Cats Dogs, and Other Strangers at My Door: A Roundup

Being that I have befriended five cats on my recent trip to Massachusetts, I thought it seemed appropriate to round up the man, many, many dog and cat books that we seem to be featuring at Boswell this holiday season. Some are highlighted in our holiday newsletter, others were featured on our new release display, and still others have a presence on our impulse

The biggest of the bunch, at least in terms of trim size, is Kittenhood: Life-Size Portraits of Kittens in Their First 12 Weeks (Stewart, Tabori, and Chang), by Sarah Beth Ernhart. It came in very early, well before our gift tables came up, and I think it wound up face out in the section for a bit, leaving little room for anything else. The photography is very nice, with that large trim size making our feline friends look almost life size. I think the blank white pages are for effect. There are 25 breeds represented, including Mabel the sphynx, which I think is hairless. I really didn't know there were so many breeds out there!

Featured in our holiday gift guide is The Big New Yorker Book of Cats (Random House) and it is also Boswell Best through December. This collection of short stories, essays, cartoons, and magazine cover reproductions features work from E.B. White, Jamaica Kincaid, Haruki Murakami, Roald Dahl, and more. The New Yorker reprinted Anthony Lane's introduction in celebration of National Cat Day, which I don't have to tell you is October 29. Every so often, someone suggests the store get a cat (Left Bank Books has one in St. Louis, as does the slightly differently named Boswell's Books in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. The store is named after the cat, not the writer!

When it comes to the impulse table nowadays, it seems that every other book started as a blog. I guess publishers see that as sort of test marketing the title. Henri, Le Chat Noir: The Existential Musings of an Angst-Filled Cat (Ten Speed), by William Braden, is no exception. Apparently Henri perfectly captures feline malaise, saying, among other things "Sir Isaac Newton wrote, 'Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.' So, no, you should not consider getting a dog."  Did Henri's film really win the People's Choice award at the Internet Cat Film Festival?

I certainly don't need to mention the world-famous Grumpy Cat (Chronicle), because that Grumps is nothing short of movie-star famous. You sort of get the rhythm from these things, so the book, which is subtitled "Disgruntled Tips and Activities Designed to Put a Frown on Your Face" is filled with Grumpy reading lists, puzzles, and lots of advice, such as "Time heals all wounds. I broke your watch." Interestingly enough, Grumpy Cat has no human author--instead it's a product of Grumpy Cat Ltd.

You may remember Michael Showalter from The State or Michael and Michael Have Issues, two cable series from days past. His comedy partner, Michael Ian Black, is now game show hosting, and I just read that Showalter is a writer on the ABC series, Super Fun Night. But enough web searching (oh, just one more, he had a memoir two years ago called Mr. Funny Pants) as we are here to talk about cat books, and Showalter has one called Guys Can Be Cat Ladies Too (Abrams). The design looks modeled a bit on Stuff White People Like, but the book is as much a guide as it is snarky fun. OK, its mostly snark but a portion of the author proceeds is being donated to The Humane Society of New York.

Time to stop purring and start barking. Carli Davidson's Shake (HarperDesign) is pint-sized photography book capturing dogs in their most candid moments of mid-shake, to quote the publisher. I believe there are internet-distributed videos that have had a lot of play. It's interesting that the stop-motion images capture the most fascinating facial expressions in the dogs. The Huffington Post wrote " a wet shaking dog may be a common sight for pet lovers, but few have ever seen wet dogs captured like this" and The New York Times called Shake "a hilarious portrayal of flying fur, flopping jowls, and bulging eyes." This is also featured in our holiday gift guide.

Veering inspirational is Devoted: 38 Extraordinary Tales of Love, Loyalty, and Life with Dogs, by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh (National Geographic). Ascher Walsh is a freelance writer who volunteers at a shelter in Manhattan and has an organization to raise funds for the care of rescue dogs. Chancer is a golden retreiver who became companion to a boy with featal alcohol syndrome. Dutchess is a sled dog who trained for the Iditeraod.  And Schoep (named after the ice cream) is a mixed-breed shelter dog who helped pull his master out of depression.

Interestingly enough, I haven't seen so many animal narratives this Christmas, though I did note that Jason brought in the 7000th edition of The Cat Who Came for Christmas (Back Bay). There is Sharron Kahn Luttrell's Weekends with Daisy (Gallery), about a woman who does weekend care for a dog who is trained by a convict during the week. I'll bet you didn't know that many service dogs are trained in prisons. Well it turns out they've already sold movie rights to this book (actually done before book rights were sold), which they are comparing a bit to The Blind Side.

