Ho ho holy crap

There are not one, but two radio stations in my area now playing nothing but Christmas music 24 freakin' hours a day. In response to this, the weather gods have zapped us with 60 degree temps when the news was forecasting the low 40s. I'd think this was great if the cheap bastards at my school hadn't set all of the thermostats to Broil before leaving for Florida for the winter. I'm oozing out of my t-shirt right now and the last thing I need to hear is Jingle Bell Rock for the umpteenth time.

Also, since I was so busy yesterday correcting erroneous posts and defending myself against other bloggers with too much time on their hands, I didn't get to my Literary Michigan retrospective I was planning. Many of you may be cheering with glee but that will be short lived. I will get to it today, I promise.

Now onto the awards. The National Book Awards were presented last night and here are the winners:

NONFICTION

WINNER: Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
(Henry Holt & Company, LLC)

FINALISTS:

David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing
(Oxford University Press)

Jennifer Gonnerman, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
(W.W. Norton & Company)

The 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States — Authorized Edition
(W.W. Norton & Company)

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE

WINNER: Pete Hautman, Godless
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

FINALISTS:
Deb Caletti, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Laban Carrick Hill, Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
(Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown & Company)

Shelia P. Moses, The Legend of Buddy Bush
(Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division)

Julie Anne Peters, Luna: A Novel
(Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown & Company)

POETRY

WINNER: Jean Valentine, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003
(Wesleyan University Press)

FINALISTS:
William Heyen, Shoah Train
(Etruscan Press)

Donald Justice, Collected Poems
(Alfred A. Knopf)

Carl Phillips, The Rest of Love
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Cole Swensen, Goest
(Alice James Books)

FICTION

WINNER: Lily Tuck, The News from Paraguay
(HarperCollinsPublishers)

FINALISTS:
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Madeleine is Sleeping
(Harcourt, Inc.)

Christine Schutt, Florida
(TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press)

Joan Silber, Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Kate Walbert, Our Kind

Comments

[John Rickards]

Bryon said: "I'm oozing out of my t-shirt right now..."

Well, that's tiramisu in warm weather for you. I'd recommend using a rubber or vinyl t-shirt to hold in any offensive dripping, but you enjoy those far too much.

[Bill Crider]

My special congratulations to Pete Hautman, who's also written some darned good crime novels.

[Bryon]

In my book there's no such thing as offensive dripping. Of course my book hasn't been published yet. But I'm not bitter. Bastards.

[Steven]

I've never heard of any of the winners or finalists except for Stephen Greenblatt and The 9/11 Commission. That's a comment on the literary world, not me, right?
No wait. Don't answer. It's me, isn't it?
Ah well, back to my groaing (which is, btw, making a comeback both as an art and, now, a competitive sport).

[John Rickards]

Competitive sport, eh? So long as you can get kids groaing in schools and give it a firm foundation, I see no reason why it shouldn't be a rousing success.