A Rant in B(&N) minor

It's disappointing, to say the least, when you get an email from Barnes and Noble touting the "Top 10 New Arrivals" only to find out they're talking about toys - not books. Yes, the top 10 new toys at Barnes and Noble - a BOOK store. feh.


Addendum [August 31, 2010]

One day after receiving the above mentioned email, I read several articles that don't bode well for the big book store chains. 

1. Although it was announced over a year ago, it looks like Borders, too, is following through on its promise to reserve more floor space for toys. Following in B&Ns footsteps Borders released this statement: "Families shopping for books, CDs, and DVDs for children at Borders can also now enjoy newly expanded toys and games sections in over 500 superstores across the United States...." And yesterday, from Bloomberg, came this little nugget, "Borders Group Inc., the second- largest U.S. bookstore chain, will start selling items from Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc., relying less on books for sales as more people use electronic reading devices."
2. Speaking of "electronic reading devices" - Borders announced a price cut in its Kobo reader, further fueling the e-reader pricing war that was heating up between B&N and Amazon. CNET reports today that "Effective immediately, the Kobo eReader will retail for $129 (a $20 reduction), and the Aluratek Libre will cost $99.99 (down from $119). Both devices can be used to read books from Borders e-book store (which, in turn, is powered by Kobo)." Borders, like B&N, plans to set up and sell eReaders and eBooks in their stores. Bloomsberg reports that "Next month the book retailer also plans to open departments that will sell as many as six digital book readers... these areas will have seating for shoppers to test the products." It seems now that printed book sales are plummeting, brick and mortar stores are trying to fill up their retail space with whatever can keep them afloat...
3. Perhaps not fast enough though. Two big announcements this week are the closing of a major Borders store in San Francisco, and the closing of the "massive" Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center in New York. The New York Daily News sums it up, "In a blow for book lovers, Barnes & Noble will close its store near Lincoln Center and its chief rival plans to start selling Build-A-Bear kits to stay in business.
   The double dose of bad news comes as the bookselling industry sees fewer customers browsing the aisles and more shopping and reading online."
   
   
   

Ron Charles Reviews My Hollywood by Mona Simpson

Subterranean Press: More Limited Editions

An update from Subterranean Press: They apparently had such overwhelming demand for China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, signed Limited Edition that they are extending the print run to 350 (from 250). They're also extending the discount ($100 instead of $125) until August 31. So, if you're a Miéville fan, & you didn't take advantage of this last time, here's your second chance.


Also on their horizon:

Jay Lake's collection, The Sky That Wraps.


Book review from San Francisco Book Review: 

"Jay Lake is a first-class wordsmith, an author who relishes the possibilities of language, utilizing words to their utmost to craft incredibly detailed worlds both hauntingly familiar and mind-bogglingly different. From a desolate prison to dense cityscapes, from rooftops to cemeteries, from Shakespeare in space to ghosts in small-town Texas, The Sky That Wraps meanders along the creative spectrum, lovingly realized with linguistic aplomb." 

Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies: $40

Book of the Week: C, Tom McCarthy

C, Tom McCarthy

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group (Sept. 7, 2010)

Long listed for the Man-Booker Prize.

Synopsis:

The acclaimed author of Remainder, which Zadie Smith hailed as one of the great English novels of the past ten years,gives us his most spectacularly inventive novel yet.

Opening in England at the turn of the twentieth century, C is the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax, whose father spends his time experimenting with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence with his brilliant but troubled older sister, Sophie: an intense sibling relationship that stays with him as he heads off into an equally troubled larger world.

After a fling with a nurse at a Bohemian spa, Serge serves in World War I as a radio operator for reconnaissance planes. When his plane is shot down, Serge is taken to a German prison camp, from which he escapes. Back in London, he's recruited for a mission to Cairo on behalf of the shadowy Empire Wireless Chain. All of which eventually carries Serge to a fitful--and perhaps fateful--climax at the bottom of an Egyptian tomb . . .

Only a writer like Tom McCarthy could pull off a story with this effortless historical breadth, psychological insight, and postmodern originality.

You can read a review of the book here.

Goodreads readers are giving it a 3.33 out of 5 stars

• U.K. first edition, published by Jonathan Cape, Ltd. (August 5, 2010) lists for $20-$40 (unsigned); $40-$80 (signed).
• First U.S. & Canadian editions will be released September 7, 2010.

In The Post

The Petting Zoo, Jim Carroll
Publisher: Viking Adult, 11/04/2010 
Pages: 336 
Recommended age: 17+


Only one book in the mail this week, but I am terribly excited about it.  This is Jim Carroll's last book, finished just before he died of a heart attack last year, at the age of 60.  Carroll, is perhaps best known for his 1978 autobiography The Basketball Diaries, which was turned into a movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in 1995.


