Shelf Awareness for Wednesday, October 21, 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

Letters

Opportunities in the Price Wars

We've received more letters on the price war between Wal-Mart and Amazon, now joined by Target and Sears.

Arsen Kashkashian, inventory manager at the Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colo., writes:

Perhaps the price wars are really a positive thing for independent bookstores. We are looking at canceling our orders from the publishers on these books and ordering them from Amazon, Wal-Mart or Target. We will save almost $10 per book on some of the titles. I figure we can cut our billing by close to $1,000 and offer our customers significant savings while still maintaining a healthy margin. If these companies want to become wholesalers at a loss why should we discourage it?

Deb Sullivan, co-owner of the Book Oasis, Stoneham, Mass., writes:

As a very small retailer of new hardcover releases, I'm embarrassed to say I might consider buying them from a big box at these prices. Why would I want to be forced into buying case quantities of hot titles when I only want three? With free shipping, I can still sell them at 30%-40% off cover and make a profit while getting customers into my store that will hopefully buy other full price items or more profitable second-hand titles.

 


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


News

Notes: Top Tweeting Bookstores; Sears Enters Book Price Fray

NFI Research listed the "top independent bookstores on Twitter" in the U.S., ranking them according to bookshops that "1) regularly update their page and communicate with their followers 2) use Twitter to advance/promote communication with their community 3) have a proportionate number of followers to following and 4) are active on Twitter as of October 19, 2009." 

The top 10 indie tweeters:

  1. Powell’s Books, Portland, Ore. @Powells
  2. Tattered Cover, Denver, Colo. @tatteredcover
  3. Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, Mass. @HarvardBooks
  4. Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif. @skylightbooks
  5. Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif. @vromans
  6. Book Soup, West Hollywood, Calif. @BookSoup
  7. WORD bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y. @wordbrooklyn
  8. Book Culture, New York, N.Y. @bookculture
  9. BookPeople, Austin, Tex. @BookPeople
  10. Metropolis Books, Los Angeles, Calif. @Metropolisbooks

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Piling on. Sears entered the book price fray through a side door yesterday, saying it will offer customers "a credit toward a future purchase" if they buy select books on the Sears.com website or those of Target, Amazon and Wal-Mart. "After emailing Sears the receipt, shoppers will then receive an online credit of up to $9 to use toward a purchase of $45 or more on Sears.com," according to Reuters.

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Award for notable--if ill-timed, given the current book price wars--comment from the Wall Street Journal's "Live From the Nook Launch (Don't Call It a Kindle)" blog post yesterday: "4:26: 'Hopefully you would all agree that Barnes & Noble has led some of the most important innovations in the industry,' [B&N CEO Steve Riggio] says. We were the first bookseller to discount books. 'Remember that?' he jokes. 'I am that old.'"

The New York Times also blogged live from the scene at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

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The Camden County, Ga., Chamber of Commerce, which has "urged residents to shop locally for more than two years with their Keep It In Camden Campaign," launched the Pick 3 project, in which "residents are asked to select their three favorite businesses and make a commitment to shop there at least one time a month for the next three months," according to the Florida Times-Union.

Louise Mancill, owner of Once Upon a Bookseller, St. Marys, told the Times-Union "some residents have already told her they have chosen her St. Marys business as one of the three they plan to support. . . . While business has been slow, Mancill said it has improved over the last month. The program gives her hope things will improve for all the merchants in Camden County."

"I think a community without a book store is a sad thing," she said. "It could happen to us."

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At the Oregon State Library last week, 988 boxes of surplus books--donated by libraries, churches, stores and individuals--were loaded into an ocean-transport container and will be shipped to Oregon's sister province, Fujian, China.

The Statesman Journal reported that a "committee was formed in January to plan the Books for China Project. All types of books were accepted, and donations continued until about two weeks ago. The original goal was to collect 1,000 boxes. Each box holds on average 30 books."

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It's a real-life plot twist that may feature more legal suspense and alleged double-dealing than even Patricia Cornwell could imagine. The Daily Beast reported that the bestselling suspense author, "after suffering estimated losses of $40 million due to the alleged negligence of her accountants and business advisers," is suing "Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP--a blue-chip New York financial-management firm," claiming that they "mishandled not only her own money, but that of her spouse of two years, Harvard neuroscientist Staci Gruber."

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The Philip Roth bus tour. Weequahic High School's class of 1960 had an unanticipated but welcome guest during its 50th reunion last weekend. The Newark Star-Ledger reported that the class had signed up for a tour called "Philip Roth’s Newark," but when the author himself "stepped on to the bus, the murmurs turned into buzz, the cell phones and digital cameras flashed. America's greatest living author is also Weequahic High's most famous graduate."

