Rewriting history ... Barack Obama signs a copy of The Audacity of Hope. Photograph: Darren M McCollester
Can Barack Obama see off a teen vampire queen and a Booker-winner as successfully as he trounced John McCain? The newly elected US president is up for author of the year in the Galaxy British Book Awards for his political memoir The Audacity of Hope, alongside Stephanie Meyer's conclusion to her vampire tetralogy Breaking Dawn, Aravind Adiga's Booker prize-winning The White Tiger, and Diana Athill's memoir of old age Somewhere Towards the End.
Obama is also shortlisted for the biography of the year prize for his bestselling memoir Dreams of My Father, where he faces an even more eclectic collection of fellow nominees: Paul O'Grady, Marcus Trescothick, Dawn French, JG Ballard and Julie Walters.
A spokesperson for the prize said that the American president would be welcome to attend the awards ceremony on 3 April. "He's in London for the G20 summit, but I think he will be otherwise engaged," she added.
Meyer, meanwhile, who has been hailed as the new JK Rowling, will have a chance to prove herself by going head to head against the Harry Potter author for the children's book of the year gong. Meyer is shortlisted for Breaking Dawn, while Rowling is in the running with her book of wizarding fairy stories, The Tales of Beadle the Bard. Both the mega-selling authors could be seen off at the last, however, by a shortlist which also includes Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox, Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry Robs The Bank, and Claire Freedman's Dinosaurs Love Underpants.
The Galaxy awards, known as the Nibbies, also see the unlikely combination of deceased Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson competing with Martina Cole for the crime thriller of the year prize, and Bernard Cornwell up against Cecelia Ahern for the popular fiction award. Stephen Fry, The Mighty Boosh and Niall Ferguson go head to head for the popular non-fiction award, for which Andrew Marr's recently recalled A History of Modern Britain is also shortlisted.
The awards are voted for by a mix of the general public, who can make their choices at http://www.galaxybritishbookawards.com/, and the book industry.
For the full story and complete shortlists link here.
2 comments:
Hello Graham
I am currently reading Obama's biography "Dreams of my Father" - what a read!!!!! It is great and hard to stop reading and it makes you feel that he is in the room with you and talking directly of his experiences in life.
I have "The Audacity of Hope" already to read next - he is a great man for our times.
Regards
Paul
One of the interesting things about the children's book list is that every single one is part of a series - are there no great standalone books any more?
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