Category: Books

The Omnivore's sophomore edition of its Hatchet Job of the Year Award celebrates the "angriest, funniest, most trenchant" English-language book reviews and promotes professional criticism. This year's contenders cut down such heavyweights as Martin Amis, Salmon Rushdie and Naomi Wolf. But is the fine line between negative and nasty disappearing in the world of professional book criticism?

As a fresh new year begins, CBC Arts takes a glimpse at some arts and entertainment happenings about to unfold. Be they outstanding productions or cringe-inducing wrecks, these are just a few of the shows, books, albums, musicals, films and events we just can't wait to check out in 2013.

This year a slew of musical stars put down their guitars and picked up a pen, among them Neil Young, who wrote the idiosyncratic Waging Heavy Peace and Pete Townshend, who bares all in Who I Am. Some rockers trusted someone else to do it -- the definitive Mick Jagger bio comes from Philip Norman and there is more on Joni Mitchell from Katherine Monk. CBC's Laura Thompson looks at the top memoirs of the year.

All those e-readers Canadians bought appear to have had a major impact on the publishing industry. Excitement over e-books seemed to help drive the hunger for so-called "Mommy porn," but hoped-for blockbusters, like J.K. Rowling's first adult novel, didn't have the same impact. Meanwhile, the anxiety about e-books emerged again as the industry endured major changes. Susan Noakes looks at a few key developments from the book world this past year.

Canada has a rich vein of literature for children and young adults, rightly celebrated with prizes such as the Canadian Children's Book Awards and the Governor General's Literary Awards in children's text, which will announce its winners next week. Susan Noakes talks to the five writers vying for the GG for children's writing about what inspires their imaginations.

Zombies? Everybody loves them -- including Margaret Atwood, who is publishing a serialized zombie novel on Wattpad and co-written with a British novelist she's mentoring. Wattpad lets you read content for free and doesn't pay its writers, which begs the question: How will writers be paid for their work in future? In a week when another traditional Canadian publisher seems ready to join the walking dead, it's a pressing concern for the scribes of the world.

British writer J.K. Rowling is making her first foray into the world of adult writing Thursday with the release of The Casual Vacancy. The question is not whether she can deal with adult themes - she does that valiantly in the Harry Potter series - but whether she can write about them without the fantasy elements that appeal to her fans. No matter what the critics think, the book will be a bestseller.

A Malaysian writer has been shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, celebrating the best in English-language books. Tan Twan Eng's inclusion signals a coming-of-age in literature for the country whose arts scene has been long overlooked.

Everyone involved in publishing is just trying things out in the digital world to see what works. Random House of Canada, a unit of one of the world's biggest publishing houses, has launched a new digital line of shorter, punchier books beginning with an eyewitness account of the Arab Spring from a Canadian journalist. Plus it's wooing readers with a new online magazine.

In her bestselling books, Maeve Binchy wrote about an Ireland undergoing the transition from rural backwater to Celtic Tiger. However, her real specialty was capturing young people making the difficult, often painful decisions that transform them into adults. She was beloved around the world for short stories and novels that combine the self-examination of Jane Austen with the juicy plotting of a daytime soap and in which the characters -- just ordinary people -- jump to vivid life on the page. Susan Noakes offers an appreciation of the Irish author.