Shelf Awareness for Monday, July 19, 2010


William Morrow & Company: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Del Rey Books: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

Peachtree Teen: Romantic YA Novels Coming Soon From Peachtree Teen!

Watkins Publishing: She Fights Back: Using Self-Defence Psychology to Reclaim Your Power by Joanna Ziobronowicz

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

News

Image of the Day: Surprise Guest

Last Monday, at a group reading at Square Books, Oxford, Miss., Mary Miller, author of Big World (Hobart), and Claudia Smith, author of Put Your Head in My Lap (Future Tense Press), read from their works. Next up was Kevin Sampsell, author of A Common Pornography (Harper Perennial), but first, Square Books owner Richard Howorth came out with John Grisham, saying, "We have a special surprise for y'all. He doesn't usually do readings, but John Grisham wanted to share some words with you." The master of legal thrillers then read from his new YA book, Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer (Dutton's Children's Books). Then Sampsell finished off the event, which was attended by a happy crowd of 40. Here (from l.) Miller, Sampsell, Grisham and Smith.

Incidentally Square Books posted its first podcast last week, featuring authors John Brandon and Jack Pendarvis, the first of many, the store said.

 


Now Streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME: A Gentleman in Moscow


Notes: Oprah E-Bookseller, Too?; Tea with the Generals

In honor of Amazon.com's 15th anniversary, Time offered "A Brief History of Online Shopping." The story noted that one of the first online purchases took place in 1994, a year before Amazon started, when Pizza Hut fulfilled an order made online for a pepperoni pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese--an item not yet available on Amazon.

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This one paragraph in Ad Age has caused more than a bit of speculation:

"Capitalizing on Oprah Winfrey's huge role recommending books to her fans, the iPad edition of O, The Oprah Magazine, that's expected in the fourth quarter will let users buy e-books and read them within the app itself. The app preserve the basic magazine experience but include visual tags that let users know they can see a video message from Ms. Winfrey or interact in some other way. A module on articles will let users make comments and see other readers' remarks."

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Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea (Penguin Books), has had extensive conversations with U.S. military leaders in Afghanistan and set up meetings between them and village elders in the past year, in large part because of the popularity of the book "among military wives who told their husbands to read it," the New York Times wrote.

"I never, ever expected it," Mortenson told the paper. He has said that there is no military solution in the country; rather, the education of girls is the longterm solution.

In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson tells the story of how he and his Central Asia Institute began to build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which now number more than 130.

 

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Leonel Fernández Reyna is a fan of the Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, Mass., and likes to drop by whenever he's in town. That's not so unusual--except that Fernández is president of the Dominican Republic and his visits necessitate the arrival of police cars and limousines.

In a short video, el Presidente told the Harvard Crimson that the Harvard Bookstore "is a place where ideas are disseminated. It is a place where knowledge is diffused. So if you're really interested in ideas, interested about knowledge, about information sharing, this is the place to come." After seeing Paige M. Gutenborg, the store's Espresso Book Machine, he added: "I have seen the future."

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Elliott Bay Book Company owner Peter Aaron has one regret about moving to the Capitol Hill area from Pioneer Square earlier this year: that he hadn't done it sooner. He told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "We struggled for many, many years. Had I had--I guess 'the guts' is the best way to put it--we would have moved four or five years ago."

One change in the new location: Elliott Bay no longer sells used books, which accounted for about 8% of sales, "partly because Aaron didn't want to be seen as a 500-pound gorilla coming to trump smaller used-book retailers, and partly because he just 'didn't think we were particularly good at used books.' "

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Congratulations to Nancy Olson, owner of Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh, N.C., one of six winners of the Raleigh Medal of Arts, honoring "lifetime extraordinary achievement in the practice of, or in support of, local arts."

The Raleigh Arts Commission cited one of our favorite booksellers for "bringing readers and writers together since 1984 when she opened Quail Ridge Books and Music. Ms. Olson has always stood out in the literary community for the part she has played in discovering and fostering budding authors. She is a champion for many local causes, including hunger relief, AIDS and literacy, which include her 'Books for Kids' program. She has been honored with the Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year award and is in the Raleigh Hall of Fame."

The awards will be presented October 6.

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Headline of the day: "Lisbeth Salander, the Vampire Slayer," from the Telegraph of Calcutta.

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Hot books! Last week, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, Ariz., endured two days without air conditioning during some of the hottest weather this year, with temperatures reaching 113 degrees.

Booksellers and readers being a hardy breed, the toasty weather apparently did not hinder customers from visiting, but inspired a 'kind of beach vibe,' " bookseller Brandon Stout told the Arizona Republic. "It's like when the power goes out and everyone gets all giddy," he added. "It seemed more fun than usual."

A cooler business climate returned to the bookshop Friday.

