Shelf Awareness for Tuesday, February 21, 2006


Quarry Books: Yes, Boys Can!: Inspiring Stories of Men Who Changed the World - He Can H.E.A.L. by Richard V Reeves and Jonathan Juravich, illustrated by Chris King

Simon & Schuster: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: Nightweaver by RM Gray

G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers: The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman

Overlook Press: Hotel Lucky Seven (Assassins) by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Brian Bergstrom

Quotation of the Day

McMurtry on Brokeback Mountain

"It doesn't present any kind of agenda, any politics at all, one way or the other at all. It just says life is not for sissies."--Larry McMurtry, co-screenwriter of Brokeback Mountain, in an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, as reported by the AP and CNN.


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News

Notes: March to Victory; Victor Hugo Find; Abe's Store

The Washington Post reports that the PEN/Faulkner Foundation will announce today that E.L. Doctorow has won its 2006 fiction award for The March. Doctorow also won the award in 1990 for Billy Bathgate.

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On Presidents' Day weekend, the AP proclaimed (via the Boston Globe) the enduring value of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago, Ill., founded in 1938 and owned by Daniel Weinberg.

The store's clientele is exceptional. Doris Kearns Goodwin visited several times while doing research for Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln; bought "several dozen books"; thanked Weinberg in her book; and did a signing last November. Other visitors over the years have included Carl Sandburg (who designed the store's hat and umbrella logo), Ken Burns, William O. Douglas, Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton.

The store stocks 8,000 books and all kinds of photographs, documents and John Hancocks (by everyone from Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth to most presidents, Mark Twain and John Hancock himself).

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The New York Times profiles bestselling children's book author Kate DiCamillo as she begins a publicity journey for her latest title, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. "One-twentieth of me is gratified; nineteen-twentieths of me is horrified," she told the paper. "I keep thinking that the next thing is going to be the thing that catches me out as the fraud I am."

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Wahrenbrock's Book House, the used, rare and collectibles bookstore in San Diego, Calif., was damaged by fire last Friday, according to local news reports. Fire caused an estimated $150,000 in structural damage and ruined $75,000 worth of contents. The store was founded in 1935 and bills itself as San Diego's "oldest and largest bookstore."

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A 765,000-sq.-ft. retail-office-residential project at 270 Greenwich Street in Tribeca in Lower Manhattan will include a Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods Market, Crain's New York Business reported. Ground was broken for the project last week.

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National Book Warehouse plans to open at least two new Book Warehouse stores this year while scaling back--at least for a time--its temporary Book Market stores, according to Bargain Book News. NBW president David Hinkle said that "a temporary concept gives a retailer a great deal of flexibility but they are challenging to manage--we'll be scaling back to five or six a year. However, we are working on several variations and opportunities that could increase that number as the year progresses."

Last year the company had plans to close as many as 17 of its stores (Shelf Awareness, November 30).

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Happily Ever After, the children's bookstore in Homer, N.Y., founded in 2003 by Jennifer Jones and Diane Nachtrieb, is closing, according to News10Now. The story commented: "It's a small shop in a small village that doesn't receive the everyday business it needs to stay open."

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The Slidell Sentry profiles Jerry Laiche, who with his wife, Beth, runs the Philosopher's Stone, the "only locally owned secular bookstore" in Covington, La. Among rare finds at the used and rare bookstore are several signed first edition copies of Victor Hugo works (at least one of which seems to include an inscription to his mistress), which a nun found in the trash after Hurricane Katrina and brought to the store to repay the Laiches for their help restoring her convent's library. The Laiches are trying to determine the value of the find and contribute it to the convent.

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From Paris, the International Herald Tribune offers a revue of Lagardère, buyer of Time Warner Book Group, which continues to diversify from armaments into publishing. As the Trib puts it, "Rare is the season when a pen is mightier than an M51 ballistic missile."

Among bon bons in the story, Lagardère's main competitor in the negotiations to buy Time Warner Book Group was HarperCollins's parent, News Corp. Also while the company has to give up the name Time Warner, Hachette Livre U.S. is an unlikely new moniker. "I doubt that the name of the brand will be Hachette," Hachette Livre tete Arnaud Nourry told the paper. "Hachette is so French. It's not well known in the U.S."

Concerning further acquisitions in the U.S., Thierry Funck-Brentano, the company's director of corporate communications, commented: "Why not? Not today maybe, but one step at a time. We are looking at many dossiers. There is the possibility to become bigger in the months and years to come."

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ISBN-13 is less than 11 months away. For some 411 on it, go the Book Industry Study Group's Web site, which now has a recording of one of its Webinars on ISBN-13. The Webinar covers everything from bar coding to educating staff. More live Webinars to come.


GLOW: Berkley Books: The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Lidia's Today Kitchen; Vowell's Assassination

Yesterday on the Today Show, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich savored the companion book to her PBS series of the same name, Lidia's Family Table: More Than 200 Fabulous Recipes to Enjoy Every Day-With Wonderful Ideas for Variations and Improvisations (Knopf, $35, 1400040353).

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Last night on the Charlie Rose Show, sports author John Feinstein gave a play by play of his new book, Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four (Little, Brown, $25.95, 031616030X).

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Too early in the morning? Today on the Today Show, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka discusses her new book, Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep (HarperCollins, $24.95, 0060736011).

