Shelf Awareness for Monday, April 27, 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

News

Notes: Antisnobbish Kindle?; 'Crazy for Books' in L.A.

"How will the Kindle affect literary snobbism?" asked the New York Times in its examination of the societal side effects associated with using an electronic reading device in public, noting that the "practice of judging people by the covers of their books is old and time-honored. And the Kindle, which looks kind of like a giant white calculator, is the technology equivalent of a plain brown wrapper. If people jettison their book collections or stop buying new volumes, it will grow increasingly hard to form snap opinions about them by wandering casually into their living rooms."

Michael Silverblatt, host of public radio's Bookworm, wondered what effect e-book readers will have on "literary desire . . . When I was a teenager waiting in line for a film showing at the Museum of Modern Art and someone was carrying a book I loved, I would start to have fantasies about being best friends or lovers with that person."

For other industry perspectives on the topic, you might also want to revisit Robert Gray's Shelf Awareness series earlier this year (columns in the January 28, February 6 and February 13 issues).

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While it remains opposed to collecting sales tax in New York--and other states considering similar "affiliates" laws--Amazon.com does support efforts to impose taxes in a uniform manner, an Amazon spokesperson told Business Week.

"We'd be O.K. with a mandatory collection requirement as long as the states' tax systems were truly simplified and the collection evenhandedly applied," Amazon's Patricia Smith wrote in an e-mail.

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Throngs of people "crazy for books" attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books over the weekend, and Jacket Copy featured extensive coverage of the event.

"It's a misconception that L.A. is not a book town," said Emily Pullen, a manager at Skylight Books in the Los Feliz section. "It's got an amazingly rich literary culture. New York is the home of the big publishing houses. But there are so many great, amazing and energizing authors who live in L.A."

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In his Register-Mail column headlined, "Bookstores an example of future in local businesses," John Pulliam celebrated the fact that the community is going "from one downtown bookstore to three--that well may be the turnaround about to happen in Galesburg [Ill.]."

In addition to Inner Wisdom bookstore, Brighter Life Bookshoppe will soon move downtown and the "new entry is Ben 'Stone' Stomberg, who wants to open a 'traditional' bookstore. . . . Anyway, I'm excited by the prospect of three downtown bookstores, all with their own niches. There's no reason all three can't make it and downtown will be richer for it. I believe that the recession is going to mean that cities the size of Galesburg are going to have more independent, home-owned businesses. . . . Ironic, isn't it, that a recession may have given Galesburg the push it has been needing for decades."

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The Greensboro, N.C., News & Record reported that a Giant Book Sale bookstore recently opened in a building formerly occupied by a Circuit City store.

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Jackson Street Books, Athens, Ga., is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and the Banner-Herald profiled owners Jennifer Janson and Tony Arnold, who purchased the business nine years ago and have witnessed substantial changes with the rise of online bookselling.

"Prior to the advent of Internet bookselling, we sold a lot more books to dealers who visited each other's shops . . . " Arnold said. "Almost immediately, the Internet had a profound effect on the price of books because the quantity of books that were out there became pretty evident pretty fast. No longer was it the case of a collector seeing one title he had never seen and would buy it."

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"Sisters Laurette Oien and Cathy Howe have breathed new life into a dying Santa Maria [Calif.] business even as others are struggling to survive in a staggering economy," the Lompoc Record reported. The co-owners of 2 Sisters Books & Gifts "have resuscitated it with a passion for their product and policies that would give corporate pencil-pushers a coronary."

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And now, the sequel: Perseus Books Group is "asking the world to write the first sentence for a yet-to-be-written sequel to any book ever published" as part of a "collaborative effort to publish--during the span of the 2009 BookExpo--a book that highlights the new 'possibles' in our business. A book that will be created . . . collaboratively. A book that will be published into as many formats as possible in about 48 hours." On the Book: The Sequel website, Perseus notes that royalties from sales will go to the National Book Foundation.

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The handmade book "is one which aspires to, and regularly manages to, exalt the ideal of the book," Wyatt Mason wrote in the current issue of Harper's magazine, where he explored examples of "the ordinary book being routinely beautiful."

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The Guardian reported that a "librarian at Oxford's Bodleian Library has unearthed the earliest-known book dust jacket. Dating from 1830, the jacket wrapped a silk-covered gift book, Friendship's Offering."

