Notes: More E-Readers?; Bad Parent Lit; Skylight's Class Act
In other Amazon news, the company is developing a new version of the Kindle that features a larger screen, which ought to appeal to newspaper executives and readers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new Kindle might make its debut before the holiday shopping season. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment to the Journal.
The item came at the end of a week in which it was rumored that Barnes & Noble is working on an e-reader. In addition, Hearst Corp. and News Corp. recently have acknowledged that they are developing e-readers.
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In a front-page article today, the Wall Street Journal surveyed a new trend that might be called bad parent lit. Examples published recently or in the near future include True Mom Confessions: Real Moms Get Real by Romi Lassally, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace by Ayelet Waldman, It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather Armstrong, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis and a fall title that collects essays from the Bad Parent column on Babble.com.
Fans of the genre say that "sharing their foibles helps relieve the pressure to be a perfect parent--and pokes fun at a culture where arguments over sleep-training methods and organic baby foods rage on," the Journal wrote. "Critics say it's the latest form of oversharing online--the equivalent of posting your every move on Twitter or Facebook--and only reinforces parents' worst habits."
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Here's a great story from Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif., as explained on the store's blog. The teacher of a 10th grade honors English class at Los Angeles High School wanted to include The Catcher in the Rye in the curriculum but the school did not have copies of the book and could not afford to purchase them. Contacted by 826LA, Skylight asked staff and customers to donate 25 copies--and the goal was met in one day. As manager Steve Salardino wrote on the blog, "Now, that would be a feat at any time but to know that through the struggle of these particularly hard and lean times the people that step into this store still choose to share what they have to help those in need makes me misty and proud to work here."
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Obituary Note: Judith Krug, a director of the American Library Association and a founder of Banned Books Week, died Saturday. She was 69, the Associated Press reported. Krug, who had been head of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom since 1967, was ill for more than a year with stomach cancer.
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Stephenie Meyer and a range of other YA authors were featured guests--and draws--last month at a benefit called Project Book Babe, to help out Faith Hochhalter, a former bookseller at Changing Hands, Tempe, Ariz., who helped launch many authors' careers and is fighting breast cancer, the Phoenix New Times reported.
Tickets cost $300 and included a signed copy of a book by Meyer, time to talk with the authors and a chance to obtain additional books. Among attractions during the auction: the unpublished epilogue to Forever Dawn, which went for $5,100; lunch with Meyer, which brought $6,500; and the dress Meyer wore to the New Moon prom event, which fetched $5,500.
The authors praised Hochhalter for her enthusiasm for their titles and promoting them to children, parents, other booksellers, teachers and more. As J. S. Lewis, co-author of the Grey Griffin series, said of Hochhalter, "It's her passion and love for what she does. She's a fan first, and I don't say that in a bad way. . . . It's this feeling that every morning is Christmas morning and when she gets to unwrap a new book, she gets so excited about it. She has a childlike enthusiasm that is so catching."
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For all the Stephanie Plum fans who want movies to be made out of the Janet Evanovich books starring the bounty hunter, Borders has made its own 10-minute movie. And in honor of the next Plum book, Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Borders is encouraging fans to make their own Plum videos of 2 to 10 minutes, post them on YouTube and notify Borders of the URL. Borders will then share some of them with other Borders customers on its website and via the Borders Shortlist e-mail. To hunt down more information on this, click here.
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Unusual book event!
Identical twins Logan and Noah Miller are promoting their film, Touching Home, and the book about it, Either You're In or You're in the Way: Two Brothers, Twelve Months, and One Filmmaking Hell-Ride to Keep a Promise to Their Father, on June 6 at 6 p.m. in AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif. (where the Giants play). On the field, "the music, art, and movie festival" called Bookstock 2009 will feature a screening of Touching Home as well as a book signing by the Miller brothers and an appearance by actor Ed Harris, star of the movie. "The cure for the recession depression" includes a beer and wine garden and food and supports the Giants Community Fund. Copies of the book ordered online or at local bookstores before pub date serve as admission for two; children are free.
The book is about how the twins decided to make the film to honor their father, who died homeless and alone in a jail cell. "Without a dime to their names nor a single meaningful contact in Hollywood--they managed to write, produce, act, and direct a feature film" in less than a year.
Either You're In or You're in the Way appears April 28 (Harper, $26.99, 9780061763144/0061763144).
