Let's face it: we're in the book business because we are book junkies. We would spit on rehab. Anthony Powell titled a novel Books Do Furnish a Room,
and we take that as literal and metaphorical gospel. So at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association show in
Seattle last month, since
what's in the future glitters more brightly than the present, we asked
sales reps for their personal favorite book from the upcoming winter
season. Some reps haven't nailed down the winter titles yet, so they
fudged their answers with fall titles, but no matter--the point is the
passion.
Dan Christaens was excited about A Curious Earth by Gerard
Woodward, a March title from Norton, and the third novel in a trilogy.
He was collaring people and reading chunks of it aloud and said he'll
be re-reading the entire trilogy straight through. He admired
Woodward's exquisite writing about mundane experiences (a la Five Skies
by Ron Carlson), such as a tire repair kit sending a mother into a
reverie about glue-sniffing. (Well, perhaps not everyone's quotidian
experience).
PGW reps, not surprisingly, came up with yin and yang picks. Cindy Heidemann cited Frances Itani's Remembering the Bones
(Atlantic Monthly Press, December), saying it had been a while since
she had fallen absolutely in love with a book: "This is the one. She
writes in a voice so strong and true I feel I would recognize this
woman on the street. A beautiful, elegantly straightforward exquisite
novel." Dave Dahl offered an example of the type of publication PGW is
known for: The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability from Cleis
Press, a book that helps people, that breaks some taboos to do so, and
that makes obtainable what previously had been hard-to-find.
When Asia Was the World by Stewart Gordon (DaCapo, October) was
the choice of Perseus's Adam Schnitzer. Writing about how Asia's great
civilizations spread, the author centers each chapter on a different
traveler's first-person account. The book is a fascinating read as well
as a definitive cure for western ethno-centrism, Schnitzer said.
Seira Wilson from HarperCollins was taken with a Hyperion title, The Monsters of Templeton
by Laura Groff (February). Mixing a bit of the ghostly (a monster, or
maybe not, that comes from a lake, or maybe not) with history, the
novel is about a woman's search for her father and the secrets that
lie below the placid surface of her home town. A different kind of
depth is explored in a Penguin reprint chosen by Penguin's Bob Belmont: Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels by Jill Jonnes is both an interesting account of the building of Penn Station and the effects of mass transit on a city.
With the second-largest printing in its history,
the University of Texas Press is publishing a gorgeous coffee table book, A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove by
Bill Wittliff (October). Ted Terry of Collins, Terry Associates
picked this unhesitatingly from hundreds of titles arrayed on his
tables. The sepia-toned photographs look like historical documents, and
the cover stars a grizzled yet sexy Robert Duvall--table display
material for sure.
John Eklund, who represents the Harvard/Yale/MIT group, chose Yale's Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
by David Attenborough. Not only is the art astounding, but the
production is sumptuous, with smooth and sensuous creamy paper-–a feast
for both the mind and several senses.
Chris Satterlund from Scholastic could not make up her mind between
Tunnels by Roderick Gordion and Timothy and the Strong Pajamas, a
picture book by Viviane Schwarz. Tunnels, a YA novel about a boy
searching for his father and discovering a subterranean society
forgotten by time, looks excellent. But Timothy, about a little boy who
isn't big and isn't strong until his mother mends his favorite pj's,
features a very cute sock monkey and charming animals.
Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy by Deborah
Rothschild is a July 2007 title from the University of California but
made it onto the list because Mark Anderson adores it, calling it a
breathtaking, personal story. Clinching the deal: he said that Phil
Garrett from Partners West thinks it's the sleeper of the list. He also
mentioned my favorite book from the press's fall catalogue, The Last of
the Wild Wolves by Ian McAllister. Farley Mowat-like with photos and a
DVD, it celebrates wolves thriving in a virtually untouched environment.
Eastern Washington University Press is publishing Barnacle Soup by
Josie Gray and Tess Gallagher in time for St. Patrick's Day. It's a
collection of folktales Gallagher has been working on for 20 years with
Gray, an Irish yarn-spinner. Steve Meyer from the press said the tales
are captivating. The collection will be published in a trade paper
version with French folds.
Christine Foye of Wilcher Associates went for Caspian Rain by Gina Nahai
(MacAdam Cage, September) (Shelf Awareness, September 27, 2007). If there were a cover contest, this would be
on the shortlist. There is so much Iranian fiction out right now that
she approached it with some trepidation, but loved the "intimate story
of dashed hopes and the dissolution of a family" living in the Jewish
ghetto in Teheran.
Peter Sis's The Wall, a September children's title from FSG (Shelf Awareness, May 23, 2007), is a
favorite of Krista Loercher from Macmillan. She called it a very
personal story about growing up in an Iron Curtain country and said
it's "a beautiful way for both adults and children to learn about that
period of history." She also liked The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr
(Holt, January), comparing it with The Orchid Thief. It chronicles a
year behind the scenes of the perfume business in New York and Paris as
two new scents are developed.
Reed Oros, also from Macmillan, double-teamed me with Krista to push an
April Picador title, The Man Who Turned into Himself by David Ambrose.
It was a rep favorite in 1993, languished on the backlist and this year
the reps requested that it be reissued. They are all behind the book,
which is being marketed as "The Best Book You've Never Read."
Amy King Schoppert from Simon and Schuster unequivocally named Howard
Jacobson's Kalooki Nights, which will be out in paperback in April. It
was overlooked in hardcover, by both bookstores and book readers, and
she hopes that the paper edition will provide the magic. She said she
couldn't put it down and called it the best novel she's read in 2007 (and she reads
a lot).
Amanda Gutowski from Houghton Mifflin marketing slipped in an August
title, When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson; she called it witty,
stylish and scathingly smart (and gets points for "scathingly," which
has been added to the reviewing thesaurus).
"So many books, so little time." And yet we continue to surround
ourselves with books, loving the possibilities in each one, and are
grateful for the people who aid and abet our obsession.-–Marilyn Dahl