Things Noted Here & There

Thanks for all the nominations for Cliopatria Awards, 2010. Keep in mind that this is a nominations process for a judged competition. If your favorite history blog, post or blogger has already been nominated for an Award, there's no point in additionally nominating that person, post, or blog for that Award. Nominations close at midnight on Tuesday 30 November.

Congratulations to Rebecca Skloot! Her The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was #1 among Amazon Editors' selection of the Top 100 Books of 2010. Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, and Patti Smith's Just Kids also placed among the editors' top ten books.

Kathryn Harrison,"Femme Fatale," NYT, 4 November, Michael Korda,"All Hail Cleopatra," Daily Beast, 5 November, and Wendy Smith for the LA Times, 7 November, review Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life.

Amanda Schaffer,"Is Cancer Our Evil, Smarter Twin" Slate, 8 November, reviews Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. See also: Charles McGrath,"How Cancer Acquired Its Own Biographer," NYT, 8 November.

Caroline Weber,"A World Unto Themselves," NYT, 5 November, reviews Joseph Ellis's First Family: Abigail and John.

The Washington Post has launched an on-going special section,"Civil War 150," commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Already, it draws on the talents of Ed Ayers, Ira Berlin, David Blight, Lonnie Bunch, Ken Burns, Brent Glass, Kate Masur, Joan Waugh, and many others.

Adam Cohen,"Jousting Justices," NYT, 5 November, reviews Noah Feldman's Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices.

Steve Hare,"The tumultuous trial of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'," Telegraph, 1 November, recalls literature's major figures defending the novel from charges of obscenity.

Life, 8 November, features heretofore unseen photographs* of John F. Kennedy: As a War Hero, As a Husband, and As the New President.

Colin McCabe,"High Priest of Anthropology," New Statesman, 4 November, reviews Patrick Wilcken's Claude Lévi-Strauss: the Poet in the Laboratory.

*That's the claim, at least. I think that you'll recognize at least a few of them.