Who Do, Voodoo? (A Mind for Murder Mystery), by Rochelle Staab
Tempest in the Tea Leaves (A Fortune Teller Mystery), by Kari Lee Townsend

Best Non-Fiction
Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure, by Leslie Budewitz
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks, by John Curran
On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling, by Michael Dirda
Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel, by A. B. Emrys
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, by Charlaine Harris

Best Short Story
"Disarming", by Dana Cameron (in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
"Dead Eye Gravy", by Krista Davis (in Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology)
"Palace by the Lake", by Daryl Wood Gerber (in Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology)
"Truth and Consequences", by Barb Goffman (in Mystery Times Ten)
"The Itinerary", by Roberta Isleib (in MWA Presents the Rich and the Dead)

Best Children's/Young Adult:
Shelter by Harlan Coben
The Black Heart Crypt by Chris Grabenstein
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey
The Code Busters Club, Case #1: The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner

Best Historical Novel:
Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
Murder Your Darlings by J.J. Murphy
Mercury's Rise by Ann Parker
Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson
A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature winner

When They Come for Us We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) has won the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council and recognizing the role of emerging writers in examining the Jewish experience. The prize, which carries an award of $100,000, is given to works of fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. The runner-up is Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero by Abigail Green (Belknap Press of Harvard University) and will receive a $25,000 prize. Beckerman, an opinion editor at the Forward, and Green, a lecturer at Oxford, will receive their prizes at a ceremony in Jerusalem on April 11

Jewish Book Week 2012 (UK)

Jewish Book Week 2012 - over 100 speakers pack the events programme of panel discussions, meet the author sessions, workshops and spoken-word performances - 18 - 26 February - UK

The Biggest Book Show on Earth (UK)

The Biggest Book Show on Earth is part of World Book Day: the biggest celebration of authors, illustrators, books and reading of its kind. On 1 March children of all ages, as well as schools, bookshops, libraries will all come together to appreciate reading. Very loudly and very happily! Millions of book vouchers will be distributed to children and teens on the day (more than 14 million, in fact). They can use them to pick one of EIGHT free new books or get £1* off a full-price book. It’s all about getting kids closer to the books and authors they love, and letting them discover more books they'll love every bit as much

Pan Macmillan launches e-book list (Australia)

Pan Macmillan has become the first major book publisher in Australia to launch a digital-only list. An initial 22 e-books will be available on its Momentum site with new titles under $10 and previously published titles under $5. The first releases include new books by bestselling Australian authors Andy Griffiths and Greig Beck plus a debut novel by Indian writer Mini Nair

22nd Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2012

22nd Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2012 - 28 March to 2 April, 2012

2012 Lionel Gelber Prize shortlist

Finalists have been named for the $15,000 Lionel Gelber Prize, which celebrates the best nonfiction books on foreign affairs. The winner of the prize, which was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber, will be announced February 27 and receive the award, as well as deliver the annual Lionel Gelber Prize free public lecture, March 15 in Toronto. The 2012 shortlisted titles are:

* A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman (Random House)
* Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth Frederick Kempe (Putnam)
* Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel (Belknap/Harvard University Press)
* George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis (Penguin)
* On China by Henry Kissinger (Penguin)

Lemony Snicket to publish a series of autobiographical accounts

A Series of Unfortunate Events author to launch autobiographical All the Wrong Questions sequence this autumn

Foyles launches new eBook app

London-based bookseller Foyles has released a new eBook app for Apple's iPad and iPhone and devices powered by Android. The free app is powered by Txtr and allows users to import books protected by Adobe’s DRM system which they may have purchased from other booksellers

American Booksellers Association says 'no' to Amazon Publishing

The American Booksellers Association is the latest to weigh in on Amazon's publishing program following the decision by Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Indigo Books not to carry their titles. On Wednesday the organization's for-profit subsidiary, IndieCommerce, began removing all Amazon titles from its database