Shelf Awareness for Monday, July 13, 2009


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

Notes: E-Pricing Strategies; E-Book Debate

In an example of publisher qualms about e-book versions of new books undermining the more pricey traditional printed version, Sourcebooks will not offer an e-book version of the hardcover September title Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation for at least six months, the Wall Street Journal wrote.

"It doesn't make sense for a new book to be valued at $9.99," Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah told the Journal. "The argument is that the cheaper the book is, the more people will buy it. But hardcover books have an audience, and we shouldn't cannibalize it."

But the publisher is still a fan of e-books. Only this past week Sourcebooks begin selling titles from its Casablanca mass market romance line on Smashwords. The titles are priced at $6.99, are available in nine e-book formats and are DRM-free, meaning that they can be copied and passed along.

Raccah commented: "There is discussion surrounding DRM, and while partnering with Smashwords does not mean we endorse DRM-free across the board, it does mean that we're open to exploring different possibilities to better serve our customers."

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Obituary note. Novelist and essayist Paul Hemphill died Saturday in Atlanta. He was 73. The New York Times observed that Hemphill "brought a lean journalistic style and a sharp ear for dialogue to essays and novels devoted to the blue-collar South of stock-car racing, football, country music, evangelists and wayward souls."

"Old country music had an honest catch in its voice, and so did Hemphill, writing about baseball or whiskey or his old man or himself (sometimes in the third person)," said Roy Blount Jr. "He could tell what it was like for people who are just scraping by."

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Jenn Northington of the King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Emily Pullen of Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif., "duke it out" about books, e-books, media, reading and perhaps life itself on the Emerging Leaders blog (http://youngbooksellers.blogspot.com/2009/07/book-is-dead-long-live-book.html).

Northington's conclusion (which perhaps can be fully appreciated only after reading the full post): "The moral of the story? DigiARCs won't fall on your head and are fun to read, an iPod Touch is a great investment, and pizza is better without anchovies."

Pullen noted: "I'm sure that the digital medium could accomplish things in a novel that graphics or the written word could not, and THAT is where its innovation and interest lies for me. Not in its ability to replicate exactly what I might get in a book. And yet, that seems to be what developers of devices and digital formats are striving for at this point. They have yet to examine its possibilities as a medium."

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Bookstore backdrop: the philosophy shelf at the Book Oasis, Stoneham, Mass., appears for ".02 seconds" in a music video made by the band Sarah Rabdau and the Self-Employed Assassins.

Book Oasis owners Dan and Debbie Sullivan said that a customer who is a video director asked to shoot parts of the video at the store. Filming took about an hour; Book Oasis's brush with music video fame comes at about 2:48 into the video.

The Sullivans also reported that the store has won the Reader's Choice Best of Stoneham and the Silver Regional Award for best bookstore, which covers seven towns, in a recent reader's choice poll sponsored by the local community newspapers.

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Busted: Pamela Redmond Satran, whose new book is How Not to Act Old: 185 Ways to Pass for Phat, Sick, Hot, Dope, Awesome, or at Least Not Totally Lame (HarperCollins), stars in several very funny videos in which she is cited for various age infractions, including counting out exact change when making purchases in stores and dialing on her cell phone with one index finger as well as holding the phone at arm's length. Incidentally the impressive Age Police officer in the videos is Noah Levinson, son of Debbie Galant, founder of Baristanet.com and author of, among other titles, Fear and Yoga in New Jersey.

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Through August 15, Adrian Newell will match all donations--up to $1,000 each--to the Glenn Goldman Booksellers Scholarship Fund, which Newell, Book Soup and the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association established to support booksellers' education and careers and to honor Goldman, longtime owner of Book Soup in Los Angeles who died in January. As SCIBA put it: "Glenn and Adrian had a very special relationship that began with their love of books, bookselling and booksellers."

Contributions may be mailed to the SCIBA office at 959 E. Walnut Street, #220, Pasadena, Calif. 91106. The Fund's first two scholarships will include lodging and a transportation allowance to SCIBA's Author Feast and Book Award Dinner in October and to the ABA's Winter Institute next February.

For information about scholarships, contact SCIBA at 626-793-8435 or office@scbabooks.org.

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Literary inspiration is going under the auctioneer's gavel in England, where bidding on one of Cornwall's "best-loved beaches" is expected "to start at about £50,000 [US$80,783]," BBC News reported. "Upton Towans beach in Gwithian and the lighthouse on nearby Godrevy Island are widely thought to have inspired the Virginia Woolf novel To the Lighthouse."

