Speaker comments from the two author breakfasts at the New England Independent Booksellers Association meeting last week:

"It's always been every little girl's dream to write a book about the Puritans."--Sarah Vowell

"I've spent most of my time reading and writing because I love them, but a spirit of adventure has eluded me. I hope [my two-week-old son] forsakes books just a little."--Joshua Ferris

"Booksellers, librarians and teachers saved my life. The first place I could disappear was in books."--Mary Karr

"As you can see, I do not have an elevator pitch for the book."--Adam Haslet, about 30 minutes into a description of his forthcoming novel, Union Atlantic.

In the U.K., "independent booksellers have gained market share during the first half of the year, despite a reduction in the number of independent bookshops trading," according to the Bookseller.com, citing statistics from Book Marketing Ltd. "In value terms the sector's market share has increased from 10.3% to 12.1% in the 28 weeks to 19th July 2009, compared with the equivalent dates in 2008. The sector's share of the volume of books sold has risen from 9.3% to 9.7%. According to Nielsen BookScan in the same time period the Total Consumer Market has shrunk by 1.6% by value, and by 1.1% in volume."

"Despite the recession, the independent sector has performed well in the first half of 2009, driven particularly by older, male purchasers," said Steve Bohme, BML research director. "And, unlike the other main channels, the independents have seen increases rather than decreases in average price paid, helping them gain value share in particular."

Meryl Halls, head of membership services at the Booksellers Association, added: "Independent bookselling has never been easy and that never has been truer than now. That said, there are a number of booksellers who are quietly thriving in a great location, deeply embedded in their local community, with loyal customers and who are no strangers to hard work. If market share is up, it is surely testament to their passion, drive and commitment."

---

"Everything is better in Paris," Nicholas Lezard observed in the New Statesman, "atmosphere, food, sex, light, walking down the street holding hands" and bookshops.

"You even think better in Paris. I lost count of the number of bookshops I came across," he wrote. "You sometimes even get the impression that there are more English-language bookshops over there than there are over here."

---

Congratulations to Quail Ridge Books & Music, Raleigh, N.C., which is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a day of discounts, refreshments and events this coming Sunday, October 11. Festivities include live music, family storytelling and an appearance by Mike Farrell, aka B.J. Honeycutt from M*A*S*H and author of Of Mule and Men. With "very few exceptions," all items in the store will be 25% off.

---

Congratulations, too, to the Booksmith, Seneca, S.C., which was founded 20 years ago by Tricia and Alan Lightweis.

---

Book trailer of the day: Stardust by Joe Kanon (Atria). Appropriately for a novel set in Hollywood, this seven-minute mini-documentary includes archival footage, a brief history of the early film industry and a seamless discussion by the author about how his story expounds on themes of the era.

---

Pegasus and Pendragon Books, Berkeley, Calif., was showcased by the Daily Californian as one of two independent businesses that "experience the same issues as many businesses in the Downtown Berkeley area" but "have different advantages when trying to overcome those challenges."

"I hope to keep (my bookstore) a vibrant, lively place for another generation," said owner Amy Thomas.

---

Benned Books bestseller. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell "shot up Amazon's bestseller charts after it was named as the title which people have tried hardest to ban in the U.S.," the Guardian reported. "The challenges appear to have had the opposite effect from what their instigators might have hoped. Renewed focus on And Tango Makes Three this week, thanks to Banned Books Week, the annual U.S. celebration of the freedom to read, has sent it racing to the top of Amazon.co.uk's 'movers and shakers' chart, which monitors books experiencing sudden surges in demand."

At the Barnes & Noble in University Village, Seattle, Wash., last month two Wicked cast members--l. to r., with pens in hand, Merideth Kaye Clark as Elphaba and Stefanie Brown as Glinda--performed and then signed copies of Wicked the Musical: A Pop-Up Compendium of Splendiferous Delight and Thrillifying Intrigue (DK). The musical is on national tour.

Photo: Paul Gjording.

