Shelf Awareness for Thursday, July 12, 2007


Workman Publishing:  Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders by Cara Giaimo and Joshua Foer

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

Simon & Schuster: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

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

News

Notes: Faulks Writes Bond; Changes at Ingram; Hammer

Faulks. Sebastian Faulks. 

The Ian Fleming estate has confirmed that Sebastian Faulks, whose books include Birdsong, Charlotte Gray and Engleby, will accept the career-defying assignment of writing the next James Bond novel.

According to the London Guardian, "The book, Devil May Care, will be published next May and is set in 1967, when, Faulks said yesterday, 'Bond is damaged, ageing and in a sense it is the return of the gunfighter for one last heroic mission.' His own interpretation of the spy, he hinted, would show all the caddishness of Bond's previous incarnations, tempered with just a shade of new-mannish sensitivity.'"

The article included an amusing postscript, in which John Crace imagines how a Faulks version of Bond might read. Sample: "For now he had an appointment with M to discuss his new role as the unreliable narrator."

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Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants "has muscled its way to being a big paperback read this summer," despite competition from two Oprah picks, according to a New York Times piece examining the surprising bestseller status of this "darling of the independent bookseller circuit."

Published by Algonquin, Water for Elephants has been a word-of mouth hit and a Book Sense bestseller, but the Times noted that its continuing success "is helping Spiegel & Grau, the author's new publisher, rationalize its decision in November to pay more than $5 million for Ms. Gruen's next two books."

"It seems to have a whole new life in paperback," said Linda Ramsdell, owner of the Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, Vt.

Algonquin publisher Elisabeth Scharlatt told the Times she "was happy for Ms. Gruen. But she added: 'All publishers think that they can make a best seller happen, but we don't hear about the ones that don't work.'"

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Just as Barry Bonds* closes in on Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record, Borders released yesterday the second title in its new proprietary publishing program: The Hammer, a collection of Sports Illustrated columns chronicling Aaron's career, which culminated in breaking Babe Ruth's home-run record. With an introduction by Tom Verducci, the book includes pieces by George Plimpton, Ron Fimrite and Mike Capuzzo. The Hammer retails for $14.95, appears under the State Street Press imprint and is available only in Borders and Walden stores.

The first Borders proprietary literary property was the thriller Slip & Fall by Nick Santora, released a month ago, which has appeared on Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe bestseller lists and was named a top summer read by USA Today.

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An official British racism watchdog group has recommended that bookshops across the U.K. ban copies of a comic book depicting the adventures of fictional Belgian hero Tintin in the Congo. According to Reuters (via the Washington Post), "Britain's Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) recommended that Tintin in the Congo be removed from shelves after it received a complaint from a member of the public who had seen it in a branch of the Borders chain of book stores." In response, Borders has decided to move the title to its adult sections from its children's sections, according to today's New York Times.

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Ingram Publisher Services has made a series of changes for its sales force:

Art Carson, formerly Ingram's region field sales representative for Northern California, will join the higher education team as an account manager responsible for sales to colleges and universities.

Sandy Hernandez, who has 17 years experience in the book industry, including management and buying at Rizzoli Bookstores, Store of Knowledge and Chronicle Books, is the new special sales manager.

Elizabeth Silvis, a senior marketing manager at HarperCollins since July 2006, succeeds Hernandez as Ingram's Southwest Region field sales representative, covering Southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Hawaii.

Chris Hocking, who has been with Borders since 1987, first as an assistant store manager and most recently as a buyer, will join Ingram as a national accounts manager responsible for sales with the Borders Group.

Julia Cowlishaw, former general manager of Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, Mich., is Ingram's new Northern California Region field sales representative, covering Northern California, northern Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming.

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Adding approximately 100 new words to the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, which will be published this fall, may not be a ginormous feat, but it's always a noteworthy one. Among the words making the cut this time are crunk, telenovelas, smackdown, Bollywood, sudoku and IED. M-W offers a sampling, with definitions at its website.

