Weekly book agenda: Oddest Title online voting, 'Precious and the Puggies'

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Beginning February 19, online voters are invited to weigh in on 2009's Oddest Book Title of the Year. Also in the upcoming week, Alexander McCall Smith publishes a prequel to his internationally best-selling The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series -- intended specifically for young readers, and available only in Scots.

Beginning February 19, online voters are invited to weigh in on 2009's Oddest Book Title of the Year. Also in the upcoming week, Alexander McCall Smith publishes a prequel to his internationally best-selling The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series - intended specifically for young readers, and available only in Scots.

Oddest Title Book Prize - online voting
Beginning February 19
Worldwide

Following the February 19 shortlist announcement for Oddest Book Title of the Year, the general public is invited to visit The Bookseller's website to vote for a winner, to be announced on a TBD date in March. Among titles submitted for the 2009 prize are Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology, Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich, and An Intellectual History of Cannibalism. The Bookseller/Diagram Prize has been awarded every year since 1978, when it was created to provide entertainment at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
http://www.thebookseller.com

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency prequel
February 25
International

The next installment in Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith's internationally best-selling series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a prequel for young readers. Due out February 25, the title will be available only in Scots (a language spoken in Lowland Scotland that is comprehensible - if a bit challenging - for English-only readers) during 2010. Precious and the Puggies (Precious and the Monkeys) will tell the story of eight-year-old Precious Ramotswe, future heroine of the Botswana-based series, who solves a mystery at her school. Illustrated by Iain McIntosh and translated by James Robertson, it will include a small glossary of Scots words.

'Mr. Nobody'
March 1
International

An original Mr. Men character by Roger Hargreaves, discovered in archival material, is due to be published in March. About the invisible Mr. Nobody and his quest to become a somebody, the title was in fact published in 1985 in a limited-edition run but had since been forgotten. The new addition to the catalog brings the total number of classic Mr. Men books to 47. More than 100 million Mr. Men titles have been sold worldwide since they were first published 39 years ago, beginning with the 1971 title Mr. Tickle.

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' by Seth Grahame-Smith
March 2
International

Seth Grahame-Smith is the author of the runaway hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, now on its way to becoming a feature film. In Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, he uses the same mashup of history and horror in a retelling of the life of Abraham Lincoln, beginning when the one-day US president learns at an early age that his mother was killed by a supernatural predator.

Abu Dhabi International Book Fair
March 2-7
Abu Dhabi, UAE

The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2009, 637 publishers from 52 countries presented more than 500,000 titles in Arabic, English, and many other languages. Confirmed international authors for the 2010 event include Adam Haslett (US), Ahlam Mosteghanemi (Algeria), Bapsi Sidhwa (Pakistan), Mathias Enard (France), and Tarun Tejpal (India). Visitors can look forward to daily author lectures, book signings, poetry performances, and live cooking shows.
http://www.adbookfair.com

Read an E-Book Week
March 7-13
Worldwide

The annual Read an E-Book Week was created to promote and share the advantages of reading electronically. During this week, visitors are invited to browse the event website, where dozens of authors and book vendors offer free titles for a limited time. Going since 2003, the event took off in 2009, with more than 30,000 web hits coming from around the globe.
http://ebookweek.com

Best Translated Book Award
March 10
New York, NY

Belgian author Hugo Claus, Austrian writer Wolf Haas, and Argentina's César Aira are among shortlisted authors for the 2009 Best Translated Book Award, presented by Three Percent, a resource for international literature based at the University of Rochester, USA. The award was created in 2007 to draw attention to the otherwise overlooked world of translated titles. Choosing this year's winning books is a panel of nine judges, including representatives from the Center for the Art of Translation, Words Without Borders, and Public Radio International.
http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/

National Book Critics Circle Awards ceremony
March 12
New York, NY, USA

Among the US's most prestigious literary awards, the National Book Critics Circle Awards honor all books published in English, including translations. NBCC winners in the categories of autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, and nonfiction are selected by more than 600 of the nation's literary critics. Among nominees for the 2010 fiction prize are Man Booker Prize-winner Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and National Book Award finalists American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell and Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. American author Joyce Carol Oates will receive a lifetime achievement award at the NBCC awards ceremony.
http://bookcritics.org

'Twilight: The Graphic Novel'
March 16
US/UK

A graphic novel of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga will be released in the US and UK on March 16. Korean artist Young Kim created the art and adaptation for Twilight: The Graphic Novel, reportedly working side-by-side with Meyer. Yen Press will publish Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 in the US; in the UK, Atom will publish the title on the same date. A release date for the second volume is not yet announced.

'Solar' by Ian McEwan
March 18, 30
UK, USA

The latest novel by Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan will tell the story of a Nobel prize-winning physicist who receives an invitation to travel to New Mexico - an opportunity that offers him a chance to, according the the book's description, "extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster."