tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41706294714278588722024-03-05T05:52:25.533-08:00The Book FrogBooks. Book reviews. A bookish life. Overheard in the bookstore.Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.comBlogger459125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-80549822783716613032017-04-15T08:41:00.000-07:002017-04-15T08:41:39.397-07:00Book News Roundup: 14 April 2017<br />
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SO SAD </h3>
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Man Booker winner Howard Jacobson is back with a novel he began writing on November 9, 2016. As he says <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/features/2017/apr/howard-jacobson-on-pussy/" target="_blank">in this essay on the Penguin UK site</a>, " I went to bed on 8 November confident that the roof of the world was not going to fall in and woke early the following morning to discover it had. Later that afternoon I started writing <i>Pussy</i>." A satire in the form of a fairy tale, <i>Pussy</i> is about the election of Fracassus, son of a ruling dynasty, who is, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/13/pussy-howard-jacobson-review-trump?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Bookmarks+base&utm_term=221700&subid=1467075&CMP=EMCBKSEML3964" target="_blank">Mark Lawson says in <i>The Guardian</i></a>, "physically and psychologically just Trump: small hands, cantilevered coiffure, junk food diet, tweet-squeezed vocabulary ("classy", "beautiful", "loser") and misogyny." Lawson says that Jacobson--often called the "British Philip Roth" but who prefers to call himself the "Jewish Jane Austen" misses his mark in this book, writing what Lawson feels will be a mere oddity, best forgotten, on the shelves among his other works. Maybe so, but it sounds pretty funny to me.</div>
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LISTEN! DO YOU SMELL SOMETHING?</h3>
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<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-quest-better-describe-scent-old-books-180962819/" target="_blank"><i>Smithsonian</i> magazine reports</a> on the heritage science team from the University of London who are studying and categorizing--using the same sorts of categories and descriptors as wine and coffee enthusiasts do--the smells of old books. They're going to use their research to preserve and recreate smells. Fascinating!<br />
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FAREWELL TO AN INSPIRING AUTHOR</h3>
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Patricia McKissack died April 7 at the age of 72. With her husband, Frederick, she authored dozens of popular, critically acclaimed, and often prize-winning children's books about the African American experience in America. In particular, the deeply researched, clearly and elegantly communicated biographies of great African Americans are considered indispensable. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/books/obituary-patricia-mckissack-dead-childrens-book-author.html?_r=0" target="_blank">Read more in the <i>New York Times</i> obituary.</a><br />
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LOVE YOUR MOTHER</h3>
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Julian Lennon released his first children's book this week. <i>Touch the Earth</i>, published in conjunction with the White Feather Foundation, Lennon's environmental and humanitarian foundation. <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/julian-lennon-on-childrens-book-john-lennons-odd-wisdom-w476852" target="_blank">Read a little about it in <i>Rolling Stone</i></a>.<br />
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-14079068602926570542017-04-08T13:41:00.000-07:002017-04-08T13:41:35.582-07:00Reading Roundup: 8 April 2017<h3>
COMPLETED</h3>
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It was kind of a slow reading week for the Book Frog, with just two books (one of them super short) completed. </div>
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Last Saturday I picked up from the library and quickly read volume two of the <i>Saga</i> comics collection series by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples. <i>Saga </i>is my first serious foray into comic reading; it was recommended in a sci-fi list I saw recently, so I thought I'd give it a go. I must say, it was a good recommendation. The artwork is to-die-for, and the story is smart and surprisingly (to me, a novice of the genre) layered and nuanced.</div>
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But I have a couple of questions:</div>
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How many of these things will I have to read before I get comfortable enough with the page layout to be sure my eyes are tracking in the right direction?</div>
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How long will it take before I stop having to backtrack to look at the artwork because I get so distracted by reading the words?</div>
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Connie Willis is a gifted writer and storyteller, who's won both Hugo and Nebula awards in multiple categories. Her works that I've read have been intelligent and accessible, weighty in theme but light in approach. <i>Crosstalk</i>, for most of its 512 pages, eschews the weighty for the light. The super light. While it's still kind of delightful, by and large it reads like a romcom which doesn't pass the Bechdel Test: heroine Briddey Flannigan's every thought--and we know this, because it's a novel about telepathy--is dominated by one or another of the men in her life. Briddey is smart and funny, but rather than being the actor in her own life she is constantly acted upon It's not until quite near the end that both the character and her story take a turn for the truly interesting and exciting. Too little, too late in the case of <i>Crosstalk</i>, but Connie Willis is so good I'll still give her a chance.</div>
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IN PROGRESS</h3>
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For the last couple of years one of the books I've always had in progress is a bathroom book. My bathroom book is an ARC or cheap paperback which sits splayed on the corner of the counter in the bathroom. When I brush my teeth and hair, and, you know, do other things, I read that book. I got through three books in this way last year; I'm still working on the first of this year's bathroom books, a reread of John Crowley's majestic urban fantasy novel <i>Little, Big</i>, which was published in 1981. It's even better the second time through.</div>
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I don't do at all well with reading nonfiction, try as I might, but I do think that I may have discovered a way to approach it. My inaugural bedtime book--yup, that's right: I read it at night, ten or fifteen or twenty pages at a time--is Sylvie Simmons' <i>I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen</i>. My method is working! I don't read it every night (because sometimes I don't get much reading in of my primary book during the day), but I'm about halfway through the first biography I've read in nearly thirty years. Yay me.</div>
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And lastly, <i>The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles</i> by Haruki Murakami. Sigh. It's my first Murakami. I have more than one friend who's been urging me to take the plunge; in fact, I have one friend with whom I vie every year as Nobel season approaches, he rooting for Murakami as I root for Philip Roth or Thomas Pynchon. So I picked up this gorgeous copy at the Salvation Army a couple of years ago, and last month decided to give it a whirl. Thus far I'm underwhelmed. What did I think it would be like? I don't know...quirky? kinda weird? fun?...So far, it's definitely quirky and weird, but I'm really missing the fun.</div>
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QUEUED UP</h3>
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Up next for me, an installment in the Newbery Project. <i>One Crazy Summer</i> by Rita Williams-Garcia, which was a National Book Award finalist, a Newbery honoree, and won the Coretta Scott King Award and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. It's set in Brooklyn in 1968. I'm looking forward to this one; middle grade fiction is so good.</div>
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Our book group is reading Dave Eggers' <i>The Circle</i> this month. I read it when it came out and quite liked it, so I'm looking forward to the reread and the discussion.</div>
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-6767786775464626662017-04-07T07:26:00.000-07:002017-04-07T07:26:07.192-07:00Book News Roundup: 7 April 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: red;">TASTY REVIEWS</span></h2>
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SYMPATHY FOR THE [SHE] DEVIL</h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fay Weldon's weird, disturbing 1983 novel <i>The Life and Loves of a She Devil</i> has been filmed twice: in 1986 as an award-winning BBC TV serial, and in 1989 as a not-very-good Hollywood movie starring Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep. Now Fay Weldon has given it the sequel treatment, in the form of <i>Death of a She Devil</i>, and Sarah Ditum, reviewing for <i>The Guardian</i> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/05/death-of-a-she-devil-by-fay-weldon-review?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Bookmarks+base&utm_term=220670&subid=1467075&CMP=EMCBKSEML3964" target="_blank">is less than enthusiastic</a>, concluding "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "guardian text egyptian web" , "georgia" , serif;">Reactionary politics are nothing new for Weldon. Being boring, however, is</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">." Yikes.</span><br />
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POST-APOCALYPSE, NOW & THEN</h3>
In a rare instance of being ahead of a pop culture wave, I have been obsessed with post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction since I was in my early teens (which, if you don't know me personally, is a long, long time ago). As with any, dare I say, trend visionary, I had mixed feelings when the YA dystopian boom took off in the mid-aughts...and the first time I heard someone in the wild reference a zombie apocalypse, well, I had simultaneously a soaring feeling of sisterhood for the speaker and a sinking realization that apocalyptic coolness had hit a tipping point. Unlike those who abandon favorite bands or restaurants when they get popular, though, I've hung on.<br />
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Writing in <i>The New York Times</i> Alexandra Alter examines the latest wave of interest in all things dystopian--which kicked into high gear on November 8 of last year--<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/books/boom-times-for-the-new-dystopians.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbooks&action=click&contentCollection=books&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0" target="_blank">in her article "Boom Times for the New Dystopians."</a><br />
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<span style="color: red;">AWARDS</span></h2>
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PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION</h3>
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The Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction has been given this year to Imbolo Mbue for her debut novel <i>Behold the Dreamers</i>. Ron Charles in <i>The Washington Post</i> says it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/debut-novelist-imbolo-mbue-wins-penfaulkner-fiction-award/2017/04/03/ad4b65e8-188f-11e7-bcc2-7d1a0973e7b2_story.html?utm_term=.b80b22f80c8a" target="_blank">"is a strikingly timely story about Jende Jonga, a man from Cameroon who hopes to settle his family permanently in the United States."</a> Mbue, too, is an immigrant from Cameroon. </div>
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HUGO AWARDS</h3>
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Tor.com reports that <a href="http://www.tor.com/2017/04/04/2017-hugo-award-finalists-announced/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=tordotcom-tordotcomnewsletter&utm_content=na-readblog-blogpost&utm_campaign=tor" target="_blank">the finalists for the 2017 Hugo Awards</a> have been announced. As usual, I've read a mere smattering--four total, out of all the categories--of nominees...but it still excites me!</div>
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INDIES CHOICE/E.B. WHITE READ-ALOUD AWARDS</h3>
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The ABA has announced the<a href="http://bookweb.org/news/2017-indies-choiceeb-white-read-aloud-award-finalists-announced-voting-opens-aba-members-35926" target="_blank"> list of finalists for the Indies Choice/E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards</a>, which will be voted upon between now and April 30 by booksellers at American Booksellers Association member stores. As always, it's an interesting and diverse list. (And this is as good a place as any to remind you, if you want to shop online for books, go indie at <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/" target="_blank">IndieBound</a>. It's easy, combining the best of both worlds--online convenience and indie shopping.)</div>
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AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS</h3>
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Judy Blume, Paul Beatty, Elizabeth Kolbert and others are among those who will be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/04/06/arts/ap-us-books-arts-academy.html?_r=0" target="_blank">receiving prizes in May from the American Academy of Arts and Letters</a>. We congratulate them!</div>
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<span style="color: red;">THE BOOK BIZ</span></h2>
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THIS PUBLISHER'S NOT AT SEA </h3>
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Melville House Publishing, a Brooklyn-based independent publisher, has steadily made a name for itself in the 16 years since Dennis Johnson, a poet, and his wife, Valerie Merians, a sculptor, founded it, but it has come into its own in the age of Trump. <a href="https://thebridgebk.com/this-indie-publisher-is-throwing-the-books-at-trump/" target="_blank">Read this profile</a> by Tyler Woods in <i>The Bridge</i>.<br />
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-18945150261759325502014-04-25T13:48:00.000-07:002017-04-07T07:33:48.888-07:00Book News Roundup: April 25, 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2 style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px;">
Whatever</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">John Scalzi writes science fiction (prize-winning novels </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Old Man's War</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> and </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Redshirts, </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">among others), blogs prolifically (the always-worth-reading </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Whatever</a>), </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">and</span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">yesterday was </span><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2014/04/24/john-scalzi-veronica-scott-scifi-encounters/8056371/" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">interviewed by Veronica Scott</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> in </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">USA Today</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">. They cover topics ranging from Scalzi's past and upcoming works (can't wait to read </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Lock In</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, dropping August 26th!) to what movies he recommends and what is (or isn't) on his bucket list. The interview is worth a read, as is his blog, which is opinionated and funny and very, very topical. Oh yeah, his novels are pretty terrific, too.</span><br />
