NanaCat
NanaCat's JournalCrime Writers of Canada Awards for Excellence
On 29 May, the Crime Writers of Canada announce their winners for the best mystery works of the previous year.
Best Crime Novel
The Maid’s Diary by Loreth Anne White
Best First Crime Novel
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Best Crime Novel Set in Canada
Wild Hope by Joan Thomas
Best Traditional Mystery
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
Best Crime Short Story
'Reversion' by Marcelle Dubé
Best French Language Crime Book( Fiction or Nonfiction)
La sainte paix (The Holy Peace) by André Marois
Best Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline
Best Nonfiction Crime Book
The Human Scale by Michael Lista
https://crimewriterscanada.com/index.php/en/page/updates/permalink/crime-writers-of-canada-announces-the-2024-awards-of-excellence-winners
Congratulations to all of the winners!
Congratulations to 2024 Pulitzer Nonfiction winners!
General Nonfiction
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall
Biography (tie)
King, by Jonathan Eig
Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo
History
No Right to an Honest Living by Jacqueline Jones
Memoir or Autobiography
Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza
----
The two biographies are on my TBR pile, but I'm not familiar with the rest.
Congratulations to 2024 Pulitzer Fiction+ winners!
Fiction
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
Drama
Primary Trust by Eboni Booth
Poetry
Tripas, by Brandon Som
I've not read any of these, but I'll add them to my overflowing TBR pile.
Edgar Award Winners 2024
The Mystery Writers of America announced their winners for 2023 works last night:
Best Mystery Novel
Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke
Best First Novel by an American Author
The Peacock and the Sparrow by IS Berry
Best Paperback Original
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto
Best Fact Crime
Crooked by Nathan Masters
Best Critical Biographical
Love Me Fierce in Danger by Steven Powell
Best Short Story
'Hallowed Ground' by Linda Castillo
Best Juvenile
The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas
Best Young Adult
Girl Forgotten by April Henry
Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award
Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux
Mary Higgins Clark Award
Play the Fool by Lina Chern
Robert L Fish Memorial Award
The Body in Cell Two by Kate Hohl
Sue Grafton Memorial Award
An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo
Congratulations to all of the winners!
The Internet never forgets, King Smut
O RLY? Isn't this you, Nodfather?
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that additional steps must be taken to deal with the national emergency with respect to the information and communications technology and services supply chain declared in Executive Order 13873 of May 15, 2019 (Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain). Specifically, the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (China) continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. At this time, action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok.
TikTok, a video-sharing mobile application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., has reportedly been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over one billion times globally. TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users, including Internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.
TikTok also reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive, such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. This mobile application may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, such as when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
These risks are real. The Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, and the United States Armed Forces have already banned the use of TikTok on Federal Government phones. The Government of India recently banned the use of TikTok and other Chinese mobile applications throughout the country; in a statement, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asserted that they were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.” American companies and organizations have begun banning TikTok on their devices. The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security.
Accordingly, I hereby order:
Section 1. (a) The following actions shall be prohibited beginning 45 days after the date of this order, to the extent permitted under applicable law: any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd. (a.k.a. Zìjié Tiàodòng), Beijing, China, or its subsidiaries, in which any such company has any interest, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order.
(b) The prohibition in subsection (a) of this section applies except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order.
(c) 45 days after the date of this order, the Secretary shall identify the transactions subject to subsection (a) of this section.
Sec. 2. (a) Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, causes a violation of, or attempts to violate the prohibition set forth in this order is prohibited.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
{snip - boring definitions list}
Sec. 4. The Secretary is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA as may be necessary to implement this order. The Secretary may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions within the Department of Commerce. All departments and agencies of the United States shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 6, 2020.
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/
ID Op-Ed explaining why MDs are fleeing the state
Criminalization of doctors providing health care is dangerous for patients, for doctors and for our communities, writes guest columnist Dr. Amelia Huntsberger.
{snip}
Perhaps you missed an early informal survey from the Idaho Coalition for Safe Healthcare showing 75 of 117 physicians surveyed in Idaho answered “yes” or “maybe” when asked if they were considering leaving the state. Seventy-three of 75 respondents cited Idaho’s restrictive abortion laws as the reason.
Maybe you didn’t know that Dr. Lauren Miller told CNN that her greatest fear was “being tried as a felon simply for saving someone’s life.” Dr. Miller is a maternal fetal medicine physician, a high risk pregnancy doctor, who previously lived and worked in Boise. She now practices medicine in Colorado.
Perhaps you didn’t see the survey showing that 22% of practicing obstetricians have left the state since the abortion bans took effect according to a report by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative.
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/04/16/if-you-arent-sure-why-doctors-are-leaving-idaho-its-because-youre-not-listening-to-them/
I've got nothing to add to this one, because it explains the issue better than an idiot like me every could.
Non-Fiction reads so far in 2024
I try to get to a non-fiction book every week, but, alas, I don't always succeed when so many great fiction books are out there. Still, if one sets a goal, one perseveres as best as one can.
