Shelf Awareness for Thursday, May 22, 2008


William Morrow & Company: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Del Rey Books: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

Peachtree Teen: Romantic YA Novels Coming Soon From Peachtree Teen!

Watkins Publishing: She Fights Back: Using Self-Defence Psychology to Reclaim Your Power by Joanna Ziobronowicz

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

News

Powell's Third 'Out of the Book' Film: State by State

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, which is scheduled to be published by Ecco September 16, will be the subject of the third Out of the Book film made by Powell's Books and screened nationwide in partnership with independent booksellers in as many as 100 cities and towns.  
    
State by State features original writing by 50 prominent authors and artists. Each contributor addresses one state, including Sarah Vowell on Montana, Alexander Payne on Nebraska and Jonathan Franzen on New York. Also contributing are Louise Erdrich, S.E. Hinton, Dave Eggers, John Hodgman, Susan Orlean, Joshua Ferris and Alison Bechdel.

Approximately 10 of the book's contributors will star in Out of the Book, Volume 3: State by State, which will be shot in early June and premiere August 24 at the Bookmark Festival in Nantucket, Mass., where a full day of discussions and events will be dedicated to the book and film.

Edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, the State by State collection resurrects an effort from the 1930s, when the WPA's Federal Writers' Project commissioned writers to describe their states.

"We're so excited to be working with Sean and Matt," said Out of the Book's creator Dave Weich. "It's a dream project. In the weeks before a momentous election, the book and film will give people a way to talk about the country that's free of political jargon and media spin."

Powell's president Michael Powell added, "We believe that independent business fosters independent thought. Nothing could please us more than to see communities come together in independent bookstores to share their ideas about what this country is today and what it still can be."

The first Out of the Book film, Ian McEwan: On Chesil Beach, played in 54 cities. Its follow-up, David Halberstam: The Coldest Winter, screened in more than 60.

 


Now Streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME: A Gentleman in Moscow


Notes: Bookstore Name Game; 'New' Harry Potter

A bookstore by any other name? The Chronicle-Telegram reported that when Deborah Born was considering a name for her new bookstore in Amherst, Ohio, she wanted something that would attract attention.

"Debbie's Bookstore wasn't going to make it," she said.

The solution--Roxy's Reads & Remnants--came from an unusual source. Her husband, an Army Reserve veteran, had to create a cover story for security reasons while serving in Iraq.

"We came from Reno and his wife is an ex-Vegas showgirl named Roxy," said Born. "I knew that was the name for the shop."

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SoBo Book & Bean, South Berwick, Maine, will re-open under new ownership during the first week of June. Marie MacDonald has taken over the business from Amy Miller.

"I've been a book person from childhood," said MacDonald, "but I think one of the things that sets apart an independent bookstore is its role in the community; a large chain may be able to provide a glossier setting, less threadbare easy chairs, and big-budget authors, but at the end of the day, it's still run by a corporation based somewhere else. That corporation is always going to be more concerned about big-budget thresholds, and not so much about whether dollars are put back into the local economy or whether your child really loved the book we recommended. This isn't just selling books or coffee--it's really community-building, and I'm proud to be part of that."

SoBo Book & Bean is located at 241 Main Street, South Berwick, Me. 03908; 207-384-8300; info@sobobooks.com; sobobooks.com.

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A special 10th anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will be published by Scholastic Sept. 23. The Pioneer Press noted that the $30 book "will feature exclusive bonus material from J.K. Rowling as well as new cover and inside art by Mary GrandPre, the former Minnesotan who is the illustrator for the U.S. editions of the Potter books."

GrandPre told the Pioneer Press that she was pleased to have a chance to redo the cover, which now will depict "11-year-old Harry looking into the Mirror of Erised, which he comes across in his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry--the mirror shows you what you most desire."

GrandPre added, "It's a real treat for me to get another chance to visually bring Harry back to his fans in not only a new scene, but in a new light. . . . Going back to draw the first cover for the anniversary edition was an opportunity for me to show another side of Harry . . . a vulnerable side. Having come to know and love Harry the way we all have, after experiencing the whole series, I think we can appreciate him even more on an emotional level."

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Commencement addresses may seem like limitless variations on a theme of "As you go forth into the world today . . . ," but the New Yorker magazine's Book Bench blog found something newsworthy in the tradition. Considering how challenging a great commencement address must be to write, only a handful of professional writers were included among the 541 names on a list of 2008 graduation speakers compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

As something of a consolation, however, the piece noted that, "if true success is measured in how much tickets for these events go for on the black market, we have faith that the writers will emerge victorious, thanks, in large part, to J. K. Rowling, who is slated to speak at Harvard's ceremony. So far, the highest price being offered on Craigslist is a hundred dollars, but there are still two weeks to go."