---

A week ago Saturday, Lara Starr, co-author of The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook (Viva Editions) and marketing manager at Chronicle Books, hosted a launch party and fundraiser in San Rafael, where books were provided by Book Passage, Corte Madera. At the "Cheap Date with the Frugal Foodie: A Benefit for the Marin Community Food Bank": from l. to r. Starr; Brenda Knight, associate publisher of Viva Editions (an imprint of Clies Press); and friend Daphne Philips.

 

This morning on the Today Show: David Alan Grier, author of Barack Like Me: The Chocolate-Covered Truth (Touchstone, $24.99, 9781439154922/1439154929). He will also appear tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live and tomorrow on the View.

---

This morning on Morning Edition: Max Cleland, author of Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781439126059/1439126054). Cleland is also on Fresh Air tomorrow.

---

Today on the Diane Rehm Show: A.S. Byatt, author of The Children's Book (Knopf, $26.95, 9780307272096/0307272095).

---

Today on Fox News Channel's Hannity: Bill Frist, author of A Heart to Serve: The Passion to Bring Health, Hope, and Healing (Center Street, $24.99, 9781599950167/1599950162). The former Senate Majority Leader will also be on the Alan Colmes Show and the Jim Bohannon Show today and Fox & Friends, the CNN Morning Show, CNBC's Squawk Box and Morning Joe tomorrow.

---

Today on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports: Taylor Branch, author of The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781416543336/1416543333).

---

Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Sarah Vowell, author of The Wordy Shipmates (Riverhead, $16, 9781594484001/1594484007).

---

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Frank Warren, author of PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God (Morrow, $22.99, 9780061859335/0061859338).

---

Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Laura Day, author of How to Rule the World from Your Couch (Atria, $24, 9781439118207/1439118205).

---

Tomorrow night on the Late Show with David Letterman: the show's own Paul Shaffer, author with David Ritz of We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Show-biz Saga (Flying Dolphin Press, $26, 9780385524834/0385524838).

 

 

Acting in film versions of novels seems to be a trend for the cast of Let Me In, a remake of the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In, which was adapted from a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (translated by Ebba Segerberg). Variety reported that the movie will star Richard Jenkins, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz. Jenkins is also in the film version of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love while Smit-McPhee plays the child in The Road, based on Cormac McCarthy's novel. 

 

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

Hardcover

The Child Thief: A Novel by Brom (Eos, $26.99, 9780061671333/0061671339). "So, if Tim Burton, Wes Craven, and Marilyn Manson got together and re-imagined Peter Pan, this is the story they would tell. Brom's vision of the dark side of Peter's Neverland is fantastic!"--Bob Brill, Horizon Books, Petoskey, Mich.

The Slippery Year by Melanie Gideon (Knopf, $24.95, 9780307270672/030727067X). "Reading Melanie Gideon's essays is just like sitting down with friends over cups of coffee to chat about how old the kids are getting, how much we're changing, and how to read the secret messages in a restaurant menu--all the little things in life, which are really the big things."--Jenny Stroyeck, the Homer Bookstore, Homer, Ark.

Paperback

The Gift of Rain: A Novel by Tan Twan Eng (Weinstein, $15.95, 9781602860742/1602860742). "This is a coming-of-age book set in one of the worst times and places to come of age--Panang, an island off the Malay Peninsula, just before the start of World War II. Sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton is torn between destiny and duty, but how do you choose when duty to country, family, friends, and mentor conflict? This is a lyrical, thought-provoking novel filled with many layers of loss and love."--Ann Carlson, Harborwalk Books, Georgetown, S.C.

For Ages 9 to 12

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $5.99, 9780375846830/0375846832). "This fun graphic novel has everything: adventure, mystery, and an unlikely superhero--the lunch lady from a school, who has a host of awesome superhero gadgets, including chicken nugget bombs, a lunch tray laptop, and a spatu-copter! Kids will love this book!"--Judy Hanley, Book Ends, Winchester, Mass.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan by Ali Eteraz (HarperOne, $25.99, 9780061567087/0061567086, October 13, 2009)

Prologue

In Mecca fathers become inclined to give up their sons.

