Soup and Salad: NBCC winners, Dog-Listeners, Zombie Dickens, Dancing Bookshelves

On today's menu:

1.  The National Book Critics Circle winners have been announced.  Congratulations to:

• Jennifer Egan, A Visit From the Goon Squad (Fiction)
• Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Non-Fiction)
• Darin Strauss, Half a Life (Autobiography)
• Sarah Bakewell, How To Live: Or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (Biography)
• C.D. Wright, One with Others: [a little book of her days] (Poetry)
• Clare Cavanagh, Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West (Criticism)

2.  Cuteness Overload Alert: The Dogs Who Listen to Children Reading.  Nice idea.  I tried this once with my gerbil.  He didn't listen.

3.  Charles Dickens is getting zombie-fied, courtesy of Marvel Comics.  The legendary publisher will launch a new five-issue miniseries in May called Marvel Zombies Christmas Carol.  From the publisher: "As the Hungry Death consumes the land, Ebeneezer Scrooge must be sent back to Christmases past with his undead friend Jacob Marley to learn the origin of this vicious scourge."  These, apparently, are the kind of pop-culture chains we forge in life.  (Click on the image for a closer look at the gory details)

4.  On a happier note, I leave you with this video from Sean Ohlenkamp, who writes: "Over the weekend Lisa Blonder Ohlenkamp ( http://www.blonderland.com ) and I ( http://www.ohkamp.com/ ) decided to organize the bookcase. It got a little out of hand..."