Dayton Literary Peace Prize

This one's for the husband, dedicated humanist that he is:

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, "the first and only annual U.S. literary award recognising the power of the written word to promote peace," has announced its 2010 finalists.

For fiction:
A Postcard from the Volcano by Lucy Beckett
A Good Fall by Ha Jin
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (one of my favourite reads of 2009; previously mentioned here)
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adiche (I haven't read this one, but I've read her other books and heard her speak at Harbourfront - she was very interesting and a powerful and eloquent for someone so young)

For nonfiction:
Enough: Why the Worlds Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman
In the Valley of the Mist by Justine Hardy
Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson
Tears in the Darkness by Michael and Elizabeth Norman
The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe (I am a very big Achebe fan, but haven't read this yet...)
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Monday news: readers' guides, movie buzz for Little Bee, and Gatsby as ballet

I kid you not:

• BalletMet Columbus's world premiere of The Great Gatsby opened last Friday!


• Nicole Kidman bids on Little Bee film rights!!! Also, there is an online reading guide out for Little Bee here.


• There is a new edition of the seminal African novel, Things Fall Apart, complete with online reading guide. If you haven't read this book, get off the Internet and go pick it up right now. Maybe read this, this and this first.