"Every night, I have to read a book, so that my mind will stop thinking about things that I stress about." ~Britney Spears
"The paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book--it makes a very poor doorstop." ~Alfred Hitchcock
"I just wrote a book, but don't go out and buy it yet, because I don't think it's finished yet."~Lawrence Welk
In case you needed a little Monday afternoon pick-me-up. Enjoy!
Amanda
It appears that summer has finally arrived in Seattle! Now it’s time to make use of the beautiful parks, waterfront benches and outdoor seating at the (plentiful) local coffee shops. While there might not be as much sun in Seattle as I’d like—what I get is truly appreciated. Book in hand, I can’t wait to find that perfect locale to relax and soak up the warmth while my imagination takes flight. If you need ideas for your next read, see what our readers think about these newly released books: Billie Letts, author of 'Where the Heart Is', 'Honk and Holler Opening Soon', and 'Shoot the Moon', returns with another heart-wrenching tale of family drama. After their accidental guardian (drunk father's one-time girlfriend) drops dead of a heart attack in the check out lane at WalMart, Lutie decides that it is time to track down their erstwhile father--in Vegas. So they pack their things and drive off in the dead woman's car. Trouble begins to follow not long into their journey and soon the two are faced with some pretty tough challenges. Beckyl reviews Made in the USA by Billie Letts:
The Book Muncher reviews Airhead by Meg Cabot:
'Airhead' could possibly be Meg Cabot’s best novel yet. I have to admit that I have never been a completely devoted fan of Meg Cabot’s works (with the exception of Avalon High), but 'Airhead' was quick to become one of my favorites. Cabot proves herself to be a versatile and extremely ingenious writer. I do not understand where these crazy ideas come from, but I’m glad they do, because 'Airhead' was simply an amazing book. I don’t want to give away anything too crucial to the plot, so I’ll only say that Meg Cabot does an amazing job of combining the modeling world with that of advanced science.
'Flames'deals with Sedaris' more recent--that is to say adult life--which gives it a less nostalgic and more immediate feel, which is nice, since there seems to be more to connect with this time around, what with the long standing relationship issues, the quitting smoking episodes and the dealing with attacking wildlife. You know, things we deal with every day. JSedaris seems a bit more mature in this collection, not so prone to going for the easy laugh, for example, and attempting to see past the superficial characteristics he sees in the strangers in his stories to the (perhaps) more complex individuals underneath. He does, of course, remain laugh out loud funny, but there are touches of poignancy in these essays that I truly enjoyed.
Other interesting new titles:
Happy Reading!
Amanda
That time has come again, and Shelfari is getting a new facelift. We launched a new design a few minutes ago and we're excited for you to try it out.
We spent a lot of time talking with our members, seeking to understand how they use the site and what appeared to be missing in their experience. In those conversations, we found a very passionate group of members who love Shelfari and regularly use its sharing and expression features. However, in those conversations we noticed that we could do a better job of serving users who simply want to see what is hot at this very moment. Those users want to know what are the most exciting books, members, authors, and groups on Shelfari, and give our members a place they could simply browse and discover. We responded to that request in this redesign.
Tim wrote a very detailed description of what has been updated, and I won’t duplicate that here. Do check it out to see all of the things that have changed. But let me share some of my personal highlights
You will notice right away that tucked up near the new wood grain header is a new top-level navigation. We took all of the personal sections from our last header and placed them neatly in the My Shelfari drop-down menu and on your home page. The new sections—Books, Authors, Members, and Groups—each have their own new discover sections.
The Books section has a new By Subject tab, where you can dive down into books by their genre. On each Subject page (such as Romance), you can see which reviewers are getting the most votes for review in that subject, top reviews for that subject, and the top books.
The Members section has a Just For You tab, where you can see members reading the same book as you, friends of friends, and members with similar shelves. Time to make some new friends.
The Groups section has updated leaderboards, showing what’s hot in our groups.
There is also a lot going on under the hood, which is really worthy of its own post. Suffice it to say that the CSS is completely new, the html is a lot lighter, the site loads a lot faster, and the development team feels refreshed at the opportunity to build on this new platform.
We hope you like it. Please send us your feedback and we’ll do our best to respond quickly.
Dave
The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
Enter Gus Landor, a New York City constable who has retired to the nearby Hudson River town of Buttermilk Falls. Based on Gus’ legendary reputation for code breaking, riot control, and “the gloveless interrogation,” the Academy’s commander enlists his help in solving the crime and saving the reputation of the school, which at less than 30 years old “had not earned the distinction of permanence.”