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The Oops! Award goes to Next Magazine, which has announced the fiction winner of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards "before the judges have even made their decision! The magazine published who it believed had won the fiction category in the August edition of its magazine. . . . The actual winner of the award will be announced at a ceremony at the Auckland Museum on July 27," according to the New Zealand Herald.

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In honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, to be celebrated in Chicago at ALA's Annual Conference tomorrow, TeachingBooks.net is making available more than 250 audio interviews and recordings with authors and artists as part of the Coretta Scott King Book Award Curriculum Resource Center. Subjects include Dr. Maya Angelou and George Ford--two of the first recipients of the award in the early 1970s--as well as Toni Morrison, Jerry Pinkney, Walter Dean Myers, Kadir Nelson, Faith Ringgold and Jacqueline Woodson.
 
The free, online resource center aimed at educators and families will include original movies filmed in the TeachingBooks.net studios of some of the award-winning authors and illustrators, as well as hundreds of lesson plans related to the award-winning books.

"Students can now learn the personal story behind each book directly from the creator, including how and why it was made," said Nick Glass, founder of TeachingBooks.net.

Deborah Taylor, chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, added: "We are thrilled that teachers, librarians, parents, and children will be able to listen to some of the most distinguished African American children's book authors and illustrators, and share in as well as learn more about African American life and culture."

 


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


Cool Idea of the Day: Poisoned Pen WebCon

Poisoned Pen bookstore and Poisoned Pen Press, Scottsdale, Ariz., are creating a virtual mystery convention called the Poisoned Pen WebCon, which will be held Saturday, October 24.
 
The convention will allow publishers, writers and fans to engage in live interactive discussions and author panels and view on-demand videos, audio presentations, book trailers and read exclusive articles, participate in chat rooms and more.

The Poisoned Pen WebCon Guest of Honor is Dana Stabenow, author of the Kate Shugak series. The International Guest of Honor is Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series. The Fan Guest of Honor is freelance journalist and event organizer Adrian Muller. The Behind the Scenes Guests of Honor are Tom and Enid Schantz, publishers of Rue Morgue Press, Kate Stine, editor and co-publisher of Mystery Scene Magazine, and Kate Miciak, editorial director of Bantam Dell at Random House.

Barbara Peters, owner of the Poisoned Pen bookstore, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, commented: "We are always looking for ways to serve mystery fans and support mystery writers. Those are the interactions that drive us, and now we are making those interactions interactive."

Robert Rosenwald, publisher of Poisoned Pen Press, stated: "This online format will let us bring together mystery fans, authors, and editors from opposite ends of the world to collaborate, interact, and discuss all things related to mystery writing and publishing."

For more information and to register, go to PPwebcon.com. The $25 registration fee includes online access and full participation in all of the virtual convention events. Registrants will receive a goodie bag that includes a book voucher, free e-books and "privileged" interactive access to live events.


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


Media and Movies

Movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Now it's official:

The film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens on Wednesday, July 15. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) attends his sixth year of Hogwarts despite the ever-looming threat of evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). David Yates directed a screenplay by Steve Kloves.

 


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


Media Heat: Unmasked

This morning on the Today Show: Karrine Steffans, author of The Vixen Manual: How to Find, Seduce & Keep the Man You Want (Grand Central, $25.99, 9780446582278/0446582271).

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This morning on the Early Show: C. David Heymann, author of Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story (Atria, $26, 9781416556244/1416556249).

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Today on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Chris Hedges, author of Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation Books, $24.95, 9781568584379/1568584377).

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Today on On Air with Ryan Seacrest: Tori Spelling, author of Mommywood (Simon Spotlight, $25, 9781416599104/141659910X).

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Today on Rachel Maddow: Richard Clarke, author of Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters (Harper Perennial, $15.99, 9780061474637/0061474630).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Ian Halperin, author of Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson (Simon Spotlight, $25, 9781439177174/1439177171). He will also appear tomorrow on Entertainment Tonight.

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Tomorrow morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe: Ben Mezrich, author of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (Free Press, $15, 9781416564195/1416564195).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Fred Kaplan, author of 1959: The Year That Changed Everything (Wiley, $27.95, 9780470387818/0470387815).

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Tomorrow night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Peter Mancall, author of Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson (Basic Books, $26.95, 9780465005116/046500511X).

