As I Set Up for Our Event with Al Strekow...

It's just the beginning of event season and I'm already tired. We had a lovely event with Peter Brown yesterday, followed by a perfectly respectable event with Karen McQuestion, in spite of a Packers game, a Brewers game, and Obama's jobs speech. Tonight is our event with Al Strekow, author of Cyril Colnik: Man of Iron.  Published by the Friends of the Villa Terrace, it's a beautiful book that showcases the amazing ironwork all over Milwaukee. The chairs are just about set up, a bottle of water is on the podium, and a table is angled so that Strekow can display two blowups.

I wrote a bit more, but I decided in the end that this post started going in a direction that needs several reads and a bit of editing.  So I'll just say that I'm looking forward to writing up some of the autumn-y gift stuff that we put out on the floor this week.  I'll save that for tomorrow.

Peter Brown at the Shorewood Library at 4. Karen McQuestion at Boswell at 7. Both today.

Today we are doing the first of several school visits with kids authors.  It turns out that this is not the ideal week to be visiting schools.  Not only is it very early in the school year, but many schools have had to deal with major cuts.  One school we work with (unnamed) has no art or music teacher, librarian, and also lost one of their teachers.  All that and many principals (as well as teachers) have taken retirement.

(Did I mention how much I love Brown's self-portrait?)

So we were lucky that we were able to find willing programs at two schools. Thanks to Next Chapter, who let us work with a school with whom they usually partner. And don't forget, today Mr. Brown has a public appearance at the Shorewood Library, 3920 North Oakland Avenue, at 4 pm.

Yes, it's 3 hours before the one-two punch of the Obama speech and Packers game. Heide at the library worried that folks might wind up having pre-game parties that would conflict with our event.  I guess we'll see!

I asked Mr. Brown about the Lucy plush doll that is coming out.  Lucy is the heroine of both Children Make Terrible Pets and the new You Will be My Friend, which we've all agreed is even funnier than the last book.  It turns out that Mr. Brown, a perfectionist, made some changes such that Lucy is not quite at market.  He said he's got a collection of all the prototypes that have been made along the way. Now that would be a interesting thing to see.

We should have signed copies of all of Mr. Brown's books after the event.  You can order them here.

At 7, we're hosting Karen McQuestion at Boswell, celebrating the Mariner editions of A Scattered Life and Easily Amused.  McQuestion will be introduced by Judy Bridges of Redbird Studio, author of the popular writing guide, Shut Up and Write.  Bridges has been the inspiration for so many local writers; we're hoping folks will be in a celebratory mood.

But oy, the Packers.  My apologies to fans of both for making it a tough choice.

Boy I Sure Choose a Lot of Novels that Turn the Immigration Story on Its Head for the In-Store Lit Group, and Other Ponderings of Luis Alberto Urrea's Into the Beautiful North.

This week's in-store lit group discussion was for Luis Alberto Urrea's Into the Beautiful North.  Much of Mr. Urrea's interest is on the U.S.-Mexico border, both physically and psychologically.  He's approached the subject from a nonfiction perspective, with The Devil's Highway being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.  He's written an acclaimed historical novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter, which draws from high Great Aunt Teserita's story, a farmworker whose healing powers hailed her as The Saint of Cabora (in Mexico but not in The United States). 

But his most recent novel, Into the Beautiful North, though drawing on myths and stories, is upfront about its humor.  It's a comic retelling of "The Magnificent Seven", told from the perspective of Nayeli, a young woman whose quest to save her Sinaloan town (well, likely Sinaloa--it's also a border town)by finding seven brave Mexican men to return to the United States and drive out the bandidos.  I guess that's her Aunt Irma's quest really (Aunt Irma is a champion bowler and now mayor of Tres Camarones); Nayeli's personal quest is to find her father, now decamped to Kankakee, Illinois.

Nayeli rounds up her friends Veronica* and Yoloxochitl, as well as Tacho, the owner of the cafe where she works, and they head for the border. Veronica (or Vampi) is rather goth; Tacho is gay, though he's at once closeted and flamboyant. And Yolo? Nayeli soon finds her to be a rival for the affections Missionary Matt, the young man who once tried to save their town, and might be a savior still. Or might not.  I'm not giving anything away.

