Most Well Read Cities and Other Stuff

 Well, bibliophiles, it appears that Amazon has a thing for Florida in this year's Well Read City race, because 5 major cities in Florida are represented on their list. Why is beyond me, as when I lived in Florida, it was more of a vacation spot where people didn't spend a lot of time reading, but did spend time drinking, carousing, laying out on the beach and getting into car accidents. There is a reason people call Miami "Gods Waiting Room" (sometimes they call all of Florida that), because there are so many retirees down there just putzing around, waiting to die. They always get in accidents with the kids who fly down for spring break and drive drunk or stoned. Though there were some great bookstores that I frequented when I lived there, "Wilsons Bookworld" among them, I always felt that I was in the minority of people who actually collected books and read a lot for pleasure. I didn't even have a TV set for the first two years that I lived there. Yet where I live now, in Seattle, bookish people abound. Somehow we ended up as 13 on the list, however, which makes me wonder if Amazon cooked the books a bit in their hometown.

Amazon's 'Most Well-Read Cities' in U.S.
For the second straight year, Alexandria, Va. topped Amazon's list of
the "Most Well-Read Cities in America," which is compiled from sales
data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle
format since June 1, 2012, on a per capita basis in cities with more
than 100,000 residents. This year's top 20 are:


1. Alexandria, Va.

11. St. Louis, Mo.

2. Knoxville, Tenn.

12. Salt Lake City, Utah

3. Miami, Fla.

13. Seattle, Wash.

4. Cambridge, Mass.

14. Vancouver, Wash.

5. Orlando, Fla.

15. Gainesville, Fla.

6. Ann Arbor, Mich.

16. Atlanta, Ga.

7. Berkeley, Calif.

17. Dayton, Ohio

8. Cincinnati, Ohio

18. Richmond, Va.

9. Columbia, S.C.

19. Clearwater, Fla.

10. Pittsburgh, Pa.

20. Tallahassee, Fla.
********************
This week we lost a wonderful author, ELK, who wrote "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler" a favorite book of mine when I was 12 years old. Here's a fitting tribute to her genius.

To E.L. Konigsburg

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg, two-time Newbery Medalist--in 1968 for From the

Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; and again in 1997 for The

View from Saturday--died on Friday, April 19, at the age of 83.

Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art the place

to which you wanted to run when you were a child?

How well you embodied the yearnings of young Claudia

as she stole away to a place of comfort.

You captured a New York in which children

could walk 40 blocks from the Met

to the main branch of the New York Public Library

in search of answers,

and then to the Donnell--

then devoted to children, and now closed.

How did it feel

to be one of the elite handful

who has won two Newbery Medals,

for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler in 1968,

and in 1997 for The View from Saturday?

And the only author to win a Newbery Medal and Honor

in the same year--1968 (the Newbery Honor went to

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth)

for your first two novels?

At a luncheon for Silent to the Bone

you spoke of the connection between Branwell's muteness

and "ma," the Japanese term for what we call "negative space."

Ma suggests a simultaneous awareness of form and non-form

resulting in an intensification of vision.

"Negative space" omits the idea of holding both

form and non-form at once.

Even though you are no longer with us,

your words, your awareness, your insights

into human nature remain.

You've made art, language, and life richer.

--Jennifer M. Brown 

Also, though I don't generally read his work, I think that Mr Patterson is spot on with this query...who WILL save our books, a most precious resource?

 

James Patterson: 'Who Will Save Our Books, Bookstores, Libraries?'

 

On the back cover of yesterday's New York Times Book Review, author

James Patterson took out a striking full-page ad that reads in part,

"The Federal Government has stepped in to save banks, and the automobile

industry, but where are they on the important subject of books? Or, if

the answer is state and local government, where are they? Is any state

doing anything? Why are there no impassioned editorials in influential

newspapers or magazines? Who will save our books? Our libraries? Our

bookstores?"

He also listed 38 titles ranging from All the President's Men and To

Kill a Mockingbird to A Fan's Notes and Maus, saying, "If there are no

bookstores, no libraries, no serious publishers with passionate,

dedicated, idealistic editors, what will happen to our literature? Who

will discover and mentor new writers? Who will publish our important

books? What will happen if there are no more books like these?"

Boston Bombings and Blue Manatees

I lived in the Boston Cambridge area for 3 years back in the 1980s, and I know exactly where they hold the Boston Marathon, which is a huge tradition, as is "Patriot Day" on April 15th.  Yesterday, while the marathon was running, some evil piece of crap, or a group of slimebags, decided to place bombs in the crowds aligning the route and at the finish line. Two bombs went off, killing 3 people, including an 8 year old boy, and injured nearly 100 people. Another two bombs were disarmed and a fire broke out at the JFK Library at the same time (but no one was hurt there). There are horrific photos of this event, including photos of people who have lost limbs to this act of cowardice. Fortunately, as usual, there were heroes among the police and runners who helped many of the fallen get to somewhere safe for treatment. I sincerely hope that when they catch these terrorist asshats that they string them up and make them pay for this nightmare.
There have been many excellent reactions and posts from great authors all over the internet, but I felt that this one was particularly brilliant, as it sums it up quite nicely.