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"Bookstore still motoring" was the headline in the Los Angeles Times business section report on the sale by Chet Knox of his bookstore, Autobooks-Aerobooks, Burbank, Calif., to Chuck Forward, an aerospace hydraulics engineer, and Tina Van Curen, a former racer whose father built hot rods.

Since 1951, Autobooks-Aerobooks has sold an array of "books, models and memorabilia geared to enthusiasts of cars and plane." Among its clientele are Nicolas Cage, Tim Allen and Jay Leno.

"When you come from a small town like I did, the bookstore is always a great gathering place," said Leno, who has been a customer for more than 25 years. "So I try to do what I can to encourage it. It's the only bookstore where every single book is something I'm interested in."


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


Scholarship to Honor Bookseller-Writer

Readers may remember a story here in March about the death of Nicholas Pekearo, a writer whose first novel will be published next year by Tor and a bookseller at Crawford Doyle Booksellers in New York City who was killed with his partner while working as an auxiliary police officer (Shelf Awareness, March 16, 2007).

In memory of Pekearo, his girlfriend, Christina Honeycutt, his teacher Shirly Ariker and Thomas Talbot of Crawford Doyle have established a scholarship at Empire State College that will be used to benefit New York City area students who are studying creative writing. The three hope to raise a minimum of $25,000 to maintain the scholarship in perpetuity and invite booksellers and publishers to make contributions. (A similar scholarship has been established at New York University for Pekearo's partner, Eugene Marshalik.)

The scholarship founders noted, "We knew Nick in different ways--as a best friend and life partner, as a student and gifted writer, and as a colleague at Crawford Doyle Booksellers for the past five years. To us all Nick brought humor and kindness and a willingness to take on anything.
 
"Writing was Nick's ultimate expression and his most cherished ambition. The characters in his novels are heroic; his works reveal his intelligence, sensitivity, and compassion.  Some of his inspiration came from his years of reading and collecting comic books. He was especially drawn to heroes who, unlike Superman, were vulnerable, but still risked themselves in order to help others. Nick was such a hero."

After the shootings, committed by a deranged man who had just murdered a restaurant worker, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "The fact that more lives were not lost is due in no small measure to auxiliary officers Pekearo and Marshalik who tried valiantly to observe his actions, his changing locations as he fled the murder scene."

Contributions to the Nicholas Pekearo Scholarship are tax-deductible and may be made to:
The Empire State College Foundation
Alumni House
28 Union Avenue
Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 12866

Raymond Brownell, executive director of the Empire State College Foundation, may be reached at 1-800-847-3000, ext. 2248, or by e-mail at raymond.brownell@esc.edu.  

 


NYU Advanced Publishing Institute: Early bird pricing through Oct. 13


G.L.O.W. - Galley Love of the Week
Be the first to have an advance copy!
The Queen of Fives
by Alex Hay
GLOW: Graydon House: The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay

Quinn le Blanc, "the Queen of Fives," is the latest in a dynasty of London con artists. In August 1898, she resolves to pose as a debutante and marry a duke for his fortune. According to the dynasty's century-old Rulebook, reeling in a mark takes just five days. But Quinn hasn't reckoned with the duke's equally shrewd stepmother and sister. Like his Caledonia Novel Award-winning debut, The Housekeepers, Alex Hay's second book is a stylish, cheeky historical romp featuring strong female characters. Graydon House senior editor Melanie Fried says his work bears the "twisty intrigue of a mystery" but is "elevated [by] wickedly clever high-concept premises and explorations of class, social status, gender, and power." The Queen of Fives is a treat for fans of Anthony Horowitz, Sarah Penner, and Downton Abbey. --Rebecca Foster

(Graydon House/HarperCollins, $28.99 hardcover, 9781525809859, January 21, 2025)

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#ShelfGLOW
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Media and Movies

Media Heat: The Political Brain

This morning on Fox & Friends: Joan Weiskopf, author of Pet Food Nation: The Smart, Easy, and Healthy Way to Feed Your Pet Now (Collins, $15.95, 9780061455001/0061455008).

