Notes: E-Reader's 8-Track Moment; Gaiman on Audiobooks
While e-books may be having "their iPod moment this holiday season," the Wall Street Journal cautioned that an e-reader buying frenzy "could also turn out to be an eight-track moment" because the technology is changing so rapidly.
"If you have the disposable income and love technology--not books--you should get a dedicated e-reader," said Bob LiVolsi, founder of BooksOnBoard e-book store, who suggested that an old laptop or inexpensive netbook might serve the purpose as well. "It will give you a lot more functionality, and better leverages the family income."
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Neil Gaiman and David Sedaris talked with NPR's Morning Edition about their experiences with, and the future of, audiobooks.
"I grew up in a world where stories were read aloud," said Gaiman. "I was overjoyed the first time one of my publishers let me record one of my own audiobooks, though I was slightly saddened when she explained that there would soon be no more audiobooks.... But the death of the audiobook never happened. In the past six years, I've recorded six audiobooks, and although it can be exhausting, I've loved the process and have been delighted with the result."
Sedaris called himself "a huge tapeworm. I think I heard my first one, it was one of those musty ones. Remember, you would find them at the library in boxes the size of a suitcase. They were actual tapes--and that's where I first started with audiobooks.... I often believe that no one could appreciate the iPod more than me. I think that it was invented especially for me. I would fight for my iPod. Like, I wouldn't fight for my freedom, but I would fight for my iPod."
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Experimental Twitterature may have taken a slight turn for the worse--or at least a detour--this week as Electric Literature (@ElectricLit) and 20 partners launched Rick Moody's Twitter story, "Some Contemporary Characters," in a series of tweets at 10-minute intervals, beginning Monday and running until today, with evenings off.
The Los Angeles Times' Jacket Copy book blog praised Electric Literature for innovative thinking, but suggested that "simultaneous publishing by 20 different Twitterers is perhaps a miscalculation. In the past, having bookstores, bloggers and other magazines simultaneously pass out a short story would widen the circulation. Today, many of those people are in overlapping social networking circles, and the result is repetition rather than reach. Anyone following more than one of the outlets sees exactly the same tweet show up at exactly the same time from multiple sources. Twitter has a viral recirculation tool--retweeting, or an RT in a post--which is organic and feels like a shared secret. But this project isn't using retweeting, it's simply sending out the same broadcast from many places at once--leaving the receiver to feel like he or she has been attacked by clones. No fun."
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Effective this week, the Jane Addams Book Shop, Champaign, Ill., has new owners. After 25 years in the business, Flora Faraci handed over responsibility for the used and rare bookshop to Don and Susan Elmore, the News-Gazette reported.
"We're a big book family," said Susan. "I fell in love with Jane Addams when my kids were little."
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After 30 years in business, Lee Booksellers, Lincoln, Neb., is closing. Owners Linda Hillegass and Jim McKee told the Journal Star that they plan to retire. The store is closed until Thursday, then will reopen for its going-out-of-business sale.
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Bill Petrocelli, co-owner of Book Passage, San Francisco and Corte Madera, Calif., wrote a piece for the Huffington Post, "No One Warned the Dinosaurs. Will Anyone Warn the Publishers?" in which he observed that the "best-seller price war that is being waged by the mass merchandisers is the latest symptom of a problem that has been growing larger and larger. The major publishers are in a difficult position: they are service companies that function like manufacturing companies--20th century businesses in a 21st century economy. The control of the book business is gradually slipping out of their hands."
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Jane Austen "probably died of tuberculosis caught from cattle" rather than Addison’s disease or lymphoma, as had previously been speculated, the New York Times reported.
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In showcasing the "best-reviewed, buzziest books of 2009," the Toronto Globe & Mail noted that "our 12th annual pick of the 100 best and most influential books of the year includes prize-winners and surprises, writers allegedly famous and those about to be, prose and poetry, science and social studies, memoir and manifesto, and much, much more."
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What's next? Oprah's Book Club without Oprah?
The "book club made famous by presenters Richard and Judy is to return to TV screens, but with celebrity reviewers replacing the couple. The TV Book Club will review 'the most compelling reads for 2010' and be fronted by stars including stylist Gok Wan and comedian Jo Brand," BBC News reported.
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Philip Turner, who formed Philip Turner Book Productions earlier this year, has established Philip Turner Books, an independent publishing imprint whose first book is The Deeds of My Fathers: Generoso Pope, Sr., Power Broker of New York & Gene Pope, Jr., Publisher of the National Enquirer by Paul David Pope, son and grandson of the subjects of the book. Expected pub date is next October.
Philip Turner Book Productions offers a variety of editorial services, including line editing; co-agenting with literary representatives; and development and packaging of new books featuring truthtellers, whistleblowers, muckrakers and revisionist historians.