In 1980, at the spot where the Prophet Ibrahim once sought to slaughter his son Ismail after receiving a revelation from God; at the same place where God gave a dream to Abdul Muttalib asking him to sacrifice his son Abdullah; my twenty-two-year-old father-to-be put his head to the floor and entered into a covenant with Allah Azzawajal, the Exalted.

"Ya Allah! If you should give me a son," he said, "I promise that he will become a great leader and servant of Islam!"

That accord, called a mannat, made before my birth, singularly and exclusively guided my life for three decades. It conditioned me to serve Islam and it made the service of Islam my condition. In fulfillment of that covenant I studied at madrassas. I rejected the companionship of non-Muslims. I rose up against secularism. I struggled on behalf of oppressed Muslims. And, in the age of terrorism, I sought to become a reformer of Islam.

To say that I was enamored of Islam would be an understatement. I waved the banners of this faith from Asia to America. I studied Islamic scripture and scholarship from an early age. I aspired, perspired, and prayed to one day be lucky enough to rise to the apex of my religion. Over and over again I strove to be an Islamic activist--to become the embodiment of Muhammad's religion.

This book is about what happened when I loved Islam--with affection, with torment, with stupidity--more than anything else in this world. This book is about ardor bordering on obsession. This book is about a thoroughly Islamic childhood and about a boy's attempt not merely to know his identity, but to assert his sovereignty. (Some parts of it are about the girls he met along the way.)

Read! In the name of the God who taught man the use of the pen . . . and remember, you can't get a death fatwa for laughing.

A letter from Tbilisi causes Christian Kestner, the German narrator of David's Revenge, to break into a sweat. It's from David Ninoshvili, a man who hosted him seven years ago in the Republic of Georgia. David will be visiting Germany and hopes to stay with him. He could be arriving any day.

Christian Kestner is a straight-laced, uptight high school teacher happily married to Julia, a devoted, attractive lawyer. They both love their son, even though he's a right-wing lout. All three are far from enthusiastic about their impending guest from Georgia. For all they know, David could be a rebel Georgian activist. There's a civil war going on. There's no telling what his real reasons for being in Germany could be. He says he's there promoting Georgian manuscripts to German publishers. Maybe.

What Christian's wife and son don't know is that one night seven years ago, David Ninoshvili caught Christian with his hand under the dress of Matassi, David's wife.

Now as Christian looks back on the time he spent in Tbilisi, he suddenly realizes what he should have noticed before--that David barged in on his wife (were they ever really married?) with Christian at exactly the right moment. It was all a careful trap. Kestner had simply taken the bait.

And now, seven years later, David arrives on their doorstep oozing charm, handsome, courteous, very fond of television. But as he intrudes more and more on the family's personal space, host Kestner is driven to snooping and suspecting and over-reacting. He can no longer control his own fears.

Author Kettenbach writes in a lean, propulsive style that tells you only what you need to know and no more. The result is a streamlined, precise narrative, ironic, often subtle, sometimes skeletal, frequently frustrating. But somehow this unusual style works, drawing you in quickly, never manipulating you but somehow keeping your interest as tension mounts, as both wife and then son become fascinated with David. It all culminates in a quiet little ending that clobbers the reader so fast you don't know what's hit you until you let it begin to sink in. David's Revenge is a disturbing, moody examination of a family telling lies to stay together, told by a narrator who will do anything to save his wife and son, anything.--Nick DiMartino

Shelf Talker: A disturbing, moody tale of a family filled with lies and an unwanted guest who upsets their lives.

The bestselling signed books on AbeBooks.com during September:

1. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
2. Homer and Langley: A Novel by E.L. Doctorow
3. South of Broad by Pat Conroy
4. The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks
5. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
6. The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
7. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
8. A Gate at the Stair by Lorrie Moore
9. Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
10. Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay

The bestselling books on Abebooks.com during September:

1. The Death of a President by William Manchester
2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
3. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck
4. Night by Elie Wiesel
5. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. World Aflame by Billy Graham
8. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
9. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
10. Give Me Liberty! by Eric Foner

[Many thanks to AbeBooks.com!]