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Winter is Coming...No, Really</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">That big tease George R.R. Martin has released </span><a href="http://www.georgerrmartin.com/world-of-ice-and-fire-sample/" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">another tiny excerpt</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, this one from the upcoming </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">World of Ice and Fire</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, a companion book to the Song of Ice and Fire series. It's not </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Winds of Winter</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> (the next novel...due out...someday), but it'll satisfy that jones for a little while. </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">World of Ice and Fire</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> will be out October 28th of this year.</span><br />
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<h2 style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px;">
This Is No Jest</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">In 1996, after the publication of </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Infinite Jest</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, journalist David Lipsky traveled with author David Foster Wallace for Rolling Stone magazine. That article was never published, but after DFW's suicide in 2008 Lipsky published the transcript of their conversations as</span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The movie version of this book, titled, rather more succinctly, </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The End of the Tour</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, is currently in production, and the David Foster Wallace estate is not happy about it. Carolyn Kellog's </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Los Angeles Times</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> blog </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Jacket Copy</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-the-david-foster-wallace-estate-comes-out-against-end-of-the-tour-20140421,0,5938664.story#axzz2zfmIPqJh" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">has the details. </a><br />
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Time's Most Influential</h2>
<i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Time</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> magazine has released its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and this year there are </span><a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2237#m24004" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">six wonderful writers on the list</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">. As is the devil incarnate (because it's a list is of influential people, not great ones).</span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-37713388539675528582014-04-18T14:19:00.000-07:002014-04-18T17:18:56.368-07:00Book News Roundup: April 18, 2014<br />
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Many Years Later, As He Faced The Firing Squad...</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">He'd been sick for fifteen years but that didn't lessen the blow of yesterday's news that Gabriel Garcia Marquez, novelist, journalist, </span><a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-lecture.html" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">Nobel Laureate</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, had died at the age of 87. There have been countless beautiful obituaries and tributes, Jonathan Kandell </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/books/gabriel-garcia-marquez-literary-pioneer-dies-at-87.html?emc=edit_na_20140417&nlid=56054352&_r=0" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank" title="Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/books/gabriel-garcia-marquez-literary-pioneer-dies-at-87.html?emc=edit_na_20140417&nlid=56054352&_r=0">in the </a><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/books/gabriel-garcia-marquez-literary-pioneer-dies-at-87.html?emc=edit_na_20140417&nlid=56054352&_r=0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New York Times</a> </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">and Mandelit del Barco </span><a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/156561881/writer-gabriel-garcia-marquez-who-gave-voice-to-latin-america-dies?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140417" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">on NPR</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, to cite just two, and I know my words could never do justice to the depth of my feelings for the man and his work, so I'll leave it at this: if you haven't read, at the very least, </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">One Hundred Years of Solitude</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> and </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Love in the Time of Cholera</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, then you are missing out on two of the most beautiful, meaningful--and, dare I say, fun--works of literature in any genre, of any period.</span><br />
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And The Winner Is</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The</span><a href="http://www.pulitzer.org/node/8501" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank"> Pulitzer Prizes </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">were announced on Monday. There are prizes given out in many categories, and all are, of course, important. But since books are our first love, we'll just concentrate on those (you can click on the link for the complete list).</span><br />
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<ul style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">
<li>Fiction: <i>The Goldfinch</i>, Donna Tartt</li>
<li>Drama: <i>The Flick</i>, Annie Baker (not available in book form until 8/14)</li>
<li>History: <i>The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1172-1832</i>, Alan Taylor</li>
<li>Biography: <i>Margaret Fuller: A New American Life</i>, Megan Marshall </li>
<li>Poetry: <i>3 Sections</i>, Vijay Seshadri</li>
<li>General Nonfiction: <i>Tom's River: A Story of Science and Salvation</i>, Don Fagin</li>
</ul>
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Real Books Rule</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">At least, </span><a href="http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/students-reading-e-books-are-losing-out-study-suggests/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=fb-share&_r=0" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">according to the study</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> cited in this</span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> New York Times</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> Motherlode blog post and </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/us/bookstores-in-seattle-soar-and-embrace-an-old-nemesis-amazoncom.html?emc=eta1" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">to this article</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, also in the </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Times</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, about Amazon employees in Seattle who--who'd'a thunk it?--shop indie for their book needs. And to us, of course.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6mYReE4sAnEtJFcT5n_D1cl7FkabqS5-eNtVeLRIGllkGp0N1fmYSUhdUF79DWGzMKgWPbU4u_z0Kp5LTOWQ6X9OCcT46lf8vKw_XaBHeLmeBlj3Tqt5K3X3IWQGKatnWkZdK8yxbgET/s1600/cap%2527n.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6mYReE4sAnEtJFcT5n_D1cl7FkabqS5-eNtVeLRIGllkGp0N1fmYSUhdUF79DWGzMKgWPbU4u_z0Kp5LTOWQ6X9OCcT46lf8vKw_XaBHeLmeBlj3Tqt5K3X3IWQGKatnWkZdK8yxbgET/s1600/cap%2527n.gif" /></a></div>
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Libraries Fight for Intellectual Freedom</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">In its annual </span><a href="http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2014" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">State of American Libraries Report</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, the American Library Association discusses, among other things, challenges to books and access to them. In the </span><a href="http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2014/intellectual-freedom" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">Intellectual Freedom</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> section of the report the ALA publishes its list of most-challenged books of the preceding year. For the second year in a row, Captain Underpants tops the list, closely followed by the usual suspects: Toni Morrison, Sherman Alexie, John Green, and their dubious ilk. Here's the list:</span><br />
<ol style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">
<li>Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey<br />Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence</li>
<li>The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison<br />Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violenc</li>
<li>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie<br />Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group</li>
<li>Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James<br />Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group</li>
<li>The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins<br />Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group</li>
<li>A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone<br />Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit</li>
<li>Looking for Alaska, by John Green Reasons:<br />Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group</li>
<li>The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky<br />Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group</li>
<li>Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya<br />Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit</li>
<li>Bone (series), by Jeff Smith<br />Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence</li>
</ol>
<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" />Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-40469121077633784992014-04-10T19:45:00.000-07:002014-04-10T19:58:38.493-07:00Book News Roundup: April 11, 2014<h2 style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; line-height: 18px;">
Booklist</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv00DAv0C9GeLDnrTohmjz-l8FRAL06SNvekQO9Mjp9ve4P-FOzERibWLxtM3Rp13Xy0iGX6P-C_ytxoqU6OCbowEa4WbXgY4lBeaudE29_X4EHrlC5-Ha-JGiO6q1ANcU1MxufF12dhZz/s1600/bees.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv00DAv0C9GeLDnrTohmjz-l8FRAL06SNvekQO9Mjp9ve4P-FOzERibWLxtM3Rp13Xy0iGX6P-C_ytxoqU6OCbowEa4WbXgY4lBeaudE29_X4EHrlC5-Ha-JGiO6q1ANcU1MxufF12dhZz/s1600/bees.gif" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">As a reader I'm always fascinated by book lists. <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/259252/emma-donoghues-6-favorite-books">This week, in The Week</a>, author Emma Donoghue (<i>Frog Music, Room</i>) shares a list of six favorites--classic, contemporary, not yet published, and even audio. (P.S. On Donoghue's recommendation I've picked up <i>The Bees</i> by Laline Paull, which will be published next month. It's wild!)</span></span><br />
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Propaganda!</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Boris Pasternak's </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Doctor Zhivago</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">banned in the Soviet Union and originally published in an Italian translation by an Italian publisher. Enter the CIA, which thought it a perfect propaganda tool. </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/during-cold-war-cia-used-doctor-zhivago-as-a-tool-to-undermine-soviet-union/2014/04/05/2ef3d9c6-b9ee-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" title="Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/during-cold-war-cia-used-doctor-zhivago-as-a-tool-to-undermine-soviet-union/2014/04/05/2ef3d9c6-b9ee-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html"><i>The Washington Post</i> goes in-depth </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">on the 1958 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">caper, and i</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">t reads like a spy novel in miniature.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT0cyVf0y53gJele1-btsQtScVChhPs9FAKtwZUt8wrLabuoHRIyshmJSEjT8roftXMRPD1pQDkdw8uiWEWuu9zcOKRwN9B0bTegasUZCVSzJZluS-MrOPwd84yOrNimwRZACLHTneKTJN/s1600/paradise.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT0cyVf0y53gJele1-btsQtScVChhPs9FAKtwZUt8wrLabuoHRIyshmJSEjT8roftXMRPD1pQDkdw8uiWEWuu9zcOKRwN9B0bTegasUZCVSzJZluS-MrOPwd84yOrNimwRZACLHTneKTJN/s1600/paradise.gif" /></a></div>
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Obituaries</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The literary world lost a great soul last week. Peter Matthiessen, spy, activist, environmentalist, novelist, Buddhist, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">and the only winner of both a fiction and a nonfiction National Book Award, died at the age of 86 last week. There were many tributes and obituaries; </span><a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/04/06/297154718/peter-matthiessen-co-founder-of-the-paris-review-dies-at-86?utm_content=buffer6142a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">this piece on NPR</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> was a beautiful one.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Sue Townsend, author of the Adrain Mole series of comic novels, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-26982680">has died</a>. She was 68, and her voice will be missed.</span></span><br />
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It's All Fun and Games Until Somebody Pisses Off The Hound</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Jimmy Kimmel's team has made a<i> Game of Thrones</i>/KFC commercial which is sublime. Truly sublime. NSFW, certainly, but still, well, finger-lickin' good.</span></div>
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-74980879186044750682014-04-04T08:00:00.000-07:002014-04-04T08:03:45.140-07:00Book News Roundup: April 4, 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5RzLAOkb_rTpXGC6szvODtCVlAQGzMX6kVftQdAsq1k19vD1JCNB_I_cFNwy1afMlIKoqK1T1zxLR-y6Hy5myDMa5M6Yz2AlVQOvYIL4MfaVDZtlvu0ODwkdyjJk4CDFs0qWAxHhxPMo/s1600/tyrion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5RzLAOkb_rTpXGC6szvODtCVlAQGzMX6kVftQdAsq1k19vD1JCNB_I_cFNwy1afMlIKoqK1T1zxLR-y6Hy5myDMa5M6Yz2AlVQOvYIL4MfaVDZtlvu0ODwkdyjJk4CDFs0qWAxHhxPMo/s1600/tyrion.png" height="270" width="320" /></a></div>