I always say that when everyone loves a book, it makes for a more stilted discussion.  And that's what happened to the eight of us who gathered together; we laughed, we cried, it was better than "Cats."  I will say there was a lot of disagreement about the ending.  At least have of us felt that either Nayeli had not really fulfilled her quest, or there was an abruptness, or the epilogue wasn't needed, but the other half vehemently disagreed.  Now that's a discussion!

Several of us noted that I seem to be very fond of choosing, well, not anti-immigration stories, but more like backwards immigration stories such as Aleksandar Hemon's The Lazarus Project and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn.  Heck, we're hosting another event featuring a novel of that sort tonight, Samuel Park's This Burns my Heart.  It's the repudiation of the traditional narrative--the immigrant moves to the United States, life is better, and he or she is happy.  I don't want to give anything away, but Into the Beautiful North fits the bill.

Urrea lives outside Chicago and it would be great if for his next book, Queen of America, he came to Milwaukee for an event. The new novel is a sequel to The Hummingbird's Daughter.  Now that I've read one of his books, perhaps I can make a better pitch.

Upcoming in-store lit group discussion:

Monday, October 3, 7 pm

The White Woman on a Green Bicycle, by Monique Roffey

Short-listed for the Orange Prize, this is a novel about a couple in post-colonial Trinidad in the 1950s.

Monday, November 7, 7 pm

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal
Winner of the Costa Prize, this is the rise and fall of a financial dynasty, told through a collector of the Japanese figurines, which were all that was left of their fortune.

*Apologies for the missing accents.  Oy, computers!

Time to Read a Kids Book--I Choose Lisa McMann, Who Roars Like Simber (Pictured) into the West Allis Library on Thursday, September 22, 4 pm.

Unlike some of my colleagues, I am not a regular reader of fiction for kids. I'd probably read more, but I can't seem to get the rest of my reading done.  But being that we had so many great middle grade and young adult authors, I certainly could not exclude them all. 

Fortunately I have such great readers at Boswell that I can usually find another Boswellian to help me tout a title. Such is the case for James Dashner, whose The Death Cure is third book in the bestselling Maze Runner series; Jason already read it and liked it. But will I get through three volumes of a series before October 25? The odds aren't great.  So for now, I've been using Jason's quote to talk up our event at the Greenfield Public Library on October 25, at 6:30 pm.

The Death Cure, by James Dasher, Delacorte, October 2011
I was hesitant to start The Death Cure, what more could WICKED put Thomas through? What horrible, what torturous, what painful journey would Thomas have to complete? Would it be enough? In the clutches of WICKED and infected with the Flare, the outlook does not look promising. James Dashner does not disappoint in this bleak and exhilarating finale--I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
Jason, Boswell Book Company

So what would I try? I had several criteria:
1. It needed to be the first book in a series or a stand-alone.
2. There needed to be a copy floating around, either an advance, or the book had to be out.
3. It had to be pretty good, but how do I judge.
4. Not too scary.  I have a weak disposition for that sort of thing.

Fortunately I had Pam to vet them for me.  She gave a thumbs up on The Unwanteds.  Lisa McMann is going to be at the West Allis Public Library, 7421 West National Avenue, on Thursday, September 22, 4 pm.

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, Aladdin, September 2011
Thirteen year-olds in the bleak dystopian world of Quill are separated into three catagories: the Wanteds who attend University; the Necessaries who do the work in this world; and the Unwanteds, creative types, who are destined for the Death Farm to be purged and forgotten. Identical twins Alex and Aaron are separated and Alex discovers that behind the facade of the Death Farm exists the secret magical world of Artimé. There, he and his friends are allowed to let their imaginations run free and also learn to use their creativity as a weapon.
--Pam, Boswell Book Company

It was only after I finished The Unwanteds that I realized I left the accent off Artimé.  My apologies. The accent is appropriate as this alternate world to the thuddingly gray and regimented Quill is colorful and stylish.  The kids sent to the Death Farm are brought to a surprisingly large complex--a small footprinted building that nonethless has hundreds of nicely proportions rooms.  Those dorm rooms are bigger than the houses in Quill. And how is that done?

