Van Vleck's first job in the book business was at Thunderbird Books in
Carmel, Calif. She worked in the store's restaurant baking brownies and
cheesecake, then graduated to the bookstore, where she was children's
buyer for five years. She left Thunderbird to become a sales rep in the
San Francisco Bay Area for Dell, then Bantam-Dell, then Putnam, then
Penguin-Putnam and now Penguin Group (USA). Here she answers questions
we put to people in the industry occasionally:
On your nightstand now:
Chasing the Flame by Amanda Power, Final Salute by Jim Sheeler and City of Thieves by David Benioff.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Mouse & the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. I loved the
idea of a mouse wearing half a Ping-Pong ball for a helmet, ripping up
and down the halls of a hotel at night on a red motorcycle. I just
finished reading the Ralph "oeuvre" to my six year old and the books definitely hold up.
Your top five authors:
Howard Frank Moser, Tobias Wolff, Wendell Berry, Wallace Stegner, Reynolds Price, William Trevor.
Book you've faked reading:
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Books you are an evangelist for:
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Five Skies by Ron Carlson.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Book that changed your life:
It wasn't a book, it was a teacher: Mrs. Anderson, my 10th grade
English teacher. Who knew that Huckleberry Finn could be made
interesting to a class of 15 year olds?
Favorite lines from a book:
"You ever go on a picnic?" Arthur asked Ronnie. "Take your girlfriend
to the park?" Ronnie's mouth was full, chewing. Finally, he answered:
"I might have. I ate in the park." "Is eating in the park a picnic?"
Arthur asked Darwin. "A picnic is no casual matter," the older man
said. "A picnic is a serious endeavor. There's the planning. This isn't
a bag of burgers in the car. To eat lunch in the daylight out-of-doors
on a blanket with a young woman," Darwin said, "is courtship. You would
only do such a thing with your intended."--Five Skies by Ron Carlson
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.