"Omigod, are we excited!" said Marsha Weinstein. "If I had known, I would have brought my books for him to sign. I have all his books."

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Maurice Sendak offered some short but direct advice for parents concerned that the film version of Where the Wild Things Are is too frightening for children. In answer to a Newsweek question ("What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?") he replied: "I would tell them to go to hell. That's a question I will not tolerate."

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Artist Steve Wolfe "has taken his bibliophilia to unrivaled extremes" in his current exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Wolfe "creates copies of used books that are so true to their subjects that it's hard to believe that they're not the real thing," the New York Times observed, adding that "some of the 30 paintings and drawings from 1988 to 2005 in 'Steve Wolfe on Paper' represent the well-worn covers of modern classics like On the Road, A Streetcar Named Desire and Waiting for Godot, almost all from his own library."



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


Image of the Day: Cake Wrecks

Fans of Jen Yates, on tour for Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong (Andrews McMeel) at Legacy Books, Dallas, Tex., await cake served by volunteers from Bronwen Weber's Frosted Art Bakery.

On the first part of the Cake Wrecks tour, standing room only crowds at each venue enjoyed a slide presentation and Q&A between Jen and her husband, John; a Cake Wreck Cupcake Contest; and sweet treats from local bakeries. The second leg of the tour begins November 2 in Kansas City and continues in New York, Bethesda, Md., Boston and Atlanta.

 


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


Media and Movies

Media Heat: A Gate at the Stairs

Today on On Point: Sue Butler, author of East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart (Da Capo, $15.95, 9780306818370/030681837X), which is one of two books the new movie Amelia, about Amelia Earhart, is based upon.

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Today on Talk of the Nation: Helen Thomas, co-author of Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do (Scribner, $24, 9781439148150/1439148155).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Susie Essman, author of What Would Susie Say?: Bullsh*t Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781439150177/1439150176).

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs (Knopf, $25.95, 9780375409288/0375409289). As the show put it: "Lorrie Moore has written three collections of short stories and two rather short novels. Now, after eleven years of work, she has published a longer novel and survived to tell the tale. She speaks of the thrills and perils of spending so many years inside one character's head--and the time she spent in dread of writing the book's most emotionally demanding chapters."

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Rita Mae Brown, author of Animal Magnetism: My Life with Creatures Great and Small (Ballantine, $25, 9780345511799/0345511794).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report, in a repeat: David Javerbaum, author of What to Expect When You're Expected: A Fetus's Guide to the First Three Trimesters (Spiegel & Grau, $15, 9780385526470/0385526474).

Also on Colbert: Sylvia A. Earle, author of The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One (Random House, $26, 9781426205415/1426205414).

 


Movies: Airman; Strange, But True

Ann Peacock (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) will adapt Eoin Colfer's novel Airman for Disney and Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers, Variety reported. The movie will be directed by Gil Kenan, with Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey producing "the $150 million motion-capture fantasy adventure through their ImageMovers banner."

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David and Alex Pasto (Carriers) will direct the film version of the novel Strange, But True by John Searles, who is writing the screenplay with Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men). Variety reported that the movie is now being cast, with shooting scheduled to begin February or March.

 



Books & Authors

Awards: Man Asian Literary Prize Shortlist

Finalists for the $10,000 Man Asian Literary Prize for novels unpublished in English are Jimmy the Terrorist by Omair Ahmad, Day Scholar by Siddharth Chowdhury, The Descartes Highlands by Eric Gamalinda, Residue by Nitasha Kaul and The Boat to Redemption by Su Tong,

"Reading these books was a fascinating experience because of the range of styles and subjects," said Colm Toibin, chair of the judging panel. "The variety of ways in which voice and tone was used in these novels, the sense of commitment to story, the range in the methods of exploring both self and society, the interest in experimenting and making it new, made the time spent judging this prize rewarding and enlightening."

 


Book Brahmin: John Saul

House of Reckoning, published by Ballantine this month, is John Saul's 36th novel. His first, Suffer the Children, published in 1977, was an immediate bestseller. His other suspense novels include Faces of Fear, In the Dark of the Night, Perfect Nightmare, Black Creek Crossing, Midnight Voices, The Manhattan Hunt Club, Nightshade, The Right Hand of Evil, The Presence, Black Lightning, The Homing and Guardian. He is also the author of the serial thriller The Blackstone Chronicles.

On your nightstand now:

The problem with the nightstand is that there's far too much clutter there, so now I use my Kindle instead. So, on the current home screen, I have Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku, The Program by Stephen White and a bunch of free samples to which I can no longer ascribe a motive for downloading, but will read anyway.

