Shelf Awareness for Monday, May 14, 2007


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

News

Notes: Glass Less than Half Full; Oprah's Picador Pick

Bookstore sales in March were $998 million, down 4.1% from sales of $1.041 billion in March 2006, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales were $4.2 billion, down 4% from $4.4 billion.

By comparison, total retail sales rose 3.4% to $342,022 billion and 4% for the year to date. In addition, preliminary general sales results for April some of the worst declines ever recorded.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales.

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Oprah's next pick, #58, is a Picador fiction title. The paperback retails for $15. ISBNs are 9780312427733 and 0312427735. 

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In an exclusive publishing tale with a twist, S&S's Atria Books made a reservation with Ritz-Carlton to do a collection of short stories by some of its authors to be called Turndown Tales--the hotel chain would give the paperback free to customers for a month as part of its evening turndown service. But, according to today's New York Times, the first draft of the pillow-drop project was initially turned down by Ritz-Carlton because of "language issues" and "some racy content," as a hotel executive put it. Publisher Judith Curr told the Times she wouldn't tell the authors, who include Jodi Picoult, Susan Isaacs and John Connolly, to change storylines, but Atria and Ritz-Carlton did go through the collection story by story and came to an accord. "One of the things we're going to do is tone down some of the swearing--that made a huge difference for them." Previously scheduled for June, Turndown Tales will now appear on luxury hotel beds in late summer or early fall.

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On the occasion of the Best of the Blues awards, Seattle Times editorial columnist Lance Dickie gave an appreciation of two area locations that regularly host blues concerts, one of which is Third Place Books.

"On blues nights at Third Place, the eateries are humming, little kids are twirling and grownups are cruising for dance partners," he wrote. "A professional sound board and operator keep the music sweet. Family-friendly introduces whole new generations to the blues."

Wendy Manning, events manager, told him that musicians love the space, and for the audience, "we are what they are doing on Friday and Saturday nights."

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"What is important is to establish a strong base, to develop the readers' trust in this space as a cultural gathering point," said Karam Youssef, the owner and director of Al Kotob Khan bookshop in Cairo, Egypt. Al-Ahram Weekly profiled Youseff to celebrate the first birthday of her bookshop. 

Youssef's thoughts on the challenges and pleasures of indie bookselling resonate worldwide. "When people ask me how I evaluate the experience one year later," she said, "I proudly tell them that Kotobkhan is now like a child of mine. Money-wise, there is not much I have gained, but the love I got from readers who love my bookshop is invaluable."

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The "world's largest floating bookshop" docked over the weekend at Hakata port in the city of Fukuoka. According to the Japan Times, the "6,818-ton Doulos, the world's oldest ocean-going passenger vessel still in service . . . will be open to the public for 10 days."

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Courant events: 

A compelling, amazing Mother's Day story in Sunday's Hartford Courant highlighted the reunion of three women who had been born "in the same area of what had been Austria-Hungary," but were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp as teens. After being liberated by the Red Army, they lost contact with one another. Through an extraordinary series of coincidences, they were reunited last month--for the first time in more than half a century--by their three daughters, one of whom is Roxanne Coady, owner of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn.  

Imus update. The Hartford Courant's account of a Dierdre Imus (Green This!) booksigning in Madison last week read like a spy novel. We learned about a mysterious "stretch limo that had earlier delivered him, his wife and their entourage to the back door of RJ Julia Booksellers, which sponsored the program, although they then used an employee-only staircase to slip into bookstore owner Roxanne Coady's second-floor office without being seen."

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Le Bouquiniste, an open air used-book bazaar, has made its debut in Lafayette, La., and will add literary spice to ArtWalk, which the Daily Advertiser described as a "monthly walking tour of galleries, restaurants and clubs in downtown Lafayette."

 


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LongPen's Long Reach

In a belated note from the London Book Fair, we saw our first LongPen in action--and were more impressed than we thought possible, particularly considering some of the negative press the device received last year.

