Want a little romance in your life?  Take home  the UK Romance Novelists' Association's Romance Novel of the Year:  East of the Sun, by Julia Gregson.  The book tells the story of three young women who travel to India during the last days of the British Raj: Rose, about to marry a man she hardly knows, her bridesmaid Victoria, who is determi

Congratulations to Sebastian Barry, whose novel The Secret Scripture won the 2008 Costa Book Award in the Best Novel category.  Barry's book also made the Man Booker Prize shortlist.  Best First Novel went to Sadie Jones, for The Outcast

As many of you are probably aware, CBC Radio announced the selections for its 2009 Canada Reads program last week.  You might have noticed that the library only had one of the selections in French.  We have ordered copies in English, and have ordered extra copies of some of the other titles, so for those of you who want to place your holds, now's the time!  Here is the list of titles and the panelists who selected them:

Congratulations to Nino Ricci, who has earned the Governor General's Literary Award for English Fiction for his novel, The Origin of Species   .  This is the second GG for Ricci, whose first novel, The Lives of the Saints, won in 1990.  

Another former GG winner, Miriam Toews, has captured the

This year's Scotiabank Giller Prize for fiction was awarded last night at a gala dinner in Toronto.  The $50,000 award went to  Joseph Boyden, for his second novel Through Black Spruce.  The jury, which included Margaret Atwood, B

The shortlist for the 2008 Governor General's Literary Awards is out, and Rawi Hage now has a trio of nominations for his second novel,
Cockroach. 

A debut novelist has won the Man Booker Prize for 2008 - the fourth time this has happened in the forty year history of the award.  Thirty-three year old Aravind Adiga was named the winner for his novel The White Tiger,  

A book of short stories by a debut author heads up the list of 5 books selected for this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize (shades of Vincent Lam...).  Barnacle Love, by Toronto high school English teacher Anthony De Sa, was chosen to compete for the top prize along with some more familiar names.  Jospeh Boyden's second novel,

This year's Man Booker Prize shortlist includes novelists from India, England, Australia and Ireland.  Two of the authors (Aravind Adiga and Steve Toltz) are first-time novelists, and all of this year's nominees have been described by the judges as both "ambitious and approachable".  The winner will be announced in London, England on October 14th.

There's no better time of year to laze away some time with a romance novel or two.  The Romance Writers of America have chosen the 2008 winners of their annual RITA awards - perfect selections for the porch or the beach.