Newly snubbed author Karen Russell.

Karen Russell has plenty to be grateful for. Her novel, Swamplandia! -- the first one she ever wrote, by the way -- enjoyed widespread popularity, critical acclaim, and was even picked up by HBO, which plans to turn it into a series. Oh, and that same novel was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

But it didn't win. Who did? Absolutely no one.

For the first time in 35 years, the Pulitzer committee did not name a winner in the fiction category. What's up with that? The most popular theory appears to be that Russell's age -- 29 -- kept her out of the running.
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​Sure, everyone knows Brad Goreski as the bow-tie-wearing, pop-of-color-loving former assistant (and later style director) to Rachel Zoe on The Rachel Zoe Project.

He loves prints. He loves anything bold. But now the stylist-cum-editorial columnist has a new job title to add to his resume: book author.

Appearing at Books & Books on Lincoln Road tonight to read from his debut memoir meets style tips tome, Born to Be Brad: My Life and Style, So Far, we caught up with the 34-year-old to get the skinny on the other side of Brad.

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Now in 3-D!

​The term "coffee table book" typically conjures images that delve into either insufferably dull or insufferably cute territory -- things like the evolution of American coinage, or little puppies dressed up in Halloween costumes.

However, with TASCHEN books proliferating tabletops nowadays, you're more likely to set your cup of tea on an 1800s rendering of a circus clown flying on a trapeze, or the largest male reproductive organ you've ever seen (on paper, anyway).

That's right -- The Big Book of Penis is one of TASCHEN's bestsellers (3D editions available), and also one of the store's many books you can snag for half the original price this weekend.


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​Miami native and Florida State University law professor Wendi Adelson isn't in the law game just for the money. At Sweat Records on Dec. 27, she'll present This Is Our Story, her novel about human trafficking that draws on her experience and knowledge as a public interest lawyer.

She writes about two child victims of trafficking -- Rosa and Mila -- exploring their journey as they are caught in a life of domestic servitude and commercial sex exploitation. Together with their immigration lawyer, Lily, the young women fight an unjust system.

Cohosted by Emerge Miami and Sweat Records, This Is Our Story is meant to encourage awareness of human trafficking and the circumstances suffered by its victims. Adelson says she also hopes to prove that public interest law is a viable career choice for "people who want to do good in the world."
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​The Knight Foundation Arts Challenge has a simple mission -- to bring the community together through the arts. With a goal of transforming Miami into an arts mecca, the challenge has funded a series of groundbreaking and crucial arts projects in South Florida. All in all, the challenge -- which will end its five-year run in 2012 -- is worth $40 million. In this series, Cultist takes a look at the winners.

Gean Moreno is the founder of [NAME] Publications, a non-profit press publishing a series of visually stimulating art books. Edgy, artsy publishing is far from the most lucrative sector of the industry, which is suffering as a whole these days. Beginning any press is much more difficult than it sounds, but Moreno says the rewards are worth the risks.
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Lopez's new book

​Miami New Times has published me at least a couple hundred times these past few years, and you've been kind enough to read along. Here's hoping you can sit through another interview, because, while this might be the biggest asshole I've interviewed yet, I confess I've grown rather attached to him.

I recently got a chance to catch up with one of our very own writers, who's recently made an exciting jump, from journalist to novelist. His debut, Everything Howls, just went on sale. A horror novel full of blood, guts and suspense, it's set in a small snowdrift named Keme in upstate New York, where unspeakable murders are uncovered just as the worst storm in years blankets the town.

Hi, my name is Christopher Lopez, and I am that serial blogger-turned-author. Sounds like an introduction at a support group, doesn't it? Purely coincidental, I swear.
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Sometimes Christmas is depressing.

Christmas, eh? Like, holiday cheer? Good tidings? The smell of fresh baked cookies, the embrace of eggnog as it coats your tongue and throat, the sounds of sleigh-bells and carolers? BAH HUMBUG.

We understand that Dickens intended A Christmas Carol to be, in part, a critique of class power dynamics. And that the reprehensible-but-ultimately-redeemed Ebenezer Scrooge is supposed to symbolize some kind of hardened capitalist. But no matter how totally 1% the dude was, he had a point when it came to how much Christmas sucks.

From brats disappointed with their haul, to the existential dread inspired by shopping and holiday budgets, and on to the chaotic and horribly-timed personal tragedies that sometime strike during holiday seasons: Christmas can be brutal.

That reality is at the core of Blue Christmas: Holiday Stories For The Rest of Us, a new short story collection edited by John Dufresne and Books and Books-slash-Miami Book Fair don Mitchell Kaplan. Dufresne, Kaplan, and a number of the collection's contributors will be reading selections at Books and Books tomorrow night, and Cultist shot Dufresne some questions to get an inside scoop on yule tide melancholia.

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art.co.uk

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​On a recent episode of Chelsea Lately, Handler discussed the literary success of Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea. When one of her guests brought up the fact that Handler had topped the New York Times' Best-Seller list, the show's host quickly added, "Yeah, so did Snooki."

She's right, but Handler definitely doesn't deserve to be in the same category as that spray-tanned-train-wreck Snooki. Chelsea has talent.

In fact, there were a lot great Hollywood/non-Jersey Shore books out just this year alone. So in honor of the Miami Book Fair, check out these seven A-list books worthy of a home on your bookshelf or space on your kindle.
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