David Sedaris at WBUR studios in June 2008.

June is National Audiobook Month, and according to writer David Sedaris, also National Cornbread Stuffing Month. In honor of audiobooks and carbs, the author of Naked and When You Are Engulfed in Flames worked with the Get Caught Listening campaign to record a couple of promos to support National Audiobook Month. Entertainment Weekly has the audio files posted exclusively on their site. In his characteristic absurd and humorous style, Sedaris extols the virtues of Sam Lipsyte’s writing in The Ask, the voice work of narrator Dylan Baker, and the ability to eat cornbread stuffing while listening to an audiobook. All for a good cause.
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Chandra Levy's remains were found in Rock Creek Park, about a year after she disappeared.

When Washington intern, Chandra Levy, went missing on May 1, 2001, the news of her disappearance and revelations of an illicit affair with California congressman Gary Condit churned up a media circus. Police and press instantly seized on Condit as a likely suspect, but with the attacks on September 11 several months later, media interest waned and the police investigation stalled. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz launched a fresh journalistic investigation into the disappearance in 2007, and uncovered several key errors in the handling of the case. A book chronicling their discoveries, Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery (Scribner, 287pgs) was released this month, and is based on their series of articles published in 2008 by The Washington Post.
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Laura Ingalls Wilder

A couple of years ago, author Wendy McClure made an impromptu revisit of a childhood favorite: the Little House series of books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. In an interview with Knee-Jerk, McClure discusses her re-discovery of the classic childrens’ series and the work that they inspired. “…I was always kind of afraid to go back and reread them, because I feared that they wouldn’t be as good as I remembered,” she explains. “I think I wanted to re-immerse myself and see where it went…I was reading the books and loving them and started telling everyone I knew, ‘It’d be fun to see these places and write a book about it sometime’.” Supportive prodding from a friend in the publishing industry prompted McClure to write The Wilder Life (set to be released in early 2011), a travelogue of sorts, about the author’s experiences visiting historical sites related to the books. “I liked the idea of seeing all these places I felt I knew so well but had never actually been to.”
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When writer Justin Halpern moved back into his parents’ house after the breakup of his relationship, he took what might have been a depressing situation and turned it into a comedic goldmine. In August of last year, Halpern began tweeting the foul-mouthed witticisms spouted by his father, Samuel, on topics as varied as Pringles flavors and raising children. His Twitter feed (shitmydadsays) quickly became a web sensation, now boasts over a million followers, and has recently been turned into a book. Sh*t My Dad Says, which hit stores earlier this month and is now on the New York Times Bestsellers List, expands on the 140-character tweets and includes a few short essays about Halpern’s childhood and his relationship with his father. In a blog post for Powell’s Books, Halpern acknowledges his father’s input and support while writing the book. “Despite his editorializing, reviewing my manuscript with him was a great experience. I was reliving my childhood, and he was reliving that time in our lives, too, except through my eyes.”
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Staff writers at The Guardian recently compiled a short list of the best books in children’s literature. The list is broken down into five different age groups (0-2 years, 2-4 years, 5-7 years, 8-12 years and 12+ years) and is “a combination of personal recommendations, enduring classics and currently popular borrowings from school and public libraries.” Included are some time-honored classics like the The Very Hungary Caterpillar by Eric Carle, some more recently acclaimed books such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, and a few lesser known titles like Stig of the Dump by Clive King, which was the first original work published by Puffin press in 1963. The staff intends this list to be a starting point, and hopes to encourage parents and children to explore the wonderful world of reading together.
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Borders Group Inc. is now accepting pre-orders for Kobo, its new offering in the eReader area. Priced at just $149.99, it sells for a little more than half the price of Amazon’s Kindle, and some technophiles believe this new device will give other eReaders some stiff competition. “It looks like a huge threat to the Kindle, and Kobo seems to have trimmed just the right features to get to this low price,” writes Charlie Sorrel on Wired.com. Its form factor is very similar to the Kindle, with measurements of 4.7 x 7.2 x 0.4 inches and a 6-inch E-ink display. The controls underneath the screen are more minimal, with just a blue D-pad. The back surface is rubber with a quilted texture for comfort, and the battery can hold a charge for up to two weeks, ensuring numerous hours of reading enjoyment.
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"The Secret of the Old Clock" 1930 edition cover illustrated by Russell Tandy (left). New 80th anniversary limited edition cover (right).

The world’s most famous girl detective turned 80 last week. The Nancy Drew series, beloved by generations of young girls, debuted on April 28, 1930 with three adventures The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery. These would be the first in a series of over 300 books written by numerous writers under the pen name Carolyn Keene. The constant throughout the books was Nancy’s perky, brave and inquisitive character. At the dawn of the series, Nancy was a uniquely independent and capable female lead, and some of today’s most powerful women, including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, have named her as an early role model. In an interview with USA Today, Melanie Rehak, author of Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her (Mariner Books, 384pgs) explains the character’s lasting popularity. “The writing was formulaic, the plot twists implausible, but it’s Nancy Drew herself, ‘daring, intelligent, with tons of initiative,’ who continues to appeal to young readers,” she says.
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Amazon announced the upcoming release of Kindle (and Kindle DX) Software Update Version 2.5 on their website this week. The updated software will first be released to a small group of Kindle users, with a full launch planned in late May 2010. Among the new features will be the ability to share passages of your favorite books with friends on Facebook and Twitter, and zoom or pan around PDF documents for easier viewing. The highlights of the new features listed on Amazon’s site are as follows:

• Collections: Organize your books and documents into one or more collections.
• PDF Pan and Zoom: Zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.
• Password Protection: Password protect your Kindle when you’re not using it.
• More Fonts & Improved Clarity: Enjoy two new larger font sizes and sharper fonts for an even more comfortable reading experience.
• Facebook & Twitter Posts: Share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your Kindle.
• Popular Highlights: See what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you’re reading.

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Earlier this month, online magazine Miller-McCune.com posted a very interesting article discussing the findings of a recent study on the correlation between home libraries and children’s educational success. A team of researchers analyzed data from the World Inequality Study, which surveyed more than 70,000 people in 27 countries. Their analysis determined that “growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.” This advantage is independent of a nation’s economic stability, political climate, and even the educational level of a child’s parents.
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An article published in The New York Times earlier this week discusses the threat to government funded literacy organizations posed by changes in the proposed 2011 federal budget. Currently, established nonprofit groups like Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), which supplies literacy resources and free books to underserved children, get funding directly from the Department of Education. For the past 34 years, RIF has received an annual government grant, amounting to approximately 75 percent of the organization’s annual revenues. However, under the proposed 2011 budget, the Department of Education will pool money previously earmarked for specific nonprofit literacy organizations, and give the funds to state and local governments to distribute as they see fit. RIF, along with the other previously funded groups, will have to apply for grants in each state, and compete to maintain their funding.
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