Shelf Awareness for Thursday, October 29, 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

Letters

'Keeping Our Actions Ethical'

Christine Onorati, owner of WORD bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y., writes:

I've been reading about booksellers encouraging others to cancel their frontlist orders with the publishers and order from the online retailers instead (even though I'm not sure that's possible, given the quantity restraints). They seem to think this will "show" them, as if Amazon or Wal-Mart couldn't care less about losing money on those sales. If anything, it will give those companies the opportunity to say, "Look how successful this campaign has been! We're going to keep doing it, and publishers should work with us to do it."

If we independent booksellers don't keep our actions ethical and stay truly independent, how can we survive? By participating in this, we condone it. I think it's important that we stay above it. I know I couldn't look my loyal customers in the eye selling them a book I bought from these retailers. The optimistic side of me still hopes this behavior will put a positive spotlight on the importance of books, not the trivialization of them by this cost cutting, and that authors will fight in a public way to get paid for their creativity and hard work and that they will tell their publishers they won't stand for this. If a few of the more successful authors refused to have their books discounted in this way, I bet the publishers would start listening. And if this is the end of independent bookselling as we know it, I'll go down knowing that I did not participate in our demise.

 


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


News

Notes: SIBA's 'Leap of Faith'; Impact of Loss-leader Pricing

Taking what it calls "a leap of faith . . . in order to demonstrate the collective clout of independent bookstores and booksellers in the south," the Southern Independent Booksellers Association has offered to waive membership dues for the coming year if stores "allow SIBA to place a single banner ad on their store websites. The ad, whose content will be sold by and controlled by the organization, will appear simultaneously on every participating SIBA store site for the duration it is booked--giving it extensive regional exposure."

"We are always looking for ways to show the impact and clout our stores have on the market," said SIBA executive director Wanda Jewell, who envisions a "circle" of store websites collectively promoting the same title simultaneously. She expressed confidence this will boost sales of the book and raise the visibility of the bookstores with publishers.

Jewell added that initial reaction from member stores has been "very enthusiastic" for the Bookstore Banner Program, which will go live January 1. A list of participating stores is available on SIBA's website.

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The book pricing battle has spawned an equally intense discussion regarding the present and future impact of loss-leader discounts on booksellers, publishers and authors.

In a Huffington Post column titled "Not a Simple Price War--It's a Fight Over What You Get to Read," Bill Petrocelli, co-owner of Book Passage, San Francisco and Corte Madera, Calif., wrote: "Predatory pricing is a means of driving other booksellers out of business. When this happens, the choice of books is one of the first things to suffer. Some readers think that if their favorite store closes they can always buy the book they want somewhere else. But that's a dangerous delusion--the books they want may not be there at all. In fact, these types of disruptions in how books are sold or distributed has a profound effect on what publishers decide to publish in the first place."

He concluded by pointing out the irony that one of the 10 books in the discount wars is Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna. "But Kingsolver wasn't always a best-selling author," Petrocelli observed. "When her first novel The Bean Trees was published in a modest print-run in 1988, independent booksellers recognized it as a literary treasure and sold thousands of copies. After that the chain stores climbed on the band-wagon, but without that first push from independent booksellers Kingsolver's career might never have taken off. Anyone who loves books should worry that the doors seem to be closing on the Barbara Kingsolvers of tomorrow."

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Encore magazine explored the indies versus big box/online issue in Wilmington, N.C.: "It is true to say that our attachment to the independent bookstore--or record store, grocer, pharmacy, and the list goes on and on--is, in part, affectation. It fulfills a self-conscious desire to belong to a particular community. Yes, sales, numbers and profits can tell us what’s popular, but is that always necessarily what’s best for our community? The core value of the indie store is to help introduce us to new titles, new authors and new storylines that may otherwise go unnoticed."

Shawna Kenney, author of I Was A Teenage Dominatrix and former owner of Rebel Books, confessed that she is "guilty of shopping for the cheaper deal at times. But I do try to support local bookstores (and farmers, restaurants, artists, etc.) as much as I can. When we spend our time and dollars in our own backyards, we build community."

