Shelf Awareness for Monday, November 29, 2010


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

Editors' Note

Our New Website!


Shelf Awareness has launched a new version of our website, improving the layout, content and search functions to make it easier for users to find the information they need. You can browse popular articles, click on a book cover to read the review, find recent award announcements and learn about upcoming trade shows and consumer book fairs. In addition, we now can post breaking news and update important stories that we're covering fully here in the newsletter. The homepage also now features ads from the current issue of Shelf Awareness. And if you've ever wondered about the people behind Shelf Awareness, you can read our bios on the "about us" page.


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


News

Image of the Day: Team Jordan and Tower Guard NYC

Earlier this month at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble in New York City, Team Jordan united for the final tour event for Towers of Midnight, book 13 in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy epic. Team Jordan consists of Brandon Sanderson, who took over the series following Jordan's death; Harriet McDougal, Jordan's widow and long-time editor; and Maria Simons and Alan Romansczuk, Jordan's long-time editorial assistants, who have worked with Sanderson and McDougal to preserve Jordan's vision for the series. Here in the back row are Tower Guard NYC volunteers (from l. to r.) Raphael Kelly, Zeshan Hamdani, Joseph Armao, Christian Garnett, Thom DeSimone and Erin McDermott. In the front row: (from l. to r.) Sanderson's editor Moshe Feder; Sanderson; McDougal; Tor.com's Wheel of Time blogger Leigh Butler; Simons; and Romansczuk.

 


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


Notes: Sarah Palin Draws Crowds in Iowa; Wimpy Kid for Prez?

Sarah Palin's appearance on behalf of her new book, America by Heart, at a Borders in West Des Moines, Iowa, drew many hundreds of fans, "at least five times the number of people who turned out here the previous week for Newt Gingrich," the New York Times wrote.

Security was tight: Palin signed at a desk in an area partly blocked by black curtains; people with her book were allowed to approach in small groups but had to surrender cell phones and cameras; except for photographers, media were held at a distance; and Palin arrived and left from a side entrance.

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Books trailer of the day (and a hilarious cautionary tale): Forgetting English: Stories by Midge Raymond (Ewu Press) and The Tourist Trail by John Yunker (Byte Level Books).

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Cool idea of the day: a reading, book signing and pet cancer awareness event tonight at Katz & Dogs Animal Hospital in Upper Montclair, N.J., featuring Dana Jennings, author of What a Difference a Dog Makes: Big Lessons on Life, Love and Healing from a Small Pooch (Doubleday).

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Wimpy Kid for President? While New York magazine was searching Manhattan's indie bookshops for copies of former President George W. Bush's bestseller Decision Points, and the Associated Press (via ABC News) was reporting that President Barack Obama's Of Thee I Sing is the fastest-selling picture book in his publisher's history, USA Today noted that Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, the fifth book in Jeff Kinney's series, topped both presidents as the number one book on USA Today's bestseller list and had "a 60-foot-long, 56-foot-tall balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York."

Kinney said he was thrilled by the balloon, but added, "I have no place left to go--but down.... [America by Heart by Sarah] Palin is coming, but she doesn't have a balloon."

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Sony's website has revealed plans to launch an e-book store for Android devices and iPhones in December. "Presumably, however, you won't have to own a Sony Reader to access content from its bookstore on the iPhone or Android devices; just like users can download the Kindle app on a mobile device and buy books without actually owning a Kindle. There was no specific mention of synching, which would allow you to stop reading on an iPhone or Android phone and pick up on the Reader or PC," PC Magazine wrote.

In addition, Sony's e-readers will be re-introduced in Japan beginning December 10. The Wall Street Journal reported that the decision is a "rare example of a consumer product being reintroduced in Japan after an initial flop at home and then finding success abroad."

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Nearly a month after Cornerstone Books, Salem, Mass., closed, the Boston Globe reported that the "neighborhood bookstores in communities north of Boston have long attracted kids eager to learn about dinosaurs. Now those stores are working hard to ensure that they, too, don't become extinct."

