Shelf Awareness for Wednesday, April 22, 2009


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

Quotation of the Day

Indies Now: The 'Literary Version of Bread and Circuses'?

"Usually, if I choose the store over the online purchase, it's because I have a second motive--something beyond the quick, easy transaction. Even the very best and most creative booksellers face a huge hurdle if each customer must be lured in via the literary version of bread and circuses. . . . I like the idea of supporting local businesses, but in practice, I do so mainly when those local businesses are well and interestingly enough run that they bring me in on the merits. They can be more expensive than the bargain basements of the web--but not wildly so. And there has to be value added in exchange for those modestly higher prices. Is that too high a bar to set for businesses run by our neighbors and friends?"--Marc Fisher in the Washington Post

 


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


Letters

Past Pulitzers: Not Gone, Not Forgotten

Two notes about All Things Considered's list of "forgotten" Pulitzer fiction winners, mentioned here yesterday.

From Chris Kerr of Parson Weems:

James Alan McPherson's short story collection Hue and Cry was an important book for me when I first read it in the 1970s. To say he's forgotten is curious at best. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in the early '80s, was anointed by Updike in one of the Best Short Stories collections in this decade, I think, and has taught widely. I've run into lots of folks who've studied with him and are very fond of him.

And Sharon Ross of Loyola Press wrote:

I just wanted to let you know the 1962 winner of the Pulitzer The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor is still available and selling well. It is one of the books in our Loyola Classics series.

 


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


News

Notes: Anderson's Hosts Forum; Paperbacks Make News

Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, Ill., hosted a freedom of speech forum Monday that had been sparked by recent cancellations of events featuring controversial author Bill Ayers (Shelf Awareness, April 20, 2009).

The Chicago Daily Herald reported that "almost all who voiced their opinion were in agreement that Ayers should have been allowed to speak." Bookshop co-owner Becky Anderson was hoping for "civil discourse" at the event, which included a panel discussion and opportunity for public input.

"I don't care whether it's the neo-Nazis or Bill Ayers or Obama or whoever," said Raye Isenberg. "Everyone has the right to invite whomever they want. . . . This is a public school education. We're paying for our students to be educated and that's being infringed upon."

V.K. Moktan, a high school student, said, "I do not support Bill Ayers, (or) what he did in the past, and I wanted to go and personally debate with him what he did in the past and I was amazed they canceled this."

Gary Bolt, deputy chief of police, observed that both the school district and Anderson's had tough decisions to make and chose the safer course of action: "Do we expose ourselves to potential danger? If something had happened, what would this crowd now be saying to (Superintendent Alan) Dr. Leis?"

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Random House has moved up publication date for the paperback edition of Pulitzer prize-winner American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham, which took the biography award. The hardcover was published last November, and the paperback will be released at the end of April with a 200,000-copy first printing. Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer for fiction, is already available in paperback with more than 100,000 copies in print.  

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Tough times don't last; tough paperbacks do. USA Today reported that trade paperbacks may be a "smarter business model during tough economic times, according to those who sell books or publish them," and cited as an example Something Missing by Matthew Dicks, a debut novel scheduled to be released in July as a paperback original.

"Ultimately, I realized that I really want as many people to read the book as possible," said Dicks.

Publishers continue to debate the paperback original question. "If we want to appeal to a twentysomething audience, we have to do it at an affordable price," said Carrie Kania of HarperPerennial. "And a trade paperback is the price of a new CD."

"There is an openness among authors and among publishers and agents that trade paperback is a viable original format for a book," added Beth de Guzman of Grand Central.

Elaine Petrocelli of Book Passage, Corte Madera, Calif., observed that paperbacks "make perfect sense for books that publishers are hoping will grab the attention of book clubs." Book Passage plans to promote several paperback originals this summer, including Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie, Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy and Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti.

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To encourage more booksellers to read e-galleys, Unbridled Books and NetGalley are sponsoring a contest offering Sony Readers to the three booksellers who craft the best handselling pitches for Emily St. John Mandel's debut novel, Last Night in Montreal, which will be published June 2. Unbridled Books will choose the winners of the contest, which ends June 1. 

