As you may already know, we were pretty excited when we found out about March Mystery Madness last week. In fact, after a quick flurry of email conversations, we wound up sponsoring it.

With 64 of the best mystery and thriller novels pitted against each other in a six week competition, the first week of polling is done:

Narrow upsets, crushing defeats and last-second comebacks were all the rage. Blockbuster author Philip Margolin put up a fight, slashing his way to a narrow defeat against Andrew Taylor's Fallen Angel. Taylor now takes on Karin Slaughter, who squeaked out a narrow victory of her own over the beloved Louis Bayard and his The Pale Blue Eye. Will these close victories serve as inspiration or will fans of each author be satisfied just to be in the second round?

You can find the full list of 32 first-round winners here.

Don't forget to go vote for your favourites this week- it could mean a free library of 65 excellent books.

You can find out more about the books here.

HarperCollins Canada has launched a blog/contest called March Mystery Madness:

We're hoping that everyone finds March Mystery Madness blog worthy. It's a massive, really fun online event we're running over the next six weeks: 64 books, 4 conferences, tonnes of "games," and one ultimate winner. Essentially, it's the NCAA basketball tournament only with mystery books.

Battling mystery titles, hype, games and the chance to win 65 great mystery novels. What's not to love?

Link to March Mystery Madness

Thanks, Ragdoll

 

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King Leary$19.95 add to cart

King Leary, by Paul Quarrington has won the honour of this year's CBC Canada Reads.

Championed by Dave Bidini, the book was up against Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson, From the Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant, Icefields by Thomas Wharton, and Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley

King Leary, which also won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1988, is the seventh winner of the now honoured title of Canada Reads.

You can watch the final moments of the radio broadcast here and a video tribute to the book here.

Previous Winners:

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

Rockbound by Frank Parker Day

The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe

Next Episode by Hubert Aquin

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

Geist Magazine is running a short-short writing contest: 500 words or less, action in at least two different Canadian time zones. Find the full details here.

 

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Born Standing Up$28.99 add to cart

There's no doubt that Steve Martin can write. The Emmy and Grammy award-winning author of the highly acclaimed books Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, has a great essay up at the Smithsonian Magazine, Being Funny: How the pathbreaking comedian got his act together.

If you haven't yet picked up his recent memoir, Born Standing Up, this essay may just convince you.

From the essay:

There was a belief that one appearance on "The Tonight Show" made you a star. But here are the facts. The first time you do the show, nothing. The second time you do the show, nothing. The sixth time you do the show, someone might come up to you and say, "Hi, I think we met at Harry's Christmas party." The tenth time you do the show, you could conceivably be remembered as being seen somewhere on television. The 12th time you do the show, you might hear, "Oh, I know you. You're that guy."

But I didn't know that.

The inaugural shortlist for the International Prize for Arabic fiction has been announced. Described as the "Arabic equivalent of the Booker Prize," $50,000 U.S. will go to the winner, with $10,000 awarded to each of the finalists.

The winner will be announced on March 10 at a gala ceremony which will kick off the Abu Dhabi Book fair running March 11-16.

Finalists after the jump

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Awarded in five categories (First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book), the Costa Book Awards (formally, the Whitbread Book Awards) recognize "some of the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland" One of the five winners is selected for the Book of the Year Award, which this year has gone to A.L. Kennedy's novel Day.

• First Novel Award Winner
  Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost


• Novel Award Winner
  A.L. Kennedy - Day


• Biography Award Winner
  Simon Sebag Montefiore - Young Stalin


• Poetry Award Winner
  Jean Sprackland - Tilt


• Children's Book Award Winner
  Ann Kelley - The Bower Bird

The Mystery Writers of America have announced the 2008 Nominees for the Edgar Awards. Named after the association's "patron saint" Edgar Allan Poe, the Edgars have been awarded since 1946. This year's winners (in 15 categories) will be announced at the association's annual banquet, to be held on May 1 in New York City.

The nominees for in the "Best Novel" category are:

• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
• Priest by Ken Bruen
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
• Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman
• Down River by John Hart

More Nominees After the Jump...

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Not only did New Zealander Bookman Beattie speak fondly of McNally Robinson NYC, Medium at Large, the official blog of BookExpo America, has pictures of Sarah McNally at the Beijing Bookfair.

From Beattie:

This is one of my favourite independent bookstores in NY located at 52 Prince Street in SOHO, one of my favourite neighbourhoods, a 20-25 minute walk from my daughter’s home.

Previously:

McNally Robinson in New Zealand