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April Fool!</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">There were a number of good book-related April Fools' Day pranks this year, but far and away the best has to go to Tor.com, which posted </span><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/04/jk-rowling-reveals-shes-hard-at-work-on-colin-creevey-novels" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">this about</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> an upcoming new series from J.K. Rowling--to focus on the school experience of Colin Creevey, a minor character in the Harry Potter series. For just a moment my heart soared with joy...</span><br />
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National Poetry Month</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">April may be the cruellest month (to use T.S. Eliot's anglophilic spelling in </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The Waste Land</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">), but it's also National Poetry Month. Knopf Doubleday's </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The Borzoi Reader</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> is once again publishing </span><a href="http://knopfdoubleday.com/2014/03/21/33908/?Ref=Email_KDD_4/4/2014" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">a Poem-A-Day, right to your inbox</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">. Click the link and enjoy poetry throughout the month!</span><br />
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The Death of the Independent Bookstore</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">has been greatly exaggerated, according to </span><a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/04/the_independent_bookstore_lives_why_amazons_conquest_will_never_be_complete/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">this article in Salon.com.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> Well, we're very happy to hear it.</span><br />
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Westeros is <i>Hot</i>! </h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">(Even if winter is coming.) This Sunday's premier of the fourth season of </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Game of Thrones--</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">the best TV adaptation of a book series in the history of the medium--has engendered a spate of articles. Warning: some of the articles contain spoilers, so heed the warnings!</span><br />
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<li>From Huffington Post Books, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/game-of-thrones-theories_n_5031083.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"The 7 Wildest Theories About </a><i><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/game-of-thrones-theories_n_5031083.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Game of Thrones</a></i><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/game-of-thrones-theories_n_5031083.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"</a>. I have yet to finish the series yet (just started <i>A Clash of Kings</i>, the second book), so I have absolutely no idea how far out or reasonable many of these are.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tor.com</a> (definitely my favorite science fiction website) has had a spate of terrific articles. Here are a smattering: Bridget McGovern on <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/game-of-thrones-nicknames" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/game-of-thrones-nicknames">GoT nicknames</a>; <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/game-of-thrones-season-4-refresher" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a refresher </a>of what's happened on the series, from Stubby the Rocket; Leigh Butler has been working through a <a href="http://www.tor.com/features/series/a-read-of-ice-and-fire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link: http://www.tor.com/features/series/a-read-of-ice-and-fire">Song of Ice and Fire reread</a></li>
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<br />Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-81104671476227872912014-03-25T14:13:00.005-07:002014-03-25T14:17:33.568-07:00Books We Love: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">As a reader and bookseller I've long been leery of what we in the business call "buzz books". </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Don't get me wrong--I don't believe that because something is popular doesn't mean it's no good. Far from it! But book buzz--like any other kind of hype--is generated as often as it's genuine, and I have very little interest in reading anything because a corporation tells me I should. On the other hand, if my fellow booksellers are to a person loving something I take notice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">By the time I received my advance reading copy of </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, my interest had already been piqued. Yes, it seemed there was a degree of generated buzz; after all, the publisher's reps were pushing it pretty hard. But when it reached my hands, it seemed, a generated-to-genuine transition had occurred, so I decided to give it a try.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">That </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> is a book about an independent bookstore owner certainly didn't hurt its case with me.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">A.J. Fikry is in his late thirties. He owns Island Books, a small independent bookstore ("No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World" reads the faded sign over the porch) located in a Martha's Vineyard-esque island community. A.J. seems a bitter loner, and in our first encounter with him, in which he does his best to alienate a new publisher's rep making her first seasonal visit to his store, he also comes across as a bit of an ass.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Soon after this visit, in rapid succession, A.J. loses a very valuable book (a first edition of Poe's </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Tamerlane</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">, published in a run of only fifty copies) to theft and finds an abandoned baby, two events that, along with the death of his wife, which happens before the action of the book begins, will define, nay, transform the rest of his life.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">A.J. Fikry enters our acquaintance as a book snob and a pedant, even in his most emotionally draining moments ("If this were Raymond Carver," he says to the cop who's taking his statement at the hospital after the death of his wife in a car accident, "you'd offer me some meager comfort and darkness would set in and all this would be over. But this...is feeling more like a novel to me after all. Emotionally, I mean. It will take me a while to get through it. Do you know?"). He has little patience for books that he's not interested in, but he has perfect memory for people's reading tastes, and, despite the snobbishness can make appropriate recommendations. And A.J. can--and does!--change and grow as a bookseller and as a reader. As a new father he finds himself becoming more a part of the community than he ever has been before, adding to his bookstore's inventory--he brings in books that local moms are interested in for their book clubs, he adds a kids section--and even reading books he never would have looked at before.</span><br />
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<i style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> is a book about love and loss and what we read. It's about community and family, and how the family we cobble together is just as important as the one we're biologically tied to. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">And, finally, <i>The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry</i> is about bookstores. You know how important bookstores are, so I'll just leave you with A.J.'s thoughts after his mother gives everyone in the family an e-reader for Christmas (the emphasis is mine).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">A.J. has often reflected that, bit by bit, all the best things in the world are being carved away like fat from meat. First, it had been the record stores, and then the video stores, and then newspapers and magazines, and now even the big chain bookstores were disappearing everywhere you looked.<b> <i>From his point of view, the only thing worse than a world with big chain bookstores was a world with NO big chain bookstores.</i></b> At least the big stores sell books and not pharmaceuticals or lumber! At least some of the people who work at those stores have degrees in English literature and know how to read and curate books for people! At least the big stores can sell ten thousand units of publisher's dreck so that Island gets to sell one hundred units of literary fiction!</span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-34342537917883238102013-11-06T08:47:00.000-08:002013-11-06T08:47:59.271-08:00New Releases November 5, 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSans_900, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 24px;">Get Wimpy!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Here it is, your go-to gift for every kid on your list this season:</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck</b>. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Trust me, I'm a trained professional. But if you don't believe me, check out author </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLEfqawJ8gY&feature=youtu.be" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">Jeff Kinney's teaser here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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History & Politics</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Ooh, a couple of good ones this week. </span><br />
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin (</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Team of Rivals</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">) turns her sights on that rough rider Theodore Roosevelt's relationship with the press in </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism</b>. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">It was the first book we sold yesterday...because Pete's been slavering over it since it arrived in the store last week.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">In a vein that couldn't possibly be more different and still be considered the same subject, the authors of </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Game Change</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">--the tell-all that took <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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us behind the scenes of the 2008 presidential race--bring us </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Double Down: Game Change 2012</b>.</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> Though according to reviews it's not likely to go down as an essential work of political history it </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">is</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> one of the juciest, buzziest books of the year.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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Fiction</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">It's been eight years since the publication of Amy Tan's last novel,</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Saving Fish From Drowning</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, so to say that this new one from the author of beloved </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The Joy Luck Club</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> is much-anticipated is not to exaggerate. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>The Valley of Amazement</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> examines one of Amy Tan's richest subjects, the deep relationship between mother and daughter, this time over a span of forty years, from the end of China's imperial age through World War II.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Can Diane Setterfield follow up the crazy success of her first novel, book </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">club favorite </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The Thirteenth Tale,</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> with another big success? </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Bellman & Black</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, Setterfield's second novel, begins with the impetuous killing of a rook by a young boy, an act which will have repercussions throughout his life. A ghost story, a gothic tale, a mystery; Bellman & Black is sure to please book-clubbers and thriller-readers alike.</span><br />
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And Don't Forget</h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">All of the amazing books released earlier this fall:</span><br />
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<li><b><i>House of Hades</i></b>, fourth in the Heroes of Olympus series</li>
<li><b><i>Allegiant</i></b>, the controversial finale to the Divergent trilogy</li>
<li><b><i>Bleeding Edge</i></b>, National Book Award finalist from my favorite author, Thomas Pynchon</li>
<li><b><i>One Summer: America, 1927</i></b>, another feather in Bill Bryson's polymath cap</li>
<li><b><i>The Rosie Project</i></b>, a romance for non-romance readers...even guys (seriously)!</li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Come on in and let's talk books! If none of these appeal to you, we will find something that does.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The Book Frog is located on the second level of the Promenade on the Peninsula. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Call us: 310-265-BOOK (2665)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Find us on </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheBookFrog" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Facebook</a>,</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="https://twitter.com/BookFrogBooks" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://thebookfrog.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Tumblr</a>, </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">and </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/thebookfrog/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Pinterest</a>.</b>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-78643957387440483762013-10-31T07:55:00.001-07:002013-10-31T07:55:34.736-07:00Halloween Link Roundup: Book-Themed Stuff!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOjTU3G675Usb1j59Z2YTvrUQhdif4Cq27vI2teBI9x_VB89orrZ-aX1xo_ubdxs-k0qA0GysqxCh_g7rLraNPwALc62zoJWbzyzADS220NUyuRLZW5qJZAUEkciQc_DU3o10UVxJJh02/s1600/otis+pumpkin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOjTU3G675Usb1j59Z2YTvrUQhdif4Cq27vI2teBI9x_VB89orrZ-aX1xo_ubdxs-k0qA0GysqxCh_g7rLraNPwALc62zoJWbzyzADS220NUyuRLZW5qJZAUEkciQc_DU3o10UVxJJh02/s320/otis+pumpkin.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Laura Frondorf</td></tr>
