Indie Awards 2012

The winners of the 2012 Indies Awards were announced last weekend. Boomerang Books Blog has a good rundown on all the winners here: Indie Winners.

Book of the year winner All That I Am has been selling really well at my bookstore and been really popular with bookclubs, although my personal pick was Past the Shallows. I was a bit disappointed in the Children's Book category. The Coming of the Whirlpool (Ship Kings 01) was a truly innovative, creative and well-written read, and I do feel that The Littlest Refugee, while still wonderful, was bouncing a bit off The Happiest Refugee's previous success. Also I'm a bit iffy about picture books, kids novels, and YA novels all being lumped into the one category.

I was at the Leading Edge Booksellers Conference (held in Melbourne, Vic this year) when these winners were announced. It was an enjoyable weekend, if a little rushed.

Award News - Costa and Indie Prizes

Some book award news from the past week or so:

The Costa Book Award prizes were  recently announced, and the children’s shortlist was as follows:

-         Flyaway, by Lucy Christopher

-         Annexed, by Sharon Dogar

-         Bartimaeus: Ring of Soloman, by Jonathan Stroud

-         Out of Shadows, by Jason Wallace

Jason Wallace won, with judges reporting: “...[this] extraordinary debut novel was a unanimous winner. This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since."

The Costa Book Awards is one of the most prestigious and popular literary prizes in the UK and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.

The 2011 Indie Book Award shortlists were also announced, with the winners to be revealed in mid-March. On the children’s shortlist are:

-         Museum of Thieves: The Keepers Book, by Lian Tanner

-         Mirror, by Jeannie Baker

-         The Very Bad Book, by Andy Griffiths

-         The Legend of the Golden Snail, by Graeme Base.

I absolutely adore Jeannie Baker and Graeme Base (I couldn’t get enough of Graeme’s The Sign of the Seahorse and The Eleventh Hour as a kid – so clever and brilliant), so I hope either wins. The Indie Awards are chosen by Independent booksellers across Australia, who nominate their favourite books of 2010.

In other news, I have been trying to read Rosie Black, by Lara Morgan, for the past couple of months. I just cannot get into it, so have decided to move on. I think I found it perhaps a bit by-the-numbers, not particularly inspired? It just didn’t grab me. But I hate not finishing books so might try to pick it up again later on.