Chick lit: entertainment? art? trash? a synthesis of feminist and
post-feminist thought? Many points of view were represented by members
of a panel on chick lit held at Women & Children First, Chicago,
Ill., and covered by the Columbia Chronicle.
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Yesterday's New York Times Book Review holiday books issue encompassed the following eclectic range of categories: houses and gardens, photography, exploration, travel, comics history, cooking, Japanese art, music and Paris. The issue also has the 100 Notable Books of the Year.
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Coincidence? Both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times today had major stories on children's books. The Journal examines the "Christmas break" caught by Mackinac Island Press, Traverse City, Mich., whose Has Anyone Seen Christmas? was bought by Barnes & Noble for its "Christmas table." The company liked the tale, approved of the track record of author-publisher Anne Margaret Lewis and her husband-associate publisher, Brian Lewis, and needed a title like it to help "fill a need." The book now has 90,000 copies in print.
The Times features the Norton Anthology of Children's Literature, intended for scholars, and the Connections column celebrates the multiple meanings children's texts can have when read aloud and with children.
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Ed Kluska plans to close his 33-year-old Kluska's New World Bookshop, Clifton, Ohio, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. He will continue to operate an astrology consulting business.
Kluska blamed the closing on competition from online retailers, chain stores and grocery stores such as Kroger, which now sell New Age books. "One Kroger has more space devoted to books than our entire store," Kluska told the paper.
He also said the store's changing neighborhood had hurt business. As hardware stores, shoe and variety stores have been replaced by restaurants and gift shops, there has been less traffic during the day and more in the evening and on weekends.
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The Lincoln Journal Star tells the heartwarming story of A Novel Idea Bookstores, a rare and used bookstore in Lincoln, Neb., whose basement was flooded by a burst pipe. Customers, friends and neighboring businesspeople helped clear out books before the waters reached them, and the store lost only 3,000 books--mostly on physics, anthropology, quilting and history. Owner Cinnamon Dokken praised the helpers, saying, "Something that was looking like a tragedy turned into something that had a real feeling of blessing." Yesterday the store turned a planned open house into a celebration.
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The op-ed page of yesterday's New York Times featured a hilarious contribution by Karen Karbo, author of Minerva Clark Gets a Clue, about how HarperCollins might make Goodnight Moon even more PC--above and beyond the decision to omit the cigarette held for years by illustrator Clement Hurd (as mentioned several times in Shelf Awareness last month). Among Karbo's recommendations:
"A fire blazing in the fireplace while Bunny sleeps? Suggested change: Get rid of it. At the very least, digitally add a fire extinguisher to the wall. And hello? Where are the smoke detectors?
"Who exactly is [the rabbit knitting in the rocking chair]? Bunny says, 'A quiet old lady whispering hush?' But what do we know of her really? Suggested change: Digitally alter quiet old lady's apron with a message emblazoned across the front that says she was hired from a reputable agency, is a citizen and has passed a criminal background check."
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North of the border, the Globe and Mail explores why "international demand for English-language literary fiction has gone seriously south." Among the problems both in Canada and elsewhere: high prices, competition for a shrinking amount of leisure time, underediting and overpublishing, a post-September 11 desire for nonfiction and "explanations"; and publishers leery about the sales records of previous books by authors.
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With the Shepherd Express, the Milwaukee weekly, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops has begun an annual short story contest. The first place winner receives a $200 Schwartz gift certificate and publication in Shepherd Express. Second and third place prizes are $100 and $50, respectively, and publication on the Shepherd Express Web site.
All winners will be invited to read at the store.
---
Yesterday's New York Times Book Review holiday books issue encompassed the following eclectic range of categories: houses and gardens, photography, exploration, travel, comics history, cooking, Japanese art, music and Paris. The issue also has the 100 Notable Books of the Year.
---
Coincidence? Both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times today had major stories on children's books. The Journal examines the "Christmas break" caught by Mackinac Island Press, Traverse City, Mich., whose Has Anyone Seen Christmas? was bought by Barnes & Noble for its "Christmas table." The company liked the tale, approved of the track record of author-publisher Anne Margaret Lewis and her husband-associate publisher, Brian Lewis, and needed a title like it to help "fill a need." The book now has 90,000 copies in print.
The Times features the Norton Anthology of Children's Literature, intended for scholars, and the Connections column celebrates the multiple meanings children's texts can have when read aloud and with children.
---
Ed Kluska plans to close his 33-year-old Kluska's New World Bookshop, Clifton, Ohio, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. He will continue to operate an astrology consulting business.
Kluska blamed the closing on competition from online retailers, chain stores and grocery stores such as Kroger, which now sell New Age books. "One Kroger has more space devoted to books than our entire store," Kluska told the paper.
He also said the store's changing neighborhood had hurt business. As hardware stores, shoe and variety stores have been replaced by restaurants and gift shops, there has been less traffic during the day and more in the evening and on weekends.
---
The Lincoln Journal Star tells the heartwarming story of A Novel Idea Bookstores, a rare and used bookstore in Lincoln, Neb., whose basement was flooded by a burst pipe. Customers, friends and neighboring businesspeople helped clear out books before the waters reached them, and the store lost only 3,000 books--mostly on physics, anthropology, quilting and history. Owner Cinnamon Dokken praised the helpers, saying, "Something that was looking like a tragedy turned into something that had a real feeling of blessing." Yesterday the store turned a planned open house into a celebration.
---
The op-ed page of yesterday's New York Times featured a hilarious contribution by Karen Karbo, author of Minerva Clark Gets a Clue, about how HarperCollins might make Goodnight Moon even more PC--above and beyond the decision to omit the cigarette held for years by illustrator Clement Hurd (as mentioned several times in Shelf Awareness last month). Among Karbo's recommendations:
"A fire blazing in the fireplace while Bunny sleeps? Suggested change: Get rid of it. At the very least, digitally add a fire extinguisher to the wall. And hello? Where are the smoke detectors?
"Who exactly is [the rabbit knitting in the rocking chair]? Bunny says, 'A quiet old lady whispering hush?' But what do we know of her really? Suggested change: Digitally alter quiet old lady's apron with a message emblazoned across the front that says she was hired from a reputable agency, is a citizen and has passed a criminal background check."
---
North of the border, the Globe and Mail explores why "international demand for English-language literary fiction has gone seriously south." Among the problems both in Canada and elsewhere: high prices, competition for a shrinking amount of leisure time, underediting and overpublishing, a post-September 11 desire for nonfiction and "explanations"; and publishers leery about the sales records of previous books by authors.
---
With the Shepherd Express, the Milwaukee weekly, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops has begun an annual short story contest. The first place winner receives a $200 Schwartz gift certificate and publication in Shepherd Express. Second and third place prizes are $100 and $50, respectively, and publication on the Shepherd Express Web site.
All winners will be invited to read at the store.