And finally for those who vote "other" in the pet elections, there is The Diary of Edward the Hamster 1990-1990 (Blue Rider), translated from the original Hamster by Miriam and Ezra Elia. The diary was found by Dr. M.E. Rodenstein, specialist on Hamster Linguistics and Philosophy, at a North London garage sale.  Dr. R. calls this a profound meditation on the nature of captivity and the soul, interlaced with stark reflections on the grinding banalities of everyday being.

As long as we are talking about cats and dogs, don't forget about the Wisconsin Humane Society. Whether you are adopting a pet, looking to volunter, or just looking to donate needed funds, start by checking out their website.

On Our Holiday Gift Guide Landing, Plus a Few Fiction Recommendations.

Folks on our mailing list should be getting their holiday gift guides any day now, if they haven't already. When I called into Boswell, I was told that several folks had arrived bearing one in hand, and at least one person bought a pile of The Day the Crayons Quit as a result. Sharon and I would agree this is a worthy pile indeed, though Jannis noted that it's a bit long for a storytime. As an aside, Jannis's first storytime was a big hit and we've scheduled #2 for Sunday, January 12, 11 am, featuring Philip and Erin Stead's Bear Has a Story to Tell and Kevin Henkes's Old Bear. I'm sure you can't bear to miss this one!

You're probably wondering how we figure out how to gather addresses. You've got to be on the Boswell Benefits program and you have to have given us you're correct address. Believe me, nowadays that's a tall order. Who remembers to update their street address tp their bookseller when they move. If you have moved in the last year, why not check your address with us the next time you're in the store so you can get next year's newsletter? If all goes well, we might actually send out two, but since we haven't done a spring one in several years, I wouldn't count on it.

Needless to say, we can't afford to send to everyone who signs up, so we came up with a threshold for sales that would get your on the list. Assuming about 400 newsletters will come back, that will give us a mailing of about 3500. For the rest of you, we'll have copies available at Boswell, and soon if not already, a downloadable pdf on our website.

I thought I would offer some highlights. Today I'm going to note some fiction titles that haven't yet been featured on the blog or email newsletter. I first took note of Fiend (Crown), a novel by Peter Stenson. I think Jason had also read this, but it's one of Greg's yearend recommendations so to me, he owns it. Per the publisher: " A long-time, hopelessly addicted meth user, Chase Daniels see the impending zombie apocalypse as an opportunity to hit restart and become the man he once dreamed of being." Oh good, an inspirational zombie novel. Jason notes (I guess they can share enthusiasm) that "the brilliance in the book comes from the story being told from inside the mind of a meth addict." It's a great pick for that person on your list who likes The Walking Dead or World War Z.

Another featured title is the Algerian novel, Where Tigers are at Home (Other Press), by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès  Per the publisher: "Winner of the Prix Médicis, this multifaceted literary novel follows the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher across 17th century Europe and Eleazard von Wogau, a retired French correspondent, through modern Brazil." I suppose this has nothing to do with our friend Jeff, who recently stated doing bookstore marketing at Other Press, had a great visit to the store, looking around and chatting up booksellers.

If you follow our recs, you can't be surprised this would be on our list. Alan Cheuse said it best, in his NPR review: "This book--the first of his to appear in the U.S. in English-- stands as a challenge to readers who want their fiction to offer a quick pay-off. The novel is probably scholarly enough to satisfy those who enjoy reading Umberto Eco, and erotic enough for those who take pleasure in the sexual gambits in the fiction of Milan Kundera. And among its other narrative delights is an adventure plot straight out of Michael Crichton." Oh, and since we love books in translation and their translators, let us give props to Mike Mitchell.

When it comes down to it, there's not a lot of fiction on our year-end list that I haven't written about before. So then it came down to what I was going to feature as a rec in the gift guide. In the end, I used the "which book am I most likely going to want to reread" and that made me lean towards Cathleen Schine's Fin and Lady (Sarah Crichton/FSG). Maybe it's my New York roots, but boy did I think she did a great job at capturing Manhattan in the 1960s. And I just loved the relationship. Maybe it's because I have such strong bonds with my two sisters. Because they were a bit older than me, it didn't really cement until I was a bit older--when I was a kid, it was all just a big mystery. Plus Fin and Lady was funny, sad, sweet, poetic, joyous,  and didn't have the problem I've had with several books a year where I questioned the ending. This one was perfect.

I hope to write a few more posts on some of our other gift ideas.

Visiting Worcester, Massachusetts Leads Me to Yet Another Old Department Store Post, This One About Denholm's.

As you may know, I have a special interest in retail, and while I am fascinated by everything from supermarket and drug chains to independent bookstores (of course), I am particularly drawn to the old regional department stores of yore. After all, I not so long ago did a post on Something for Everyone: Memories of Lauerman Brothers Department Store So as I was visiting my mom and sister for a few days, I thought it would be appropriate to read Denholms: The Story of Worcester’s Premier Department Store (History Press).

My sister Claudia has always shared my interest in the grand dames of retailing. Like me, she took a short shift at a department store in her youth (at the old Stern’s on New York’s 42nd Street). As a grad student, she rented from a buyer at Muehlig’s, a Ann Arbor Dry Goods Store. When she lived in Ithaca, we went to Rothschild’s and when she moved to West Lafayette, we took short trips to Loeb’s in Lafayette and longer pilgrimages to L.S. Ayres and Block’s in Indianapolis.

When she arrived in Worcester in 1987, we went to the now defunct Worcester Galleria, featuring a Filene’s in existence since 1920 and a Jordan Marsh that opened with the mall in 1971. What we couldn’t figure out was where the home grown store was. A little research led us to Denholm and McKay (known commonly as Denholms) and that led to a visit to the original building, which still has a bit of signage and the escalators.(I'm hoping to have a couple of photos of the Denholms building, but for now, I'm decorating the blog post with other department store book jackets. I should note that I have visited the site of every one of these stores, though most had closed long before I got there.)

I now know from reading Christopher Sawyer and Patricia Wolf’s history that this was in fact an Escal-aire, and was installed by Otis Elevator in 1964, later than I would have suspected. Like many stores, it was very emotionally connected to the town with fashion shows, exhibits, truck delivery, and a return policy that was strict in writing but very loose in practice.

There are always things I want to know about an old department store. What was the name of its special boutique for high end women’s goods? The Salisbury Shop. What was the name of the restaurant? It acutally didn’t seem to have a special name. It was on six and then moved to the basement, when it became a leased operation. Yes, there was a special company that ran department store tea rooms, just like operations specialized in operating department store jewelry and book departments. Did you know that Waldenbooks started that way?

The downtown store closed in 1973 with the Auburn branch store following several months later. The seeds of its closer were likely the likely suspects of expanding suburban retail as well as the opening of the downtown mall, which Denholms chose to not be part of. They would have had to build a new store, so it’s likely the result would have been the same. The controlling families, seeing the writing on the wall, sold out to an outside operator who seemingly siphoned off cash and then sold the stores to a liquidator. This is still pretty common in retailing, alas.

I was sad to learn that the beautiful fractured script typeface was only in use for the last few years before the store closed. Boy would I love one of their gold and white striped shopping bags. I told my sister to ask around to her friends whose parents and other relatives are cleaning out their attics and basements.

It was all great fun, with a touch of melancholy. Do I have some beefs about the book? Yes, I would have liked more packaging, a little more about their marketing to kids (there had to be some sort of Billie the Brownie like character at Christmas), and no indication of the specific dish or snack item whose smell permeated the store. I'd love to see some packaging too--hot boxes, bags, more contemporary charge cards. Did they make up private labels or was everything just "Denholms" or "Denholm and McKay?" Sawyer has a Denholms blog, which I'm hoping will answer some of my questions.

I guess I’m sort of catching up on my department store reading. The Denholms book came out in 2011, and another book I just bought, L.S. Ayres & Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America (Indiana University Press), by Kenneth L. Turchi, was published in 2012. Just to keep me up to date, 2013 releases Woodward & Lothrop: A Store Worthy of the Nation's Capital (History Press), by Michael Lisicky, who wrote one of the Gimbels books, and Toledo's Three Ls: Lamson's, the Lion Store & Lasalle's (also History Press), by Bruce Alan Copytek, and 2014 promises a History Press book on Canada’s Eaton’s and an Arcadia Publishing volume on Richmond’s Thalhimers.

Barbara Pym 101--Yet Another Post About Barbara Pym, But This Time We're Celebrating Her Birthday on January 2.