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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Kiran Desai, author of The Inheritance of Loss (Grove, $14, 9780802142818/0802142818). As the show put it: "Booker Prize-winner Kiran Desai says she prefers 'messiness' to perfection--it's more human, and it fits her subject better. Her subject, she says, is ancient: the immigrant experience as it transforms over generations."

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Drew Westen, author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (PublicAffairs, $26.95, 9781586484255/1586484257).

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Today on NPR's All Things Considered: Stephen L. Carter, author of The Emperor of Ocean Park whose new book is New England White (Knopf, $26.95, 9780375413629/0375413626).

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Tonight on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Bill Engvall, member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, will discuss his new book, Just a Guy: Notes from a Blue Collar Life (St. Martin's, $19.95, 9780312362676/0312362676).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a repeat featuring Steve Vogel, military reporter for the Washington Post and author of The Pentagon: A History (Random House, $32.95, 9781400063031/1400063035).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report, a repeat of an episode featuring Tom Blanton, author of How to Read a Secret Document: From Spy Photos and Wiretaps to Offshore Balance Sheets (New Press, $23.95, 9781565849013/1565849019), who talked about the CIA's "family jewels" report, declassified several weeks ago.

 


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This Weekend on Book TV: Legacy of Ashes

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend.

For more information, go to Book TV's website, BookTV.org, which has been redesigned with a number of enhancements, including an extended video archive, improved navigation and more detailed program/schedule information. The site also features brief interviews with local authors, recorded on the Book TV Bus at festivals and industry events. Program durations are now listed for TiVo or DVR users.

Saturday, July 14

12 p.m. Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur: How the Democratization of the Digital World Is Assaulting Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our Values (Currency, $22.95, 9780385520805/0385520808), debates Lev Grossman of Time magazine regarding the value of the "democratization" of digital media. Jeff Howe, Wired magazine contributing editor, moderates. (Re-airs Monday, July 16, at 5 a.m.)

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment first aired in 1990, Jim Mann, author of Beijing Jeep: The Short, Unhappy Romance of American Business in China, explained the differences in business goals between the U.S. and China during a joint venture, beginning in 1979, to produce the Jeep. An updated edition of the book, Beijing Jeep: A Case Study of American Business in China (Westview, $43, 9780813333274/081333327X), was published in 1997.

7 p.m. In an event held at the New York Public Library, Vanity Fair contributing editors Elissa Schappell and Leslie Bennetts debate the premise of Bennetts's new book, The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? (Voice, $24.95, 9781401303068/1401303064). Bennetts asserts that women cannot afford to quit their jobs to be stay-at-home moms, because becoming financially dependent on their husbands makes them vulnerable to economic hardship.

9 p.m. After Words: Washington Post columnist David Ignatius interviews Tim Weiner, New York Times reporter and author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385514453/038551445X). Using research that included more than 50,000 documents and interviews with 10 CIA directors, Weiner analyzed the inherent difficulties in maintaining classified information in an open democracy. He argues that the CIA has consistently struggled in the field of espionage. (Re-airs Sunday, July 15, at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

10 p.m. Garrison Keillor discusses the importance of public libraries at the 2007 American Library Association Conference in Washington, D.C.

Sunday, July 15

7 p.m. Matthew Chapman, author of 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania (Collins, $25.95, 9780061179457/0061179450), talks about the Kitzmiller v. Dover Board of Education case, which dealt with the teaching of intelligent design in public schools.

8 p.m. Trial lawyer and legal commentator Martin Garbus, author of The Next 25 Years: The New Supreme Court and What It Means for Americans (Seven Stories,$21, 9781583227329/1583227326), talks with the ACLU about the direction of the Supreme Court since the confirmation of Justices John Roberts and Sam Alito.