"We're constantly looking for new ways to stick around," said John Hugo, general manager of the three HugoBookstores, which began offering e-books on a redesigned website earlier this year.

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The Guardian featured its best books of the year as chosen by writers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, John Banville, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Roddy Doyle, Margaret Drabble, Geoff Dyer, Dave Eggers and Richard Ford.

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Ruta Drummond has joined Tiger Tales as associate publisher. She was formerly children's book buyer for Borders Group.

In her more than 25 years at Borders, "I've read, bought, and sold books," she said. "Now I'll be able to help create them."

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Effective today, Shane Norman is joining HarperCollins as director of interactive marketing and will be involved in "developing and coordinating an integrated digital consumer marketing strategy for high profile authors and titles." He formerly managed interactive sales and marketing efforts for Fox Television stations in New York.

 

 


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


Black Friday: Store Sales Inch Up, Online Sales Jump


There was good news and murky news about Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend sales.

Sales on Black Friday increased just 0.3%, to $10.7 billion, but that's still a record, according to ShopperTrak (via Wall Street Journal). Traffic rose 2.2%. Sales likely did not rise as much as traffic because of heavy discounting and online shopping.

Coremetrics estimated that online sales rose 16% on Black Friday, with the average order size increasing to $190.80, up about 12% from last year. ShopperTrak estimated online sales on Friday rose 9%, to $648 million.

According to comScore, Amazon.com was the most-visited website, with 25% more visitors on Black Friday this year than last year. Online sales on Thanksgiving Day rose 28%, to $407 million, the company said.

Sales today, Cyber Monday, may stand out less than in past years because of online promotions held over the long weekend--and even before Thanksgiving.

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NPD Group estimated that 95% of people who went to stores Black Friday bought something, a gain from last year; that there was more impulse buying and slightly less gift buying; and that sales in the Northeast and Midwest rose 1.7% and 0.4%, respectively, were flat in the West and fell 0.3% in the South.

The National Retail Federation estimated that 212 million shoppers visited a store or commercial website over the weekend, up 8.7% from last year. The organization also said that the average shopper over the weekend spent $365.34, up 6.4% over the same period last year.

ComScore estimated that online sales in November and December will rise 11%, to $32.4 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Forrester Research predicts online sales will account for 7% of total sales this year, up from 6% last year. ShopperTrak continues to predict a 3.2% increase in overall holiday sales. A Janney Montgomery Scott analyst estimated that sales today will top $1 billion for the first time.

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Some observers wondered if the increase in sales was a negative indicator of the holiday season. As National Retail Federation v-p Ellen Davis told the Journal, "People are so focused on deals that they'll get up early. In a better economy, they might opt to sleep in."

Still, others thought there was a change in mood. As Karen Stanek, manager of an Old Navy in Arlington Heights, Ill., told the New York Times: "You can just feel it in the air--people want to spend money again. The mood of the customers is more positive than it's been in years."

And Gerald Storch, CEO of Toys R Us, told the Journal: "People seemed happier this weekend, while last year they were more desperate, feeling they had to get the bargains."

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Several booksellers reported that American Express's small business Saturday program--which gave registered Amex customers a $25 credit if they made purchases at a small business--helped sales. As Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books, Mystic, Conn., told the Day: "I would say that 80 percent of the people using their cards were aware of the benefit to the community and those that weren't aware of it said they would go home and register their cards."

Discounting and special deals were part of many booksellers' experience. Some offered free shipping on online purchases. Borders and Barnes & Noble offered major in-store and online discounts. Some booksellers were unhappy about a Groupon Friday deal offering a 50% discount on $40 worth of Simon & Schuster books at the publisher's website.

Traffic seemed steady. As Valerie Lewis of Hicklebee's, San Jose, Calif., told the San Jose Mercury News on Saturday: "It's been busy most of the day."

We'll have much more on holiday sales during the week--and through the end of the year!

 


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Patricia Cornwell on Port Mortuary


This morning on Good Morning America: David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill, authors of A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides (Viking, $26.95, 9780670022236/0670022233).

