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…then you won’t mind another! The short list for the 2011 Indie Lit Awards is up! I am very excited about it and can’t wait to see which ones will come out on top. Our panel members have quite the challenge ahead of them but as much work as it is, I quite enjoyed myself last year.

2011 Indie Lit Awards (Short List)

Biography/ Memoir

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (Penguin)
Bossypants by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur Books)
I Pray Hardest When Being Shot At by Kyle Garret (Hellgate Press)
Little Princes by Conor Grennan (William Morrow)
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch (Harper)

GLBTQ

Well With My Soul by Gregory Allen (ASD Publishing)
Swimming to Chicago by David Matthew Barnes (Bold Strokes Books)
Songs of the New Depression by Kergan Edwards-Stout (Circumspect Press)
Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender by Nick Krieger (Beacon Press)
Huntress by Melinda Lo (little brown books for young readers)

Fiction

Dance Lessons by Aine Greaney (Syracuse University Press)
Cross Currents by John Shors (Penguin Group: NAL Trade)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Knopf/Doubleday Publishing Group)
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene (Penguin Group)

Mystery

Missing Daughter, Shattered Family by Liz Strange (MLR Press)
The Cut by George Pelecanos (Reagan Arthur/LIttle, Brown)
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (St. Martin’s Press)
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)
Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown)

Non-Fiction

Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe (Putnam Adult)
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (Crown)
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff (Harper)
Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku (Doubleday)
The Social Animal by David Brooks (Random House)

Poetry

Beyond Scent of Sorrow by Sweta Vikram (Modern History Press)
Catalina by Laurie Soriano (Lummox Press)
What Looks Like an Elephant by Edward Nudelman (Lummox Press)
Three Women: A Poetic Triptych and Selected Poems by Ramos, Emma Eden (Heavy Hands Ink)
Sonics in Warholia by Megan Volpert (Sibling Rivalry Press)

Speculative Fiction

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Candlewick)
The Magician King by Lev Grossman (Viking)
11/22/1963 by Stephen King (Scribner)
Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor Books)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Crown)

We expect to announce the winners in mid-March. If you’d like more info on the awards, check out the web page.

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories
By Joseph Gordon-Levitt
(It Books, Hardcover, 9780062121660, December 2011, 88pp.)

The Short of It:

A short, snappy little book filled with creativity.

The Rest of It:

When I first heard about this little gem, I knew I had to read it for myself. HitRECord, founded by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, Inception, 10 Things I Hate About You) reviewed contributions from thousands of writers and artists to create this collection. The stories are only one or two pages long. Some are humorous, some of thought-provoking but the real challenge here is telling a story in just one or two pages complete with illustrations.

The book itself is very well done. It would make a fabulous gift and honestly speaking, the writing is pretty clever, too. I also enjoyed the illustrations. When it came in the mail, The Girl took off with it thinking it was for her. She read about half of the stories and then asked if she could keep it. Uh, no. Maybe later, like after I’ve read it! So you see, it’s a tasty little morsel.

Here’s one of my faves from the collection. Click on the photo a couple of times to view it larger.

Aside from all the fun of reading a book like this, I think it’s important for people to be able to feel as if they have a creative outlet. Often, we want to be creative but the process often seems too difficult or overwhelming. If you are an artist who would like to contribute works for volume 2, check out the web site.

Also, here’s a video to tell you a little more about it: