Oxford University Press announced the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year (WOTY) for 2009:

unfriend - verb - To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook.

As in, "Lucius made an obnoxious comment on my Facebook wall so I decided to unfriend him."

In 2008, the Word of the Year was hypermiling, and in 2007, locovore. Other WOTY front-runners considered this year by Oxford University Press included:

sexting - the sending of sexually explicit texts and pictures by cellphone
funemployed - taking advantage of one's newly unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests
birther - a conspiracy theorist who challenges President Obama's birth certificate
ecotown - a town built and run on eco-friendly principles

See the full list and weigh in with your opinion about the WOTY at the Oxford University Press Blog.

Robert Sabbag's Down Around Midnight recounts the horrific plane crash that he survived in 1979 and the results of the author's recent attempts to contact the other survivors, bystanders and first responders. Best known for his book about the 1970's cocaine craze Snowblind, Sabbag proves capable in relating the kind of story that no author ever really expects that they might need to write. Read more.

_{Photo credit: Penguin}

I had the opportunity to meet Grammar Girl (aka Mignon Fogarty) tonight at the Boulder Bookstore. She's here promoting her second book, The Grammar Devotional, which she described as something like a religious devotional, just without the religion (and more grammar).

The Grammar Devotional is a small book full of daily Grammar tips. Fogarty said she had originally conceived of it as one of those tear-off desk calendars, but she didn't like the thought of the daily grammar tips being tossed into the trash can.

Download an excerpt from The Grammar Devotional and check out the Grammar Girl podcast.

The foreword and introduction of a book are usually things to be glanced at, gotten through as quickly as possible on the way to the "good stuff." Here, the "good stuff" begins in the foreword, continues into the introduction, and comes to fruition in the double-dozen stories that comprise the meat of the book, the best American sports writing of 2008.Read more.

_{Photo credit: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt}