Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Archive for May, 2010
Fascinated by STUFF
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Lately, I can’t stop talking about an adult galley I just read, Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. Turns out I’m not the only fascinated by it. Last night, the authors, Randy Frost and Gail Steketee were featured on NPR’s Fresh Air. The book is now rising on Amazon and libraries are showing significant holds in libraries.
No wonder; it’s truly a compulsive read. Frost and Steketee write about people who collect stuff to the extent that it interferes with normal everyday living…no livable space due to piles and piles of things most people feel no need to collect, whole rooms filled, tunnels formed between dangerously tottering layers of clothing, books, newspapers and trash.
Frost and Steketee begin their examination of this psychological condition with by looking at one of the most well-known case, the Collyer brothers of New York who died trapped in their piles of junk (they were the protagonists in E.L. Doctorow’s novel Homer and Langely).
These are not dry case studies but rather an empathetic exploration of theories and observations of why a person might become a hoarder. The book helps us examine our own hoarding tendencies and the triggers that may cause it. In addition to working with the individuals who are suffering, the authors devote a chapter to the effect excessive collecting has on relationships, especially with hoarders’ children who must learn to survive living with a parent who cannot stop creating chaos in the home.
 |
|
Debut Hit; THE IMPERFECTIONISTS
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Another important voice has just been added to the growing chorus of over-the-top praise for Tom Rachman’s first novel, The Imperfectionists. In the NYT today, Janet Maslin call it, “…a splendid original, filled with wit and structured so ingeniously that figuring out where the author is headed is half the reader’s fun.”
It is catching on with readers; holds continue to build in libraries.
 |
|
Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive
UPDATE: There will be an audio version (thanks to our commenters for finding this):
- Recorded Books; UNABR CD; 8 CDs; 9781449825621; $92.75; Anticipated Release: Sep 07, 2010
- Recorded Books; UNABR Cassette; 8 Cassettes;.9781449825614; $67.75; Anticipated Release: Nov 15, 2010
TRANSLATION Picking Up Steam
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Holds are growing for Jean Kwok’s Girl in Translation.
Kwok, who immigrated as a child from China in the 1980’s, turns her own experience into fiction in this debut. USA Today comments on the book’s narrative style,
Writing in first-person from Kim’s point of view, Kwok cleverly employs phonetic spellings to illustrate her protagonist’s growing understanding of English and wide-eyed view of American teen culture.
People (5/17) gives it a 3.5 of a possible 4 stars and Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+, calling it “consistently compelling.”
In the following video, Kwok talks about the shock of coming from a middle-class life in China to the U.S. where she worked in a sweat shop and lived in an unheated apartment.
The author will appear at the ALTAFF First Author, First Book program at ALA in June.
—-
 |
|
Penguin Audio; UNABR; 9780142427996; $25.95
Books on Tape; UNABR; 9780307736185; $39.95
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
YA Title Tops Best Sellers… Again
Thursday, May 6th, 2010At #1 on the USA Today best seller list is Burned, the seventh in The House of Night series by mother/daughter writing team P.C. and Kirstin Cast.
That’s not surprising; the previous book in the series, Tempted, also topped the list. This time, however, the Casts beat out James Patterson, whose new book 9th Judgment also debuts on the list, but at #2.
And, as USA Today‘s Book Buzz column notes, Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell arrives on the list in her highest spot to date, #16, for her YA title, The Carrie Diaries. People magazine gave it 3.5 of a possible 4 stars, saying, “…a final scene…skillfully hooks you into wanting the next installment immediately, though book 2 won’t be available until summer 2011.” Entertainment Weekly was also enthusiastic, giving it an A-.
 |
|
–
 |
|
HarperChildrensAudio; 5/1/10; UNAB; 978-0061983948; $25.99
Embargoed Jolie Bio Arrives in August
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Andrew Morton’s unauthorized book on Angelina Jolie, gossiped about for nearly a year (she slept with her mother’s boyfriend! The New York Daily News; she cheated on Brad with a rocker! The Star) is coming August 3rd, says USA Today‘s Book Buzz column. Large libraries we checked have it on order.
 |
|
Writer to Watch; Julie Orringer
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Both Entertainment Weekly and NPR’s web site hail The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, fulfilling the promise that she is a writer to watch.
Giving it an unequivocal A, Entertainment Weekly calls this historical novel about a pair of lovers in WWII “dazzling.” The review on NPR’s web site concludes, “…she’s no longer just a writer to watch — she’s a writer to follow, and one whose talent, daring and compassion are beginning to look boundless.”