This title made it onto PW, The Rumpus, and NY Magazine's most anticipated book lists.


Description

A moving, vividly rendered novel from the late author of The Basketball Diaries.

When poet, musician, and diarist Jim Carroll died in September 2009, he was putting the finishing touches on a potent work of fiction. The Petting Zoo tells the story of Billy Wolfram, an enigmatic thirty- eight-year-old artist who has become a hot star in the late-1980s New York art scene. As the novel opens, Billy, after viewing a show of Velázquez paintings, is so humbled and awed by their spiritual power that he suffers an emotional breakdown and withdraws to his Chelsea loft. In seclusion, Billy searches for the divine spark in his own work and life. Carroll's novel moves back and forth in time to present emblematic moments from Billy's life (his Irish Catholic upbringing, his teenage escapades, his evolution as an artist and meteoric rise to fame) and sharply etched portraits of the characters who mattered most to him, including his childhood friend Denny MacAbee, now a famous rock musician; his mentor, the unforgettable art dealer Max Bernbaum; and one extraordinary black bird. Marked by Carroll's sharp wit, hallucinatory imagery, and street-smart style, The Petting Zoo is a frank, haunting examination of one artist's personal and professional struggles.

About the Author

Jim Carroll's bestselling memoir The Basketball Diaries was first released in 1978 and adapted as a film in 1995. Carroll's work includes several collections of poetry as well as a second memoir, Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971-1973.

Book Review: Glimpse, Carol Lynch Williams

Glimpse, Carol Lynch Williams


Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (June 22, 2010)
Genre: Young Adult
Age: 9th Grade and Up
Rating: 4 1/2 stars

From the Cover: "Just a year apart, the Chapman girls were as close as sisters could be. Hope could always count on Lizzie, and Lizzie could always count on Hope -- always.  But even sisters have secrets. BIG Secrets. And if Lizzie has her way, she'll take the biggest secret of all to her grave. With Lizzie in lockdown can Hope discover the truth and save her sister, or is it already too late?"

This novel-in-verse is told through the eyes of Hope, the younger of two sisters, as she tries to piece together "when it all went wrong." The story starts out with her walking in on her sister Lizzie, holding a shotgun - the point where everything changes in Hope's life. The fact that this book starts out with a suicide attempt should tell you the tone of the book, but initially, we are as confused as Hope as to what is going on.  As Lizzie is taken away, and we watch Hope slowly put the pieces together, we begin to see glimpses into the life she has with her protective sister, abusive mother, and caring friends. Even if she doesn't quite understand what all the pieces mean, we (the reader) do.

In the end, we are left, just in real life, without a resolution (there's no Harry Potter defeating the bad guy) - but all the building blocks are there for these two girls to heal, so we are left feeling hopeful.

This is not as dark a read as Go Ask Alice or Cruddy (which both left me feeling pretty cruddy), even though the subject matter is just as dark. Glimpse gives us glimpses into an abusive life, but it also leaves us with a sense of Hope (dualistically).

I highly recommend this book. For parents of teen-agers, I would suggest reading it with your child (as I would with any book dealing with harder topics). I'd also recommend this book for anyone who likes novels-in-verse, and designers & typophiles (typography lovers).

Amazon readers give it 5 stars

A Report from My [not so] Weekly Trip to the Bookstore...

Okay, so I didn't go to the used bookstore today, although I had every intention of doing so. Instead, I figured, I would go to Barnes & Noble - not to buy anything, mind you, just to see what (other than Mockingjay) they had on display.


Of course Mockingjay was on display everywhere, and at least five teenagers were plopped down devouring the book - one girl was over half way through (I can't imagine how long she'd been sitting there reading). And, while curious about the trilogy, I was not about to buy a copy without having first read Hunger Games and Catching Fire (even at 20% off).


Instead, I perused the New Fiction section (like always), and not finding much new since my last visit, I ambled down the various aisles looking for books to jump out at me. I noticed China Miéville's Kraken had moved from the New Fiction section back to Science Fiction, and Jacob De Zoet was no longer prominently displayed (although they had a ba-jillion copies).


So, the books that jumped out at me:


Shift, Tim Kring & Dale Peck. (Crown. August 10, 2010). 368 pages.


I'm a little embarrassed by this first one, since I'm not really a fan of Heroes, but the premise was an interesting one. And, the fact is, it has jumped off the shelf at me on subsequent visits, so I can't really ignore it any longer (although I tried). Of the six listed, it is the only one that has gotten a less than stellar review.

