Rep Night Part 2: John and Andy Present Some Picks

Yesterday we talked a bit about rep presentations. They go on for a while, so it seemed sense to divide this into two posts.

Triliteral (That's Harvard, Yale and MIT to you!)

Unpacking My Library: Architects and their Books, by Jo Steffans.

Packaged like 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, the highlight is on a dozen architects and their libraries. The design is great and this can actually fit into a stocking.

Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals, by Christopher Payne.

A fascinating photo essay of abandoned institutions around the country.

The Earwig's Tale: A Modern Bestiary of Multi-Legged Legends, by May Berenbaum.

Nice color and cute illustrations on this book that tells the truth about insects.

The Metamorphosis of Plants, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Great new edition works for lit type, science types, or even gardening types.

A New Literary History of America, edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors.

We're already selling this very well, and it makes a really great gift. Bite-size pieces of literary history from lots of top writers.

Andy Warhol, by Arthur C. Danto.

Noted art historian's book ties in perfectly to the show at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Once again, I remind you that there were more books than this presented. It's just that my fingers get tired.

Fujii Associates...a commission group (they sell lots of lines on commission, get it?)

Good Eats, by Alton Brown.

There've been lots of Brown books but none that so closely followed the show format

Elements, by Gray Theodore.

From the collection of a man who collects elements. Black Dog and Leventhal's background in promotional books and packages is probably how they got this to a rather remarkably low $29.95 price point.

Best Wisconsin Sports Arguments, by Andy Kendeight.

Andy confirmed that regional books still work very, very well at independents. I'm not sure if this is the perfect one for my store, but the sentiment still holds.

Dog Days: Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4, by Jeff Kinney.

It's out this week, with a four million copy printing!

and

That First Season, by John Eisenberg.

When Lombardi came to Green Bay to stay...both Next Chapter and our store are having events. Ours is tonight (Thursday, September 15th).

The idea is to turn on our booksellers to new titles, and have books in our heads when they get that request to please a 10 year old niece or a 70 year old uncle. You never know what book is going work from this. So next time you're in the store and one of us calls your attention to a book, you can ask if we heard about it at rep night.

Our thanks to Suzanne, John, and Andy for great presentations. And how did Lanora and I get a turnout of 30 people, despite having less than less the half the number of booksellers at Schwartz? Well, instead of making it voluntary, we decided it would be on work time. On to the next--at Next Chapter!