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Scary book links from around the web</h2>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Goodnight Moon</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> is not usually considered a scary book. In fact, it's a beloved fixture in most people's memories of early childhood. But check out </span><a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/blogs/most-terrifying-story-youll-ever-hear" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;"><b>this reading</b> </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">from Graywolf Press author Benjamin Percy (</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Red Moon, The Wilding</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">). Chilling!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Ever wonder what your favorite horror and thriller writers do on Halloween? Well, Ron Charles--deputy editor of </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The Washington Post's</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> book section--</span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2013/10/30/scary-writers-plans-for-halloween/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;"><b>has checked in with</b></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> Anne Rice, Peter Straub, Justin Cronin, and others to see how they'll be spending the most sacred day in the horror calendar.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/FSGBookkeeping" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Book Keeping</a></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, Farrar, Straus and Giroux's readers' community on Facebook, has been posting </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/spinepoetry" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Halloween-themed spine poetry</a></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> for the last few days. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Buzzfeed gets in the spirit with </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/kangaru/18-literary-pumpkins-for-a-bookish-halloween-bmbj" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">18 Literary Pumpkins for a Bookish Halloween.</a> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">We wanted to choose a favorite, but they're all so beautiful!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Bookish on </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.bookish.com/articles/halloween-must-reads-and-best-costumes-from-books" rel="nofollow" style="color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">literary Halloween costumes, scariest books, and more.</a></b><a href="http://www.bookish.com/articles/halloween-must-reads-and-best-costumes-from-books" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;"></a><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Here's hoping your Halloween reading is truly terrifying.</span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-56135823296828848742013-10-30T12:37:00.000-07:002013-10-31T14:23:00.561-07:00New Releases: October 29, 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Winter is Coming </h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">But never fear: George R.R. Martin's</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> <b>A Dance With Dragons</b><b> </b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">is finally available in paperback! For the Song of Ice & Fire fan in your life--maybe you?--we've also got </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i><a href="https://thebookfrog.mybooksandmore.com/MBM/actions/searchHandler.do?userType=MLB&tabID=&itemNum=ITEM:1&key=0011604689&nextPage=booksDetails&parentNum=12995">Lands of Ice and Fire</a></i></b><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">containing maps of all the known world, from the lands of the Seven Kingdoms to the lands across the Narrow Sea. As if that's not enough, this week sees the release of </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i>The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">. Who, in all of the Seven Kindgoms, is more quotable than the Imp?</span><br />
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Other Exciting New Releases</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The late and greatly lamented Nora Ephron's publisher has released a gorgeous omnibus of her work, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>The Most of Nora Ephron</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">. It includes essays, screenplays, her novel </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Heartburn</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, and her final, previously unpublished play.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Pat Conroy examines his tumultuous relationship with his father--the source material for his novel </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>The Great Santini</b></i><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">--in his new memoir, </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i>The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is rapidly </span><br />
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approaching. In addition to recent new releases commemorating and examining JFK, his administration, and his assassination--<i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House,</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> by Robert Dallek and </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">JFK, Conservative</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, by Ira Stoll, among others--this week sees the release of </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i>The Letters of John F. Kennedy</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, edited by Martin W. Sandler and </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i>A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, by Philip Shenon. Look for more Kennedy titles .in the next few weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Ben Schott, the author of browser's delight </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i>Schott's Original</i></b><br />
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Miscellany</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, turns his unique eye to language. </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i>Schottenfreude</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b></b></i><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">is Schott's collection of "new German words for the human condition." It's truly awesome. </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/12/opinion/international/20131011_Schott.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #207bb8; cursor: pointer; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">Click here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> for an excerpt recently published in </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The New York Times.</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Elizabeth David (1919-1992) revolutionized British cooking from the fifties through </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRSj7ldLJ5uhocHAmLw1p-WbGN0AMyo2DhUdsLrxRQR5MiKGXCwfEyxDMt0eIK0l57duGdALQIVL9fxlale79HLC5wnWV_KpQdLzFVe-VM0lMC5Ob9gXaHENqNeQudioD8HMbC-DVH4C-2/s1600/veggie.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRSj7ldLJ5uhocHAmLw1p-WbGN0AMyo2DhUdsLrxRQR5MiKGXCwfEyxDMt0eIK0l57duGdALQIVL9fxlale79HLC5wnWV_KpQdLzFVe-VM0lMC5Ob9gXaHENqNeQudioD8HMbC-DVH4C-2/s200/veggie.gif" width="154" /></a></span></div>
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the seventies by introducing fresh ingredients and other elements from Mediterranean cooking. The new collection of recipes, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Elizabeth David On Vegetables</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, collects all of her vegecentric recipes. It's gorgeous!</span><br />
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New in Young Adult</h2>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Altered</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, by Gennifer Albin, is the second in the Crewel World trilogy, in which gifted women </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">weave the very fabric of existence.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Another second-in-a-series, the marvelously named </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>Necromancing the Stone</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> (following </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><i>Hold Me Closer, Necromancer</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">) by Lish McBride releases in paperback. Werewolves and fey hounds populate this popular urban fantasy series.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">None of these tickle your fancy? Come in and talk to me or any of our booksellers--we'll hook you up with exactly the book you need.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2013's One Book, One Peninsula title is Edward Humes' <i>Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash. </i>Mr. Humes will be speaking at the Peninsula Library on September 28th at 2 p.m. (for details check out the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/onebookonepeninsula/info">One Book, One Peninsula Facebook page</a>). A journalist and author of thirteen nonfiction books, Edward Humes has received </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper coverage of the military and a PEN Center </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">USA Award for </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year In the Life of Juvenile </i><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Court</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. His latest book is </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, part of </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">his eco-trilogy that also includes <i>Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of WalMart's Green Revolution </i>and <i>Eco Barons</i>. Humes, who previously worked as </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a reporter for the Orange County Register, has also written for </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Los Angeles Magazine</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sierra, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal,</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and other publications. He </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">lives in Seal Beach with his wife, two children and three rescue greyhounds. Find Edward Humes online at </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.edwardhumes.com/">www.EdwardHumes.com</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b><span style="color: #262626; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #262626;">Your introduction to <i>Garbology</i> opens with a truly
horrifying anecdote about hoarding. Why in the world should the average reader
care about this exhibition of excess? </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>EH: </b>This
scene involved an elderly Chicago couple who had hoarded so much trash and junk
that they had been buried alive in their own house, until they finally were
discovered near death and had to be rescued as if from a collapsed mine. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The debris had
accumulated for years until every surface of the house was covered by layers of
old newspapers, empty plastic jars, pieces of broken furniture, worn-out
coolers, splintered garden rakes, thousands of soda bottles, cans of every
size, clothing old and new, broken lamps, dusty catalogs, mountains of junk
mail and garbage bags filled with the detritus of daily life. All of this, and
much more, had been kept for reasons no one could coherently explain, not even
the Gastons, until the junk and trash reached the level of the highest kitchen
cupboards, the ones that held the good china. A broken refrigerator lay in the
kitchen, half buried and resting on its side, as if buoyed up by the sea of
bottles, cans, cartons and sacks engulfing it. No room in the house could be
called usable or even safely navigable; the stairs were blocked, the furniture
buried, the garage packed floor to ceiling. The disordered accumulation looked
as if it had been swept in by a tidal wave.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;">The Gastons simply grew unable to part with their trash. This hoarding
compulsion gripped them gradually, a slow evolution, a piece at a time, then a
bag here and there, then whole boxes of trash until, finally, the Gaston home
became a one-way depository, the garbage version of the Eagles’ famous “Hotel
California”: stuff checked in, but it could never leave. They hoarded until
goods and trash consumed their home and almost their lives.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Why include
this anecdote? Because </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">the
amount of junk, trash and waste that hoarders generate is perfectly,
horrifyingly </span><i>normal</i>. It’s just that
most of us hoard it in landfills instead of living rooms, so we never see the
truly epic quantities of stuff that we all discard. But make no mistake: The
two or three years it took the Gastons to fill their house with five to six
tons of trash is typical for the average American couple. The rest of us are
just better at hiding - mostly from ourselves – the 1.3 tons a year of trash
each American wastes every year, 102 tons across the average lifetime. </span><span style="font-family: Lucida Grande; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUA9T8JMfsrM4i8CM79x7gN_2Ozac6mn-hBHg00eslwPmLBlhp45hoqtrPqO2behgj0Kkkt5QMOMBZTN3PibW5HQMF1r84iItgrOxWso-T6ds5qumC6ISVyYvVXvKj1GL7HHnM4gT76ys/s1600/force+of+nature.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;">BF: </b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;">As</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;">you were
researching and writing </span><i style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;">Garbology</i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;">, what was the thing--whether it
be a statistic or a particularly onerous type of waste product-- that surprised
you the most? </span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">EH: The most
surprising part of the story is just how wasteful we are without really knowing
it -- the true numbers are much worse than the official line. I’m using the
word <i>wasteful</i>, rather than trashy,
deliberately. The fact is, our trash – something hoarders, however pathological
their reaction, understand – has enormous value. It’s actually treasure
squandered, which is why our leading export to China and other countries is our
trash and scrap. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Almost as
surprising: Being less wasteful is liberating, timesaving, and wealth-creating
– for families, communities and businesses big and small. Waste is one of the
few big societal, economic and environmental problems anyone can do something
about. </span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626;"><b>BF:</b> What trash item do you generate that you've found it most
difficult to give up? For example, I'm sure you don't drink bottled water, but
is there some pre-packaged item you just haven't found a good "naked"
substitute for?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626;"><b>EH:</b> </span><!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yes, I’ve stopped relying on
bottled water, paper towels, plates and napkins, plastic grocery bags, etc.
