Links galore

So when did quoting Amazon.com become de rigeur for Grey Lady reviews? You have to wait till the very end of Janet Maslin’s double review of Janet Evanovich and Stuart Woods but believe me…it’s there. And quite, quite odd.

The shortlist for the Guardian First Book Award has been announced, and the paper’s John Ezard dissects the list.

And the Saltire Shortlist for the Best Scottish Book has been announced as well.

Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld received a prestigous French literary award, the Medici Prize for best Foreign Work.

Everything you wanted to know about the centennial of Graham Greene can pretty much be found here. (link from TEV, who’s pushing himself out of the doldrums with a wealth of posts this morning. Yay!)

Mark Gatiss, the man responsible for the League of Gentlemen TV series in Britain, has jumped to writing novels. He tells the Guardian what the difference in medium is, at least for him.

Katrina Kenison has a very difficult job: going through over 3000 stories to create a shortlist for each edition of the Best American Short Stories collection. USA Today talks to her about the arduous process.

A new biography of George Washington attempts to separate man from myth, according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Debra Pickett.

A memo to publishers: be very careful if one of your executives is robbing you blind. Luckily, this one in Japan just got five years in prison for embezzlement.

And finally, how did the most important Ohioans of our time vote in Tuesday’s election? Click here to find out.