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Celebration of Bookselling Luncheon

Barbara — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:05:18 +0000

Every year I look forward to the ABA Celebration of Bookselling Luncheon were hundreds of independent booksellers and more than 40 authors whose works they nominated to the Indie Next Lists sit together and talk about books.

This year I sat next to Masha Hamilton, author of 31 Hours, a novel about helplessness and frantic hope–as people try to help a young man intent on carrying out a violent action. When I told her I had read her book, she asked if I liked the ending. I paused to remember and then said, yes. She then said, “You work in a literary store.” What a great way to begin a conversation. It seems that mystery lovers were not satisifed with the less than climactic ending.

The highlight of the luncheon, is the presentation of the Indies Choice Book Awards. All of the winners and many of the honor award authors were in attendance. In their acceptance speeches they gushed about the importance of independent booksellers putting their books in the hands of readers. We all wanted to bottle the energy and love and spread the goodwill across the country!

Kate DiCamillo had us in tears. You must read what she had to say about the bookseller that made a difference in her life.

For all you list lovers, here are some books to add to your reading lists:

The 2010 Book of the Year winners are:

Adult Fiction: Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Knopf)
Adult Nonfiction: The Lost City of Z, by David Grann (Doubleday)
Adult Debut: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)
Young Adult: Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
Middle Reader: When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books)
New Picture Book: The Lion and the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown)

Kate DiCamillo was voted Most Engaging Author both for being an in-store star and for having a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to their local communities.

ABA members also inducted three of their all-time favorites into the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz (Atheneum)
Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson (Viking)

Adult Fiction Honor Award recipients:

Border Songs, by Jim Lynch (Knopf)
Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin (Scribner)
The Children’s Book, by A.S. Byatt (Knopf)
Generosity: An Enhancement, by Richard Powers (FSG)
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel (Holt)

Adult Nonfiction Honor Award recipients:

Animals Make Us Human, by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr (HarperCollins)
Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (W.W. Norton)
Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder (Random House)
When Everything Changed, by Gail Collins (Little, Brown)

Adult Debut Honor Award recipients:

The Earth Hums in B Flat, by Mari Strachan (Canongate)
The Piano Teacher, by Y.K. Lee (Viking)
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larson (Penguin Press)
Still Alice, by Lisa Genova (Pocket)
Tinkers, by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)

Young Adult Honor Award recipients:

Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
If I Stay, by Gayle Forman (Dutton Juvenile)
Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, Keith Thompson (illus.) (Simon Pulse)
Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)
Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking Juvenile)

Middle Reader Honor Award recipients:

Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko (Dial)
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly (Holt)
Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck (Dial)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin (Little, Brown)

New Picture Book Honor Award recipients:

All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon, Maria Frazee (illus.) (Beach Lane Books)
The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown (Little, Brown)
Listen to the Wind, by Greg Mortenson, Susan Roth (illus.) (Dial)
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, by Brian Floca (Richard Jackson Books)
Otis, by Loren Long (Philomel)

Most Engaging Author Honor Award recipients:

Isabel Allende
Laurie Halse Anderson
Libba Bray
Michael Chabon
Abraham Verghese

How I spent my vacation…

Barbara — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:33:30 +0000

Ian Frazier

Mary reads to Emily

The end of May I headed to New Jersey for a visit with my grand-daughter and her parents! The visit was timed to coincide with Book Expo America in New York City. After years of involvement with the American Booksellers Association, I can not pass the opportunity to be with friends, attend educational sessions, hear from authors and editors, see new books, and let’s face it have a good time. Mary took the train from Morristown, NJ, to the city one day. We spent time on the convention floor and then had dinner with friends prior to seeing Memphis, the hit Broadway musical. It was a great way to spend time with Mary! Brian had attended many conventions, but he allowed Mary to form her own opinions. She learned early about having author’s sign books and found a few t-shirts and water bottles to add to her bag of books. In the photo Mary is wearing an orange t-shirt for GLEE, and reading BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED.

The other photo shows Ian (Sandy) Frazier signing advance copies of his new book Travels in Siberia due in October. There were many authors, television personalities, and costumed characters at publihser booths, walking the convention floor, speaking at breakfasts or luncheons, and attending parites all over the city during the two day event.

Some highlights included…

Book & Author Breakfasts

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was the master of ceremonies for the Children’s Author Breakfast, and she made oblique references to her current controversy, which made news just before BookExpo began. The press was there in mass, so it was nice not to have her dwell on any of the bad past events and proceed on with talk about books. Three authors shared the spotlight with her:

Cory Doctorow (For the Win, Tor) told us that there was never a time when being a young adult reader and a young adult writer weren’t the same thing. He told the audience about groups of readers in Iran and Burma who translated his Creative Commons-licensed Little Brother into local languages to expand the book’s readership. Cory Doctorow is someone to pay attention to—he is smart, he knows what young people are paying attention to, and he is innovative, using websites, print material and world issues to engage readers.

