Genre: Not Genre-Specific

On June 16, fiction writer Salman Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to literature, British media reported. Sir Salman Rushdie, as the author is now known, was among nineteen nonresident Indians who were recognized by the queen for their contribution to various fields.

Tomorrow night, the New York Center for Independent Publishing (previously the Small Press Center) will host a panel discussion titled "Save Our Book Reviews!" as part of the National Book Critics Circle's ongoing "Campaign to Save Book Reviews."

Oh that mine enemy were to write a book. It’s a line, paraphrased from the Book of Job, that was uttered last Friday morning at BookExpo America by Christopher Hitchens—author of the recently published book God Is Not Great—as the motto from his earlier book reviewing days. It was an odd sentiment to be heard at a panel called “Ethics in Book Reviewing: The More Things Change…?” but it certainly made the crowd, which was packed in and spilling out of the conference room, laugh out loud. And it set the tone for the rest of the panelists’ comments.

It was Saturday morning and Matthew Sharpe was late, but for a good reason. The author of Jamestown was supposed to be signing copies of his book in the autographing room of BookExpo America (BEA), but he’d just been named a finalist for a Quill Book Award, part of a program organized by NBC Universal and Reed Business Information that honors books in nineteen different categories at an awards show televised on NBC. Sharpe was busy being interviewed for MSNBC.