Shelf Awareness for Tuesday, November 6, 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: Bibliophile Turns Bookseller; Samurai Huggins

Michael Sharpe's Rare & Antiquarian Books, Pasadena, Calif., a recently opened bookshop, offers a glimpse into the soul of a bibliophile. The Whittier Daily News reported that Sharpe's personal library includes "works of science, philosophy, medicine, exploration, religion, literature and mathematics, all classified as being in superb condition and worth about $25 million."

Approximately 20% of that collection is now available for sale. "It was a little bit of a wrench," Sharpe said. "I decided to keep history and science over literature. I love them all, but it can take six to eight years to build up an inventory." Among the literary gems are an edition of Frankenstein for $18,500 and a copy of Jane Eyre for $125,000.

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Some lines from a full-page ad for the new Borat book from Flying Dolphin Press that appears in today's New York Times:

  • "2 BOOKS IN 1! (this intentional and NOT error of KAZAKH printings facility)."
  • Guide to delicious Americans food, including cake made of mashed cow, cheese (from cow) and small potato 'peanuts.'
  • Good price--less moneys than new wife!

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A rapidly expanding market for Spanish-language books and translated works has helped fuel increased business for South Florida's publishers and booksellers, according to the Miami Herald, which also noted that the 2007 Miami Book Fair International will host a one-day forum on the translation market for industry executives, international authors and editors.

''Miami is the biggest market for our books in the country and the area where we can find the most skilled professionals--editors, translators, sales people, all kinds of professionals, and everybody speaks Spanish,'' said Silvia Matute, director of the general books division for Santillana USA. ''Spanish as a language has become more acceptable and fashionable. It's cooler to speak two languages. That, and immigrants are keeping their language much more than 20 or so years ago. Immigrants have some pride in speaking Spanish, which results in more book sales in Spanish.''

Matute said that translations ''in both directions" have grown in recent years: "Top-selling translations can only help build the business overall. If The Secret becomes a bestseller and everyone is reading it in Spanish, they see the rest of the books in the store. It helps all of us.''

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Free Books! Jenny Hamilton and Emile Snyder, co-owners of the Rogue Book Exchange, Medford, Ore., were profiled by the Mail Tribune, which described the bookstore as a place "where the books are free and the store pays the rent with donations and by selling some of the donated books online."

Hamilton called the store "an idealistic vision" and said she hopes to  "help 'save the planet' by recycling the books many people might otherwise toss out."

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When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School edited by John McNally (Free Press, $15, 9781416532446/1416532447), a compilation of essays by writers about "their own awful teenage years," has been in effect banned at Cumberland High School in Rhode Island, the Pawtucket Times reported.

Several parents at a school committee meeting last week objected to profanity and descriptions of sexual acts with animals contained in Will Clarke's eight-page contribution to the book called "How to Kill a Boy That Nobody Likes," which a high school teacher had assigned students in her class. The school committee said that the story will not be assigned again.

The paper added: "The title of the story was also brought into question despite the fact it is in reference to the story's narrator, who tries to 'kill' his image or former unpopular self through campaigning for class office and, therefore, changing his social status within high school."

For its part, the publisher said that Clarke's story "offers the male perspective" of high school unpopularity and includes "an outrageously detailed list of people [that Clarke who calls himself the Will-tard] would eagerly disembowel if he happened upon them on the street today. But the Will-tard ultimately finds empowerment in the unlikely form of a book about subliminal advertising. When Will camouflages the word 'sex' in his campaign posters for school treasurer, he actually wins . . . and thus, the Will-tard is vanquished forever."

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On the Road off the shelf: the Miami Herald writes that "according to the Economist, On the Road [by Jack Kerouac] is one of the most shoplifted books in the English-speaking world."

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Tim Huggins, who founded Newtonville Books, Newton, Mass., in 1998 and sold it earlier this year (Shelf Awareness, February 6, 2007), has put out his shingle and is doing business consulting. Under the name Samurai for Hire, the venture is, he wrote, "my ongoing effort for discovering and nurturing passions in life while making significant contributions to people and organizations I admire. My goal is to use my experience and ingenuity as an entrepreneur and business owner to guide and counsel organizations and businesses.

"My strengths and focus are helping with strategic thinking for marketing and operating efforts, project management, financial analysis, projections, and improved financial and accounting systems. Over the past several months, I've worked on short term and larger, ongoing projects ranging from publishing, retail, nonprofit and fair trade."

The samurai may be reached at tim@samuraiforhire.net or 617-290-6619.

