Anglo-American Bookroom" The emerging book selection app "Tertulia" in the United States collects professional book reviews and community reviews, as well as other artistic text messages

Author｜ Sway, Bambook (writer)

➤Industry news

■ The emerging free book selection app "Tertulia" in the United States has recently started its trial operation ( short film ), claiming to be the Netflix and Spotify of the book industry, reproducing the experience and surprise of a physical bookstore on the app, making it easier for readers to find books that meet their preferences new book. The founders of Tertulia, Sebastian Cwilich and Robert Lenne, are the product and design directors of Artsy, a New York art matching platform. Different business models.

The Tertulia book selection database uses AI and human editors to compile and collect general and professional book reviews, social media posts, awards, Podcasts, bestseller lists, book club selections and other related discussions on the Internet. , but also allows niche books to appear in front of the most suitable readers. There are currently 15 million paper books available for purchase on the app, and it is expected to add audio books by the end of this year and e-books next year.

■ Britain's iconic literary award, the Costa Book Awards, was terminated without warning, causing an uproar in the publishing world. The Costa Book Award was established in 1971 and has a history of 50 years. The 2021 award winners were just awarded in February this year (see the January 2022 British and American bookstore for details), with a total prize of £60,000 (approximately NT$2.18 million). ). The Costa Book Awards, formerly known as the Whitbread Book Awards, were renamed the Costa Book Awards in 2006 when it was taken over by its subsidiary, Costa Coffee. And in 2019, Whitberry sold Costa Coffee to The Coca-Cola Company.

Costa Coffee announced on June 9 that it would stop sponsoring the award, and it has since been discontinued, but has not stated the reason for the termination, and currently does not intend to let other sponsors take over. Over the years, the Costa Book Prize and the Booker Prize have been regarded as the UK's most important literary awards, but the Costa Prize is more about the pleasure of reading for the general audience than the Booker Prize, so generally speaking, its The style and content of the award works are more friendly to the people.

The Costa Award mainly awards five major awards each year, including "Fiction", "First Novel", "Children's Book", "Poem" and "Biography", and occasionally adds "Short Story Award". Costa's award-winning works published in Taiwan include Kazuo Ishiguro's " An Artist of the Floating World ", Sally. Rooney's "Normal People" ( Normal People ), and Caleb. Azuma. Nielsen's Open Water , etc.

■ The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) released the 2021 Book Market Report this month, sub-labeled as "Shaping Current Trends in the Publishing Industry", taking stock of the impact of changes in the epidemic on book sales. Booksellers associations in a total of 18 countries provided data for the report, including New Zealand and Australia, European countries, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Russia, and more. The book market in each country in the report has grown by 5% to 15%, and most of the growth comes from online sales, especially the emerging business model "click and collect", which has attracted many readers during the epidemic. first choice. In the Netherlands, for the first time in history, online sales even surpassed brick-and-mortar bookstores. In contrast, brick-and-mortar bookstores are still sluggish. Although the city was less closed last year, there have been reports of a sudden increase in the epidemic from time to time, and the government has urged people to avoid going to crowded places. As a result, the number of visitors to the bookstore has dropped sharply.

For 2022, the report also proposes three major industry trends worthy of attention. First, digitalization is still the most high-profile development trend. Many publishers and bookstores regard improving their digital sales capabilities as a top priority. Audiobook streaming services are also experiencing explosive growth. The second is to examine the supply chain problems, especially the shortage of paper supply and logistics congestion, which have affected the situation since last year. Finally, under the influence of inflation and rising prices of living materials, the purchasing power of customers is bound to be limited, which is also an environmental factor that the publishing industry must face. The full report is published on the EIBF official website .

➤Winning news

■ After 3 years, the British Book Awards (The British Book Awards, also known as "nibbies") finally held a physical awards ceremony on May 23. A total of 31 awards were awarded, of which 14 were awarded to authors and works , and the other 17 are awarded to publishers, channels and industry professionals who produce and sell books.

The winner of the "Fiction of the Year" was Meg Mason's " Sorrow and Bliss ", which was also a finalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction; "Open Water" achieved another success and won the "Best Fiction Debut of the Year" "; legendary musician Paul. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present by Paul McCartney won the "Lifestyle Book of the Year" award. Among the industry awards, the online bookstore " Bookshop.org ", which will only open in the United States in 2021, is connected with a number of independent bookstores and adopts the business model of "benefit enterprise". "honor.

■ Booker Prize shortlisted author Ruth Ozeki was awarded the British Women's Prize for Fiction for her fourth novel " The Book of Form & Emptiness ", winning £30,000 (approximately NT$1.09 million) Yuan), judging chair Mary Ann Sieghart said: Ruth Ozeki is a "genuine storyteller of originality and skill"; this year's work for women's fiction is remarkable, with its witty writing, wit, humor and sadness. Rendering power, standing out from a competitive shortlist.

