David Thompson, a longtime bookseller and assistant manager at Murder by the Book, Houston, Texas, and founder and publisher of Busted Flush Press, died suddenly on Tuesday. He was 38 and just last month had sold Busted Flush to Tyrus Books and was continuing as head of it.
Busted Flush specialized in out-of-print and new hard-boiled crime books. Thompson founded Busted Flush in 2005 (Shelf Awareness, July 30, 2006).
Thompson worked at Murder by the Book for 21 years. Two years ago he married McKenna Jordan, whom he met at the store. Around the same time, she bought the store, technically becoming Thompson's boss.
On her blog, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, Sarah Weinman offers a heartfelt tribute and a long list of links to remembrances of David Thompson.
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Joan Steiner, creator of the Look-Alikes books published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, died last Wednesday, September 8, after a long struggle with cancer.
Steiner won immediate acclaim for her first book, published in 1998, Alikes. She followed with five additional titles, each with unusual three-dimensional towns, houses and holiday scenes depicted and photographed. Look-Alikes was one of Time magazine's best children's books and also one of the New York Times Book Review's Notable Children's Books of 1998. Her final book, Look-Alikes Seek-and-Search Puzzles, will be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers next spring. A memorial service will be held in the CE Building next to the Dutch Reformed Church, Route 9H in Claverack, N.Y., on Saturday, October 9, at 3 p.m.