Shelf Awareness for Thursday, October 15, 2009


William Morrow & Company: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Del Rey Books: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

Peachtree Teen: Romantic YA Novels Coming Soon From Peachtree Teen!

Watkins Publishing: She Fights Back: Using Self-Defence Psychology to Reclaim Your Power by Joanna Ziobronowicz

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

Quotation of the Day

The Future: Things that Make Indies Great 'Will Still Be There'

"But I can envision the time when our bookstore will be able to deliver any book, ever written, in any format on the same day--in the store or to the doorstep. The things that make independent bookstores great will still be there. Our buyers will continue to place quality titles on our shelves and our customers will continue to enjoy browsing, aided by booksellers who love books. We'll just be adding about 10 million titles to our inventory and we'll deliver those books faster than Amazon's armada of planes and trucks."--Jeff Mayersohn, owner of the Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, Mass., writing in the Huffington Post about the bookshop's new Espresso Book Machine.

 


Now Streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME: A Gentleman in Moscow


News

Notes: The Lost Symbol Lost; E-reader Options from B&N, B&T

The plot thickens. Dan Brown's potential Icelandic sales for The Lost Symbol may have taken a turn for the worse after a burglar "broke into the offices of the Bjartur publishing house on Tuesday got away with the first proof copy of the translation," the Associated Press reported.

"Possibly the burglar gave up on his English copy of the long novel and in his desperation decided to get a copy of the Icelandic translation before anyone else," said Gudrun Vilmundardottir, chief of publishing for Bjartur.

Fortunately, the proofreader has another copy of the translation.

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Gizmodo featured "first photos of Barnes & Noble's double screen e-reader," and noted: "What's interesting is that B&N will sell the books it also publishes (yes, remember, they are also a publisher and not just a store) at a deep discount compared to print editions. And the device will have some sort of access to all books scanned by the Google Books project; probably books that are out of print."

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Yesterday at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Baker & Taylor unveiled an e-reader for computers, smart phones and cell phones--essentially one of the fanciest e-reader apps we've ever seen--for which it is acquiring and distributing content.

The reader was developed by K-NFB Reading Technology, a joint venture of Kurzweil Technology and the National Federation for the Blind. (Kurzweil created the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind.)

Besides offering full color images and allowing text to be adjusted in a variety of ways, the reader offers audio versions--both basic text-to-speech audio and the recorded audiobook versions of the texts that are synchronized. Publishers can add various video functions to the texts on the device as well.

Retailers will be able to sell titles through the e-book reader and have the reader branded with its name. The reader will be free to retailers.

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"From winning a grant from the Brooklyn Public Library, to scouting locations and creating neighborhood buzz, the story of Greenlight Bookstore has been a page turner,"  the Brooklyn Paper wrote about the much-anticipated opening of the new Fort Greene bookshop owned by Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting. 

Information and updates on the opening party, scheduled for October 24, can be found at the Greenlight Bookstore blog.

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Pauline Melville, author of Eating Air, chose her top 10 revolutionary tales, "the best stories--from Conrad to Ballard--exploring the lethal excitements of trying to smash the system" for the Guardian.

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Obituary note: Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nan Robertson, whose book, The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men, and the New York Times, chronicled female employees' fight for equal treatment at the newspaper, died Tuesday. She was 83. The Associated Press reported that in her "decades in the business, Robertson mentored a generation of younger reporters, some who became prominent names at the Times, the Washington Post and CNN."  



GLOW: Greystone Books: brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni Coe, illustrated by Reuben Coe


September General Retail Sales: Better than Expected

General retail sales in September fell 1.5% compared to the same month in 2008, but the Wall Street Journal reported that, excluding "sales of autos and parts, total retail and food sales increased 0.5%. It was a welcome sign of consumer activity after the deepest downturn in a generation. August sales were revised downward 0.5 percentage point to a 2.2% increase."

The end of the government's "cash for clunkers" program was cited as a prime reason for the September dip, though "consumer spending rose in many categories, lifting hopes that the economic recovery is gaining momentum at the start of the holiday shopping season," according to the Journal, which also noted that "Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo said economic growth appeared 'to have moved back into positive territory in the third quarter.'"

The New York Times observed that the September numbers "demonstrated the opposing forces weighing on the consumer sector. Sales fell as a frenzy of car-buying spurred by government rebates came to an end, and consumers retreated. But economists greeted the news with a small cheer because sales excluding automobiles actually grew in September, suggesting that consumer spending was stabilizing."

 


BINC: Apply Now to The Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers!


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Half the Sky

Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford University Press, $27.95, 9780195324877/0195324870).

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Tonight on Charlie Rose: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Knopf, $27.95, 9780307267146/0307267148).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Susie Essman, author of What Would Susie Say?: Bullsh*t Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781439150177/1439150176).

