Book News, In Brief

Embarrassed by the fact that no one in the U.S. had heard of this year's Pulitzer Prize winner, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, NPR has whipped up a list of The Best Foreign Books You've Never Heard Of. (Bonus! With NPR's streaming audio, you'll learn how to properly pronounce the writers' names. Now you'll not only appear enlightened, but edge-u-ma-cated as well!)

The Guardian UK's David Barnett has followed up his 'Night Out in Fictional Pubs' piece with a new one: 'The Best Books That Never Existed.' (Kids take note: Not only are Barnett's articles fun to read, but he's figured out the perfect way to write for a national newspaper without doing any actual research. That's what the repetitious call a 'win-win.')

Can I get an un-ironic 'Yee-haw' from all the indie-rockers rocking cowboy hats? Alt-country magazine No Depression is back -- as a 'bookazine.' Via Newsobserver.com: No Depression will feature the longform music journalism the magazine was known for, but it will be published in a large-format paperback book. The bookazine will be sold primarily in bookstores and without any advertising in its pages.