This week I’d like to highlight the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and its president Chris Finan, an author and award winner.

He will be receiving the prestigious Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award tomorrow, presented by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table of the American Library Association for his book, “From the Palmer Raids to the PATRIOT Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America” (Beacon Press, 2007).

The ABFFE was founded in 1990 to fight censorship and free speech by the American Booksellers Association, a booksellers trade group based in Tarrytown.

The award is named for the late Idaho University librarian Eli M. Oboler, known as a “champion of intellectual freedom.”

The ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Round Table presents the award every two years for the best published book about free speech.

The award presentation will take place at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

The ABFFE suggests a book each month and for June its selection is “Claim of Privilege: A Mysterious Plane Crash, a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise of State Secrets” by Barry Siegel (HarperCollins).

Here’s how the ABFFE describes the book in its newsletter: “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barry Siegel uncovers the mystery behind a 1948 plane crash and the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in U.S. v. Reynolds, which formally recognized the State Secrets Privilege. The case involved three civilian engineers who joined an Air Force crew who boarded a B-29 plane to test secret navigational equipment they were developing for the government. ”

After a lengthy discussion about free speech with Robert Freeman, executive director of the Department of State’s Committee on Open Government, this afternoon, I couldn’t help turning to a more relaxing topic and I asked him to offer some personal book suggestions.

Without pausing for more than a second, Freeman, an attorney who really seems to enjoy helping us reporters understand Freedom of Information and Open Government laws, tossed out titles of two neat-sounding novels:

A favorite book:

“The Bel Canto” (HarperCollins, 2001; Harper Perennial, 2005) by Ann Patchett, who also wrote a novel called “Run.” Freeman said he likes Bel Canto because it considers the means in which we communicate — love, art and politics. It takes place, I think, in Lima, Peru and I thought it was a great novel.” In 2002, she won the PEN/Faulkner award for this novel, her fourth, published in 2001.

Her biography says she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.

What he is reading now:

• “Brookland” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Emily Barton.

It is a very unusual novel, he said, describing it as a sort of historical fiction about a young woman who runs her father’s distillery in Brooklyn and has a dream to build a bridge to Manhattan at the turn of the century.

“I didn’t think I was going to be interesting, but it really is,” Freeman said.

Last weekend while on a Sunday news rotation, I went an Albanian American event at the Westchester County Center where participants were raising money for a new Roman Catholic cathedral under construction in Prishtina, the capital of the newly-independent state of Kosova (the organizers used this spelling rather than Kosovo as Albanian). The church with a sanctuary, school and library will be named after Mother Theresa, whom I learned was of Albanian descent.

One of the event leaders was Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi of Ossining, Balkan Affairs Advisor to the Albanian American Civic League.

In a follow-up conversation, Cloyes DioGuardi gave me a book recommendation:

“The Sovereignty Revolution” by Sen. Alan Cranston with Jane Goodall, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jonathan Granoff, and Jonathan Schell (Stanford University Press, 2004)

(Senator Cranston died a few days after he finished writing this book.)

She says “Cranston explains why our concept of national sovereignty is standing in the way of our addressing the major challenges of the 21st Century-from global warming to terrorism and genocide - which he rightly believes can only be successfully resolved at a global level.

Not light reading, but it sounds very worthwhile. Her husband, former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi, also gave me a copy of “Rescue in Albania” One Hundred Percent of Jews in Albania Rescued from Holocaust” by Harvey Sarner (Brunswick Press, 1997) .

Don’t say the weather this weekend is going to be toooo beautiful to read. Bring a book outside. And besides, we all need a little down time to re-charge the brain.

This week’s recommendation comes from Jack Murphy. He’s a former editor of the (Peekskill) Evening Star and chairman of the Peekskill St. Patrick’s Committee for the past 12 years. We spoke recently because he has resurrected Irish music, Rising of the Moon, that had been performed monthly at Guinan’s in Garrison for the last 50 years before the beloved store shut down this winter. Murphy is helping to host the next generation of Rising of the Moon at P.J. Kelly’s in Peekskill, and there is a second venue in Cold Spring Depot Restaurant, too.

“As far as recommendations,” he e-mailed this week,—“unless you think it too corny—I would recommend a two-volume historical novel called the Dublin Saga and individually titled “The Princes of Ireland” (Doubleday, 2004; Ballantine 2005) and “The Rebels of Ireland (Random House 2006, Ballantine, 2007),” both by Edward Rutherfurd. It follows the history of Ireland through the eyes and actions of a dozen or so fictional families. As an Irish-American without a great background in Irish history these books brought the ‘real’ history of the country to life for me.”

I don’t think these sound “corny” at all. Makes me long to be back in Dublin walking around that city and checking out the wonderful and colorful doors — and of course the special cider.

This week’s recommendation is all about Chris Matthews, host of “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” on MSNBC.

He is the featured speaker at my son’s college graduation at Washington University in St. Louis. If the weather gods are with me this morning I’ll be in Missouri sitting in Brookings Quadrangle hearing him talk of politics and trying to figure out where my son is really sitting.

Matthews covered the 2004 president debates at the university and it seems that the university president is quite proud to have speaking today.

Matthews also is the author of four best-selling books, including “Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think” (2001) and “American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions” (2002).

Here is what the university’s Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton had to say about his books:

“Matthews also is the author of four best-selling books, including “Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think” (2001) and “American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions” (2002).