As Gus begins his investigation, hampered by the Academy’s many rules about his access to the campus and the cadets, he meets Cadet Fourth Classman Poe…Edgar Allan Poe. Gus observes that “nothing about him was quite right. Or would ever be.” Poe makes a proposal about the culprit’s identity: “To remove a man’s heart is to traffic in symbol. Who better equipped for such labor than a poet?” And after several of Poe’s suggestions prove helpful, Gus receives permission for him to serve as his assistant, giving Gus an insider’s perspective on the Academy.
In Gus and Poe, Bayard has drawn a compelling and likable “odd couple” with distinctly different voices. As the narrator, Gus creates a disarming, intimate tone, addressing us throughout as Reader. Much like Peter Falk’s Columbo character, Gus uses his Everyman demeanor, feigned ignorance, self-deprecation, and keen powers of observation to put his interview subjects at ease and elicit telling details about the case. Poe, on the other hand, is a bombastic, poetry-spouting, French-translating nerd with a wildly sophisticated vocabulary that makes him social poison…sort of a West Point version of Steve Urkel. After asking Poe a question, Gus notes, “No simple yeses or nos with him. Everything had to be freighted down with allusions, appeals to authority.” Poe’s many written reports to Gus, which appear as chapters in the book, are delightfully overwrought. In one, for example, a simple smile becomes “dentate effluence.”
The plot contains many twists and turns, including additional deaths, missing hearts, failed romances, and quite literal cliff-hangers. The possible suspects are numerous too, including at some points Gus and Poe themselves. The final 100 pages are so suspenseful that I read nonstop. The mysteries continued to unravel until the very last page, with Poe and poetry ultimately holding the key to the solution. Bayard masterfully combines character, plot, and language to create a spellbinding story that will appeal to fans of mystery, suspense, thrillers, historical fiction, and of course Edgar Allan Poe.
Reviewed by Sassy Librarian
Booksellers, librarians, and publishing professionals queued up to get copies of current and upcoming books signed by the authors appearing at last week's BookExpo America in downtown Los Angeles.
Here's a short list of those exciting encounters:
William Shatner, aka Capt. Kirk, caused one of the largest lines to form for the hardback of his new autobiography, Up Till Now. The publisher reportedly brought along 260 copies, which only took 26 minutes to pass out; leaving some fans toward the end of the line empty-handed. Gena Showalter, the paranormal, young adult and romance-writing Oklahoman, couldn't be nicer as a multitude of fans waited to get signed copy of any number of her HQN titles, including The Darkest Night. Here she is with the head of her publishing house, Donna Hays, as they stopped to chat with co-founder of Shelfari.com, Josh Hug (see picture).
Andrew Davidson, a handsome young Canadian first-time author, charmingly handed out miniature green gargoyle charms with each signed galley of one of this fall's most-anticipated novels, The Gargoyle.
Rory Freedman was a popular author to get an advance copy from, as she adds to her Skinny Bitch series with her third book, Skinny Bitch Bun in the Oven, due out in September.
Dr. Ruth, that little sex doctor dynamo (today is her 80th birthday), comes every year. As usual, she will sign anything, but this time it was just her handbook edition of Sex for Dummies. Speaking of Sex...
Evan Handler, SEX AND THE CITY cast member, was on the show floor signing his memoir, It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive. His book chronicles his journey from being a young actor diagnosed with leukemia to joining the cast of SATC. I didn't see him signing books, but as I passed by he was signing napkins for a few of his fans.
Richard Engel, earnest and admirable war correspondent for NBC News, signed his book after speaking at Saturday's political lunch. At the lunch he recounted some of the heartbreaking stories from War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq.
Mario Lopez, TV personality and fitness writer was signing copies of Knockout Fitness. I didn't see him on the show floor, but was informed of his appearance by Cathy Hoey of Library Journal. She said, "Even if I had no idea what he’s written, I'd stand in line because he's a perfect package!"
While I don't think the artist known as Prince attended the BEA during show hours, for his forthcoming book 21 Nights, he gave a concert in the backyard of his rented Hollywood home. It was an elite invite list which included Dr. Phil, P Diddy, Babyface and Dave Navarro. I’m guessing they didn't have to get up on Sunday to attend the last day of the show since Prince didn't begin to perform until after 3am.
David Nudo
This past weekend the book publishing industry gathered at its annual convention, BookExpo America. Set this year in downtown Los Angeles, the show naturally took on a bit more Hollywood luster than it usually does when it's in New York or Chicago.
Friday night's hot, hot St. Martin's Press party was in honor of Alec Baldwin, who is coming out with his book A Promise To Ourselves: Fatherhood, Divorce and Family Law, in the Fall.
