Shelf Awareness for Thursday, December 5, 2024


Big City Press: Crude: Ukraine, Oil, and Nuclear War by Mike Bond

Quill Tree Books: Nimona: 10th Anniversary Limited Edition by ND Stevenson

Poisoned Pen Press: Death on the Island by Eliza Reid

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster: Daikon by Samuel Hawley

Andrews McMeel Publishing: Dear Moon: Inspiration from the Beautiful Wisdom of the Qur'an by Zayneb Haleem

St. Martin's Press: Greenwich by Kate Broad

 Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: The Wish Switch by Lynn Painter

Sourcebooks Casablanca: Sweet Obsession (Dark Olympus #8) by Katee Robert

Fair Winds Press (MA): Sacred Ceremony for a Sacred Earth: Indigenous Wisdom for Healing and Transformation by the Aniwa Council of Elders

News

Good on Paper Opens in Houston, Tex.

Good on Paper Books & Stationery opened last month at 250 W 19th St., Suite D, in Houston, Tex. Community Impact reported that the store, located in the historic 19th Street shopping area, "is a family-owned bookstore by Anna and Chris Henry that offers a wide selection of book titles and a curated stationery for all ages."

Anna Henry noted that when they first moved to the Heights, they noticed there wasn't a bookstore on 19th Street, which inspired them to open one.

"We really wanted to be as close to 19th Street as possible because there's so many awesome things that happen on 19th Street," she said. "We love that it is walkable and people can just walk by and we could be their neighborhood bookstore."

After the bookshop's November 1 grand opening, the owners posted on Instagram: "Thank you to everyone who showed up to our first days of being opened! We are so overjoyed with all of the love and support we have gotten from the community. We can't wait for another great day tomorrow!"


Wayne State University Press:  In the Bone-Cracking Cold (Made in Michigan Writers) by M Bartley Seigel


A Room of One's Own, Madison, Wis., Opens Events Space Next Door

A Room of One's Own, Madison, Wis., has opened the Reading Room, a new events space at 2713 Atwood Ave., next door to the bookstore. Co-owner Gretchen Treu told the Cap Times that the bookstore rented the space during the summer and began holding events there, but did not announce the addition until late last month.

"We're so excited for the Reading Room to be a community space featuring workshops, readings and book clubs," the store noted in its e-mail newsletter. 

The Reading Room, which can hold about as many people as the back room in the store where events were previously held, will eventually become the main venue for the bookstore's readings and talks.

"But it can be a little bit more of a cozy, intimate experience where people aren't trying to shop around the edges of the event like they have had to in the past," Treu said, adding that a second space will also permit the bookshop to host more events organized by community members, like poetry workshops or writing groups.

"That sort of thing has always been really awkward to try to do in the middle of a retail space," she added. Renting out the Reading Room for private events is also a possibility in the future.


Quirk Books: Zoomi and Zoe and the Tricky Turnaround (Zoomi and Zoe) by Corey Ann Haydu, illustrated by Anne Appert


HarperCollins Launching HarperPop Imprint

HarperCollins will launch HarperPop, a new imprint focused on licensed publications, popular culture, and trend-driven publishing, in winter 2025. 

The imprint will publish new and backlist titles for both children and adults. Brand partners include Dungeons & Dragons, The Elf on a Shelf, FGTeeV, My Little Pony, The Simpsons, Emily the Strange, Squishmallows, gaming company Bethesda, and more.

Dave Linker will serve as editorial director, with Erica Sussman, v-p and publisher at HarperCollins Children's Books, and Carrie Thornton, senior v-p and publisher of Dey Street Books, also overseeing the imprint.

"HarperCollins has long been a leader in developing bestselling books based on the hottest trends, brands, and influencers," said Liate Stehlik, president and publisher of the Morrow Group and HarperCollins Children's Books. "Consolidating the creative energy and marketing expertise of the Children's and Morrow teams in one place will help us better reach--and tap into the passions of--the readers who will devour these books and bring them to a wide and engaged audience."