Mitali Perkins (Bamboo People, Charlesbridge) talked about the way books can be both windows (giving readers insight into a different culture or experience) and mirrors (reflecting something in the reader’s own life). Her new book is set in modern-day Burma, narrated by two teenaged boys on opposing sides of the conflict between the Burmese government and the Karenni, one of Burnma’s many ethnic minorities.

Richard Peck (Three Quarters Dead, Dial) returned to one theme throughout his talk: “Real life is too extreme for fiction.” He captivated the audience as he described his path from teaching to writing, and the fatal distracted-driving incident that inspired his new book. Teenagers and text messaging are the topic of his new book. Narrated by a young girl who was recieivng the text message from a friend who was driving when a fatal accident occurs.

At the Adult Book & Author Breakfast the following morning, master of ceremonies was Jon Stewart. He has a new book, Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race–which should give a new slant on science education. The three authors speaking were a very mixed group and we were anxious to hear Jon introduce Condoleeaa Rice–he said he did not know much about her!

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had started out intending to write about her years in Washington but found that she needed to tell her parents’ story instead (Extraordinary, Ordinary People, Crown). She told how and why her family became members of the Presbyterian church and the Republican party–two quite telling stories of the Jim Crow South. As she finished, Stewart, begged her, “Don’t make me like you!”

Although Stewart’s introduction of John Grisham had the audience laughing, the tone quickly turned serious as Grisham described his work with the Innocence Project and the group’s efforts to overturn wrongful convictions. Following his nonfiction book The Innocent Man, Grisham’s upcoming The Confession (Doubleday) is a fictional take on a wrongful conviction and the real criminal’s experience.

Science author Mary Roach’s new book, Packing for Mars (W.W. Norton), traces some of the more mundane aspects of space travel. The lengths NASA and other space agencies have gone to in learning how to manage human hygiene and similar issues in zero-gravity may not have been ideal breakfast conversation, but she managed to have us all begging for more. We did understand why her editor suggested she wear a space diaper–which thankfully she did not!

All the speakers were great. BookTV has recorded the “Adult breakfast” and several of the panels on industry issues. I recommend viewing the Jon Stewart event! Unfortunatley, BookTV claims to only cover non-ficiton and not children’s issues. The three authors at the first breakfast had excellant things to say about the importance of reading and books in the lives of young people.

Part two will feature the Celebration of Bookselling Luncheon

New Yorker Ad

Barbara — Tue, 18 May 2010 18:04:52 +0000

Recently subscribers to The New Yorker had an ad supplement in their issue of the magazine. A subscriber and customer called the store, raving about the piece and wrote to the Montana Office of Tourism to commend them for the ad and asked that it be placed on their website. It was fun to read e-mails back and forth about the ad, so I thought you too would like to know more…

The April 19th issue contained the ad supplement, but only in subscriber’s issues—not in the newstand copies. this special section in The New Yorker only ran with select circulation (—we selected states that have been the strongest feeder markets for us in the past as a way to make this piece fit into our budget–Montana Office of Tourism.) So there was no way to collect copies to send to friends, causing our customer to write…

“We have friends in the East who haven’t a clue about visiting Montana,
and this would hook them. PLEASE, please put it up on the Visit Montana website as soon as possible“

Katy Peterson, Consumer Marketing Manager at Montana Office of Tourism, responded:

“We are so thrilled with how that 4pg section turned out. We put a lot of work into making it just right—though honestly never expected an “ad” to create such demand that we’d need to post it to our website. (One of the beauties of it…not your typical ad!) We’re in the process of pulling that—and some other info together—which should be live and online by Thursday morning. Of course, we’d love to have you share it with friends & family—so I will send you the link to the article when it’s up.

And you are right— a big spread in front of the discerning readers of The New Yorker meant bringing some writing that people would want to actually read. Glad you think we hit the mark.”

Now you can see and read the piece for yourself and share it with your friends too…

Mary Oliver

Barbara — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:43:02 +0000

Performance Note (hear Mary Oliver read…)
Copyright 2010 by Mary Oliver from Many Miles published by Beacon Press

Mary Oliver comments on her new CD now available at F&F

All our lives, at least seasonally, the redbird sings, and the oriole and the wren, and in April the ponds are reliably loud with the singing of frogs, and on long winter afternoons the snow-heavy wind whistles in the pines. But our own voices, the particular voices of those who are dear or important to us—or both—vanish utterly at the end of the season of life. And how thoroughly also are the sounds of a certain place gone when we visit it no more, though visual joys, sometimes with great clarity, may remain in the mind.

