Shelf Awareness for Tuesday, September 7, 2010


Del Rey Books: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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

Overlook Press: How It Works Out by Myriam LaCroix

Charlesbridge Publishing: If Lin Can: How Jeremy Lin Inspired Asian Americans to Shoot for the Stars by Richard Ho, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên and Phùng Nguyên Quang

Shadow Mountain: The Orchids of Ashthorne Hall (Proper Romance Victorian) by Rebecca Anderson

Quotation of the Day

Fall Books: 'Some Really Solid Titles'

"There are a lot of books coming out from writers who traditionally do really well, books that will perform. Some are fun, like the Jon Stewart and Amy Sedaris, and some of them are a little more thoughtful. I know there's a lot of trepidation with the economy and what's happening with e-books, but I feel like publishers are bringing out some really solid titles that we're going to sell really well."
--Cathy Langer, lead buyer for the Tattered Cover, Denver, Colo., in a New York Times story about fall books.

 


HarperOne: Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World by Craig Foster


News

Notes: Assouline's New Store; Bookstore and Library Tourism

Assouline Publishing, which publishes illustrated books and luxury editions and has a gift line, is opening a 1,246-sq.-ft. boutique in the Nordstrom Wing of South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., according to the Daily Pilot. The boutique should open in early October.

Assouline has a dozen stores around the world (pictured: the Las Vegas branch).

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On successive Sundays this month, September 12 and 19, Karen Lillis, a librarian and former bookseller, is leading tours of libraries (the first Sunday) and bookstores (the second Sunday) in Pittsburgh, Pa., according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Both tours cost $10 and will travel via trolley. The bookstore tour includes visits to Copacetic Comics, Awesome Books, Caliban Books, Phantom of the Attic, Eljay's Books and Joseph-Beth Booksellers.

Larry Portzline, founder of Bookstore Tourism, has revived the concept and on October 9 will lead a group from Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pa., to bookstores in Greenwich Village in New York City.

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Larry Ashmead, a veteran editor at Doubleday, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, died last Friday of pneumonia. He was 78.

In a New York Times obituary, Susan Isaacs, whose books Ashmead edited, nicely summed up his editing skills: "Besides finding what was wrong, he also knew what wasn't there."

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4 1 week, recipes frm Workmans Eat Tweet/Maureen Evans (1020 rcps n 140 chars), gd 4 busy bookseller&publisher parents. Tx: CraigPopelars!

First recipe: Busy Shepherd's Pie

Brwn2c grndbeef. Toss w lb mixdfrozenveg/can shroomsoup/s+p; top w 3c MashedPotatoes. 25m@400°F.

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Included among the five literary destinations in Florida recommended by the Orlando Sentinel were O Brisky Books in Micanopy and Haslam's Book Store in St. Petersburg: "When it comes to old-school browsing, it's hard to beat Haslam's.... An institution for more than 75 years, this 30,000-square-foot store bills itself as a legitimate tourist stop: 'Florida's Greatest Rainy Day Attraction!' But don't wait for a rainy day."

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"With Upper West Siders still mourning the announcement of the looming closure of the Barnes & Noble across from Lincoln Center, it seems petty to point out that only 15 years ago they picketed its opening," the New York Observer wrote in introducing its slideshow feature, "Requiem for the Manhattan Bookstore, Large and Small."

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What will Oprah pick? Hint: It won't be Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. For the first time in more than a year, the talk show host will name a new Oprah's Book Club pick September 17, during the first week of her final season. The Associated Press reported that the announcement of her 64th pick will occur "14 years to the day that Winfrey announced her first book club selection--Jacquelyn Mitchard's The Deep End of the Ocean on Sept. 17, 1996."

Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Life blog speculated that "there are two possible routes: She could pick a new work, like she did with, say, A Million Little Pieces, or she could go for the reconstituted classic like she did with Love in the Time of Cholera or East of Eden. Personally, I hope she does the former, if only to avoid the slightly saddening prospect of a sticker that reads 'Crime and Punishment: As Seen on Oprah!' "

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The writing life has been a mixed blessing for Tony Blair, former U.K. Prime Minister and now an author on tour for A Journey. Despite the bestseller status of his new autobiography, Blair had eggs and shoes thrown at him during his first signing event in Dublin, and a new Facebook page, "Subversively move Tony Blair's memoirs to the crime section in book shops," has already drawn nearly 10,000 fans.

Blair has canceled a book signing in London Wednesday, telling Daybreak on ITV it was "not as if we need" to do signings and "I don't want the public to be inconvenienced by the inevitable hassle caused by protesters," BBC News reported.

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The Huffington Post featured "13 Books Nobody's Read But Say They Have."