Like much else in the story, with imagination.  Did I mention that one of the mentors is an alligator-octopus?  Plus there are all the warrior statues, such as Simber, the winged lion pictured on the jacket. This is all the work of Marcus Today, the Death Farm mage who turns out to be the benevolent leader of Artimé. The new arrivals are sent to school, eventually to specialize in one of three areas--music, visual arts, theater, or creative writing.  Alex is an artist, his childhood friend Meghan is a musician (though she also was banished for dancing), the mysterious Lani, daughter of a governor, is a writer, and the sometimes beligerent Samheed, son of a Quillitary officer (that's Quill-military, for those who can't put these things together), is a thespian.

Believe it or not, these talents are to be nurtured because they are going to be the special weapons that will fight back against Quill.  The kids learn to incorporate magic into them, finding ways to fight with clay, with soliloquies, and with piccolos. This defensive preparedness (under no circumstances will Artimé attack first) is necessary because someday, High Priest Justine will discover Artimé and declares war on them. Marcus can foresee it. Marcus could actually reduce the odds of battle by more strictly controlling his subjects.  He's sure, for example, that Alex is going to try to somehow contact his twin Aaron, left behind in Quill, once he can use magic to his liking.  And there's something suspicious going on with Samheed and his older friend Will Blair, both children of important Quill-ites who were nonetheless banished. But once you start placing limitations on folks because of suspicion, you start on the slippery slope of the dictatorship of Quill.

McMann has incorporated several of the trends in kids fiction and used them in a new way, inspired by the dramatic decrease in funding for the arts in kids schools.  Like Quill, we seem to be focusing on a few core subjects (though Quill, at the extreme, did not even teach writing and focused on strength and core rote intelligence) at the expense of creativity. Like many books, most notably the Harry Potter series, much of the story takes place at school. It's a way for kids to interact with kids who are both like them and unlike them, ones they get along with, and other ones they don't.

Kirkus recently noted thatThe Unwanteds was part Harry Potter, part The Hunger Games, the current driver of the young adult category.  You just have to look at our bestseller lists, where Suzanne Collins held three of our top five children's titles in weeks past. I think the comparison is due to Collins leading the charge in the dystopian arena.

So without giving too much else away, Lisa McMann's The Unwanteds is a dystopian world story with a school-and-library-and-bookstore-friendly message (not surprising, as I learned that McMann worked in a couple of bookstores before her novels caught on).  I think this is a stand-alone (correct me if I'm wrong) so you won't have to wait to get the satisfaction of a wrapped-up story. McMann notes on her blog that the book is exciting enough for readers of her other more mature works, but tame enough to appeal to be appropriate for younger readers.  There are a couple of deaths, but not in that gruesome teen way, and not involving our hero or his friends. Oh, and I checked with McMann, and it is indeed a series. Then I checked with Jason, who told me that the first volumes of series do often work by themselves too.  The second volumes? Not as often.


While McMann is touring for the new book, she'll certainly take questions about her bestselling young adult books, the Wake Trilogy (Wake, Fade, and Gone) and the stand-alone, Cryer's Cross too.  I guess if it's a spoiler, she might have to answer after the session, while she is signing books. But by all means, bring your copies of these books to get signed!

So now it's time to meet Lisa McMann! We're hosting her at a few schools during the day.  Want to work with us in the future? Contact Amie for details. Meanwhile, here's a list of McMann's upcoming events, being held or with some of my favorite bookstores!

Wednesday, Sept 7, 2011, 5 pm
Quail Ridge Books and Music, with Margaret Peterson Haddix
3522 Wade Ave., Raleigh, NC

Thursday, Sept 8, 2011, 6 pm
The Vero Beach Book Center, with Margaret Peterson Haddix
2145 Indian River Blvd., Vero Beach, FL

Saturday, Sept 10, 2011, 3:30 pm
Books and Books, with Margaret Peterson Haddix
265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, FL

Wednesday, Sept 21, 2011, 4 pm
Books & Company,
1039 Summit Ave., Oconomowoc,WI

Friday, Sept 23, 2011, 7 pm
Lake Villa District Library (with Lake Forest Bookstore)
1001 E Grand Ave., Lake Villa, IL

Saturday, Sept 24, 2011 -- 8th Annual YA Lit Conference w/ Anderson's Bookshop, Chicago. Details to come.