Yes, this is a continuation of my post from last January, "The Pym-iest of Pym posts." Since that post last January, we've increased Barbara Pym awareness dramatically. We brought in as many volumes as were available, and what with our staff rec displays, we went from 6 Barbara Pym books sold in 2012 to 53 in 2013. Hey, I consider that a success.

Featuring the books has uncovered many closeted Pym-philes. And this was another reason that led us to plan Barbara Pym 101, a celebration of her 101st birthday.

There was only one problem--I hadn't read Pym in years! I am not much of a rereader, but in this case, it just seemed like the right thing to do. For one thing, the only two books I haven't yet read was The Barbara Pym Cookbook, and the diaries and letters in A Very Private Eye, and neither one of those books was going to fulfill the the Pym-shaped hole in my heart. (I did, by the way, read Hazel Holt's biography, A Lot to Ask).

Jane, Anne, and I just had an organization meeting for this celebration. We'll have some refreshments, of course, and several folks speaking. Then we're going to open the room for reminiscences from attendees. We want you to share your Barbara Pym memories. In the case of Anne, she recalled visiting the Book Noon in Whitefish Bay in the 1970s, where Beverly first recommended the read. In my previous post, I mentioned being turned on to Pym by my friend Billy when I lived in New York, obsessing enough to buy the special edition E.P. Dutton hardcovers.  Amusingly enough, when these were added to the Ingram database, they seemed so cheap that they were coded as paperbacks.

You know the story, right? Pym published through 1961 and when her next book was rejected, she stopped writing. She started again in 1977 after interest in her work fireballed and that book, Quartet in Autumn, was shortlisted for The Booker Prize. Per Fantastic Fiction, here is her bibliography.

Some Tame Gazelle (1950)
Excellent Women (1952)
Jane and Prudence (1953)
Less Than Angels (1955)
A Glass of Blessings (1958)
No Fond Return of Love (1961)
Quartet in Autumn (1977)
The Sweet Dove Died (1978)
A Few Green Leaves (1980)
An Unsuitable Attachment (1982)
Crampton Hodnet (1985)
An Academic Question (1986)
Civil to Strangers: And Other Writings (1987)

I decided to start with Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym's first-published novel. While Excellent Women is probably best known, and is the only book still published by Penguin, I thought it might be fun to move chronologically. The term "excellent women" came to be associated with that Pym heroine.

Set in small town in England, the focus is on Belinda Bede and her sister Harriet, two fifty-something sisters, rather comfortable but hardly wealthy. Belinda is the quiet and somewhat nervous one, pining away for the town's Archdeacon Henry Hoccleve, who spurned her some thirty years ealier. He's long-married to Agatha, a somewhat pushy woman who to Belinda's mind, doesn't treat Henry very well.

While Belinda is reticent and obsessed with protocol, Harriet is outgoing and flirtatious, obsessed with the latest fashion trends, and fending off proposals from their neighbor, Count Ricardo Bianco. More than anything, she loves coddling the young curates, and she's got a live one in Edgar Donne. Add to that a few other town ladies, plus some male visitors to town (including a Bishop), and you've got something between Jane Austen and a contemporary teenage comedy.

I didn't know how I'd react to Pym after so many years, but within fifty pages I was completely immersed in the Bedes' world, sighing at their setbacks, and giggling with delight at their triumphs and revelations. At one point, Harriet is contemplating the affections of Nathaniel Mold, the Deputy Librarian, and while she has explained away the fact that she spotted him coming out of a public house of all things, in the morning, no less, shes' still concerned.

"How could one possibly know all the things that had to be known about a person at first sight. Belinda had said she believed Mr. Mold had a very nice house, but then poor Belinda was so vague and for all that the house might be semidetached and not at all in an advantageous position."

I don't even know what an advantageous position means, but I can only imagine falling for someone and learning that their house was semi-detached.

Belinda's obsession with the Archbishop drives the heart of the story, just one of several unrequited loves in the plotline. But her loyalty seemingly knows no bounds, and the more that Henry reveals himself to be a pompous and rather lazy bore, the more Belinda makes excuses. Yes, you want to kick her, but really, how bad is this anyway? And so there's a bit of philosophy to the whole thing. What exactly do we want for the sisters? Answer: their happiness of course, but sometimes our expectations of happy endings aren't exactly grounded in reality.