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Today on the Talk: Natalie Cole, author of Love Brought Me Back: A Journey of Loss and Gain (Simon & Schuster, $23, 9781451606058/1451606052). She will also appear today on Access Hollywood and tomorrow on Tavis Smiley.

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Today on NPR's Diane Rehm Show: Anne Rice, author of Of Love and Evil (Knopf, $24.95, 9781400043545/1400043549).

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Today on Fox's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren: Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, authors of Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders (Threshold Editions, $15, 9781451607345/1451607342).

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Today on the View: Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, authors of Kardashian Konfidential (St. Martin's, $25.99, 9780312628079/0312628072). They will also appear today on the Today Show.

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Tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live: David Sedaris, author of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary (Little, Brown, $21.99, 9780316038393/0316038393).

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Tonight on Larry King Live: Jon Bon Jovi, author of Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful (Collins Design, $19.99, 9780062007292/0062007297).

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Tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman: Steve Martin, author of An Object of Beauty (Grand Central, $26.99, 9780446573641/0446573647).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Patricia Cornwell, author of Port Mortuary (Putnam, $27.95, 9780399157219/0399157212).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Siobhan O'Connor, co-author of No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products--and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics (Da Capo, $14.95, 9780738213965/0738213969).

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Tomorrow night on the Daily Show: Judah Friedlander, author of How to Beat Up Anybody: An Instructional and Inspirational Karate Book by the World Champion (It Books, $17.99, 9780061969775/006196977X).

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Tomorrow night on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Salman Rushdie, author of Luka and the Fire of Life (Random House, $25, 9780679463368/0679463364).

 


Movie: Miral

Miral, directed by Julian Schnabel and based on the novel by Rula Jebreal (Penguin, $15, 9780143116196/0143116193), opens this Friday, December 3. Freida Pinto stars as an orphaned Palestinian girl who becomes slowly drawn into the armed confrontation with Israel.

 



Books & Authors

Awards: PNBA Shortlist

The shortlist for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's 2011 Book Awards, selected by PNBA bookseller members, consists of the following 19 titles:

The Atlas of Love by Laurie Frankel (St. Martin's)
The Clearing by Heather Davis (Graphia Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
A Common Pornography: A Memoir by Kevin Sampsell (Harper Perennial)
The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson (Scholastic Press)
Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco (Metropolitan Books)
Heartbroke Bay: A Novel by Lynn D'Urso (Berkley)
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (Holt)
The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground by Jeffrey Ostler (Viking)
Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin (Harper Perennial)
The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel by Brady Udall (Norton)
Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year by Robert Michael Pyle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes (Atlantic Monthly)
Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)
Nashville Chrome by Rick Bass (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
River House: A Memoir by Sarahlee Lawrence (Tin House Books)
Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and the Hunt for Nature's Bounty by Craig Welch (Morrow)
Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey by Ana Maria Spagna (University of Nebraska Press)
What We Are: A Novel by Peter Nathaniel Malae (Grove Press)
Work Song by Ivan Doig (Riverhead)

The winners of the awards will be announced in January.

 


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 Great Reads:

Hardcover

Daniel: A Novel by Henning Mankell (New Press, $26.95, 9781595581938/1595581936). "Mankell jumps across genres to give us this haunting and heartbreaking novel of an African boy ripped from his Kalahari desert homeland and taken to Sweden in the late 19th century. Only if Daniel can learn to walk on water can he realize his hope to get home. An amazingly original, meritorious novel."--Deal Safrit, Literary Book Post, Salisbury, N.C.

You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know: A True Story of Family, Face-Blindness, and Forgiveness by Heather Sellers (Riverhead, $25.95, 9781594487736/1594487731). "This is an astonishing memoir by a young woman who has prosopagnosia, commonly known as face-blindness. Some may dismiss it as yet another story about a bad childhood, but it is much more than that. Even though both of Sellers' parents battled mental illness, the love they have for their daughter is strong and shines through the pages of this book. A triumphant story!"--Rhoda Wolff, Schuler Books & Music, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Paperback

Broken English: An Amish-Country Mystery by P.L. Gaus (Plume, $13, 9780452296619/0452296617). "A mystery man, rumored to have been trained by the U.S. military to kill, has settled in the Amish community and attempts to find peace there. When his only daughter is killed and the suspect is arrested, a wave of violence descends on the peaceful community and threatens to test the limits of friendship between the sheriff, Pastor Troyer, and Professor Branden. Another excellent addition to this series."--Betty Barnes, River Reader, Lexington, Mo.

