Shelf Awareness for Tuesday, May 19, 2009


Del Rey Books: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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

Overlook Press: How It Works Out by Myriam LaCroix

Charlesbridge Publishing: If Lin Can: How Jeremy Lin Inspired Asian Americans to Shoot for the Stars by Richard Ho, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên and Phùng Nguyên Quang

Shadow Mountain: The Orchids of Ashthorne Hall (Proper Romance Victorian) by Rebecca Anderson

News

Notes: Rainy Day Books Evolves; Scribd's New Store

Like other independent bookstores nationwide, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., "has had to become a lot more than a paperback exchange to keep the doors open," the Kansas City Star reported in an article exploring the changing retail landscape for city booksellers that noted when co-owner Vivien Jennings "got into the book business in 1975, people still went to the neighborhood bookstore to buy a book. Her Rainy Day Books, which at the time was just a paperback exchange, was one of some 30 bookstores in the Kansas City area."

"Many communities have lost their community bookstores," said Jennings, who, with "her business and personal partner Roger Doeren have made Rainy Day Books a model for how to make service integral to a reader’s experience," according to the Star.

An ambitious events program is one of the calling cards that has contributed significantly to their success, and Jennings told the Star the bookshop's national reputation for hosting authors is also a way to keep Kansas City on the cultural map.

"People are aware that if we go away, this goes away," Jennings said. "Nobody else is going to do it because it’s a lot of work. A lot of work."

Finding ways to compete in an increasingly online, bargain-based retail world is also a challenge. "People need to understand the high cost of cheap," she said. "If you value what we do, we need your business."

"That’s kind of the call to action," added Susan Walker, executive director of the Midwest Booksellers Association. "If you do not support your community, ultimately you will lose your community and you will end up being big-box wasteland."

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Document-sharing website Scribd (Shelf Awareness, May 12, 2009) introduced a method yesterday "for anyone to upload a document to the Web and charge for it," the New York Times reported. "In the new Scribd store, authors or publishers will be able to set their own price for their work and keep 80% of the revenue. They can also decide whether to encode their documents with security software that will prevent their texts from being downloaded or freely copied."

The Times cautioned that Scribd "also has some hurdles to overcome itself. Though large publishing firms like Random House have experimented with the site, they also express frustration that copies of some works have been uploaded to Scribd without permission."

Scribd is "building a database of copyrighted works and using it to filter its system," according to the Times, but thus far "no major publishing houses have signed on to the store, though the company says it is talking to them. The independent publishers Lonely Planet, O’Reilly Media and Berrett-Koehler will add their entire catalogs."

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Obituary note: David Herbert Donald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, died Sunday. He was 88. In its obituary, the New York Times observed that Donald's works "were praised as much for their narrative vigor and elegance of style as for their insights into the period."

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Hyperion has launched the Kernl, a web-based instrument designed to blend short bits of video and text with interactive components. The Kernl e-imprint will "publish topical web-based content that delivers useful and timely information in the most current context," according to Hyperion.

"With the creation and launch of the Kernl, Hyperion's goal is to redefine the manner in which a book publisher delivers current news and timely information to twenty-first-century consumers," said Ellen Archer, Hyperion's president and publisher. "Linking short bits of text and video with links to web resources allows us to leverage a broader media platform and make timely content relevant to the digital generation. Kernl projects will also be incubators for future full-length Hyperion and Voice print books."

On today's edition of ABC News' Good Morning America, Hyperion's Voice imprint and Tory Johnson, GMA's workplace contributor, introduced the initial Kernl, the Job Kernl. In a statement, Hyperion said, "Each of the 10 weekly installments will provide readers and viewers with advice on every aspect of a job search, from valuable tips on competing for interviews, to guidance on how to utilize social networking to help a job search, and suggestions for non-traditional career options. Users will receive videos with direct coaching advice, have the opportunity to participate in weekly polls, and find links to other valuable online resources. Users will also be able to install the Kernl on their own blogs, Facebook pages, and other social media platforms."

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Ruth Padel has been elected the first female Oxford professor of poetry. The Guardian reported that Padel, "the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, is the first woman to take the role since it was created in 1708."