Crown Publishing Group Acquires Compendium

The Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, has acquired Compendium, which publishes illustrated books, notecards, journals, and other print products.

Compendium will become part of Ten Speed Press, a CPG imprint focused on illustrated books, and its titles will be sold as a standalone imprint under Ten Speed Press. More than 40 new Compendium products are slated to be published in 2025.

Kobi Yamada, formerly Compendium's president and CEO, will remain as its president. Jim Darragh is now Compendium's senior v-p, finance and operations, while Renee Holmes, formerly Compendium's chief marketing officer, is now associate deputy publisher. Aaron Wehner, executive v-p and publisher of Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press, will become Compendium's publisher.

"Amazing things can happen with big dreams, lots of love and years of dedication and hard work," said Yamada. "We are so proud Compendium will be joining Penguin Random House as a new standalone imprint of Ten Speed Press within the Crown Publishing Group. We can't wait to see what inspiring possibilities we can imagine and create with the support and resources of the world's most iconic publisher."

"The spirit of creativity, wonder, and innovation that guides Compendium's approach to publishing is nothing short of inspiring," said David Drake, president of the Crown Publishing Group. "We're honored that Kobi and his team will now be joining the Crown Publishing Group to bring their distinctive program to an even wider audience. Compendium and Ten Speed Press in particular share an ethos and aesthetic that complement one another brilliantly and this partnership will open up many new and exciting creative possibilities."


Obituary Note: Chiung Yao

Chiung Yao, "arguably the world's most popular Chinese language romance novelist," died December 4, BBC reported. She was 86. Chiung Yao published more than 60 novels, many of which were adapted into movies and TV series. She was also a screenwriter and producer, but had not been active in recent years.

Her debut novel, Outside the Window, was inspired by her love story with her high school teacher and became very popular. Many of her works were adapted into TV dramas and films, including Outside the Window, The Young Ones, and My Fair Princess, "making her the most famous romance writer in the Chinese-speaking world from the 1970s-1990s," CNA noted. My Fair Princess launched the careers of Zhao Wei and Fan Bingbing, among others.

As news of her death spread, some of those performers shared their condolences. Taiwanese actor Alec Su, who portrayed Prince Yongqi in My Fair Princess, wrote on Weibo: "I feel fortunate to have portrayed a character from (Chiung Yao's) stories." Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming, who played Xiao Jian in My Fair Princess III, posted that the author's "works have illuminated the youth of generations, teaching us how to love, cherish, and face the challenges and difficulties in life."

Lin Peiyin, head of the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post that for a long time, scholars had labeled her works "escapist, overly melodramatic, and tear-jerkers," but her writing has continued to resonate with audiences and the sociological significance of the circulation and consumption of it has been recognized.

"Her penmanship was beautiful and glamorous," he added. "I certainly learned better Chinese reading her novels as a teenager growing up in Macau. But what made her so special was how her work straddled different media and generations." 


Notes

Happy 30th Birthday, Loganberry Books!

Congratulations to Loganberry Books, Shaker Heights, Ohio, which is marking its 30th anniversary this coming Saturday, December 7, with what it calls "a three-ring celebration" that will feature author signings, biblio talks, live music, and more.

Nine authors will do signings, and five discussions about books include "How to defend books & why," featuring Danny Caine, former co-owner of the Raven Book Store, Lawrence, Kan., who now works for the Institute of Self-Reliance in nearby Cleveland.

Other parts of the celebration include personalized poem writing, a "paper chain o' wishes," book recommendations from local literary experts, and "bibliophilia," which encompasses story times, bookish tarot readings, cake cutting, and more.


GMA's December Book Club Pick: The Last One

The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall (‎Entangled: Red Tower) is the GMA Book Club pick for December. Good Morning America called it "a thrilling and action-packed fantasy about a woman who wakes up in the woods and with no idea how she got there.

"Kai wakes in a desolate land, surrounded by sickness and monstrous beasts, with no memory of how she got there. Her only hope lies in reaching the Sea of Devour, but to do so, she reluctantly accepts the help of a skilled--and infuriating--village blacksmith."