In Rajastan, in India, a man, a woman, and a child were singing outside a restaurant; I can still see them in their vibrant gypsy clothes, the man holding a stringed instrument somewhat like a guitar, but smaller and shaped differently, rather like a gourd. But I cannot hear anymore their loud brisk, joyful singing, a strange and powerful performance. How can this be, that the eyes can keep so many pictures, and the ears have no such reliable and comforting memory? It was perhaps the most exciting music I had ever heard; I think I might have followed it anywhere; but we drove on to the next town, and now in my ears there is nothing.

Of course, the ears are not always quite so empty as I describe them in this story. One can remember voices and almost hear them again a little, especially the intonation of a familiar voice at some pitch of emotion, angry, or frightened, or tender. But for me, at least, it’s a few syllables thrust into the air, and they are hard to hold onto.

Many years ago a friend and I used to go to the Old Met in New York, two or three nights a week sometimes. We would stand in the lobby and wait, and sure enough some svelte couple would come dashing out at the end of Act One, to a dinner or a party perhaps, and we—poor but audacious—would ask them to give us their ticket stubs. We were never refused, and invariably they were good seats: first floor, down front. Tebaldi, Tucker, Warren, De los Angeles! And then Tebaldi and the others sang at the Met no more, sang no more anywhere.

Well, the truth is that I wish I could live those years again, and enter into the presence of those live performances that meant so much to me. But I do not need to suffer the absence of their voices: technology, while it has invented some horrendous things, can claim much good magic also. So I can hear Tebaldi again. I can hear Dylan Thomas telling in his wondrous voice about a long-ago Christmas day. I can hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaiming that he had seen the promised land. What if that voice had vanished irretrievably—I think we would feel by that much less the long struggle up the mountain. As in history, as in art, so in life. Oh, what if one had no kept record of the voice of someone loved and now gone? What an extra dish of sorrow that would be.

For there is something heard in the actual voice that cannot be accrued from the printed page, though we read with care and excitement, even with a real falling-into-it passion. There is simply no “connect” as there is between listener and speaker. That, at its best, is almost touch. Nuances unfelt on the page hang in the air. So. Though I am an old-fashioned sort of person, who knows only the kind of blackberries that grow on bushes (for which my friends berate me), I can’t deny my own joy and appreciation at the salvation of voices otherwise vanished into the unknowable darkness.

Therefore, this second CD. I join the world. And ponder this fantasy sometimes—that one day technology will find a place in the dark air and bring back to us the voices of Keats, Shelley, Whitman, Emerson, Li Po, Rumi, Homer—anyone anyone wants to hear. Who knows…

MATTERHORN on sale March 23

Barbara — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:26:02 +0000

MATTERHORN by Karl Marlantes goes on sale March 23rd and from all the advance attention this appears to be the book to watch!

The beginning of February, Karl Marlantes had one of the longest lines at Winter Institute. Booksellers were wanting an advance look at this 595 page novel about Vietnam. Morgan Entrekin from Grove/Atlantic was very excited about this first novel, the author and the journey the book took from a small nonprofit publisher in Berkeley, El Leon Literary Arts.

Despite the hype I was leary to begin the tome, but a reveiw in Shelf Awareness convinced me to give it a try—I’m sure glad…

“Once in a while, a wondrous and remarkable book comes along, written from the deep places of the heart with passion and courage. Matterhorn is that book. Karl Marlantes’s timeless tale of bravery, misery, stupidity and love is nothing short of a hero’s journey, a quest for meaning. If I had any reservations about reading another novel about the Vietnam War, I soon abandoned them in this mesmerizing, heart-pounding ride through three months of combat, where the rhythm of war gripped me relentlessly.

Matterhorn begins in 1969, during the winter monsoon season in Quang-Tri province, where 2nd Lt. Waino Mellas is assigned to a fire support base with the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines. Commanding a rifle platoon of 40 Marines was not what he had in mind when he joined the reserves nor was actual combat part of the plan, but the shortage of infantry officers has changed that. Still, Mellas is ambitious and is soon trying to work the system to get ahead, take over the company, win a medal and save his own skin. At the same time, he fears he’s too chickenshit to lead. He’ll find out immediately, since the three platoons of Bravo Company have an assignment–occupy the hill dubbed Matterhorn. “

for the full review and other information about the author, including a Matterhorn playlist