Saturday, October 1, 2011, 3 pm
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Ave., Denver,CO

Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
3050 Beeline Rd., Holland, MI 

Thursday, October 13, 2011, 6:00 PM
Schuler Books and Music
1982 Grand River Ave, Okemos, MI

Saturday, Oct 15, 2011, 2:30PM
Ferndale Public Library, with Book Beat
222 E. 9 mile Rd, Ferndale, MI

And of course our event, which is Thursday, September 22, 4 pm
West Allis Public Library
7421 West National Ave., West Allis, WI

Hope I got all these dates and addresses correct.  Don't forget to double check with the store or library involved. One day I will write a blog post on twin lit, and I will include The Unwanteds on my list.  However, I don't think that blog piece will be written tomorrow, alas!

Oh, and note that Lisa McMann is appearing in some locations with Margaret Peterson Haddix.  We're hosting Ms. Haddix too, only separately, on Monday, September 19, at 5:30, at Franklin Public Library, 9151 West Loomis Ave.  Read about all our events here.

What's Selling This Week? And Oops, I Forgot to Link to Lake Effect!

It seems like months ago Lake Effect aired an interview with me talking up September books, but it was actually August 23, in the midst of my Seattle bookstore browsing.  Here's the link to the interview if you'd like to listen to it. And look at that, one of the books discussed is our #1 fiction book this week.

Hardcover fiction:
1. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline (signed copies available)
2. The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta
3. A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny
4. Shame the Devil, by Debra Brenagan
5. The Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles
6. The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
7. American Boy, by Larry Watson (event  9/29)
8. The Cut, by George Pelecanos
9. The Borrower, by Rebecca Makkai
10. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

Since we've got The Help selling in hardcover and paperback (yes, we had let the hardcover go until Jason noted it was still high on the national bestseller lists)...

Paperback fiction:

1. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
2. Tinkers, by Paul Harding
3. Montana 1948, by Larry Watson
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
5. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
6. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin
7. One Day, by David Nichols
8. The All of It, by Jennifer Haien
9. The Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett
10. The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress, by Beryl Bainbridge

Interesting that even though the jacket is different, they kept that very distinctive yellow color. I really like that they embraced what worked about the book--they seemed to do that with the script as well.

Hardcover Nonfiction
1. The Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers, by Michael Holroyd
2. In My Time, by Dick Cheney
3. Arguably, by Christopher Hitchens
4. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
5. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
6. Eighty Dollar Champion, Elizabeth Letts
7. All my Friends are Dead, by Avery Monsen
8. Forty Years of Chez Panisse, by Alice Waters
9. Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff (paperback on sale Tuesday, event at library 10/4)
10. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, by Alexandra Fuller

While Cheney and Hitchens fight it out at Boswell (the numbers are close at our store, but I would suspect that this is not the case outside of urbany or college-towny indie bookstores), Holroyd wins with pent-up demand for his lauded new The Book of Secrets, that had some reprint delays.  It's just a harbinger of things to come--and yes, we're all panicky about the slower reprints.

Paperback Nonfiction
1. Living Large in Lean Times, by Clark Howard
2. How to Survive the Loss of a Love, by Harold Bloomfield
3. The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee
4. The Immortal Life o Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
5. Half a Life, by Darin Strauss
6. The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edward de Waal
7. The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin
8. Misquoting Jesus, by Bart Ehrman
9. Unlikely Friendships, by Jennifer Holland
10. The S Word, by John Nichols

Glad that Jason put Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project back on our front table, as while we're very happy with our numbers, there are other indie stores selling ten times that number. I thought about this as I met the head of Hapacus, a happiness consulting group who is holding a happiness panel after a showing at the Downer.  Hope to fill in the details shortly.

Kids' Books
1. Esperanza Rising, by Pam Ryan
2. Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate
3. Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai
4. Wildwood, by Colin Meloy
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

A little bit of school sale in there, but Colin Meloy's Wildwood is the real deal of bookstore sales. I can't remember how many folks read it, Jason and Amie at least, and both are fans.

Don't forget that all books are available on our website, and if you are an ebook reader, you can use Google Editions to buy ebooks from our website that can be used on just about anything except a Kindle.