Library Journal‘s reviewer, however, took a very different view,
[It] has a paint-by-the-numbers feel, as if the author were working too hard to get through every point of the story she’s envisioned. The result is some plain writing, not the luminous moments we remember from her story collection, How To Breathe Underwater.
 |
|
Random House Audio; UNABR; 0307713547; $50
Adobe EPUB eBook and WMA Audiobook available from OverDrive
A trade paperback edition of Orringer’s much-praised short story collection is also available.
 |
|
Woodward on Obama
Thursday, May 6th, 2010An as-yet untitled book by presidential chronicler, Robert Bernstein, will be published in September, reports the AP.
| Untitled on Obama Administration |
| Bob Woodward |
| Retail Price: | $30.00 |
| Hardcover: | 416 pages |
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster – (2010-09-28) |
| ISBN / EAN: | 1439172498 / 9781439172490 |
S&S Audio; UNABR; Simultaneous; 9781442335264; $29.99
Welcome Back, Sabich
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010Why did it take over years for Scott Turow to be ready to write the sequel to his huge hit, Presumed Innocent? The author answers that question in the trailer for his new book, Innocent, below (gotta love that Chicago accent!).
Reviewers, naturally, have been all over it. Michiko Kakutani in the NYT gave it her usual grudging praise, “If readers can accept [the] dubious opening premise, however, Mr. Turow does manage to turn the remainder of the novel into a fast and absorbing ride.” Other reviewers have had their own reservations. Entertainment Weekly, disagreeing with Kakutani’s assessment that it’s fast paced, says it’s “…not a slam-bang thriller but an unusually introspective and elegiac book. You may wonder, of course, if that’s a nice way of saying it’s boring … Kinda.” and gives it a B.
 |
|
Hachette Audio; UNABR;9781600249211; $39.98
BBC Audio: UNABR; 9781607885283; $114.99
LARGE PRINT; Grand Central; Hardcover; 9780446566872; $29.99
Adobe EPUB eBook and WMA Audiobook available from OverDrive.
The attention is bringing readers back to Turow’s first hit; reviews are building on Presumed Innocent. It was released in audio last month by Hachette Audio.
 |
|
Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781607883760; $29.98
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Why Men Don’t Read Books
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010On the Huffington Post, writer and former book editor Jason Pinter argues that, contrary to the prevailing opinion, men will read, they’re just not being provided with the proper manly material (and, those ads for The Nook and The Kindle? They’d make any man run). Based mostly on anecdotal evidence, Pinter says the problem is that there are so many women in publishing (he says it’s “dominated” by women. That may be true in total numbers, but I’m willing to bet that an analysis of the numbers of women in top positions will show a different story. Among the “big six” publishers, for instance, Carolyn Reidy is the sole CEO).
On Salon, Laura Miller responds to the post and amusingly summarizes the 130 comments it brought. She accepts Pinter’s thesis and adds that men are not attracted to publishing because it “…increasingly resembles those ‘caring professions,’ nursing and teaching, where the joy of laboring selflessly on behalf of a noble cause — in this case, literature — is supposed to make up for the lack of profits and respect.”
You can’t help but wonder, though, over half the books on the NYT Fiction Best Seller list are written by men. Have they all been coerced by women editors into writing for the female audience?
Ye Gods!
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010USA Today‘s Bob Minzesheimer greets the first book in Rick Riordan’s new series The Kane Chronicles: Book One: The Red Pyramid, which released yesterday. In this new series, the author has switched from the Greek gods of the Percy Jackson series to ancient Egyptian gods, accidentally set loose in the modern world. Holds, of course, are heavy in most libraries, and so is ordering, with ratios of 3 or 4 to 1 copy ordered.
Two more books are planned in the series, to be issued in Spring ’11 and ’12.
For a preview, you can listen to the first chapter on iTunes, or read read the first chapter here.
 |
|
Brilliance Audio
UNABR; 12 CD’s; 9781441850966; $72.97
MP3-CD; UNABR; 9781441850997;$39.97
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Do the Sirens Call to Female Readers?
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
The introduction to this week’s NYT Graphic Books Best Seller lists notes the rise of Gotham City Sirens, a new series from DC Comics featuring the misadventures of iconic female antagonists: Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and the Joker’s main squeeze, Harley Quinn. DC Comics frequently feature enticing female characters who are also strong, smart, independent, and well able to stand up to the big boys of the DC Universe including Batman, Superman, and the whole host of Justice League men. Birds of Prey, a long-running series following the crime-fighting trio of Oracle (Barbara Gordon, once Batgirl), Black Canary, and the Huntress, remains one of the few titles to feature an all-female team bristling with both smarts and fighting skills.
