Notes from the blogroll

Some interesting stories popping up through our blogroll links.

— In Boston, artists are being hired to combat graffiti. Read about the PaintBox program here.

— F. Murray Abraham, who helped the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra kick off its season just a few weeks ago, will be part of a familiar-face production of "A Christmas Carol" in Chicago this season. Joining him will be James Garner, Wayne Knight and George Wendt. More info here.

— The National Book Award finalists were announced yesterday. I have to admit, I’m zero for ten. Have any of you read:

Fiction

Bonnie Jo Campbell’s "American Salvage" (Wayne State University Press)

Colum McCann’s "Let the Great World Spin" (Random House)

Daniyal Mueenuddin’s "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders" (W.W. Norton & Co.)

Marcel Theroux’s "Far North" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Jayne Anne Phillips’s "Lark and Termite" (Alfred A. Knopf).

Nonfiction

David M. Carroll’s "Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Sean B. Carroll, "Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Adrienne Mayor, "The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy" (Princeton University Press)

T.J. Stiles, "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt" (Alfred A. Knopf)

Greg Grandin, "Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City" (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)

I won’t even mention the poetry and young adult books. You can find a complete list here.

Your thoughts on any of the above?