Other authors with commencement gigs include Charles Simic (Bucknell), Tony Kushner (SUNY-Purchase), Mary Gordon (SUNY-Albany) and Anna Quindlen (Kenyon College).

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The Book Bench also linked to an article posted at KOAA-TV, Colorado Springs, Colo., which reported on the commencement address given earlier this week at Colorado College by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

"The commencement address is also an open invitation to pretend to know more than you do, specifically, how in the world you got to the point in life where you are seriously considered as a commencement speaker," Collins said, then quoted Salvador Dali as he advised the graduates to live for the moment.

"Dali once said, 'every morning I awake to a supreme pleasure, that of being Salvador Dali.' I want to wish each of you graduates hoping that you will awake every morning to the supreme pleasure of being yourself."

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Unable to resist running the headline "Surrealist Manifesto sold for real money," the Guardian reported that "a selection of [André Breton's] personal effects have been sold at auction in Paris for a total of €3.6m (US$5.7m)."

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A "literary cultural exchange" between the U.S. and Egypt has been announced by the National Endowment for the Arts, in association with the U.S. State Department.

According to the Guardian, "the Big Read Egypt/U.S. will involve reciprocal promotions of three celebrated American writers in Egypt, and just the one Egyptian writer in the States. Naguib Mahfouz's The Thief and the Dogs will be America's reading book, while Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath will be the focus of reading groups and other events in Cairo and Alexandria. In America, parallel events will take place in New York, Miami, Huntsville, Alabama and Brookings, South Dakota. The events will take place in both countries between this September and June 2009."

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This may be a world in which interest in reading and books is declining, but don't tell that to William Gilmore, who was honored by San Diego State University recently. The Union-Tribune reported that Gilmore, who celebrated his 100th birthday recently with classmates at the college, "drives from his La Mesa condominium to attend classes at SDSU's Extended Studies Center, where he has taken more than 30 courses."

 


GLOW: Greystone Books: brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni Coe, illustrated by Reuben Coe


BEA in L.A.: Picks of the Panels

Here are more interesting BEA panels, all of which concern understanding and serving different types of readers:

Raising Dangerous Boys and Daring Girls: Children, Literature, and the Green Movement, Friday, May 30, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Booksellers and authors discuss how books and bookstores can be natural resources for reconnecting children with nature. Moderator is the irrepressible Collette Morgan, owner of Wild Rumpus Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minn. Panelists are Jessica Woods, children's manager, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt.; Chris Morrow, general manager, Northshire Bookstore; Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods; T.A. Barron, Audubon Medal-recipient and author of The Great Tree of Avalon.

The Gen Z Reader: Understanding the New Reader of the Post-Electronic Age
, Saturday, May 31, 4:30-5:30 p.m. This panel will focus on trends in the teen and early adult marketplace and talk about what the future reader looks like, and what, where and how they are "reading." Moderator is Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children. Panelists are Tim Ditlow, publisher, Brilliance Audio; Charlie Schroder, v-p, marketing and development, Candlewick Press; David Levithan, editorial director, Scholastic; Lisi Harrison, author of the Clique novels; and Anastasia Goodstein, founder and editor-in-chief, Ypulse.

Steal This Book! Selling and Promoting Literature on the Edge
, Friday, May 30, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. This panel will discuss approaches and strategies for booksellers to cultivate cutting-edge authors and to reach elusive 20-something readers. The moderator is Carrie Kania, senior v-p and publisher of Harper Perennial. Panelists are Tony O'Neill, author of Down and Out on Murder Mile; David Wright, librarian, Seattle Public Library; Kevin Sampsell of Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., and editor and publisher of Future Tense Press; James Fitzgerald, agent, James Fitzgerald Agency.

Serial Offenders: Why Jewish Americans Love Books, Buy Books and Read More Books Than Practically Anyone Else on the Planet--How to Get Them Into Your Store (or Make them Your Customers), Today!, Friday, May 30, 9:30-10:30 a.m. The Jewish Book Council will lead a discussion on creating buzz around books of Jewish interest and turning that buzz into book sales.

 


BINC: Apply Now to The Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers!


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Lolita Effect & Stolen Innocence

Today on the Fox Morning Show with Mike and Juliet: M. Gigi Durham, author of The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization Young Girls and What We Can Do About It (Overlook, $24.95, 9781590200636/1590200632).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Elissa Wall, author of Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs (Morrow, $25.95, 9780061628016/0061628018). She appears tonight on 20/20, too.

