Beginning in August, Merritt Bookstore, which has locations in Millbrook and Red Hook, N.Y., will hold monthly drawings to give away $50 gift certificates for gasoline at local gas stations, one certificate for each store. Customers will be entered in the contest with every purchase in the stores or online. The aim: "to thank our customers near and far for keeping us in business for over 20 years."
William Morrow has worked extensively with the tourism agency, local merchants and historic site organizations in Salem, Mass., to promote the area in connection with its publication of The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry, the Boston Globe reported. Appearing today, the novel is narrated by a member of a family of Salem women who can read the future in patterns of lace and who have secrets that go back generations.
"It has been the greatest thing to fall into Salem's lap, for promotion and marketing," Kate Fox, director of Destination Salem, told the Globe. Salem "already has this great literary past, with Hawthorne and playwright Arthur Miller (author of The Crucible, about the Salem witchcraft trials), and now having a contemporary novel is a treat."
Morrow has made a video of Salem scenes from the book as well as a lacemaker at work. The House of Seven Gables will offer a walking "literatour" of locations mentioned in the book. The Salem Trolley plans Lace Reader tours. Morrow is sponsoring a sweepstakes whose prizes are trips to Salem.
The Globe noted the impact on tourism of The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger on Gloucester, Mass., and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt on Savannah, Ga.
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The "large bookstore that anchors Main Street" in Brockport, N.Y., mentioned in the lead of a story in yesterday's New York Times but mysteriously anonymous is Lift Bridge Book Shop. The story was about a folk singer who is canoeing from Buffalo to New York City, at least part of it on the Erie Canal.
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Congratulations to Kathleen Carey of the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y., who handsold the store's 1,000th copy of Jon Hassler's Staggerford (Ballantine). She has been handselling the book since 1992 and was instrumental in keeping it in print when it almost went o-o-p in 2000.
Carey said that Staggerford "is a joy to handsell because the late Mr. Hassler had an uncanny knack in writing about everyday people and situations with grace, humor and understanding. All his books are peopled with characters we know--some of whom we love, other we don't necessarily like--and his observations of human behavior are spot on. Staggerford is a deceptively benign and simple story that gradually reveals itself as great fiction, right up to its shocking conclusion. Jon Hassler was one of our best and most underrated writers of contemporary fiction."
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Football titles are proving to be a faithful niche for Christian publishers, the New York Times reported today. While authors of such books mixing God and the gridiron--for example, head coaches Jim Tressel of Ohio State University and Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts--"sometimes sacrifice industry name recognition" by not publishing with a "mainstream publisher," they have an easier time being accepted by Christian bookstores, the paper wrote. As Jan Long Harris of Tyndale House said, "Christian retailers look to Christian publishers to bring them books that they can feel good about presenting to their customers. They obviously can't read every book that they bring into their stores, so they trust us to bring them such books, and they trust us to prescreen."
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Rock City Books and Coffee, Rockport, Me., is acting as a collection point for books and donations for the library destroyed by fire on Swans Island last week, according to the Bangor Daily News. "The greatest need is for kids' books," Patrick Reilley, owner with his wife, Susanne Ward, of Rock City, told the paper.
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Good night!
Believe it or not, Goodnight Bush, the unauthorized parody of Goodnight Moon by Erich Origen and Gan Golan (Little, Brown, $14.99, 9780316040419/031604041X), is stocked at the official Guantanamo Bay gift shop, according to a friend of the authors who is an attorney involved in some of the enemy combatant cases.
Check out goodnightbush.com, which includes a weekly couplet contest--winners receive signed copies of the book. Goodnight Bush also will be featured on the Bush Legacy Bus, sponsored by United Americans for Change. Some 100,000 copies of the book are in print.
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In Point Reyes Station, Calif., a "literary renaissance has
quietly evolved over the past decade in this unlikely rural setting,"
according to the Marin Independent Journal, which called Steve Costa, owner of Point Reyes Books, the "person driving this literary phenomenon."
Emblematic
of the town's literary resurgence was the national attention garnered
in March for a conference called "Geography of Hope: Celebrating
Wallace Stegner."
"The Stegner conference, like most things out
here, happened because of him," said author Philip Fradkin. "More than
anyone else, he's responsible for the creation of a literary scene out
here."
"We're hopeful that Point Reyes, over time, will be
recognized as an epicenter in Northern California for the exploration
of the relationship between literature and place, which is an
expression of what West Marin is all about," Costa said. "We've become
an area that is attracting writers from all over the country, and we're
not afraid to ask anybody to come to West Marin. For a rural community,
we've been incredibly gifted and honored to have these wonderful
authors who come here and walk away having been touched in some way by
the experience."
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Spoiler alert. If you don't want to know ahead of time about the wedding scene in Stephenie Meyer's much-anticipated Breaking Dawn, stop reading now. The author revealed a key plot point to Entertainment Weekly:
"And no, the forthcoming information is not from a fever dream or a
filched copy of the book found in the dusty stock room of a Barnes
& Noble. This exclusive spoiler comes straight from Meyer herself,
with her explicit go-ahead to share with her fans."
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"I
think Comic-Con is in danger of having Hollywood co-opt its soul,"
Michael Uslan--former comic book writer turned executive producer
(including, most recently, The Dark Knight)--told the Los Angeles Times. "It's turning into something new, and you could really see it this year. There's some worry about that."