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How-to advice for future generations? Boing Boing offered "How to open a new book."

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The Caribbean edition of My Story 9.58, a memoir by Jamaican sprinter and "world's fastest human" Usain Bolt that is already a bestseller in Europe, will be published in Bolt's home country by Ian Randle Publishers, according to the Gleaner.

Christine Randle, the company's managing director, said, "HarperCollins U.K.--who Bolt signed his original publishing deal with--they came to us. They contacted us through our website and asked if we'd be interested in taking on a local edition. The answer was an easy yes.... This is such a major accomplishment for the company as we move to commemorate our 20th anniversary in 2011."

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Book series trailer of the day: the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber (Mira). The series, set in "the town you'd love to call home," celebrates its 10th anniversary with the publication of 1022 Evergreen Place. The site is set up like a Chamber of Commerce site and includes a downloadable map with points of interest, a social media spot called Covebook, news from the Cedar Cove Chronicle, a guide to restaurants and more.

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HarperCollins is renaming Eos Books and adding the Voyager imprints in the U.K. and Australia/New Zealand to create a new global science fiction and fantasy imprint called Harper Voyager. The change will be effective on Eos books, e-books and audios January 1.

HarperCollins Worldwide president and CEO Brian Murray said that the creation of Harper Voyager "allows readers globally unparalleled access to books and authors. This move enables us to offer authors a strong global publishing platform when signing with HarperCollins, whether the acquiring editor is in New York, Sydney or London."

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U.K. publisher Quercus Publishing and Barnes & Noble's Sterling Publishing are creating a joint imprint named Sterling Oak that will publish books selected by Quercus from its fiction list, currently about 80 titles annually, to be distributed and marketed by Sterling in the U.S. and Canada.

The first Silver Oak title will appear in January: Three Seconds by Swedish authors Anders Roslund and Borge Hellström.

 


Park Street Press: An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey by Peter A Levine


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Gunn Works Gunn's Golden Rules

This morning on the Early Show: Jessica Watson, author of True Spirit: The True Story of a 16-Year-Old Australian Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop, and Unassisted Around the World (Atria, $16, 9781451616316/1451616317). She will also appear this morning on Fox & Friends.

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This morning on Good Morning America: Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D., authors of You: Raising Your Child (Free Press, $24.99, 9781439109489/1439109486). They appear on the View and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tomorrow.

Also on GMA: Tim Gunn, author of Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work (Gallery, $23.99, 9781439176566/1439176566). He will appear today on Regis & Kelly, Entertainment Tonight and the Daily Show.

Also on GMA: Stephen Hawking, co-author of The Grand Design (Bantam, $28, 9780553805376/0553805371).

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This morning on the Today Show: Jamie Lee Curtis, co-author of My Mommy Hung the Moon (HarperCollins, $16.99, 9780060290160/0060290161). She will be on the Joy Behar Show tomorrow.

Also on the Today Show: Lisa Birnbach, author of True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World (Knopf, $19.95, 9780307593986/0307593983).

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Today on Fresh Air: Lawrence Wright talks about his new documentary based on his book The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage, $17, 9781400030842/1400030846).

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Tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Andre Agassi, author of Open: An Autobiography (Vintage, $15.95, 9780307388407/0307388409), which was recently released in paperback. He appears on Tavis Smiley tomorrow.

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Tonight on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Meghan McCain, author of Dirty Sexy Politics (Hyperion, $23.99, 9781401323776/1401323774).

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Tonight on the Daily Show: Philip Dray, author of There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America (Doubleday, $35, 9780385526296/0385526296).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Steve Martin, author of Late for School (Grand Central, $17.99, 9780446557023/0446557021).

Also on GMA tomorrow: Terry McMillan, author of Getting to Happy (Viking, $27.95, 9780670022045/0670022047).

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Tomorrow in a repeat on Ellen: Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Eating Animals (Back Bay Books, $14.99, 9780316069885/0316069884).

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Tomorrow on Glenn Beck: Burton W. Folsom, Jr., author of New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Legacy Has Damaged America (Threshold Editions, $15, 9781416592372/1416592377).

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Tomorrow night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Chelsea Handler, author of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (Grand Central Publishing, $25.99, 9780446552448/0446552445).

 


G.P. Putnam's Sons: Take Me Home by Melanie Sweeney


Movies: The Way Back

Newmarket Films has acquired the U.S. rights to director Peter Weir's The Way Back and plans for a January 21, 2011, release, the Wrap reported. The film, which was inspired by Slavomir Rawicz's book The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom "as well as by other real life accounts... chronicles the escape of a small group of multi-national prisoners from a Siberian gulag [camp] in 1940 and their epic journey over thousands of miles across five hostile countries." The cast includes Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Mark Strong and Saoirse Ronan.

