Shelf Awareness for Wednesday, September 6, 2023


Margaret Quinlin Books: Who Owns the Moon?: And Other Conundrums of Exploring and Using Space by Cynthia Levinson and Jennifer Swanson

Frances Lincoln Ltd: Dear Black Boy by Martellus Bennett

Soho Crime: Broken Fields by Marcie R. Rendon

Holiday House: When I Hear Spirituals by Cheryl Willis Hudson, illustrated by London Ladd

Mira Books: Their Monstrous Hearts by Yigit Turhan

News

Report: FTC to File Antitrust Suit Against Amazon

The Federal Trade Commission will file an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon later this month, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited "people familiar with the matter." The FTC "has been examining Amazon practices, including whether it favors its own products over competitors' on its platforms and how it treats outside sellers on Amazon.com."

The suit will "target a number of Amazon's business practices, such as its Fulfillment by Amazon logistics program and pricing on Amazon.com by third-party sellers," the Journal wrote. "The lawsuit will suggest that Amazon makes 'structural remedies' that could lead to a breakup of the company."

The Journal added that during an August 15 "last rites" meeting, at which subjects of an investigation like the FTC's can offer to make changes to meet regulators' concerns, Amazon "didn't offer specific concessions" and argued that "changes to Amazon could result in higher prices and slower shipping speeds to customers."

At the same time, "the FTC didn't outline for Amazon what sorts of remedies it would find acceptable, information that Amazon officials had pressed the agency to provide," the Journal continued. "Given the FTC's yearslong investigation of Amazon, it is unclear whether concessions would have stopped the agency from filing a lawsuit."


NYU Advanced Publishing Institute: Early bird pricing through Oct. 13


New Owner for Luminary Books, Gardnerville, Nev.

Marissa Mills is the new owner of Luminary Books, Gardnerville, Nev. Mills purchased the business from Bethany Frediani, who had purchased the former Shelby's Book Shoppe in 2020 and renamed it, but put the store up for sale in March. The bookstore was originally founded in 2005 by Linda Finch under the name Eddy St. Book Exchange.

"I am so excited to be taking over this amazing bookstore," Mills noted in a Facebook post in which she also introduced her bookseller dog, Percy Jackson. "A little bit about me now! I've lived in the valley all my life (26 years) and have always enjoyed visiting Luminary with my Dad. When the opportunity arose to buy the store, I knew it was meant to be! I absolutely love reading and art. My favorite authors are Rick Riordan, Stephen King, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mark Twain. 

"Soon I'll have my personal artwork on display and on sale in the store as well. I hope you can stop by and say hello! I'd love to meet you all and get to know you better. I also have some amazing people who will be in the store helping me out from time to time. I can't wait for you all to meet them."

Luminary Books will be open Tuesday through Saturday, though Mills noted "we may be closing at 3 p.m. some days due to staffing as we make the necessary transitions."


GLOW: Graydon House: The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay


Fonts Books & Gifts Coming to McLean, Va.

Amber Taylor outside the future Fonts.

Fonts Books & Gifts will open in McLean, Va., this fall, Patch.com reported.

Store owner Amber Taylor, who worked as bookseller and events manager at One More Page Books in Arlington, Va., for around four years, has found a space at 6262B Old Dominion Drive, in the Chesterbrook Plaza shopping center.

The general-interest bookstore will carry new titles for all ages, along with nonbook items like gifts, journals, candles, non-alcoholic beer and spirits, greeting cards, and stickers. Taylor plans to host plenty of events, including book signings, book club meetings, and comedy nights, as well as fundraisers for schools, nonprofits, and other community organizations. The bookstore will also have outdoor seating.

"One of my favorite things about local bookstores is the community they nurture," Taylor wrote. "Customers and booksellers develop long relationships, driven by a shared love of books and stories. They help each other explore unknown worlds and topics. And, there is always something new coming in the door. I’m thrilled to bring this to McLean."

In advance of Fonts' fall opening, Taylor is selling books via Bookshop.org and has started a Patreon for the bookstore. Monthly memberships start at $5, and perks for the various membership tiers include early access to galleys, a monthly members sale, and more.


