Shelf Awareness for Monday, November 12, 2018


Park Row: Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff

Tor Books: Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin

Zest Books:  A Deathly Compendium of Poisonous Plants: Wicked Weeds and Sinister Seeds by Rebecca E Hirsch

Palgrave Macmillan:  Scotus 2023: Major Decisions and Developments of the Us Supreme Court (2024) (1ST ed.) edited by Morgan Marietta and Howard Schweber

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

News

Barbara's Bookstore Adding Vernon Hills Store

Barbara's Bookstore, which operates several stores in and around Chicago, as well as one in Boston, plans to open "a new (and super) book store" at the Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills, Ill., "within the space formerly occupied by (arch nemesis) Barnes & Noble." On its website, Barbara's noted: "Look for the book store to open for business within days of Thanksgiving, just in time for the end-of-year holiday season. Oh, what fun!! Stayed tuned."

Sharing a photo last week of the new location on Facebook, the bookseller said, "Our new two-story bookstore at Hawthorn Mall is 25,000 square feet. Huge! But it means lots of room for great books and spaces. More pics to come."

On Friday, Barbara's added: "How to open a bookstore. We're 14 days away from opening. Thank goodness the bookcases have arrived! Take the journey with us to opening day."


Ivy Kids Eco: The Bison and the Butterfly: An Ecosystem Story by Alice Hemming, illustrated by Leschnikoff Nancy


Old Town Books Opening in Alexandria, Va.

Ally Kirkpatrick is opening a pop-up bookstore in Old Town Alexandria, in Alexandria, Va., on Saturday, November 24, for six months and hopes to find a full-time location thereafter, Alexandria Living magazine reported.

Old Town Books is a general-interest bookstore stocking "new releases, up-and-coming authors, and unique and interesting books," the magazine wrote. It will also emphasize "community engagement through book clubs, author events, writers groups, and workshops. Kirkpatrick said, "I want [Old Town Books] to be a connective fiber for the literary community."

The pop-up store will be in a 1790s warehouse building at 104 S. Union Street and is part of an Alexandria Economic Development Partnership program called Pop-Up ALX, which helps small businesses get started without having to sign a long-term lease.


Pajama Press:  Mystery at the Biltmore: The Vanderhoff Heist (Mystery at the Biltmore #1) by Colleen Nelson, Illustrated by Peggy Collins


Two Weeks Until Cider Monday

The Toadstool Bookshops, with stores in Keene, Milford and Peterborough, N.H., is holding the sixth annual celebration of Cider Monday on November 26, and is again encouraging other independent stores to join in.

Cider Monday is the bricks-and-mortar response to Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving when many people shop online. Cider Monday aims to be a day "when local indie stores offer a refuge from the frenzy and a reminder of the contributions a bricks and mortar store can make to your local community," Toadstool said. "Whether it is hardware, groceries, clothing, books, gifts or other items these stores are the places you encounter your neighbors and community members. As we mingle in these stores we share in our necessities and find commonalities in our lives that can truly help bind us together in a greater understanding and empathy for each other. Businesses celebrating Cider Monday offer a simple gesture--stop in and an enjoy a free cup of delicious wholesome cider and share a moment or two of reflection and thankfulness for all those who have deliberately chosen to keep some or all of their business local."

Last year, several communities got involved in a townwide celebration and invited shop-hopping cider fans to sample the ciders at the various independents in town. Stores from New England to Illinois and in Canada have participated.

For more information, click here or here or contact Willard Williams at the Toadstool Bookshop via e-mail or at 603-924-3543.


Disruption Books: Our Differences Make Us Stronger: How We Heal Together by La June Montgomery Tabron, illustrated by Temika Grooms


Arion Press Founder Retiring, Company for Sale

At Arion Press, the San Francisco fine letterpress printer and publisher, founder and publisher Andrew Hoyem and senior editor Diana Ketcham are retiring but will remain available for special projects.

