Shelf Awareness for Monday, October 2, 2023


Becker & Mayer: The Land Knows Me: A Nature Walk Exploring Indigenous Wisdom by Leigh Joseph, illustrated by Natalie Schnitter

Berkley Books: SOLVE THE CRIME with your new & old favorite sleuths! Enter the Giveaway!

Mira Books: Their Monstrous Hearts by Yigit Turhan

St. Martin's Press: The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction by Henry Gee

News

Loudmouth Books Opens in Indianapolis, Ind.

Loudmouth Books, which emphasizes banned books, opened over the weekend--appropriately as Banned Books Week began--at 212 E. 16th St. in Indianapolis, Ind. IndyStar reported that author Leah Johnson "wasn't planning on opening a bookstore this year. Sure, owning her own bookstore was a dream she'd had for a long time as a book lover and writer, but she was too busy writing a book a year and speaking at events all over the country. Then came the 2023 legislative session."

Johnson's mother, State Rep. Renee Pack (D.-Indianapolis), who has been fighting against legislation to ban books and gender-affirming care in the Indiana Statehouse, was an inspiration. Johnson said issues targeting the LGBTQ+ community are personal for her as a Black, queer author. Her YA novel You Should See Me in a Crown was challenged for so-called "obscene" content in Oklahoma last year.

She felt compelled to provide a space in Indianapolis where people could access books telling the stories of queer authors and authors of color, noting: "I just felt like my hands were tied. I just knew with the amount of bans that we were facing, the number of challenges that we were dealing with, that if I was going to do this, then this was the time to do it."

Loudmouth Books "is decorated in bold colors and tons of sparkles in a style she describes as 'eclectic maximalism,' " IndyStar wrote, adding: "There are disco balls galore hanging from the ceiling and nestled on shelves, a bright pink neon sign that says 'READ DANGEROUSLY' on the wall behind the counter and pride flags everywhere. Stacks and stacks of books with colorful covers--books by Black authors, LGBTQ+ authors and authors of color--adorn every surface."

Johnson is selling books that have been banned by government and school systems. "I was angry," Johnson said. "I decided the same laws that allow you to deny service to queer people, on the basis of whatever your beliefs are, are the same laws that allow me to sell these stories that you all are so afraid of."

In an Instagram post just before opening, Johnson noted: "It's a little late, but it's sort of like Christmas Eve over here, all anticipation and nerves. Tomorrow, this bookstore that I have poured so much of my heart into will be open to the public for the first time. But Loudmouth isn't just mine. It's yours. It's ours. It’s for every one of us who have watched our books removed from shelves and for everyone who has had our identities called 'indecent' and 'obscene' at school board meetings and on statehouse floors. I love you. I love us. See you at the bookstore."


Berkley Books: Swept Away by Beth O'Leary


Black Pot Bookshop, Opelousas, La., on the Move

Black Pot Bookshop and gift store "is taking South Louisiana culture to another level" with its upcoming move in November to a building in the Opelousas Historic Downtown District. KATC3 reported that owner Jennifer Woodson's emerging Acadiana culture store "currently lives inside the Spotted Cat Antique located on Creswell Lane. The shop is decorated with Creole and Cajun artifacts, memorabilia, art, cookbooks, and more. Her store is enriched in Acadiana culture, from earrings to mardi crowns to room decor to fashion."

Black Pot will move to the Shute's Building this fall.

"My dad always spoke Cajun French," Woodson said, adding that her passion is to share the deep-seated tales of Acadiana heritage and culture, as well as to serve as the vessel for keeping the community and tourists entertained and informed.

"Cleaning out my parent's house, they had a ton of memorabilia stuff from Opelousas," she noted. "They had brochures, festivals, and other stuff, so I decided, you know what, Opelousas does not have a little bookshop and gift store dedicated just to artists of the community." 

Woodson collaborates with numerous vendors and is expanding her shop, which inspired the move to the 1924 Shute's Building, across the street from the courthouse in Opelousas. "We see this as a budding business on the verge of expanding into something big," she told KATC3, adding: "We want also to offer opportunities for people to come and research the history of downtown Opelousas, to experience the memorabilia, and the people in the community."