BINC: Your donation can help rebuild lives and businesses in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and beyond. Donate Today!


Obituary Note: Edith Grossman

Edith Grossman

Edith Grossman, "whose acclaimed translations of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes raised the profile of the often-overlooked role of the translator," died September 4, the New York Times reported. She was 87. Grossman "dedicated herself to translating Latin American and Spanish authors at a time when literary translation was not considered a serious academic discipline or career." She "believed that translation was a creative act undertaken in harmony with the author, the way an actor speaks the lines of a playwright."

In her book Why Translation Matters (2010), Grossman wrote that she saw the role of translator "not as the weary journeyman of the publishing world, but as a living bridge between two realms of discourse, two realms of experience, and two sets of readers."

She was among the first to insist that her name appear on the cover of any book she translated, along with that of the author. When her translation of Don Quixote was released in 2003, "it elevated not only her own career but also helped raise the stature of literary translation. Her Don Quixote, published by a HarperCollins imprint, became widely admired as the definitive English version, and she went on to inspire a new generation of translators," the Times noted.

Grossman also wanted publishers to commission translations of more books and accused them of "linguistic isolationism" for not doing so, the Times wrote, adding: "Not only did they not want to pay translators adequately, she said, but in her view they were ignoring a global conversation that builds mutual understanding through the exchange of ideas, culture and a shared love of literature."

Her technique helped make her one of the most sought-after translators of Latin American literature in the 1980s and '90s. She was among those who gave English-language readers access to the works of García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, Laura Esquivel, and many others. 

Grossman was widely respected across the industry--the literary critic Harold Bloom described her as "the Glenn Gould of translators, because she, too, articulates every note," the Guardian reported. 

Her many honors and awards include the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation in 2006; the Arts and Letters Award in Literature in 2008; and the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute Translation Prize in 2010 for her translation of Antonio Muñoz Molina's A Manuscript of Ashes. In 2016, she received the Officer's Cross of the Order of Civil Merit awarded by the King of Spain, Felipe VI.

In a speech at the 2003 PEN Tribute to Gabriel García Márquez, Grossman spoke about the role of the translator. "Fidelity is surely our highest aim, but a translation is not made with tracing paper. It is an act of critical interpretation. No two languages, with all their accretions of tradition and culture, ever dovetail perfectly. They can be linked by translation, as a photograph can link movement and stasis, but it is disingenuous to assume that either translation or photography, or acting for that matter, are representational in any narrow sense of the term."


Shelf Awareness Delivers Indie Pre-Order E-Blast

This past Wednesday, Shelf Awareness sent our monthly pre-order e-blast to nearly 960,000 of the country's best book readers. The e-blast went to 958,354 customers of 236 participating independent bookstores.

The mailing features 11 upcoming titles selected by Shelf Awareness editors and a sponsored title. Customers can buy these books via "pre-order" buttons that lead directly to the purchase page for the title on each sending store's website. A key feature is that bookstore partners can easily change title selections to best reflect the tastes of their customers and can customize the mailing with links, images and promotional copy of their own.

The pre-order e-blasts are sent the last Wednesday of each month; the next will go out on Wednesday, September 27. Stores interested in learning more can visit our program registration page or contact our partner program team via e-mail.

For a sample of the July pre-order e-blast, see this one from Books on Main, Fort Morgan, Colo.

The titles highlighted in the pre-order e-blast were:

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner)
I Must Be Dreaming by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury)
Hidden Potential by Adam Grant (Viking)
In the Form of a Question by Amy Schneider (Avid Reader)
America Fantastica by Tim O'Brien (Mariner)
The Pioneer Woman Cooks--Dinner's Ready by Ree Drummond (Morrow)
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson (Tor)
Behind the Seams by Dolly Parton (Ten Speed)
Man with Two Faces by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, illus. by MinaLima Design (Scholastic)
There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, illus. by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey (Caitlyn Dlouhy)


Notes

Image of the Day: Black Tie Event at the Eric Carle Museum

Last weekend, the team behind Molly's Tuxedo (Little Bee Books) visited the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Mass. Author Vicki Johnson (r.) entertained young readers with a lively storytime and illustrator Gillian Reid led participants in drawing tutorials. Published in partnership with GLAAD, Molly’s Tuxedo challenges gender norms in a story about picture day and the power of both looking and feeling your best.

