What’s the best novel you read this year? Share it in the comments and we’ll add it to our new literary mixtape of the Best Novels of 2010.

This GalleyCat editor makes an annual mixtape (CD actually, but the idea is the same) collecting his favorite songs from the year–allowing his friends and family to sample some of the year’s best music.

We love reading “Best Books of …” lists, but we want to build a lists focused exclusively on sample chapters. Using your suggestions, we will create a giant directory linking to sample pages from your favorite novels from 2010–allowing readers to sample the books like a literary mixtape.

Check out our Best YA Books of 2010 as well. Share your favorite novel in the comment section. We’ll add it to our list and link to a free sample (if available). Excellent cassette tape photo via Kumar McMillan.

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Patricia Eisemann has been named director of publicity at Henry Holt and Company. In addition to spending 20 years in the book business, Eisemann has written for GalleyCat Reviews under the pen name, P.E. Logan.

Most recently, Eisemann (pictured) served as assistant director of media relations and community affairs/corporate communications at The New York Times. Previously, she served as VP of publicity at Scribner and the publicity director at Macmillan and at Simon and Schuster’s Fireside and Touchstone imprints.

In addition, Maggie Sivon was promoted to deputy director of publicity at Henry Holt.

The first Hunger Games‘ film adaptation will have a budget of $60 million. The question now becomes: ‘Is that enough?’

Shelf-Life observed that the first Twilight movie cost $37 million to produce. They noted that most of the book is set in the Hunger Games arena–which is primarily forest and won’t require a huge special effects budget. Shelf Life decided:  “So basically, we’re looking at a movie that’s 75% The New World, 15% October Sky, and a mere 10% Blade Runner. $60 million sounds about right!”

What do you think? Below, we’ve listed the budgets for other literary adaptations of children’s book series to compare and contrast.

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In a tongue-in-cheek press release today, Simon & Schuster announced they have sealed a book deal with God.  The currently untitled book will be attached to the Twitter feed, The Tweet of God. Publisher Jonathan Karp had this quote: “We are pleased and honored to add the Lord Almighty to our list of notable authors.”

According to the release, the deal was negotiated by the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. The release also hints that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart writer David Javerbaum will work on the project. The book is scheduled for a late 2011 release.

The complete press release is embedded below, but here’s a quote from senior editor Sarah Knight: [God] very much wants His words to be clearly understood, as opposed to ‘interpreted,’ which has gotten people into trouble in the past. To that end He will be abandoning his familiar ‘thee and thou’ format for a folksier, ‘thee and you’ approach that I and everyone in marketing believe will highlight his omniscience without making him seem like a know-it-all.”

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The Shape of Her by Rowan Somerville has won the Literary Review‘s annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

The Guardian has more about the win: “He graciously accepted the honour, presented by film director and food critic Michael Winner, saying: ‘There is nothing more English than bad sex, so on behalf of the entire nation I would like to thank you.’”

The complete shortlist follows below. Some Americans hoped that Jonathan Franzen would win the award for Freedom. By our count, Freedom featured 94 different references to the word “sex,” including this passage: “One hesitates to ascribe too much explanatory significance to sex, and yet the autobiographer would be derelict in her duties if she didn’t devote an uncomfortable paragraph to it.”

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826 National hosted a series of writing workshops where the students composed letters to First Lady Michelle Obama. The results have been compiled in I Live Real Close to Where You Used to Live: Kids’ Letters to Michelle Obama (and to Sasha, Malia and Bo). In this article, The New York Times sampled the letters.

McSweeney’s and 826 National will release the $12 book on December 13th. Proceeds will support 826′s numerous writing programs for students around the country.

Here’s more about the book: “No topic is off-limits; the letters deal with issues ranging from immigration and war to Easy-Bake Ovens and dog food. While some of the messages are heartfelt – ‘Please help to stop bullying so the kids can be safe in school’ – and others are hilarious – ‘Who made up the whales?’ – all of the letters are unabashedly honest.”

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In our ongoing efforts to get out from behind our computer screens, we wanted to share a few links to some real life events.

On Saturday, we will be at Book Camp NY, so stop by and say hello: “Inspired by the hugely successful Book Camp Toronto, Book Camp NY is an unconference for smart, bookish people working in all different areas of publishing. Sessions will be suggested and hosted by attendees. If you’re looking to brainstorm an idea, spark a conversation, or learn something new, this is the place to do it. Check out guidelines for attendees here, and guidelines for hosts here. When: Saturday, December 4th, from 1-5 PM, followed immediately by a cocktail hour. Please arrive at 12:45 for check in.”

Next, this GalleyCat editor appeared on NHPR’s Word of Mouth show yesterday, talking about picture books for adults. Finally, Electric Literature co-founder Andy Hunter starred in this week’s edition of Media Beat, preparing the world for Mediabistro’s eBook Summit on December 15th at the New Yorker Hotel.

Allison Lorentzen has been named an editor at Penguin Books.

Lorentzen will acquire both fiction and nonfiction titles for the imprint. She will also be work alongside publisher Kathyrn Court for Viking imprint acquisitions.

Lorentzen previously served as associate editor at HarperCollins. During her tenure there, she published Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager and Sara Marcus’ Girls To The Front.

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Belle and Sebastian singer Stuart Murdoch has collected his online writings in a new book entitled The Celestial Café. It will be released generally in 2011, but you can follow this link to order the book today.

Here’s more about the book: “The Celestial Café is a collection of the diaries and thoughts of Stuart Murdoch, singer in the band . They stem from the particularly un-rock and roll years of 2002-2006, and are subsequently very light on the subjects of drug taking, orgies and general debauchery. Mr Murdoch would like you to know that right off the bat. He doesn’t even want you to lift the book if that’s the kind of thing you’re after. Don’t even look at it! It’s a poncy sort of book. Let’s get that straight from the start.”

Belle and Sebastian have been making music since 1996. You can read Murdoch’s online diary at the band’s official site. (Via Pitchfork and Matt Staggs)

For your Tuesday reading pleasure, here are some handpicked titles from our New Books section. Want to include your book? Just read our Facebook Your New or Upcoming Book post. Don’t forget to include your title’s exact release date and a link.

Angels Carry the Sun by Phoebe Wilcox: “A coming-of-age story with a bite, Flora McDermott’s sojourn is of the rudiments that persist in the human heart–dreams, memory, love, and family, and the ever-mysterious and mutable definition of self.” (September 2010)

Kettle of Vultures by Sabrina Lamb: “Iris Chapman returns home on the day of her brother’s controversial wedding. Not unlike the kettle of low-flying vultures convening over the plane she is boarding, we are lead on a humorous journey as Iris navigates along the path of survival from the onslaught of vulturous characters in her life.” (October 2010)

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