“His first book, “Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told By One Who Knows The Game” (1988), is required reading in many college-level political science courses. “Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America” (1996) was named by Reader’s Digest as “Today’s Best Non-fiction” and served as the basis of a documentary on The History Channel. His latest book, “Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success,” was released in 2007.

Not so much a comic book fan — just a personal preference or lack thereof — so I can’t say I would have ordinarily chosen this book for myself. But that said,  “The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America” by David Hajdu (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008) is interesting beyond comic books.  I am a supporter of free speech, so this newly published book on censorship is the topic for me this week. It seems to transcends its comic book topic to provide an important message about protecting free speech.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is recommending a new book that tells how fears about the impact of comic books on children had an affect on the publication of that genre in the 1950s.

“The Ten Cent Plague” is by David Hajdu (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008). At the ABFFE site you can click on a link and read an interview with the author. He has also written “Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn” and “Positively Fourth Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina.”

“Hajdu’s book is a sobering reminder of what happens to artistic freedom when society turns to censorship to protect its children,” ABFFE President Chris Finan said. “His new book is an important contribution to the current debate over efforts to censor the Internet, video games and other media that appeal to the young.”

For an interesting review, check out a really neat bookblog, Bookslut.com

This week’s recommendation was inspired by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, an offshoot of the Tarrytown-based American Booksellers Association.
The book is “Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini (Penguin Books) was challenged, but eventually received approval from a committee at Freedom High School in Burke County, North Carolina.

Apparently, a community member in North Carolina had objected to sexual violence and graphic language in the book. A group mobilized a coalition of six free speech groups and sent a letter opposing the challenges, according to an announcement from the ABFFE.

The book is about a young boy from Afghanistan who learns about friendship, family, and love while making mistakes, cheating death and living in a war-torn region. There is so much to this book. The characters are real and face genuine issues. The backdrop is timely and it educated me about what it might be like to have lived in Afghanistan. It is true, certain parts are graphic, but part of the story.

So, if you haven’t read this book, check it out. There was a movie made from it which is good as well. I started the book, then saw the movie and returned to the book. While I liked both, the book was a much better telling of the complex tale of emotions and offered greater insights into human nature and nurture.

This week I have some book recommendations, not from local newsmakers, but from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, which has just released its finalists for the 2008 SIBA Awards.

I think it is worth seeing what specific books are read in other parts of the country and also to note some special categories that garner recognition. For example, there are awards for the top cookbook and poetry book. Sometimes these categories are overlooked thought quite popular at bookstores and libraries.

SIBA selects books that it considers to be examples of the best of Southern literature. To be eligible the book must be set in the south. Books are nominated by SIBA booksellers based on their “hand-sell” (love that phrase) favorites. Winners will be chosen by a jury of SIBA booksellers and announced during the Decatur Book Festival during Labor Day weekend in Decatur, Ga.

Enough chatter, here is the list of finalists from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance:

Just in time for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York, here are some suggestions of what to read to get yourself in the know and to be prepared. These recommendations come from our esteemed religion reporter Gary Stern, who is getting ready for the papal visit and our coverage of the event. He is the author of “Can God Intervene? How Religion Explains Natural Disasters” (Greenwood Publishing, 2007) and has covered religion for a decade.

Here’s what Stern offers:

“Jesus of Nazareth,” by Pope Benedict XVI (Doubleday, 2007). The pope gets down to the basics. Some of it will be a bit academic for newcomers to theological prose, but much of it is a clear and direct examination of who Jesus was—from a leading Catholic theologian of the age.

“The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World” by David Gibson (HarperOne, 2006). A precise and well-written introduction to Benedict’s life and thought, as well as his early days as pope. It’s a great place to start for those who have been curious about that Ratzinger fellow.

“101 Questions & Answers on Popes and the Papacy” by Christopher M. Bellitto (Paulist Press, 2008): This brand new book is a smart yet understandable guide to the history, meaning and influence of the papacy. It will answer many of the questions that pope watchers have been asking themselves for years. (And Gary talked about this book on his own blog, Blogging Religiously just yesterday.)

“A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America” by Peter Steinfels (Simon & Schuster, hardcover 2003, paperback 2004). Written in the aftermath of the sex-abuse crisis, this book remains a timely and fresh look (things change very slowly in the Catholic world) at the myriad challenges facing the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Happy reading — and thanks Gary!

It’s springtime and for me that means school-run book fairs. There are lots around and they offer neat ways to buy some books and help a local school — you see the parents run these fairs and get a percentage from the sales to use towards some school project.

In Brewster where this week there is a book fair at C.V. Starr Intermediate School, I hear the big seller was a bit unexpected. It was “Swindle,” by Gordon Korman — about a boy who inherits a box of stuff from grandfather and inside is a $1 million baseball card. Someone cons him out this valuable card and the story focuses on how main character Griffin Bing works to get that card back. Both boys and girls have been buying up this book in such numbers that those in charge of the Brewster book fair kept running out and had to place emergency orders with Scholastic Book Fairs to replenish the supply.

For those who loved the book, catch a video interview with the author at Scholastic Books’ Web site where he talks about his own time in seventh grade.

Another big seller at the book fair has been “Dairy of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney. The print books are based on the online versions. Book one, “Dairy” was a bestseller followed this February by “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules.” The third book, subtitled “The Last Straw,” is expected this year.

Happy reading and happy weekend.