Invented by Margaret Atwood, the LongPen, now in its second iteration, allows authors to do signings long distance via the Internet and has a receiving kiosk that looks like a cross between a fancy ophthalmologist's machine, a sophisticated camera and a CAD/CAM. For now, the company has four kiosks of the second generation. The "author's end" is much smaller, "about the size of a bread box," as the company, called Unotchit, put it. (Atwood is chair of Unotchit.) At the London demonstration booth, the LongPen brilliantly reproduced everything from simple signatures to an intricate drawing that Atwood did. The "receiving" pen mimics the movements of the person on the sending end in an elegant, hypnotic way. It can sign books or pieces of paper with equal ease.

During the show, the LongPen was used for several long-distance signings, including (to London) Andrew Gross from New York, Dean Koontz from Newport Beach, Calif., Marilyn French from New York and Anita Shreve from Massachusetts as well as Mark Haddon from London to Random House offices in Toronto.

Via its built-in video conferencing screen, the machine allows people at either machine to communicate easily with one another. Although the pen can handle up to 60 signing an hour, readers find they have "more face time with the author" via Long Pen than at traditional signings, according to Bruce Walsh, v-p of marketing.

Unotchit has been speaking with several major bookstore chains in North America and the U.K. about using the machine. It also says that the LongPen can be used for "all kinds of celebrity signings" and could have a range of business applications.

Unotchit is even promoting the LongPen's environmental impact--based on the amount of carbon emissions saved when authors don't fly to an event.--John Mutter


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


Media and Movies

Media Heat: One Perfect Day and The 5-Point Plan

This morning the Today Show shapes up with Pamela Peeke, author of Fit to Live: The 5-Point Plan to be Lean, Strong, and Fearless for Life (Rodale, $26.95, 9781594866609/1594866600).

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Today Good Morning America commits to an appearance with Rebecca Mead, author of One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding (Penguin Press, $25.95, 9781594200885/1594200882).

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This morning on the Early Show, Elisa Strauss creates confections from The Confetti Cakes Cookbook: Spectacular Cookies, Cakes, and Cupcakes from New York City's Famed Bakery (Little, Brown, $29.99, 9780316113076/0316113077).

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This morning on Fox's Morning Show with Mike & Juliet: Dr. Keith Ablow, author of Living the Truth: Transform Your Life Through the Power of Insight and Honesty (Little, Brown, $25.99, 9780316017817/0316017817). He also appears this afternoon on CNN's Showbiz Tonight.

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Jim Crace, author of The Pesthouse (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $24.95, 9780385520751/0385520751).

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Today on All Things Considered: Liza Mundy on Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women, and the World (Knopf, $26.95, 9781400044283/1400044286).

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Today guest hosting on the View: Lee Woodruff, author with her husband, Bob Woodruff, of In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing (Random House, $25.95, 9781400066674/1400066670).

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Tonight on Hannity & Colmes: Newt Gingrich, whose latest offering, written with William R. Forstchen, is Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8 (Thomas Dunne Books, $25.95, 9780312363505/0312363508).

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Joan Didion and Vanessa Redgrave. Redgrave plays Didion in the Broadway adaptation of The Year of Magical Thinking (Vintage, $13.95, 9781400078431/1400078431).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Jeremy Paxman, author of On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families (PublicAffairs, $26.95, 9781586484910/1586484915).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: William Langewiesche, international correspondent for Vanity Fair whose new book is The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor (FSG, $22, 9780374106782/0374106789).


Books & Authors

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

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee (Warner, $24.99, 9780446581080/0446581089). "Casey Han is well aware of the expectations of her parents, first-generation Korean immigrants. She has the Princeton degree, the smarts, and the connections to secure the law degree they hope for. But Casey is set on finding her own answers. There are many story lines and remarkably limned characters in this engrossing and satisfying novel."--Betsey Detwiler, Buttonwood Books & Toys, Cohasset, Mass.

One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding by Rebecca Mead (Penguin, $24.95, 9781594200885/1594200882). "This insightful book is social commentary dressed in a wedding gown! Mead's witty expose of 'Bridezilla' and her wedding culture also shines a light on consumerism, loss of tradition, and how we all try to regain sentiment and romance against the odds."--Peggy Sands, Millrace Books, Farmington, Conn.