At the start of this unsuspenseful alternative history thriller from TV screenwriter and producer Kring (Heroes) and Peck (Body Surfing), 1,963 people see an apparition of an oversized flaming boy in the Dallas sky at 11:22 a.m. on December 30, 2012. These numbers correspond to the year, month, and day of President Kennedy's assassination. Flashback to Cambridge, Mass., in October 1963: an attractive woman in the pay of the CIA seduces Harvard grad student Chandler Forrestal, a nephew of Truman's defense secretary, so she can slip him some LSD. The Company believes the drug allows those who take it to access a secret part of the brain known as the Gate of Orpheus. The authors score points for originality in mixing LSD with the events and usual suspects, including the Mafia and J. Edgar Hoover, leading up to Dealey Plaza and the fatal day, but their implausible hidden history of how the world works never coheres. [PW]

Amazon readers give it 3 1/2 stars. 

The Man Who Never Returned, Peter Quinn. (Overlook Hardcover. August 5, 2010). 336 pages.

Quinn delivers a satisfying solution to the real-life mystery of Joseph Crater, a New York City judge who disappeared in 1930, in this stellar hard-boiled historical, a sequel to The Hour of the Cat (2005). In 1955, a New York newspaper magnate offers PI Fintan Dunne carte blanche to investigate the case in the hope that Dunne will provide him with a sensational exclusive. Crater vanished just as an official inquiry into judicial corruption, ordered by then governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was getting underway. Perhaps Crater fled to avoid prosecution--or someone bumped him off because he knew too much. Restless in retirement, Dunne accepts the offer, despite his skepticism that such a cold trail can be meaningfully pursued. Quinn not only makes the existence of clues at such a late date plausible but also concocts an explanation that's both logical and surprising. The depth and complexity of the lead character is a big plus. [PW starred review].

Amazon readers give it 4 1/2 stars


Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles, Kira Henehan. Milkweed Editions (May 4, 2010). 256 pages. (paperback).

Winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, first-time novelist Henehan explores free will and memory in a screwball world where anything is possible and nothing is certain. On a mysterious mission to interrogate an enigmatic puppeteer named Professor Uppal, Finley, an investigator who is hyperaware of her personality but knows nothing of her past, keeps a scrupulous and candid account of her research. Along with eccentric colleagues Murphy, The Lamb, and Binelli, Finley who keeps a pet snake in a satchel, competes with Uppal’s stunning daughter—a professional muse—for her boyfriend’s attention, and treads vast expanses of gravel in order to eat copious amounts of shrimp. Amidst all her absurd digressions, Finley’s investigation seems to crumble beneath a landslide of further questions, but soon her toils reveal answers, not regarding her assignment but about her own inexplicable history. In playfully measured prose, Henehan’s poignant farce evokes Beckett and her world is as funny and inventive as that of George Saunders, but her bold voice and tenderness make for something entirely original, entertaining, and well worth the read. --[Jonathan Fullmer, Booklist]

Amazon readers give it 4 stars


The Last Talk with Lola Faye, Thomas H. Cook. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. July 7, 2010). 288 pages.

In this tightly coiled, intellectual drama, Cook ( The Chatham School Affair) unwinds a marvelously tense story of belated redemption. While in St. Louis for a book tour, Luke Page, a middle-aged writer of lackluster histories, agrees to meet with a long-forgotten acquaintance, the "little hayseed tramp" he believes triggered a bloody tragedy that befell his family decades earlier. The story alternates between Luke's recollections of his hometown; the "heady ambition" of the despicably cruel, contemptuous younger Luke, who wants to go to Harvard and gets swept up "in the lethal tide of [his] own grand dream"; and the numb, disillusioned academic who sits down for a drink with Lola Faye Gilroy. A vertiginous precipice eventually materializes in front of Luke, who must finally confront the true nature of his father's heinous murder and its equally tragic aftermath. The younger Luke is without a doubt one of the more convincing modern villains, a single-minded overachiever devoured by raging oedipal loathing and equally consumed by narcissistic ambition. [PW, starred review]

 Amazon readers give it 4 stars.


Tutankhamun: The Book of Shadows, Nick Drake. (Harper. June 29, 2010). 384 pages.

At the start of Drake's superlative middle book in his ancient Egypt trilogy (after Nefertiti), Rahotep, the chief detective in the Thebes police force, visits a horrific crime scene. Someone has mutilated a young man and removed his eyes—and possibly pacified him with narcotics during the assault. When the killer strikes again, Rahotep wonders if the murders may be connected with efforts to destabilize the regime of the young Tutankhamun. The ruler's foes include Ay, the regent who effectively runs the country, and Horemheb, commander of the country's armies. Rahotep must tread carefully to identify the parties behind both the killings and the threats to Tutankhamun without jeopardizing his life and the lives of his family members. Drake seamlessly introduces a serial killer plot line into his vivid evocation of the past. Admirers of such great historical novelists as Robert Graves and Mary Renault will hope that he continues working in the field after concluding this series. [PW. starred review]

 Amazon readers give it 5 stars.