 


Television: New Series Based on Ludlum Novels

Anthony Zuiker (CSI TV series) "is developing a spy drama for CBS, an offshoot of Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne series of novels," Deadline.com reported. The project, titled Treadstone, "centers on the workings of Treadstone 71, the black-ops arm of the CIA featured in the Ludlum novels."

 



Books & Authors

Awards: Hugo Winners; Man Booker Shortlist

Among the winners of the Hugo Awards, presented at Aussiecon and sponsored by the World Science Fiction Society, are:

Best Novel (tie): The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey) and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
Best Novella: "Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (Wireless, Ace)
Best Novelette: "The Island" by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2, Eos)
Best Short Story: "Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh (Asimov's 1/09)
Best Related Book: This Is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This Is "I") by Jack Vance (Subterranean)
Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm written by Kaja and Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Moon screenplay by Nathan Parker, story by Duncan Jones, directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" written by Russell T. Davies and Phil Ford, directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Best Editor, Long Form: Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow
Best Professional Artist: Shaun Tan
Best Semiprozine: Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace and Cheryl Morgan
Best Fan Writer: Frederik Pohl
Best Fanzine: StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith
Best Fan Artist: Brad W. Foster

In addition, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, presented by Dell Magazines, went to Seanan McGuire.

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Selected from the longlist of 13, the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize is:

Parrot and Olivier in America
by Peter Carey (Knopf)
Room by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown)
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (Atlantic Books)
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury UK)
The Long Song by Andrea Levy (FSG)
C by Tom McCarthy (Knopf)

Chair of judges Andrew Motion commented: "We feel sure we've chosen books which demonstrate a rich variety of styles and themes--while in every case providing deep individual pleasures."

The winner will be announced October 12.

 

 


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 Great Reads:

Hardcover

Memory Wall: Stories by Anthony Doerr (Scribner, $24, 9781439182802/1439182809). "When people say they don't read short stories because they lack the depth and complexity of a novel, you should hand them this book. The title story alone is richer than many novels, and the rest of the collection is outstanding as well. With settings as varied as Africa, China, and the American West, featuring characters black, white and Asian, Doerr's writing reminds us of the beauty of memory and the power of storytelling."--Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.

Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens
by Andrew Beahrs (Penguin Press, $25.95, 9781594202599/1594202591). "Unhappy with the food in Europe, in A Tramp Abroad Mark Twain famously described several American dishes he would immediately relish once he returned home. Beahrs revisits some of Twain's culinary desires with a fantastic book that digs deep into how much the American food industry has changed. His anthropological approach to the topic is riveting, and any fan of Twain and/or food will devour this tour de force."--Jerry Fieldsted, Windows on the World Books and Art, Mariposa, Calif.

Paperback

Commuters: A Novel by Emily Gray Tedrowe (Harper Perennial, $13.99, 9780061859472/0061859478). "The whirlwind romance and marriage between Winnie, 78, and wealthy businessman Jerry, 85, promises a happy future but immediately upsets family dynamics. Jerry's resentful daughter views Winnie as a gold-digging usurper, while Winnie's daughter, beset by financial problems brought on by her husband's brain injury, is difficult in her own right. Their stories are interwoven with a deft hand, and portrayed with both wit and compassion in this engaging debut."--Ellen Sandmeyer, Sandmeyer's Bookstore, Chicago, Ill.

For Ages 4 to 8

Wonder Horse: The True Story of the World's Smartest Horse
by Emily Arnold McCully (Holt Books for Young Readers, $16.99, 9780805087932/0805087931). "Bill Key loved animals. He was born a slave, but after emancipation he became a vet, believing that kindness was the only way to treat our four-legged friends. When his beloved mare dies, he is so distraught that he cannot even take care of the new colt. But it turns out that Jim Key is a very unusual horse. Based on a real story, Caldecott winner McCully brings this bit of American history to life!"--Margaret Brennan Neville, the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

 


The Popularity Tour with Amy Ignatow, Part III

Amy Ignatow, author of The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang (Amulet/Abrams), has been blogging during her first bookstore tour. If you missed any entries, you can see them collected on her Tour Blog.

 

Before leaving for this tour I had all sorts of good intentions to do research on each and every bookstore that I'd be visiting. I also had good intentions to clean out my fridge so that the housesitter wouldn't look upon our bags of mushy celery and our collection of expired dairy products with horror. When forced by time constraints to choose, my shame over the mold colony won out over my impulse to be a know-it-all.