In an Instagram post, Woodson further explained her goal: "Currently we sell Louisiana-based authors and historical books, art, home decor, kitchenware, and designs. I wish to expand from just retail to include tours of Historic Downtown Opelousas and offer opportunities to local students to participate in art and history through events involving learning and presenting the history of the town."


BINC: DONATE NOW and Penguin Random House will match donations up to a total of $15,000.


PNBA Buzzbook Winner: Soul Jar

Annie Carl

Soul Jar: Thirty-one Fantastical Tales by Disabled Authors, edited by Annie Carl (to be published by Forest Avenue Press October 17) was selected by attendees as the winning title in the BuzzBooks contest at the 2023 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Tradeshow, held September 19-21, in Portland, Ore.

Forest Avenue Press described the winning title this way: "Edited by bookstore owner Annie Carl [the Neverending Bookshop, Edmonds, Wash.] and with a foreword by bestselling author Nicola Griffith, Soul Jar features stories imagining such wonders as a shapeshifter on a first date, skin that sprouts orchid buds, and a cereal-box demon. This thrillingly peculiar collection sparkles with humor, heart, and insight, all within the context of disability representation."

Under voting procedures, punch cards were handed out to booksellers and librarians who then visited supporting exhibitors for quick pitches on nine participating titles across a variety of genres. Booth stops were verified with a stamp from the attending reps and participants cast a vote for the book they were most excited to recommend to their customers and patrons.

Soul Jar was announced as the winner at the Signature Dish author dinner. Soul Jar is a Best of the Northwest selection, to be featured in PNBA's annual Give Books holiday catalog.

Three voting participants were awarded $100 cash prizes:

Judy Wutzke, ...and Books, Too!, Clarkston, Wash.
Kate Larson, Ballast Book Co., Bremerton, Wash.
Clover Tamayo, Clover Daydreams, Tacoma, Wash.


Robert Gottlieb Remembered

Robert Gottlieb
(photo: Michael Lionstar)

Robert Gottlieb (1931-2023) created family wherever he went, and many of them gathered last Tuesday at the Japan Society in Manhattan to reflect on their lifelong alliances.

Author Daniel Mendelsohn spoke of their 30-year friendship and the "gossamer filaments that connect us"--the more intimate stories that one doesn't read under New York Times headlines or as essays in the New York Review of Books. Mendelsohn described an attempt by Gottlieb to "spruce up" his wife, the glamorous Tony-nominated actress Maria Tucci, at Sivia Aulette, a boutique on Manhattan's Upper East Side once owned by Sivia and Milton Montague. When Tucci emerged from the dressing room, Gottlieb called out, "Cocktail lights, Milton," a refrain he enjoyed long after the dress fitting. Gottlieb would "take up restaurants the way he did people," Mendelsohn recalled, but in his later years, Gottlieb often favored "Cozy Shack Nights," thawing a couple of steaks from his Costco pack of 24, with rice pudding for dessert. "Where are you?" Mendelsohn asked whenever he called Gottlieb (who could be in Manhattan, Miami, or Paris), and Gottlieb would give the Keatsian reply: "Silent, upon a peak in Darien."

The public often saw images of Gottlieb at a desk, bookshelves ever-present, or seated on the floor with drawings fanned out in front of him. On Tuesday, listeners were treated to gossamer filaments. "How lucky I was to have been in his orbit for 67 years," said Kay Cattarulla, who first met Gottlieb at Simon & Schuster, where they worked together on campaigns for Sylvia Ashton-Warner and Catch-22. Cattarulla co-founded Symphony Space on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and launched "Selected Shorts," which went on to broadcast live on public radio. Gottlieb helped her secure the likes of Toni Morrison and Doris Lessing to introduce the programming. 

