"It's clear the market for physical books is flattening and will shrink in the future as digital content scales quickly. With these dynamics driving the industry, there will be fewer book stores in this country, and we expect fewer non-book retailers selling books."

 

The much-anticipated and previously delayed launch of Google Editions may finally be near. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google, which "recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles," is planning to debut Google Editions in the U.S. by the end of the month and internationally in the first quarter of next year, according to Scott Dougall, a Google product management director.

"Because of the complexity of this project, we didn't want to come out with something that wasn't thorough," Dougall added.

Dominique Raccah, publisher and owner of Sourcebooks, said, "Google is going to turn every Internet space that talks about a book into a place where you can buy that book. The Google model is going to drive a lot of sales. We think they could get 20% of the e-book market very fast."

The Journal also noted that "some independent booksellers that can't afford to open their own e-bookstores believe that Google Editions could be their gateway into the digital marketplace. The independents will install Google technology on their websites so they can sell e-books and receive a percentage of revenue."

"If I don't change with what is going on, I am going to be behind," said Liz Murphy, owner of the Learned Owl Book Shop, Hudson, Ohio. "People are getting e-books but they aren't getting them from me."

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Amazon "is eyeing a pair of mammoth fulfillment centers" in Tennessee's Hamilton and Bradley counties, officials told the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which reported that the projects represent a $164 million investment and would create up to 1,400 jobs. If "state permits are OK'd and other steps are approved," work could begin as early as next month on the Chattanooga facility at Enterprise South industrial park.  

Governor Phil Bredesen said officials are working with Amazon "to settle outstanding issues on the proposal to build two 1 million-square-foot centers."

"It is my hope that we can bring these discussions to a successful resolution and create a large number of jobs for the people of Tennessee," he observed.

NewsChannel 9 reported that Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield cautioned: "This is not a done deal. In addition to the PILOT [payment-in-lieu-of tax] agreements, there are a number of other issues to work through at the state and local level, but we have high hopes of firming up Amazon's investment in the next few weeks.”

"The Amazon project has come together very rapidly over the past couple of months," said Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce v-p Trevor Hamilton. "The company has a very ambitious construction timeline, so reaching resolution on the remaining issues is very important if we're to be successful in winning this project."

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What's it like inside one of those Amazon warehouses? KSAZ 10 took a Cyber Monday tour of the company's 650,000-square-foot facility in Phoenix, Ariz. 

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"What happens when an industry concerned with the production of culture is beholden to a company with the sole goal of underselling competitors?" asked Onnesha Roychoudhuri in a Boston Review essay titled, "Books After Amazon."

While Roychoudhuri conceded that Amazon "is indisputably the king of books," he noted that a "vital publishing industry must be able take chances with new authors and with books that don't have obvious mass-market appeal. When mega-retailers have all the power in the industry, consumers benefit from low prices, but the effect on the future of literature--on what books can be published successfully--is far more in doubt."

After exploring Amazon's pressure on publishers to exact better terms, Roychoudhuri concluded: "Cheap books are easy on our wallets, but behind the scenes publishers large and small have been deeply undercut by the rise of large retailers and predatory pricing schemes. Unless publishers push back, Amazon will take the logic of the chains to its conclusion. Then publishers and readers will finally know what happens when you sell a book like it’s a can of soup."

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Amazon also has a critic in bookseller Jeff Waxman of 57th Street Books, Chicago, Ill., who has launched a new blog, Against Amazon, which he calls "an online archive to educate consumers about the problems and politics of doing business with the beast." Waxman told MobyLives that the blog is a "collaborative project" and issued an open call for submissions at againstamazon@gmail.com.

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In addition to airing the well-publicized interview with Jonathan Franzen, next Monday's episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show will feature Oprah's next book club pick.

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And you thought autobiographies by leading politicians were the dominant trend in publishing. Simon & Schuster has acquired the rights to a new memoir by the Supreme Being. "We are pleased and honored to add the Lord Almighty to our list of notable authors," said executive v-p and publisher Jonathan Karp.

God, who also launched a Twitter account, is represented by the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency, which--coincidentally?--also represents David Javerbaum, an 11-time Emmy Award winner for his work as writer, head writer and executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; co-author of America: The Book and Earth: The Book; and author of What to Expect When You're Expected.

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The Fairfield, Conn., Public Library offers a "Technology Petting Zoo" where patrons "can now try out new e-book readers and other emerging technologies... Currently the library has an Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, and an Apple iPad for patrons to demo," the Sun reported.

