Notes: Recipe for Finding Good Cookbooks
Although cookbook buyers can find the latest bestseller from Rachael Ray in "almost any bookstore," Phillyburbs.com
advised, "if you'd like to check out some lesser-known books about food
and cooking . . . you'll have to go to a place that specializes in
cookbooks."
Recommended destinations were Farley's Bookshop, New Hope, Pa., and the Cookbook Stall at Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia.
"We try and stock a great selection of all sorts of cookbooks," Farley's manager Julian Karhumaa said.
At the Cookbook Stall, owner Jill Ross "delights in stocking unusual and unexpected books."
"The quirkier the better,” she said, recommending Death Warmed Over, a book about food for funerals. "There are just so many diverse and interesting books."
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The Lenox, Mass., estate where Edith Wharton wrote The House of Mirth and other novels is faced with imminent foreclosure due to financial difficulties. Trustees of the Mount have launched a fundraising campaign to save this National Historic Landmark, and $3 million needs to be raised before April 24. Pledges can be made at www.edithwharton.org and won't be called in unless the monetary goal is reached.
Wharton designed the house and gardens, and in addition to its literary significance, the Mount is notable for being one of only 5% percent of National Historic Landmarks dedicated to women. For more information visit edithwharton.org.
Today's New York Times reports that the problems have led to the resignation of the president of the organization that owns and manages the property.
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The Literary Ventures Fund is helping support the publication of Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster by Marion Boyars Publishers, which is distributed in the U.S. by Consortium. The publication is the Literary Ventures Fund's first partnership with a U.K. publisher.
Feather Man is the Australian author's first novel. Set in rural Australia in the 1950s and the London art world of the 1970s, the book paints the landscapes of protagonist Sooky's internal and external worlds through a narrator not unlike Scout of To Kill A Mockingbird. Last week, Feather Man won the inaugural $32,000 Barbara Jefferis Award, which is administered by the Australian Society of Authors and honors "the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society."
McMaster's Washing the Money, a collection of poems, won the Victorian Premier's Prize and the Grace Leven Prize, and her work has been broadcast on Australian national radio and television.
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Calling all early adopters!
Penguin Group is seeking four people to participate in testing the beta version of its e-book classics program. Anyone interested in trying out the Penguin Enhanced E-Book Classic edition of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen should contact Gabrielle Gantz at gabrielle.gantz@us.penguingroup.com. Testers need to have their own e-book reader, whether adobe, eReader, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader. The four winners will be chosen at random from among those who respond in the next 24 hours.
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Effective with the fall 2008 season, Profile Books, London, will be distributed here by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. Profile's U.S. backlist will continue to be distributed by Trafalgar Square Books until the end of the year.
Profile publishes history, memoir, current affairs, business, popular science and fiction. In 2003, it published its first high-profile bestseller, Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Last year, Profile Books bought Serpent's Tail, also a Consortium client, and in November the two set up GreenProfile, a green and ethical imprint headed by Rough Guides founder Mark Ellingham.
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Suzanne Wickham has been promoted to senior director of publicity at HarperOne and will oversee the publicity department. She has been at HarperCollins for almost two years, first as publicity director for ReganBooks, then as director of media relations for HarperOne. Earlier she had her own pr firm and was West Coast publicity director for Random House.
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Nicole Vines has joined the special markets department of HarperCollins as director of premium and corporate sales. She was formerly senior manager at Macmillan, focusing on premium and corporate sales and helped develop new books for specific markets.
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Congratulations! On Tuesday, Cody's Books celebrated the grand opening of its new store in downtown Berkeley, which is located at 2201 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, Calif. 94704; 510-559-9500; 
Newcomer Hall leaps onto the picture book scene with this exuberant tale of a reluctant older sibling. Little Frog and his mom inhabit a peaceful pond--just the two of them. The book's generous format (11" x 10") and a palette of earth tones allow the author-artist to emphasize the spaciousness of their environs. Their wide-eyed stares lend the duo a comical air, and their slit eyes as they embrace telegraph their contentment. When Mom asks Little Frog, "Would you like a baby brother or sister?" he answers with the title refrain, "We're just fine as we are." But astute readers will notice some strange circular blobs floating in the water near the little hero's webbed feet. "After a while the little squiggly swimming things changed into tiny frog babies. . . . Little Frog was worried." Soon the once-abundant white space teems with tiny frogs and, as the siblings grow in size and number, they crowd Little Frog right off the right-hand margin of the spread. Hall quickens the visual pacing with vignettes of the relentless baby frogs following their big brother everywhere ("Little Frog couldn't get a minute to himself"). But when Mom points out that "They only want to be like you," Little Frog gets an idea--and starts to take a liking to his newfound playmates. Quiet nocturnal scenes of the hero and his mother--even after the brothers' and sisters' arrival--make clear that Little Frog continues to remain special in her eyes and also provide a lovely counterpoint to the boisterous scenes of baby frogs gone wild. This is a must for children who were just fine as they were--before that baby came along. Hall, himself an older brother to quadruplets, clearly knows whereof he speaks; and youngsters will hope he has many more stories to come.--