About halfway through Some Tame Gazelle, I had the revelation that this is actually my third time reading this book. At first I was disappointed; I'm positive that there are many Pym novels I've only read once. But then I thought about the folks I know who reread books every year (To Kill a Mockingbird has been mentioned, as has The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter series) and I thought, so I read a book every ten years. Must all my reading be to support and author event?

In addition to the Open Road titles, published earlier this year, three volumes of Pym were released by Coffeetown Press. They are the last three books: Crampton Hodnet, An Academic Question, and Civil to Strangers. Jane is a fan of these covers. 

And then I thought that in a way, this was to support an author event, only without the author. Don't forget, "Barbara Pym 101" is Thursday, January 2, 2014.

Sunday Bestseller Post for the Week Ending December 7: Of Big Tops, Good Stock, and Laughing Hyenas

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Aimless Love, by Billy Collins
2. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
3. Dog Songs, by Mary Oliver
4. The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton
5. The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride
6. S, by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
7. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
8. The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy
9. Brown Dog, novellas by Jim Harrison
10. Just One Evil Act, by Elizabeth George

As we get further into the holiday season, our king and queen of poetry are consolidating their power, something I would suspect Jason didn't expect when buying for the holidays. He also noticed that Eleanor Catton, a clear winner in the indie market for sales, is not on the top 15 of The New York Times fiction list.

I don't think we previously wrote up Elizabeth George's newest, Just One Evil Act (Dutton). This time Barbara Havers, with the help of Thomas Lynley, investigate a kidnapping. First the baby disappears with the mom, and then the mom disappears as well. Tom Nolan in The Wall Street Journal calls Just One Evil Act "Among the most demanding and satisfying of the many detective novels by Elizabeth George featuring Havers and her New Scotland Yard partner, Inspector Thomas Lynley. Even the compassionate Lynley comes to doubt not only Havers's fitness as a police officer but her sanity."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. A People's Art History of the United States, by Nicolas Lampert
2. Good Stock, by Sanford D'Amato (event December 17, 7 pm)
3. The Bully Pulpit, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
4. David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell (ticketed event, more below)
5. Schlitz: Brewing Art, by Paula Bialas (event tomorrow, Monday, December 9, 7 pm)
6. Things that Matter, by Charles Krauthammer
7. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett
8. My Promised Land, by Ari Shavit
9. I am Malala, by Yousafzai Malala
10. Beatles Vs. Stones, by John McMillan

The rock and roll revolution continues, with Beatles Vs. Stones seemingly leading the pack. (Of course we know that the rock revolution was overthrown by Hip Hop dynasty, but we'll let some of our customers think otherwise). John McMillan gets a nice write up in The New York Times, with Anythony DeCurtis observing that "Even the most gnarled and intransigent veterans of the Beatles-Stones debates will emerge enlightened by this book."

We're pretty much got all our ducks in a row for a Malcolm Gladwell appearance at the UWM Zelazo Center on Friday, January 31 for David and Goliath. Tickets are $32 including all taxes and fees and should be up sometime tomorrow. In addition, the UWM bookstore will have tickets available at a 10% discount for UWM students, faculty, and staff. I should note that for this event, there is no gift card option, but of course you know the book makes a great gift. More to come later this week.


Paperback Fiction:
1. The Aviator's Wife, by Melanie Benjamin
2. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
3. Dear Life, by Alice Munro
4. The President's Hat, by Antoine Laurain
5. A Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling
6. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce
7. Best American Short Stories 2013, edited by Elizabeth Strout
8. All Saints, by Liam Callanan (in store lit group meets Monday, January 6, 7 pm)
9. NOS4A2, by Joe Hill
10. Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes

We had a very nice event with Ms. Benjamin (or for folks in the know, Ms. Hauser) at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. In another post-wrap up of a Boswell event, Stacie just informed me that a certain author ordered a hat from The Brass Rooster and is being shipped now.