Turner had created Union Square Press as part of Sterling Publishing and earlier was v-p and editor-in-chief at Carroll & Graf, Thunder's Mouth and Philip Turner Books at Avalon Publishing.
Turner began his career in 1978 as a co-founder with his family of Under Cover Books, an independent bookseller in Cleveland, Ohio. Since leaving Under Cover in 1986, Turner has held a number of senior editorial positions, including executive editor at Times Books and editor in chief of Kodansha America.
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"I'm a celebrity memoir... get me out of here!" was the headline for an Independent piece on the sales slump for ghost-written celebrity confessionals that observed: "It is a literary genre about 'how I became famous' that readers have found endlessly riveting and which has made a fortune for those celebrities who decide to tell all in return for a seven-figure advance. But the love affair with the fame memoir could finally be coming to an end."
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Ingram has launched Ingram Wire, a downloadable desktop application for the bookselling community that is designed so booksellers can receive stock news on fast-moving titles specific to their assigned distribution center, alerts on top awards and breaking events, as well as "backorder now" messages to ensure they are among the first for allocations. Users can also click directly to ipage to place orders.
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DailyLit has made its content available free of charge. DailyLit's blog noted that "any feature we’ve launched or change we’ve made has been in response to readers’ requests. We’re now listening to our readers once again, and it’s clear that they most appreciate the wonderful books, stories and installments available for free."
The Chain Letter of the Soul: New and Selected Poems by Bill Holm (Milkweed Editions, $18, 9781571314444/157131444X). Hans Weyandt of Micawber's Books in St, Paul, Minn., said, "Bill Holm, one of Minnesota's greatest champions of the arts, passed away not too long ago. The Chain Letter of the Soul is his last book--a new and selected poems (heavy on the new) that is not at all one of those thrown-together collections. It is a great testament to his life and his writing."
Twisted Tree by Kent Meyers (Houghton Mifflin, $24, 9780151013890/0151013896). According to Nancy Simpson of Book Vault in Oskaloosa, Iowa, "Twisted Tree by Kent Meyers is one of those books that really grabs your attention in the first three pages and never lets go! It is actually the story of a human domino chain: the interrelated stories of what happens after one young girl in a very small town is killed. Meyers's character development is superb.... each character speaks by turns in the first person. Highly recommended."
Stray Affections by Charlene Baumbich (WaterBrook Press, $13.99, 9780307444714/0307444716). Nancy Simpson of Book Vault in Oskaloosa, Iowa, said, "What a bundle this book is! A combination of mystery, magic, joy, second chances, quirky characters and the blessings of God... all brought to light by the purchase of a snow globe at a flea market. This is an ideal book to read on a snowy winter day, snuggled up in a blanket, with a cup of hot chocolate beside you."
The Longest Night by Marion Dane Bauer and Ted Lewin (Holiday House, $17.95, 9780823420544/082342054X). Angie Grafstrom of Inspiration Hollow in Roseau, Minn., said, "The Longest Night by Marion Dane Bauer is a charming story about the winter solstice and the return of longer days. Its lyrical style and beautiful illustrations will make this an instant family classic to be shared with generations to come. Children will ask for this one over and over again!!"
Pioneer Girl: A True Story of Growing Up on the Prairie by Andrea Warren (Bison Books, $14.95, 9780803225268/0803225261). Carla Ketner of Chapters Books & Gifts in Seward, Neb., said, "This summer my 11-year-old niece and I visited Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska, where we saw first-hand what Grace McCance Snyder, the 'pioneer girl' of Warren's book, would have encountered as a homesteader to this area in 1885. Pioneer Girl is an engaging, well-researched extension of our visit, and I just had to buy it for her for her birthday!"
Moose on the Loose by Kathy-Jo Wargin and John Bendall-Brunello (Sleeping Bear Press, $15.95, 9781585364275/1585364274). According to Bev Denor of LaDeDa Books & Beans in Manitowoc, Wis., "Home invasions are not funny--that is unless the invader is a moose who tries on your socks, scrubs up in your tub, and needs a kiss before snuggling into your bed for the night. Kathy-Jo Wargin's silly story told in rhyme, enhanced by John Bendall-Brunello's whimsical drawings, won't settle on your bookshelf for long... it is sure to be read again and again."
Stone (Elizabeth Leads the Way) begins this eye-opening history with the July 1999 launch of Columbia, piloted by Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a space shuttle, then fills in the details of the women who helped pave the path to this moment. Led by Jerrie Cobb, in 1961 a dozen women "took their shot at being astronauts." Stone demonstrates how prevailing attitudes at the time (which traveled all the way up the chain of command to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson), as well as an embittered female pilot, obstructed the path to space exploration for these women, who put their jobs and families at stake in pursuit of their dream. Copiously illustrated with photographs, this volume may well be as revelatory to women's history and space program buffs as it will be to young readers.