Transformation as a theme ran throughout the afternoon. To Cattarulla, Gottlieb had transformed the S&S fiction list from mediocre to award-winning. "I picked you up out of the gutter and I can put you right back any time," Gottlieb kidded editor Victoria Wilson. They worked together for 50 years, and Wilson remembers him constantly reminding everyone to "check, check, and check again, and give the reader a break." Gottlieb similarly joked with Chris Knutsen, whom he hired to be his assistant at the New Yorker. According to Knutsen, Gottlieb reminded him that whatever happened, this stint would be on his résumé. Gottlieb's abhorrence of air conditioning came up several times during the afternoon, but Knutsen had the honor of ridding Gottlieb's office of a bee that had come in through the window one summer afternoon. "Now you can add 'bee defenestrator' to your résumé!" Gottlieb pronounced. Martha Kaplan, who started at Knopf in 1970, said that when he learned the New Yorker staff hadn't spoken in years, he installed coffee stations around the office, transforming the work environment.

Katherine Hourigan described working under Alfred and Blanche Knopf as "No laughing in the hall!" All you could hear was typing. "Bob set a tone of hard work and perfection, but he made everything fun," Hourigan said. Gottlieb brought Hourigan into an inner circle with Robert Caro, as he was working on The Power Broker; she described them as "two giant intellects, the best in the field." She is featured in daughter Lizzie Gottlieb's film Turn Every Page, which documents the two men's working relationship.

Oliver Young, son of Lizzie Gottlieb and Michael Young, spoke on behalf of himself and his twin brother, Jacob, who was in Paris. Paris became a beloved city of their grandfather, but it was not always so (as an outtake from Turn Every Page played at the event demonstrated). "You can't get around the French, you're stuck with them," Gottlieb told his grandsons. "They're unattractive, unpleasant, but you have to read them." Oliver said he could "safely say I've inherited some of his quirks: feet splayed, avid reader, dedication to obsession." He listed garden gnomes and handbags, but quickly pointed out that his grandfather's dedication was "not to a thing, but to a cause." Indeed, in the film clip Lizzie Gottlieb showed, the gnomes that graced his Parisian apartment were all "useful," holding a vacuum cleaner or broom. Claudia Roth Pierpont, hired by Gottlieb at the New Yorker, called him a "life teacher." She said he often quoted a phrase he prized from cofounder of the New York City Ballet Lincoln Kirstein: "It's useful."

Lourdes Lopez, whom Gottlieb had seen as lead dancer in Balanchine's 1973 Stars and Stripes, and who became artistic director of the Miami City Ballet largely at Gottlieb's urging, also said of him, "He wanted to be useful," adding, "He wanted to make you better." Oliver Young called his grandfather's attentions a "molding love," adding that Gottlieb "saw, read and changed us." It's notable that the advice he gave his grandchildren also bubbled up among his colleagues: "Get it done; do it now; and check, check, check again." Also, "Never leave the house without a book." And the grandsons' favorite, "Cuteness is all."

Robert Caro knew that Robert Gottlieb "cared about the book as much as I did," from their very first meeting, when he was auditioning editors for The Power Broker--although they did not always agree. Caro would hand in his pages on a Friday, and Gottlieb would call him Sunday night to set up a meeting for Monday. "Our fights were epic," Caro said. "I remember him stalking out of the room, slamming the door. He had the advantage, as editor-in-chief, of accessing other rooms; I had the bathroom." Caro recounted the beautiful story memorialized in Turn Every Page, of realizing he didn't want his second book, the one that would follow The Power Broker, to be a biography of Fiorello La Guardia, and he was gearing up to tell Gottlieb, only to discover that Gottlieb had been gearing up for the same conversation. They both felt Lyndon Johnson would be the right subject--a move from urban power to national power. Caro said, "We never had disagreements on the big things."

"He helped me get rid of 'the stucks,' " Nicky Gottlieb said of his father. When he was a boy, Robert Gottlieb would suggest they read Treasure Island. "AbsoLUTEly not," young Nicky would reply. "I only like The Pirates of Penzance." Within a few pages, Nicky was hooked. A similar conversation occurred when father asked son to see Apollo 13 with him at a 13th Street movie house. "AbsoLUTEly not," came the reply; Nicky did not have to see every Tom Hanks film. But off they went, and again, within minutes Nicky was captivated. How many of the authors Gottlieb worked with could express something similar? That the man persuaded them to try something, and, like Nicky Gottlieb, they soon got rid of "the stucks"?

