The Reading Book Post, May 9th

Hello, everyone! I'm still back in my hometown, enjoying some more days of rest. Meanwhile, the spring weather is so great that I only want to spend my time outdoors. Anyway, let's see what happened in the literary world the previous week.

• The shortlist for the Desmond Elliot Prize 2016 has been announced. The three books that claim the prize are The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney, The House at the Edge of the World by Julia Rochester, and Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea. The winner will be announced on June 22, 2016. Also, the shortlist for the RSL Ondaatje Prize has been revealed. The winner will become known on May 23, 2016. The winners for The Best Translated Book Awards are Yuri Herrara's Signs Preceding the End of the World, translated by Lisa Dillman, for fiction, and Angélica Freitas' Rilke Shake, translated by Hilary Kaplan, or poetry. The V&A Illustration Awards 2016 shortlist has been revealed. We might not judge a book by its cover, but these illustrations are just beautiful! The winners will become public on May 23, 2016.

• Hercules Poirot is ready to return in our libraries! You can now read an excerpt from Sophie Hannah's Closed Casket, which will be published on September 6, 2016. I can't wait! 

• Romance novels are a great way to teach AI technologies better conversational skills. Well, at least, Google is using them and the results are evident. 

• Are you as excited as I am about Amy Schumer's book? Well, now you can see its cover, until we can all read it on August 16, 2016. The book is called The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo.

• The Bodleian  Libraries have recently acquired a map of Middle Earth, anotated by the author himself. The map was created by the artist Pauline Baynes.

• Season 6 of Game of Thrones has finally arrived, and already there are so many things going on! Since a certain character has recently come back to life, here is a list of characters that still live on the book series, A Song of Fire and Ice, but not in the TV series.

• Which American Women's Writer Character Are You? Take the quiz to find out! I got Edna Pontellier from the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, what did you get?