Links & Reviews

- The San Francisco book fair is this weekend: Ian's offering dispatches from the floor, and you can also follow along with him on Twitter.

- 2009 was a good year for odd book titles, apparently. The Bookseller's "Oddest Book Title of the Year" has drawn a record number of nominations, the Independent reports. The shortlist will be announced on 19 February.

- The deadline for feedback on the Google Books Settlement has passed. The Open Content Alliance rounds up the objections, and Publisher's Weekly covers the continued reservations expressed by the Department of Justice. The fairness hearing is set for 18 February.

- LISNews announced a "Librarian Essay Contest" for the month of February: anything concerning issues related to libraries.

- The BL is offering more than 65,000 19th-century lit titles for free download this spring, through a massive digitization project.

- From Past is Present (the AAS blog), an invitation to participate in a collaborative glossary project. Good fun!

- I confess, I honestly don't see the fuss that's surrounded this story: researcher finds document that's right where it should have been?

Reviews

- Clare Clark's Savage Lands: review by John Norton in the NYTimes.

- Michael Hunter's Boyle: Between God and Science: review by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post.

- Bill Bryson, ed. Seeing Further: review by Emma Everingham in The Scotsman.

- Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves: review by Frank Wilson in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

- Michael Kranish's Flight from Monticello: review by David Waldstreicher in the Boston Globe.