Everyone’s talking about…

World Book Night is on Monday and we’re rather excited about all the brilliant events that will be happening, not least our World Book Night Quiz at Cafe 164 in Leeds! Last year, we had a grand old time racing around London meeting Margaret Atwood and going to roller derby. This year’s celebrations will see one million books given out (half donated directly to hospitals, prisons and care homes, half to WBN givers), with each of the selected 25 titles in special edition World Book Night covers. There are lots of events across the UK that you can check out (listings on the World Book Night site). Are you a WBN giver? What book are you going to be giving out and where?

The Orange Prize 2012 shortlist was announced this week, the longlist having been narrowed down to just 6 works that the judges hope celebrate “excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing throughout the world.” The overall winner will be announced on 30th May at a ceremony in London’s Southbank Centre. The shortlist: Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright, Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick and State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

In case you missed it…

We added another bookshop to our bookish travel wishlist when Books Actually in Singapore became the lastest contender in our Battle of the Bookshops series – if you’ve been to any great independent bookshops either on your travels or closer to home, we’d love to hear about them! This was also the week when we fell in love with Shameless Mag, wished a Happy Bookish Birthday to Kathy Acker, got our geek on with Chicks Dig Comics and celebrated another awesome Tattoo Tuesday with Liz’s Looking For Alaska ink.

We also featured reviews this week of Mad About the Boy by Kath Drummond & Things We Left Unsaid by Zoya Pirzad and took a look at why Maya Angelou‘s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings continues to rank as one of the top 10 books most frequently banned in US school classrooms and libraries.

In other news…

Tonight, Wilton’s Music Hall in London tranforms into a Prohibition Era speakeasy and invites you to don your ’20s gladrags and experience an immersive, site-specific production of The Great Gatsby. The production will run 20th April-19th May and promises “late night  foxtrots, moonshine in teapots, pearls and flappers, bootleggers and millionaires…filled with live and evocative jazz music from the twenties, recreating the glitz and decadence of the period” – looks set to be rather special!

On Saturday, Eight Cuts presents The New Libertines as part of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival fringe events. Remember what a cracking time we had at the Manchester event in January? If you go along on Saturday, you’re in for a treat – the line up features a wealth of talent and there will also be an open mic slot that the festival organisers hope will plant the seeds for more spoken word action in the town.

Happy weekend!

Alex Herod

Photo from  Brit.’s Flickr photostream