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Sharp will launch its Galapagos e-book tablets in Japan on December 10, "but overseas launch plans are still under consideration," according to PC World, which also featured a video of the tablet in action.  

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How about a holiday gift book list from the West Indies? Trinidad & Tobago's Newsday offered several recommendations, as well as this word of caution about children's titles: "Try, if you can, to buy the original of the classics NOT those watered down for kids in the U.S. who must be spoon-fed their fairy tales."

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The Montreal Gazette recommended its favorite cookbooks of the year.

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Ah, we know the problem well. "Confessions of a Book Fiend" was featured on the Incidental Comics blog.

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Book trailer of the day: Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley (HarperTeen).

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Eileen Bertelli has joined Parson Weems, succeeding Sean Concannon, who leaves at the end of the month to return to school. Bertelli has more than 20 years of sales experience at major publishers. She was most recently a curriculum specialist with Peoples Education and earlier was sales director at Kensington Publishers, sales director, health market, at Penguin Group, sales director Barron's Educational Publishing. She has also been a freelance writing coach and editor and co-founded 1500 Books, which specializes in memoirs.

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Effective January 4, Patricia Eisemann is joining Henry Holt and Company as director of publicity. Most recently she was assistant director, media relations and community affairs/corporate communication at the New York Times. Before that, she was v-p, director of publicity at Scribner and earlier was publicity director at Macmillan and the Fireside and Touchstone imprints at S&S.

Maggie Sivon has been promoted to deputy director of publicity at Holt. She joined the company last year as assistant director of publicity. Earlier she worked in publicity at William Morrow, the Penguin Press and Collins.

 

Nina and Chris Gruener posed with their children, Wesley and Audrey, two weeks ago at Books Inc.'s Marina San Francisco launch party for Above San Francisco, a children's board book that features the aerial photography work of Robert Cameron, Nina's grandfather, and a story by Nina. About a year ago Chris Gruener (formerly a Faherty & Associates and Baker & Taylor rep) took over the family business, Cameron & Company, shortly before Cameron's death at 98 and with his blessing. Aside from keeping Cameron's legendary work in print in both books and calendars for adults, Cameron & Company plans to release a series of board children's books like Above San Francisco showcasing the cities where Cameron hung out of helicopters to get amazing aerial photographs. New York will get the Cameron kiddie treatment next; Nina's character Cam plans to take Manhattan in fall 2011.

 

At a fête recently celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mountaineers Books in Seattle, Wash., a toast was made to the members of the editorial committee who worked on the eighth edition of Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills--and to some of their predecessors who created the flagship title a half century ago. Also at the gathering was Jim Wickwire, the first American to climb K2, and Jim Whittaker, the first American to stand at the summit of Mt. Everest.

Since the seminal mountaineering guide appeared in 1960, it has sold more than 600,000 copies and has been translated into 10 languages. A team of more than 30 experts revised and updated the newest version of Mountaineering, which includes information on everything from basic rappelling techniques and planning expeditions to scaling waterfalls and ice climbing.

The nonprofit publisher, founded by The Mountaineers, an outdoor recreation and conservation organization with more than 10,000 members, offers titles on biking, backpacking, winter sports, safety and first aid, adventure narratives and more. Guidebook series like Best Hikes with Dogs and Best Hikes with Kids that got their start with a Northwest focus have since become available for other regions of the country. The conservation-focused imprint Braided River combines photography and literature to draw attention to critical conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land was held up on the Senate floor in 2003 during a debate about oil drilling in the refuge, and the book's ensuing success inspired the creation of Braided River.

A third imprint, Skipstone, was launched three years ago "to serve our audience in a more full way," said Kate Rogers, editor-in-chief of Mountaineers Books and Skipstone. The aim is to appeal to the interests of its customers beyond pastimes like hiking, climbing and paddling. "A lot of people want to carry their ethic about the outdoors into other parts of their lives," Rogers noted. "We experimented with different things in Skipstone's first few seasons, but now we've really tightened the focus on sustainable living--primarily food and gardening topics and backyard activism."

One of the first Skipstone titles was the national bestseller Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day from the online environmental news magazine Grist.org. The humorous and practical guide--the imprint's #1 seller--presents "a groovy heap o' advice for working, working out, eating, shopping, commuting, raising kids, raising pets--basically, for life," according to the Seattle Times.