Favorite book when you were a child:

So many, so many, since I read several books a week as a child but the one to which I most often return as an adult is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Your top five authors:

Terry Brooks, Elizabeth George, Dorothy Allison, Erik Larson, Ann Rule. The fact that they are all dear friends means nothing!

Book you've faked reading:

Too many to count and plenty that I read but wish I'd faked. Top of the actual faked list: anything by Faulkner. Top of the wish list: anything by Hemingway.

Book you are an evangelist for:

Harry Potter and -- (Fill in the blank with the entire series.) I started reading J.K. Rowling to find out what all the fuss was about and found out on the first page. The fact that she kept me and millions of others enthralled through the entire saga is nothing short of miraculous, as is her ability to describe characters both physically and psychologically through two words: their names. No one has done it since Dickens, and I suspect it will be at least another century before anyone does it again.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Chop Shop by K. Braidhill. How many times do you spot a book in an airport that turns out to be an account of the very peculiar goings-on at the funeral home that disposed of all four of your grandparents, possibly in ways the family never imagined?

Book that changed your life: 

Suffer the Children by John Saul, for obvious reasons.

Favorite line from a book:

"Truth is like candy: too much can make you sick."--A Fairy Tale by S. Steinberg
 
Book you most want to read again for the first time:  

Whatever book that was the first P.G. Wodehouse I ever read. These days, of course, the problem is that I too often pick up a book and start reading it, only to realize halfway through that it's not the first time I've read it.
 


Book Review

Children's Review: Episodes

Episodes: My Life as I See It by Blaze Ginsberg (Roaring Brook Press, $16.99 Hardcover, 9781596434615, September 2009)



This memoir is like nothing else you've ever read. Blaze Ginsberg, age 22, permits us to visit the inner workings of his brain, from his freshman year of high school in 2002 through the spring of 2008, when he receives his editor's comments on an early draft of this book. But don't expect the usual personal narrative along a chronological timeline. For Blaze, a "high-functioning autistic," as he calls himself, certain details stand out above others, and he often organizes his memories around a theme. A special someone showing up to class can make his day; a glitch in his routine can ruin it. Sound familiar? Blaze shows us how we're all more alike than different. He constructs his recollections as "episodes" on a TV show; sometimes they occur on consecutive days, sometimes he skips entire weeks. He gives each episode a title, date, summary, notes, quotes, trivia, "goofs" and a soundtrack listing (recurring singers/groups include Hilary Duff--on whom he develops a crush--James Taylor, Coldplay, Marvin Gaye, Alanis Morissette, David Bowie, the Eagles, Stevie Wonder and Anita Baker), with a specific song highlighted, plus the album (and year) on which it appeared. A "Thanksgiving Special" appears as a bookend to each year; in it, Blaze often makes comparisons to previous Thanksgivings, and always recaps the "major events" of that year. His sense of humor permeates his reflections, as do bouts of anger or sadness.
 
Blaze gives readers a crystal-clear picture of where his thoughts take him. For instance, after the last episode of his series "My Freshman Year of High School 2 (2003)," he includes a "Post-season Special: Flashback," dated March 1, 2007, in which he describes watching The Graduate during his college film class and the precise scene that sparks his memories of 2003. He also enjoys making lists and provides a running inventory of what's important to him (e.g., for "Games 1: Episode 1," a series in which he attends his high school's softball games, he writes, "This is the only episode in which Long, the driver, drove bus number 4221. Number 4221 is a 1984 Blue Bird bus and was retired in the summer of 2004"). With his large and loving extended family, Blaze establishes traditions like the "Saturday groove" with the women of his clan (his mother, his Nana, his aunts) or outings with his uncle Bo to the hot tub, sauna and pool (the "Jewish Triathlon," as they call it). The Blaze who emerges from these details is an intelligent young man longing for someone to love and struggling to make sense of his world. "Part of what happens when I am so tired is that I start to feel depression around me," Blaze writes after a long day with classmates at Disneyland. "Being up so late, wandering around, and arguing with my friends messes up my mind and makes me want to repeat stress and problems that I had in the past, which is crazy because why would anyone want to repeat stress and problems?" His ability to articulate his thought process helps us reflect on how nonlinear the mind is and how much information we are constantly sifting through. In this book, Blaze gives readers and writers of all ages an innovative approach to memoir (imagine how fresh "My Summer Vacation" pieces could be!) and, for those who live or work with students with diverse learning strategies, he gives us a privileged passport to a dynamic and complex inner life.--Jennifer M. Brown

[Editor's note: The author's mother, Debra Ginsberg (Raising Blaze), reviews for Shelf Awareness.]
 


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