Paperback

The Motel Life: A Novel by Willy Vlautin (Harper Perennial, $13.95, 9780061171116/0061171115). "After reading this book, I'm not surprised that author Willy Vlautin is a musician and poet. His debut novel is bleak, sad, and beautiful. Brothers Frank and Jerry Lee are on the run after a hit-and-run accident, and their journey is full of sorrow and wrong turns. The Motel Life is a rare novel that is worth every word on the page."--Jason Kennedy, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop, Milwaukee, Wis.

For Ages 9 to 12

An Unlikely Friendship: A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley by Ann Rinaldi (Harcourt, $17, 9780152055974/0152055975). "On the night of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln called frantically for her dressmaker and confidant, Lizzie Keckley. In spite of their different backgrounds, these women--who had both endured painful tragedies--became the closest of friends. Who knew history could be this fascinating?"--Cathy Berner, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex.

[Many thanks to Book Sense and the ABA!]


Book Brahmins: Aryn Kyle

Aryn Kyle's debut novel, The God of Animals (Scribner, $25, 9781416533245/1416533249), is set on a horse ranch in Desert Valley, Colo., and is the story of a young girl struggling to figure out who she is and what she wants to be as well as her feelings about her family and friends. Here Kyle answers questions we occasionally put to people in the industry:



On nightstand now:

The Great Gatsby. I haven't read it since I was a sophomore in high school, and I was recently involved in a conversation about it with some friends. In order to keep up, I found myself referring to the movie, which struck me as just, well, wrong. I'm halfway finished now, and I carry it around with me, reading various lines aloud to people. Why in the world do they insist on wasting these books on high school students? Of course, there are probably plenty of people who were sophisticated readers at 15. But personally, I was much too focused on my complexion and my hair to really pick up on the nuances of great literature.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Anything by Judy Blume. I was a fanatic for her books. She had such a knack for understanding the world of children--the darkness, the humor.  My favorites were Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, Blubber and Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great.  
 
Top five authors:

Joy Williams, Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabokov, Alice Munro and Mark Twain

Book you've "faked" reading:

Ulysses by James Joyce. I read the first half of it, so technically, I'm only a half-faker. I took a class on it in grad school, and I tried to finish. Really, I did. But midway through, I gave up.  "Eh," I thought, "I've probably read enough to write a paper." Turned out, I had.

Please don't judge me.  
 
Book you are an "evangelist" for:

That Night
by Alice McDermott. Don't even get me started on how much I love that book. I'll never shut up.  

Book you've bought for the cover:

Wicked by Gregory Maguire. This was years ago, pre Broadway musical. I was about to go on a road trip with my family and was frantically scouring the bookstore for something to take with me. I'd always had a mild fascination with the Wicked Witch of the West. The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie as a child, but I'd sometimes wondered if the witch was slightly misunderstood. True, she was pretty nasty--setting the Scarecrow on fire, for instance, was just unnecessary. But her sister did get flattened by a house. People can do crazy things while they're grieving. Anyway, one look at the cover of that book and I was in love.

Book that changed your life:

The Book of Mormon.  

Just kidding.

It would probably have to be The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I was 14 when I read it, and when I was finished, I remember feeling like the world had somehow opened up, become larger and more complicated. It was the first book that really made me want to be a writer.  

Favorite line from a book:

"She had been having a rough time of it and thought about suicide sometimes, but suicide was so corny and you had to be careful in this milieu which was eleventh grade because two of her classmates had committed suicide the year before and between them they left twenty-four suicide notes and had become just a joke."--From the title story of Honored Guest by Joy Williams

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

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The first time I read it, I literally had to force myself through the first half. I was 17 and completely annoyed that I had been assigned a book about men and war. But suddenly, I crossed over the halfway point and I couldn't put it down, couldn't stop for food or sleep or conversation. At the end, I cried. Actually cried. I never would have picked up Catch-22 on my own, and even if I had, I never would have made it all the way through. So thank you, Mr. Levad, for making me read that book for AP English. I owe you.  



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