First off, we've got literary agent Janet Reid answering our call for information on 2005's notable university press books. "How about [Northeastern University Press's] The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical by Mark N. Grant?" she asks.
"Not only did this win an ASCAP-Deems Taylor award (like an Oscar for books about music), it generated a lot of heated discussion on the Broadway show blogs and websites." Grant talks a bit about the book's mission in an interview with NewMusicBox: "It is addressed not only to theater aficionados but to educated general readers interested in the arts for whom the questions 'Whatever happened to musicals? How come they used to sit on the leading edge of popular culture and don't any more?' are intriguing." Now that I've heard of it, it's rather surprising that the NYTBR, which was willing to give a full page to a review of Phyllis Diller's memoir, completely overlooked this book—maybe they think the musical really doesn't sit on the leading edge of pop culture these days.

We're getting some more of your New Year's resolutions coming in, too. Writer Lisa Coutant is determined to finish revising her first novel and complete a draft of her next one, as well as "meet and conduct intelligible conversations with Salman Rushdie, Charles Baxter, Ian McEwan, and Russell Banks." (She also wants to increase the hit count on her blog; I guess we've contributed to that goal in some small way...)

You can still send us your thoughts on both subjects, and we'll keep printing them...with or without attribution, your choice!