Founded in 1974, Arion Press specializes in hand-crafted, limited edition books pairing literary texts with original art by prominent contemporary artists, publishing three to four books a year. Titles by such artists as William Kentridge, Jasper Johns, Wayne Thiebaud, Kara Walker, Richard Diebenkorn, Alex Katz, Jim Dine, Julie Mehretu, and Martin Puryear are collected by major museums and libraries and are recognized as among the great printed books of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Among its most admired books are a handset edition of Moby-Dick; Joyce's Ulysses illustrated by Robert Motherwell; a two-volume edition of Don Quixote; and a letterpress-printed, two-volume Folio Bible.

All elements of the book, except paper, are made at Arion. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has designated it one of "the nation's irreplaceable cultural treasures" under its Save America's Treasures program. The company is located in an industrial building in the Presidio.

Hoyem began his career as a fine printer in 1961, learning letterpress printing from the Grabhorn brothers.

Ketcham has served as program director of the Grabhorn Institute, in addition to her role as senior editor at Arion Press. She was also book editor of the Oakland Tribune from 1980 to 1994, has published several books and written on cultural subjects for such publications as ARTnews, the New York Times, the Nation and the New Republic.

With the retirement of Hoyem and Ketcham, owner Grabhorn Institute is putting the press and its parent company, Lyra Corp., up for sale. Potential investors/owners should contact Susan Reich at Book Advisors via e-mail or at 510-304-2627.


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Obituary Note: Juris Jurjevics

Juris Jurjevics

Juris Jurjevics, a founder of Soho Press and author, died on November 7. He was 75, the New York Times reported.

Born in Nazi-occupied Latvia in 1943, Jurjevics and his family lived in refugee camps in Germany until they immigrated to New York in 1950. His first job in publishing was at Harper & Row. He then became an editor at Avon Books and was later editor-in-chief of E.P. Dutton, where he published The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, and editor-in-chief of Dial Press, where he published James Baldwin's last novel, Just Above My Head.

In 1986, he, Laura Chapman Hruska and Alan Hruska founded Soho Press. At the time, he told the Times, "We want to publish the books that deserve to be published but that the bigger houses can't afford to do. Our ambitions are not to have a certain percentage of growth a year and not to be bought by anybody."

As the Times noted, Soho currently publishes about 90 books a year under the Soho Press, Soho Crime and Soho Teen imprints. Its authors have included Edwidge Danticat, whose Brother, I'm Dying won the National Book Critics Circle Award; the actor and director Stephen Fry; and the novelist and critic Dale Peck.

Jurjevics retired from Soho in 2006 to write full time. His first novel was The Trudeau Vector, "a thriller that focuses on an American epidemiologist who travels to northern Canada, near the Arctic, to determine why scientists at a research center have mysteriously died," the Times said. Red Flags drew on "his wartime experience in Vietnam, where an Army police officer finds himself in an American outpost seething with spies, South Vietnamese profiteers and battle-weary troops as Vietcong battalions prepare to descend from the hills."

Bronwen Hruska, who now runs Soho Press, offered a striking tribute to Jurjevics, which reads: "Juris Jurjevics is a legend in the publishing world. Full stop. When he started Soho Press with my parents, Laura and Alan Hruska, back in the mid-'80s, he had already made a name for himself as one of the best editors in the industry in New York. In those early days, he brought Soho true credibility, and with Laura, he went on to discover and edit exciting new voices including Edwidge Danticat, Jacqueline Winspear and Dan Fesperman.

"By the time I joined my mother at Soho in 2008, Juris had left to pursue writing full-time. But to this day, people still ask me about Juris at conferences and publishing events. Juris and Soho are forever fused. He may have left publishing in body, but his soul never really did. Over the years, we'd have lunch every six months or so, and he would come hungry for industry gossip. But without fail, he would have more of it than I did and would end up regaling me with stories past and present of publishing greats. Lunch with Juris never lasted less than three hours--the man knew how to tell a story, and he had so, so many good ones.