Saturday Gift Post--Summer on Sale, Fall Previewed

It's our last gasp of summer, and also the last time I have display space for a markdown table.  We've reduced some of our spring-summer items to 50% off, and some of some of it is even 75 % off.

Buying gift items for the store is always a work in progress. I think we've learned a lot in the 2nd year, which I hope to apply to the third.

a. Things look worse in crinkly platic bags.  One of our vendors has a penchant for putting their candles in this not particularly appealing packaging.  We've been at a loss as to how to display these items.  Use the package and you can't see the product.  It also make it look cheap.  Don't use the packaging and expect some damage.  I think they used to use plastic boxes.  Let me just say that would be the better option for us. These floral bouquet flowers are now 75% off.

We're trying to avoid product packaged this way, but we've already run into problems with the candle apples on our fall harvest table.  After much discussion, we're doing these apples naked. They look so much better. 

b. I might be over-theming.  This was working well our first year, but our gardening table was hit or miss.  We sold out of our cute gardening stakes, our animal doorstops (they matched, but honestly, I have no idea what they had to do with gardening) but the watering can mugs and terra cotta turtles were a relative bust. And while owls are a runaway hit all around (and there is plenty more for fall), ladybugs and turtles, while popular with many lines, are more under the radar in popularity.

I'm talking to other stores and their gift items are more eclectic, thinking more about the potential customer than how it fits into their book display.  So who knows what you'll see in the store next.

Checking Things Off the To-Do List, or Winging a Blog Piece When All the Good Ideas You Have Take Too Long.

After planning out a few blog posts in advance, I'm back to winging it.  Today's plans included finishing up consigning chapbooks for our poetry event on September 21 with Suzanne Rosenblatt, Lucille Rosenberg, and Bill Murtaugh.  The paperwork was written up, and then it was on to display.

Our next problem.  We have so many events in the next few months that we've decided to limit our space for each event to two faceouts.  We decided to do a small display above our poetry section, which bumped out a display of  ex-Milwaukeean Matthea Harvey's Of Lamb.  Fortunately, being published by McSweeneys, Harvey's book could move to our McSweeneys display.  But that meant I had to finally return some of the McSweeneys heads, which didn't sell the way the newspaper issue did.

Lucy called up to tell me there was a typo in her chapbook, Perspectives.  She wanted to know if she could come in and fix them. I told her to leave it, and that if anyone asked, she could say it was a commentary on our obsession with perfection.

You can see why I have trouble crossing items off my to-do list.  Their reading, which is called "Glimpses of Past--Present--Future" is on Wednesday, September 21, 7 pm.

***

On to the next item, which is preparing books for the OnMilwaukee.com Book Swap, which is going on at Humboldt Park on Sunday, September 11, going on from 11 am to 5 pm.  We are providing 60 starter books, for selected attendees.  Actually I'm not sure who gets those books.  But book swaps are always fun, and there is also live music, games, prizes, paper making, book binding, and The Living Photobooth Project.

At first I was going back and forth with Dan, one of their interns, and then I thought to myself, this will never get done while I am working on this.  So thanks, Sharon, for putting the books together.

Sponsors include:
Milwaukee County Parks
Awe, Inc.
Urban Ecology Center
Bay View Neighborhood Association
Bay View Arts Guildt
Broad Vocabulary Collective
Karl's Event Rental

And it's all being coordinated by OnMilwaukee.com.  More info on their website. Good job, Dan!

***

My next project is writing a last minute email to area Korean churches to remind them about Samuel Park's This Burns My Heart, which is on Wednesday, September 7. As you know from a previous entry, Park has written a novel of the Korean immigrant experience that slyly turns some conventions on their head.  That said, it's a very traditional story, not too racy or experimental, and should really be able to connect with 2nd and 3rd generation folks, if I can just get through to them.  Alas, my idea with the Korean restaurant did not work out.

Here's a little secret--for every inspired pairing or co-promotion that helps create a more successful event, another three or four ideas flop.

***

Up next? About 100 different projects call for my attention, and there is an Amex bill looming at me. Not only do you have to match things up, to make sure all the charges are valid, but we have to categorize everything for our Quickbooks entries. Oh, and we also have to note what items that still have sales tax due, like the reams of gift wrap that we buy. 

Someday I will do a blog piece on sales tax.  That's a pretty hot topic, isn't it?