The announcement came in the wake of controversy after Nobel laureate Derek Walcott had to withdraw his name from contention last week when "a dossier detailing sexual harassment claims made against him by a Harvard student in 1982 was sent anonymously to 200 Oxford academics," the Guardian added. Walcott's withdrawal left Oxford graduates and staff with a choice between Padel and Indian poet and critic Arvind Mehrotra.

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"Could this be the summer we finally bury the notion that a beach read must be mindless to be fun?" asked New York magazine in its "What to Read This Summer" feature, which noted, "We find ourselves particularly drawn this season to nonfiction and a few realistic novels."

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Daniel Nester's How to Be Inappropriate will be published by Soft Skull later this year, but MediumAtLarge.net reported that the author and publisher "have done something terribly inappropriate. . . . And I love it. They created a How to Be Inappropriate @ BEA preview PDF of Nester's new book."

A link to the PDF is available at MediumAtLarge.net, and Nester will be signing a special edition of How to Be Inappropriate @ BEA on Saturday, May 30, 11 a.m., booth #4437. (Via former Soft Skull publisher Richard Nash on Twitter.)

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SOMe Book Nook in South Orange, N.J. (Shelf Awareness, September 25, 2008), hosted the launch party on Sunday for Dessert First by Hallie Durand (reviewed in Shelf Awareness, April 12, 2009). Sporting a "Celebrate South Orange" T-shirt, Marietta Barral Zacker, who runs the bookstore half of the book-and-toystore venture, served dessert first, naturally. She followed IndieBound practice by featuring baked goods from their neighbors at Bonté Wafflerie and Café (12 South Orange Ave). Durand, a Maplewood, N.J., resident who doubles as agent Holly McGhee, talked about her inspiration for the project, read a cliffhanger excerpt, then signed 72 copies of Dessert First. For more details and photos of the event, click here.

On Saturday, June 13, SOMe Book Nook will partner with the South Orange Public Library to help the town with its third annual "Celebrate South Orange" bash. They will host 20 authors, books signings, workshops and panel discussions. Click here for more information.

 


HarperOne: Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World by Craig Foster


BEAtweetup: A 'New-media After-party'

The official notice arrived yesterday, formally announcing the BEAtweetup, which will be held Friday, May 29, 8-10 p.m., at the Greenhouse Nightclub (150 Varick St., New York, N.Y.). This is the time of year when BEA-related party invitations and announcements usually fly around like confetti, but this particular gathering is noteworthy because it is a genuine grassroots event.

As a Twitter resident (@Fresheyesnow), I happened to be in the online waiting room while the BEAtweetup baby was born or hatched or hashtagged a couple of months ago. What began as a casual conversation quickly turned to speculation and then execution. Watching it evolve from virtual to real may have been as entertaining as the event itself seems destined to be.

Here is an excerpt from the BEAtweetup press release:

"BEAtweetup (called '#BEAtweetup' in winking reference to the Twitter-based system of 'hashtags' used to track discussion topics) is a fresh-faced, youthful and new-media embracing self-organized/organically-via-Twitter-sprouted celebration of the book community that will be taking place in conjunction with BookExpo America . . . 300-400 attendees from all parts of the trade (publishers, agents, PR & marketing pros, media, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, book bloggers, readers, authors, vendors who cater to the book community, poets, madmen, madwomen) are expected to attend this gathering of those who use Twitter to discuss books and publishing.

"#BEAtweetup's origination on the social networking platform Twitter, and its location at the trendy Greenhouse Nightclub in Manhattan (formerly host to such A-list events as a birthday party thrown by hip-hop mogul Jay-Z) aren't the only youthful facets of what's being referred to as a BEA 'new-media after-party.' The #BEAtweetup's planned entertainment consists of a DJ, cutting-edge live visual projection artists, 'how to save publishing' mad-lib games offering full-body blanket 'snuggies' as prizes and an open bar serving literary-themed cocktails such as 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mango-tini' courtesy of Belevedere vodka. Further sponsors of #BEAtweetup include Firebrand Technologies, Orbit Books, Permanence Matters/Glatfelter and Don Linn. Up-to-the-minute information regarding the first ever #BEAtweetup is available online at the BEAtweetup meetup group page." 