Rachel Howzell Hall is a mystery, thriller, and fantasy author best known for her series featuring Detective Elouise Norton. She lives in Los Angeles.


Holiday Season Bookstore Tree: Blacksburg Books 

Blacksburg Books, Blacksburg, Va., shared a photo of the shop's creative holiday season tree on Facebook, noting: "We made flowers. Y'all made flowers. Y'all brought us flowers from bridal bouquets and baby showers and cozy evenings at home. And today our tree is up! Please stop by Kent Square to see to see our handiwork and vote for our tree--it's made with love and teamwork and we have the tear stains and hot glue scars to prove it."


Personnel Changes at Scholastic

At Scholastic:

Brianna Peterson, formerly trade marketing operations coordinator, has been promoted to senior marketing operations coordinator.

Chandler Rawson, formerly digital intern at PR by the Book, has joined Scholastic as field sales assistant.


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Caroline Crampton on Fresh Air

Today:
Fresh Air: Caroline Crampton, author of A Body Made of Glass: A Cultural History of Hypochondria (Ecco, $29.99, 9780063273900).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Bob Goff, author of Catching Whimsy: 365 Days of Possibility (Thomas Nelson, $22.99, 9781400226986).

Today Show: Clea Shearer, author of The Home Edit for Teens: How to Edit Your Space, Express Your Style, and Get Things Done! (Clarkson Potter, $19.99, 9780593712221).


This Weekend on Book TV: The Wisconsin Book Festival

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend 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.

Saturday, December 7
10:25 a.m. Debra Bruno, author of A Hudson Valley Reckoning: Discovering the Forgotten History of Slaveholding in My Dutch American Family (Three Hills, $32.95, 9781501776564), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. (Re-airs Saturday at 10:25 p.m.)

Sunday, December 8
9:15 a.m. Coverage of the 11th annual Kirkus Prize, given by Kirkus to authors of nonfiction, fiction, and young readers' books. (Re-airs Sunday at 9:15 p.m.)

10 a.m. T.J. English, author of The Last Kilo: Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire That Seduced America (Morrow, $32.50, 9780063265530). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

2 to 6:55 p.m. Coverage of the 2024 Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison, Wis. Highlights include:

  • 2 p.m. Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves.
  • 3 p.m. Mark Daley, author of Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family.
  • 3:56 p.m. Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz, author of The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America.
  • 4:55 p.m. Bill Adair, author of Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy.
  • 5:57 p.m. Barbara McQuade, author of Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America.

6:55 p.m. Nicole Gelinas, author of Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car (Empire State Editions, $44.95, 9781531508210).



Books & Authors

Awards: Joyce Carol Oates Longlist; Nero Book Shortlist

Some 32 authors have been longlisted for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which honors "a mid-career author of fiction in the midst of a burgeoning career, a distinguished writer who has emerged and is still emerging," and is sponsored by New Literary Project. The winner receives $50,000 and will have a week-long residency at the University of California, Berkeley. Finalists will be named in March, the winner in April. See the longlisted authors here.

---

A 16-title shortlist in four categories has been released for Nero Book Awards, which recognizes authors in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland and celebrates "the craft of great writing and the joy of reading, and point readers of all ages and interests in the direction of the most outstanding books and writers of the year." Check out the complete shortlist here.

Category winners (fiction, nonfiction, debut fiction, and children's) will be named January 14, and those selected as the overall winner--the Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year--will be announced March 5. Each of the category winners receives £5,000 (about $6,360), with the Book of the Year winner getting an additional £30,000 (about $38,160).


Attainment: New Titles Out Next Week

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, December 10:

Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive by Eliot Stein (St. Martin's Press, $29, 9781250281098) profiles 10 people safeguarding unusual cultural traditions.

Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical by Jennifer Love Hewitt (BenBella, $16.95, 9781637745953) is the actress's mix of memoir and holiday planning guide.