Encore also noted that independent bookstores are "eagerly willing to match different methods of competition. For example, Old Books on Front Street will also hand-deliver books to our residence if we live within city limits. The smiling faces, of course, is free. Most importantly, many independently owned book stores, like Two Sisters Bookery downtown, or Pomegranate Books in midtown, feature different attitudes toward their customers."

"We are family-run," said Gwnyfar Rohler of Old Books on Front Street. "We genuinely care. And if I don't have [a book] here on the shelf, I'll make sure we help you get it. We adore our customers, our area, and we want you to come back. It's not just our job, it's what we love."

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Inkwell Bookstore's Blog featured "Top 10 Reasons Book Club Is like Church."

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Unbridled Books will host a Twitter author event today from 12-1 p.m. EST, during which Masha Hamilton will field readers' questions about her new novel, 31 Hours (hashtag #31Hours).

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Canadian consumers have limited e-reader options and "still can't get the Kindle," but author Kate Pullinger observed that the wait may ultimately be worthwhile, telling CTV News that "she hopes e-books and modern literature evolve beyond the simple written word."

"A problem for me with the e-readers is they basically just replicate the book--I'm perfectly happy with books, thank you very much," Pullinger said. "Electronic replication of a book is pretty uninteresting for me. The more interesting potential lies in . . . whole new ways of telling a story that use other media. But the new devices aren't with us yet."

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Book trailer of the day: The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders by Anthony Flacco with Jerry Clark (Union Square Press).

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Mary Grey James, a former lead book buyer for Ingram Book Company, has joined East/West Literary Agency as a partner literary agent, effective immediately.

Before joining Ingram, where she worked for 11 years, James was a national accounts manager for Harcourt and earlier worked at several independent and university bookstores.

James serves as v-p and president elect of the Women's National Book Association and chair of the WNBA Pannell Award Committee. She may be reached at mgjames@eastwestliteraryagency.com or 615-386-6760.

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Linda Jones, formerly senior v-p of merchandising at Borders Group, has joined Andrews McMeel Publishing as senior v-p of AMP's calendar and greeting card and Accord Publishing divisions. At Borders, Jones oversaw children's books and toys, newsstands, games, calendars, music and movies.

 


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


Pennie Picks The Lacuna

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, $26.99, 9780060852573/0060852577) as her pick of the month for November. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote:

"Life offers certain truths. Among them is the fact that when Barbara Kingslover writes a new book, I will read it--and love it. Her latest novel, The Lacuna, is no exception. Harrison Shepherd, a U.S.-born citizen, grows up in Mexico, where he holds several odd jobs. Years later his work for Leon Trotsky and friendship with Frida Kahlo come back to haunt him.

"One of the riveting aspects of the novel is the way Kingsolver brings Frida Kahlo's artistic temperament to life, portraying her feisty nature, sarcasm, flamboyant clothes and utter fearlessness--all shot through with intensity and humor."


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


Consortium Adds a Quartet

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution has added the following publishers, effective with the spring 2010 season:

  • Enchanted Lion Books, Brooklyn, N.Y., which was founded in 2003 and specializes in nonfiction for children and publishes picture books from around the world.
  • Child Heroes Publishing, Norfolk, Va., which publishes books for children struggling with disease, disorder, disability and dysfunction or for those who "just feel different, challenged or isolated."
  • LoudMouth Press, Brooklyn, N.Y., which was founded last year and is a nonprofit grassroots organization committed to developing and producing works by writers, artists and critical thinkers that advocate an awareness of human and civil rights and issues of social, political and cultural importance. LoudMouth Press also publishes the quarterly periodical LOUD, for high school teachers and students in New York City.
  • Nicolo Whimsey Press, Brandywine, Md., which publishes 30-minute versions of Shakespeare plays that can be performed by groups of 15 to 30 young people. The shows have been staged by inner-city high school English classes at the Folger Shakespeare Library's annual Secondary School Shakespeare Festival.

 


Media and Movies

Media Heat: What Would Susie Say?

Tonight on PBS's Newshour: Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, authors of This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Princeton University Press, $35, 9780691142166/0691142165).