I'm sure organizing this event was not easy, but it appeared to be a fast-moving and fun operation for everyone involved. If this is a micro-model of the future of publishing, things could get very interesting. Something to talk about at BEA. I currently have my BEAtweetup badge hanging from a bookcase near my desk. Next Friday I'll be wearing it at the Greenhouse. Maybe I'll see you there.--Robert Gray

 


Park Street Press: An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey by Peter A Levine


Image of the Day: Digitally Daunted Happily Signing

Sean Westcott and Jean Riescher Westcott, authors of Digitally Daunted: The Consumer's Guide to Taking Control of the Technology in Your Life (Capital Books, $15.95, 9781933102726/1933102721) (r.), with Sherri Wright, owner of Book Crossing in Brunswick, Md., where the authors signed copies of their book--and answered tech questions. It was also Wear Purple for Peace Day--customers who wore purple for peace got a 20% discount on paperback purchases. Jean Westcott, who is senior marketing and publicity manager at International Publishers Marketing, wrote: "It was a lovely day to be in historic Brunswick, which is a railroad town on the Potomac in Maryland, just a bit down the river from Harpers Ferry. Sherri has worked hard to create a welcoming place in her hometown and we were very happy to be hosted so warmly."

 


G.P. Putnam's Sons: Take Me Home by Melanie Sweeney


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Resilience

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Dani Klein Modisett, author of Afterbirth: Stories You Won't Read in a Parenting Magazine (St. Martin's, $23.95, 9780312567149/0312567146).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show, the Readers' Review focuses on The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Tomorrow on Tavis Smiley: Reza Aslan, author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror (Random House, $26, 9781400066728/1400066727).

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Tomorrow on Fox News's Hannity: Lisa Rinna, author of Rinnavation: Getting Your Best Life Ever (Simon Spotlight, $26, 9781416948636/1416948635).

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Tomorrow on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Elizabeth Edwards, author of Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities (Broadway, $22.95, 9780767931366/076793136X).

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No book involved but tomorrow night on the Late Show with David Letterman: Stephen Colbert.

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Seth Shostak, author of Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (National Geographic, $27, 9781426203923/1426203926).

 


Movies: The Irishman; The Ushers

Several actors have been added to the cast for The Irishman, adapted from To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia by Rick Porrello. The cast now includes Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Vincent D'Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, Paul Sorvino, Fionnula Flanagan, Laura Ramsey, Steve Schirripa, Linda Cardellini and Bob Gunto, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Principal photography for the Jonathan Hensleigh-directed movie begins next week in Detroit, Mich.

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Green Knight Ventures will produce a contemporary version of Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Hollywood Reporter noted that Claire Forlani, Dougray Scott and Rufus Sewell will star in The Ushers, which will be shot in 3-D. Stephen Kay directs.

Taking the Gothic tale for a thoroughly modern spin, The Ushers "will look at a grown brother and sister who have lived in the same Martha's Vineyard house for a long time but begin to feel trapped there, and who then bring in a real-estate broker to help them resolve their crisis."

 


Books & Authors

Awards: Commonwealth Writers' Prize

Australian Christos Tsiolkas has won the £10,000 (US$15,337) Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Slap, "his edgily controversial novel about the consequences of hitting someone else's child," the Guardian reported. The £5,000 first book award went to Mohammed Hanif of Pakistan for A Case of Exploding Mangoes.

 


Attainment: New Titles Out Next Week

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, May 26:

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, $27.99, 9780316166300/0316166308) follows a newspaper reporter trying to save his career by investigating a murder.

Shanghai Girls: A Novel by Lisa See (Random House, $25, 9781400067114/1400067111) takes place in the early 20th-century and involves two beautiful Chinese girls who are sold to husbands in Los Angeles.

A Brain Wider Than the Sky: A Migraine Diary by Andrew Levy (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781416572503/1416572503) chronicles one man's struggle with unrelenting migraines and how he regained control of his life.