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Rediscovered Bookshop, Boise, Idaho, has opened at its new location (Shelf Awareness, April 8, 2010), and Boise Weekly's CobWeb blog offered a little advice: "Bibliophiles rejoice!... Owner Laura DeLaney said they've been working double time to complete the move from the Overland Road location. The new store features roughly the same amount of books, just in a 'very different layout.' "

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"Will the last bookstore please turn out the lights?" was the deceptive headline for a Globe & Mail article about the optimism of Canadian booksellers in the face of marketplace challenges.

For example, Ria Bleumer--who will soon be opening Sitka Books & Arts in Vancouver--"is sick of the doom and gloom.... One source of Bleumer's optimism is the 'ferocious' level of reading she sees going on among young people. Those ferocious readers will be the regular book buyers of the future. What stores need to do, she insists, is not only focus on old-fashioned face-to-face customer service, but also remain flexible enough to adapt to whatever comes along in the years to come."

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Sugden's Book Store, an 81-year-old institution in Marietta, Ohio, is "up for sale once again," the Marietta Times reported, noting that owners Keith and Angela Malone, who purchased the shop last year in April and renovated it, are "hopeful whoever purchases it continues running it as a book store."

"We decided this would be not only a good project as far as renovations goes, but also we didn't want to see the book store close," said Angela. "It (is) a very historical business in town."

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Beginning in August, the Bookworm of Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C., will get a new name and location, becoming Winthrop University Bookstore at the DiGiorgio Campus Center.

"We're sitting on go," said store manager LeeAnne Johnson.

The Rock Hill Herald reported the move means more space--from 6,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet--and more convenience for students, but the "bookstore will continue to be open to the public."

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Christmas in July. The Guardian looked ahead to this year's autumn book season and reported that "the focus is on quality, with Stephen Fry and Keith Richards replacing the likes of Sheryl Gascoigne and Leona Lewis on the non-fiction shelves, and the fiction market profiting from new books by a host of writers, from Booker prizewinner DBC Pierre to the acclaimed American author Jonathan Franzen."

"Last year there were about 12 books by comedians and, great as they are, that's probably a bit too much," said Jon Howells of Waterstone's. "No one's going to buy them all. [But publishers] are focusing on really strong stuff this year. It's a much stronger Christmas than last."

Jonathan Ruppin of Foyles observed: "We can safely say the celebrity book market has peaked--there are only so many Christmases in a row that you can buy someone a celebrity autobiography. This year, though, we are spoiled for choice."

Alan Samson, publishing director at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, agreed: "I think it is going to be a more upmarket Christmas than last year. It is mainly that the marketplace didn't have enough variety last year, and there's a bit more diversity about it this year."

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Literary award winners seem to be announced every day, but Reuters reported that "one of Europe's biggest book festivals," the Semana Negra, "awarded prizes Friday to writers from across the Spanish-speaking world who back in their home countries often cannot read each other."

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The first column in a new series for the Guardian by author and book dealer Rick Gekoski "recalls an exciting discovery at the Hay festival" in the form of "a dustjacket-less first edition of W.H. Auden's 1965 collection About the House" for £6,000 (US$9,180).

Perhaps more notable is another of Gekoski's observations: "When I did the festival five years before there wasn't anything remotely interesting in the shops, confirming my belief that Hay is where books go to die.... There has been a distinct up-marketing of the Hay bookshops, and even the most jaded old bookman (that would be me) can find things to covet, if not necessarily to buy."

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Effective September 7, Matt Brown becomes senior v-p of Scholastic and president of the Klutz division. He takes over from Klutz co-founder John Cassidy, who recently retired.

Brown was most recently co-founder and play czar of big BOING. A "recovering" attorney, he earlier worked at LeapFrog, where he co-founded the Internet division and was v-p of business development, and was co-founder and president of Primordial, creator of Zoob.

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At Publishers Group West and Perseus Distribution:

Roy Remer is leaving his position as Bay Area rep to work at the Zen Hospice in San Francisco, where he has volunteered for the last 13 years.

Ty Wilson, head buyer for Copperfield's bookstores the past seven years, will take Remer's position. Earlier he had been a bookseller, buyer and head buyer at Tower Books, where he worked for 17 years.

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Brett Sandusky has been promoted to director of marketing at Kaplan Publishing. He joined the company in July 2008 as marketing manager and became digital marketing manager a year later. He will continue to be highly involved in Kaplan's digital publishing program.

 


GLOW: Greystone Books: brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni Coe, illustrated by Reuben Coe


Treehugger Dan Branches Out in Budapest

If you find yourself in Budapest and in need of something good to read, Treehugger Dan's Bookstore, behind the Opera House on Andrassy utca, is the place to go.

Dan Swartz--an American ex-pat, Bates College graduate, ardent folk dancer and environmental activist--opened the first of four Dan Treehugger Bookstores in Budapest four years (and a few girlfriends) ago. His is an eclectic enterprise: there are used paperbacks, new travel guides, a café and a performance venue that hosts author readings and signings and other English-language community-building events.