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Effective immediately, National Book Network is distributing:

  • Paradoxal Press, Redmond, Wash., which was founded in 2004 by Sebastien and Nicole St.-Laurent. The press publishes computer graphics, video game development and computer science titles.
  • Stardate Publishing, Carrolton, Tex., which publishes African-American books, including A Search of African American Life, Achievement and Culture, which chronicles the accomplishments, courage and struggles of African Americans during the past 500 years.
  • Black Widow Press, Boston, Mass., a publisher of poetry books whose authors have had an impact on the cultural, literary and artistic thought of the 20th and 21st centuries.
  • Don't Eat Any Bugs, Tehachapi, Calif., which publishes graphic novels and craft books by Ray Friesen, a cartoonist whose latest book is a humorous graphic novel entitled YARG! and Other Stories.
  • Garrett County Press, New Orleans, La., which publishes social science, humor, pop culture, fiction and nonfiction in partnership with New Mouth from the Dirty South. Its titles include Letters from New Orleans and The George W. Bush Coloring Book.

 


BINC: Your donation can help rebuild lives and businesses in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and beyond. Donate Today!


Rainy Day Lowers Boom on Author/Publisher Amazon Links

More on the news last Friday that BookSense.com links are being added to the websites of NPR and the New York Times as book purchasing options.

Roger Doeren, COO of Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., who lobbied extensively with the New York Times to add a BookSense.com hyperlink to its online bestseller lists, noted in a conversation with Shelf Awareness that the bookstore has an absolute policy on hyperlinks for its author events and mentions of authors.

The store will stage author appearances and list them online and in its weekly author events e-mail newsletter only if the authors and publishers involved have BookSense.com hyperlinks on their websites and e-mails. "If authors have only an Amazon.com hyperlink in their e-mails and websites," Doeren wrote, "we will inform them of their error and omission and their need to have a BookSense.com hyperlink in order for us to proceed with producing a Rainy Day Books author event." Compliance, he continued, is "100% effective." Rainy Day is well-known for its extensive author event program.

In addition, even in mentioning titles, Rainy Day will hyperlink from Rainy Day's website and its author events weekly e-mail newsletter to authors' websites only if the authors' websites hyperlink to BookSense.com.

Doeren explained: "Author event etiquette is that Amazon.com hyperlinks in publishers' and authors' e-mails, marketing, publicity and websites is immature, inappropriate, unacceptable and unwise. Independent booksellers must stand strong and together in promoting BookSense.com [and] make themselves known for the valuable service that we provide to book buyers at a fair price."

 


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


Pennie Picks Follett's World Without End

Costco book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello has chosen World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton, $35, 9780525950073/0525950079) as November's book pick. She has highlighted the title in the current issue of Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members.

Ianniciello wrote: "I am the first to admit that patience has never been one of my strong traits. However, some things are worth the wait. A good example is Ken Follett's new novel, World Without End, which is the sequel to his 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth.

"Set in the same town of Knightsbridge, England, this epic story takes place 200 years later. The extraordinary cast of characters find themselves examining their old ways while being exposed to new ideas about medicine, justice and architecture. It's captivating as a stand-alone or doubly enjoyable when read with its predecessor."

 


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Lou Dobbs's Independents Day

This morning on the Today Show: Nigella Lawson, author of Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast (Hyperion, $35, 9781401322434/1401322433). Lawson touts the tome on Today tomorrow, too!

Also on the Today Show: Caroline Kennedy, author of A Family Christmas (Hyperion, $26.95, 9781401322274/1401322271).

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This morning on Good Morning America: Lou Dobbs, author of Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit (Viking, $24.95, 9780670018369/0670018368). He will also appear tonight on Larry King Live and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Also on GMA: Rachael Ray, author of Rachael Ray: Just in Time: All-New 30-Minutes Meals, plus Super-Fast 15-Minute Meals and Slow It Down 60-Minute Meals (Clarkson Potter, $19.95, 9780307383181/0307383180).

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This morning on the Early Show: Sam Jones, whose new book is The Here and Now: The Photography of Sam Jones (HarperEntertainment, $39.95, 9780061348129/0061348120).

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Today on the View: Terri Irwin, author of Steve and Me: Life with the Crocodile Hunter (Simon Spotlight, $25.95, 9781416953883/1416953884).

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Today on the Ellen DeGeneres Show: Jenny McCarthy, author of Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism (Dutton, $23.95, 9780525950110/0525950117).

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Bill Richardson, author of Leading by Example: How We Can Inspire an Energy and Security Revolution (Wiley, $25.95, 9780470186374/0470186372).