Take Charge of Your Money Now! Workbook: Essential Strategies for Winning in Any Financial Climate by A.J. Monte and Rick Swope (Ballantine, $15, 9780345517333/0345517334) provides advice for securing and increasing financial assets.

Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits
by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House, $24.95, 9781401921736/1401921736) gives methods for avoiding mental crutches that be more harmful than helpful.

Now in paperback:

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor (Plume, $15, 9780452295544/0452295548).

Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton (Jove, $7.99, 9780515146370/0515146374).

The Front by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley, $7.99, 9780425228289/0425228282).

The Beach House: A Novel by Jane Green (Plume, $15, 9780452295384/0452295386).

Bulls Island by Dorothea Benton Frank (Avon, $7.99, 9780061438462/0061438464).

 



Book Review

Mandahla: Dogged Pursuit

Dogged Pursuit: My Year of Competing Dusty, the World's Least Likely Agility Dog by Robert Rodi (Hudson Street Press, $24.95 Hardcover, 9781594630545, June 2009)



Robert Rodi and his partner, Jeffrey, had just moved into a Chicago Victorian, so of course they got a dog, Carmen, and soon discovered she required more than a big backyard and kibbles. Rodi thought that nothing would sap his will to live more than playing fetch, but when a friend suggested canine agility training--basically doggie track and field--he was somewhat interested. He worried that this activity would be too too adorable, but found that the cute factor was nonexistent, although it was the only sport he'd seen "in which one member of the winning team congratulated the other by licking his face." As Carmen learned and thrived, Rodi's ambitions increased to competitive trials, which she excelled at, but hip dysplasia led to her early retirement. Still, Rodi wanted a championship; to do that, he had to get another dog. Enter Dusty, a Sheltie rescue dog--scruffy, thin, marsupial eyed. "If Iggy Pop were a dog, this is how he'd look." Rodi found out that Dusty had been rejected several times. "Here was a narrative that badly needed a happy ending." So lured by dreams of glory mixed with rescue fantasies, he adopted Dusty, who turned out to be viciously antisocial on their walks, while cowering in terror at the dog trainer's. Not, at first, championship material.

Dusty had a few issues with building proficiency, speed and mastery of the 10 obstacles that comprise an agility course, let alone mastery of the spaces between the obstacles, let alone developing rapport with Rodi. For one, he responded to no incentive--not food, not toys, not hugs; for another, he never once seemed to enjoy the exercise. But they were finally ready for a meet. As for his first run? "As a general rule, when you have to tell yourself that something wasn't a complete disaster, probably what you've had is a complete disaster." He saw what an ordeal it was for Dusty: an unfamiliar place filled with hundreds of howling dogs, isolation in a crate for hours, then being yelled at by a nervous and tentative handler. "I couldn't have baffled him more if I'd started hurling bricks at him or burst into flame."

Rodi also realized that he himself felt outside the mainstream, not part of the handlers' group--he was never good at hanging out, a necessity on the agility circuit. He wanted to fit in, to shoot the breeze, but being able to hold forth on Italian neorealist films wasn't exactly what was called for while eating sloppy joes. He further realized that this social terror is one of Dusty's pathologies. Was it possible that Dusty caught it from Rodi? He vowed to whip himself into social shape, setting the tone for their partnership, because he was definitely projecting his own infirmities onto Dusty, and often quite specifically. "Snarky? Unsettled? Misanthropic? I'm describing Dusty! . . . He takes his cues from me, and my cues this weekend have been pretty unmistakable: We don't want to be here. We don't belong here. We're angry at the world and we want to be left alone." So he shifted gears, butched it up and tackled the trials again. And again.

What he really wanted to do, after almost a year of training, was take his relationship with Dusty to its highest level of harmony, sympathy and movement. With unexpected help, his quest succeeded in unexpected ways. He came to see his dog's Dusty-ness and his dignity, and experienced some true moments of grace. We in turn are graced with this story, which is absolutely hilarious and truly moving (along with some excellent music suggestions). Heartbreak and heroics, defeats and victories, all courtesy of "a scrawny little twist of a pipe cleaner," and his competitive, loving handler.--Marilyn Dahl

 


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