Calling the show "a frenetic Super Bowl of pop culture," the Times suggested that "this is the year they tried to take the comic out of Comic-Con."
British
actor Bill Nighy seemed less concerned: "This is madness. I love it. I
saw a fellow with a stake through his chest and blood splattered on his
shirt, a woman dressed as a hunchback, a Terminator, some superheroes.
. . . I feel quite at home here. I've been a zombie, a vampire and a
squid on screen. All considered, I'm quite legitimate here at
Comic-Con."
The new Barnes & Noble Recommends selection is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial Press), which goes on sale today.
Jaime Carey, B&N's chief merchandising officer, said, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, compiled as a series of letters, radiates love for the written word in every way. Drawn together by their love of books and affection for each other, the unforgettable characters of this story tell a moving tale of endurance and friendship."
B&N described the book this way: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society begins in January 1946, when popular author Juliet Ashton, much like her fellow British citizens, is emerging from the dark days of World War II. Juliet, in search of her next book subject, is exchanging a series of letters with her publisher and her best friend, when she receives an unexpected query from Mr. Dawsey Adams. Dawsey, a farmer on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel, has come into possession of a book that once belonged to Juliet. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, much is revealed about Dawsey's Guernsey and the islanders' recent lives under Nazi occupation. Before long Juliet is learning about the curious beginnings of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and exchanging letters with its other members--Isola the vegetable seller, Eben the fisherman, and blacksmith Will Thisbee, creator of the famous potato peel pie. Touched by the stories the letters deliver, Juliet can't help but travel to Guernsey herself--a decision that will have surprising consequences for everyone involved. Through the chorus of voices they have created, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows have composed a rich tale that celebrates the power of hope and human connection in the shadows of war."
Harry N. Abrams is launching Abrams ComicArts, which will publish books about the legends and history of comic arts as well as new graphic novels and other cartoon-based material. The imprint will put out 10-15 books a year and will make its debut next spring. Abrams senior v-p and publisher Steve Tager and executive editor Charles Kochman will head Abrams ComicsArts.
Lead titles on Abrams ComicArts's debut list include: The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle, designed by Jonathan Bennett; The Art of Jaime Hernandez: Secrets of Life and Death by Todd Hignite, designed by Jordan Crane; Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-creator Joe Shuster by Craig Yoe; and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? by Brian Fies.
In a statement, Tager noted that since publishing The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch in 1973, Abrams "has published many important books on comics art, such as The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard, Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman and Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics by Les Daniels. Between our growing comics art backlist and the exciting new authors, artists, and books being developed, now is the right time to start an imprint and put them all under one roof in order to maximize the sales and marketing of this highly saleable category of books."
Today on Talk of the Nation: Amanda Ripley discusses her new book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes--And Why (Crown, $24.95, 9780307352897/0307352897).
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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart (Houghton Mifflin, $25, 9780618689354/0618689354).
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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Tori Spelling, author of Stori Telling (Simon Spotlight, $24.95, 9781416950738/1416950737).
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Tomorrow on Good Morning America: Hilarie Cash, co-author (with Min McDaniel) of Video Games & Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control (Issues Press, $18, 9781930461055/1930461054).
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Tomorrow morning's Book Report, the weekly AM radio book-related show organized by Windows a bookshop, Monroe, La., features an interview with John Dufresne, author of Requiem, Mass.: A Novel (Norton, $24.95, 9780393057904/0393057909).
The show airs at 8 a.m. Central Time and can be heard live at thebookreport.net; the archived edition will be posted tomorrow afternoon.
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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition and author of Dark Horse: A Political Thriller (Howard Books, $19.99, 9781416576495/1416576495).
Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, August 5:
Foreign Body by Robin Cook (Putnam, $25.95, 9780399155024/0399155023) follows a medical student investigating unexplained deaths at a hospital in India.
The Assassin: A Novel by Stephen Coonts (St. Martin's, $26.95, 9780312323578/0312323573) follows a CIA agent given resources to fight a private war against terrorism.
The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life--His Own by David Carr (S&S, $26, 97814165 41523/1416541527) chronicles the troubled chapter in the life of a columnist for the New York Times.
Ripley's Believe It or Not: Prepare to Be Shocked (Ripley Publishing, $28.95, 9781893951310/1893951316) features new entries and a holographic cover.
The Obama Nation by Jerome R. Corsi (Threshold Editions, $28, 9781416598060/1416598065) provides an analysis of the presidential candidate's life.
Take Back Your Family: A Challenge to America's Parents by Rev. Run and Justine Simmons (Gotham, $25, 9781592403813/1592403816) gives parenting advice from the reality series Run's House on MTV.
Underground by Kat Richardson (Roc, $21.95, 9780451462121/0451462122) is the third book in the Greywalker series.
Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon (St. Martin's, $24.95, 9780312362157/0312362153) is the 12th book in the Dark-Hunter series.
Forced Out: A Novel by Stephen Frey (Atria, $24.95, 9781416549635/1416549633) follows a baseball scout, player and mafia hitman as their destinies converge.
The Last Centurion by John Ringo (Baen, $25, 9781416555537/1416555536) takes place after a mini-ice age and plague have ravaged the modern world.
Now in paperback:
The Amazing Book of Useless Information: More Things You Didn't Need to Know But Are About to Find Out by Noel Botham (Perigee, $12.95, 9780399534683/0399534687).
Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb (Berkley, $7.99, 9780425222898/0425222896).
