Good Lord Bird

I'm thrilled to hear that James McBride's new novel, The Good Lord Bird just won the National Book Award! I've always thought he was a terrific fiction writer that didn't quite get his due from the literary establishment.

Miracle at St. Anna (Movie Tie-in) was a good read, an intricate novel of WW2 seen through the eyes of African-American soldiers. I didn't feel the Spike Lee movie did it justice, but I was still happy to see it get made.

Song Yet Sung, his second novel, was wonderful too. Historical again, but with a touch of prophecy and magic. I reviewed it for the Washington Post.

I really enjoyed The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, his first nonfiction book. It was quite a touching autobiographical work. That one sold a bunch of copies and still does.

That's great, but it's got to be super-great to win the National Book Award, coming out on top of a rather impressive list of candidates. I haven't read it yet, but I know to expect good things.
Congrats, Mr. McBride.

Mind Meld

SF Signal has a Mind Meld post up about: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Genre Series: Series vs. Standalones; Ones We Abandoned; Ones We Returned To.

This is wherein several authors/critics respond to the topic prompt. I'm pleased to have had it pointed out (thanks Zach) that the Acacia Trilogy got three mentions - and some further chat in the comments! What nice people...

You can read their thoughts HERE.