This beautifully designed, hand-size volume published in partnership with the Anne Frank House makes an ideal gift for any age admirer of Anne Frank. The book takes us inside the pages of The Diary of a Young Girl, via quotes and photographs of pages from Anne's original journal, and into the Amsterdam annex where the Franks stayed hidden from the world during the Nazi occupation, until, on Friday, August 4, 1944, the Secret Annex was invaded. Pictures taken during Anne and her sister Margot's early years depict a normal childhood spent at the beach and in school (the cover shows Anne's passport pictures). Photos of the interior and exterior of 263 Prinsengracht make the journey through this book the next best thing to a visit to what is now preserved as the Anne Frank House.
Phillip Hoose won the 2009 National Book Award for this book about an African-American teen who, in segregated Montgomery, Ala., refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger on March 2, 1955--nine months before Rosa Parks's identical action set off the Montgomery bus boycotts. Colvin was only 15 when she took a brave stand by remaining seated, and she was thrown in jail. Although she was released on probation, "I would have a police record whenever I went to get a job, or when I tried to go to college," Colvin said. A little over one year later, on May 11, 1956, she once again stood up for justice, as a plaintiff in the Browder v. Gayle case, which challenged the constitutionality of Alabama's segregation laws. Not only does Hoose's account, liberally laced with quotes from interviews he conducted with Colvin, set the record straight, it is an inspiration to all young people about the sweeping changes that can come from one brave act and a belief in doing the right thing.
Born to a physician and a nurse on May 4, 1916, in Scranton, Pa, the opinionated young Jane Butzner's ideas would later shape the development and approach to urban areas across the United States. Jane headed to New York City at the tender age of 18 and, before long, had published a poem in the New York Herald Tribune while working as a secretary. She became a journalist, and a 1943 feature article in the Iron Age promoted her hometown as an attractive place for businesses, after Scranton's coal mines were depleted and 25,000 miners were out of work. Jane met and married Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., an architect, in 1947 and, while raising her family in New York's Greenwich Village, began to formulate her philosophy about urban planning as many families fled the cities for the suburbs after World War II. These ideas became the basis for her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and she practiced what she preached: she took on the mighty Robert Moses twice to save her neighborhood's Washington Square Park and also defeated a plan to build an expressway that would have destroyed what is now SoHo.
"The first time Joanne Blackmon was arrested, she was just ten years old," begins Elizabeth Partridge's (John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth) account of the events leading up to the 54-mile civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Joanne's grandmother Sylvia Johnson was involved in the Dallas County Voters League and attempted to register fellow African-American residents to vote. But a racist governor, George Wallace ("Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" he cried), and a racist sheriff, Jim Clark, employed intimidation tactics that kept potential voters from registering for fear of losing their jobs or being paid a call by the KKK, until Johnson traveled to Atlanta to seek help from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Partridge makes clear what a crucial role children played in spreading the word, marching in protest and being willing to be jailed in pursuit of positive change. Photographs as powerful as the quotes, songs and poetry combine in this elegantly designed volume to deliver a wallop.
Jim Murphy (Truce, see below) here encapsulates the issues and events that prompted "the bloodiest single day in American history"--September 17, 1862. The author presents both sides of the Civil War and the tensions within the Union army leadership (particularly between President Abraham Lincoln and General George B. McClellan), and recounts how Corporal Barton Mitchell's discovery of what came to be called Confederate General Lee's "Lost Orders" led to a key strategic victory for the Union army. Murphy puts a human face on the many individuals on both sides of the conflict through letters and primary documents, and also gives a context for the timing of Lincoln's delivery of the Emancipation Proclamation, outlining the president's national and constitutional considerations.
In contrast to the bloodbath at Antietam in A Savage Thunder (above), Murphy's account of December 25, 1914, describes a spontaneous peace precipitated by more than 100,000 soldiers on both sides of the trenches during the Great War. Kaiser Wilhelm's failure to read the full text of Serbia's reply to Austria's demands resulted in a battle that engulfed the globe--a battle that even the soldiers eventually deemed fruitless. In both Savage Thunder and Truce, Murphy allows the soldiers to speak for themselves through letters, documents and other primary source material. No official photographers were present during the Christmas Truce, so many of the photographs in Murphy's volume--of Germans and Brits lifting a glass or posing together good-naturedly--were taken by the soldiers themselves. Murphy also demonstrates how the Germans' bitterness about the Versailles Treaty at the close of the Great War laid the groundwork for World War II.--
Terese Svoboda is the author of 14 books, including 