Skipstone publishes four to six titles per year. A standout in 2010 is Urban Pantry: Tips & Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable & Seasonal Kitchen by Amy Pennington (April), which was featured in actress Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle newsletter GOOP and chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 10 Cookbooks for 2010. Seattle resident Pennington, who has been featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio, is the owner of Go Go Green Garden, a business that creates and maintains clients' edible gardens. Along with tips for reducing kitchen wastefulness and maximizing local foods, Urban Pantry has more than 60 budget-conscious recipes that blend classic with modern. (Mountaineers Books staffers recommend the Chocolate-Buttermilk Cake and Potato Gratin with Cashew Cream.)

Fall titles from Skipstone are Tara Rae Miner's Your Green Abode: A Practical Guide to a Sustainable Home and Pacific Feast: A Cook's Guide to West Coast Foraging and Cuisine by Jennifer Hahn, who served up kelp pickles and bull kelp chutney to more than 100 attendees at an event at Village Books in Bellingham, Wash.

"It's hard to imagine Northwest bookstores without Mountaineers Books," said Village Books buyer Rem Ryals, whose personal library includes a "well-thumbed" copy of Stephen Arno's Northwest Trees. Hahn's Pacific Feast and Pacific Coast Foraging Guide: 40 Wild Foods from Beach, Field, and Forest are currently selling well for the store, as is the portable Winter Hikes of Western Washington Deck: The 50 Best (Mostly) Snow-Free Trails by Craig Romano. "These regional books are invaluable," added Ryals, "and I hope the Mountaineers are making them 50 years from now." --Shannon McKenna Schmidt

 

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House, $15, 9780812981223/0812981227) as her pick of the month for December. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote:

"This time of year isn't known for the luxury of having a lot of spare time for reading. And, if you're like me, when you do have time for reading, amid the countless seasonal festivities, you probably want a true feel-good story. Look no further. Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is about as delightful as novels come.

"At the heart of the story are Major Ernest Pettigrew, a local in the small English town of Edgecombe St. Mary, and Jasmina Ali, a foreigner from Pakistan. The pull of their two cultures lures readers through page after page as their friendship blossoms. The ensuing romance is, simply put, sweet--without feeling forced or contrived. I found myself cheering the couple along every step of the way.

"This book is the perfect antidote to holiday stress. And don't be surprised if you end up buying a few extra copies as gifts."

Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Salman Rushdie, author of Luka and the Fire of Life (Random House, $25, 9780679463368/0679463364).

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Leslie Marmon Silko, author of The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir (Viking, $25.95, 9780670022113/067002211X). As the show put it: "The Sonoran desert, its creatures and features, its ants and plants, becomes the classroom for that most trans-human of lessons--the importance of connection with nature. Leslie Marmon Silko--poet, novelist, essayist--provides a memoir of her education outdoors."

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Tomorrow on NPR's Diane Rehm Show: David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill, authors of A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides (Viking, $26.95, 9780670022236/0670022233).

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Tomorrow on the Talk: Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, authors of Kardashian Konfidential (St. Martin's, $25.99, 9780312628079/0312628072).

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Tomorrow on the View: Nora Ephron, author of I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections (Knopf, $22.95, 9780307595607/0307595609).

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Tomorrow night on a repeat of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: Dick Cavett, author of Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (Times Books, $25, 9780805091953/0805091955).

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Tomorrow night on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly: Judah Friedlander, author of How to Beat Up Anybody: An Instructional and Inspirational Karate Book by the World Champion (It Books, $17.99, 9780061969775/006196977X).

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Tomorrow night on the Daily Show: Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life (Little, Brown, $29.99, 9780316001922/0316001929).

 

The third trailer premiered this week for HBO's highly anticipated fantasy series Game of Thrones, adapted from the novels by George R.R. Martin. Filming is still underway in Ireland for a 2011 premiere, Deadline.com reported.

 

Let the speculation begin. Nearly a year before part one of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn is scheduled to debut, the Twilight Twitterverse was aflutter over the release of a photo depicting an intimate scene between Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart): "Posted on Twilight's official Twitter page, the photo shows a naked arm stretched across a blanket clutching feathers. In the Stephenie Meyer novel, Edward bites pillows instead of the neck of Bella while they’re having sex on their honeymoon, which explains the feathers. The photo is certainly PG-rated," the Hollywood Reporter wrote.