For Teen Readers

The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt (Wendy Lamb Books, $16.99, 9780375844553/0375844554). "This is a story about war, but it is more a story about sibling love. Levi's brother has returned from the Iraq War, but has shut himself off from the world. Levi, the younger brother, wants things to be the way it was before, but learns that 'before' was just that. A tense, thought-provoking drama about the love of brothers and of the wounds of war--especially those wounds not visible to the eye."--Paula Primavera, Covered Treasures Bookstore, Monument, Colo.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

 


Gift Books: Prudent Advice

 

Advice books make great gifts-- they are often compact, which makes them more gifty, they are meaningful, and they are (usually) received with thanks. Viva Editions has published some very nice and nicely "sized books that are perfect for presents. Change Your Life! A Little Book of Big Ideas by Allen Klein ($14.95) is a book to inspire transformation, a collection of quotations from all sorts of people, not just the usual--Reinhold Niebuhr, Mary Tyler Moore, Satchel Paige, Bat Masterson, Annie Dillard--arranged by subjects like "Forget Failure" and "Have Hope, Help Others." Going a bit deeper is The Courage Companion: How to Live Life with True Power by Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons ($15.95). The authors write about people who have faced the worst, or taken a big step without a net, and managed to confront their fears. Each chapter has three personal stories, a sidebar and a power practice, like five tips for managing your fears after job loss, or a book recommendation, or a quotation.

Andrews McMeel has published a winning book by Jaime Morrison Curtis: Prudent Advice. Curtis has a baby daughter and started compiling advice for her, which turned into "a life list for every woman." It's a hardcover, and at $12.99 and 200 pages, it's tough to beat as a gift suggestion. Of course, the content has to be good, and is it ever: #163: Learn how to drive a stick shift. #428: Preface a difficult conversation by acknowledging it. #285: Never park in the handicapped spot. #83: Sometimes you will feel alone. #203. Return your shopping cart. #222: If love were enough, no one would ever die. Curtis expands on most of her advice (on appreciating the weather, she says, "It is one of the few uncontrolled experiences of nature you will have if you live in the city.") with wisdom, wit and love.

A bit of wisdom so often given to artists and writers is the impetus behind a fine collection of essays from MP Publishing/PGW: Don't Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit, edited by Sonny Brewer ($24.95). When Brewer contacted authors for the essays, he asked them how the day jobs they quit informed their art years later, and Rick Bragg answered, "Oh, drop the pretentious literary bullshit. The pick-and-shovel work I did informed me there was an easier way to make a damn living." Brewer has included 23 writers in the book--Tom Franklin, Joshilyn Jackson, George Singleton, John Grisham, to name a few--and if you've ever marveled at author dust jacket bios ("She has been a waitress, a long-haul trucker, a teacher and a combat photographer, and now divides her time between Nanucket and Provence"), this is for you-- the real scoop. Silas House was a rural mail carrier, Daniel Wallace was a vet tech, Clay Risen worked in a call center, Tim Gatreaux was a crab scrubber, Janis Owens was and is a kept woman (by her husband of 30 years). As Brewer says, the authors tell good tales.

Advice of a different sort comes from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, which can always be relied on to publish neat books (it's hard to top 2009's People of the Sturgeon, though). This one is Penny Loafers and Bobby Pins: Tales and Tips from Growing Up in the '50s and '60s by the Sandvidge sisters--Susan, Diane, Jean and Julie ($18.95). The tales and tips are illustrated with period photos, a few recipes and wise words from mom: "There's still some wear in that." If you want to know about, or have forgotten, life before pantyhose, Lucky Strikes, autograph books or TV shows like Sky King, this book will explain it all. You can learn how to get bouncy '50s hair with pincurls, how to tie a scarf like Audrey Hepburn, and how to survive long sermons or high mass. What a great book to share with parents, siblings or children.