Booksellers in the U.S. interested in entering the contest can download a galley of Last Night in Montreal at NetGalley, then e-mail Unbridled Books sales director Steven Wallace with their handselling pitch, identification and the contest indicated in the subject line.

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"If you build the iPhone applications, will they come?" asked GalleyCat, then answered the question by citing an O'Reilly Radar report that found "Book applications in the Apple App Store have increased nearly 280% over the last twelve weeks.. . . . In early April, nearly 11% of all apps added to the iPhone application store were included in the Books category."

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What book should Venezuelan President Chavez have given President Obama at the Summit of the Americas last weekend? The Washington Post asked five Latin American writers to recommend a title they would prefer the U.S. president read instead of Eduardo Galeano's The Open Veins of Latin America.

Their recommendations:

  • 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolaño--Paula Escobar, magazines editor of the Chilean daily El Mercurio.
  • The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States by Carlos Rangel-- Moisés Naím, Venezuelan editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy.
  • The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry--Ariel Dorfman, Chilean playwright.
  • Man of Glory: Simon Bolivar by Thomas Rourke--Marie Arana, Peruvian novelist and former editor of the Washington Post Book World.
  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz--Edmundo Paz Soldán, Bolivian novelist.

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Obituary note: Deborah Digges, "a renowned poet and memoirist whose work often sprang from private adversity," died April 10 in an apparent suicide, according to the New York Times. She was 59.

In her Times obituary, Digges's work was praised "for its penetrating observations and lyrical voice . . . informed by her memories of a Missouri girlhood in a family of 12; her experiences as a young wife and her later struggles with a troubled teenage son; the dissolution of two marriages; and the illness and death of her third husband. But though much of her work was rooted in loss, it was also shot through with sly, trenchant humor and a sustained, fervent passion for the natural world."

 


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


Image of the Day: All in a Lovely Day

On April 15, at the behest of Andy Weiner, West Coast and national account rep for Harry N. Abrams, eight Washington booksellers went to Olympia to lunch and visit with Nikki McClure, creator of a self-published calendar that became the source for Abrams's book Collect Raindrops. Just this year Abrams Books for Young Readers published All in a Day written by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by McClure, which is now a New York Times bestseller.

From Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, University Bookstore in Seattle, the Secret Garden in Ballard and Elliott Bay in Seattle, the booksellers saw a demonstration of how McClure does her art: first she draws an image, then, through a process using graphite rubbing and tracing, cuts the image out with an X-acto knife. The result is a delicate, beautiful three-dimensional work of art.

McClure also signed books and talked about her next project from Abrams Books for Young Readers, a picture book about a young boy's eagerness for summer to arrive. Buyolympia, the distributor of much her merchandise, gave out goodie bags. The group also saw an exhibition at a local coffee shop of the original paper-cut artwork from All in a Day.

 



Media and Movies

Media Heat: Dread

Today on Writer's Roundtable on SignOn Radio: David Benioff, whose City of Thieves (Plume, $15, 9780452295292/0452295297) is now out in paperback.

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This morning on Good Morning America: Scott Palmer, author of First Comes Love, Then Comes Money: A Couple's Guide to Financial Communication (HarperOne, $14.99, 9780061649912/0061649910).

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This morning on the Today Show: Scott Uehlein, author of Canyon Ranch: Nourish: Indulgently Healthy Cuisine (Studio, $40, 9780670020737/0670020737).

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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Joanna Scott, author of Follow Me (Little, Brown, $24.99, 9780316051651/0316051659). As the show put it, "It has been said that life is like a river, and the river in this novel twists and turns, changes direction and may even be inhabited by river fairies. How, then, can a granddaughter tell truth from fiction in her grandmother's constantly twisting life--and how does the reader know which is more real, life or the stories we tell about it?"

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Tori Murden McClure, author of A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean (Collins, $25.99, 9780061718861/0061718866).

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Today on CNN's House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Rupert Isaacson, author of The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son (Little, Brown, $24.99, 9780316008235/0316008230).

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Today on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me: Monica Seles, author of Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self (Avery, $26, 9781583333303/1583333304).