Those are easy to switch to reusable or less wasteful options. Tougher are the
personal care items: deodorant, toothpaste and such. I’ve switched to an old
fashioned razor, but have been stymied when traveling, because you can’t carry
razor blades on the plane (disposable razors are okay). </span><span style="font-family: Lucida Grande;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626;"><b>BF:</b> When you're not reading about environmental subjects, what
do you like to read? What's your "escape" genre? Favorite book? <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #262626;"><b>EH: </b></span><!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I can’t single out a favorite
book, but authors I admire and have read and re-read include John Steinbeck,
Norman Mailer, Tracy Kidder, Raymond Chandler, Harper Lee, John McPhee and Tom
Wolfe. My escape genres have lately been sci-fi/fantasy. I just powered through
George R.R. Martin’s entire <i>Song of Ice
and Fire </i>collection, then discovered Peter V. Brett’s excellent <i>Warded Man</i> series. And from that genre,
Frank Herbert’s <i>Dune</i> ought to be on
anyone’s list of favorite books. </span><span style="font-family: Lucida Grande;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b><span style="color: #262626;"> Are you working on a new
project? What can you tell us about it? </span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>EH:</b> <!--[endif]--><span style="color: #262626;">My next book comes out October 22, my first biography, and my
first foray into the fascinating world of winemaking: <i>A Man and His Mountain</i>. It’s the unlikely and inspiring story of
the accidental winemaker, Jess Jackson, a former cop, fashion model, lumberjack
and lawyer who started a little mountain vineyard as a hobby and ended up quite
literally putting Chardonnay on America’s tables. His Kendall-Jackson Winery made
him a billionaire, and for more than 20 years, has bottled the most popular
premium Chardonnay in the world. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b><span style="color: #262626;"> Finally, what's the single most important change of
habit the average American can make to help reign in the problem of too much
waste</span><span style="color: #262626;">?</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>EH:</b> Rethinking
how and what we consume – and therefore what we throw away – is key. There’s no
one strategy, but there are five first steps anyone can take:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. <b>Refuse.</b> From unwanted mail-order catalogs to grossly over-packaged
produce, just refuse them. Say no to promotional key chains and tchotchkes that
come free at conferences and fundraisers. You know it’s junk, and accepting it
just encourages more. Refuse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. <b>Buy Used and Refurbished</b>. Keep resources out of the waste stream,
save money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. <b>Stop Buying Bottled Water</b>. It's a waste and a fraud.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. <b>No Plastic Grocery Bags</b>. One-use bags are the gateway drug of
waste. Go reusable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. <b>Buy Wisely, Buy Less</b>. The disposable economy wants you to think
about the price at the cash register, not what it costs to own in the long run.
That’s how we end up with cheapo DVD players that got trashed in a year and
clothes that fade and wear out after a few washes. Saving up for fewer products
that are more durable, efficient and higher quality costs less over time and
radically reduces waste. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-45034221833993236492013-09-14T12:08:00.000-07:002013-09-14T12:08:34.962-07:00Crowdfunding the Book Frog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITbCYhewV77Bwclp0v0E6kZjZ_asmNgchR9TEEcRpwbf3uBFgwd0MIaa3SVrDjzhaPrcpGO9bYjw1mAYF5JJZXmBLkh0LGGaX4lxrzmVg4XYICDKYvNjAE8j8ETP9cFW6ClroURDkjf3F/s1600/002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITbCYhewV77Bwclp0v0E6kZjZ_asmNgchR9TEEcRpwbf3uBFgwd0MIaa3SVrDjzhaPrcpGO9bYjw1mAYF5JJZXmBLkh0LGGaX4lxrzmVg4XYICDKYvNjAE8j8ETP9cFW6ClroURDkjf3F/s200/002.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvyGak2XpJ192s0xn-6S6kR46WeEmZF67OssQrj6UXZ_IfqCTr92G81G4niunjetrC-05ec5T72MRtTyZFEyNeAbFx6nxq5YhFpge9EuV0zRuNeSb7vUoO0aOmTae9CBE6AEFZs3DAL9ky/s1600/068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvyGak2XpJ192s0xn-6S6kR46WeEmZF67OssQrj6UXZ_IfqCTr92G81G4niunjetrC-05ec5T72MRtTyZFEyNeAbFx6nxq5YhFpge9EuV0zRuNeSb7vUoO0aOmTae9CBE6AEFZs3DAL9ky/s200/068.JPG" width="149" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">We--Pete and Becky--have been in the book business for a combined total of...well, let's just say it's more than thirty years and less than fifty. For most of that time we worked as general managers for a once beloved but now defunct superstore chain (we stayed until the bitter end, long after the joy and fun had died). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When the superstore finally breathed its last we decided to--gulp--open our own bookstore. We were woefully underfunded--coming in at about a third of what we really needed to put it together properly--and hilariously uneducated about the difference between being owners and managers, but we did do one clever thing: we took advantage of the liquidation of our beloved stores and obtained fixturing and inventory at rock bottom prices. Since then, every penny we've made has been poured back into inventory for the store, and in the nearly two years since opening the doors we've more than doubled it.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.45em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But now we're facing a challenge on multiple fronts, and we need help reaching the next plateau. What is the next plateau? you might ask. We need to create a store which is a true destination, one which people will happily make a special trip to get to. And in order to be that place, we need to have what people are looking for. But we have a challenge--as if the dearth of funds isn't enough--to becoming a destination store. The mall in which our store is located is losing retail business at an alarming rate; so fast, in fact, that they're lobbying to fill empty retail spaces with offices. In theory, this sounds like it might be a nice coexistence, but in reality what brings retail traffic into malls is retail stores. But we know that with the right mix of inventory--having on hand most of the books that people want and a healthy selection of books for them to discover, and having great bookish gifts and sidelines such as booklights, cards, and journals--we will be a destination in our own right and won't have to worry about the foot traffic that the mall might bring in. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;">Would you like to help? You can do so, of course, by </span><a href="http://igg.me/p/293770/x/1884118" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;">donating here</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;">. But you can also help us tremendously by spreading the word. Share </span><a href="http://igg.me/p/293770/x/1884118" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;">our link</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;"> on Facebook, on Twitter, on Google Plus. Email </span><a href="http://igg.me/p/293770/x/1884118" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;">our link</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;"> to your friends, family, coworkers, professors, classmates...pretty much anyone you can think of. And hey--when you do share, could you be sure to tell everybody why it's so important to have independent bookstores? And why, even if they don't live in the community in which our store is located, it's still in everyone's best interest to have as many bookstores around the country as possible. John Green says about paying taxes for public education: <blockquote>
...you need to remember that school is not about you. Schools do not exist for the benefit of you or the benefit of your parents; schools exist for the benefit of me. The reason I pay taxes for schools even though I don't have a kid in school is that I am better off in a well-educated world...</blockquote>
We kind of feel the same way about independent bookstores: we're all better off in a world with as many indies as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 23.1875px;">Thanks for helping us to get the word out. Keep on reading!</span></div>
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-65297116479969536222013-09-12T07:18:00.001-07:002013-09-12T07:18:41.831-07:00Yeah, We're Cool<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-14574765159550279992013-09-09T09:37:00.000-07:002013-09-09T09:37:17.119-07:00Just For Fun<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And because, you know, Amazon doesn't have <i>me</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-5008914844874996252013-09-07T11:51:00.000-07:002013-09-07T14:27:53.864-07:00Five(ish) Questions With the Author: Evelyn McDonnell<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by Brad Elterman</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Evelyn McDonnell is assistant professor of journalism and new media at Loyola Marymount University. She has been writing about popular culture and society for more than 20 years. She is the author of four books: <i>Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways, Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids and Rock ‘n’ Roll, Army of She: Icelandic, Iconoclastic, Irrepressible Bjork, </i>and<i> Rent by Jonathan Larson</i>. She coedited the anthologies <i>Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap, </i>and<i> Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth</i>. She has been the editorial director of </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.MOLI.com&h=nAQG-a6dt&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" wotsearchprocessed="true">www.MOLI.com</a>,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"> pop culture writer at <i>The Miami Herald</i>, senior editor at <i>The Village Voice</i>, and associate editor at <i>SF</i> <i>Weekly</i>. Her writing on music, poetry, theater, and culture has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including <i>The Los Angeles Times, Ms., Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin, Travel & Leisure, Us, Billboard, Vibe, Interview, Black Book, </i>and <i>Option</i>. She codirected the conference Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth at the Dia Center for the Arts in New York in 1998. She has won several fellowships and awards, including an Annenberg Fellowship at USC and a fellowship to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. Her 2004 Herald expose of hip-hop cops was awarded first place for enterprise reporting by the South Florida Black Journalists Association and second place in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine State Awards. She earned her Master’s in Specialized Journalism, the Arts, from USC, where she was chosen for the Phi Kappa Phi honor society. She earned her Bachelor’s in American studies, graduating magna cum laude from Brown University. She lives in San Pedro with her husband, son, many animals, and a fantastic view of the ocean.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Evelyn recently humored the Book Frog by giving thoughtful answers to our silly questions. </span><br />