"I've never believed in talent and inspiration," Gottlieb said in the film clip Lizzy Gottlieb showed the audience. "The important thing is to figure out how to deploy it in an efficient and useful way"--there's that word "useful" again. Lopez said that Gottlieb taught her about the challenges described to him by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Lincoln Kirstein: "Life's challenges don't change from one generation to another," he told her. "You'll find the answers to all challenges in Shakespeare."

But on this day, one wonders if perhaps it's healing that one finds in Shakespeare, living in the questions, rather than the answers. Not the headlines, but those gossamer filaments. Lizzie Gottlieb left a grieving audience a balm in the words her father spoke to her as a little girl each night while tucking her into bed: "Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." --Jennifer M. Brown


Notes

Image of the Day: The Bodies Keep Coming Launch

The African American Museum in Dallas, Tex., hosted the launch event for Dr. Brian H. Williams's debut, The Bodies Keep Coming: Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal (Broadleaf Books), featuring Williams in conversation with the Rev. Dr. Michael Waters. Pictured: (l. to r.) Brian H. Williams; Harry Robinson, museum president; and the Rev. Dr. Michael Waters. The venue was packed, with more than 100 attendees; BlackLit Books was the bookstore vendor.


Post-Storm Report from NYC: Books Are Magic

New York City was pummeled by rain and flash flooding in many areas this weekend. Brooklyn's Books Are Magic checked in on Instagram:

"Good soggy morning, Brooklyn! We are open on Montague and working toward it on Smith Street! Board books got a good shower but otherwise all is well."


Henry Winkler on Signed Copies!

In a very amusing video, Henry Winkler, whose memoir, Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond, will be published by Celadon Books October 31, talks about having signed 7,000 copies of the book for indie booksellers. His signature comes in a variety of colors, he says: green is his favorite color and only seven of the 7,000 signatures are in orange. Aaaaay, check it out here.


Personnel Changes at Sourcebooks

At Sourcebooks:

Maranda Seney has joined the company as senior marketing manager for Bloom Books and Casablanca.

Zaina Maswood has joined the company as performance marketing associate.


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Arnold Schwarzenegger on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Today:
CBS Mornings: Patrick Stewart, author of Making It So: A Memoir (Gallery Books, $35, 9781982167738). He will also appear tomorrow on the View.

Also on CBS Mornings: Michael Lewis, author of Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon (W.W. Norton, $30, 9781324074335).

Today Show: Amy Schneider, author of In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life (Avid Reader Press, $28, 9781668013304).

Live with Kelly and Mark: Hilarie Burton Morgan, author of Grimoire Girl: A Memoir of Magic and Mischief (HarperOne, $29.99, 9780063222731).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Neil deGrasse Tyson, co-author of To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery (National Geographic, $30, 9781426223303).

Tonight Show: Matthew McConaughey, author of Just Because (Viking Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780593622032).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Arnold Schwarzenegger, author of Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life (Penguin Press, $28, 9780593655955).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key, authors of The History of Sketch Comedy: A Journey through the Art and Craft of Humor (Chronicle, $29.95, 9781797216836).

Good Morning America: Erin Napier, author of Heirloom Rooms: Soulful Stories of Home (Gallery Books, $35, 9781982190439).

Also on GMA: Geri Halliwell-Horner, author of Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen (Philomel, $18.99, 9780593623343). She will also appear on the View, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, and Access Hollywood.

Today Show: Farnoosh Torabi, author of A Healthy State of Panic: Follow Your Fears to Build Wealth, Crush Your Career, and Win at Life (Atria, $27.99, 9781982199197).

Tamron Hall: Mike Todd, author of Damaged but Not Destroyed: From Trauma to Triumph (WaterBrook, $27, 9780593444887).


Movies: Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

HBO Documentary Films has issued a teaser-trailer for Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, the documentary that focuses on the life and work of the renowned poet and activist and is directed by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster. Deadline reported that Going to Mars will premiere on HBO and on Max in 2024, following its theatrical release this fall.

As jazz plays in the teaser, Giovanni reads from one of her works: "This is not a poem," she says. "This is an explosion. This is a rocket. Let's ride."