"Every thought and every prayer goes out to the victims and their

families and loved ones. What a senseless act of waste and violence....

It's hard to imagine any people more inspiring than all those people who

dashed across Boylston Street within seconds of the first explosion, and

rushed to the aid of the injured. Didn't give their own safety a

thought. Made me proud to be a member of the human race, which I think

was the exact opposite of the effect the bomber was hoping for....

"When I watch the footage of the first explosion, I look at the Boston

Public Library Main Branch across the street, and I think no matter who

they turn out to be--Islamic jihadists, home grown militia, neo-Nazis,

something else--what really scares them, what they truly hate, is the

access to knowledge that building exemplifies.... So proud to be a

Bostonian tonight. So brokenhearted to be one, too."

--Author Dennis Lehane http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16666684 on his

Facebook page last night

My husband once called me a manatee while we were dating (and I was thin then, too) and  though I've since learned to look at it as a compliment, I found this tidbit about a bookstore named for these gentle giants of the sea to be just wonderful.

Blue Manatee Bookstore: The Doctor Is In

Dr. John Hutton "wanted kids to read books and play outside. He wanted

their parents to unplug the kids' televisions and computers.... So he

focused on more books and less screen time. That would be his issue,"

the Cincinnati Enquirer reported in its profile of Blue Manatee's

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16666718 owner, who has gone from doctor to bookseller to doctor/bookseller

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16666719

since he and his wife purchased the bookshop several years ago.

The name, which was chosen through a public vote, is "symbolic of what

independent bookstores go through. They are nurturing and intelligent

and sweet, but endangered," he said.

Being a bookseller has also "affirmed for Hutton what he already knew:

Reading with a child is rewarding for the parent and remarkably

beneficial for the child," the Enquirer wrote.

"This is old-fashioned stuff, but it is not just nostalgic," he said.

"For a small child, any interaction with a person reading a book is so

good for a child's cognitive, language, fine motor skills and emotional

well-being." Hutton now works a day or two a week as a doctor and the

rest of the week at the bookstore.

This is the link to a blog post that I found to be perfectly marvelous in explaining why it is not a crime to be fat, and why there are healthy fat people (like me, I do not have Crohns because I am overweight, in fact, the medications made me gain weight after my diagnosis) who don't eat junk food every day and who exercise regularly. 

http://kateharding.net/faq/but-dont-you-realize-fat-is-unhealthy/

And in other  book news, Bill Bryson, former Des Moines (Iowa) Register Reporter is having one of his books made into a movie:

Richard Linklater "could be headed for A Walk in the Woods

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16611969."

The Los Angeles Times reported that Linklater is expected to helm Bill

Bryson's bestseller and "could shoot the independently financed movie as

early as this fall, according to Robert Redford, who will produce and

star in the film." Nick Nolte will play Katz.

"A Walk in the Woods is the kind of movie that has something to say but

can also be really commercial because it's just so funny," Redford said.

"It will be nice to get back to doing a comedy."

 And there's been a lot of buzz about the latest remake of the Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio:

"There is probably no bigger (or riskier) question mark this spring than

Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16611971,

which has battled a delay and rumors of a troubled production only to

nab the opening slot at the Cannes Film Festival," Indiewire reported in

featuring a new trailer from the 3D film version of F. Scott

Fitzgerald's classic novel that will be released May 10.

Yet another reason to go to a real bookstore to buy books:

"The physical browsing process is enormously pleasant. It's an important

part of our national culture, those bookshops.... But the arithmetic

does get more and more difficult, and online retailing gets more and

more seductive. And all of us get more and more used to it, from grocery

supply to buying books off Amazon. Yet I go to the Westfield shopping

centre down the road, and it's turned out to be an absolute goldmine,

heaving with people all year round. Anyone who tells you they know the

future is telling you the most grotesque lie, because none of us do."

--Tim Waterstone

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16623194,

founder and former owner of of the British bookstore chain that still

bears his name, in an interview with the Guardian. Waterstone is about

to return to bookselling as "non-executive chairman" of Read Petite

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16623195 an online outlet for short-form e-books that will be launched to the trade at the London Book Fair and to the public

next fall.

I read and really enjoyed this book, Beautiful Ruins, which is by a Seattle author:

 

Cross Creek Pictures' Todd Field (Little Children) "is teaming up with

Smuggler Films to produce, co-write and direct Beautiful Ruins

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16633421,"

based on the novel by Jess Walter, Indiewire reported, calling it "an

ambitious project to tackle."