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Anyone who has read Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of the Lion will recall this vivid scene where a nun is blown off Toronto's Bloor Street Viaduct by a strong wind and caught by a worker. The Guardian reported on Project Bookmark Canada, "an arresting idea from a group of Canadians--a plan to place permanent markers displaying text from stories and poems in the locations where they take place."

"Readers can step right into the stories, experiencing the authors' visions and the real locales simultaneously," said Miranda Hill, the project's founder. "My vision is that you should be able to read your way right across Canada."

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Shelf Awareness children's editor Jennifer M. Brown is launching Twenty by Jenny, a website to help parents build their child's library one book at a time. The site guides parents to "twenty classics" in each of four age groups (0-3, 4-7, 8-12 and teen) and also offers the opportunity for parents to sign up for Jenny's newsletter to receive a new featured book review for each age group each month. (If they sign up for all four age groups, they'll receive four book reviews per month.) In addition, there's a Twenty by Jenny blog which explores book-related themes--such as the importance of reading aloud--and encourages conversation.

Brown has been an elementary schoolteacher, a children's book editor at HarperCollins and Pleasant Company and was children's reviews editor at Publishers Weekly for 10 years. In addition to her role as children's editor of Shelf Awareness, she is a frequent contributor to School Library Journal's e-newsletter to teachers, Curriculum Connections, and also to Kirkus Reviews.

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The Bookstore Training Group of Paz & Associates is launching Indie Bookstore Entrepreneur, a free e-mail newsletter that will focus on "ideas from big thinkers, trends in buying and being, and business possibilities across industries" and "will offer a periodic dose of what is good for business and communities, what feeds our souls as leaders and citizens, and what makes an indie bookstore a great place to shop . . . and work. The goal of the publication is to foster entrepreneurial thought as prospective and new booksellers define, refine, and revise their businesses as the world changes."

"Transitions are fertile ground for innovation and creativity, and there are a number of factors that are driving people to reinvent themselves and develop a career of their own," said Donna Paz Kaufman, founder of Paz & Associates. "Most interesting is the financial struggle of corporate stores while citizens are pondering their role in creating sustainable local economies."

To subscribe to Indie Bookstore Entrepreneur, go to PazBookBiz.com.

 


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


May Day: Change the World Day

In celebration of publishing Change the World for Ten Bucks: small actions x lots of people = big change, Chronicle Books is dubbing this Friday, May 1, "Change the World Day." The San Francisco publisher's offices will close and Chronicle staff members will work with one of 10 Bay Area organizations, including Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Habitat for Humanity, 826 Valencia and the San Francisco Zoo. Americorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) will send 30 members from its Pacific Region campus in Sacramento to volunteer alongside Chronicle's employees.

Change the World for Ten Bucks, written by the U.K. nonprofit We Are What We Do, tries to inspire people to change little things in their lives such as not leaving on too many lights, not picking plastic bags at the grocery store and recycling. The book has already sold nearly one million copies worldwide and has led to some tangible results: a canvas tote bag inscribed with "I Am Not a Plastic Bag" is sold out around the world.

In a related action, Chronicle is holding a contest for booksellers. By describing in a short essay what their store, employees or customers are doing to change the world, booksellers can win a 10-copy Change the World for Ten Bucks display and have their essay posted online. Change the World kits, including stylish posters with quotations like "Read More: pick up a book, and don't turn on the TV until you've finished it" or "Smile at the bookstore staff member helping you," are also available.

Check out the video created for this book here.

 


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


London Calling: There Will Always Be a Book Industry

As ever, the London Book Fair was a kind of barometer on the state of the business in the English-speaking countries--and this year was a refreshing reminder that the book world has not ended.

The fair itself, held for the third consecutive year at Earl's Court (in Tube announcements, it sounded like "Al's Cat"), had shrunken noticeably. A part of the mezzanine previously used for exhibition space was closed off by appropriately dark curtains, and likewise the large hall in the back was perhaps three-fourths full. Attendance was off somewhat, but most attendees reported brisk business.

Of course, most U.S. publishers, distributors and wholesalers had tales of staff and list cutbacks back home, and many of them are trying to make the best of these difficult times by refocusing their lists as well as sales, marketing and advertising efforts. Some are talking excitedly about rebranding plans. Budgets of all kinds are slim. A new frugality--or greater frugality--was evident at the fair, where there were few parties. Another sign of strange times: we were invited on a press junket to Asia, but alas only some incidentals would be paid for. As a European colleague said in astonishment, "How can it be a press junket if you have to pay for it?"

