2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award Winners Announced

March 29, 2007

This year's winners are:

• Adult Fiction: Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen (Algonquin)
  
  
• Adult Nonfiction: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (Knopf)
  
  
• Children's Literature: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Knopf)
  
  
• Children's Illustrated: Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paul Kahumbu; photos by Peter Greste (Scholastic)

Four 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Books in each category were also chosen by ABA member booksellers. They are:

Adult Fiction Honor Books
The Brief History of the Dead: A Novel by Kevin Brockmeier (Pantheon)
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Atlantic Monthly)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf)
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (Knopf)

Adult Nonfiction Honor Books
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson (Broadway)
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking)
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (Crown)
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin)

Children's Literature Honor Books
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! by Lynne Truss; illustrated by Bonnie Timmons (Putnam);
New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown)
Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (Disney Editions)

Children's Illustrated Honor Books
Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor; illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins)
Flotsam by David Wiesner (Clarion Books)
Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick)
Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter's Companion by Captain William Lubber; edited by Dugald A. Steer (Candlewick)

The Book Sense Book of the Year winners and honor books were selected by booksellers from titles most often nominated for the Book Sense Picks lists in 2006. Booksellers were also able to write in titles on the ballot. Only books published in 2006 were eligible.

Neat Links

Want to know what's coming next month? Click here to see what Buzz Girl has to say!

You've seen our BookPage magazine with all the reviews, interviews and book news. See more by clicking here!

Bestseller Lists

Click here for the New York Times bestsellers.

Click here for the USA Today bestsellers.

Click here for Essence Magazine's bestsellers.

Book Review

Gods Behaving Badly By Marie Phillips Little, Brown, $23.99 304 pages ISBN 9780316067621

These gods must be crazy REVIEW BY AMY SCRIBNER So whatever happened to the Olympians? You know, the 12 Greek immortals who lived on Mount Olympus: Dionysus, god of wine. Aphrodite, goddess of love and fertility. Apollo, god of prophecy. Ares, god of war. Artemis, goddess of the hunt. And the rest of the gang. Turns out, since they fell out of vogue, they've been living in a decrepit London townhouse and, quite frankly, after all these years they're starting to get on each other's nerves. That's the premise of the intriguing debut novel Gods Behaving Badly by English author Marie Phillips. Devastatingly beautiful Aphrodite works as a phone sex operator. Dionysus is a nightclub DJ on a never-ending search for debauchery. Apollo is a cheesy television psychic. Artemis walks dogs. All those gods and goddesses living under one roof can really take its toll on a place. Their house is in shambles, so Artemis hires a housekeeper. Alice is a mousy, shy woman who was recently fired from her job cleaning the television studio where Apollo films his TV program. She's not sure what to make of her new employers, but she needs the paycheck. When a scheming Aphrodite convinces Eros, the god of love, to cast a spell, Apollo falls deeply in love with Alice. They make an unlikely pair, complicated by the fact that Alice already has a devoted secret admirer in her equally timid friend Neil. The battle of wills between Aphrodite and Apollo intensifies, and Alice and Neil are caught in the crossfire. What follows is a surreal journey by the two mortals into the underworld (via the London tube, of course) in a bid to save mankind. It's silly, to be sure, but what's wrong with silly? And somehow, with brisk writing and sly humor, Phillips spins this whimsical tale into something bigger. She gets at the heart of what it means to be needed, and why all of us—even immortals—crave it. Amy Scribner writes from Washington.