April is National Poetry Month:

Can you hear it now? That, my friends, is the exquisite sound of poems

making their way in the world. Poetry is everywhere. "We can leave it

out on the counter for our beloved, like a bowl of yellow pears," Dobby

Gibson observes in his answer to that question posed by Common Good

Books. "Or we can fold it up into a tiny square and bury it in our sock

drawer, like our most dangerous secret. Either way, it will lie there

patiently and wait to be discovered." --Robert Gray

Quotes, Amazon in the Belly of the Beast, and Rosie Dunne

 Great quote that I totally agree with: "The biggest elephant--or myth--in the room is that bookstores are less relevant today. The opposite is true. As we engage in vast swaths of our
lives virtually, the face-to-face conversation becomes more necessary
and more valued. Bookstores fit perfectly into the community that
locavorism is seeking to preserve or reestablish." Jenny Milchman, author

My husband worked at Amazon as a contractor, and what this young man has to say pretty much jives with what he told me and what I saw when I came in to visit. I have to say that getting all the free books you can carry in a bag was a huge perk for me, though.

Burning the Page: Book Views from an Ex-Amazonian

The New York Times has a striking q&a with Jason Merkoski
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16592938,
a former Amazon employee who led the team that built the first Kindle
and author of Burning the Page: The Ebook Revolution and the Future of
Reading (Sourcebooks), which for now is available only as an e-book.

Among his comments:
On Amazon, Apple and Google: "As far as social responsibility goes, let
me just say this: These companies have entire buildings filled with
lawyers. They aren't there to come up with new lawyer jokes. They are
there, in part, to keep people like me from even answering this
question. That said, I think if people were given a chance to spend a
day looking inside Amazon or Apple's veil of secrecy, most of them would
be fascinated--although some might boycott."

On censorship: "If push came to shove, I think most of these execs would
rather pull e-books from the store, effectively censoring them, if that
would avoid bad press. These are major retailers, not your quirky corner
bookstores. They're manned by former management consultants in clean
shirts and pressed Dockers, not eccentric book-lovers with beards and
cats."

On personal privacy issues: "I do trust them with my identity. These
companies are obsessed with safeguarding privacy. The worst they're
going to do is show me more ads."

On discoverability: "When it comes to book recommendations, [online]
retailers have the literary sensibilities of a spreadsheet--they'll just
recommend the most popular books to me, or books that other people also
bought, but they know nothing of the soul and sparkle of a great book. I
hope this changes over time."

On the advantages of e-books: "Reading is great, but I don't know
whether you need paper and ink for it. You're going to get so much more
from e-books because they bring your friends and family into the margins
of your reading experience. They will be literally on the same page with
you."

On the future of books: "In 20 years, the space of one generation, print
books will be as rare as vinyl LPs. You'll still be able to find them in
artsy hipster stores, but that's about it. So the great advantage of
e-books is also their curse; e-books will be the only game in town if
you want to read a book. It's sobering, and a bit sad. That said,
e-books can do what print books can't. They'll allow you to fit an
entire library into the space of one book. They'll allow you to search
for anything in an instant, save your thoughts forever, share them with
the world, and connect with other readers right there, inside the book.
The book of the future will live and breathe."

On the value of printed books: "I found a book at my grandmother's house
that was inscribed by my great-grandfather. I learned what his original
last name was--before he changed it. That was an interesting link to my
past. We're going to lose that sort of trace of ourselves if we go all
digital."

On his Amazon experience: "Working at Amazon was like getting an M.B.A.
and a Ph.D. at the same time. It was an incredible education. These were
the smartest people I ever worked with. But Amazon had a dark side as
well, as if it were the mean stepmother in a fairy tale. There was this
push to get great products out to consumers. It makes a lot of teams
very haggard. Amazon is held together by adrenaline, spreadsheets and
people running around like crazy."

"The codex, which is the ancestor of the book, was invented 2,500 years ago,
and ever since then the book business has been in incredible flux, and
it's not going to change. But one thing that's also not going to change
is people love to go to bookstores, and people still have tremendous
loyalty for the physical book. And our task and our challenge is to give
the people of Concord the best bookstore that we can possibly put up."

--Michael Herrmann, owner of Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, N.H., in a
video interview http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16592929 with the Concord Patch giving a tour of the new store http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16592930, which is
under construction.