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Featured today on ABC Primetime Special: Michael Gates Gill, author of How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else (Gotham, $13, 9781592404049/1592404049).

Also featured: Michael J. Fox, author of Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (Hyperion, $25.99, 9781401303389/1401303382).

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Today on Fox's Hannity Show: Charles Grodin, author of How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am (Springboard Press, $24.99, 9780446519403/0446519405).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Philip Alcabes, author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu (PublicAffairs, $26.95, 9781586486181/1586486187).

 


Movies: The Lost Symbol; Moneyball

Even as Columbia Pictures prepares for the May 15 release of Angels and Demons, the studio "will move quickly on the third pic in the franchise," Dan Brown's much anticipated The Lost Symbol, according to Variety, which reported that "Sony has the rights to the Robert Langdon character, which gives the studio the right to negotiate a deal for the new title. The studio will be bullish. The Da Vinci Code grossed $758 million worldwide in 2006, and Columbia has high hopes for the sequel produced by Imagine topper Brian Grazer and John Calley. Brown is exec producer."

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Comedy Central regular Demetri Martin has been added to the cast of Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, Variety reported. The Steven Soderbergh-directed movie is an adaptation Michael Lewis's book about Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics general manager who tried to field a competitive baseball team on a slim payroll. The cast will also include former players David Justice, Scott Hatteberg, Daryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra. Shooting begins in June.

 


Books & Authors

Awards: Cape Cod Norman Mailer Award

Salvatore Scibona's debut novel, The End, won the first Cape Cod Norman Mailer Award, sponsored by the Norman Mailer Writers Colony and The Provincetown Arts Press. The award will be presented to Scribona on June 6 during a cocktail reception at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 

 


Book Review

Book Review: Bad Mother

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace by Ayelet Waldman (Doubleday Books, $24.95 Hardcover, 9780385527934, May 2009)


 
In 2005, novelist Ayelet Waldman published an essay in the New York Times in which she stated that she loved her husband more than her four children. This set off a firestorm among many mothers that culminated with her being pilloried on Oprah. These 18 linked essays are a response (though in no way an apology) to that wave of vitriol, which Waldman admits still rankles.
 
Raised in New Jersey in the 1970s by a mother who regretted trading her own career for the sake of her children, Waldman grew up determined to have both. Fortunate enough to marry a man (author Michael Chabon) who not only shared this philosophy but relished the prospect of becoming a stay-at-home husband and father, Waldman embarked on a law career--and motherhood. But having it all--an idyllic marriage, exciting career and beautiful babies--turned out to be a more complicated and less fulfilling prospect than Waldman had imagined. After quitting her job to spend more time with her children, she found herself going numb with boredom at home, her dissatisfaction deepening until she began writing and finally managed to strike a balance between motherhood and work.
 
This dilemma--the challenge of being a "good" mother without sacrificing one's self--is at the core of Waldman's book. Her position--that loving one's children does not necessitate being in love with them or that occasional yelling, impatience or non-organic snacks do not constitute child-abuse--is delivered bluntly and with some defensiveness but rings with truth. As she describes her own sexual experiences, her initial jealousy of her mother-in-law and copious details of breastfeeding, Waldman can be almost aggressive in her honesty. Some pieces also seem to court controversy by their very inclusion, such as the unsettling but deeply moving essay where she recounts aborting a fetus after tests confirmed a genetic abnormality. But there is no denying Waldman's courage. It takes guts to challenge so openly what have become impossible standards of motherly perfection (Waldman's note-perfect description of "attachment parenting" confirms these) and lay oneself open for that most elemental of judgments, the label of bad mother. It also takes a good deal of chutzpah (in the good sense) to admit one's mistakes without apologizing for them. Whether or not one agrees with Waldman's choices, her style of parenting or her opinions, she earns respect for all of them here. One other thing is clear at the end of these well-written and economical essays: Waldman's deep love and devotion to her children. She is, one might say, a good mother.--Debra Ginsberg

Shelf Talker
: Novelist, wife and mother of four, Ayelet Waldman discusses what it means to be a good--or bad--mother in a society bent on judging women for their maternal failings.

 


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