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">BF:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"> I know you have written a lot about women in rock; what drew you to the Runaways as the subject for such an in-depth study? What did you learn during the course of your research and writing that most surprised you about the Runaways? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><b>EM: </b>I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t first of all love the music. I’m a big fan of their style of glam, punk-pop, hard rock. And their story has so many rich themes and narrative elements: awesome setting (SoCal), sensational era (the ‘70s), and a superb coming-of-age arc. I’m really happy Runaways fans have embraced the book so warmly as a balanced, comprehensive account. But I also think people who have never heard of the band can be drawn into this story of young girls becoming women under extreme circumstances, from thrilling to appalling.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">I was amazed at how hard they worked and how much they accomplished in such a short period of time, at such a young age. They toured the world multiple times and released five albums. It’s no wonder they cracked under the pressure</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>BF:</b> Favorite artist or band of all time? Favorite song? Best show you've ever been to? What can you not stop listening to lately?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>EM:</b> I have too many favorite artists and songs; I can’t choose. Shows too, though I would have to say Springsteen at the New Orleans Jazz Fest after Hurricane Katrina was an amazing moment, a concert that made me cry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>BF: </b> What's your musical guilty pleasure?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>EM: </b>I love the melody, beat, singing, and composition of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU">“Blurred Lines”</a> I just hate the lyrics. I love that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM">those New Zealand students made a parody</a> of it, so now I can sing their feminist answer record in my head.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>BF:</b> Fantasy rock band: any musicians, living or dead, of any genre. Who's on what instrument and what kind of music are they playing? Bonus question: what's the name of the band?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>EM:</b> Katell Keineg – vocals</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Tom Morello – guitar</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Carrie Brownstein - guitar and vox</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Zeena Parkins – harp</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Tito Puente – percussion</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">DJ Spam – turntables</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Jon Entwistle – bass</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Sandy West – drums</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">The Memphis Horns - horns</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>BF:</b> When you're not listening to music or writing, what do you like to read? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><b>EM: </b>Novels. I like to lose myself in an imagined narrative and world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;">Our discussion and signing with Evelyn McDonnell is Saturday, September 14, at 2 p.m. If you'd like to check out some of her writing, here's a link to her blog <i><a href="http://populismblog.wordpress.com/">Populism</a>,</i> featuring fine (and fun) writing as Evelyn "participates in participatory culture."</span></span></div>
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0Rolling Hills Estates, CA35.746512259918504 -118.8281259.5964852599185022 -160.136719 61.896539259918505 -77.519531tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-3463577061063092132013-09-05T15:56:00.000-07:002013-09-05T15:56:00.255-07:00Book Review: Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mr. Tiger is a proper Edwardian gentleman. He and his fellow creatures live properly buttoned-down lives in a properly bland city of brownstones and fountains and very little color. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Mr. Tiger decides to have some fun...to go a little wild...to find the color...the other animals tell him to head for the wilderness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So he does, and it's wonderful. For a while. But it's lonely to be the only wild creature in the great big wilderness, so Mr. Tiger heads back to the city. T</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">here he finds that things have changed and everybody's, shall we say, loosened up a bit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you're at all familiar with Peter Brown's work (<i>Chowder</i>,<i>Children Make Terrible Pets</i>, <i>The Curious Garden</i>) you already know to expect two things: gorgeous illustrations--here cunningly rendered in India ink, watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper, then put through the digital wringer for an extra bit of magic, and a little bit of subversion. As the author himself says on the dust jacket, "Hello. I am Peter Brown, and it is my professional opinion that everyone should find time to go a little wild." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Duly noted, Mr. Brown, duly noted.</span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-84003315990412922982013-09-02T12:58:00.000-07:002013-09-02T12:58:01.217-07:00Rose is a rose is a<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rose. And by any other name...</span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-82034264866481477502013-09-01T17:14:00.000-07:002013-09-05T16:02:21.013-07:00Book Review: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Roan Novachez wants nothing more than to get into Pilot Academy Middle School so that he can follow in his father's and older brother's footsteps. His friends get their letters of acceptance...and Roan's still waiting. His letter, when it finally comes, tells him that his application has been denied. "Although nearly all of the applicants are accepted to the Academy," it says, "a small number of students are rejected for various reasons." Psych!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Roan is devastated, particularly since this means instead of the Pilot Academy offworld he'll have to stay on Tatooine...and go to the Tatooine Agriculture Academy. Yuck! It's hot, dirty, and Roan's terrible at making things grow--not to mention he'll get sand in his underwear all the time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And then he gets a really weird letter, from a place he's never heard of, the Coruscant Campus of the Jedi Academy. The what? No matter--it will take Roan offworld and he won't have to kneel in the dirt under the suns of Tatooine all day long. He's in!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When he gets to middle school he meets new kids; some will be friends, a couple are bullies, and there are even some girls. He meets teachers, most of whom are pretty weird (what middle school teacher isn't at least a little weird, hm?). There's Mr. Garfield, who teaches Light Sabers and Home Economics and who's always saying things like, "A Jedi needs to be serious. Seriously. You do." And Kitmum, the Phys Ed teacher, who's a Wookie and says things like, "Raowrr!" and "Rawr." And of course, Master Yoda, who teaches Using the Force. "Young like you , I once was," and "Late for class, a Jedi is not, hmmm?" are some memorable Yoda bon mots from Roan's first week of school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He's so not sure how this is going to turn out. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But as the school year progresses Roan gets involved with the school newspaper, helps plan the school dance, and qualifies for the Lightsaber Fencing Tournament. He gets better in most of his classes, and even learns how to use the Force a little. And when he has the opportunity to reapply for the Pilot Academy Middle School at the end of the year, he thinks he'd rather stick it out at the Jedi Academy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jeffrey Brown is a cartoonist (<i>Darth Vader and Son</i>, <i>Vader's Little Princess</i>), graphic novelist, and memoirist. His first first venture into middle grade fiction is a winner. <i>Jedi Academy</i> falls nicely into the genre of diary fiction popularized by Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series, alternating first person journal entries, letters from home, third person cartoon panels in graphic novel format, lists, and Roan's own cartoons for the school newspaper (<i>The Padawan Observer</i>). A perfect read for the eight- to ten-year-old set, who will find it hilarious, and who will learn--without even realizing they're learning--methods for coping with tough classes, bullies, and new situations in general. Brown even ends the book with some great tips for keeping a journal--write at least ten words a day, include drawings, clippings, photos...and don't hesitate to record the embarrassing stuff, because it'll seem way less embarrassing and maybe even funnier that way. Advice to live by!</span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-32095140033941310682013-08-25T11:04:00.002-07:002013-08-25T16:41:12.374-07:00Five(ish) Questions With the Author: Cat Spydell<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cat Spydell is the owner and publisher--which means she's also editor, proofreader, chief hand-holder and marketer--of a small press called World Nouveau. Cat's a writer and a mom. She takes in stray and abandoned creatures of all sorts--pigs, goats, (and maybe fairies?)--at Pixie Dust Ranch, where she also lives and works. Cat's a local activist who's taking her activism to the next level in her current bid for a seat on the City Council</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cat is one busy woman.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But we got her to slow down for a few moments to talk about her newest book, <i>The Fairies of Feyllan</i>, which she'll be discussing and signing at the Book Frog on Saturday, August 31st, at 1 p.m.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b> Why fairies? What was your inspiration to write <i>The Fairies of Feyllan</i>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>CS:</b>I love writing about mysteries I wonder about, like aliens, mermaids, time travel, and Bigfoot. I wrote a movie script about Bigfoot and a book called <i>The Time Traveler’s Apprentice at Hollywood High</i> that started with the premise: What if aliens are just time traveling humans from the future? The idea of writing about fairies started the same way; I wondered about them and as I thought about what they might be like if they were real the answers came to me in the form of a fantasy novel. Many questions about fairies are answered in <i>The Fairies of Feyllan</i>; I address the concept of “brownies”, of the Cottingley fairies, of pixie dust…all those mystical elements are brought up in the book because it was fun to write about those things and think about them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b> If you could have a drink with one character from all of literature who would it be? And what character would you cross the street to avoid?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>CS:</b> This is a great question! I am the biggest Tolkien fan, so I would have to say that ultimately Gandalf the wizard is the one I would wish to have a drink with, because wizards are endlessly fascinating and you can probably learn a thing or two from talking with them. The one character I would cross the street to avoid would be Dolores Umbridge from the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter. She is one of the most horrible characters with no redeeming qualities. I was so repulsed by her character and her actions when I read <i>The Order of the Phoenix</i> initially.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b> Does music fuel your writing? If so, what were you listening to (or hearing in your head) as you wrote <i>The Fairies of Feyllan</i>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>CS:</b> Music absolutely fuels my writing, and my soul. I go to hear live music at least once a week and often more. I found myself listening to "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin repeatedly while writing the book, which seemed to correlate with parts of my story line. Such as:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Oh war is the common cry, pick up your swords and fly./</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The sky is filled with good and bad that mortals never know./</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Oh well, the night is long the beads of time pass slow,/</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A lot of different kinds of music inspired me while writing <i>The Fairies of Feyllan</i> such as Celtic music.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b> What book do you wish you had written? What book do you wish you liked more than you did? What book could you simply not finish?