Had I done my research, I might not have been so surprised to see a chicken peeking out from behind the sales counter at Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis. Before visiting the bookstore, [my husband] Mark and I had met up with my friend Anna, who was acting as our Minneapolis tour guide. "I've always wanted to go to Wild Rumpus," she said, but she'd never gone because she'd thought it would be weird for a childless adult to go to a kid's bookstore. But when the bookstore in question has four store cats, three chickens that wander the floor, a collection of rats, ferrets, chinchillas, birds, a lizard and a pet tarantula, in addition to a ceiling that looks like a sheet of ice breaking into a river (complete with upside-down canoe), you're going to have to work really hard as a patron to appear weird.

The kids go bonkers for the place. Where I gingerly held Carl Sagan (a chicken) kids would just scoop up any animal wandering around and hug it. The patience of the menagerie at Wild Rumpus is unbelievable. In addition to the general wackiness of the bookstore, the staff there was wonderful. They drew a huge portrait of Lydia and Julie and put it up in their front window. What more could a visiting author ask for?

From Minneapolis we headed to Wisconsin to spend a night with a friend. After bragging about our innate ability to wake up early, we overslept, and left in a frantic hurry to get to Rockford, Ill., in time for the 11 a.m. book event at Wonderland Books and Toys.

We'd been driving for about half an hour when Mark was able to find a signal and check his iPhone. "According to Google, if we don't speed a little, we'll get there about three minutes late."

It should be mentioned that I learned to drive in my home state of New York, which means that when told I might need to speed a little, I respond like a complete lunatic and terrify the poor drivers of Wisconsin. The speeding a little isn't that awful--I'm still very safe--but the accompanying un-children's book author-like hysterical screaming isn't so pleasant. It's a tribute to my husband that he isn't fazed by my tirades against other motorists who are not moving at my desired speed or vacating the left lane.

We made it to the store with 10 minutes to spare. I know it wouldn't have been the worst of crimes to arrive three minutes late, but when the staff of a bookstore puts on such a great event, it was the least I could do to show up on time. One day, when I'm a big famous schmancy author who has to be shuffled in through secret back doors and who is at the whim of my security detail, I might, on occasion, arrive late to a bookstore. But until then, I'm going to be on time, because it's just polite. My journey there might not be so civilized, but it's the sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Ignatow is posting more about her travels here.

 



Book Review

Book Review: Hillel

Hillel: If Not Now, When? by Joseph Telushkin (Schocken Books Inc, $24.00 Hardcover, 9780805242812, September 2010)

Though he's one of the great sages of the Jewish people, save for an often misquoted aphorism or two, Hillel's true significance is a mystery to many Jews and members of other faiths. In this brief but rich intellectual biography addressed to a non-scholarly audience, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin attempts to fill that gap, offering a thoughtful exploration of this remarkable rabbi's teachings.

Born in Babylonia, Hillel flourished in the period from 30 B.C.E. to 10 C.E., during the reign of King Herod in Jerusalem. Telushkin concedes there is scant evidence out of which to construct a conventional biography, so he focuses on stories about Hillel and reports of his legal rulings appearing in the Talmud and other commentaries on the Torah. These accounts reveal a patient, humble man (he earned a living as a woodchopper), capable of both an intellectually rigorous and flexible approach to vexing issues of Jewish law.

During the period of his teaching, Hillel's rival and foil was Shammai, another religious leader who, along with his disciples, inclined toward a literal interpretation of the Torah's laws. Illustrative of the philosophical gulf separating the two schools is the tale of a man who requested conversion, and Shammai responded with a brandished stick. The same man asked Hillel to convert him--on the condition that he instruct him on the entire Torah "while I stand on one foot." "That which is hateful to you, do not to do your fellow," Hillel replied. "All the rest is commentary. Now go and study."

This arresting story serves as the foundation for one of Telushkin's central themes: a passionate argument that Judaism should reexamine what he contends is an attitude of hostility at worst, and skepticism at best, toward converts. When one considers the rate at which the Jewish population of the United States is shrinking (currently less than 2% of the total population, with a 40% intermarriage rate), Telushkin's case is persuasive, even compelling, to those concerned about the survival of the Jewish people.

Telushkin concisely covers a broad range of other topics, including the centrality of ethical behavior in Hillel's thought (more important than ritual observance, in his view), while offering a provocative discussion comparing the teachings of Hillel and Jesus, whose lives overlapped for a time. For those inspired to follow Hillel's dictum to "go and study," this exemplary work, which includes a helpful glossary, an extensive section of notes and a useful bibliography, is an ideal place to start.--Harvey Freedenberg

Shelf Talker: Rabbi Joseph Telushkin's biography of Hillel is a stimulating examination of the thought and influence of the great Jewish sage.

 


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