The Asian American Writers Workshop handed out its Asian American Literary Awards over a week ago at The Asia Society in New York and laurels were presented to Jeff Chang for Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation; Rattawut Lapcharoensap for Sightseeing (Rattawut was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Selection, as well), and Shanxing Wang for Mad Science in Imperial City, in addition to the Members' Choice Award, which went to Ed Bok Lee for Real Karaoke People. I'm writing this now since it's the first entry I've been able to get done since then.

    In the meantime, it's been a good season for National Book Award winners. On December 12th, Richard Powers, this year's fiction winner for The Echo Maker, appeared on Terry Gross's program Fresh Air and his sales shot up like crazy. NPR programs really do sell books. Then on December 13th, the city of Seattle honored this year's nonfiction winner Timothy Egan (for The Worst Hard Time) and his sales shot up, too. Perhaps local public appearances help, too.

    Today's Recommendation: Before Jess Walter was a finalist for the 2006 National Book in Fiction for The Zero (which, by the way, is a barnesandnoble.com holiday gift recommendation this year), his very literate mystery novel Citizen Vince won an Edgar Award for Best Novel. Check it out: you won't be able to put it down.