Popping onto the paperback list is NOS4A2, the newest novel from Joe Hill. From Carol Memmott in USA Today: "Like the hell-bent '58 Plymouth Fury in King's 1983 novel Christine, much of the evil in NOS4A2 is linked to the Rolls-Royce Wraith. But let's be clear. This story, its creep factor and propulsive story line are Hill's alone. You're not reading Stephen King. You're reading Joe Hill."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Wild, by Sheryl Strayed
2. From the Top, by Michael Perry
3. How Music Works, by David Byrne
4. Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh
5. Philomena, by Martin Sixsmith
6. How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough
7. Guys Can be Cat Ladies Too, by Michael Showalter
8. March, by John Lewis
9. Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris
10. Wheel Fever: How Wisconsin Became a Great Bicycling State, by Jesse Gant and Nicholas Hoffman

As you know from our blog and email newsletter, Michael Perry released From the Top: Brief Transmissions from Tent Show Radio, a series of essays from the Big Top Chautauqua radio program. The closest he came was the Ixonia Fire House, and yesterday he appeared with Judith Siers-Poisson in Menomonie. Don't worry, he'll one day be back in Milwaukee, but for now, you can read this interview with Perry and Julian Emerson in the Eau Claire Leader Telegram.

Hardcover Books for Kids:
1. Jumping Penguins and Laughing Hyenas, by Marije Tolman
2. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
3. Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Volume 8: Hard Luck, by Jeff Kinney
5. Maps, by Aleksandra Mizielinska
6. Bird King, by Shaun Tan
7. The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg
8. Nelson Mandela, by Kadir Nelson
9. Locomotive, by Brian Floca
10. Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan

It's great to see Jannis's pick, Jumping Penguins and Laughing Hyenas, at the top of our list. Julie Danielson in Kirkus Reviews calls this "an unusual piece of nonfiction, blending fantasy and facts in a way that says it would not like to be pigeonholed, thanks very much." It was originally published in The Netherlands.

So it turns out that if you are a nonprofit and want to have a holiday railroad called "The Polar Express", Warner Brothers (not the publisher, not the author, but the producer of the not-very-good movie) demands 30% of the grosses. So the Lake Superior Railroad Museum published their own book and gave up the name. The new book and ride is The Christmas City Express. Maybe that will one day be a classic at the same level. Here's more info on the story in Publishers Weekly. Note that we don't currently have the book but you can buy it at the museum.

If you're wondering why we had sales pops for Wonder and Counting by 7's, they are two books recommended in a Wall Street Journal story this week on adults reading books written for young readers. Another book that popped on our paperback list this week is Sharon Draper's Out of my mind. We would have added Sheila Turnage's Three Times Lucky to the list, but otherwise, we're excited see these books highlighted.

Paperback Books for Kids:
1. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
2. Unwind, by Neal Shusterman
3. Gym Candy, by Carl Deuker
4. Boot Camp, by Todd Strasser
5. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Mixed between a large school order was our continuing sales pop for The Book Thief, currently playing at the Downer Theatre, along with Nebraska. Alexander Payne usually adapts from novels (Election, the Descendants, Sideways), but this time he went with an original screenplay.

Those of you who read Jim Higgins' Journal Sentinel blog know he has been rereading John Updike. That said, he's not the only 20th century American classic he's sinking his teeth into. Regarding the new Roth Unbound, by Claudia Roth Pierpoint, "If you've been tempted to dismiss Philip Roth as a misogynist, a self-hating Jew or simply an old white male dinosaur, Claudia Roth Pierpont's Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books makes a strong argument for giving the novelist another chance.

Also in the printed edition of the Journal Sentinel is Amy Driscoll's interview with James McBride, author of the National Book Award winner, The Good Lord Bird. "We have to find ways to talk about our history that doesn't punch people in the teeth. I'm glad to be alive now--I'm not sure this book would have been readily accepted a few years ago," he says. The original interview was in the Miami Herald.

Critic Mark O'Connell touts The Encyclopedia of Fairy Earth, by Isabel Greenberg. which he calls "an inventive graphic novel about the telling of stories, about making things up and staying alive." Inspiration comes from many different sources, from ancient Greece to Norse legend and the Arabian nights. This originally appeared in Slate.

Say hi to us at the Buy Local gift fair, from 12 noon to 4 pm today at the Lakefront Brewery.

Saturday Gift Post--Of Whimsical Thermometers and Other Assorted Odds and Ends.

I don't really have a particular theme for this gift post, but am just highlighting some interesting items. These yeti boy and devil boy themometers showed up as part of a line of greeting cards that I bought at the Minneapolis gift show. I think when I looked out a window, I'd want to both know the temperature and get a little smile, and this seems to fill the bill.

After one of my gift posts, a customer called and told me she had a woodland theme going, and wound up buying deer, fox, mice, and owl ornaments from us. Going into the season, I hoped that TAG would redo the fox and raccoon plates and mugs, perhaps as open stock, but it was not to be. I do like these new Page Flags called Walk in the Woods. There are a lot of these sticky notes lines out there, but this line seems to do consistently well. 