Speaking of the '50s and '60s (and earlier), remember Looney Tunes? Running Press has just published The Looney Tunes Treasury by Andrew Farago ($45), and what a treasure it is. As one would expect, it's filled with art and text, but also with inserts like a Tasmanian Devil mask, a Tweety and Sylvester comic, a facsimile script for Bugs Bunny's "Rabbit Hood" and much more. My favorite is the Acme Catalog from the Roadrunner cartoons, used by Wile E. Coyote in his pursuit of the wilier bird: iron birdseed loaded with buckshot to weigh the roadrunner down ("30% of birds have an iron deficiency. 90% of predators have a bird deficiency."), invisible paint, a fake hole ("Perfect for summer chases or visiting relatives."). We need more laughs today, and this book delivers.--Marilyn Dahl

 


Book Review

Book Review: The Women Jefferson Loved

The Women Jefferson Loved by Virginia Scharff (Harper, $27.99 Hardcover, 9780061227073, November 2010)

In reading and appreciating this book, context is all. Thomas Jefferson is viewed today as brilliant, dynamic, flawed, hypocritical and endlessly interesting as a leader and a man. In his time, remove "flawed" and the appraisal remains the same.

We view Jefferson's dalliance with Sally Hemings as more than a peccadillo; it was a shameful abuse of power. His contemporaneous males would find our attitude extremely jejune. Why shouldn't he bed her; he owned her.

And thereby hangs the tale of this book. Scharff gives us a candid view of the traditions of the time. The Founding Fathers had it all their own way, while the women became pregnant, lost children and died young. The men were more or less serially monogamous, except for the occasional visit to the shanties, and their work, which kept them away from home for long periods of time doing only God knows what. Slaves were part of the warp and woof of the time, especially in Virginia, where tobacco was the cash crop. Only people watched over with a whip would have withstood the rigors of the hot summers spent in stoop labor to bring in that crop.

Regardless of what we think about slavery or Jefferson or black-white intimacy, that's the way it was. He was not alone in his seduction of a young black woman: his family and his wife's family are replete with black-white half-siblings and cousins. In fact, Jefferson's only wife, Martha, was related to Sally--closely. "His father-in-law, John Wayles, was father not only to Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, but also to Sally Hemings and five of her sisters and brothers, making Martha and Sally half-sisters."

Scharff starts out with the first woman Jefferson loved: his mother. She makes a good case for it, but other historians have held a less generous view. She gave birth to nine children, buried one or two--records differ--was widowed at 37 and took in orphaned grandchildren, ordered the slaves on the estate and coped with her revolutionary son's ideas.

Next comes Martha Skelton, a young widow, courted and won by the dashing Jeffersokn. He truly loved her, although their 10 years of marriage were fraught with failed pregnancies--only two children survived to adulthood. They shared a love of music--he played the violin, she the piano--and played and sang together often. "His passion for the woman who would become his only wife was fervent, lifelong and consequential." On her deathbed, Martha asked him never to marry again, and he agreed.

Another well-loved woman was Maria Cosway, one of Jefferson's Paris connections--married, Catholic and available for long afternoons, but perhaps not for anything else. That's the titillating part of this kind of book; we can know very little about what we'd like to know.

Scharff then brings in Patsy and Polly, Jefferson's daughters. One is left to suppose that he "loved" them much as other men of his time loved their daughters--lots of great letters, lip service and no time on the ground. He abandoned them periodically, much against their will and then called them back at his convenience, always protesting that he missed them sorely.

And then there's Sally. Is there anything we don't already know about her? She had seven children with Jefferson, a few of whom survived to adulthood to ratify conclusions already drawn long before.

In sum, Jefferson was an enigmatic genius, in that he could neatly separate the different parts of his life and still maintain a public persona that withstood the onslaught of rumors that almost brought down his Presidency. The original Teflon politician?--Valerie Ryan

Shelf Talker: Another entry into the ever-fascinating life of Thomas Jefferson, this time through the strong, resilient women he knew and loved.  

 


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