A Monsoon Rising: A Novel by Thea Guanzon (Harper Voyager, $32, 9780063277304) is book two in the romantic fantasy Hurricane Wars series.

What the Wife Knew: A Novel by Darby Kane (Morrow, $30, 9780063352001) is a domestic thriller about a wife who was trying and failing to murder her recently slain husband.

What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt by Hannah Arendt, translated by Samantha Rose Hill and Genese Grill (Liveright, $26.99, 9781324090526) brings the historian and philosopher's poetry to English for the first time.

If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer, collected by Yousef M. Aljamal (OR Books, $24.99, 9781682196212) contains writing from the late Palestinian poet and literature professor who was killed in Gaza last December.

The Rest Is Memory: A Novel by Lily Tuck (Liveright, $24.99, 9781324095729) follows a young Polish Catholic girl sent to Auschwitz.

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim (Norton, $31.99, 9781324086710) explores the colossal computer chip company and its founder.

The Tiger Slam: The Inside Story of the Greatest Golf Ever Played by Kevin Cook (Avid Reader Press, $30, 9781668043646) tracks a series of big golf wins by Tiger Woods in 2000-2001.

Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry (Harper, $32, 9780063336674) chronicles the Carolingian Civil War in Medieval Europe.

The Rules of Royalty by Cale Dietrich (Wednesday, $14, 9781250887771) is a queer spin on The Princess Diaries featuring princes from neighboring countries who fall in love.

Springtime Storks: A Migration Love Story by Carol Joy Munro, illus. by Chelsea O'Bryne (Minerva, $18.99, 9781662651212), is a nonfiction picture book about two mated white storks.

Paperbacks:
The French Winemaker's Daughter: A Novel by Loretta Ellsworth (Harper Paperbacks, $18.99, 9780063371811).

Not in My Book: A Novel by Katie Holt (Alcove Press, $19.99, 9781639109753).

No Ordinary Duchess: The Greycourt Series Book 3 by Elizabeth Hoyt (Forever, $9.99, 9781538763582).

The Beggar Student by Osamu Dazai, trans. by Sam Bett (New Directions, $12.95, 9780811238588

Composting Our Karma: Turning Confusion into Lessons for Awakening Our Innate Wisdom by Barbara Rhodes, edited by Elizabeth S.R. Goldstein (Shambhala, $19.95, 9781645472940).


IndieBound: Other Indie Favorites

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
Blood Over Bright Haven: A Novel by M.L. Wang (Del Rey, $29.99, 9780593873359). "An immersive fantasy with a lot to say. Wang crafts a fantastic magic system that sets the foundation for ethical questions and masterful framing of societal ills, all nestled within a plot that is beautifully complex, yet briskly paced." --Michaela Devine, Invitation Bookshop, Gig Harbor, Wash.

The Bloodless Princes by Charlotte Bond (Tordotcom, $20.99, 9781250290779). "The perfect follow up to The Fireborne Blade! The lore of Maddileh and Saralene runs even deeper than we previously knew. Just like last time the two prove that their names will be etched into the history books right alongside the lore." --Katherine Nazzaro, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass.

Paperback
The Hurricane Wars: A Novel by Thea Guanzon (Harper Voyager, $19.99, 9780063277250). "In this lush, romantic debut, two mortal enemies are forced into an arranged marriage to save their countries from each other and forces that threaten their world. I loved the intricate world, its politics, and the steamy romance!" --Haley Calvin, The Novel Neighbor, Webster Groves, Mo.

Ages 4-8
A Stickler Christmas by Lane Smith (Random House Studio, $18.99, 9780593815281). "Stickler knows just what to get everyone for Christmas: sticks! Each one is special, including Doug-the-Fir's stick, which Stickler supplements with his own version of holiday cheer. No previous Stickler introduction needed for this silly Christmas joy!" --Tildy Lutts, Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass.