Also on GMA: Mario Batali, author of Italian Grill (Ecco, $29.95, 9780061450976/0061450979).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: David Benioff, author of City of Thieves (Viking, $24.95, 9780670018703/0670018708).

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Tomorrow on Ellen: Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, authors of Skinny Bitch (Running Press, $13.95, 9780762424931/0762424931) and Skinny Bitch in the Kitch (Running Press, $14.95, 9780762431069/0762431067).

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Tomorrow on the Martha Stewart Show: Kit Hinrichs, co-author of 100 American Flags (Ten Speed, $19.95, 9781580089203/1580089208), which will be unfurled in July, and Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag ($60, 9781580082402/1580082408). Audience members will receive copies of Long May She Wave.

 


This Weekend on Book TV: The Great Derangement

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.

Saturday, May 24

4:30 p.m. For an event hosted by Square Books, Oxford, Miss., Charles Cobb, author of On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail (Algonquin, $18.95, 9781565124394/1565124391), presents a history and guide to many of the historic sites of the civil rights movement. (Re-airs Saturday, May 31, at 2:15 p.m. and Sunday, June 1, at 2 a.m.)
   
6 p.m. Encore Book Notes. For a segment first aired in 1989, Robin Wright, author of In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade, suggested that Iranian society was not as closed as believed and that many of the Ayatollah's actions were designed to divert attention from internal social and economic problems.

8 p.m. Robert Creamer, author of Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight!--How Progressives Can Win (Seven Locks Press, $23.95, 9780979585296/0979585295), offers strategies for creating a progressive movement. (Re-airs Sunday at 2 a.m.)

9 p.m. William Safire, author of Safire's Political Dictionary (Oxford University Press, $22.95, 9780195340617/0195340612), presents his updated political dictionary. (Re-airs Sunday at 1 a.m., 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.)

10 p.m. After Words. For an event hosted by Politics and Prose bookstore, Washington D.C., David Corn, Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine, interviews Matt Taibbi, author of The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, & Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire (Spiegel & Grau, $24, 9780385520348/0385520344). Taibbi explores the political landscape of post-9/11 America. (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., Monday at 12 a.m. and Sunday, June 1, at 10:30 a.m.)

Sunday, May 25

7:30 p.m. Oliver North, author of American Heroes: In the Fight against Radical Islam (B&H Books, $22.99, 9780805447118/0805447113), talks about the U.S. troops that are fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Philippines. (Re-airs Monday at 1:30 a.m.)

 


Books & Authors

Children's Book Review: Mail Harry to the Moon!

Mail Harry to the Moon! by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Michael Emberley (Little, Brown, $15.99, 9780316153768/0316153761, ages 4-8 , June)

The "new baby" predicament from an older sibling's perspective has rarely been as humorously explored as it is here, with Harris's light touch and Emberley's portraits of the curly-topped narrator and his bald-headed nemesis. Author and artist, the seasoned collaborators of such candid titles about babies and bodies as It's Not the Stork! and It's So Amazing!, have a gift for getting at the heart of a matter--and pulling no punches. "Before Harry was born,/ there was ME!" the book begins. The text appears beneath a snapshot of the young narrator holding a gift of a prize rocket-ship toy, a bow still tied around it. "Now there's me./ And Harry." A trio of photos feature baby Harry with his older brother relegated to the background or cropped mostly out of the picture, that same rocket-ship toy looking much smaller against the boy's growing frame. Emberley outlines the brothers in black crayon with a watercolor wash, creating cartoonish figures with realistic emotions. A series of transgressions follow ("Before Harry,/ nobody took a bite of my banana"), and the narrator suggests increasingly more severe punishments ("Throw Harry in the Trash!" appears in type that occupies an entire page as he imagines Harry's beady little eyes barely clearing the opening in the trash can). The most poignant pair of spreads features the narrator on his Grandma's ample lap, their embrace so enveloping that it extends beyond the page limits; in the next image, Harry occupies that precious space. The small type in the older sibling's thought balloon registers his feelings of defeat: "Put Harry Back Inside Mommy." It's Harry's nonstop wailing that elicits the title response, but when the narrator wakes to silence, his greatest fear is that one of his wishes has actually come true. Might Harry really be on the moon? His anxious expressions resemble a parent's response as much as a child's. Even though the ending will come as no surprise to seasoned readers, it will bring a sigh of relief to youngsters, and the intergalactic journey there will delight even the most rebellious older sibling.--Jennifer M. Brown



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