Awards Round-Up late October - National Best Books; Margaret Atwood accepts Prince of Aturias Prize

USA Book News Names Best Books 2008 Winners
More than 500 winners were named for the National Best Books Awards, sponsored by the online magazine and review Web site.
A complete list of the winners and finalists of the USABookNews.com National "Best Books" 2008 Awards are available online at http://www.usabooknews.com/.

Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature
Margaret Atwood was awarded Spain's prestigious prize for literature, named after Crown Prince Felipe, on Friday, October 24 in Oviedo.

Click here to read what the Award foundation has to say (in English) about Atwood's achievements.

Atwood's latest nonfiction book, Payback:Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (Find this book in our catalog) has hit the bookstores and libraries just in time for the worst world economic crisis since the Great Depression. This is what the summary in our catalog has to say about the book: "In Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, literary legend Margaret Atwood delivers a surprising look at the topic of debt - a timely subject during our current period of economic upheaval, caused by the collapse of a system of interlocking debts. In her wide-ranging, entertaining, and imaginative approach to the subject, Atwood proposes that debt is like air - something we take for granted until things go wrong."--BOOK JACKET.

Prince of Asturias literary prize

Canadian author Margaret Atwood has won Spain's 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters. Click here for information on The Prince of Asturias Foundation.

The Foundation website says of Margaret Atwood: "The leading figure in Canadian literature and one of the most outstanding voices of contemporary fiction, Margaret Atwood offers in her novels a politically committed, critical view of the world and contemporary society, while revealing extraordinary sensitivity in her copious poetical oeuvre, a genre which she cultivates with great skill."

Margaret Atwood works available in the library:
Alias Grace
The Blind Assassin
Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories
Cat's Eye
The Door
Good Bones and Simple Murders
The Handmaid's Tale
Lady Oracle
Moral Disorder: Stories
Oryx and Crake
The Penelopiad
The Robber Bride
Surfacing