"After Laura passed away in 2010, Juris was my lifeline. He'd left Soho four years earlier, but it didn't change the fact that he was the remaining Soho brain trust. He knew the history. So when I'd receive a baffling letter or e-mail from an author, I'd call Juris and he'd direct me to the exact spot in the file cabinet where the necessary folder lived and talk me through the correspondence until everything made sense. He knew the legal issues, the ins and outs of ancient contracts, and the details of all the old editorial battles. In those first days--okay years--when I was running Soho, I relied on Juris, and he was always there for me. It was what allowed me to feel that I knew what the heck I was doing. Until slowly, slowly, I actually did.

"When I had finally finished my first book, Accelerated, my mother was too ill to read the manuscript. She said, 'Ask Juris to read it. And do whatever he says.' I did ask Juris, and he didn't hesitate to say yes. His notes were spot on. Okay, he was brutal as an editor--there is no sugarcoating it. But I appreciate his help more than I think he could have known, because on the flip side, when he said he liked your work, you knew he meant it. His notes made my book better, and I am forever grateful for that.

"Juris was generous with his time, his editorial help, and his stories. His delivery was quiet, gentle, and dry as a bone, and if you weren't paying attention you'd miss his devastatingly funny asides. This is why lunch lasted three hours--it was simply a joy to spend time with him.

"I will miss him deeply."


Notes

Image of the Day: Vroman's Walk of Fame

On Saturday, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif., inducted mystery writer, journalist and Pasadena local Naomi Hirahara into its Author Walk of Fame. Hirahara is the author of the Mas Arai mystery series; the first in the series, Summer of the Big Bachi, is being developed into an independent film. She is also the creator of the Officer Ellie Rush series and a new mystery set in Hawai'i that will be published in September 2019. Vroman's started the Author Walk of Fame in 2014 to honor authors that have a special connection to the bookstore and to the community. Hirahara's handprints and signature join those of fellow authors Luis Rodriguez, Michael Connelly and Lisa See. Pictured: Allison Hill, CEO and president of Vroman's; Robert Popoff Vroman's facilities/admin manager; Naomi Hirahara; Dolores Bauer, Vroman's operations manager.


Cool Idea of the Day: Riverrun Bookstore's Typewriters

"Businesses often diversify to stay competitive," SeacoastOnline.com noted in featuring Tom Holbrook of Riverrun Bookstore in Portsmouth, N.H., whose diversification strategy includes "typewriters sold, repaired and bought.... It's not a big part of the business--maybe 5% of annual revenues, according to Holbrook--but the typewriter display in the window often gets customers inside, something he discovered when he first offered them for sale about five years ago."

"I love the idea of something that works the way it was meant to work this many years later," he said. "Not only did they sell almost immediately, but they stopped people in their tracks walking by on the sidewalk. You could stand there and watch people just stop and look, and then they would come in the store. It was great advertising."

Holbrook, who has between 30 and 40 typewriters in his basement, sets aside a few hours each Friday for restorations: "I basically learned how to do half a dozen basic things--make sure the keys work, replace the carriage band. Because I'm either going to be able to fix a typewriter in an hour, or it's not going to be worth it. If I spend six hours on a machine and charge the person $200, we could have found another machine for the same price."

He added that the holiday season is still a big one for typewriters: "For Christmas I'm going to want to get as many in shape as possible because I sell five times more than the rest of the year. I will generally sell out every Christmas of manual typewriters."


What's in a Name?: The Barn Owl Books & Gifts

The latest subject of Bookselling This Week's "What's in a Name?" series is the Barn Owl Books & Gifts in McCall, Idaho, which opened last summer. "Owls have always been an important part of Amy Cooper’s life, so when she and her husband were generating names for their bookstore, owls kept coming to mind," BTW noted.

"The image of a barn owl kept coming up for me. I have always been drawn to owls and so had my mom," Cooper said. "As my husband, Mike, and I were readying the store to open last year, I was looking through some items I had inherited from my folks, but hadn't looked through since we moved. I unwrapped something wrapped in bath towels. It was a carved wooden barn owl that my dad had bought for my mom many years ago. It now sits in front of the cash wrap, greeting our customers."

