(View entire post here)

I'm staring out the window at the sea from my little blue house on the coast of East Anglia, which, for the uninitiated, is that big chunk of England located a couple of hours north of London consisting of Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex.

East Anglia is a moody, mysterious place with a long history of Anglo Saxon and Viking kings, Roman treasure trove (which occasionally turns up in someone's turnip field), and rare birds blown in from Scandinavia. Doctors used to have one of those politically incorrect chart notations that read NFN...or Normal For Norfolk, indicating that the patient had both eyes on the same side of the head, or was possibly related by birth to his/her spouse.

» Adriano Sack discusses the trivia and reference book he co-wrote that looks at the literary and real world of drugs.

» Listen to other Penguin Podcasts.

» Read more about The Curious World of Drugs and Their Friends

Adriano Sack, The Curious World of Drugs and Their Friends, Podcast

(View entire post here)

Tried by War Is Named Co-Winner of 2009 Lincoln Prize

Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson (The Penguin Press) has been named a co-winner for this year’s Lincoln Prize. The announcement of the Lincoln Prize winners for the year’s best books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War was made by the Lincoln & Soldiers Institute at Gettysburg College, which administers the awards.

The judging committee commented: “The two books honored with this year’s Lincoln Prize not only recount these important American stories with style and authority; they offer what should stand as the final words on the subject of Lincoln as commander-in-chief of the army and navy—a fighting force that not only won a war, but preserved the Union, and helped restore it without the stain of slavery.”

McPherson who previously earned the Lincoln Prize in 1998, will receive this year’s Lincoln Prize at a formal awards dinner at the Union League of New York on Tuesday, April 7. Each of the two winners will receive a $25,000 cash award along with a bronze cast of Augustus St. Gaudens’ portrait sculpture of Abraham Lincoln. "