The Quills Award nominees have finally been announced. The fiction finalists include A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, The Plot against America by Philip Roth, The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kid, and Zorro by Isabel Allende. As I'm sure you know, the public votes for their choice online and in Borders bookstores.

When the idea for the Quills Awards was first announced, I was disappointed to learn that readers would not be selecting the nominees. Oh, no, librarians and booksellers would do that. But they were not permitted to choose just any title they wanted; their selections had to meet certain bestseller criteria, based on nationwide bestseller lists.