So far I've read:
Ta-Nehisi Coates – Between the World and Me
America's racist history and how to navigate it, relayed to a teenaged black boy through the lens of his father.
Hanif Abdurraqib – A Little Devil in America
Exploration of Black influences on American music, literature and drama/acting.
David Grann – The Wager
Survival tale after an infamous 19th century shipwreck trying to navigate around South America. A lesson in how imperialist Britain could bollocks anything through hubris and fanatical adherence to class lines.
Hope Jahren – Lab Girl
Women have never had it easy in STEM, but that doesn't mean it's all drab. Great to see how Ms Jahren hung in there for the love of science and nature, despite the constant uphill battles.
David Treuer – The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
Yes, Native Americans have gotten a rum deal since Europeans first came here, but the Native-American author makes it clear that his people have accomplished great things despite it--and especially thanks to their resiliency. A book surprising for its hopeful outlook.
Ralph Waldo Emerson – Self-Reliance
The mousetrap attraction philosopher is by turns insightful and annoying as only a Victorian philosopher could be with his incidental snobbery, LOL.
Daniel Ellsberg – The Doomsday Machine
Ellsberg was there almost from the beginning with the birth of American nuclear policy, including playing a pivotal role in the infamous Cuban crisis. He asserts that America has always had a first-strike policy, that continues even now. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Michelle Obama – The Light We Carry
How to make a difference in the world without being a prat.
Kevin Hart – This Is How We Do It
A self-help book, sort of. that asserts one stop feeling sorry for oneself and blaming all the obstacles and do your best to get through them, over them or around them. Of course, not everyone will enjoy the kind of success Mr Hart has, so it's a bit...insensitive...of him to preach from the promised land to the rest of us who aren't so lucky.
Jim Popkin – Code Name Blue Wren
A Cuban asset working in the very heart of the Pentagon, with full access to our most coveted secrets. What could possibly go wrong?
Michelle Zauner – Crying in H Mart
A memoir about grief shouldn't be this funny. Ms. Zauner relays what it was like growing up with an American dad and Korean mum, and how food was the language of love between mother and daughter.
Les & Tamara Payne – The Dead Are Arising
Fills in the gaps of Malcolm X's autobiography with what he either didn't know about (young child) or forgot or just plain glossed over for his own reasons.
Clint Smith – How the Word Is Passed
Intriguing book from an African-American perspective about how our choices of what to teach or commemorate of history says a whole lot about us as Americans, like all those well-preserved Southern plantations, statues honoring Confederate traitors, and even the long road to Juneteenth going from a locally celebrated event in Texas to a national holiday. Smith also tracks back to where the slavery business all started, with a trip to Senegal and its Door of No Return (which probably wasn't that).
Overall, I've found it a good year in reading about reality, thus far.
International Booker Prize Longlist
In the past decade, the Booker Prize has adopted a new category for books written in foreign languages. Other than a few expected racist grumbles, some writers get a big boost from the publicity that comes with a Booker. The longlist this year is:
Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, translated by Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann
The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson
White Nights by Urszula Honek, translated by Kate Webster
Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare, translated by John Hodgson
The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk
What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey
Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo, translated by Leah Janeczko
The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone, translated by Oonagh Stransky
Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz
Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener, translated by Julia Sanches
Shortlist will come (9 Apr).
Winners will be announced on 21 May.
Sentiment may be in Andrey Kurkov's favour this year. He's Ukrainian, and the book is one of those sweeping historical sagas that prize committees adore. But don't rule out perennial Booker fave, Ismael Kadare or House on Via Gemito.
Note the Booker Prize prizes are shared between authors and translators. Shortlist teams receive £5000, and the winning author and translator will split £50,000. I do have some reservations about this setup. I realize good translating skills can make or break a book in a foreign language, but I'm not sure the skill set equals the creation of an entire work.
Queen Camilla - 5 minutes of reading as important as diet and exercise
I know how people like to hate on Camilla Parker-Bowles, but she has been doing yeoman's work promoting reading, first with a book club she started during the pandemic, then with a weekly podcast. Her reading charity also commissioned research into the effects of reading. It's not a surprise that results show what we readers have always suspected: Reading is as important to our health as diet and exercise, and has especial benefits in helping to reduce stress.
“But not only that, bio-signals we were able to take show that a short period of reading can actually help us better manage our stress, significantly increasing our concentration and improving our ability to focus on the next task.
“Those five minutes really can make the rest of our day better.
“We found that high frequency readers are significantly less likely to experience feelings of loneliness important not just for the health of society, but because leading research tells us that loneliness can increase the likelihood of different dementias.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/queen-camilla-reading-room-health-benefits-joanna-lumley-b2519322.html
Split Second Research did the study. I'm trying to find their paper for methodology, but, for now, an Instagram about the Queen's event where she announced the results revealed this much about how they carried out the research:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4_XwT4MsMF/?utm_source=ig_embed
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