Consumer Voting Begins for 2006 Quill Book Awards

The 2006 Quill Book Award finalists were announced on Tuesday, August 22, by NBC weatherman Al Roker. Voting to choose the winners, which will be announced during a ceremony on October 10 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, is open to consumers through September 30. ABA member booksellers can continue their participation in the Quill Awards selection process by directing consumers to the MSNBC voting site by adding the link www.quillsvote.com to their own websites.

Five finalists in 19 categories were selected in balloting by booksellers and librarians from a longlist that included titles appearing on the Book Sense Picks lists and in Publishers Weekly with starred reviews. To be eligible for the awards, books must be English language books published in North America between August 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

The finalists in several key categories are:

General Fiction

• Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (Random House) -- A May 2006 Book Sense Pick
• A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (William Morrow) -- An April 2006 Book Sense Pick
• March by E.L. Doctorow (Random House) -- A 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book and an October 2005 Book Sense Pick
• Suite Franaise by Irene Nemirovsky (Alfred A. Knopf) -- A May 2006 Book Sense Pick
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill) -- The #1 June 2006 Book Sense Pick

Biography/Memoir

• Dispatches From the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival by Anderson Cooper (HarperCollins)
• Marley & Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan (William Morrow) -- A 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book and the #1 November 2005 Book Sense Pick
• Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields (Henry Holt) -- A June 2006 Book Sense Pick
• The Tender Bar: A Memoir by J. R. Moehringer (Hyperion) -- A 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book and a September 2005 Book Sense Pick
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Alfred A. Knopf) -- An October 2005 Book Sense Notable

Children's Illustrated

• Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor, illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins) -- A Summer 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick
• If You Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff, illus. by Felicia Bond --(HarperCollins/Geringer)
• John, Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith (Hyperion) -- A Summer 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick
• Walter the Farting Dog Goes on a Cruise by William Kotzwinkle, Glenn Murray and Elizabeth Gundy, illus. by Audrey Colman (Dutton)
• Winter's Tale: An Original Pop-up Journey by Robert Sabuda (Little Simon)

Young Adult

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Alfred A. Knopf) -- A Summer 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick
• Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Houghton Mifflin) -- The #1 Summer 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick
• Eldest by Christopher Paolini (Random House Children's Books) -- A 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book and Fall 2005 Book Sense Children's Pick
• Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) -- A Winter 2005/2006 Book Sense Children's Pick
• King Dork by Frank Portman (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) - A Summer 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick

The full list of finalists is available at quills.msnbc.com.

Sponsored by Reed Business Information (RBI) and the NBC Universal Television Stations, the Quill Awards were established last year to honor books in a wide variety of popular categories. This year's ceremony will be aired on Saturday, October 21, on NBC-TV owned and operated stations and will be syndicated through NBC Universal Stations.