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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show, James Garbarino talks about his new book on juvenile aggression, See Jane Hit: Why Girls Are Growing More Violent and What We Can Do About It (Penguin, $25.95, 1594200750).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Sarah Vowell articulates her morbid yet fascinating tour of the first three presidential assassinations, the subject of her book Assassination Vacation (S&S, $14, 0743260031), now out in paperback.

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Tonight on the Late Late Show, lover, player and author Jackie Collins talks about her new book, Lovers & Players (St. Martin's, $24.95, 0312341776).


Movie Tie-ins: Tsotsi, Sophie Scholl, Night Watch

Tsotsi, the movie based on playwright Athol Fugard's only novel, which was written in the early 1960s but not published until 1980, opens this week. The story centers on Tsotsi (Afrikaans for "hoodlum"), an otherwise nameless brutal young man in Soweto who spends most of his time planning violent crimes and hanging out with his fellow criminals--and making sure not to discuss or even recall his own miserable past. When he takes and begins to care for a newborn baby, he starts to remember his own childhood and eventually regains his own humanity.

Grove is publishing a paperback tie-edition ($13, 0802142689). Tsotsi is in the running for a best foreign film Oscar.
 
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Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
opened last Friday in a few cities. The film follows Sophie Scholl and an underground student group called the White Rose at the University of Munich during Nazi rule. Sophie, along with several other members, is arrested for spreading anti-Nazi leaflets. They are cruelly interrogated and eventually executed in the desperate, hysterical fanaticism ithat followed Germany's catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad. Released to coincide with the film, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Jud Newborn and Annette Dumbach (Oneworld Publications, $14.95, 1851684743) is available March 1. The White Rose: Munich 1942-1943 by Inge Scholl (Wesleyan University Press, $17.95, 0819560863) offers a personal account from Sophie's sister.

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Night Watch, directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring Konstantin Khabensky, also opened last Friday. Originally released in Russia, it is the first tale in Sergei Lukyanenko's epic science fiction trilogy. The three books and upcoming movies (Night Watch, Day Watch and Twilight Watch) portray an epic struggle between Light and Darkness on the streets of Moscow. Made for just $4 million, the film surpassed hits such as Spider-Man 2 and The Lord of the Rings at the Russian box office. The English-language version of the book Night Watch (Miramax-Weinstein, $11.95, 1401359795) will see the light of day on July 26.



Books & Authors

Attainment: New Books Out Next Week

The following titles appear next Tuesday, February 28:

Sour Puss by Rita Mae Brown (Bantam, $25, 055380362X). This new entry in the Mrs. Murphy mystery series (the 13th to be exact) centers on growing suspicion, controversy and even murder in Virginia vineyards.

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The House by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $27, 0385338287) chronicles attorney Sarah Anderson's quest to revitalize a once elegant mansion using a generous inheritance and a workaholic attitude. Along with an architect, she discovers an unknown history and creates an extraordinary future.

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The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherfurd (Doubleday, $28.95, 0385512899). The second part of Rutherfurd's epic retelling of Irish history, Rebels of Ireland offers a comprehensive look at the past 400 years of Irish conflict.

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Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House, 1401907210, $24.95) is a New Age explanation of life purpose and choice--with a spiritual twist.--Tobias Mutter


Book Sense: May We Recommend

From last week's Book Sense bestseller lists, available at www.booksense.com, here are the recommended titles, which are also Book Sense Picks:

Hardcover

Whale Season by N.M. Kelby (Shaye Areheart, $23, 0307336778). "I'm trying so hard not to say something like 'this is a whale of a story,' but it's so dang tough, especially with a campy, funny, and smart story like this, although it's not without its serious moments. This story of the arrival in Whale Harbor, Florida, of a man who thinks he's Jesus reads like a cross between Carl Hiaasen and Flannery O'Connor."--Lyn Roberts, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.

Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be: A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale by Jen Trynin (Harcourt, $23, 0151011486). "Jen Trynin's memoir about her rock and roll ups and downs has it all--love, sex, sleaze, and glamour. She chronicles her journey from the Next Big Thing to has-been with a refreshing lack of self-pity and plenty of offbeat asides that poke holes in inflated egos. Kudos to Jen for making it through with her soul intact and with a hell of a story to tell!"--Susan Taylor, Wellesley Booksmith, Wellesley, Mass.

Paperback

East Village Tetralogy: Four Plays by Arthur Nersesian (Akashic, $14.95, 1888451858). "Nersesian is an award-winning playwright and this collection is very enjoyable and well-written."--Amanda Voss, Eclipse Coffee and Books, Montevallo, Ala.

For Children to Age 8

Emma Kate by Patricia Polacco (Philomel, $16.99, 0399244522). "What a fun romp between Emma Kate and her inseparable imaginary friend. Mostly rendered in black and white, with splashes of color when needed, you are drawn toward an expected conclusion and then tickled by a twist. So child friendly!"--Ellen Mager, Booktenders Children's, Doylestown, Pa.

Great Wolf and the Good Woodsman by Helen Hoover, illustrated by Betsy Bowen (University of Minnesota, $14.95, 0816644454). "Helen Hoover takes us deep into the north woods with her Christmas fable, and Betsy Bowen makes the story come alive with her captivating woodcuts."--Harvada Elisberg, The Children's Bookshop, Appleton, Wis.

[Many thanks to Book Sense and the ABA!]


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