Going to Mars won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where the film premiered. It also won Best Documentary at the Blackstar Film Festival in Philadelphia and the Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, and won awards at the Freep Film Festival in Detroit and the Ashland Independent Film Festival in Oregon. 



Books & Authors

Awards: Ackerley Winner; Polari Shortlists

Thunderstone by Nancy Campbell has won the £3,000 (about $3,660) 2023 Ackerley Prize, formerly known as the PEN Ackerley Prize, honoring memoir and autobiography.

Chair of judges Peter Parker said: "Nancy Campbell calls Thunderstone 'a true story of losing one home and discovering another.' Largely written in the form of a diary, it describes how, in the wake of breaking up with her partner, she moves into a caravan parked beside a canal and a railway line on the fringes of Oxford. Here she finds a new community of people who, by accident or choice, are living on the margins, and she observes them with a sharp but affectionate awareness of human foibles and frailty. Campbell writes fearlessly about what it means to love and lose both people and things, and how one survives this. Written with wit, grace, and a poet's eye for detail, this is a wonderful book about the power of hope, and the consolations of small accomplishments and the natural world."

---

Shortlists have been released for the £2,000 (about $2,440) Polari Prize and £1,000 (about $1,220) Polari First Book Prize, U.K. and Ireland awards for LGBTQ+ literature. The prizes are sponsored by literary PR consultancy FMcM Associates and the D H H Literary Agency. The winners' prize ceremony will be held November 24.

The Polari Book Prize shortlist:
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
All Down Darkness Wide by Seán Hewitt
Here Again Now by Okechukwu Nzelu
Fire Island by Jack Parlett
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
The Schoolhouse by Sophie Ward

The Polari First Book Prize shortlist:
None of the Above by Travis Alabanza
Rising of the Black Sheep by Livia Kojo Alour
The New Life by Tom Crewe
A Visible Man by Edward Enninful
Love from the Pink Palace by Jill Nalder
The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom


Book Review

Review: Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in Everglades

Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades by Rebecca Renner (Flatiron Books, $29.99 hardcover, 288p., 9781250842572, November 14, 2023)

In Gator Country, science and nature journalist Rebecca Renner delivers an astounding story about an alligator-poaching operation in the Florida Everglades. Her adventurous, in-depth study probes the nature of crime and human character, while also mining the far-reaching consequences of what it truly takes to survive--in the wild and in society.  

Renner grew up in Florida, the "swampy Deep South," one of the most biodiverse places in the country. At the age of seven, she encountered her first alligator up close, behind her family's home. Thus began her lifelong fascination with alligators. This interest was further piqued in 2017, when Renner--an aspiring fiction writer--was working to support herself as a high school English teacher. A student had turned in a well-informed, intimate wildlife essay on poaching--"the act of illegally taking flora or fauna from the wild" and profiting from it--and feared Renner might snitch on him. This planted a seed in Renner. Years later, when she was working her way up the ranks as a nature writer for National Geographic and the New York Times, her interest in poaching resurfaced. In 2020, she became determined to learn more about alligator poaching from the points of view of the law and the poachers--those whom she identified as the economically poor struggling to live in Florida's diminishing wetlands.

Facing obstacles and opposition, she focussed on Operation Alligator Thief. This "multi-year undercover sting" was conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and "led to the arrests of eleven alligator poachers in one day alone, one of the biggest operations in the agency's history." Renner's narrative traces the covert operation and the actions of the undercover team led by a clever, eccentric man at the helm. Did the FWC really set up a fake alligator farm as a trap to entice poachers? Was it legal? And what were the underlying motives on both sides?

Renner (Drift: Collected Short Fiction), a gifted and deeply empathetic writer, paints such sympathetic, well-rounded portraits of the justice-seeking rangers and wildlife officers versus the struggling-to-survive poachers that readers will have trouble taking sides. Her propulsive narrative reads as suspensefully as a well-wrought mystery novel as she uncovers an exciting true story rife with shocking twists and turns that will educate, enlighten, and enthrall her audience. -- Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: A science and nature journalist unspools an exciting, propulsive true story about an alligator poaching sting operation in Florida and what it reveals about nature--including human nature.


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