10 p.m. Writing Life. Columnist Robert Novak, author of The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington (Crown Forum, $29.95, 9781400051991/1400051991), describes his writing habits and discusses books that have been influential in his life. (Re-airs Monday, July 16, at 12 a.m.)

10:40 p.m. ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, author of In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror (Morrow, $24.95, 9780061142567/0061142565), argues that American civil liberties are being violated, highlighting cases that range from the Defense Department's domestic spy program to the rights of detainees labeled "terrorists."

 


Books & Authors

Book Brahmins: Thomas Perry

Thomas Perry is the author of 14 novels, including Edgar-winning The Butcher's Boy and its sequel, Sleeping Dogs; the New York Times Notable Book Metzger's Dog; the five-volume Jane Whitefield series and Death Benefits, Pursuit and Nightlife.  His new book, published by Harcourt this month, is Silence ($25, 9780151012893/015101289X). Here Perry answers questions we pose occasionally to people in the industry.

On your nightstand now:
 
Camping with the Prince and Other Tales of Science in Africa by Thomas A. Bass
 
Your favorite book when you were a child:
 
Quest of the Snow Leopard by Roy Chapman Andrews
 
Top five authors:
 
Faulkner, Austen, Conrad, Melville, Hawthorne
 
Book you've "faked" reading:
 
I only commit crimes when I won't be caught, although I'm often tempted to commit this one. I almost never read books in the mystery/thriller genre unless somebody asks me to. Writers are all mimics, and I don't want to find myself imitating anybody. When I meet other suspense writers, I often have to confess that I haven't read their work. This policy has accustomed me to enduring long silences while smiling apologetically.    
 
Book you are an evangelist for:
 
At the moment it's Red Leaves by Thomas Cook, which I read a few weeks ago.
 
Book you've bought for the cover:
 
Probably all of them, without being conscious of it. A book needs to attract my attention among 200,000 others in a large store. But I often read in public places, so it can't have a picture on the jacket of a woman without hers.
 
Book that changed your life:
 
Recently I finished Adrienne Hall's A Journey North, a book about hiking the Appalachian trail. It persuaded me that I've taken enough long walks in snowy places.
 
Favorite line from a book:
 
"She bestowed plump pears and bright, shamefaced peaches."--Joyce's Ulysses.  I have no excuse for this choice.
 
Book you would like to read again for the first time:
 
Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day



Book Review

Children's Review: First the Egg

First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook Press, $14.99 Hardcover, 9781596432727, September 2007)

With generously applied, textured brushstrokes and the die-cut format she employed to such strong effect in books such as Black? White! Day? Night!, Seeger poses an age-old question for youngest book-lovers: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Initially, the answer may seem simple: "First the egg." The opening spread conveys the word "First" against a buttery yellow backdrop while opposite, on a thickly painted landscape of earth-toned burnt orange and brown, the text "the EGG" appears above an oval-shaped die-cut opening, completed with layered, cream-colored paint. With a turn of the page, the same oval opening in the page now lays against that buttery yellow backdrop to form the body of a chick ("then," the text reads), while, across the book's gutter, "the CHICKEN" (cream-colored) struts off stage right. The examples that follow take incidents of metamorphosis from nature. For "First/ the TADPOLE/ then/ the FROG," for instance, the nubby green skin of the frog doubles as the surface of the squiggly die-cut tadpole; part of a butterfly's wing fills in the cut-out form of a caterpillar. Even the "or" in "story" completes the die-cut opening in "word" ("First/ the word/ then/ the story"). Seeger brings readers full circle when she rounds up all the creatures she has highlighted, then turns the tables with the closing line, "First the CHICKEN/ then/ the EGG!" (Even the dust jacket plays into the joke: a die-cut egg-shaped oval in the jacket teases to the cream-colored chicken preprinted on the cover.) For youngsters just learning about the cycle of life, this book offers an up-close, witty look at nature.--Jennifer M. Brown

 


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