Many American attendees told tales of sales crashes last September, difficult holiday seasons, a troublesome beginning of the year. "Down 10%" and "down 20%" were common assessments of the sales drops in the past eight months or so. Many people also said that sales have been varying by channel from month to month, making forecasting difficult. But there has been some brightness in the past weeks. Apparently hope springs eternal, especially this time of year.

Despite so much dire news, many reported that some categories are strong, including what might be known as Depression lit--home and hearth titles from gardening to cooking to knitting and weaving, buying local, creating a sustainable economy--as well as entertaining, perhaps even escapist fiction; imaginative literary fiction; graphic novels. And children's books remains golden.

For many, backlist is a difficult sell, and nonfiction that is more current and less narrative may be suffering the same fate as many American newspapers--slow torture by Internet. Travel is a difficult category, for obvious reasons, although titles geared to places near home have more of an appeal in this economy. Some art and historical titles have strong local and regional connections.

We also saw more nonfiction titles than ever, it appeared, written and designed in ways that would appeal to people becoming used to--or growing up--receiving much of their information from the Internet. Imagine Workman titles on steroids.

One of the wonderful items we discovered was not a book per se. Rather it was the catalogue of the Russian publisher Interros, a tome about 3 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches, on thick pages that hold a surprising amount of information and many illustrations.

E-books received all kinds of attention at the fair, some of it quite authentic, some of it perhaps verging on lip-service. A few publishers' prominent flatscreens displaying e-books did not exactly look like integral parts of their stands. The organizers of the show emphasized e-books in the educational programming.

It was striking to see how much the U.S. is leading the e-charge. Sony Readers were offered for sale in the U.K. only last September, while Kindles are available only in North America. A few Europeans were asking about Americans' experiences with various readers with both curiosity and perhaps a little envy. Lack of access didn't keep anyone from having opinions on the future of the e-book and the future of the dearly beloved traditional book.

An Espresso Book Machine 2.0--the first of its kind--churned out handsome paperback books as quickly as On Demand marketers doled out information about the machine's costs. Each time we saw the POD machine working, the space around it was as crowded as a coffee shop during rush hour.--John Mutter

 


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


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Dumb Money

Today on Fresh Air: David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (Rodale, $25.95, 9781605297859/1605297852). He will also appear this morning on the Early Show and tomorrow on CNN's American Morning.

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Jerilyn Ross, co-author of One Less Thing to Worry About: Uncommon Wisdom for Coping with Common Anxieties (Ballantine, $25, 9780345503060/0345503066).

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Today on PBS's Tavis Smiley: Joshua Cooper Ramo, author of The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It (Little, Brown, $25.99, 9780316118088/0316118087). He's also on the Charlie Rose Show tomorrow.

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Today on the Ellen DeGeneres Show: Kristin Chenoweth, author of A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages (Touchstone, $25, 9781416580553/1416580557).

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WETA's Book Studio has posted interviews with Barry Eisler, author of Fault Line (Ballantine, $25, 9780345505088/0345505085), and Laura Lippman, author of Life Sentences (Morrow, $24.99, 9780061128899/0061128899).

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Tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman: Carol Leifer, author of When You Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win: Reflections on Looking in the Mirror (Villard, $24, 9780345502964/0345502965).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Bethenny Frankel, author of Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting (Fireside, $16, 9781416597988/1416597980).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Sharon Moalem, author of How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do (Harper, $26.99, 9780061479656/0061479659).

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Tomorrow on CNBC's On the Money: Beth Kobliner, author of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties and Thirties (Fireside, $16, 9780743264365/0743264363).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: David Kilcullen, author of The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One (Oxford University Press, $27.95, 9780195368345/0195368347).

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Tomorrow night on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Michael J. Fox, author of Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (Hyperion, $25.99, 9781401303389/1401303382).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Daniel Gross, author of Dumb Money: How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation (Free Press, $9.99, 9781439159873/1439159874).

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Tomorrow night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Chelsea Handler, author of Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea (Simon Spotlight, $24.95, 9781416954125/1416954120).

 


Movies: Beat the Reaper

Brian Koppelman and David Levien have been signed by New Regency to adapt Josh Bazell's novel Beat the Reaper, which is "being developed as a potential star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio," according to Variety.

 


Books & Authors

Awards: Los Angeles Times; Nebulas; Minnesota

Winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Awards were named last Friday at "a scaled-down awards ceremony . . . with as much enthusiasm and humor as any of the more grandly produced affairs of recent years," the Times reported.