 I just finished a great book, "Rosie Dunne" by Cecelia Ahern, daughter of the former Prime Minister of Ireland. I've read a couple of Ahern's other novels, and I've enjoyed them, but I have to say I found Rosie Dunne to be spectacularly fun, interesting and un-put-downable.
The book revolves around the life of the title character, Rosie Dunne, who lives in Dublin with her family and has a best friend in Alex Stewart.  The book begins when Rosie and Alex meet in kindergarten and soon discover that they're both rebellious and rather wild young people who like passing notes about their teacher, "Miss Big Nose Smelly Breath Casey." The novel follows them right through their grade school and teen years into adulthood and middle age.
The main reason that Rosie D is so readable is that the story is told through notes, emails, instant messages and letters from Rosie to Alex and her family members. Is there anything more delicious than the thrill of voyeurism that one gets while reading someone else's private letters, emails or notes? I don't think so! Of course, disaster strikes Rosie fairly regularly, and Alex has his share of heartache, too, but Rosie's hilarious take on everything that happens to her makes it seem as if even the most horrible events are survivable and that she learns and grows from them, as a person. By the time the HEA rolls around, the reader feels as if they know and adore Rosie and Alex, and they're so realistic that you may find yourself wanting to fly to Ireland just to hang out with Rosie at a pub and get "pissed." I'd recommend this book to fans of comedic romantic fiction, and I'd give it a solid A.

Jennie Shortridge's Newest Novel Debuts, Circle of Magic Books by Tamora Pierce

Though I was unable to attend this event, I have read all but the latest of Jennie Shortridge's novels, and I loved them all. She's an amazing writer, (and a talented singer, it appears) and this event sounds like it was quite a hit!

Music and Memory in Seattle
Jennie Shortridge launched her new book, Love Water Memory (Gallery
Books), Tuesday night at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle with
readings bookended and punctuated by music from the Rejections (and
Trailing Spouses). The band, whose first gig was at the launch party for
Erica Bauermeister's The Lost Art of Mixing, is composed of
Seattle7Writers http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16550711
 and spouses: Shortridge on vocals, her husband, Matt Gani, on guitar and vocals; Paul Mariz
(husband of Laurie Frankel) on guitar and vocals; Ben Bauermeister
(husband of Erica) on violin; Garth Stein on bass; and Stephanie Kallos
on keyboard, vocals and percussion. And what a band it is! Shortridge is
a soulful, lyrical singer, and Kallos is a sultry songstress who soloed
on "They Can't Take That Away from Me." The violin perfectly complements
the guitars, the vocal backup is a pleasure. Lucky attendees found a CD
taped under their chairs, and you can download the songs on Shortridge's
website http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16550712 (highly
recommended).

Aside from the sheer joy of the music, the songs in the set fit nicely
with Shortridge's readings. In Love Water Memory, Lucie finds herself
far from home, suffering from amnesia. Her fiancé, Brady, finds
her and takes her back to Seattle, where she is a stranger to him and to
herself. One of her first connections with her past is at the piano in
the basement of their house, where she finds herself playing "They Can't
Take That Away from Me" in the middle of the night. As Lucie begins to
recall her life, she sometimes longs to leave it; as she falls in love
again with Brady, he becomes distant. If you've read any of Shortridge's
books (When She Flew, etc.), you will guess how this ends, but that
doesn't lessen the journey you will take with Lucie and Brady one whit.
Get the book, download the music, and settle in for a treat. --Marilyn
Dahl, from Shelf Awareness
******************
I've been reading Tamora Pierce's "Circle of Magic" YA fantasy series for the past 6 weeks, and I have to say that I'm really enjoying them. I've read most of the other series that Pierce has put out, including her Lioness series and Protector of the Small and her "Dog" series, the latter of which I think I enjoyed the most because Becca Cooper was such a kick-butt heroine.
Then someone mentioned this Circle of Magic series, and I knew that I had to get my own copies ASAP. I started with Sandry's Book, (#1) and found myself slipping easily into this latest world Pierce created, where four children are brought together by a mage named Nico, who uses his powers to find children whose magic isn't of the usual variety. Sandry, who is an orphaned noble, has weaver magic that uses fabric and thread to do its bidding, while Tris, a merchant's child, barely has control over weather magic, which uses air, lightening and water to create storms. Daja is basically a gypsy child whose family perished at sea, leaving her an outcast with her people. She has fire magic and can create living metal trees and other wonders by working with a forge and her magic. Briar is a street rat and a thief whose magic involves anything green and growing, from trees to grass and flowers in the soil. Each of these characters has their own book, but the stories within that book still include each of the other children, whom I gather are somewhere around 10-12 years old.
I have just completed Daja's book and I'm now on book 4, which is Briars book and the last of the series, or the first part of the series, I believe.
Pierce is one of the best YA writers in existence, and one of the few who write, and have been writing, strong female protagonists into their books since the 80s. I like to think that there are whole schools, gaggles and bundles of women out there who grew up reading about Alana and Becca Cooper, and were inspired to forge on through the sexist nonsense and patriarchal crap that society and industry throws at women and become whatever profession they felt called to become, be it traditionally male or not. I like to think there are a lot of female firefighters, truck drivers, rocket scientists and astronaughts, to name a few, who can trace their intestinal fortitude to Tamora Pierce's books of girls and women who refused to let someone else define who they are and what they can be, or shape their destiny.
Unfortunately, since I had a male child, I can't pass these books on to my son, who wouldn't find them particularly interesting. But, I hope one day to be able to hand them to a female grandchild and say "Read these and dream!"
BTW, I am looking forward to the grand reopening of our local branch of the King County Library System in Maple Valley next week. The place is supposed to be remodeled and refreshed, and hopefully it will have even easier access to books, videos and computers. I have really missed the MV Library these past 4 weeks, and I am looking forward to discussing "Maine" by J Courtney Sullivan, with my Tuesday night book group in the new library on April 9.