Also pictured is a new-to-us notecard called Bird Sketches. It's from a line we buy aggressively, so I was sort of surprised when this retro design caught my eye and I hadn't yet brought it in. 

Our Providence workshop that provides our leaf and snowflake ornaments also makes lovely magnets. In this picture, you can see the Nutcracker ornament set (bought by at least one of our booksellers as a gift) as well as two magnet sets, pointing fingers and assorted ephemera (feather, leaf, maple polynose or whatever you call them) , and an acorn.

We also restocked our popular leather bracelets. There is a nice assortment of floral designs plus a number of animals, including turtles, owls, butterflies, ladybugs, and a stray snake. Is it morbid of me to be drawn to the black flowers? I don't seem to like black in anything else. Perhaps I'm just contrary.

While we continue to restock everyday items, I made the decision to let our recycled sweater puppets and journals sell down for the holiday. We still have a nice assortment of both, but it gets smaller every day. They, along with their cell phone/coin purses, are made in Canada.

And now back to ordering in Valentine's Day cards.

Friday Short Post--More on Cover Changes, Bookplates for Our Featured Storytime Book, and Ice Sculpture Action.

Yesterday's discussion of cover changes got some interesting feedback. What did we think of the Louise Erdrich change? Another rep told me he'd just come from sales conference, and he could only think of two books on the list that didn't have a dramatic change from hardcover to paperback.

The most interesting comments came from Richard Rhorer at Simon and Schuster, who followed up on my comments about Brain on Fire. The two jackets side by side are on yesterday's blog post.

"In case you’re curious, we wanted to simplify the cover and come up with a variation that looked more sophisticated and less alarming than the red with the bold, san serif font. The UK publisher had used yellow with the image so we picked up their color pallet and went with a serif font."

"We’re currently working on paperback covers for The Rosie Project. That one will have a more dramatically different look than the Brain on Fire conversion. We agonize more than you might expect whether to change or keep jacket art on paperbacks. When I worked at HarperCollins many years ago, they drastically reworked the cover for the paperback edition of Bel Canto. I think that decision was instrumental in making that book a blockbuster."

Jannis also got a pleasant response to her inaugural edition of storytime, coming this sunday, December 8, at 11 am. Having heard that Jannis was featuring Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, Sherry Duskey Rinker sent us a care package with signed bookplates for both that book and Steam Train, Dream Train, as well as temporary tattoos, and stickers.

Finally, just a reminder that Festive Friday is going on tonight. This year we remembered to sponsor an ice sculpture, and hey, it will be cold enough so that it doesn't melt.  Above is a photo of said sculpture, pre-carving.

Cover Change-O. Will it Help the Book in Paperback? And Some Contrary Publishers Keep Their Iconic Jackets and Yet Improve Their Fortunes the Second Time Around. What's That About?

Today we were having a chat in the store about books changing cover treatments when going into paperback. I had noticed Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver (Spiegel and Grau) and said to Jason, "now we are making it clearer that this is a horror novel." The all-type jacket in the cloth edition was hedging its bets.  You like literary fiction? Maybe I'm your book.

Whatever the jacket, Jason is a big fan. Allow me to reprint his recommendation: "Pepper is sent to a mental institution when he lets his temper go one night and fights with the wrong guys. The cops dump him into a situation where the patients are under fear of the devil, who visits them late in the night. With the staff unwilling to do anything about it, and possibly complicit, the patients have to band together to take down the devil. But, should they? Victor LaValle presents an isolated world where not everything is what it appears to be. The Devil in Silver is a spooky and wonderful book that looks at how hiding from our problems doesn't make them go away."

Sharon gave me a copy of Kimberly McCreight's Reconstructing Amelia (Harper Perennial). Argue if you wish, but it's my contention that the publisher was going with a Gillian Flynn look for the hardcover, but veered towards Jodi Picoult for the paperback. The publisher writes "Litigation lawyer and harried single mother Kate Baron is shocked when her daughter's exclusive Brooklyn private school calls to tell her that Amelia--her intelligent, high-achieving fifteen-year-old--has been caught cheating. But when Kate arrives at Grace Hall, she's blindsided by far more devastating news: Amelia is dead. Despondent, she's jumped from the school's roof. At least that's what Grace Hall and the police tell Kate. It's what she believes, too, until she gets the anonymous text: Amelia didn't jump." So what would you do to get the most folks. Or would you go in a Tana French direction--that was another comparison.