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Tomorrow on Dr. Phil: Jean Twenge, author of Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before (Free Press, $14.95, 9780743276986/0743276981).

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Tomorrow night on Dateline: Lynne McTaggart, author of The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World (Free Press, $15, 9780743276962/0743276965).

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Tomorrow night on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Serena Williams, author of On the Line (Grand Central, $26.99, 9780446553667/0446553662).

 


This Weekend on Book TV: The Clinton Tapes

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, October 17

9:15 a.m. Francine Prose, author of Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife (Harper, $24.99, 9780061430794/006143079X), examines the impact of Frank's diary from a literary point of view. (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m.)

12 p.m. Clara Kramer, author of Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival (Ecco, $25.99, 9780061728600/0061728608), recalls the 20 months she spent hidden in the basement of a German family's home in Nazi-occupied Poland. (Re-airs Sunday at 4 a.m. and 8:15 a.m.)

1 p.m. William Hyland Jr., author of In Defense of Thomas Jefferson: The Sally Hemmings Sex Scandal (Thomas Dunne, $26.95, 9780312561000/0312561008, argues that Jefferson did not have an affair with Hemmings nor father her child. (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m. and Monday at 7 a.m.)

9:15 p.m. David Fitz-Enz, author of Redcoats' Revenge: An Alternate History of the War of 1812 (Potomac Books, $29.95, 9781574889871/1574889877), presents a fictional account of the war and supposes the British won the battle of Plattsburgh.

10 p.m. After Words. John Harris, editor in chief of Politico, interviews Taylor Branch, author of The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President (S&S, $35, 9781416543336/1416543333). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m., and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

11 pm. For an event hosted by Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C., David Finkel, author of The Good Soldiers (FSG, $26, 9780374165734/0374165734), talks about the 15 months he spent with Army Battalion 2-16 during "the surge" in 2007-2008. (Re-airs Sunday at 5 p.m.)

Sunday, October 18

1 a.m. Brian McGinty, author of John Brown's Trial (Harvard University Press, $27.95, 9780674035171/0674035178), recounts the trial of the abolitionist who led an attack on the U.S. armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., in 1859. (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

 


Television: A Late Night Twist on Author Readings

In an offbeat alternative to the traditional author reading, Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson asks celebrities to read excerpts from his new book, American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot. Betty White, Danny De Vito, Neil Patrick Harris, Marg Helgenberger, Drew Carey and Reba McEntire are among the stars who have answered his call to letters. Here's actress Kristen Bell sharing Ferguson's recollection of bad acid trips. 

 


Movies: The Lincoln Lawyer

Tommy Lee Jones is in negotiations to direct and co-star with Matthew McConaughey in the film version of Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer. According to the Hollywood Reporter, McConaughey will play Mickey Haller, but it is "unclear what role Jones would play; the playboy character, which could be the second male lead, is described in the book as somewhat younger than Jones, though the part could be adjusted to accommodate an older interpretation."

 



Books & Authors

Awards: National Book Award Finalists

The National Book Foundation has named the 2009 National Book Award finalists. Winners in each of these categories will be announced at a ceremony on November 18 in New York City, where Gore Vidal will be honored with the NBF's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and Dave Eggers will receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Contribution to the American Literary Community.

The NBA finalists are:

Fiction

  • American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell (Wayne State University Press)
  • Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Random House)
  • In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Norton)
  • Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips (Knopf)
  • Far North by Marcel Theroux (FSG)

Nonfiction

  • Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook by David M. Carroll (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books/Holt)
  • The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor (Princeton University Press)
  • The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles (Knopf)

Poetry

  • Versed by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press)
  • Or to Begin Again by Ann Lauterbach (Viking Penguin)
  • Speak Low by Carl Phillips (FSG)
  • Open Interval by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (University of Pittsburgh Press)
  • Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop (University of California Press)

Young People's Literature

  • Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman (Henry Holt)
  • Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (FSG)
  • Stitches by David Small (Norton)
  • Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
  • Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

 


Shelf Starters: Last Night I Sang to the Monster

Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Cinco Puntos Press/Consortium, $16.95, 9781933693583/1933693584, September 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read, in this case a YA:

Some people have dogs. Not me. I have a therapist. His name is Adam.

I'd rather have a dog.

After our first session, Adam asked me a lot of questions. I don't think he liked my answers. I kept saying, "I'm not sure." And "I don't remember."

I think he got tired of my answers. "You're not sure about a lot of things, are you, Zach?"

"Guess not," I said. I did not want to be talking to him.

He just looked at me and nodded. I knew he was thinking. Adam, he likes to think--and he's a friendly guy but I was not into friendly. "I have homework for you," he said. Homework. Okay. "I want you to tell me something significant about yourself."