Amazon Buys GoodReads, and Other News

 I, for one, welcome our Book Overlords (especially since they're based in Seattle).
From Shelf Awareness:
Amazon is buying the popular book-focused social networking site
Goodreads http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489969, which was founded in 2007 and now
has more than 16 million members. The acquisition is expected to close
by July. Goodreads' headquarters will remain in San Francisco, and its
management is expected to stay in place.

As the leading social networking site devoted to books, GoodReads has
been considered an important element in addressing the "discoverability"
problem that grew with spread of e-books and Amazon and the collapse of
Borders: How would readers discover books if fewer of them were visiting
the best source for learning about new books, bricks-and-mortar
bookstores?

In one fell swoop, Amazon, whose algorithms for recommending books have
shown limited effectiveness, now owns one of the major tools built to
address the problem it created.

On the Goodreads blog http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489970,
CEO and co-founder Otis Chandler said the site "will continue to be the
wonderful community that we all cherish. We plan to continue offering
you everything that you love about the site--the ability to track what
you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book
lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors--and your
reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it's incredibly
important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no
matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even
stone tablets."

But judging from the reaction of booksellers, publishers and some
Goodreads users, the process may not be so easy. The overwhelming
feeling expressed yesterday on Twitter and Facebook was surprise and
disappointment. @NextGenAuthors http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489971 tweeted us: "Hey, your April Fool's edition doesn't come out until Monday!" Many
indies and their fans promptly cancelled their accounts.

The question is how a site that was prized for its independence and
noncommercial cred will fare as a part of the Amazon empire. As one
person commented on Otis Chandler's own blog on Goodreads: "I
liked/would prefer a community of readers not backed by someone with
motives to a) unrelentingly mine my data and b) sell me stuff."

In response to Chandler's comment that "We truly could not think of a
more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and
an appreciation for the authors who write them," Jarek Steele of Left
Bank Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489972,
St. Louis, Mo., wrote on his blog: "Really, Goodreads? You've forsaken
all the other opportunities to partner with independent bookstores,
Kobo, even Barnes & Noble & the Nook? How about iPad? Also, who at
Amazon has a love of books or authors?"

The Amazon record concerning book world companies it's purchased isn't
encouraging. While some non-book purchases, like Zappos, have remained
independent and fared well, some book purchases are either merged into
Amazon World or left to die on the Internet vine, such as Lexcycle and,
most tellingly, Shelfari, which, like Goodreads, is a social media site
focused on books.

Only last year, Amazon and Goodreads had a public fight that led to
Goodreads choosing to use Ingram data instead of Amazon's because of
Amazon's requirement that its data not link to another retailer. There
was no word on how this might change.

Goodreads has also been marked by a kind of openness that runs contrary
to Amazon's penchant for secret. Otis Chandler has spoken at many
conferences, giving details about site usage, and Goodreads shares
information with publishers. It's likely all that will change very soon.

The move also adds to the sense that Amazon is slowly buying up much of
the book world. Over some 15 years, the company has bought AbeBooks.com,
Audible.com, Brilliance Audio, the Book Depository, Shelfari,
BookFinder.com, Lexcycle, BookSurge, CreateSpace, Mobipocket.com and
(through AbeBooks) 40% of Library Thing.

Wired summed up this feeling well http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489973, beginning its story on the Amazon purchase of Goodreads with this: "Amazon looked back
to its roots in bookselling and forward to its future as the global
overlord of all reading and writing by announcing its plan today to
purchase social reading site Goodreads."

Forbes called the move a slap in the face of publishers
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489974,
writing that it's no coincidence that the deal came seven weeks after
Penguin, Hachette and Simon & Schuster launched Bookish.

"It's a brilliant move by Amazon
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489975,"
Mike Shatzkin of the Idea Logical Co. told the Wall Street Journal. "If
you are a book marketer, the two places you think about the most in
terms of online marketing opportunities are Amazon and Goodreads." He
added, "It makes me question whether Amazon's competitors are awake. How
could they let this happen?" 