Cooper has been able to incorporate her love of animals and wildlife into more than just the store’s selection: "This summer, we began a partnership with our local animal shelter, MCPAWS. We host an adoptable cat at the store until someone falls in love and adopts them. They get the run of the store and love hanging out on the sales floor. And the best part is we build a literary theme around each cat. We’ve helped find homes for 10 cats so far, including Hemingway, Pete the Cat, Grey Catsby, and our current feline guest, Professor Minerva McGonagall."

Cooper's official title is CEO--Chief Executive Owl. "Throughout much of my career, titles mattered. It reflected where you were in your career and your organization and I took them rather to heart," she said. "When I opened the Barn Owl, what mattered was that I was doing something I loved and it felt freeing to have some fun with my title."


Small Press United Distributing Black Spot Books

Small Press United, a division of Independent Publishers Group, has become the exclusive distributor for Black Spot Books in the U.S. and Canada.

Founded last year, Black Spot Books specializes in speculative fiction, ranging from urban fantasy to dystopian futures, historical fiction, and psychological thrillers. Upcoming titles include The Absolved by Matthew Binder; Apocalypse Five by Stacey Rourke, Black Spot Books's first YA SF title; and The Hungry Ghost by Dalena Storm. Among sequels are Soul Remains by Sam Hooker, part of the Terribly Serious Darkness series; and And Then There Were Dragons by Alcy Leyva, the second installment in the Shades of Hell Series (And Then There Were Crows).

Owner and publisher Lindy Ryan commented: "Our culture as a publisher is based on collaboration, both internally with our authors and team members, and with the industry at large. As we've solidified our place in the publishing community, our efforts have been guided by our passions as book lovers first and producers second. We've brought fresh new voices to market, published boundary-challenging fiction from new and emerging writers who have stories we believe in--and that's exactly what we will continue to do."


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Michelle Obama on Good Morning America

Today:
Fresh Air: Rob Dunn, author of Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live (Basic Books, $28, 9781541645769).

The View: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, author of Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote (Knopf, $18.99, 9780525579014).

The Talk: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, co-author of Mycroft and Sherlock (Titan Books, $25.99, 9781785659256).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: David Sedaris, author of Calypso (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316392389).

Fox's Page Six TV: Charlamagne Tha God, author of Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me (Touchstone, $26, 9781501193255).

NPR's Marketplace: Jan Schwochow and Thomas Ramge, authors of The Global Economy as You've Never Seen It: 99 Ingenious Infographics That Put It All Together (The Experiment, $35, 9781615195176). They will also appear on CNBC's Power Lunch.

Hallmark's Home & Family: Martina McBride, author of Martina's Kitchen Mix: My Recipe Playlist for Real Life (Oxmoor House, $30, 9780848757632).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Jeff Tweedy, author of Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. (Dutton, $28, 9781101985267).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Michelle Obama, author of Becoming (Crown, $32.50, 9781524763138).

Today Show: Squire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, authors of Godwink Christmas Stories: Discover the Most Wondrous Gifts of the Season (Howard, $19.99, 9781501199950).

Hallmark's Home & Family: Elizabeth Heiskell, author of The Southern Living Party Cookbook: A Modern Guide to Gathering (Oxmoor House, $35.00, 9780848756659).

Daily Show: Jenifer Lewis, author of The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir (Amistad, $15.99, 9780062410412).


TV: Plot Against America; Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

HBO has picked up The Plot Against America, a new David Simon/Ed Burns (The Wire, Generation Kill) project based on Philip Roth's 2004 novel, Deadline reported. The six-part miniseries comes from Annapurna Pictures and Joe Roth. Simon and Burns are writing and executive producing.

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ABC has given a script commitment with penalty to Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a drama series project based on writer and therapist Lori Gottlieb's upcoming memoir (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 2019), Deadline reported. The project is from Maggie Friedman (No Tomorrow), Eva Longoria and 20th Century Fox TV, where Longoria's UnbeliEVAble has a deal. In addition to writing the adaptation, Friedman executive produces with Longoria and Ben Spector via UnbeliEVAble, with Gottlieb serves as producer.