 


Books & Authors

Awards: International Thriller Writers

Recipients of this year's International Thriller Writers literary awards were named during Thrillerfest in New York City over the weekend. The winners are:

  • ThrillerMaster Award: David Morrell, in recognition of his vast body of work and influence in the field of literature.
  • Silver Bullet Award: Brad Meltzer, for contributions to the advancement of literacy.
  • Silver Bullet Corporate Award: Dollar General Literacy Foundation, for longstanding support of literacy and education.
  • Best Thriller of the Year: The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver
  • Best First Novel: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
  • Best Short Story: "The Edge of Seventeen" by Alexandra Sokoloff

 


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 picks:

Hardcover

The Cutting: A Novel by James Hayman (Minotaur, $24.95, 9780312531294/031253129X). "Detective Michael McCabe moves from the fast-paced life of New York City to the more peaceful and idyllic Portland, Maine, in order to escape his past. Unfortunately, when his new life is shattered by the appearance of a serial killer, it's up to McCabe to stop this madman before he strikes again. A clever and suspenseful thriller."--Bob Connolly, Jabberwocky Bookshop & Cafe, Newburyport, Mass.

Eiffel's Tower by Jill Jonnes (Viking, $27.95, 9780670020607/0670020605). "Eiffel's Tower tells a tale of art, science, entertainment--and the creation of the Paris icon. The story includes Thomas Edison, Buffalo Bill, Gauguin, Whistler, and Gustave Eiffel, and the reader learns how the world is, and always was, interconnected."--Barbara Theroux, Fact & Fiction, Missoula, Mont.

Paperback

Captive Audience by Dave Reidy (Ig Publishing, $14.95, 9780981504049/0981504043). "This sublime collection of witty and bittersweet stories will stick with readers."--Zachary Tomaszewski, Literary Life Bookstore & More, Grand Rapids, Mich.

For Ages 9 to 12

Oracles of Delphi Keep by Victoria Laurie (Delacorte, $16.99, 9780385735728/0385735723). "With shades of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, Oracles of Delphi Keep features two orphans who must stop a prophecy before darkness engulfs the world. Set in pre-World War II England, Laurie weaves in the rise of Hitler with the orphans' adventures. I had to stay up all night to finish it!"--Laura Lucy, White Birch Books, North Conway, N.H.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]


Shelf Starters: The Rapture

The Rapture by Liz Jensen (Doubleday, $25, 9780385528214/0385528213, August 11, 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read:

That summer, the summer all the rules began to change, June seemed to last for a thousand years. The temperature was merciless: ninety-eight, ninety-nine, then a hundred in the shade. It was heat to die in. Old folks collapsed, dogs were cooked alive in cars, lovers couldn't keep their hands off each other. The sky pressed down like a furnace lid, shrinking the subsoil, cracking concrete, killing shrubs from the roots up. In the parched suburbs, ice cream trucks plinked their baby tunes into streets that sweated tar. Down at the harbor, the sea reflected the sun in tiny, barbaric mirrors. Asphyxiated, you longed for rain. It didn't come.

This thriller is set in the near future, with ecological chaos from global warming, and a world filled with religious fanaticism and nihilism. Gabrielle is a therapist at a hospital, physically and psychologically damaged after a tragic accident. Bethany is a young patient, incarcerated there after murdering her mother. Insane and manipulative, the girl also has the ability to predict disasters. Or does she?

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl



The Bestsellers

Independent Mystery Bookstores' Top Titles in June

The following were the bestselling titles during June at member bookstores of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:

Hardcovers

1. The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
2. Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's)
3. Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child (Delacorte)
4. Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver (Simon & Schuster)
5. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)
6. The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson (Viking)
7. Even by Andrew Grant (St. Martin's)
7. The City and the City by China Mieville (Del Rey)
9. The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
10. The Lovers by John Connolly (Atria)
10. Below Zero by C.J. Box (Putnam)
 
Softcovers

1. The Diva Wore Diamonds by Mark Schweizer (St. James Music Press)
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Vintage)
3. The Likeness by Tana French (Penguin)
4. Swan Peak by James Lee Burke (Pocket)
5. Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink)
5. Dyer Consequences by Maggie Sefton (Berkley)
7. Wishbones by Carolyn Haines (St. Martin's)
8. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (Ace)
8. The Diva Takes the Cake by Krista Davis (Berkley)
10. Walking the Perfect Square by Reed Farrel Coleman (Busted Flush)
10. By Hook or By Crook by Betty Hechtman (Berkley)
10. The Angel's Advocate by Mary Stanton (Berkley)

[Many thanks to the IMBA!]


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