And in his inimitable style, Knopf's Paul Bogaards http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489976 tweeted,
"That's what all you morons get for sharing your books online."

---

Editor's Note: Judging from our e-mail over the last 12 hours, many in
the industry believe that the main reason Amazon bought Goodreads is to
bolster its discoverability problem. Although we don't usually "shelf
promote," please indulge us a moment. Two years ago, the Shelf launched
its consumer publication, Shelf Awareness for Readers, a free
twice-weekly customized newsletter that helps indies help their
customers discover the best 25 books published that week and that drives
them back to their local store for purchase. We now have 50 partnership
stores, with 200,000 subscribers; we've helped those stores to sell more
and more books and helped them reinforce customers' faith that their
local indie is the best place for learning what to read next. To find
out more information about our program, go to http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16489977.
*****************
I'm curently reading "Leaving Everything Most Loved" by Jacqueline Winspear, the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery, and I am loving it, of course! Here's some things the author posted to Facebook that I felt I had to share:

Hello Everyone! As you know (how could you fail to, with the posts appearing on this page) my new novel featuring Maisie Dobbs was published yesterday. I began my book tour on Monday, however, I am very aware that not everyone can make a point of going to one of the venues where I will be speaking. Technology to the rescue! At the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, my "interview" with Barbara Peters, owner of the store, is available to view at the following URL:
http://new.livestream.com/poisonedpen/10thMaisieDobbs

I took great care not to reveal any great spoilers about the new book, though I should warn those of you who have only just begun reading the series, that during the questions segment, members of the audience referred to events in previous books (and I made the odd slip too!).

In addition, I was interviewed for the blog A Writer of History, and it appears online this week - I thought the writers among you might be interested:
http://awriterofhistory.com/

And finally, for San Francisco Bay Area readers - one event that does not appear on the Appearances page of my website is the radio show, West Coast Live this coming Saturday. West Coast Live is recorded with a studio audience in the Ferry Building down in SF - ticket details are on the website: http://www.wcl.org/

I think that will be all from me for a while - book touring is busy work, so not always easy to check in from the road. So, until the next time, I wish you all the very best, as always.

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If you are like me, and you're one of the millions obsessed with Downton Abbey, a wonderful British tv series, you are probably grinding your teeth awaiting Season 4. In order to take the edge off the anxiety of waiting, PBS has come up with a nifty little period drama that should help to slake the thirst of Downton Abbey fans for at least a few months.

Wondering if "the love affairs of a store's clerks and wealthy patrons
enthrall viewers as much as the downstairs-upstairs goings-on at the
Grantham estate," USA Today noted that Mr. Selfridge http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz16490021, which premieres Sunday on PBS Masterpiece, is, like Downton Abbey, "a lavish costume drama set in early 20th-century England," though this
story focuses on "the rags-to-riches story of Harry Gordon Selfridge,
the charismatic, American entrepreneur who in 1909 threw open the doors
to Selfridge's, welcoming London and the world to the first truly modern
department store."

The show, starring Jeremy Piven (Entourage) and adapted by Andrew Davies
(Pride and Prejudice), is based on the book Shopping, Seduction & Mr.
Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead, which is available in a series tie-in
paperback edition (Random House, $16, 9780812985047).
 

Perfect Red by Jennie Nash

Perfect Red, A Novel, came to me in a beautiful package from the author as part of a promotion from Shelf Awareness. Though I believe my copy is an ARC, Ms Nash tied it up with a red ribbon, signed it and included a note about the typos being corrected in the final printing, and there were two perfectly beautiful postcards showing a woman in profile who looks like Grace Kelly from the 1950s applying lipstick, with the phrase "What would you risk to follow your passion?" emblazoned in red italics on the upper right corner of the card. Readers learn later in the book that this is a representation of the book that the protagonist, Lucy Lawrence, self publishes.

Though elegantly presented and charmingly wrought, Perfect Red suffers from one outstanding flaw.
The characters are not drawn realistically or believably as they could be, descending at times into two-dimensional stereotypes or archetypes of people living in 1950s East Coast cities like New York and Washington DC. I found myself thinking that the novel could easily be considered Candace Bushnell-light, with its focus on all the surface things, like fashion, lipstick and men that women in Bushnell's novels are obsessed with to the nth degree. Yet instead of "Sex and the City" this novel is about the trials and tribulations of a young secretary to a publisher who has a book idea that "haunts" her and yet she hasn't the gumption to actually write the book herself, so she works in publishing as a way to somehow learn to write this book by hanging around writers and publishers and apparently gaining insight into writing by osmosis.

