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Weekly Words about Books MARCH 3, 2013
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Old News - Johnson Biographer Wins National Book Critics Circle Award
| Robert A. Caro continued a phenomenal run by winning his third National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) award on Friday. Caro was honored for the fourth installm ent of his The Years of Lyndon Johnson biographies, the Passage of Power, which follows Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career - 1958 to 1964. Caro had previously won the prestigious NBCC award for biography for both his first and second Johnson books - The Path to Power and Means of Ascent. Caro's third book, Master of the Senate, was not honored by the NBCC; for that volume, he had to settle for the Pulitzer Prize.
The NBCC awards are given each March to honor the best literature published in the United States in six categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. These are the only national literary awards chosen by critics themselves and, as such, are considered among the most valued. Other winners this year include Ben Fountain for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Fiction); Andrew Solomon for Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (General Nonfiction); Leanne Shapton for Swimming Studies (Autobiography); Marina Warner for Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights (Criticism); and D. A. Powell for Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys (Poetry).
By the way, Fiction winner Fountain doesn't have Caro's longevity, but he's off to a good start - Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is his debut novel. Back in December, I mentioned the book, which had  recently arrived in paperback, noting that I had discovered it because independent booksellers kept talking about it. Here's a brief description:
Ben Fountain presents a telling portrait of contemporary Americans' response to war by focusing on a company of soldiers who have been made instant heroes by an act of bravery captured on film. The Bush Administration brings the group home for a brief Victory Tour to reinvigorate support for the war, and the soldiers end up in Dallas to take part in a halftime tribute at a Cowboys football game. It's both funny and heartbreaking, and non-Dallas football fans will enjoy the skewering of the so-called America's Team.
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Timely View of A City's Tough Times Makes
Indie Bestseller List
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If you read or listen to news accounts, you  know that the state of Michigan appears ready to take over the running of the once-great city of Detroit. It's a sad, tragic story and one that the media will continue to cover. But it's hard to imagine that anyone will tell the beleaguered city's story better than Charlie LeDuff, an award-winning journalist with a new book, Detroit: An American Autopsy.
In the book, LeDuff returns to his broken hometown to search the ruins for clues to the city's fate. Armed with a keen reporter's eye and the indignation of a native son, he investigates political corruption and finds ordinary people determined to hold Detroit together as he tracks the history of a major city that has gone from the richest to the poorest in the country. And in spite of the pervasive bleakness and poverty, LeDuff manages to inject gonzo-like humor and a sense of hope into his book.
If you want to know more about Detroit's problems than you'll find in the newspaper or on CNN, head to your local independent bookstore and pick up a copy of Detroit: An American Autopsy.
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WHERE TO FIND A BOOKSTORE
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Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship, this link will take you to a list of Northern California indie bookstores by region.
If you live or work elsewhere, you can click here to find the nearest indie bookstore by simply entering your postal code.
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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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My name is Hut Landon. I'm a former bookstore owner who now runs the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
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