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Tomorrow morning on NPR's Morning Edition: Brian Williams, co-author of Our Front Pages: 21 Years of Greatness, Virtue, and Moral Rectitude from America's Finest News Source (Scribner, $28, 9781439156926/1439156921).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, authors of Seeking Spirits: The Lost Cases of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (Pocket, $16, 9781439101155/1439101159). They will also appear tomorrow night on Larry King Live.

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Tomorrow on Morning Joe and Sean Hannity: Kamala Harris, San Francisco's district attorney and author of Smart on Crime (Chronicle, $24.95, 9780811865289/0811865282).

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Tomorrow night on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien: 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 night on Larry King Live: Mary Browne, author of The 5 Rules of Thought: How to Use the Power of Your Mind to Get What You Want (Atria, $14, 9781416537441/1416537449).

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This weekend on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS: Robert Shiller, co-author of Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism (Princeton University Press, $24.95, 9780691142333/0691142335).

 


This Weekend on Book TV: Temple Grandin

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, October 31

11:15 a.m. Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, co-authors of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (Little, Brown, $25.99, 9780316036146/0316036145), contend that almost every choice we make has something to do with the social networks we belong to. (Re-airs Sunday at 4:15 a.m.)

4 p.m. David Cole, author of The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable (New Press, $17.95, 9781595584922/1595584927), discusses the latest release of Justice Department memos relating to the CIA's use of interrogation techniques in the war on terror. (Re-airs Sunday at 7 p.m.)

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. For a segment that first aired in 2000, Diane Ravitch talked about her book Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (S&S, $18, 9780743203265/0743203267).

8:45 p.m. Terry Gould, author of Marked for Death: Dying for the Story in the World's Most Dangerous Places (Counterpoint, $25, 9781582435497/1582435499), profiles seven journalists who were killed while covering stories in international hotspots.

10 p.m. After Words. Amity Shlaes interviews John Fleming, author of The Anti-Communist Manifestos: Four Books That Shaped the Cold War (Norton, $27.95, 9780393069259/0393069257). Fleming describes what authors Victor Kravchenko, Jan Valtin, Whittaker Chambers and Arthur Koestler went through after speaking out against the Soviet Union. (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m., and Monday at 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, co-authors of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, profile women living in Africa and Asia who have overcome terrible odds to make lives for themselves. (Re-airs Monday at 5 a.m.)

Sunday, November 1

12:30 a.m. Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell, co-authors of Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything (Dutton, $26.95, 9780525951346/0525951342), talk about the creation of electronic memories and what this means for our future. (Re-airs at 3 p.m.)

12 p.m. In Depth. Author, autism advocate and animal scientist Temple Grandin joins Book TV for a live interview. Her latest book is Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26, 9780151014897/0151014892). Viewers can participate in the discussion by calling in during the program or e-mailing questions to booktv@c-span.org. (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

 



Books & Authors

Awards: Whiting Writers' Awards; Le Prix Goncourt

Ten writers will receive $50,000 each as winners of the 2009 Whiting Writers' Awards, presented by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the program has awarded more than $6 million to 250 poets, fiction and nonfiction writers and playwrights, including Denis Johnson, Mona Simpson, Tony Kushner, Jorie Graham, Gretel Ehrlich, Michael Cunningham, Alice McDermott, William T. Vollman, Ian Frazier, David Foster Wallace, Suzan-Lori Parks, Mark Doty, Jeffrey Eugenides, C.D.Wright and Colson Whitehead.

This year's recipients are fiction writers Adam Johnson, Nami Mun, Salvatore Scibona and Vu Tran; nonfiction writers Michael Meyer and Hugh Raffles; poets Jericho Brown, Jay Hopler and Joan Kane; and playwright Rajiv Joseph.