Though I liked the central idea of the book, that there is a lipstick that is such a perfectly red color that it causes a kind of fanaticism among women, who believe it has magical properties to snare a man, and that the passion and obsession to obtain the secret to this lipstick is overpowering for Lucy's father, I didn't really buy that this quest would bring Lucy and her father to the attention of the House Unamerican Activities Committee and Senator Joe McCarthy. I know that the HUAC destroyed the lives of many people who ended up on their blacklist, like Elia Kazan and other Hollywood actors, directors, screenwriters, etc. Their witch hunt for "commies," "pinkos" and other "reds" or communist sympathizers bordered on the insane, and caused a lot of damage to a lot of people's lives. But bringing in a young secretary who writes a fiction novel about a perfect red lipstick and its origins seems like it would have been well beneath their notice.

I insist on adding "young" before the protagonist's name because throughout the novel, she's like a drawing of a perfect 20-year-old blond girl living in the city (in the 50s). She's virginal, chaste, easily shocked, cries at the drop of a hat, is "plucky" but not aggressive, because that would be unlady-like, and she has the melodramatic and naive outlook on life that Nancy Drew or Doris Day had in their books and movies, that fresh-complexion, dewy-eyed belief that a man will take you by the hand and bring you ecstasy in the bedroom and then marry you and plunk you down into a nice suburb where you'll have two kids and the American dream all wrapped up. Yes, I mean characters sweet enough to give you diabetes. But even though Lucy breaks with tradition to want to be a writer, her ineffectual jabs at writing and her ability to give her book into the hands of TJ Wright (yes, the author actually has "Mr Wright" as a name for the male protagonist/antagonist) in order to save her job and her boss Jamison's job comes off as cowardly at best and stupid at worst. Any reader will see their betrayals coming a mile off. I was not surprised, then, when TJ turned out to be a cad, a thief and a rapist. I was surprised that Nash never calls the sexual assault that Lucy endures a rape, nor does she call TJ the novelist a rapist. Instead, Lucy continues to suffer at his hands when her boss fires her and tears up her manuscript, and then TJ and/or Jamison turns her in to HUAC after she rewrites (for the third time) her book and publishes it with her bookstore-owner boyfriend, Jeffrey. She seems to suffer no other ill effects from being raped, other than the satisfaction of seeing TJ become a homeless bum and Jamison lose his job and livelihood as well.

She's even too much of a coward to open an envelope from that boyfriend, and has to have someone open it for her. Her childish reactions and blindness to reality becomes so ridiculous that there were times when I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her until her teeth rattled, and yell at her to grow a spine and stop being such a wimpy, whiny baby, and assuming that you need a man to publish a book. I would have told her mother to go to hell and I would have brought TJ up on charges and I would have decked Jamison the jerk, and I never would have been so submissive to a man I am supposedly in love with who runs a bookstore. Lucy acts like she is at fault for having been raped and robbed, and she practically crawls on hands and knees to get Jeffrey to "take her back" though Lucy and Jeffrey claimed they love one another. I realize sexism was pervasive in the 50s, but her childish naivete becomes nauseating (and ridiculous) after about the first 5 chapters. Readers can only suspend disbelief for so long.

Though it might not sound like it, I did, actually, enjoy reading Perfect Red, if for no other reason than for the insight into how lipstick is made, and the importance of color and style. The glimpse into the 50s world of fashion was interesting as well, and Nash's prose, while simple, was still clean and clear enough to aid the greased lightening plot along the fast track. I'd give the book a C+ and recommend it to those interested in 1950s fashion/cosmetics and glamor, and those curious as to how McCarthy's shenanigans effected people's lives outside of Hollywood.

The Sweetest Dark by Shana Abe and A Poets Journey

The sixth book in Shana Abe's perfectly marvelous "Drakon" series of paranormal romances, The Sweetest Dark came to me as an ARC from Random House that was a welcome surprise in a particularly rough week of Crohns flares.

I devoured The Sweetest Dark within 2 days (and it would have been one day had I not had to eat, sleep, spend time in the restroom and deal with activities of daily life) because Abe has this near magical ability to write characters that you not only identify with, but characters that seem so real and enchanting that you fall in love with them and truly want them to succeed, as you would a cherished friend or beloved relation. It doesn't hurt that most of the protagonists of her Drakon series are the disenfranchised, the lonely and unusual, the poor of pocket but not of spirit kind of people.

Her prose is pure gold, mesmerizing in it's luxurious folds that glow and glimmer like lamme or the finest silk. The plot moves at a swift but efficient pace, never slowing for too much description or narration, and the internal logic of the story makes all the magical events seem normal and natural within the story arc.

Abe is the Queen of paranormal romance, combining the writing styles of Patricia McKillip with that of John Steinbeck and a touch of Shakespeare's lyric to create a novel that grasps your hand on page one and pulls you onto the dance floor, not letting you go until, gasping, the final note has been played.