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>CS:</b> I wish I had written <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> because of the complexity of the world that Tolkien created. The fact that he had a complex language and maps and geography and entire histories created for his book (I consider it one book even though it is sold as a trilogy) is a phenomenal feat. I leaned heavily on the inspiration that Tolkien provides when I wrote <i>The Fairies of Feyllan</i>, so I do have a lot of backstory in the book about the fairies’ genealogy, history, and general origins, but nothing near the amount of vast wealth of addendum material Tolkien provides. Regarding which book I wish I liked better, it would have to be Tom Robbins’ <i>Another Roadside Attraction</i>. Such genius writing! I wish I could write like that. There is a description of a character that says (he) “…has a grin like a beer barrel polka. A ding-dong daddy grin. A Brooklyn Dodger grin. A grin you could wear to a Polish wedding. His smile walks in in woolly socks and suspenders and asks to borrow the funny papers. You could trap rabbits with it…”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And that’s just a partial description of just the character’s smile. Wow, that is some brave writing. But as much as I enjoy the writing and find it to be genius, I can’t follow the plot of that book easily. Regarding which book I simply couldn’t finish, there is one that stands out: <i>Twilight</i>. As an editor I found myself working too hard to read it so I gave up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>BF:</b> Which of your characters do you relate to the most, and--of course--why?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>CS: </b>It is hard to say, because all of my characters are a part of me, but the main character Varia is the one I relate to the most. The way that she lets her curiosity and conviction get her into intense situations that she must master describes my life pretty well. She often finds herself in scenarios she didn’t plan, such as allowing a baby dragon to imprint on her which causes her all kinds of trouble, but she just takes life by the horns and manages to turn unfortunate situations to her advantage. She is one of those “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” types and I feel like that is a creed I live by as well. Staying positive and making the best of things is a trait we share.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-1481804237338484572013-08-22T10:33:00.001-07:002013-08-22T15:43:36.663-07:00Book Review: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman<div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's been said before--and by writers far more talented and infinitely better known than I--but, after reading </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Good Omens </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(yes, for the first time, how is it possible?) I have to repeat it: the apocalypse has never been--and I'll hazard a guess never will be again--more fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From the <i>Omen-</i>esque opening sequence, in which a gaggle of well--er, ill-meaning satanic nuns bumble a baby switch involving two newborn human boys and the anti-Christ, on through the good-natured rivalry between the two angels (one of God, one fallen) who have the job of ushering in the apocalypse for their respective sides, and up to and including the actual event, the fun never stops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No synopsis, no analysis, just this: if you haven't read <i>Good Omens </i>yet, you should. You won't be disappointed. And if you have read it, well, don't you think it's time for a reread?</span></div>
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-54571401826572031652013-07-26T10:58:00.003-07:002013-07-27T10:01:34.124-07:00Favorite Bookish Miscellany of the Week--26 July 2013<h3>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Kennedys' Lifelong Love Affair...With Books</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thurston Clarke (<i>JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President</i>) writes in <i>WSJ Speakeasy</i> blog about "<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/07/25/how-books-helped-transform-jfks-presidency/">JFK and Jackie's Secret Life Between the Covers</a>." That's the covers of books, and what a fascinating piece--and charming story--it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Man Booker Prize 2013--the Longlist</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The longlist for the 2013 Man Booker Prize has just been announced; the headline in the <i>Guardian </i> sums it up perfectly: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/23/booker-prize-longlist-daring-experimental?CMP=twt_fd">"Booker prize longlist is daring and experimental,"</a> and although it contains titles by known quantities such as Jhumpa Lahiri, whose new book isn't out until September, and Jim Crace, it also contains several debut novels, and one which was published first as an e-book. And among the missing are Kate Atkinson, whose <i>Life After Life</i> has been both a critics' darling and a commercial success. <i>The Guardian</i> also published <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2013/jul/23/man-booker-international-prize-2013-booker-prize">an awesome slideshow of the covers </a>of all of the nominated titles (many of which, it must be noted, haven't been published this side of the pond yet). And, for those, like me, intrigued by the English propensity to make book on pretty much anything,<a href="http://www.nicerodds.co.uk/man-booker-prize"> it's happening, with Jim Crace (as of this date) being the frontrunner at 6 to 1.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nancy Lambert over at Tor.com (a great place for geekishness of all sorts, not just the bookish kind) wrangled a <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/summer-reading-list-picks-from-the-creative-team-behind-pixars-the-blue-umbrella?utm_source=newsletter-">summer reading list from the Pixar creative team</a> behind <i>The Blue Umbrella</i>, the studio's latest short. And Jason Boog at GalleyCat shared<a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bill-gates-summer-reading-list_b74523"> Bill Gates's picks</a>. NPR had lists from authors<a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/07/22/195925901/hidden-gems-5-summer-books-that-deserve-more-fanfare?utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20130725&utm_source=books"> Meg Wolitzer</a> (<i>The Interestings</i>--loved it!), and <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/07/25/203610626/fact-behind-the-fiction-5-great-historicals-for-summer?utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20130725&utm_source=books">Jean Zimmerman</a> (<i>The Orphanmaster</i>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vince Flynn's Final, Unfinished Novel Postponed</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vince Flynn, who died last month after a long battle with prostate cancer, left his final novel, to be titled <i>The Survivor</i>, unfinished. Although we were originally told it would be published on schedule in the fall, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2013/07/25/publication-of-flynns-unfinished-novel-delayed">US News and World Report</a></i> reported </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2013/07/25/publication-of-flynns-unfinished-novel-delayed">yesterday </a>that the novel would be postponed indefinitely. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bookish Movie News</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Finally--the trailer for <i><b>The Hunger Games: Catching Fire</b></i> (or, as we in the book world know it, <i>Catching Fire</i>):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The trailer for <i><b>The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones</b></i>...it's not new, but it goes nicely with the above:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No official trailer yet for <i><b>Divergent</b></i>--although, apparently, fans at last week's ComicCon got a sneak preview, but <i>Entertainment Weekly</i> had a photo spread a few weeks ago, so we'll <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20647938_20710639,00.html">throw that link in</a>, too ('cause it fits thematically).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On a more raunchy note, casting continues for the <i><b>Fifty Shades of Grey</b></i> movie. <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/garrett-hedlund-rejected-lead-role-in-fifty-shades-of-grey-ian-somerhalder-not-a-contender-2013267"><i>US Weekly</i> tells us that</a> some actors I've never heard of--because I'm not young and not hip, not because of any real lack of name recognition on their parts--have turned down the role of the naughty billionaire Christian Grey. But they've got a director--hooray!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do you have a favorite book-related news story to share? Link it up in the comments below!</span><br />
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-22949016137145452232013-07-21T16:47:00.000-07:002013-07-21T16:48:27.752-07:00Book Review: Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUznADMgQmzxeo44q2Egg56DHhUzQLLJFdryRqAJ3VRNlK4oCtsDTRHFK4KAKRiRyo9mKm74edvqn9Atqs1MO1nGDajMJfu47ZvDcp9TfM-ubVuq8HDEtbG8MDwNADZb7n5Hx3YUFLh6cC/s1600/tyrannus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUznADMgQmzxeo44q2Egg56DHhUzQLLJFdryRqAJ3VRNlK4oCtsDTRHFK4KAKRiRyo9mKm74edvqn9Atqs1MO1nGDajMJfu47ZvDcp9TfM-ubVuq8HDEtbG8MDwNADZb7n5Hx3YUFLh6cC/s1600/tyrannus.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I went through an extended phase--mid-teens through mid-twenties or so--where my reading selections were painstakingly, self-consciously chosen from the canon--classic, modern, post-modern. I read voraciously (dozens and dozens of titles which I would have done better to wait and read as a more mature person) and almost exclusively chose titles I thought would, well, make me look smart. Ah, callow youth! I remember an </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">instance when I was living at home and my dad came into my room </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91tDteOaU9SJ0VD1RVuLJfHb0kaMApn9UoqwqzyywYaah-zRGpCdVjLig7zAhReVNeYBQeZAUwQuO76nf4gUOBGAF5_8vHD-9u94sNDrPYsBXOAHlPmUNlxVQDY4_dIw2mmmbg9iGtHo6/s1600/pricks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91tDteOaU9SJ0VD1RVuLJfHb0kaMApn9UoqwqzyywYaah-zRGpCdVjLig7zAhReVNeYBQeZAUwQuO76nf4gUOBGAF5_8vHD-9u94sNDrPYsBXOAHlPmUNlxVQDY4_dIw2mmmbg9iGtHo6/s200/pricks.jpg" width="132" /></a></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">to say good-bye before he and my mom went out. I was waiting for a couple of friends to come over, and dad slyly noted the Ferlinghetti--<i><a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/389527/book/33562836">Tyrannus Nix?</a></i>,</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;"> which I still own--I had carefully/casually tossed on the table next to my reading </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">chair. I blushed in recognition of my own pretentiousness, but left the volume where it was. I also shopped for books in this manner--how else would I have books of literary merit to strew about if not for the Grove Press, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">Evergreen, and New Directions paperbacks I bought every time I walked into a used book store? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">Of the hundreds of books I read and mostly forgot during those</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;"> years a few did manage to leave their imprint. Of those few, the one that I kept going back to, reading and rereading, the one that I claimed as favorite, the one that inspired me to pursue the author's too-small body of work (and everything I could find about that body of work), was <i>Gravity's Rainbow</i>. I've long since abandoned any literary pretensions--I read what I want, regardless of genre, and other people's opinions be damned--but I still love this book and wait eagerly for each of Pynchon's infrequent new ones. I don't always manage to finish them (you know his oeuvre--I'll leave you to imagine which ones didn't do it for me), but when Pynchon has a hit with me, it's a smash.