Shelf Awareness for Monday, March 27, 2006


Dutton: How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files) by Kristen Perrin

Mira Books: Their Monstrous Hearts by Yigit Turhan

Mira Books: Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

News

Notes: Store Logo Design Makeover; Eat That Book

More than 50 members of Citizens for Local Control protested Saturday against a new Barnes & Noble set to open later this year in the Town Center in Corte Madera, Calif., the Marin Independent Journal reported. The group says the store will threaten nearby Book Passage. Citizens for Local Control said it will try to pressure the Florida State Board of Retirement, which owns the mall, and investment firm Morgan Stanley, which manages the bulk of the pension board assets. The group is also collecting signatures to get an initiative on the local ballot next year.

Stan Hoffman, general manager of the shopping center, told the paper that "the No. 1 request we've gotten over the years is to add a bookstore to the shopping center" and said he expects "the loyal Book Passage customers will continue to support Book Passage, as they should."

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Stephanie Chandler, who three years ago founded Book Lovers Bookstore, Sacramento, Calif., which sells used books and audiobooks, won a logo and Web site redesign from Entrepreneur magazine and VistaPrint.

The result: "The new logo features neatly stacked books and a friendly cat, uses warm colors, and has a polished, stylish look. Book Lovers Bookstore is written in a fun and funky script that is easy to read, and by separating the name of the store and the tag line, the print portion of the made-over image can be scaled differently to work in a variety of formats while remaining perfectly legible." Check it out on the Web.

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On the occasion of her 85th birthday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer profiles Jane Kessler, who upon her retirement in 1990 from the psychology department at Case Western Reserve University, bought Appletree Books in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. At her recent birthday party, Kessler said, "I'm going to be very short. This is absolutely my last birthday. I'm going to be 85 forever."

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This coming Saturday is the seventh annual Edible Books Festival, which "unites bibliophiles, book artists and food lovers to celebrate the ingestion of culture and its fulfilling nourishment. Participants create edible books that are exhibited, documented then consumed."

Here's how one store celebrates the day. The item, in its entirety, is from the Akron Beacon Journal:

"There is no entry fee, but it will cost $3 to taste and vote for your choice Saturday in the third annual Edible Books Festival sponsored by Loganberry Books and Strong Bindery, 13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights. Participants must create edible art that has something to do with books. Bookstore owner Harriett Logan fondly recalls the contestant who made a beer mug from a loaf of bread and tossed a wiener inside: Frank-in-stein!"

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Take a minute to read the Globe and Mail's theory that Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence spawned an annual flood of books with the word "year" in the title. Among the more recent ones: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks and The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg.

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The curriculum chosen for the college booksellers's day of programming on the Thursday before BEA, May 18, includes a literary luncheon and afternoon panels on graphic novels and manga's huge potential in bookstores, how to mine the backlist, the attraction of selling bargain books and more.

The luncheon features:
  • Mark Siegel, editorial director of First Second Books, which aims to bring together the best in graphic novels from around the world. Siegel is also a former designer at S&S Books for young readers and the illustrator of several picture books and upcoming graphic novels.
  • Michael Wex, author of From The Three Stooges to Seinfeld, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of its Moods and a major force in the current revival of Yiddish. Lecturing widely on Yiddish and Jewish culture, he lives and kvetches in Toronto.

For more information, see the National Association of College Stores's Web site. To register, contact Cindy Thompson at NACS.

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Borders Group will pay another quarterly dividend of 10 cents per share on April 26 to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 5.

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In a cover story, today's New York Times notes that at the racketeering and murder trial of two former police detectives in Brooklyn, both prosecutors and the defense regularly refer to Mafia Cop, the memoir by one of the defendants, Louis J. Eppolito. Originally published in 1992 and co-written with Bob Drury, the book is being reprinted April 26 (Pocket Star, $7.99, 1416517014). Depending on the verdict, the original subtitle, The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob, may be rubbed out.

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Some people whose stories are told in The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai by John Tayman (Scribner, $27.50, 074323300X) are objecting to the book about the onetime leper settlement in Hawaii and are being supported by other Hawaiians, including politicians and the National Park Service, which doesn't sell the book at its settlement bookstore, according to the New York Times.

Complaints range from the use of the name "colony" to describe the place, the cover photo (which depicts part of the Amalfi Coast in Italy), the use of the word leper and supposed inaccuracies. One of the detractors is working on her own book. Another said the story is too "deep and complex and tragic and difficult" to tell in 300 pages, if at all. The author had been praised by reviewers for aiming to maintain the dignity of the subjects of the book.

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In honor of the paperback Da Vinci Code explosion, starting tomorrow, we offer up Slate's decoding of Dan Brown's 69-page witness statement, filed with the court in the London plagiarism case against his publisher. Among the many interesting codas:

"Brown has done a lot of thinking about what makes a successful Dan Brown thriller. He has found that it requires a few essential elements: some kind of shadowy force, like a secret society or government agency; a 'big idea' that contains a moral 'grey area'; and a treasure. The treasures in Brown's four novels have been a meteorite, anti-matter, a gold ring, and the Holy Grail. The shadowy forces have included the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei, and the National Security Agency. The big idea, if I'm reading him correctly, goes something like this: Is the Vatican good . . . or is it evil? Is the National Security Agency for us . . . or is it against us? When all of Brown's elements come together, doled out over cliffhanging chapters, with characters that exist to 'move the plot along,' it is like mixing the ingredients to make a cake."