Junkyard Dogs (Walt Longmire Mysteries), Craig Johnson. (Viking Adult. May 27, 2010). 320 pages.

Johnson's sixth mystery featuring Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire (after 2009's Dark Horse) will remind readers that a big city isn't necessary for a compelling crime story and enduring hero. One blizzardy February day, Walt and his deputies—Victoria Moretti and Santiago Saizarbitoria—visit the Durant, Wyo., dump, owned by the Stewart family, to investigate a severed thumb found in a discarded cooler. There they discover that the Stewart family patriarch, George, was almost killed after someone dragged him behind a '68 Toronado. Walt winds up playing peacemaker between the cantankerous Stewarts, longtime Durant residents, and the owner of a new housing development bordering the junkyard. When a search of the dump unearths a surprising side business and two deaths follow, Walt realizes he has bigger problems on his hands. Series fans as well as newcomers will cheer the laconic Walt every step of the way. [PW]

Amazon readers give it 4 1/2 stars.

Is it an Iron Will or just poverty?

Okay, not "poverty," I think we can all agree that I am not living in a hovel or lacking in foodstuffs, but still. I'm broke and I have an addiction to feed. *sigh* It is taking every ounce of strength to NOT go to the used bookstore. feh.

YA Sci-Fi Collectibles

The Huffington Post, yesterday, released its list of "9 Best Science Fiction Novels For Young Adults Besides 'Mockingjay'" stating:

In case you haven't heard, "Mockingjay," the third and final installment in Suzanne Collins' super-smash "Hunger Games" series, hit bookstores this Tuesday. But long before Collins made a splash with her science-fiction trilogy, books like Lois Lowry's "The Giver" and Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle In Time" opened portals into strange and unusual worlds -- and raised chilling questions about life back here on earth.

So, in light of all of the "Mockingjay" buzz, we've compiled a list of the best science fiction for children. From satire to allegory, from post-apocalyptic worlds to utopias, and across place, time and space, the following nine novels should be required reading for any teenager....

1. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle
2. Feed, M.T. Anderson
3. The Giver, Lois Lowry
4. Animal Farm, George Orwell
5. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
6. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
7. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick
8. An Audience for Einstein, Mark Wakely
9. The Lottery, Shirley Jackson

So, I thought it might be a nice tie-in to show the collectibility of those books: 

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle. Ariel/Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, New York, 1962. A Newberry Medal winner. First prints of this novel (without the gold foil Newberry stamp) are hard to come by. Later printings (of the first edition) garner prices of up to $400 (unsigned). Signed copies range from $400 to $15,000 (depending on the print run and condition of the book). So "Tesser On" L'Engle fans.

Feed, M.T. Anderson. Candlewick Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2002.

Unsigned copies can be found for less than $20. Signed copies range from $35-$70.

The Giver, Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1993.

A Newberry Medal winner. I found two first edition copies on Abebooks.com, both unsigned, listing for $250 & $350.

Animal Farm, George Orwell. Secker and Warburg, London, 1945. This book was released in the U.K. in 1945, then in the U.S. a year later through Harcourt, Brace, N.Y. (1946).  

U.K. first editions list for between $1,000 and $5,000.

U.S. (non BoMC/BCE) firsts list for up to $600. (Book of the Month Club or Book Club Editions list in the range of $20 - so be sure to check for "BoMC" or "BCE" on the jacket to ensure you're getting the right edition).

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. Tor, New York, 1985.  Winner of the 1985 Nebula and 1986 Hugo awards.

First editions list for between $500-$1,000 (unsigned); up to $2,800 (signed).

I also found a listing for the book jacket only - no book ($150)!

Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1963.

6000 copies printed. 1964 Hugo award nominee.

Unsigned copies list for up to $3,000. Signed copies list for up to $7,500.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick. Doubleday, New York, 1968.

A Nebula award nominee for 1968. Released first in the U.S., then in the U.K. a year later (1969) by Rapp and Whiting, London.

First U.S. editions list for up to $7,500 (unsigned).

First U.K. editions list for up to $1,000 (unsigned).

An Audience for Einstein, Mark Wakely. Mundania Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2005.

Hard cover First edition copies can be gotten for between $15 and $50 on Amazon.com

The Lottery, Shirley Jackson. Farrar, Straus & Co., New York, NY, 1949. 

The first edition lists the cover price as $2.75 (for hard back).

Copies list for up to $2,200 (unsigned).