I just looked at him. "Something significant? Like what?"

"I think you know what I mean, Zach."

"Sure."

He smiled at the way I said sure. "You can do it in writing or you can draw something."

"Yeah, okay," I said.

"It's all right if you're angry with me," he said.

"I'm not angry with you."

"You sound a little angry."

"I'm tired."

"Who are you angry at?"

"Nobody."

"Can I be honest with you, Zach?"

"Sure, go ahead, be honest."

"I don't think that's true. I think you're really angry."

I wanted to say something. Something that began with F and ended with you. But I didn't. "I'll do the homework," I said.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl


Deeper Understanding

Deeper Understanding: Where the Wild Things Are

Perhaps you, like I was, are skeptical of how a movie
Could capture as perfectly as Maurice Sendak's picture book has
Max's wild ride of emotions.
Out-of-control emotions
get him sent to his room without his supper,
and launch him on a journey to the land of the Wild Things
who roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth.
Max looks them in their yellow eyes, tames them,
and becomes their king.
But even then, Max is lonely.
He "wanted to be where someone loved him best of all"
and "gave up being king of where the wild things are."
He goes home to a supper that's still warm.
 
What you see first in the movie,
is a real live-action boy in a white costume with ears and a tail,
growling loudly as he chases a Scottie down the stairs.
Just as the boy tackles the dog, Spike Jonze does a freeze frame
with the scrawled all-cap letters,
"Where the Wild Things Are."
This Max, played by Max Records (yes, really),
captures the essence of boyhood,
all innocence, charm and mischief rolled into one complex being
(the result of a five-continent casting call).
In the space of several seconds,
his expressions, so natural, so transparent,
register surprise, disappointment, anger.
Everything that happens in the movie
occurs within Max's experience.
 
Spike Jonze takes a risk
and imagines what sets off Max.
A teacher describes the sun moving ever closer to the earth.
Max's sister, Claire, prefers her phone conversation to a visit to his igloo.
Max starts a snowball fight with Claire's friends,
and they pile onto Max's igloo, crushing it.
His divorced mother invites a date over for dinner.
Max spies frozen corn and jumps up on the table in disgust.
When his mother tries to pick him up and set him down, he bites her shoulder.
"You are out of control!" says his mother (played by Catherine Keener),
as Max flies out the door and down the street
to where his "private boat" awaits.
 
Spike Jonze takes another risk when he imagines
what those Wild Things might say or do,
beyond the Wild Rumpus.
But Jonze deftly works in echoes of Max's experiences.
The igloo-crushing pile-on becomes a Wild Thing pile-up
that demonstrates their affection and acceptance of Max.
As it was in the book, the journey to the land of the Wild Things
is a transformative experience for Max.
 
And what a land it is.
The stretches of sand, bounded by endless sea and sky,
give rise to trees that tower over the Wild Things which, in turn, tower over Max.
Nature's palette in this Australian landscape is the same as Sendak's.
When King Max, as his first order of business, shouts,
"Let the Wild Rumpus start!"
the Wild Things step out of the forest of the book
And into the deep dense trees of the big screen.
 
Carol (James Gandolfini), the striped Wild Thing, is Max's favorite.
Like Max, Carol has constructed an entire imaginary miniature world,
"a place where only the things you want to happen would happen,"
Carol tells Max.
In a tiny boat that sails down the river of this miniature world,
Carol and his beloved red-headed KW are still a couple.
Gandolfini's voice plumbs the depths of emotion
we saw in Tony Soprano--
one moment protective and paternal, the next throwing childlike tantrums.
When Max cannot bring KW back into the fold
("You were supposed to take care of us! You promised!"),
Carol wants a new king.
 
As Max sets sail for home,
the Wild Things join in a group howl.
Only KW says, the way a mother might say it to her child,
"I'll eat you up I love you so."
 
Max's reunion with his mother is wordless.
Their expressions exude ineffable gratitude and relief.
Like John Cassavetes, Jonze trusts his actors
to say everything that need be said
Solely through the expressions on their faces.
 
Max has appeared in a book again only once,
a reissue of Ruth Krauss's 1948 text Bears (HarperCollins/di Capua, 2005).
Ruth Krauss and her husband, Crockett Johnson (Harold and the Purple Crayon),
whom everyone called Dave,
mentored Sendak throughout his early career.
On weekends, he visited them in their Connecticut home
with the manuscript for Wild Things.
"Dave gave me the word 'rumpus,'" Sendak said in an interview
(Publishers Weekly, April 18, 2005)
"Max was like our child."
Would Sendak entrust Max to just anyone?"
 
Here's to Spike Jonze,
who has shepherded Max to the big screen
and safely home again.
--Jennifer M. Brown


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