Ages 10-14
Bye Forever, I Guess by Jodi Meadows (Holiday House, $18.99, 9780823456383). "Never want to say goodbye to Bye Forever, I Guess! The perfect middle grade novel about the changing nature of friendship, finding your fit while remaining true to yourself, and where to sit at lunch. Plus, a focus on nerdy girls rocks!" --Susan Williams, M. Judson Booksellers & Storytellers, Greenville, S.C.

Teen Readers
The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew (Joy Revolution, $19.99, 9780593710357). "Jill Tew's debut is everything readers have been waiting for. I was completely sucked in! With its swoony romance, twisty plot, and all the thrills, it's sure to make its way into the canon of YA dystopia." --Vania Stoyanova, Brave + Kind Bookshop, Decatur, Ga.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]


Book Review

Review: Israel Alone

Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy (Wicked Son, $18.99 paperback, 176p., 9798888457832, September 10, 2024)

French public intellectual and philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy made his first visit to Israel in 1967, the year of its triumph in the Six-Day War. On October 8, 2023, he returned to a very different country, one reeling in the wake of a terrorist attack that had killed more than 1,200 Israelis and others. In response, Lévy has written Israel Alone, a brief but eloquent defense of the Jewish state in the face of the war it has waged against Hamas, and an exploration of some of the roots of what, in truth, is a new, but painfully familiar, antipathy toward Israel and the Jewish people.

Lévy (The Genius of Judaism) dedicates his book to the 120 hostages remaining in Hamas custody at the time of its writing. From its opening pages, he looks without flinching at the reality of Hamas’s barbaric attack on October 7--one that involved unspeakable sexual violence and other atrocities against women and children--"a slaughter paired with a hostage taking whose scale, savagery, and implementation resembled nothing previously known."

But Lévy is quick to recognize that much of the world almost immediately moved on from the horror of what he calls a pogrom to unite in near universal condemnation of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza, a conflict he describes as a "horrific war that Israel did not want." As much as Israel seeks to eradicate Hamas as an act of self-defense, Lévy also sees that conflict as a manifestation of a larger one between the Global West and an axis comprising "Russia, China, the Iran of the ayatollahs, neo-Ottoman Turkey, and the Arab countries prone to jihadism," in which groups like Hamas and Hezbollah serve as proxies for these powers. And even as he embraces a two-state solution, Lévy also concisely rebuts what he calls the "traps of common sense," like the demand of "82 percent of the world's nations" for a "restraint that they have never expected from any other nation that has been similarly attacked and threatened with extinction."

Pointing to the "tempest of hatred for Jews without precedent since the Second World War" as the war in Gaza grinds on, Lévy reserves special condemnation for the presidents of elite universities who insisted on understanding calls for the eradication of Israel in "context." In the concluding section of his book, he rebuts the idea that Israel is a colonialist state, explaining its origins out of the ashes of the Holocaust and fiercely defending its legitimacy. With the benefit of time and distance, others will make a more thorough case for Israel's response to Hamas's attack, but it's unlikely any will do so with more fervor than Lévy does here. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Bernard-Henri Lévy offers a passionate defense of Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, and Israel's prosecution of its war against the terrorist group.


The Bestsellers

Libro.fm Bestsellers in November

The bestselling Libro.fm audiobooks at independent bookstores during November:

Fiction
1. James by Percival Everett (Penguin Random House Audio)
2. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Penguin Random House Audio)
3. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (HarperAudio)
4. The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (Macmillan Audio)
5. Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (Macmillan Audio)
6. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Simon & Schuster Audio)
7. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Penguin Random House Audio)
8. Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson (Macmillan Audio)
9. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Macmillan Audio)
10. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Macmillan Audio)

Nonfiction
1. Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (Penguin Random House Audio)
2. The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Simon & Schuster Audio)
3. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Tantor Media)
4. The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Penguin Random House Audio)
5. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (HarperAudio)
6. Cher by Cher (HarperAudio)
7. Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz (Simon & Schuster Audio)
8. Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Hachette Audio)
9. On Tyranny: Expanded Audio Edition by Timothy Snyder (Penguin Random House Audio)
10. The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon (Penguin Random House Audio)


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