Carisa Hays Founds Carisa Hays Public Relations

Veteran publicity director Carisa Hays has created Carisa Hays Public Relations, a literary public relations firm devoted to connecting authors with the widest number of readers. CHPR will offer a menu of services to authors, publishers, and non-profit organizations.

Hays has held publicity director positions at the Crown Publishing Group, Free Press/Simon & Schuster, Dell/Delacorte & The Dial Press, and Putnam. She has planned and executed publicity campaigns for books by Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush and journalists Peter Bergen, James Risen, and Charles Krauthammer. She has also worked with prominent novelists, including Kurt Vonnegut, Judy Blume, and Alice Hoffman.

In addition to her years as a publicity director, Hays was also director of the Random House Speakers Bureau, where she managed the bureau and arranged speaking engagements for a select group of authors including Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sheri Fink, Amanda Lucidon, and Shaka Senghor.

Hays said, "I would like to thank the many authors, publishers, booksellers, and journalists who have encouraged me to take this next step in my publishing career. I look forward to working with authors to help them share their stories and ideas with readers everywhere."


Personnel Changes at Sourcebooks

Zoya Boskovic has joined Sourcebooks as digital marketing associate.


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Maria Bamford on Fresh Air

Today:
Fresh Air: Maria Bamford, author of Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere (Gallery Books, $28.99, 9781982168568).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Shea McGee, author of The Art of Home: A Designer Guide to Creating an Elevated Yet Approachable Home (Harper Horizon, $39.99, 9780785236832).


TV: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Wes Anderson's 40-minute short film based on Roald Dahl's 1977 story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, received a nearly four-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere. Variety reported that the project, which is made up of several short films (Henry Sugar, The Swan, Poison and The Ratcatcher), "is notable for being Anderson's first with Netflix. It's also his second Dahl adaptation after his beloved stop-motion film Fantastic Mr. Fox."

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Friend, Dev Patel, and Ben Kingsley, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar debuts September 27 on Netflix.

In an interview with IndieWire, Anderson had previously explained his decision to team up with Netflix for the first time despite his preference for theatrical exhibition: "In my case it's a little bit of a weird thing. I knew Roald Dahl since before we made Fantastic Mr. Fox. I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were shooting The Royal Tenenbaums like 20 years ago. For years I wanted to do Henry Sugar. They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them. Lindsay kind of handed the torch to Luke, Dahl's grandson. So I had this waiting for me. But I really couldn't figure out the approach. I knew what I liked in the story was the writing of it, Dahl's words. I couldn't find the answer, and then suddenly I did. It's not a feature film. It's like 37 minutes or something. But by the time I was ready to do it, the Dahl family no longer had the rights at all. They had sold the whole deal to Netflix.

"Suddenly, in essence, there was nowhere else you could do it since they own it. But beyond it, because it's a 37-minute movie, it was the perfect place to do it because it's not really a movie. You know they used to do these BBC things called Play for Today directed by people like Steven Frears and John Schlesinger and Alan Clarke. They were one-hour programs or even less. I kind of envisioned something like that."



Books & Authors

Awards: Wolfson History Shortlist; McIlvanney Finalists

The shortlist has been announced for the 2023 Wolfson History Prize, honoring the best historical writing, including "both readability for a general audience and excellence in writing and research." The winner receives £50,000 (about $62,780), and shortlisted authors receive £5,000 ($6,278) each. The winner will be announced November 13.

The shortlist:
African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History by Hakim Adi
The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich
The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire by Henrietta Harrison
Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth-Century London by Oskar Jensen
Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-45 by Halik Kochanski
Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith

---

Finalists have been named for the 2023 McIlvanney Prize, sponsored by Bloody Scotland, the international crime writing festival, and honoring "the best Scottish crime book of the year." The winner will be announced September 15 during the festival.