A 13-year-old boy Benny is the protagonist of this novel that celebrates the power of books and reading, deals with issues of life and death, and brings total reading enjoyment. When the musician father dies in a car accident, Benny begins to hear things in the house talking. At first there was only a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament and a piece of yellow lettuce, but as his mother's hoarding became more and more loud, he even clinged to Benny to the streets and schools, so that he could no longer pretend. turn a deaf ear. So Benny had to hide in the public library, a place where everything was orderly and whispering. It was there that Benny came across the book that belonged to him—not just about Benny's life, but about how to listen to what really matters.

■ The 2022 winner of the International Booker Prize, which rewards translation works, will be announced at the end of May. Shirley (Geetanjali Shree) and English translator Daisy. Rockwell (Daisy Rockwell) can equally divide the prize of 50,000 pounds (about NT 1.82 million). The award for Tomb of Sand is the first time that the Booker International Prize has been awarded to an Indian author. This book is also the first award-winning book translated from Hindi and Shirley's first book published in the UK. . It is worth mentioning that Tilted Axis Press, the independent publisher of Tomb of Sand , was founded by Deborah Smith, the English translator who won the same award for translating Han Jiang's "Vegetarian".

" Tomb of Sand " tells the story of an 80-year-old grandmother, Ma, who fell into severe depression after losing her wife. When her mood recovered and the next step in her new life was to fly abroad, she even became friends with Hijra. The behavior made her daughter very puzzled. Aged Ma travels to Pakistan despite her family's objections, intending to re-face the trauma of experiencing the division between India and Pakistan as a teenager and to reflect on what it means to her to be a mother, daughter, woman and feminist. The author's brisk and mischievous writing style sets the tone for the book, sweeping away the weight of trauma and tragedy, and the Booker International Prize judges praised: "We were overwhelmed by the power, moving and playfulness of this book."

■ The Lambda Literary Award, which rewards LGBTQ literary writing, received applications from more than 300 publishers and more than 1,300 books this year, and 24 winners were selected. The award categories range from fiction to non-fiction. Prizes for fiction, memoirs, poetry collections, comics, teen and children's literature, and more, with a gender spectrum covering lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender orientations. For the complete list of winners, please referto the official website of Langda Award .

Sophie Santos and Brian Broome, authors of award-winning memoirs of lesbian and gay men, both experienced painful childhoods that didn't fit in with their surroundings. Comedian Sophie Santos , who claims to be dedicated to "Lesbian Propoganda", describes in her memoir " The One You Want to Marry (And Other Identities I've Had) " that her childhood was frequently transferred due to the transfer of her military father. Determined to hide her masculine personality, join a college sorority, and even participate in the most gender-stereotyped beauty pageant, a strategy that has also successfully integrated her into the group, but none of her identities seem to be who she really is. It was not until she was in her 20s that she watched lesbian videos while hiding in her room, and she didn't realize her sexuality. She also entered the "adolescence" of "becoming" a lesbian, and learned to listen to her true inner voice.

" Punch Me Up to the Gods " is Brian Broome 's debut book, which won the Kirkus Book Critics Award long before the Langda Award, and has also been published in Publishers Weekly, The New York Times, and the American Library Journal. Wait for the media's 2021 book selection. Brian, a gay man with dark skin, grew up in Ohio, where the proportion of whites is as high as 80%. In his book, he records in detail the physical and emotional violence of his father, white teachers and neighbors' playmates in his childhood, and later suffering from shame and addiction. The times of relationships and drugs. This memoir exposes deep intergenerational trauma and the consequences of homophobia and chauvinism shaped by racial prejudice. When he looked back, the phrase "be like a man" seemed like a spell that killed him (and the other boys) from being anything but a man. The book is full of heart-wrenching events, but Brian wraps up his life in a self-assured and sensual style of Pulitzerian poet Gwendolyn Brooks's poem "We Real Cool", as if to say that he has found his own way. .

➤ Cross-media adaptation

■ Netflix's most expensive movie in history, " The Gray Man ", will be released in a limited number of theaters on July 15 and on the platform on July 22. This Netflix ambition, adapted from the New York Times best-selling author Mark Greaney's espionage novel series of the same name, cost $200 million (about NT$6 billion) and was written by "Captain America" Chris. Ivan (Chris Evans), Ryan. Gosling (Ryan Gosling), "007: Life and Death" Anna. De Hamas (Ana de Armas), and "The Parkerton family" Reggie - Jean. It stars Regé-Jean Page and is written and directed by the Russo brothers (Anthony Russo & Joe Russo), who brought the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its peak. At present, the official trailer has been released, and it was announced in mid-May that the prequel and sequel of this work are now in preparation: the prequel will be played by Chris. Ivan starring, by the "Deadpool" series of screenwriters; the sequel by Ryan. Starring Gosling, written by the writers of the "Avengers" series.

Court Gentry, a former CIA spy, is a legendary figure in the intelligence community. Because Gentry has evidence against the organization in his hands, the CIA sends the crazy and bold top spy Lloyd Hansen to deal with Gentry. With his superb skills and ingenuity, Gentry not only avoided the US government's eyes around the world, but also escaped the pursuit of countless bounty hunters. ●