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Seattle — ALA Midwinter Meeting Highlights      Cognotes • Page 15

RUSA

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W.W. Norton. Why something instead of nothing?

Ingrassia, Paul. Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars. Simon & Schuster. From the Model T to the Prius, we are what we drive.

Iverson, Kristen. “Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats.” Crown. The personal story and public politics of life beside plutonium triggers.

King, Ross. Leonardo and the Last Supper. Walker. Think you know everything about da Vinci and his masterpiece? An enlightening and entertaining treatment of an iconic subject.

Murphy, Paul Thomas. Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy. Pegasus. Queen - 8, assassins - 0.

Roberts, Callum. The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea. Viking. Sail and swim through our threatened waters towards ideas for creating a sustainable future.

Winter son, Jeanette. Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? Grove. Religion, sex, class, libraries, politics, madness, art-—the memoir of a young woman discovering the sanctuary of literature.

POETRY

Alighieri, Dante. Trans. Mary Jo Bang. Illus. Henrik Drescher. Inferno. Graywolf. A rollicking, contemporary trip through the Underworld.

Olds, Sharon. Stag's Leap. Knopf. An arc of verses which touch the raw nerve of betrayal, lost love, forgiveness, healing and finding peace.

THE READING LIST in eight genres

The Reading List annually recognizes the best books in eight genres: adrenaline (including suspense, thriller and adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and women's fiction. This year's list includes novels that will please die-hard fans, as well as introduce new readers to the pleasures of genre fiction. Librarians can use the lists as resources for reader recommendations and collection development at their own libraries, or to build their personal to-be-read lists.

The 2013 winners are:

ADRENALINE: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

FANTASY: The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley

HISTORICAL FICTION: Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel

HORROR: The Ritual, by Adam Nevill

MYSTERY: The Gods of Gotham, by Lyndsay Faye

ROMANCE: Firelight, by Kristen Callihan

SCIENCE FICTION: Caliban's War, by James S. A. Corey

WOMEN'S FICTION: The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, by Margaret Dilloway

2013 SOPHIE BRODY MEDAL

The 2013 Sophie Brody Medal for achievement in Jewish literature is presented to The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible, by Matti Friedman (Algonquin). The Aleppo Codex is a beautifully written and compelling work that illuminates a remarkable range of Jewish themes: the Diaspora, the State of Israel, the survival of original Jewish texts, and the fate of the Jews in the Arab world. The mystery is a real page turner. Three books received honorable mentions: “I Am Forbidden” by Anouk Markovits (Hogarth); Nathan Englander's “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” (Knopf); and “The Lawgiver” by Herman Wouk.

THE LISTEN LIST

The Listen List: Outstanding Au-diobook Narration highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by general adult listeners and the librarians who work with them. Titles are selected because they are a pleasure to listen to and make one reluctant to stop listening. The 2013 winners are:

Angelmaker, by Nick Harkaway. Narrated by Daniel Weyman. AudioGO.

Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel. Narrated by Simon Vance. Macmillan Audio.

The Chalk Girl, by Carol O'Connell. Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. Recorded Books.

The Death of Sweet Mister, by Daniel Woodrell. Narrated by Nicholas Tecosky. AudioGo.

The Garden Intrigue, by Lauren Willig. Narrated by Kate Reading. Books on Tape.

Heft, by Liz Moore. Narrated by Kirby Heyborne and Keith Szarabajka. Blackstone Audiobooks.

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel, by Anthony Horowitz. Narrated by Derek Jacobi. Hachette Audio. AudioGO.

The Inquisitor, by Mark Allen Smith. Narrated by Ari Fliakos. Macmillan Audio.

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. Narrated by Alan Cumming. Simon & Schuster Audio.

Miles: The Autobiography, by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe. Narrated by Dion Graham. AudioGO.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. Narrated by Ari Fliakos. Macmillan Audio.

The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens. Narrated by David Timson. Naxos Audiobooks.

The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Narrated by Simon Prebble. Tantor Media.

2013 DARTMOUTH MEDAL

The 2013 Dartmouth Medal winner for most outstanding reference work is the Dictionary of American Regional English published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. In describing this year's winner, the committee felt compelled to use words like “monumental” and “stupendous” to describe this invaluable reference source: the Dictionary of American Regional English is the culmination of extensive field work, attention to detail, and a lot of hard work. This project began 65 years ago, with penciled post cards and call-ins to a radio station, and has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities since 1970, with additional significant support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The committee also selected The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, published by Wiley-Blackwell as a 2013 Dartmouth Medal Honorable Mention. This work compiles broad based scholarship on ancient Greece, Rome, the ancient Near East, and Pharaonic Egypt from international contributors.

OUTSTANDING REFERENCE SOURCES LIST

The Outstanding Reference Sources List was established as a source for the most outstanding reference publications for small and medium-sized public and academic libraries. The selected titles are valuable reference resources, and are highly recommended for inclusion in any library's collection.

The 2013 winners are:

Biotechnology: In Context, edited by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner & K. Lee Lerner, Gale Cengage; Dictionary of African Biography, edited by Emmanuel K Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates Jr., Oxford University Press;

Encyclopedia of Housing, Second Edition, edited by Andrew T. Carswell, Sage Publications;

Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology, edited by Daniel J. Christie, Wiley-Blackwell;

Encyclopedia of Trauma: An Interdisciplinary Guide, edited by Charles R. Figley, Sage Publications;

Enslaved Women In America: An Encyclopedia, edited by Daina Ramey Berry and Deleso A. Alford, Greenwood;

Japanese Philosophy: A Source Book, edited by James W. Heisig, et al,

University of Hawaii Press;

Literature of War, edited by Thomas Riggs, St. James Press/Gale Cengage;

Presidents and Black America: A Documentary History, by Stephen A. Jones and Eric Freedman, Sage/CQ Press;

Typography Referenced: A Comprehensive Visual Guide to the Language, History, and Practice of Typography, edited by Allan Haley et al, Rockport Publishers;

Women in American Politics: History and Milestones, by Doris Weather-ford, Sage/CQ Press.

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

In addition to these literary awards, two achievement awards were announced at the reception:

The 2013 Louis Shores Award for excellence in book reviewing is presented to the NextReads team at EBSCO's NoveList. For the past seven years, the NextReads team has produced over 1,800 individual newsletter issues reviews that have helped to shape the professional readers’ advisory community and communities of readers across the country. By offering readers a thoughtful mix of reviews of new and selected older materials, the NextReads team supports libraries as they build a community of readers. The librarians on the NextReads time have a strong sense of how to write reviews that capture the appeal factors that draw a reader into a book, and their ability to communicate appeal to both librarians and to readers makes NextReads a valuable review source in the library community.

Lavona Kay Broadnax, digital project coordinator at the Library of Congress, is the 2013 recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston Award, sponsored by Harper Perennial. The award honors librarians who have demonstrated leadership in promoting African-American literature. Broadnax was selected for her wonderful bibliography project, “Selected Literature Published by the Civil War Soul Sisters.”

More information about RUSA and its literary awards is available at www.ala.org/rusa or www.literarytastes.com.