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Finalists for the Prix Goncourt, whose winner will be announced November 2, are (according to the Independent):

  • Des hommes by Laurent Mauvignier
  • Trois femmes puissantes by Marie Ndiaye
  • La vérité sur Marie by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
  • Les heures souterraines by Delphine de Vigan

 


Shelf Starters: Mentors, Muses and Monsters

Mentors, Muses and Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives edited by Elizabeth Benedict (Free Press, $24.99, 9781439108611/1439108617, October 27, 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read:

"Mad Hope and Mavericks"--ZZ Packer

I'm ashamed to say that I came across James Alan McPherson's fiction much later than I should have. He was on sabbatical during my first year studying at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and I wanted to make sure I'd read his stories by the time he returned. So I bought a used copy of his Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Elbow Room and began reading "Why I Like Country Music," "The Story of a Dead Man," and then "The Silver Bullet." As I read each story I experienced what is best described in terms familiar to addicts of any stripe--the rush as the drug gets started, the pure, free-floating euphoria of riding the high, the ultimate disappointment when all the goods are gone. McPherson, more than any other contemporary writer I've read, understands the pure addictive quality of a story well told--story not as cleverly crafted gem full of ironic phrasing and hip posturing, but Story, the kind we tell around campfires to comfort ourselves, the kind we tell as parables to warn each other, the kind we tell to save ourselves.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

 


Book Review

Book Review: Cherries in Winter

Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times by Suzan Colon (Doubleday Books, $21.95 Hardcover, 9780385532525, November 2009)



When the economy began careening downhill in 2008 and magazine editor Suzan Colón lost her job and her six-figure salary, she went home and did what generations of women in her family had done in hard times: she put up soup. So begins Colón's slim but highly satisfying memoir of food, family and making do. It is a testament both to her thriftiness and to her skills as an editor that Colón manages so effectively to combine cultural history, personal journey and recipes in such an economical package.

Although Colón had been preparing for the possible loss of her job by brown-bagging it and cutting back on other luxuries, when the axe fell it still came as a shock. She turned then to her family's most precious heirloom, her maternal grandmother's recipe file which held much more than directions on how to make Chicken Pie a la Mississippi. One in a long line of resourceful resilient women, Colón's grandmother Matilda survived the Great Depression largely on the strength of her own will. The first of 13 children, Matilda was yanked out of school in the fourth grade, and soon her secretarial salary became the sole support of her entire family. But the really tough times didn't begin until Matilda's husband, Charlie, bought a mostly unfertile farm and the family had to rely on scraps, wits and the kindness of local wives (who offered and typed many of the recipes in Colón's treasured stash). Colón's mother, Carolyn, followed the same example. Divorced when Colón was very young, she worked hard, saving nickels and dimes in a coffee can so that mother and daughter could take a trip to Bermuda and added to the cache of recipes. Between the lines of these recipes, Colón found the inspiration she needed to overcome her own hard times which, as seen through the lens of her family's history, didn't seem nearly as challenging.

Although Colón rightly credits the women in her family for gracefully overcoming enormous odds, she never gives short shrift to the men in her life. Some of the sweetest, most touching passages describe her close relationship with her maternal grandfather (who acted as a surrogate father) and her funny, loving husband. As for the recipes, some are more intriguing (and practical) than others, but all demonstrate the underlying theme of this jewel of a book: that love, family and the occasional hearty stew can brighten even the darkest of times.--Debra Ginsberg

Shelf Talker: A charming, wry and ultimately satisfying memoir of food, family and overcoming hard times.


The Bestsellers

Chicagoland's Top-Selling Titles Last Week

The following were the bestselling titles at independent bookstores in and around Chicago during the week ended Sunday, October 25:

Hardcover Fiction

1. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
3. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
4. Hardball by Sara Paretsky
5. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
2. When Everything Changed by Gail Collins
3. Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
4. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
5. True Compass by Edward Kennedy

Paperback Fiction

1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
3. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5. Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosanay

Paperback Nonfiction

1. American Lightning by Howard Blum
2. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
4. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
5. Julia's Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child

Children's

1. Diary of Wimpy Kid #4: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #1 by Jeff Kinney
3. My First Halloween by Tomie dePaola
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Reporting bookstores: Anderson's, Naperville and Downer’s Grove; Read Between the Lynes, Woodstock; the Book Table, Oak Park; the Book Cellar, Lincoln Square; Lake Forest Books, Lake Forest; the Bookstall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka; and 57th St. Books; Seminary Co-op; Women and Children First, Chicago.

[Many thanks to the booksellers and Carl Lennertz!]


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