"This was my silly idea of an investment," Swartz said as he filled a tote bag with titles customers have requested. "I had a girlfriend who wanted four kids, and I decided I needed a way to make a living."

Since opening the first shop on Csengery utca in a hard-to-find location about 10 minutes from the city's high-end shopping district, Swartz has opened three more venues and become a fair trade coffee wholesaler as well.

"You need to stand on multiple legs," to make the business profitable, he said. "We supply the office of the president of Hungary" with imported coffee, "but he's leaving office soon and I have no idea what will happen after that."

The first day we tried to visit Treehugger Dan's main store we were stopped by hundreds of police in full riot gear. They were preparing for a "warm parade"--aka Gay Pride Parade--and had blockaded several streets, metro stops and tram routes. Unable to pass, we headed to the location behind the Opera House, where we found a bright bookstore, coffee bar and the Discover Budapest tourist information point and lounge staffed by several receptionists and clerks, including Sarah Szabo, who was eager to give us as many free magazines and maps as we could carry.

I found a new copy of a Lonely Planet travel writing guide, gently worn copies of everything from Crime and Punishment to Water for Elephants and Say You're One of Them, plus plenty of Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton and contemporary British genre titles. Swartz put a copy of British writer Tibor Fischer's novel Under the Frog--shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize--in my hand, and I started it on the tram ride home. It's funny, personal and gives the reader a primer on Hungarian history from 1944-1956, something I knew little about until yesterday.

"Tibor Fischer was in our store last week," signing copies of his latest book, Good to Be God, Swartz said. "He said he hates author signings, but he loved coming here."

No doubt. I loved being there, too.--Laurie Lico Albanese

 


BINC: Apply Now to The Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers!


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Justin Halpern Talks Up Sh*t My Dad Says

This morning on the Early Show: Justin Halpern, author of Sh*t My Dad Says (It Books, $15.99, 9780061992704/0061992704).

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This morning on Good Morning America: Ken Follett, author of The Pillars of the Earth (Signet, $9.99, 9780451232816/045123281X). An eight-hour series based on The Pillars of the Earth premieres on Starz this coming Friday, July 23.

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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: Sonia Shah, author of The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26, 9780374230012/0374230013).

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Today on Oprah: Bob Greene, author of The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781416588382/1416588388).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Daphne Oz, author of The Dorm Room Diet: The 10-Step Program for Creating a Healthy Lifestyle Plan That Really Works (Newmarket Press, $16.95, 9781557049155/1557049157). She will also appear tomorrow on the Dr. Oz Show.

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Tomorrow on the Today Show: Colman Andrews, author of The Country Cooking of Ireland (Chronicle Books, $50, 9780811866705/081186670X).

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Tomorrow on the View: Bryan Batt, author of She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother: A Memoir (Harmony, $24, 9780307588852/0307588858).

 


Movies: Ramona and Beezus, The Politician

Ramona and Beezus, based on Beverly Cleary's book series, opens July 23. Joey King and Selena Gomez play the two misadventurous grade school sisters. A movie tie-in edition is available (Harper, $5.99, 9780061914614/0061914614). On Saturday, the two stars of the movie appeared at a Borders store in Miami, where they met fans and signed copies of the book and memorabilia, according to the Examiner.

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Aaron Sorkin (West Wing) will make his debut as a feature film director after optioning The Politician by Andrew Young, former aide to John Edwards, whose "2008 run to be the Democratic presidential candidate... ended shockingly when a tabloid newspaper revealed that the married senator had fathered an illegitimate child with Rielle Hunter," Deadline.com reported. Sorkin will also write the script and produce.

"This is a first hand account of an extraordinary story filled with motivations, decisions and consequences that would have lit Shakespeare up," Sorkin observed. "There is much more to Andrew's book than what has been reported and I am grateful that he's trusting me with it."

 


Books & Authors

Awards: Kelpies Prize; Prime Minister's Literary Awards

Finalists for the 2010 Kelpies Prize, presented annually by Floris Books to a work of Scottish children's fiction, are The Angel Ashariel by Ritske Rensma, Operation Bonobo by Elizabeth Spalton and Red Fever by Caroline Clough. The winning author, who will be announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival August 19, receives £2,000 (US$3,060) and will have their book published in the Kelpies imprint before the end of the year.

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The shortlists for this year's Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards have been announced and can be found here. For the first time, young adult fiction and children's fiction categories are being contested in addition to adult fiction and nonfiction.