The winners included:

  • Biography: Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings
  • Current Interest: Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman
  • Fiction: Home by Marilynne Robinson
  • Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
  • History: Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower
  • Mystery/Thriller--Envy the Night by Michael Koryta
  • Poetry: Watching the Spring Festival: Poems by Frank Bidart
  • Science & Technology: The Black Hole War: My Battle With Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind
  • Young Adult Literature: Nation by Terry Pratchett
  • Robert Kirsch Award Winner: Robert Alter

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The winners of the Nebula Awards, sponsored and voted on by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, are:

  • Best Novel: Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
  • Best Novella: The Spacetime Pool by Catherine Asaro (Analog)
  • Best Novelette: Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
  • Best Short Story: Trophy Wives by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Daw Books)
  • Script: WALL-E screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon; original story by Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter (Pixar)
Other awards and their winners:
  • Andre Norton Award: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt)
  • SFWA Service Award: Victoria Strauss
  • Bradbury Award for excellence in screenwriting: Joss Whedon
  • Grand Master Award: Harry Harrison
  • Author Emerita: M.J. Engh

A new honor, the Solstice Award, given to speculative fiction writers making a positive impact in the genres of science fiction or fantasy, was awarded to Kate Wilhelm, Martin H. Greenberg and the late Algis Budrys.

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The Erdrich sisters captured two of the eight categories in this year's Minnesota Book Awards, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Louise's The Plague of Doves won for best novel and Heid took the poetry prize for her collection, National Monuments.

Other winners included The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang (memoir/creative nonfiction, as well as the Readers' Choice Award), The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson (children's literature), The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint and Still Eat Meat by Catherine Friend (general nonfiction), Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer (genre fiction), Twelve Long Months by Brian Malloy (young people's literature) and Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota by Barbara W. Sommer (Minnesota).

 


IndieBound: Other Indie Favorites

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next picks:

Hardcover

Darling Jim: A Novel by Christian Moerk (Holt, $25, 9780805089479/0805089470). "Will a diary found in the dead-letter bin solve the mystery behind three dead women discovered in a locked house? Set in a small Irish village, Darling Jim is a dark, erotic, and bloody tale. Shivers."--Becky Milner, Vintage Books, Vancouver, Wash.

The Thoreau You Don't Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant by Robert Sullivan (Collins, $25.99, 9780061710315/0061710318). "Robert Sullivan's refreshing, empathetic biography revives the Thoreau of the work, aptly freeing him from the straits of clichés and revealing an inspiring, living intellect that reaches though the years. I loved it!"--Mary Taft, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, Iowa

Paperback

First Execution
by Domenico Starnone, translated by Anthony Shugaar (Europa, $15, 9781933372662/1933372664). "What begins as a Mediterranean noir quickly shifts into a puzzle from Pirandello and Calvino country, as the author begins removing sequences from the story and rewriting others. A profound meditation on political beliefs and mortality, with plenty of surprises."--Nick DiMartino, University Book Store, Seattle, Wash.

For ages 4 to 8

Funny Farm by Mark Teague (Orchard, $16.99, 9780439914994/043991499X). "It's spring and Edward heads out to visit relatives on the farm for the first time--and discovers that there is so much to see and do! Wonderful illustrations--detailed and light-hearted--add a humorous twist to the simple story."--Kathleen Lehman, Dragonwings Bookstore, Waupaca, Wis.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Shelf Starter: Savages and Scoundrels

Savages and Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America’s Road to Empire through Indian Territory by Paul VanDevelder (Yale University Press, $26, 9780300125634/0300125631, April 21, 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read.

From the introduction, Kicking the Loose Stones Home:

But for the weaver of tales that germinate in such storied soil, no source material, however hallowed and unimpeachable, can substitute for walking the frozen ground of the North Dakota prairie in a February wind, or for listening to the solitary voices of people whose bones were formed from the dust of prairie soil, of for the howl of a wolf, the trill of a loon, or the lilting melody of a meadowlark on a spring morning. In any search for the true and authentic America, one whose residue of betrayal and loss are redeemed by the endurance and perseverance of its resilient citizens, there are no proxies for the people whose lives and voices animate these pages.

Chapter One, Redeeming Eden:

When morning broke bright and clear across the northern high plains, shot through with angular streamers of sunlight that ignited the greening crowns of cottonwoods along the big river and lit the wall beside her bed, nothing about the sound of the honkers feeding in the grain fields, or the yipping howls of the little wolves in the gooseberry creek bottom, keened for Louise Holding Eagle the last day of the world.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

 



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