The finalists:
Squeaky Clean by Callum McSorley
The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell
The Second Murderer by Denise Mina
Cast a Cold Eye by Robbie Morrison


Reading with... David Smart

photo: Peter Hoang

David Smart writes about climbing and is the author of Paul Preuss: Lord of the Abyss, winner of the prize for Climbing Literature from the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, and Emilio Comici: Angel of the Dolomites, winner of the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature. He also was honored with the H. Adams Carter Literary Award from the American Alpine Club. Royal Robbins: The American Climber, just out from Mountaineers Books, is the biography of one of America's most influential climbers.

Handsell readers your book in approximately 25 words or less:

Royal Robbins was one of the greatest pioneers in American outdoors culture. He introduced big-wall climbing and clean climbing, and introduced the world to Yosemite climbing. His rags-to-riches story is deeply inspiring.

On your nightstand now:

The latest translation of Italian novelist Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed and Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, a family saga set in modern China. My wife and I take turns reading different books to each other. I write first thing when I get up in the morning and read last thing at night.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I read P.C. Wren's Beau Geste so many times that I could once quote it at length. I liked history and adventure. I had such faith in a book's power to fill me with the emotions I would have if I were part of the events they described that I still recall reading it with a sense of nostalgia for the fulfillment it gave me. I learned to read a book with the belief that no matter whether it was supposed to be a work of great importance or a popular novel, there was beauty and significance of some kind in it. I recently discovered that Wren may have fabricated his Foreign Legion experience, which makes me want to read his book again to see if there are any clues.

Your top five authors:

Proust for style and vision. Ernest Hemingway, partly for style and partly for storytelling. David Roberts, who wrote the first deeply psychological and emotionally relatable (for me) book about climbing. Italian mountaineering authors from the 1930s, like Dino Buzzati and Guido Rey for the way they write about climbing as an ethereal relationship between climbing and philosophy that seems both timeless and deeply entrenched in their time.

Book you've faked reading:

I might have given the impression that I read all of James Joyce's Ulysses, but I've only read excerpts. I read so many climbing books that there are also books I think I've read and later realized I haven't. I always assumed I had read Royal Robbins's Advanced Rockcraft because I own a copy, but realized as soon as I cracked the covers a couple of years ago that it was full of insights I had never read--or perhaps forgotten.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Scottish author A.L. Kennedy's On Bullfighting is one of the most searing and penetrating examinations of the culture and practice of dangerous sports. I'll never forget it. Perhaps the surfing memoir that won the Pulitzer, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan, is the closest climbing-adjacent book I have read. I loved it, too.

Book you've bought for the cover:

George Meyers's Yosemite Climber with its incredible cover photo of Peter Mayfield on Half Dome, and perhaps I bought it even more for the photo of Dave Diegelman hanging from the giant overhang of the Separate Reality climb in Yosemite. French alpinist Gaston Rébuffat's Starlight and Storm: the breathtaking photographs of the Mont Blanc range by French climbing photographer by Pierre Tairraz totally overshadowed the text.

Book you hid from your parents:

I actually had to hide not just books but also my reading habits. I spent so much time reading that my mother would tell me to stop or I would hurt my eyes. I also had a teacher who wrote on my report card that I read too many books. It's hard to choose just one, as I tended to be an adventurous reader. I had copies of Mario Puzo's The Godfather; Henri Charrière's Devil's Island prison biography, Papillon (both of these books were banned from my middle school); and later, when I was a teenager, volumes of French poetry that would have scandalized my parents, had they been inclined to read them, which they were not.

Book that changed your life:

Books are always changing my life! A long time ago, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Recently, We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen, an intergenerational tale of a Danish fishing town. I sometimes think about writing a novel like it but focusing on a mountain town.

Favorite line from a book:

"Write about this man who, drop by drop, squeezes the slave's blood out of himself until he wakes one day to find the blood of a real human being--not a slave's--coursing through his veins." This is by Chekhov. It's the essence of biographical writing.