You’d think that these series would be a natural place to engage with a female audience. Strong female characters? Check. Action crime plots? Check. All of these women, as written by writers including Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, and Chuck Dixon, are well able to give Buffy Summers a run for her money. The big difference? Take a look at the cover for Gotham City Sirens. The image is clearly, overwhelmingly intended for readers who want to ogle women: teenage and adult guys. It’s not just the cover, either (click for a preview of the first issue from Newsarama.) Female superheroes not only have to contend with ridiculous costumes (check out Project Runway guru Tim Gunn smartly tearing apart the costumes designs in this priceless video), but are drawn in poses that defy logic to emphasize actual physical prowess. Good girl art, as such sexualized, pin-up style comic art has been termed, is still a frequent style in superheroine tales. Women may deduce right alongside Batman, but their body shapes and fighting contortions make it very clear their purpose is to be on display.
Of course, manga has its fair share of pin-ups too. Rosario+Vampire, currently occupying the top spot on the NYT manga list, is a fine example of scantily clad young ladies squarely aimed at a male audience. However, manga balances out such titles with two things: comics for girls, like Gentlemen’s Alliance, Black Butler, and Nightschool on this week’s list, and comics that cater to girls’s desires to ogle pretty boys, as with Gentlemen’s Alliance and Alice in the Country of Hearts. Harem manga, aimed at young male readers in Japan, features a hapless young man surrounded by a bevvy of buxom young ladies who all want to date him. Think Judd Apatow comedies with about ten bombshell starlets instead of just one. Reverse harems feature instead an ordinary girl suddenly gaining the romantic attention of a wide array of gorgeous young men, and Alice in the Country of Hearts is a classic example. In the manga publishing world, there is at least that balance, while in the U.S. mainstream comics world, comics for girls are almost nonexistent and comics for those who like a little male eye candy are even more scarce.
So what’s a woman who wants female heroes to do? Mainstream superhero comics give you very little choice: either you ignore the cheesecake pin-up art and read for the stories or you stop reading and go find your superheroines with more normal body types somewhere else. Comics outside mainstream continuity feature a plethora of excellent, intriguing female heroes who need not fit the spandex suit. For younger readers there’s Emily Edison, Alison Dare, Rose from the world of Bone, and GoGirl!. For adults there’s Tara Chace in Queen and Country, Liz Sherman in Hellboy, Maya Antares from Red Star, and Jenny Sparks in The Authority. Many female readers, teens and adults alike, turn to manga for their kick-butt women. Favorites include Nausicaä from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Nobara in Crimson Hero, Miura Ito from W Juliet, Arena Pendleton from Train + Train, Nana Osaki in Nana, Alice Malvin in Pumpkin Scissors, and Rukia from Bleach.
I’m all for readers enjoying the sexiness where they find it, but as a reader, I get tired of conflicting messages. If there aren’t fully-realized characters to balance out the sex bombs and vixens, we’re left with the message that sexy posing is all women are good for in the superhero world. To those who claim that the men are just as exaggerated and sexualized, I say until there’s a comic where Batman periodically preens in his bedroom and then runs around fighting crime in only a speedo, there’s nothing in the portrayal of male heroes that compares. Do these pin-up comics sell in the short term? Of course. Do they lose a potentially large audience? Speaking for the many women open to reading comics who glance at such covers and immediately turn away, I’d say, yes.
Sixty-Year-Old Overnight Success
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010Roger Cohen’s column in the Op/Ed section of today’s NYT sent readers in search of Hans Fallada’s 60-year-old book, Every Man Dies Alone, sending it to #22 on Amazon’s sales rankings. It was released in English in the U.S. for the first time last year and has just been published in paperback. Cohen says, “What Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française did for wartime France after six decades in obscurity, Fallada does for wartime Berlin…The Nazi hell he evokes is not so much recalled as rendered, whole and alive.”
The novel is based on the true story of a German couple who began a postcard campaign against Hitler and were beheaded for their actions. It appeared on many Best Books of 2009 lists and was featured on the Charlie Rose Show last year (watch here).
 |
|
Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive.
On the Rise
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010Continuing to climb on Amazon’s sales rankings, after the author’s appearance on The View yesterday, CBS Sunday Morning (see below) and on Oprah last week, is The Other Wes Moore, now at #80.
 |
|
Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307877130; $35
Adobe EPUB eBook and WMA Audiobook from OverDrive