Lulu Blooker Prize Short-List for Non-Fiction
by Van
A blook is a blog book, a book that started as a blog and eventually generated a book. And Blooker Prize is obviously a take-off on the Booker Prize. The Sunday (London) Times (3-18, 2007) quotes Peter Freedman of the prize organizer Lulu.com, an online publisher, “It’s clear that grand publishing houses, which perhaps once had little regard for online writing, are now mining blogs and websites for the next big author.”
The Short-List (annotations are from the Lulu Blooker Prize website)
Crashing the Gate by Jerome Armstrong – www.myDD.com and Markos Moulitsas – www.dailykos.com
“This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running – and ruining- our country.
Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement – of the netroots, the grassroots, the unorthodox labor unions, the maverick big donors – that is the antidote to old-school politics as usual. Fueled by advances in technology and a hunger for a more authentic and populist democracy, this broad-based movement is changing the way political campaigns are waged and managed.
A must-read book for anyone with an interest in the future of American democracy.”
My Secret: a PostSecret Book by Frank Warren – www.postsecret.com
“The sensational PostSecret project returns with a never-before-seen collection of postcards created by teens and college students from around the world. Compiled by Frank Warren, postsecret.com founder and author of the national bestseller PostSecret, the handmade cards bear compelling and personal messages that have remained secret – until now. Raw and revealing, My Secret expresses the hopes, fears, and wildest confessions of young people everywhere.”
My War: Killing Time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell – www.cbftw.blogspot.com
“Colby Buzzell traded a dead-end future for the army – and ended up as a machine gunner in Iraq. To make sense of the absurd and frightening events surrounding him, he started writing a blog about the war – and how it differed from the government’s official version. But as his blog’s popularity grew, Buzzell became the embedded reporter the army couldn’t control – despite its often hilarious efforts to do so.”
Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin – sethgodin.typepad.com
“Collected here for the first time are eight years of his very best blog posts, magazine columns, and e-books. On literally every page, Small Is the New Big offers ideas and stories that can change how you work, what you buy, and how you see the world.”
So Close: Infertile and Addicted To Hope by Tertia Albertyn – www.tertia.org
(book is only available to purchase in South Africa, price in rand)
“What happens when you start trying for a family…and trying, and trying some more? How far do you go to achieve your dream of having children? So Close is the heart wrenching, exhilarating, devastatingly funny story of Tertia Albertyn’s battle with infertility…During Tertia’s journey everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Until, finally, everything goes just right.”
Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language from the South of France by Kristin Espinasse – french-word-a-day.typepad.com
"A heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."
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