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">All of which leads me to <i>Bleeding Edge</i>. It's set in the very early aughts, from just after the dot-com bubble bust till just after the events of 9/11. Maxine Tarnow--mother of two, more or less divorced, lifetime denizen of Manhattan--is a rogue fraud investigator (she investigates corporate fraud...but, since her license was yanked, in an unofficial sort of way). As the book opens she's drawn into an investigation of hashslingrz.com, a company--run by a charismatic if shady gazillionaire named Gabriel Ice--that survived the bust fairly spectacularly. Her investigation--conducted while juggling the ferrying of her two boys back and forth to school, hosting (and all that that implies) her ex who's back in town, nursing an unholy attraction to a black ops government guy who is probably an assassin, and playing video games--takes her to the Deep Web (it's a thing--I looked it up!--and it's vast and scary and truly Pynchonian in the immensity of its scope and the darkness of its depths), the interstitial areas of New York landmarks, and beyond.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">Maxine's journey is much like that of her predecessor, Oedipa Maas. As she pursues her quest she's drawn into an underworld full of true believers--hackers and gamers and developers--and fanatics, paranoids and conspiracy theorists, scenes of crystalline, hallucinatory beauty, and of abject horror. The more she unravels the mystery the deeper it gets and the more she's drawn into it. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">And then 9/11 happens, and my ability to synopsize collapses in on itself.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">Pynchon's eye and ear are keen, his descriptions hilarious and devastating, his prose breathtakingly beautiful. There are the striving yuppies of the 80s, who by <i>Bleeding Edge's</i> time have [d]evolved into "Yups." A visit to Ikea, which makes one shudder in recognition: "Exits are clearly marked but impossible to get to." And his take on post 9/11 New York, which is quietly, painfully scathing. "Child choirs from churches and schools around town are booked weeks in advance for solemn performances at 'Ground Zero,' with 'America the Beautiful' and 'Amazing Grace' being musical boilerplate at these events." </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;"><i>Bleeding Edge</i> is, like <i>Vineland</i>, like <i>Inherent Vice</i>, deceptive in its accessibility. You're reading along, enjoying the zaniness of the cast of characters and the wackiness of the assorted acronyms and movements and pop cultural phenomena that Pynchon creates, reveling in his language and how easy he makes it all seem, and then it hits you: this is some deep shit. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: center;">Just because it's trite doesn't make it any less true: the post-internet, post-9/11 world is hell and gone from the world that came before, and Pynchon's the best guide yet to help to put it in perspective. And you get to have so much fun along the way. <i>That's</i> why I love Pynchon so much.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-34604058954030605342013-07-19T11:14:00.000-07:002013-07-19T11:14:31.084-07:00Favorite Bookish Miscellany of the Week--19 July 2013<h3>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">J.K. Rowling Outed as Author of "Debut" Thriller</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The most exciting story in the book world this week--in the opinion of this humble reader--is the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-cuckoos-calling-by-robert-galbraith-jk-rowlings-secret-bestseller-8707707.html">outing of J.K. Rowling</a> as the author of crime novel <i>The Cuckoo's Calling</i> by first-time author Robert Galbraith. The book, which had a small first printing, is sold out everywhere, and has <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/58264-cuckoo-s-calling-gets-300k-print-run-as-booksellers-fans-scramble-for-copies.html">gone back to press</a> for a second printing of 300,000. Who leaked the news? <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/books/a-detective-storys-famous-author-is-unmasked.html?hp&_r=0">Rowling expressed dismay</a> that her identity had been revealed, and speculation was that Rowling's publisher or agent may have done so as a buzz feeder but no, <a href="https://www.thebookseller.com/news/law-firm-admits-leaking-galbraith-identity.html">it turns out it was a friend of the wife of a solicitor </a>at the law firm representing her. Presumably, heads will roll. Not only were booksellers and readers desperately scrambling to find copies, but hilarity was ensuing all over the interwebs, as Rowling was<a href="http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/jk-rowling-recorded-two-dubstep-albums-as-burial-2013071575752"> outed as dubstep producer</a> Burial and then--wheels within wheels--<a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/jk-rowling-revealed-to-be-pseudonym-for-newt-gingr,33122/">Newt Gingrich was outed as Rowling</a>. Some even got into the <a href="http://www.bookish.com/articles/other-pseudonymous-j-k-rowling-books-to-watch-out-for?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Newsletter%20Sign-Ups%20-%20Passive&utm_campaign=Friday%20Update%207%20-%20Passive">prediction business, regaling us with speculation</a> as to what ol' Jo will do next.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I know I can't wait to read <i>The Cuckoo's Calling</i>. If you're eager to read it and want to reserve your copy from the Book Frog, you can either <a href="http://thebookfrog.com/">go to our webstore</a> and pre-order it, or give us a call at the store (310.265.2665) and have us hold a copy for you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BookVibe--a New App for Booklovers</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/test-run-bookvibe-picks-up-the-buzz-on-books/">From the <i>New York Times</i> Bits blog</a>, news of an app that will scour the accounts you follow on Twitter for book news. I just finished reading the article and so haven't had a chance to investigate the app for myself...but I'll let you know when I do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Big Idea: Chris Kluwe</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you don't follow author John Scalzi's (<i>Redshirts</i>, <i>The Human Division</i>) blog <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/"><i>Whatever</i></a>, you really should. Scalzi's a free-ranging kind of a blogger, roving from social issues to science fiction fandom to his own work to...whatever. On a semi-regular basis he turns the blog over to somebody else for a "big idea" column, and this week football player (I'm told he's a punter, tho' I've no idea what that means) Chris Kluwe takes over the keyboard. Kluwe--who crashed into my field of vision with the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kluwe/an-open-letter-to-emmett-burns_b_1866216.html">amazing letter he wrote in the <i>Huffington Post</i></a> in support of a fellow footballer who'd been censured for coming out in favor of marriage equality--recently published <i>Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies</i>, a collection of essays and musings. <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/07/18/the-big-idea-chris-kluwe/">Please read his Big Idea column</a>, then be sure to <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/">follow Scalzi's blog</a>. Oh, then come in and buy the book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That's it for this week...I decided on the spur of the moment to implement this new weekly feature, and so hadn't really been saving up articles to share. More next Friday!</span></div>
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Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4170629471427858872.post-56441537429581741452013-07-16T15:54:00.000-07:002013-07-16T18:07:01.521-07:00Book Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vampires. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Once upon a time I enjoyed Anne Rice's sexy, brooding, glamorous vampires. I loved Matt Haig's suburban vamps in <a href="http://thebookfrog.blogspot.com/2011/01/merrily-merrily-merrily-merrily-radleys.html"><i>The Radleys</i></a>; his portrayal of an abstaining vampire family and their struggles to fit into the vanilla world of everyday life was a funny and incisive take on contemporary society. And I like the feral vampiric creatures of Justin Cronin's <i>The Passage</i>. I even kind of like the vampires that <a href="http://thebookfrog.blogspot.com/2008/09/dead-until-dark-is-delightful-romp.html">Sookie Stackhouse</a> plays with in Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series (and I <i>really</i> like Sookie, who's a tough little cookie). But Stephenie Meyer's glittery Twilight vampires and the vapid Bella, she of the ever-dimishing returns, pretty much ruined them for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm happy to report that Holly Black, in her latest novel <i>The Coldest Girl in Coldtown</i>, has restored the allure of the vampire for me. It opens with a bang--blood, death, white-knuckled heart-racing terror--as 17-year-old Tana Bach awakens cotton-mouthed, muzzy-headed, and hungover in a bathtub. As the previous night's sundown party--that's a party that goes into lockdown at sunset, because of the curfew...and the vampires, doncha know--comes back to her, she's somewhat relieved. At least she's still wearing her clothes, and she's pretty sure she didn't do anything, besides playing a stupid drinking game, to regret. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">'Tis a pity, then, that the morning's dead silence is quickly shattered by--the silence of the dead. That's right, the dead, who were once Tana's friends and are now strewn about the floor in pools of their own blood, crumpled among their own entrails, room after room full of the dead. But as it turns out Tana isn't the last living person at the party; she stumbles into a darkened bedroom (opaque garbage bags duct-taped to the windows to keep the rising sun out) and discovers her ex-boyfriend, the very pretty, very charming, Aidan tied to the bed. Nearby, also trussed up, is a ruby-eyed vampire boy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Things start happening very fast and Tana makes the decision that any honorable, brave, foolhardy person would: she races to save these two dangerous men--oh yes, Aidan's been bitten and all he needs is a good drink of human blood to complete the transformation to vampire. See, that's how it works. You get bit, you get the hunger, and you either feed and turn or sweat it out for eighty-eight days and get cured. During that time between infection and cure (or curse) one is said to be cold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Which leads us to Coldtown. Coldtowns--for there are a number of them across the United States--are places where vampires and the infected and wannabes live in gloriously, glamorously, unabashed debauchery. If you're infected, death or Coldtown are your options. Either way, it's a life sentence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tana's journey involves getting from death scene to death scene--and what a glorious scene Coldtown is!-- with her passengers intact and her humanity unscathed. And, maybe, to kill a couple of vampires. And keep her little sister Pearl safe. Falling in love would be nice, too, although it's not even a blip on her radar for most of the story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Holly Black has given us an original, well-written, and only very occasionally angsty novel, which has all of the great vampire tropes--immense beauty and power, behavior that's at best amoral, at worst evil, and one of my favorites, aversion to sunlight--without being cliched. Tana is a great heroine: strong, loyal, persistent, honest, funny, and not at all enthralled by the idea of being subsumed by a man, be he human or vampire...which may be the most important quality of all in the heroine of a young adult novel. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A quick note on the audience for <i>The Coldest Girl in Coldtown</i>: the publisher classifies it for ages fifteen and up, and I concur. The overt violence is minimal (but present), but the descriptions of its aftermath--delicious though they may be--are often over-the-top and quite graphic. There's an awful lot of talk about kissing, but no actual sex, and the language is fairly tame. If your young reader is under fifteen, make sure she or he will be okay with the gross-out factor.</span>Rebecca Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497012798954379217noreply@blogger.com1