 


Book and Movie Fans Adapt for the Holiday Season

Whether you love--or hate--seeing your favorite books adapted for the screen, this holiday season's multitude of literary offerings should give you plenty of opportunities to exercise your critical reactions.

USA Today offers an interactive holiday movie preview list, which includes a number of book-to-film adaptations, including No Country for Old Men (November 9), Love in the Time of Cholera (November 16), Beowulf (November 16), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (November 30), Atonement (December 7) and Charlie Wilson's War (December 25).

And, just in case you fear Hollywood has a dimly-literary soul, David Dobkin, director of the Christmas comedy Fred Claus (also opening November 9), said, "I know where I will be on that weekend: No Country for Old Men." 

 


Books & Authors

Awards: Goncourt, Renaudot

The Goncourt Prize, France's most prestigious literary award, has gone to Gilles Leroy for his novel Alabama Song, which "tells the tragic story of Zelda Fitzgerald in a series of first-person flashbacks," according to the Guardian.

Leroy told the press that he had not expected to win and was "still in my garden yesterday, planting trees, perhaps a way of thinking about something else."

The Renaudot Prize went to Daniel Pennac for his memoir, Chagrins d'École, which was even more of a surprise because it was not on the shortlist.

 


Attainment: New Books Out Next Week

Selected titles appearing next Tuesday, November 13:

Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 3 by Terry Goodkind (Tor, $29.95, 9780765315236/0765315238) is the 11th and final entry in the Sword of Truth fantasy series.

Double Cross by James Patterson (Little, Brown, $27.99, 9780316015059/0316015059) is another Alex Cross novel. This time the detective must catch a serial killer who makes public spectacles out of his victims.

The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America's Future by Craig Unger (Scribner, $27, 9780743280754/074328075X) examines the causes and legacy of a disastrous presidency.

Reposition Yourself Reflections: Living a Life Without Limits
by T.D. Jakes (Atria, $17.95, 9781416547587/1416547584) provides a spiritual take on personal and financial success.

A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932
by John Richardson (Knopf, $40, 9780307266651/0307266656) is the third volume of Richardson's extensive biography of the artist.

Out in paperback:

The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2008 by World Almanac Books (World Almanac, $12.99, 9781600570728/1600570720).

Next by Michael Crichton (Harper, $9.99, 9780060873165/0060873167).

 



Book Review

Book Review: How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, $19.95 Hardcover, 9781596914698, October 2007)

[Editor's Note: This is our second, more traditional take on this delightful, thought-provoking book.] 



In the interest of full disclosure, I must begin this review with a confession: I have read every word of Pierre Bayard's provocative and charming book. Indeed, I've even underlined many of his epigrammatic sentences with a yellow highlighter. Thus, I've willfully chosen to ignore the admonition of Oscar Wilde, Bayard's ideal critic: "I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so."
 
Contrary to its attention-grabbing title, Bayard's slim book isn't a glib instruction manual aimed at philistines hungry for quick tips to impress their more literate friends at cocktail parties. Instead, it's a thoughtful, often humorous, meditation on the myriad ways in which we encounter the written word and how the process by which we interact with text not only shapes our perceptions of an author's work but also ultimately transforms our inner lives in a true act of creativity.
 
For readers of a more practical bent, Bayard, a French psychoanalyst and professor of literature, cheerfully offers nonreaders a useful taxonomy of books and a handy set of abbreviations to identify them: UB--unknown books; SB--skimmed books; HB--books you've heard of; and FB--books you've read and forgotten. Too bold to stop there, Bayard even assigns each "unread" book a rating using a + and – scoring system, for, he concludes, "there is, after all, no reason for me to refrain from passing judgment on whatever books I come across, even if I have never heard of them before."
 
Drawing examples from writers as well-known as Montaigne, Balzac and Graham Greene and as obscure as Natsume Soseki and Pierre Siniac (UBs to this reader and I suspect most others), he illustrates what he identifies as "ways of not reading," sketches the sometimes harrowing "literary confrontations" that may require one to talk about an unread book and concludes with an elegant description of the enlightened state of mind that must be cultivated to enable readers to speak with conviction about even the most abstruse work.
 
At a time when the National Endowment for the Arts reports that fewer than half of all Americans read anything even charitably defined as "literature," it hardly seems we need any encouragement not to read. In that respect, Bayard's book may strike some as a subversive, even dangerous, work. Still, I doubt avid readers--a category I trust describes most subscribers to this publication--are likely to forsake any time soon the elemental pleasure that attaches to the simple act of curling up with a good book.--Harvey Freedenberg

 


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