Appearing poolside at the Sunset Towers Hotel, Alec addressed the well-feted guests with an impassioned mini-rant about divorce and parental custody laws. In case you don't know, this heated topic of his forthcoming book is based on his not-to-distant and over-publicized divorce to actress Kim Basinger and custody trial of their teenage daughter.
Afterward, I chatted with him about the book, where he reiterated that the book really isn't about his ex-wife, per se, though she and the divorce trial aren't avoided, either. "Many people will say how can you be so mean about her, but when my friends and family read the manuscript, their feedback was 'how can you be so KIND'," Alec said, slapping me on the back. The guy isn't shy about voicing his opinions, for sure!
His brother, Stephen, who accompanied him to the party, is also a published author. As one industry insider commented, "How often do you get two Baldwins for the price of one?!"
David Nudo
Shelfari's Josh Hug (CEO), Dave Hanley (VP of Marketing) and David Nudo (Director of Sales & Marketing) are currently attending BookExpo America in Los Angeles. Today, Hanley was speaking on a panel with author Scott Sigler and publisher Derek Powazek, discussing how the publishing industry is adapting to Web 2.0.
Publisher's Weekly reports:
[Hanley] urged publishers to engage with their customers. He himself regularly interacts with Shelfari members, offering and receiving book recommendations. “Just get out there and do it,” he said. “You only learn by doing.” (full story)
If you see Josh, Dave or David at BEA--introduce yourself!
Amanda
Update:
MediaBistro article: BookExpo: The Future Is Where You and I Will Spend the Rest of Our Lives
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there.
~William Collins
God Bless America!
Amanda
Memorial Day Reading:
*Note: Memorial Day is actually on May 30th (more history).
Shelfarian Review: When A Crocodile Eats the Sun
The Zulus and the Vendas of southern Africa believe that a solar eclipse occurs when a crocodile eats the sun. It is “the very worst of omen” explains Zimbabwean-born and raised author Peter Godwin. The prediction comes to pass and is recounted in this “white African’s” memories of Zimbabwe, an articulate, wrenching narrative of personal and political struggle that is both eloquent and tragic.
Godwin’s native Zimbabwe was once a land of promise and potential. Under the repressive regime of post-civil war dictator Robert Mugabe, the country becomes home of “the world’s fastest shrinking economy,” the politics of envy, reverse racism and “ethnic cleansing”. It’s a country where local “commanders” adopt names like “Hitler Hunzvi” and “Stalin Mau Mau.” It’s a country where Mugabe’s “farm seizure program” and “land redistribution” schemes are little more than government-sanctioned stealing. It’s a country of massacres, thievery and thuggery, hyperinflation, collapses in farm production, fuel and food shortfalls and a disintegrating, phantom infrastructure. It’s a mess. But it’s not the only thing that’s a mess.
Godwin writes, “This is what this vile president (Mugabe) has done to us – made scavengers of us all and stripped these grown men of their dignity as they fight over a worn bike tire. Reduced us all to desperadoes and thieves, made us small and bleak and old and tired. Made us lose our love of life itself. Split our families and left my parents impoverished, alone, afraid”. As the country disintegrates, so does Godwin’s family.
Beginning and ending with his father’s death, which parallels the country’s, Godwin chronicles the activities and excesses of the Mugabe government over eight years - July 1996 to February 2004. He reports on kangaroo courts, threats, intimidation, violence, extortion, massive voter fraud, mayhem, “Mugabe’s race-baiting stagecraft,” and marauding “war vets” and their effect on his family and friends. Godwin also details some of the desperate, often futile but courageous attempts of opposition parties and private citizens to stay the madness or aid their neighbors and friends.
Possibly the most wrenching portion of Godwin’s tome is chapter 17. Here the conflicted son and sibling narrates the deteriorating physical health of his parents, the reburial of his sister Jain, and the death throes of his home country. As Zimbabwe descends further into madness, Godwin’s elderly, frail parents resolutely refuse to leave, clinging to their farm and his mother’s clinic, where she’s served as a physician for decades. Godwin’s distant, aloof father, George, to whom the book is dedicated, reluctantly – and finally - reveals his own family secrets and the source of his “autobiographical amnesia.”
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is a haunting, harrowing narrative of the disintegration of a family and a country. Exquisitely written with fascinating detail and occasional rough edges, Crocodile is a highly readable, heart-rending memoir brimming with panache, pathos, hope and despair. A modern tragedy too powerful to ignore.
From Daily Planet
Veteran bookseller and publisher David Unowsky offers no-nonsense advice on how to place your book on store shelves (and ensure that it doesn't just sit there). Read Article