Oni Press: Night People by Barry Gifford and Chris Condon, illustrated by Brian Level, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Artyom Topilin and Marco Finnegan


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Dueling Terri Schiavo Books

This morning Good Morning America serves up Javier Sierra, author of The Secret Supper (Atria, $25.95, 0743287649).

Also on Good Morning America: Mary Schindler, author of A Life That Matters: The Legacy of Terri Schiavo--A Lesson For Us All (Warner, $23.95, 0446579874). The mother of Terri Schiavo, Schindler will be on GMA tomorrow, too.

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This morning on the Early Show, Deborah Tannen converses about her latest book, You're Wearing That?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation (Random House, $24.95, 1400062586).

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Today on the Today Show: Rachael Ray, author of bestselling Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats: A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (Clarkson Potter, $19.95, 1400082544). She makes repeat appearances on the show tomorrow and Wednesday.

Also this morning the Today Show is brightened by P. Allen Smith, author of P. Allen Smith's Colors for the Garden: Creating the Color Scheme for Your Garden (Clarkson Potter, $32.50, 1400053420). Smith returns tomorrow and Wednesday.

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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: Michael R. Gordon and retired General Bernard E. Trainor, authors of Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (Pantheon, $27.95, 0375422625). The authors, respectively the New York Times's chief military correspondent and a military columnist for the Times and NBC, also teamed up on 1994's The Generals' War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf, about the first Gulf War. Gordon also appears tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Also on Diane Rehm today: Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, authors of the new book, Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics (Chelsea Green, $25, 1931498997).

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This evening on Larry King Live: Michael Schiavo, whose book Terri: The Truth (Dutton, $24.95, 0525949461), appears today.

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Tonight's lineup on the Late Show with David Letterman includes Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance William, San Francisco Chronicle reporters and authors of Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports (Gotham, $26, 1592401996).


NYU Advanced Publishing Institute: Register today!


Books & Authors

Awards: The Lukas Prizes; Man Stands by its Booker

Emily Post and the Rise of Practical Feminism by Laura Claridge, to be published by Random House, has won the $30,000 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, the New York Times reported.

In other Lukas Prize Project awards, all of which honor nonfiction:

Megan Marshall won the $10,000 Mark Lynton History Prize for The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (Houghton Mifflin).

Nate Blakeslee has won the $10,000 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for Tulia: Race, Cocaine and Corruption in a Small Texas Town (PublicAffairs).

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After reconsidering its support for the Man Booker Prize, the Man Group will continue to sponsor the prize for at least five years, supporting it to the tune of £1 million a year, the Telegraph reported. It also will continue to sponsor the Man International Book Prize, awarded every other year.



Attainment: New Books Next Week, Vol. 1

New fiction appearing next Tuesday, April 4:

Shiver by Lisa Jackson (Kensington, $19.95, 075821393X). In a tale set in pre-Hurrican Katrina New Orleans, the bestselling thriller writer in mass market makes her hardcover debut.

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Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark (S&S, $25.95, 0743264908). The master returns to the child-napping territory of her original title, Where Are the Children?

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Challenger Park by Stephen Harrigan (Knopf, $24.95, 0375412050). The author of The Gates of the Alamo rockets into outer space.

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Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer (St. Martin's, $24.95, 0312348126). The first joint work by the romance writer and the thriller writer results in romance and thrills.

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Hey, Good Looking by Fern Michaels (Pocket, $25, 0743477421). Another heartwarming tale from the bestselling author.


Book Sense: May We Recommend

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

Hardcover

Nam-a-Rama by Phillip Jennings (Forge, $24.95, 0765311208). "A completely ribald and hilarious look at the makings of a war from the inside out. Who could not be fascinated by a 'CIA Pizza Delivery Person to the White House'? Written by an ex-marine, this novel packs a huge punch of satire and fun!"--Diane Gressman, Books & Company, Oconomowoc, Wis.

And She Was: A Novel by Cindy Dyson (Morrow, $24.95, 0060597704). "Two story lines--one, a centuries-old Aleutian native secret passed down from woman to woman, the other of a contemporary young woman from the Lower 48--converge in the remote fishing village of Dutch Harbor. Asides, like a brief history of graffiti, make it entertaining; Dyson's consideration of the deepest moral questions makes it compelling."--Russ Lawrence, Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, Mont.

Paperback

Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales From a Bad Neighborhood by Hollis Gillespie (Regan Books, $13.95, 0060561998). "The, ahem, title comes from an incident in which Hollis Gillespie was yelled at by a potential neighbor while house hunting in a bad neighborhood. Which is essentially what the book is about: the search for a safe haven in what passes for the ongoing storm otherwise known as Gillespie's life. This writing comes straight from the heart."--Gina Webb, Tall Tales Book Shop, Atlanta, Ga.

For Ages 9 to 12

The Giants and the Joneses by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Greg Swearingen (Holt Books for Young Readers, $14.95, 0805078053). "The author of The Gruffalo brings her flair for storytelling to an older audience with this exciting tale about giants who have become afraid of humans since their last encounter with Jack (who climbed up the beanstalk into their land)."--Laura Spies, Inkwood Books, Tampa, Fla.

The Girl with the Broken Wing
by Heather Dyer (Chicken House/Scholastic, $15.99, 0439748275). "When twins, a boy and a girl, discover a girl dressed in white stranded on their rooftop, they don't know what to think. She acts nothing like an angel, but how could a human have wings? Dyer writes with easy grace, which can be a feat for younger readers, and her style and ideas charmed me immediately."--Sarah Todd, Children's Book World, Haverford, Pa.

[Many thanks to Book Sense and the ABA!]



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