I'm pretty sure Sharon read this and liked it, but alas, I think my hard drive died between backups and her rec is not longer in my files. And of course I could be wrong about the whole thing. Talk about faulty reconstruction.

One doesn't normally see as dramatic changes in nonfiction, with the possible exception of narrative nonfiction, those books that read like a novel and for most readers, slot into the same usage of escapism, book club, and so forth. But there's been quite a change up for Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief,  Lawrence Wright, a staff writer at The New Yorker

Says the publisher: "We go inside their specialized cosmology and language. We learn about the church’s legal attacks on the IRS, its vindictive treatment of critics, and its phenomenal wealth. We see the church court celebrities such as Tom Cruise while consigning its clergy to hard labor under billion-year contracts. Through it all, Wright asks what fundamentally comprises a religion, and if Scientology in fact merits this Constitutionally-protected label."

Maybe because of all the book's laurels, such as the National Book Award Finalist, rave reviews from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and more, that there was a greater push to get the book on the paperback bestseller lists. The nice thing about that is if you pop on the list, there's a very good chance you will seemingly never leave. That's been the case for a favorite of mine, Susannah Cahalan's Brain on Fire (Simon and Schuster, formerly Free Press) and they only changed the cover a bit, from a red accent to a dark-horse pick of yellow. But it's been on the paperback list for 17 weeks just the same.

My rec for the book in hardcover, which was also the Indie Next Pick quote.  "A young reporter’s near-death experience started with what seemed to be a bedbug bite, followed by an out-of-character migraine. Cahalan forgot a pitch meeting. She snooped on her boyfriend’s email. Beloved newspaper clippings were tossed. Garbage piled up in her apartment. And then the seizures began. This compelling story of one woman’s descent into madness and the equally horrifying journey of her family to get suitable help works both as a great literary memoir and a well-reported medical mystery. You might say the result is Girl, Interrupted with a dash of The Hot Zone and a sprinkling of The Exorcist!"

This might be an indication that cover changes are a bit overblown as a marketing solution to making the book work. Another book that had virtually no cover change from cloth to paper and nonetheless had a paperback breakout is Tara Conklin's The House Girl (William Morrow). The book was a #1 Indie Next pick in hardcover, featuring this quote from Beverly Bauer of Redbery Books, Cable, Wisconsin: “Lina, a young, ambitious New York attorney in 2004, never knew her mother. Josephine, a young house slave in 1852, never knew her child. More than a century apart, their lives connect in unexpected ways."Bauer goes on to note that both of the protagonists might be "the house girl."

Is that a very slightly different tone of green? I can't even tell. But it's about as identical as I've ever seen a hardcover to paperback jacket be. Not even a typeface change!

Morrow breaks every rule here. The stuck with the cameo-style silhouette jacket made popular with Little Bee, when Simon and Schuster even dumped the image for the paperback of Gold, which by the way, still didn't pop the book. They kept a green jacket, even though publishers continually dump green for another color in paperback, most recently Billy Lynn's Long Half-Time Walk and Davy Rothbart's My Heart is an Idiot, which kept the hardcover jacket, but changed out the background cover from green to a striking purple. And sure enough, I picked up the book and I heard an "I'm so tired of that jacket style." Honestly, how many have their been? Surely not as many as the woman with the cut off head or the pair of shoes.

Allow me just one more book where they decided to keep a controversial cover and it paid off.It's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Picador). Jason said to me, I didn't keep my copy of the book because I didn't like the jacket, and you know what? I was rather surprised as well. For one thing, it was a type hardcover and art directors almost always add an image, unless of course the book is an enormous bestseller, like The Art of Fielding or Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (both Back Bay).

Also an Indie Next pick in hardcover, Andrea Aquino at Bookshop Santa Cruz wrote "Booksellers and book lovers alike will adore charming Mr. Penumbra and his towering stacks of mysterious, code-filled tomes, as well as the array of eccentric old men that make up the store's late-night clientele." I do like that they kept the tactile elements of the cover on the paperback and the free prequel.*

OK, it's not identical, as you have to write "national bestseller" on the paperback. That's almost required. As if someone would not pick it up otherwise. 

*Addendum. Our rep Anne reminded me that the jacket for Mr. Penumbra glows in the dark!