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The Guardian has chosen Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century as the winner of its First Book Award. The Guardian newspaper awards the best new literary talent in fiction or non-fiction across all genres.

The Grammy nominees are out and the nominees for spoken word are: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!), Sidney Poitier's Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter and David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

Johnny Depp's production company has acquired film rights to Nick Tosches' In the Hand of Dante. Depp is also planning film adaptations for Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary, Gregory Robert's Shantaram, and Brian Selznick's children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Nintendo is releasing the 100 Classic Book Collection cartridge that will be compatible with the Nintendo DS portable game system on December 26th. So far, it is only available for delivery in the UK and Europe. Not sure if there are plans for release in the U.S.

A BBC report shows that 46% of men and 33% of women have lied about reading a book in order to impress someone. Have you ever done this? I wouldn't say that I've outright lied, but there have been occasions when I've just nodded my head and acted like I'm familiar with whatever book everyone is talking about. It's more about not looking stupid, rather than impressing others.

I am a huge fan of historical fiction and I've heard about a few historical fiction novels that are in the works:
Kathleen Kent (author of The Heretic's Daughter) has sold her next novel, The Giant of Edgehill, which is a love story set during the English civil war and early colonial America.
Kathryn Wagner is the author of Dancing for Degas, which is scheduled for publication in Spring 2010. The novel will be in the tradition of Chevalier's The Girl with the Pearl Earring, and portrays Paris in the late 19th century through the eyes of a young ballerina, Degas' muse.
Rebecca Stott (author of Ghostwalk) will release her next novel, The Coral Thief, in Fall 2009. The novel features a group of philosophers on a mission to reclaim art stolen by Napoleon.
The next "big" novel, due out in June 2009, will be The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe. The author is a descendant of 2 women accused of being witches in the Salem Witch Trials and the novel is about a young woman who is haunted by the Trials (does this sound familiar?).

Many newspapers, magazines, booksellers and critics have published their Best of 2008 lists. Take a look:
Washington Post
New York Magazine
The Salon
Amazon.com
Publisher's Weekly
New York Times
The Reader's Advisor Online has published a pretty comprehensive list. There are a few that I've seen on multiple lists: Toni Morrison's A Mercy, Joseph O'Neill's Netherland and Robert Bolano's 2666. Stay tuned for my list of favorites.