 

The winners of the 2010 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards, award annually to authors of African descent for the year's best works in fiction, nonfiction and poetry, are:

Fiction: I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press)

Poetry (two winners):

Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems, 1966-2009 by Haki R. Madhubuti (Third World Press)
Sonata Mulattica: Poems by Rita Dove (Norton)

Nonfiction: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin Kelley (Free Press)

 

I almost stopped writing about gift books after the last group, burned out and stiff-fingered. But I was rejuvenated with the arrival of Year of Our Lord: Faith, Hope and Harmony in the Mississippi Delta (Mockingbird Publishing, $19.95). Written by T.R Pearson, with photographs by Langdon Clay, it tells the story of Lucas McCarty, who has cerebral palsy, walks on his knees and cannot speak; however, since the age of 10, Lucas, who is white, has been a choir member at the Trinity House of Prayer, a black holiness church. How Lucas came to the House of Prayer and why he joined intertwines with stories of the members, Lucas's family and the Delta. Clay's photographs are a perfect complement to Pearson's prose--striking and evocative. This is a beautiful book, written (and shot) from the heart.

Staying with the South: David Rutledge has compiled a second collection of essays and art about New Orleans--Where We Know: New Orleans at Home (Broken Levee Books/Chin Music Press, $16), the second in a planned trilogy, after Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? Not a post-Katrina book as such, it "stays inside the city," swerving through the past and the present. From "Tattooing Katrina" to a marvelous essay on trumpeter Terence Blanchard to a meditation on food as prayer at the New Orleans table, the pieces are both elegiac and hopeful. Those words could also be used for another book focused on loss and subsequent living, by Joan Dye Gussow, Growing, Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Vegetables (Chelsea Green Publishing, $17.95). After she loses her husband of 40 years to cancer, Gussow, in her 80s, grieves, but doesn't stop living. A respected and revered organic gardener and nutritionist, she turns to the wisdom of her garden and continues to live life with gusto. This is a woman who decided to get her ears pierced at 70, and who says, "When I am ninety-six I hope I am not spending my early-spring mornings, as I spent the second beautiful dawn of this reluctant April, cleaning up plastic crap floated in by the Hudson." Salty, zesty and wise, Gussow is inspiring.

She'd probably like Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, edited by Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson (Trinity University Press, $24.95). The editors say we have enough scientific knowledge to tell us what we need to do; what's missing is ethical values and moral guidance. People from around the world have contributed to this hefty (almost 500 pages) book, with familiar names like Wendell Berry, David James Duncan, Quincy Troupe, Ursula K. LeGuin, Barbara Kingsolver, N. Scott Momaday. They all speak to the question, "Do we have a moral obligation to take action to protect the future of a planet in peril?" The authors answer in various chapters titled as answers: "Yes, for the sake of the children," "Yes, because all flourishing is mutual," "Yes, for the stewardship of God's creation." I doubt that Moral Ground would change the mind of your global warming-scoffing relative, but for those who care about the earth, it would be a welcome gift.

According to the UN, 150 million people will be displaced because of climate change by 2050. Unimaginable, but the journalists and photographers of Collectif Argos show us the damage already wrought, in Climate Refugees (MIT Press, $29.95). They focus on nine world sites where global warming has already devastated the land and the people: Alaska, Bangladesh, Chad, the Maldives, the Gulf Coast, Tuvalu, the Himalayas, Longbaoshan in China, the halligen (peat, sand and clay flats) in northern Germany. The text is excellent, and the photography is absolutely stunning. A spectacular art book with a message. --Marilyn Dahl

 

 

Michael P. Spradlin grew up in Homer, Mich., a small town of roughly 1,500 people, most of whom were his cousins. He studied history at Central Michigan University and has worked in publishing and bookselling for almost 20 years. His first novel, Spy Goddess: Live and Let Shop, was nominated for an Edgar Award. His Youngest Templar series has sold in a dozen countries and last year, his first humor book, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols, was a New York Times bestseller. His follow-up, Every Zombie Eats Somebody Sometime: A Book of Zombie Love Songs, was just released by Harper (November 30, 2010).

 

On your nightstand now:

The Fort by Bernard Cornwell, Norse Warfare: Unconventional Battle Strategies of the Ancient Viking by Martina Sprague, The Reversal by Michael Connolly and The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Not counting the Hardy Boys, which was a series, I'd have to say My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. The idea of running away to live in a hollow tree with a pet falcon was enormously appealing.

Your top five authors:

John Steinbeck, Christopher Moore, T. Jefferson Parker, Larry McMurtry, Pat Conroy.