Five books you'll never part with:

In Search of Lost Time by Proust; Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh; The Mountain of My Fear/Deborah: Two Mountaineering Classics by David Roberts; A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Generally, my favorite books improve with rereading, but I remember the thrill of reading A Farewell to Arms for the first time."In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels." It evokes the mood of the mountains of northern Italy, where I have spent a lot of time.


Book Review

Children's Review: Where's Joon?

Where's Joon? by Julie Kim (Little Bigfoot, $22 hardcover, 120p., ages 5-9, 9781632174154, October 10, 2023)

Julie Kim's enchanting Where's Halmoni? (2017) introduced older sister Jin (also called Noona, or big sister in Korean), younger brother Joon, and their Halmoni (grandmother), whose home contains a magic portal into a mythical world of Korean folktales come to life. The trio returns in Where's Joon?, to experience another visually spectacular adventure, enhanced by Kim's bilingual exposition.

"Halmoni! I can't find Joon ANYWHERE," Jin calls from the porch to her grandmother in the garden. "And there's a HUGE mess in the kitchen," she warns. Once inside, after confirming the confusion, Halmoni gets a call--not via the phone on the counter, but from her piscine messenger circling their vibrating fishbowl. Halmoni knows exactly what to do: before sending Jin to the magical other side, she must arm her tenacious granddaughter with enough rice cakes to appease Jo-harabuji, the hangry old man whose help Jin will need to bring Joon home.

Meanwhile, Joon has already slipped into the fantastical other side, confessing to the rabbit that he "broke Halmoni's magic pot" while trying to make something special for her birthday. While Joon laments the damaged crockery, Jin repeatedly outwits the ravenous tiger to get to him. Once reunited, the siblings must work together to get what they need from stingy old Jo-harabuhji. Can the siblings get back in time to celebrate Halmoni's special day?

Kim gleefully repeats the success of Where's Halmoni? by seamlessly integrating her own adaptations of "memorable Korean folktales and myths" that celebrate honesty, ingenuity, generosity, and perseverance. Throughout her main text, she blends both English (for the Korean American family) and untranslated Korean (for the mythical creatures they encounter). At story's end, a "What did they say?"-double-page spread clearly reveals all that was expressed, adding further delight: "Oh my ghat!" the rabbit expounds in shock, for example, with "ghat" ingeniously referring to a traditional Korean hat. Kim's final image is another joyous bonus moment, with all the mythical dwellers (at least the good guys) enjoying a well-deserved snack.

Kim's story is absolutely enchanting, but her stupendously vivacious illustrations prove even more memorable. Amplifying details immediately stand out from the first pages: the rice maker found in virtually every Asian American home, the well-used kitchen towel hanging slightly askew, the melding of Western/Korean architectural aesthetics. Kim imbues every scene with infectious energy, inviting readers to join in the clever challenges to bring the family safely back together. --Terry Hong, BookDragon

Shelf Talker: The charming sequel to Where's Halmoni? provides another mythic challenge for Korean American siblings Joon and Jin: get back in time to celebrate their beloved grandmother's birthday.


The Bestsellers

Libro.fm Bestsellers in August

The bestselling Libro.fm audiobooks at independent bookstores during August:

Fiction
1. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (HarperAudio)
2. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (Recorded Books)
3. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Penguin Random House Audio)
4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperAudio)
5. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell (Simon & Schuster Audio)
6. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Recorded Books)
7. Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison (Dreamscape Media)
8. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Penguin Random House Audio)
9. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (HarperAudio)
10. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Penguin Random House Audio)

Nonfiction
1. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Tantor Media)
2. How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell (HighBridge)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Penguin Random House Audio)
4. Congratulations, The Best Is Over! by R. Eric Thomas (Penguin Random House Audio)
5. The Wager by David Grann (Penguin Random House Audio)
6. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Simon & Schuster Audio)
7. Pageboy by Elliot Page (Macmillan Audio)
8. Outlive by Peter Attia (Penguin Random House Audio)
9. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (Penguin Random House Audio)
10. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Penguin Random House Audio)


Powered by: Xtenit