 


IndieBound: Other Indie Favorites

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover

Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo (Minotaur, $24.99, 9780312374983/0312374984). "In this sequel to Sworn to Silence, Police Chief Kate Burkholder is faced with the slaughter of an Amish family of seven. Her search for the killer takes her on a dark journey of discovery and uncovers a disturbing realm of violence and brutality. As before, Castillo keeps the pace quick, the story compelling, and her manner towards the Amish reverent."--Katherine Osborne, Kennebooks, Kennebunk, Me.

Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth
by James M. Tabor (Random House, $26, 9781400067671/1400067677). "This thrilling true-life adventure involves two men, two caves, and enough terrifying hazards to capture any reader! Tabor takes that old adage that what goes up must come down and turns it over--what goes down does not necessarily always come back up. A mesmerizing and compelling read that is best taken on only in well lit and airy surroundings!"--Jerry DeLong, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Lyndhurst, Ohio.

Paperback

The News Where You Are: A Novel by Catherine O'Flynn (Holt, $15, 9780805091809/0805091807). "Old people, old buildings, old friends--Frank Allcroft seems to be losing all of them. He is a pun-cracking television news anchor on the brink of a mid-life crisis but lucky enough to have a young daughter, Mo, who puts his life in perspective. An honest, funny look at family, friends, career and the memories we choose to cherish or leave behind."--Karen Briggs, Great Northern Books and Hobbies, Oscoda, Mich.

For Ages 9 to 12

Justin Case: School, Drool, and Other Daily Disasters by Rachel Vail, illustrated by Matthew Cordell (Feiwel & Friends, $16.99, 9780312532901/0312532903). "Poor Justin! He is a worrier. Robbers, tests, even earning Superstars in school are sources of stress. He tells his story in a series of short journal entries that follow his third grade school year from September through June. Readers will cheer--and laugh! Justin (Case) Krzeszewski is my new hero!"--Christopher Rose, Andover Bookstore, Andover, Mass.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

 


Shelf Starter: Vanishing Points

Vanishing Points: Poems by Valerio Magrelli, translated by Jamie McKendrick (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27, 9780374282530/0374282536, July 20, 2010)

A poem from a collection we want to read:

Poetry

Poems always have to be reread,
read, reread, read again, recharged;
every reading energizes them--
they're machines to recharge sense,
and meanings gather in them, a buzz
of particles that lie in wait,
withheld sighs,  clicking and ticking
inside the Trojan horse.

La poesia

Le poesie vanno sempre rilette,
lette, rilette, lette, messe in carica;
ogni lettura compie la ricarica,
sono apparecchi per caricare senso;
e il senso vi si accumula, ronzio
di particelle in attesa,
sospiri trattenuti, ticchetti,
da dentro il cavallo di Troia.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl




Book Review

Book Review: The Breaking of Eggs

The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell (Penguin Books, $15.00 Paperback, 9780143117261, July 2010)



Feliks Zhukovski has lived in the same Paris apartment for decades without really knowing the landlady who lives across the hall. He has written and published an annual tourist guidebook to the countries of the Eastern Bloc for as many years as he has lived in that apartment. His daily life has been admirably predictable, the same year in and year out. In Jim Powell's thoroughly engaging debut novel, we meet Feliks at the beginning of 1991, when the U.S.S.R. has collapsed, the Berlin Wall has been rubble for more than a year and a wave of change is sweeping former Eastern Bloc countries. At the age of 61, Feliks realizes in shock, "For my whole adult life, I had subscribed to an ideology that advocated change, radical change, as the solution to society's problems. Yet I did not welcome change in my own life. I resisted it."

One shock after another will greet Feliks in 1991 as he comes to know himself and his history more fully. He was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1930 and lived there until August 1939, when his mother sent him and his brother to stay with an aunt in Switzerland; after World War II, he relocated to France and eventually became a French citizen. Aside from those objective facts and his lapsed membership in the Communist Party, he is undefined and adrift in a landscape demanding new definitions and focus. Can he remain frozen in a past quickly vanishing?

As it turns out, Feliks's journey through 1991 is very complicated (in a supremely satisfying way) and overflows with people who challenge his previous assumptions. Feliks might fight new knowledge and his need to adjust at every step of the way, but slowly he sees that he was very wrong at the time he left Switzerland for France to think that "unlike other people, I had no history, that here I was aged 17 starting life altogether afresh with no home, no family and no past." As he gradually learns to listen (and to "hear"), he finds that he had willed himself into historical denial and shares more with the people around him than he ever knew. Everyone coming out of the war, it appears, adopted a personal survival strategy, whether it was denial, self-deception or a disciplined reticence. His landlady, in a rare revealing moment, confides, "We still cannot talk about these things here. We never will. When my generation dies, all this will die with us." Such confidences about being weighed down by history are not offered lightly; they are lifelines thrown out to those in need to move forward with life after having endured the unbearable.--John McFarland

Shelf Talker: A moving and satisfyingly complex novel about coming to terms with personal history and identity in a post-World War II Europe.

 


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