Book you've faked reading:

Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. I was working in a bookstore when it was published. I still contend it's one of the biggest "book that everyone buys, but nobody actually reads" bestsellers ever. I just could not get into it and I've tried several times. I enjoyed the movie (I'm pretty famous for my Sean Connery impersonation) but could never read the book.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger. It's one of the most perfectly written novels ever. It has everything: life, death, love, friendship, family, coming of age. It's hysterically funny and incredibly poignant all at the same time. You would think an epistolary novel would never be able to sustain the story and develop characters the way The Last Days of Summer does, but Kluger pulls it off brilliantly. I will never forgive Oprah for not picking it.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Although they had me at "Guns."

Book that changed your life:

This is a really tough question. After much deliberation, I'm going with The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh. It's one of the first books written for adults that I read as a teenager and it took me to a place and way of life (being a cop in L.A.) that a small-town Midwestern kid could never have imagined, even after watching Adam-12 and Dragnet religiously. It also taught me it was okay for a book to be funny. Even outrageously funny. In a good way.

Favorite line from a book:

The last line of The Great Gatsby: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." That's the best closing line of any novel ever. No one will ever be able to top that. My favorite line from a short story is "Shut up, he explained." From "The Young Immigrants" by Ring Lardner.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I re-read this novel at least every two years, and just marvel at the character development and rejoice in some of the best dialogue ever written. It's a masterpiece and I laugh when I hear critics and reviewers say McMurtry's subsequent books haven't measured up. Who cares? HE WROTE LONESOME DOVE! It's like my college English professors who always said, "Yeah, Steinbeck is okay, but he peaked in the 1930s." Really? Of Mice and Men. The Red Pony. Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle and THE GRAPES OF WRATH! That's quite a decade. Maybe Harper Lee had it right.

What you are working on next:

I have a novel coming from Putnam in fall 2011 called The Raven's Shadow. It's set in Washington, D.C., in 1825 and features a teenage Edgar Allan Poe, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, who form a sort of League of Extraordinary Young Gentlemen and take down Count Dracula who has come to America for nefarious purposes. Count Dracula's purposes are always nefarious.

I also have my first book for grown-ups of all ages coming in 2011. It's called Blood Riders and it's a cross between The X-Files, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and Wild, Wild West. Twenty pounds of fun in a five-pound sack. I hope.

 

 

 

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's (The Yearling) 1956 Newbery Honor book is just as relevant today as it was when it was published (posthumously) 55 years ago. New, lush illustrations by two-time Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon lend the tale a mythic quality, and emphasize its theme of abundance. Young Calpurnia was "born to be a poet." When her father tells his family that "Hard times have come to the forest," and that with no fish to sell, he fears he will have to close his fish market, she does not worry. Instead, Calpurnia and her loyal dog, Buggy-horse, go outside to think about how she can catch some fish. As she contemplates what a fish would like to eat, the Dillons render a full-page painting of the heroine leaning against a tree whose leaves create an Escher-like fish pattern. On the opposite page, a silhouette image shows the girl attempting to enter a fish's mindset, the profile of her face encased within a fish's transparent body, its fins echoing the checked pattern of her dress. The artists quickly establish Calpurnia's oneness with nature and continue this visual connection throughout the elegantly designed book.

With her bait and fishing pole in hand, Calpurnia and Buggy-horse set off to find Mother Albirtha, "the wisest person in the forest" (who bears a striking resemblance to Diane Dillon). A painting of an eye icon on the wise woman's wall, the peacock feather in her turban, and an eye-shaped pattern in the trees all suggest Mother Albirtha's keen powers of perception. As Mother Albirtha tells Calpurnia of a "secret river," she explains that the girl needs only to "follow her nose" to find it, and the leaves in the trees transform from eyes to fish patterns. Buggy-horse and the creatures of the forest help point Calpurnia in the right direction. When she has caught all that her fishing pole can carry, Calpurnia and her dog head home. It turns dark, and they lose their way. The once benign trees now appear to reach out grasping hands toward the duo; a menacing-looking owl stares down, and a bear stands in their path. Quick-thinking Calpurnia offers the animals some of her catch. The creatures, in turn, help guide her home. Calpurnia's feeling of plenty proves contagious: her father gives his customers fish on credit so they will have sustenance to do a good day's work; they repay him at day's end. When Calpurnia once again sets out with her dog for the secret river, she cannot find it. Mother Albirtha tells her, "Child, sometimes a thing happens once, and does not ever happen anymore." But she also says, "You can go there any time you want to. In your mind." In the closing image, the Dillons paint a sun-kissed portrait of the child's face, enveloped by the forest and the secret river. Fans of the artists' work on Eloise Greenfield's Honey, I Love cannot help but see a connection between these two heroines, both poets forever awake to the many gifts the world has to offer. A masterpiece.--Jennifer M. Brown