Part 2 of Sophie Hannah (coming to Boswell on 9/19)--What's Up with the Title Changes?

Part II: The Changing of the Titles.

It's been my thought that in the age of international publications and global web access, the end of the changed title would be upon us.  Sophie Hannah is clearly a textbook case to argue against this, my Dr. Judith Duffy, as it were.

Sophie Hannah's had the pleasure of having four of the five titles in this series renamed for the American market. Here are her books in order:

1. Little Face
2. The Truth-Teller's Lie, which was published as Hurting Distance in the UK

3. The Wrong Mother, which before its trans-Atlantic journey was Point of Rescue

4. The Dead Lie Down, originally The Other Half Lives

5. A Cradle in the Grave, which in the UK is A Room Swept White.

Of course I am fascinated by this. How does a title change reposition the books? Are the original titles too British? Does the new title change the potential audience?  Time to contemplate.

My initial thought was that Penguin was trying either to reposition, or perhaps dual-position, the novel not just as a mystery, but as contemporary women's fiction, perhaps along the lines of a British Jodi Picoult.  There is good reason for this. Like Picoult, Hannah uses social issues to frame many of her novels. There is a crime element to just about all of the Picoult novels; she's done a number of signings at mystery bookstores over the years.

But Picoult's success was mostly from book clubs and connecting with her customer base and amazing word of mouth. And that's also a hint to me--I think this is at least Hannah's third visit to Milwaukee for five books.  That's a lot of touring to the midwest for a writer who lives in Cambridge, England. To my knowledge, she did at least one event at Schwartz, one event at Next Chapter (plus I think Books & Company also had a visit on one or both of these visits--you'll excuse me for not having a historical record of who went where) and now we're hosting her at Boswell. Watch--I'll find out she didn't really visit those other times.  When we hosted Chuck Klosterman, I learned that this was his first visit to Milwaukee, even though I had this strong memory of him visiting previously.)

So looking at the titles, I think that this might have been in the back of someone's mind when re-titling installments two and three, The Truth-Teller's Lie, and The Wrong Mother, but not really for the most recent two entries, which still have a strong mystery feel to them. By using "death" words, in The Dead Lie Down, and The Cradle in the Grave, you more firmly plant the feet of the book in the mystery genre, to my opinion.  So it seemed to me that the vision of breaking Hannah out veered a little more in the direction of Tana French, which is why French has a very prominent quote on the new title:

"The title really sells it.  It's creepy stuff, which sophie's things often are, quite necessarily." 

So here's my question.  Since French is Irish, which title is she referring to, as the book was likely published in Dublin as A Room Swept White?  I am actually quite attached to the UK title, as the reference is in a poem called "Anchorange", by Fiona Sampson, which becomes a clue in the novel. I suspect that in using a poem as one of the clues, Hannah plays homage to her own second life as a poet, having had several volumes of poetry published, most recently, Pessimism for Beginners.

"What flutters is a bird: blown in
By accident, or wild design
Of grace, a taste of something sweet
The emptied self, a room swept white."

I hope I am allowed to quote a stanza of these things. More on Fiona Sampson here. Both Hannah and Sampson are published by Carcanet, which seems to have some American distribution. I am checking to see if we can carry some of her poetry for the event, and also whether Hannah might bookend the talk with some poems of her own.

In the end, I think some of the retitlings were a good idea, but here I vote for A Room Swept White. I think even Penguin was on the fence, as some of the references in the body of the book, most notably the acknowledgements, refer to the British edition.  There's also the book within the book (or rather, in this case, the two books within the book) which is is thrown off by the title change.  And yes, I could write an entire blog piece just about books within books.  I love them!

The book was clearly re-edited for America, as the British spellings were not noticeable.  There is the use of the word "lounge" for "living room", but I jolly well liked that.

So there you have it, a whole lot of meditation on Sophie Hannah. What I can't tell you is the inside joke regarding the numbers on the card. I just discovered this and thought it was quite good.  Also, I did figure out that next book continues the thread of changed titles.  Hodder and Stoughton (UK) are calling it Lasting Damage, while the Penguin American edition will be titled The Other Woman's House.  Visit Hannah's website for more tidbits. And join us on Monday, September 19, 7 pm, for a talk/reading with Ms. Hannah.