Books & Authors

Awards: PNBA Shortlist; Richell Winner

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Book Awards, selected by a committee of PNBA members. The six winners will be announced in early January. The shortlist:

Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell, illustrated by Corinna Luyken (Dial Books)
Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough (Dutton)
Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson (Basic Books)
A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America by Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller (Crown)
Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotton by Laura Veirs, illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (Chronicle Books)
Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow (Doubleday)
So Lucky by Nicola Griffith (FSG)
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (Seal Press)
Terrarium: New and Selected Stories by Valerie Trueblood (Counterpoint)
Vanishing Twins: A Marriage by Leah Dieterich (Soft Skull)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Knopf)
The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis (Balzer + Bray)

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Ruth McIver won the A$10,000 (about US$7,230) Richell Prize for Emerging Writers for the manuscript of her novel, I Shot the Devil. The award is a partnership between Guardian Australia, the Emerging Writers' Festival and Hachette Australia in memory of Matt Richell, the former Hachette Australia CEO who died in a surfing accident in 2014. In addition to the cash prize, McIver receives a mentorship with a Hachette publisher to help develop the work to publication.

The judges praised McIver's novel as "a dark and unforgettable literary noir" that showed "an emerging writer of considerable literary talent. Atmospheric and chillingly entertaining, this was a novel that every single judge wanted to read more of."


Book Review

Review: Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure

Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall (Penguin Books, $17 paperback, 416p., 9780143126706, November 20, 2018)

Ever been curious about the science behind James Bond's strict policy on the preparation of his martini? Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall has answers: "A study published by the British Medical Journal concluded that shaking a martini is more effective in activating antioxidants and deactivating hydrogen peroxide than stirring one--supposedly lessening a double-O agent's chances of getting cataracts, cardiovascular disease and hangovers." This is the kind of factoid that populates Bishop-Stall's Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure.

Bishop-Stall is no stranger to immersive journalism. For Down to This, he spent a year living undercover in a tent city with Toronto's homeless community. For that effort, he earned nominations for the 2005 Pearson Writers' Trust of Canada Non-Fiction Prize and City of Toronto Book Award, among others. But with Hungover, Bishop-Stall immerses himself in a different kind of near-universal issue: how to deal with the dreaded "morning after."

Fans of Mary Roach will delight in Bishop-Stall's similar knack for collecting stories and anecdotes from a quirky cast of experts, as well as his similar proclivity for fascinating tangents. For a taste of his wit, see chapter titles like "The Hungover Games" or "I Woke Up This Morning." He also incorporates images such as Peter Paul Rubens's baroque painting Drunken Silenus and contemporary German street artist Dennis Schuster's depictions of a kater ("tomcat," aka "hangover").

Hungover is a world tour of a party, with a raucous cast of winos and experts, figures cultural and political: "Shakespearean actors have vomited on stage. Boris Yeltsin was found early in the morning outside the White House, in his underwear, trying to hail a cab to get some pizza." Trivia-ready tales abound, like that of an unlikely star of the first-ever Super Bowl: Green Bay Packer Max McGee became legend when he was unexpectedly called from the bench and led the team to a win--despite his legendary hangover.

As for "cures," some will be well-known, like aspirin: "What a kiss is to love, a shroud is to death and a childhood bedroom is to coming home, Aspirin is to the hangover." Others might be less so, like "squeezing the wedge of a lime in one's armpit."

Reading Hungover is akin to watching The Hangover, a film Bishop-Stall mentions often. His sense of adventure and one-liners make for a similarly uproarious ride. His exploits are, not surprisingly, funnier observed than experienced. Bishop-Stall spent the better part of a decade on Hungover, and it shows; the work is expansive, beautifully wrought, occasionally sensitive and, at times, unwieldy. Yet it works. It's long, but it's an engaging journey that comes with the option to take a sip and a break instead of jumping in all the way. It might most responsibly be enjoyed with a tall glass of water, but, more fittingly, a martini--shaken. --Katie Weed, freelance writer and reviewer

Shelf Talker: Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall dives deep into a sea of whiskey (and most other drinks), exploring different cultures' searches for what, if anything, can cure a hangover.


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