The story takes place in the England of 1915, where Eleanora,"Lora" Jones is an orphan with the kind of grit and fire it takes to survive the cruelties of King George V's England. She is enrolled in an elite boarding school called Iverson, where she meets Jesse, the school's groundskeeper, who is actually a star come to earth, and Armand, a handsome aristocrat who is, like Lora, part drakon and part human. Drakon are able to dissolve into smoke and turn from human to dragon after puberty. They are also able to smell and hear the music of jewels and minerals. Lora finds that she can play this music on a piano, though she's never had lessons in her life, and she also discovers a deep love of the stars and of Jesse, her own protective star, as well as Armand, her drakon alpha. Lora also learns to listen to the voice of the dragon within, and to trust herself and to fight back against the petty bullies at Iverson.

I was so enthralled with this glorious story, I didn't want it to end, and was depressed that the book ended before readers could discover whether or not Armand and Lora marry and continue on the drakon line, or even whether Armand ever learns to transform into his dragon form and fly free with Lora across the moonlit skies. (This book is available on April  2, 2013 from your local bookstore or Amazon/Barnes and Noble.com).

But regardless, The Sweetest Dark is a masterpiece of fantasy fiction that is so lush and brilliant, it should be considered a jewel in it's own right. Though it is being marketed as Young Adult fiction, I feel that, like The Hobbit, or the Harry Potter series, this is a book that adults who love a good fairy tale can enjoy, too. A solid A, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves beautiful stories/legends that enchant and draw you into their world.
{Note: The other books in Shana Abe's drakon series are, The Smoke Thief, The Dream Thief. Queen of Dragons, The Treasure Keeper and The Time Weaver.}

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I would love to read this book, not just because it is about poets and poetry, but also because I have a long-standing fascination with Scotland and its people. 

I hope to one day visit Scotland and Wales, and navigate the moors myself.

Review: Walking Home: A Poet's Journey

As a memoir of traveling on foot, Simon Armitage's Walking Home is more

a cousin to Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods than Cheryl Strayed's

Wild. It's the amiable story of a 19-day ramble along the 256-mile

Pennine Way, bisecting England from the Midlands to the Scottish

border--at times a world of stunning beauty, but more often an

"unglamorous slog among soggy, lonely moors, requiring endurance and

resolve."

Instead of traversing the trail from south to north, as is the custom,

Armitage decided to proceed in the opposite direction so he would finish

in the town of Edale, near his home. The other reason for his choice of

direction--the sense that this way he'd be walking downhill--turns out

to be hilariously wrongheaded. Armitage financed his trip with nightly

poetry readings, and he's meticulous about recording his take at each

stop, along with all the other odd objects audience members deposited

into the sock he passed for the voluntary offering.

There are no wild animals or outlaws to menace Armitage along the way,

but he recounts some frightening moments when he's lost in the mists of

the Cheviot Hills or scrambling up a narrow path on the mountain

ominously known as Cross Fell ("a truly terrible place"), where he

eventually beholds "a dizzying vastness full to the brink with nothing

but light and air." The boggy moorlands Armitage navigates bring to mind

the works of the Bronte sisters, and he remarks on the hordes of

tourists (many of them Japanese) who flock to the ruined farmhouse at

Top Withens that may have inspired the Earnshaw house of Wuthering

Heights. Armitage shares the path at times with a motley crew that

includes his wife and daughter and a college friend nicknamed Slug.

Their quirks and the litany of odd English place names--from the

waterfall known as Cauldron Snout to Blakehopeburnhaugh to Buttertubs

Pass--only add to his account's consistent charm.

The appeal of a book like Walking Home turns largely on the likeability

of its narrator, and Armitage scores high on that scale. Possessed of an

ample supply of sharp and self-deprecating British wit, he's erudite but

still in most respects an Everyman. Perhaps best of all, he concludes

his journey in a way that's as surprising for its candor as it is

completely satisfying. --Harvey Freedenberg

Unfortunately, this quote from Shelf Awareness is all too true about working in print journalism today.

"Newspapers always have been liberal places where people work hard for little pay, because they believe in the job. They always could empathize with the poor. But pay continues to dwindle to the point that I wonder what kind of person, today, enrolls in journalism school?"
Another very true quote:
"Tricky because I feel like that's what books do--they alter the course
of your life. Sometimes it's a nudge, sometimes it's a 180-degree turn.
You finish any book filled with new knowledge or new stories or new
insights about yourself. That's why I won't give away my raggedy
books--they are all memories, moments that changed me, steered me and
formed me. Pick one? Albert Einstein's Relativity. Novels I read to
forget the author and wander the world they've created. But to read the
words of a genius who changed the course of the world, his voice
speaking directly to me--that brought home the power of books, the power
of an individual human mind, and the miracle of writing that is the one
true elixir of immortality. "Deborah Cloyed, from Shelf Awareness' Book Brahmin